He and his parents came to the United States when he was 7 years old and they only had the shirts of their back. He has a family lin i cant imagine that dates back to the 1800s. He chose not to speak iliff the dead, even though he says that his dad and grandfather would. He says he is hopeful castros brother raul will take the country that has to its people in a more positive direction. I think that there is a high probability that we will be able to actually create a democratic system in cuba within the next few years, and i think that raul castro will not be able to hold the fist that his brother did. Ideally, he says that he doesnt want cuba to become americanized and have a he says there is a lot his fellow cubans can benefit from with better relations with the americans. Very interesting to hear his perspective. Thank you so much for that. Tonight president obama is extending a hand of friendship to the cuban people. In a Statement Released today, the president says castros death has filled cubans and cuba and here in the u. S. With powerful emotions. The president went on to say the cuban people must know they have a d america. Meanwhile, president elect donald trump releasing a statement calling castro a brutal dictator who oppressed his own own people for nearly six decades. Its his hope the cuban people can live in the freedom they so richly deserve. He added his administration will do all it can to ensure the cubans can finally begin their Journey Towards prosperity and liberty. Tonight some people are skeptical of how much things will really change after castros death. Team 12s Monique Griego talked to an arizona politician and native cuban. There is not going to be any change. Reporter alberto, the director of the Arizona Governors Office of highway safety, moved to the u. S. In 1960 after exile from communist cuba. He believes castros brother and current president of cuba, raul castro, will continue to country despite the former president s death. This is a regime that is a little looser than north korea, but its not. They have control over everything that the public does. People are hungry for freedom and hungry for food. Reporter some in cuba are mourning castros death, he isnt holding back about how he feels. I am glad he passed away. Maybe some there will be improvements. I hope so. Castros funeral will take place next sunday, november 4th, after a traditional period of mourning. Todays hot headlines, a suspect died after an officer involved shooting in surprise this morning. Officers were responding to a suspicious car. Thats when a fight broke out and an officer had to shoot. The suspect drove off, but then crashed, and was later declared Downtown Phoenix this morning voicing their opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline. Standing rock protests have been taking place all around the country as advocates fight to keep the pipeline from being built on tribal land in north dakota. Authorities need your help finding an Armed Robbery suspect who held up a clerk at a walgreens near 7th street and mcdowell back in august. The man demanded cash from the register and then drove off in a maroon mercury. If you have any information you witness at 480witness. Switching gears, today is Small Business saturday. A day encouraging shoppers to help local businesses by shopping there instead of that big box store. At the jack a lope art fair today in scottsdale Small Businesses showed off their products and got customers during the prime shopping season of the year. Well, when you come out and support the local businesses that are out there, youre helping support your local economy. All of into schools, wages, jobs, taxes, supporting your neighbor and what they do. The jack a lope art fair will be open tomorrow at westworld if you want to check it out. Well, next on 12news at six, the bald Eagle Population in arizona is growing. We are finding out why. And a desert oasis right here in the middle of the valley where you can check it out. Details up ahead. And the rain is coming down in the southern portion of when will this rain make it to arizona . I will have all the details coming up. Monday on 12news at 10. Whitney houstons shocking new details about Bobbi Kristinas surprising and untimely death. If you are out hiking near the salt river or the verde river, you should definitely look up. There is a good chance you will a bald eagle. The bald Eagle Population in arizona is soaring. Up 600 from a decades ago. Reporter the Sonoran Desert scorched by deadly sun, yet full of life. Looking to see if there are any adults in the area. Reporter an adult bald eagle, its taught jacobson and his crew of biologists to keep up with the bird of prey that has not deserted this desert. Whats the importance of coming out here and trying to monitor the eagles and track them . Well, the big part of monitoring these eagles is we are looking at the breeding population. Reporter it wasnt too long ago when no matter where they hiked or how hard they looked, at one point in the 1970s, there were just 11 breeding pairs of bald eagles across arizona. Now there are 65 thanks to the work of game and fish and the Southwestern Bald Eagle Management Committee that keeps an eye on