Man faces federal assault and carjacking charges related to the disappearance of Navajo woman – Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
A federal judge in Arizona on Tuesday unsealed a federal indictment against Preston Tolth, indicting him for assault and carjacking related to his alleged role in the disappearance of Ella Mae Begay.
Begay (Diné), went missing from her home in Sweetwater, Arizona on June 15, 2021. Her disappearance has sparked local and national attention, in large part to her family’s role in advocating for any information.
As of Tuesday, Begay’s family has some answers, but is still trying to locate her.
“I think today marks the beginning of trying to find her, it’s a huge step towards finding my mother,” Ella Mae’s son Gerald Begay said.
Tolth went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Camille Bibles at the federal courthouse in Flagstaff and was charged with assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and carjacking.
Both charges are felonies, meaning he is facing up to 35 years in federal prison.
Federal prosecutors told the judge that Tolth made statements to investigators about harming Begay and then taking her gray Ford F-150 from Arizona to New Mexico. The truck was seen on missing posters since Begay disappeared.
Authorities recently moved Tolth (Diné) from the Cibola County Detention Center in New Mexico where he was in jail for unrelated assault charges for allegedly stabbing a man in Grants.
He will remain in federal custody. Bibles will formally charge Tolth on April 7.
In March 2022, the Navajo Nation Police Department said Tolth was a person of interest in Begay’s disappearance. At that time he was in custody for the alleged assault in Grants.
Ella Mae’s family told investigators Tolth was a suspect since day one, her son Gerald Begay said.
The family wants Tolth to say where their mother is located.
“The only thing that I hope for now is he gets some type of common sense about releasing some answers,” Gerald Begay (Diné) said. “If he has some type of heart, I hope he does, you know, come forward with information to try to locate my mother.”
Sun Van an ART will be permanently free after council vote – Albuquerque Journal, KUNM
The Albuquerque City Council voted last night/Monday night to keep some of the city’s transit services permanently free.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that Albuquerque Rapid Transit, or ART, which travels along Central Avenue, and the Sun Van paratransit service for people with disabilities will continue operating with zero fares.
All bus service became free in January 2022 as part of a citywide pilot program, but it’s unclear if that will stay in place for routes outside of Sun Van or ART. The Transit Department is due to deliver an analysis of the pilot in late September.
Transit Director Leslie Keener said collecting fares on the ART route would bring in $810,000 per year. The cost to run it is $5.5 million.
The cost of running the Sun Van is about $7 million and charging passengers would bring in about $285,000.
New Mexico recreational pot sales top $300M in 1st year — Morgan Lee, Associated Press
Recreational cannabis consumers bought just over $300 million in pot in New Mexico since sales without a prescription were legalized a year ago, the state cannabis control division said Monday.
New Mexico legalized recreational marijuana on April 1, 2022, and brought sales to the doorstep of Texas, the largest prohibition state.
Further legalization efforts stumbled last month as voters in Oklahoma rejected a ballot measure that would have made the state the 22nd in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana.
In New Mexico, marijuana entrepreneurs have launched hundreds of retail outlets, farms and industrial kitchens for manufacturing cannabis products, including edible candies. There are now 633 registered cannabis retailers across the state of 2.1 million residents.
Across the state, more than $27 million in excise taxes on recreational cannabis have been collected over the past 12 months. Local governments receive a minority share of the state's 12% excise tax on recreational marijuana sales, along with a share of additional sales taxes that also apply to pot sales.
Cannabis retailers and dispensaries near Texas accounted for an outsized portion of sales. More than $19 million in recreational marijuana was sold through licensed businesses in Sunland Park, on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas. The town of fewer than 20,000 residents also flanks the U.S. border with Mexico.
Anyone 21 and older can purchase up to 2 ounces (57 grams) of marijuana — enough to roll about 60 joints or cigarettes — or comparable amounts of liquid concentrates and edible treats.
Legal experts warn that New Mexico customers who return home to other states could risk criminal penalties, arrest and incarceration — most notably in Texas.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and many Democratic legislators pitched the legalization of recreational marijuana as a way to expand and diversify the economy. They also sought to reverse harm from marijuana criminalization on minority communities and poor households by automatically dismissing or erasing some past cannabis convictions and reducing financial barriers for startup businesses.
