Cuba made significant changes to its leadership on Tuesday, appointing someone other than a member of the Castro family to the second-highest position in the Communist Party. Raul Castro was named first secretary of the party, and Fidel Castro was not included in the leadership for the first time since the party's creation in 1965. Are we seeing the start of a new era in Cuba?

In the next few months, Arizona will begin to enforce its new immigration law that allows local law enforcement to ask for documentation from people they suspect of being in the country illegally. But its neighbor, New Mexico, vehemently opposes this law and its own House of Representatives has passed a resolution recognizing economic benefits for undocumented immigrants. The rift between the bordering states could make things tricky for law enforcement.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer followed tough words with tough action when signed the "Safe Neighborhoods" bill into law on Friday. State House Bill 1070 is considered to be the nation's strictest law against illegal immigration. Among other changes, the bill requires all immigrants to carry proper identification at all times and broadens the power of local police to detain anybody suspected of immigration violations. State and local leaders who support the bill praise its sweeping reforms and cite the state's violent crime rate as reason alone for strict measures. On the other side of the debate, activists and lawmakers, including President Obama, have called the bill a "misguided" attack on the "basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans."

Yesterday, at several bus stations and other locations around Arizona, more than 800 law enforcement officials carried out the largest operation against human smuggling in ICE history. The targets were shuttle bus operations that allegedly carry illegal immigrants around the region and across the border. The tactic of targeting the networks of traffickers rather than carrying out workplace raids reveals a shift in strategy under Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano and President Obama from the policies of the Bush era.

Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., was opened to the media yesterday by the owner, a real estate firm called Colony Capital LLC that bought it as a joint venture with Michael Jackson last year as his finances collapsed. Thousands of fans were gathered at the front gate. The New York Times' National Correspondent Randy Archibold was there and he joins us from Los Angeles.

For more, read Randy Archibold's article, Neverland, Old Neighbors and New Visitors, in The New York Times.

For more images from Neverland Ranch, our partners The New York Times have a slideshow of images from the famous enclave.

The Takeaway has been following the spillover of Mexico's drug war where the national army is battling powerful cartels from tense border towns in west Texas and Arizona to the violent sisters cities of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. Our partners the New York Times are beginning a series examining the influence and impact of cartels on both sides of the border. The Takeaway talks to New York Times national correspondent Randy Archibold, who is based in Los Angeles. His story in today's paper kicks off that series.

Read Randy Archibold's article, Mexican Drug Cartel Violence Spills Over, Alarming U.S., in today's New York Times.

For more of The Takeaway's coverage of Mexico and the drug war at the border, click here.