the raptors and protects their homes so they can reproduce. By focusing on the breeding, you are able to tell, okay, how big is this population . How much young can they produce . Are they producing enough young to replace themselves as they grow old . Reporter this year eaglets. An alltime record. Many thick their homes on the verde river and the salt river many make their homes on the verde river and salt river. Have you Shallow Water here. Nice and clear today. We have climbed a few nests and gotten a firsthand look at exactly what they are eating. We find a lot of catfish. Trout, as you would expect. Native turtles. Reporter they will eat anything in the rivers they can get their claws on. The water is the eagles key to life. Adult bald eagles in the river here, you cant see it from this angle. Reporter they often avoid the sun. Thats why it can take a little work and a lot of hiking to see them, especially now in the months before they begin to breed. You see the dark spot. Its in the tree on the left. The leaves in the tree, but thats where the second pair in this area is nesting. Reporter what do you think the bald Eagle Population would be like if it wasnt for the programs that you all have here . We may see growth, but no way near the way we see it now. There is a lot more eagles on the landscape. A lot more young being produced every year. Reporter its a landscape that may look a bit barren, but so cool to see those. If you are looking to find a rare desert environment without leaving the city, you dont have to travel much further than the Northeast Corner of mesa to find one. At the corner of power road in mesa, you might not expect this. But at the red mountain campus of Mesa Community college they have created a desert oasis. Its a desert wetland found in nature. Usually spring fed containing a moving source of. The environment every detail has a unique and authentic purpose. Everything in the ecosystem is something that could be found in the state of arizona. Reporter it helps to protect endangered species. This also provides a habitat for lowland leopard frogs and owe protected species. Reporter surrounded by classrooms, this allows students an opportunity to see a rare environment up close and conduct their own research. Overall, its really good native plants and animals. It helps me experience something that i didnt even know existed in arizona. Reporter and these environments are extremely rare to see. Sadly, these types of environments arent found in arizona like they used to be. Their water has been drained for our purposes or paved over to be housing developments. Reporter its open it the public and your visit can be summed up in one se memorable. It really is a cool spot out there. It looks really peaceful. Yeah. Its gonna get a little rain though coming up pretty soon. We are excited for that. The animals, you know, they are ready for the cool down. Rain down here . Yeah, snow up north. Injury forecast tomorrow is going to start early. Very slight chance of rain moving into the forecast by 6 00 in the morning and then the skies will clear just a little bit. Its still going to be mostly cloudy out there. Look at that high temperature. Only 64 degrees and then the 9 00 hour. Here is exactly why. Right now you see all that cloud cover around the state. You saw it today as well. We are starting to pick up a little bit of rain on radar. This is not making it to the ground. It looks a lot better than it is. We have to wait about 12 hours because this is slowly making its way into arizona. Thats going to give us a slight chance of rain overnight tonight into early tomorrow morning. Its actually the storm system behind it. You can see it right here. Its moving through san francisco. Thats the one bringing the very good chance of rain into late sunday, into early monday morning. There is already a Winter Weather advisory in effect from flagstaff to show low. There is your snowfall totals in the corner between 5,500 feet and 6,500 feet. You can see 14 inches of snowfall. Flagstaff you are in the 36 inch range. This is certainly the first significant snowfall of the season here in arizona. Here is futurecast to really time it out for you. There is that storm system. Snow up in the high country early tomorrow morning. Then our Second System comes through. This is going to be a nice band of rain from flagstaff down towards phoenix. Tucson getting in on the action. The time in the corner, this is midnight on your sunday into monday Early Morning, and then really by the midmorning hours that system is out of here and we are talking about clearing skies behind it. If you are not up for the Early Morning hours, you will miss this system. Here in the valley here is the rainfall totals. A tenth of inch in the downtown regional. Your sevenday forecast shows you things are going to dry out quickly. High temperature 66 for your thursday. Championship saturday here at mountain at the university of phoenix stadium. The marquee came set to kick off in an hour . Thats right. There was action before the we are live inside the university of phoenix stadium. Three High School State games. Set to kick off at 7 00. Thats right. The main event, right, of the entire day. We already