Phoenix Arcadia football coach Jim Bevell wasn't in a festive mood despite his No. 1-ranked team's decisive 28-6 4A Division II victory over host Flagstaff Sinagua Thursday night.

It's butterfly time: Increasing temperatures nudge inconspicuous caterpillars to emerge from their cocoons as the flashy, charismatic “it” bugs of the insect world. It doesn’t cost a thing to marvel at the colorful creatures loose in Arizona. Here, some stories and a slideshow of photos.

"It’s a little surreal, but it’s a good feeling."

"It’s a little surreal, but it’s a good feeling."

Jeremy Green, former pro personnel director in Cleveland and currently an "ESPN Insider," couldn’t leave Dennis Green’s 2-6 Cardinals out of the discussion when writing about the NFL’s most disappointing teams.

There are not too many things I’d bet my life on. So, if you told me that “Danny” would some day become addicted to opiates, I’d have bet all I had. Just name an indicator of stability and this 29-year-old had it.

MIAMI — Put away those paper bags forever. Drew Brees and the Saints are NFL champions, rallying to upset Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 Sunday night in one of pro football's most thrilling title games.                                                            

Glendale Apollo isn’t quite ready to give up its title as state boys basketball champion.

Mitch Olson: As the resource development assistant at the Mesa United Food Bank, Melissa Forrester explained this charity often comes up short in many months of the year: "We have averaged 72 food drives per month this year. In reality, the majority of the food drives are held during the holidays. Of the 655 food drives held so far this year, 381 were held during November and December."

The 1-year-old Labrador retriever mix didn’t even have a name when it arrived at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control on Nov. 27, but just five days later the dog would be dead. Why? Because it was scared.

The 1-year-old Labrador retriever mix didn’t even have a name when it arrived at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control on Nov. 27, but just five days later the dog would be dead. Why? Because it was scared.

A spokesman for Fresh & Easy supermarkets said plans for opening stores in Arizona and the rest of country have not changed since the original U.S. rollout was announced.

NEW YORK - If Fidel Castro died tomorrow, the U.S. embargo against Cuba could not be lifted like any other — as President Bush undid by decree the 18-year trade sanctions against Libya in April or President Clinton lifted the 19-year ban against Vietnam in 1994.

NEW ORLEANS - The mayor of New Orleans has set up an "extremely problematic" timeline for allowing residents to return to the evacuated city, which is still threatened by a weakened levee system, a lack of drinkable water and heavily polluted floodwaters, the head of the federal relief effort said Saturday.

That unending list of tasks fills your time and your thoughts. After leaving work, you can be exhausted, yet you still have a most important part of your day ahead, the time you give to yourself and your loved ones.

While Collin DeWitt was immersed in the arduous, stressful process of helping put together a 2010-11 budget for the town of Gilbert, it would have been easy to wonder what he had gotten himself into.

In Mesa city government, changes at the top have been few and far between.

In Mesa city government, changes at the top have been few and far between.

Numbers paint America’s heart health picture best:

It seemed impossible. I wanted to make a zero-sugar, low-carb version of a cake that is made from almost nothing but sugar and carbs.

It seemed impossible. I wanted to make a zero-sugar, low-carb version of a cake that is made from almost nothing but sugar and carbs.

CHICAGO - Another Saturday, another champagne shower.

NEW ORLEANS - Day after day, for more than two weeks, the 76-year-old man sat trapped and alone in his attic, sipping from a dwindling supply of water until it ran out. No food. No way out of a house ringed by foul floodwaters.

The three-mile stretch of Elliot Road in Gilbert and Chandler may look like any other suburban thoroughfare in the Valley. But the street's a battlefield where two global grocers are about to pick a fight.