New Mexico has nurtured a medical marijuana program since 2007 under tight restrictions.
Medical marijuana accounted for an additional $187 million in sales for the 12 months ending in March 2023. Patients qualify for the medical program under a long list of conditions ranging from cancer to post-traumatic stress.
US infrastructure splurge extends to remote New Mexico farms — Associated Press
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new $40 million round of grants to extend high-speed internet to extremely remote farms, homes and businesses in New Mexico, including counties where the population density is less than one person per square mile (2.5 square kilometers).
Joe Biden and top administration officials are traveling to more than 20 states this week to buttress the president's message on investments and economic growth before an expected reelection campaign, amid a tug-of-war on federal budget priorities with House Republicans. Biden on Monday traveled to suburban Minneapolis on Monday to tour a clean energy technology manufacturer.
Democratic leaders in New Mexico welcomed his agriculture secretary Monday in Albuquerque for the announcement, and celebrated public spending on high-speed internet in remote New Mexico communities. Vilsack and members of the state's congressional delegation say the funds will help farms find efficiencies through precision mapping of topography, nutrients and moisture. Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, said fast rural internet and array federal infrastructure spending will help those growers bring commodities to market and compete.
The grants to expand fiberoptic cable networks in New Mexico stem from the $1 billion infrastructure law signed by Biden in 2021, and the related "Reconnect" program that aims to fill in gaps where internet service is slow or nonexistent. The spending will help two rural telephone companies and a cooperative extend high-speed internet service to extremely remote ranch and farm lands, in counties such as Catron, Harding and DeBaca that have fewer than one person per square mile (2.5 square kilometers) on average.
"When you look at the number of farms and ranches and businesses and homes that are covered, it's not huge. And someone said, 'Is that a wise investment of our federal dollars?'" said U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, who represents a sprawling rural district that traverses northern and eastern New Mexico. "And I said absolutely. Absolutely because you need the connectivity no matter what your zip code is."
As fiberoptic cables are extended, some households will be eligible for subsidies that can ensure high-speed access for as little as $30 a month, Leger Fernandez said.
A $14 million grant to the Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative is designed to extend high-speed internet to 550 people, including 48 farms in Chaves, Eddy, Otero and Lincoln counties. The goal is to help small and medium-sized farms attain the same profitability as large food producers.
"Those 48 farms now have the opportunity to take full advantage of this new transformational future we are building," Vilsack said. "Those 550 people count as much as any people living in New York City or Los Angeles or Denver or any major community in this country."
Forecast warns of more severe storms in South, Midwest — Sean Murphy, Associated Press
Forecasters are warning of more severe weather, including tornadoes, Tuesday in parts of the South and Midwest hammered just days ago by deadly storms.
That could mean more misery for people sifting through the wreckage of their homes in Arkansas, Iowa and Illinois. Dangerous conditions also could stretch into parts of Missouri, southwest Oklahoma and northeast Texas. Farther south and west, fire danger will remain high.
"That could initially start as isolated supercells with all hazards possible — tornadoes, wind and hail — and then over time typically they form into a line (of thunderstorms) and continue moving eastward," said Ryan Bunker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
Just last week, fierce storms that spawned tornadoes in 11 states killed at least 32 people as the system that began Friday plodded through Arkansas and traveled northeast through the South and into the Midwest and Northeast.
The same conditions that fueled last week's storms — an area of low pressure combined with strong southerly winds — will make conditions ideal for another round of severe weather Tuesday into early morning Wednesday, Bunker said.
Those conditions, which typically include dry air from the west going up over the Rockies and crashing into warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, are what make the U.S. so prone to tornadoes and other severe storms.
The threat of fire danger is expected to remain high Tuesday across portions of far western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, northeast New Mexico and far southeastern Colorado, with low humidity, dry vegetation and wind gusts expected up to 70 mph (113 kph), according to the National Weather Service.
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Associated Press reporters around the country contributed to this report, including Ron Todt in Philadelphia, Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, Kimberlee Kruesi in Adamsville, Tennessee, Harm Venhuizen in Belvidere, Illinois, Corey Williams in Detroit.