BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. is heading into a tough wildfire season made even more challenging because budget cuts mean fewer firefighters to battle blazes, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Monday.

Powerful winds raked much of California on Monday, toppling trees, spreading wildfires, causing scattered power outages, whipping up blinding dust storms, and sending waves crashing ashore as a vigorous spring weather system swept through the state on its way across the West.

WASHINGTON — Uncompromising and politically emboldened, President Barack Obama urged a deeply divided Congress Tuesday night to embrace his plans to use government money to create jobs and strengthen the nation's middle class. He declared Republican ideas for reducing the deficit "even worse" than the unpalatable deals Washington had to stomach during his first term.

For those of us in the Valley, Arizona’s high-country forests hold favorite camping, hunting and fishing spots, shady places to escape the heat, and, for some, family history or even cabins. Sadly, they’re also the site of blazing wildfires we sometimes see all over the news in the summertime.

A Mesa man who fired a shotgun into the forest, sparking a nearly 18,000-acre wildfire, has pleaded guilty to a pair of federal charges.

A Mesa man accused of starting a nearly 18,000-acre wildfire in the Tonto National Forest is set for a change of plea hearing.

Forest authorities are battling a wildfire two miles west of the Tonto Fish Hatchery in northern Arizona. As of Sunday night, it had grown to about 100 acres.

Its chief proponent insists it’s a realistic effort to force the federal government to surrender its title to close to 73 million acres of land in Arizona.

JACKSON, Wyo. -- A bicyclist competing in a race from Logan, Utah, to Jackson Hole, Wyo., crashed on a bridge in Wyoming and fell about 35 feet to his death into the Snake River.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Two cousins who admitted starting the largest wildfire in state history each are facing up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine when they are sentenced Wednesday in federal court.

SUNFLOWER, Ariz. (AP) — One fire in Arizona's Tonto National Forest is 15 percent contained and another also is being slowed by rainfall.

SUPERIOR, Ariz. (AP) — Crews are monitoring a fire in Arizona's Tonto National Forest that has charred an estimated 1,200 acres.

NEW YORK (AP) — The London Olympics may well be remembered as the event that drove home the power of social media — partly to the chagrin but mostly to the benefit of NBC, which controlled images of the games in the United States.

Each year, as forest fires rage across the state, it’s heartbreaking to see thousands of trees consumed by flames. Just a few months ago, the Gladiator Fire blazed through more than 16,000 acres in the Prescott National Forest; and last year, the Wallow Fire destroyed more than 530,000 acres of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, making it the largest forest fire in the state’s history. Unfortunately, many residents lost their homes in both of these fires, and all of us have lost so much that these tranquil forests have to offer.

PHOENIX (AP) — Fire officials fighting a brush fire have found a body burned beyond recognition.

Marriott Golf recently introduced “Fairways-Fore- FREEdom,” a new military program designed to support the men and women dedicated to protecting America’s freedom.

A fire that began earlier Saturday along the median and west side of SR 87 is estimated at about 30 acres and is contained, according to the National Forest Service.

WASHINGTON – Target shooters on Arizona public lands are being asked to hold their fire in the current dry weather because of fears they could spark wildfires.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service extinguished a small fire being used in an indigenous group's religious ceremony in the Coconino National Forest and cited a group member Friday after saying the fire was in violation of wildfire restrictions.

Marriott Golf recently introduced “Fairways-Fore-FREEdom,” a new military program designed to support the men and women dedicated to protecting America’s freedom.

“President Obama should release all of the documents pertaining to Fast & Furious the same day Mitt Romney releases his detailed plans for health care, immigration, jobs bill, and equal pay for women.”

Washington -- Arizona is one of several Western states with a higher-than-normal likelihood for large wildfires this summer based on unseasonably dry weather conditions, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.