- FATAL FARMINGTON CAR CRASH-IDS
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico State Police have identified two Arizona residents who died in a vehicle crash on the Navajo reservation. They say 50-year-old Michael McCraren of Tucson and 28-year-old Hannah Cornelson of Surprise were killed in the Oct. 5 head-on collision. Police say an unidentified 27-year-old man from Surprise was driving a sports car on Navajo Route 5 when the vehicle drifted into oncoming traffic for an unknown reason. They say the car crashed into an SUV driven by McCraren, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say Cornelson was the passenger in the sports car and later died from her injuries in a Farmington hospital.
- VIRUS OUTBREAK-NAVAJO NATION
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — The Navajo Nation has reported 32 more COVID-19 cases, but no additional deaths. It marked the seventh time in 10 days that the tribe has reported no deaths. The latest numbers released Saturday pushed the tribe's totals to 34,392 confirmed COVID-19 cases from the virus since the pandemic began more than a year ago. The known death toll stayed at 1,454. Navajo officials still are urging people to get vaccinated, wear masks while in public and minimize their travel. Tribal President Jonathan Nez has urged tribal members have trouble dealing with the stress of the pandemic to seek professional help.
- DOG-FATAL SHOOTING
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Albuquerque police say a man charged with fatally shooting an Albuquerque man and wounding the man's service dog has been arrested in Gallup. Albuquerque police said Gallup police aided by state police arrested 22-year-old Xavier Marquez on a homicide warrant in the Sept. 22 shooting of 34-year-old Shawn Lynch. According to police, Marquez was sitting in a vehicle in front of his house when Lynch walked by with his dog. Police said there was an encounter that involved an exchange of shouts and resulted in the shootings. Court records don't list an attorney for Marquez who might comment on his behalf.
- NEW MEXICO NATIONAL GUARD-AFGHANS
BELEN, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico Army National Guard unit is deploying within the United States to support resettlement operations for Afghan refugees. The guard a departure ceremony was held Friday for the Belen-based 919th Military Police Company,. A guard statement didn't specify where the unit's soldiers would deploy. Afghans resettling to the United States are being housed temporarily at eight military bases while obtaining special immigrant visas. The bases include Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico and the Army's Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The Afghans include former interpreters and others who worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
- CAMPAIGN FINANCE AUDIT-NEW MEXICO
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — After a four-year hiatus, state election regulators have resumed spot-checks on campaign finance disclosures by politicians, election candidates and political committees. Results were published Friday, with 10 accounts referred to New Mexico's fledgling State Ethics Commission and state prosecutors for possible enforcement action. The random sampling of campaign finance disclosures from the 2020 general election cycle taps into a newly deployed electronic campaign finance reporting system at the secretary of state's office that reconciles an intricate web of campaign contributions, transfers and expenditures. State law requires an annual sampling of 10% of accounts. Some lingering accounts linked to deceased and disgraced politicians were flagged for discrepancies.
- HOUSE FIRE DEATH
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — Officials in northern New Mexico are investigating the death of a person was found inside a home where a fire had apparently burned out. The person was found dead inside the home near Navajo Lake State Park in San Juan County Thursday afternoon by a relative. San Juan County spokesman Devin Neeley said fire crews found signs of a house fire they believed had started sometime early Thursday morning and killed the person. The fire had gone out by the time a relative checking on the person entered the home and found the person was dead.
- GOVERNMENT ETHICS-ELECTRIC VEHICLES
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A recently retired Cabinet secretary who oversaw New Mexico's first major foray into electric vehicles for government fleets has gone to work at a lobbying group for automotive dealerships. The group is safeguarding state-authorized control over direct sales of new vehicles from incursions by electric-car maker Tesla and other potential rivals. Tesla forged a route around the direct-sales prohibition last month as it opened a store on Native American land in northern New Mexico. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham indicated Thursday she is open to reforming the state prohibition on direct new vehicle sales.
- AP-US-NATIONAL-MONUMENTS-BIDEN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has restored two sprawling national monuments in Utah, reversing a decision by President Donald Trump that had opened some lands for mining and development. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments encompass more than 3.2 million acres. They include red-rock lands sacred to Native Americans and home to ancient cliff dwellings and petroglyphs. Biden on Friday also restored protections at a marine conservation area off the New England coast that has been used for commercial fishing under an order by Trump. Trump had made a rule change to allow commercial fishing in a nearly 5,000-square-mile area, an action that was heralded by fishing groups but derided by environmentalists.