have two state champions crowned today. Its been an exciting day. It all started bright and early at 10 00 in the morning. Rich rods son taking on the sabercats. So, so good. They open up to the halftime. Jacob crist over ton kristofferson to make it in the first. Tenth overall. Unbelievable what they created out there at sororo. You know, we had centennial trying to make it a threepeat a major upset here. How about those black hawks . Steve campbell and his black hawks pulling off a 146 victory over centennial for the schools first ever state championship title. And i tell you what. I know they were giving me a little bit of business at Williams Field because i picked centennial to win. But congrats to them. They play with so much passion. They deserve it. Since all the state championship games are today. Friday night fever airs at 10 30. Weli 10 30 right after 12news at 10. Be a believer. Catch the fever tonight at 10 30. Coop. All right. Cam, i know you were in tucson last night. Oh, my goodness. Let me just say this. As an alumnus of arizona state, i have never been more disappointed and embarrassed than i was last night. I mean, just an absolute outrage to see what was taking place on that football field. It was almost like the defense to go, arizona . Run. I mean, time and time again they ran through the asu defense without being touched. What was disappointing to me is that the players showed no heart. No passion. No energy. You have to do that to have a chance to win. Here is coach graham after the game. That was the worst performance we have had since we have been here. That was embarrassing. Let our university let our program down. That was very, very difficult. Just absolutely didnt show up at all defensively and just gave up one big play after another. All right. Michiganohio state today. The game of the day. In double overtime, michigan with a 2724 lead. Not for long. Ohio state going for it on first down . The referee said they did. Jim harbaugh not happy at all. I am bitterly disappointed in the officiating. Cant make that any more clearer. My view of the 1st down was that short. All right. Michigan wins that. That was a crazy game. Double overtime. 3027. A lot to get to tonight on the fever. Of course, in the marquee match up. Mountain point and chandler for the the wolves are playing good. We will disagree on that one. We have much more tonight. Friday night fever airs after 12news at 10 at 10 30. We will see you there. All right. A big night in sports. Cant wait. Still ahead on 12news at 6, where you can go to get into [blues country music] [beeping alarms] if its in your nature to be out there. Dont miss cabelas black friday weekend sale. Come in for great deals on all your Favorite Brands like 40 off cabelas mt050 whitetail extreme gear 90 off a masterbuilt elite electric smoker and 100 off a quantum tour kvd casting reel shop for incredible deals in store and at cabelas. Com well, you are looking at live pictures from cityscape in Downtown Phoenix. They just lit the Christmas Tree the annual city skate ice rink is also open tonight. You can stop by any night now until january 8th. It is so much fun. They have music, food, and you may catch santa before he finalizes his naughty and nice list. Thats the tricky part. Depends if you have been naughty or nice. I have been a little bit of both. It is fun down there. I love it. Are you going to go down . Yeah, no snow, but there is the skating. She cant stop though. We will see you back here at 10 00. Thanks for watching 12news. For the latest news, weather, or whatever you need, we are because an open road is always calling your name. Because life is sweet. Ounts. Midfirst bank will always be true to your money with Convenient Services that help you maximize the joys in life. . . Hi everyone, im robin sewell and welcome to arizona highways television. Christmas city. While prescott may have that official moniker, the rest of arizona is full of special holiday celebrations and traditions. No matter how or what you celebrate, arizona highways television is taking you to some special events you may want to make part of your familys annual traditions. Welcome to arizonas christmas city. This may be the prescott youve known to come and love neon signs and bars within stumbling distance of one another, along the famed whiskey row with a long ago reputation for drunken brawls and houses of ill repute. This bar was carried out in the 1900 fire across the street, ting, it also has a long tradition of hosting. Part of that, obviously you know the courthouse lighting and what were looking at today but there are many other events that take place, i think the Govenors Office recognized that and gave us the proclamation to prove it. Okay, here it is proof the official proclamation naming prescott arizonas christmas city. And its not a designation the folks of prescott take lightly. Our r, they turn out literally in the thousands. And theyre very proud of that designation and we celebrate it. This is the 61st annual courthouse lighting, where the Yavapai County courthouse behind me, and more than a hundred trees come alive with the spirit of christmas. We always have thousands of people out the night that we light up the