- BABY SHOT IN FACE
Teen mom may testify against boyfriend in shooting of infant
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — The teenage mother of an infant girl who police say was shot in the face at a New Mexico motel may testify against her boyfriend.
The Gallup Independent reports Shayanne Nelson pleaded guilty last week to third-degree child abuse in an agreement that comes with the condition that she testify in Tyrell Bitsilly's trial.
Nelson told police she was in a Gallup, New Mexico, motel shower with Bitsilly when her 3-year-old boy found a gun and accidentally shot her infant daughter in December.
The 21-year-old Bitsilly is facing child abuse charges.
Prosecutor Earl Rhoads says the baby is still missing part of her skull and may need a metal plate. He says she is permanently deaf in her left ear and paralyzed on the left side of her face.
- CHACO CANYON-DRILLING
Chaco drilling moratorium included in spending measure
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. land managers would be prohibited from using federal funds to approve oil and gas projects near Chaco Culture National Historical Park for the next year under a measure approved by the U.S. House.
Democratic Congressman Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico included the language in a spending package that cleared the chamber Tuesday.
The language aims to codify a commitment from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to defer leases within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the park while regulators prepare a new resource management plan.
Legislation that calls for permanently banning drilling on federal lands within the buffer is pending. It would not affect land owned by the Navajo Nation or individual tribal members.
Tribes and environmentalists have been advocating for more protections, saying the region is full of culturally significant sites.
- GILA FOREST-MINE CLEANUP
Mine cleanup under way in Gila National Forest
SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) — Officials with the Gila National Forest say the first phase of a cleanup project at the Royal John Mine and Mill is nearly complete.
Past lead and zinc mining activities left an estimated 90,000 cubic yards (68,810 cubic meters) of tailings and waste rock material along the upper reaches of Cold Springs Creek. The contaminated material is being consolidated into one spot where it will be permanently capped.
Officials say this will limit the potential for the contaminants to reach the surrounding environment.
The area will be cordoned off with a steel rail fence and seeded with native grasses.
The work is expected to be finished in late July.
The second phase will involve closing the mine's adits and shafts. The contract for that work is scheduled to be awarded later this summer.
- REFERENDUM PETITIONS-NEW MEXICO
Patriot movement targets vote access, campaign finance laws
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Efforts to repeal recent New Mexico laws by referendum are targeting same-day voter registration and new campaign finance regulations for the first time.
The Secretary of State's Office said Tuesday it received the petition applications from the Bernalillo County Patriot Group and was reviewing them.
Several other self-described patriot groups have sought approval to circulate petitions that could overturn gun control measures, a ban on coyote killing contests, minimum wage increases and more. The challenged laws were approved by first-year Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the Democrat-led Legislature.
None of the signature petitions has been allowed so far.
Stefani Lord of the Bernalillo County group urged Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver to approve the petitions so that voters might directly decide whether to overturn laws by referendum.
- IMMIGRATION-DETAINED CHILDREN-THE LATEST
The Latest: Border official resigns, deepening crisis
HOUSTON (AP) — About 10 protesters have demonstrated in a parking lot at a Border Patrol station in El Paso, Texas, decrying the treatment of child migrants.
The demonstrators moved to the station entrance Tuesday afternoon as one waved a placard that invited motorists on a passing highway and frontage road to honk to register support for the migrants.
Diego Carlos teaches social studies at an El Paso high school and joined the protest after he read a news article on the child migrants' plight.
He told The Associated Press that he was demonstrating in protest "because on just a gut level I see myself, I see my family, I see my neighbors, I see my students in these migrants." He added that, "literally, I have students who come over from the border almost every day to go to school at the school I teach."
Carlos carried a sign that read, "We are witnesses."
- STATE INVESTMENTS-NEW MEXICO
New Mexico governor replaces 2 members of investment council
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has replaced two members of the State Investment Council that oversees state trusts worth $23 billion.
The first-year Democratic governor on Tuesday announced the appointments of securities attorney L. Michael Messina and community college finance official Tracy Hartzler. They replace Lynn Hoffman and Scott Smart.
Messina has worked at a private legal legal practice that specializes in financial and commercial transactions. He previously directed the National Health Law Program at the University of California Los Angeles.
Hartzler is the vice president of finance and operations at Central New Mexico Community College and previously worked as an analyst for the Legislature's lead budget oversight committee.
Lujan Grisham is an advocate for increasing spending on early childhood education from the state's Land Grant Permanent Fund.
- BORDER-ARMED GROUP-INDICTMENT
Man charged with impersonating federal agent to be released
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge in Oklahoma City says the spokesman for a group of armed civilians that patrols the U.S.-Mexico border and who has been jailed on charges that he impersonated a federal agent should be released to a halfway house.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Shon Erwin on Tuesday ordered 44-year-old James Christopher Benvie of Albany, Minnesota, to be released to a halfway house in Las Cruces, New Mexico, once authorities find a place for him.
A grand jury in New Mexico indicted Benvie last week on two counts of impersonating a Border Patrol agent in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, on April 15 and 17.
Erwin also ordered Benvie to find a job, wear a GPS monitoring device and stay at least 10 miles (16 kilometers) away from the U.S.-Mexico border once placed at the halfway house.
Prosecutors alleged Benvie was a flight risk.
- CHILD ABUSE-KILLING PETS
Sheriff: Mom abused her children, boiled puppies to death
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico woman is facing charges she beat and tortured her children and forced them to watch her kill their pets.
Martha and her husband Timothy Crouch of Aztec, New Mexico, were arrested Monday. Court records show they have not been assigned public defenders yet. Documents also say they had prior complaints in Missouri, Alaska, Kansas and Montana.
The investigation began after a San Juan County sheriff's deputy arrested an adult child of the Crouches on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon.
Court documents say one daughter told authorities stories of physical and emotional abuse. She said her mother boiled puppies and poisoned a kitten as punishment.
Martha Crouch was charged with child abuse and extreme cruelty to animals. Timothy Crouch is facing an obstruction charge.