Police officer in New Mexico dies after being shot by a suspect following a foot chase- Associated Press
An Alamogordo police officer who was shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun after a foot chase with a suspect has died, authorities said Monday.
Police officials said 41-year-old Anthony Ferguson died in a hospital from his injuries.
The 11-year veteran of the Alamogordo Police Department was airlifted to a trauma center, where he had been listed in critical condition after the shooting early Saturday.
Police said 26-year-old Dominic De La O, of Alamogordo, was arrested and being held at the Otero County jail on multiple charges including attempt to commit first-degree murder and aggravated battery on a police officer with a deadly weapon.
It's believed that De La O will face upgraded charges now that Ferguson has died in the line of duty.
Officers tried to pull over the vehicle De La O was driving without headlights or taillights, police said.
De La O fled, crashed into a light pole, then ran from the scene before the shootout with Ferguson.
Police said De La O suffered a leg wound and was arrested after being treated and released from a hospital.
It wasn't immediately clear Monday if De La O has a lawyer yet who can speak on his behalf.
Trial begins for former New Mexico athletics director on embezzlement charges- Associated Press
Jury selection began Monday in the trial of former University of New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs on embezzlement charges.
Krebs left the university in 2017 amid questions over spending and was later indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges that stemmed from allegations that he used public money for a lavish golf trip that he said was meant to strengthen relationships with donors.
Prosecutors just weeks ago dismissed other criminal charges that were part of the 2019 indictment, saying they planned to proceed with just two counts related to embezzlement.
Krebs' attorney, Paul Kennedy, had said previously that he was confident his client would be vindicated at trial.
State District Judge Cindy Leos set aside four days for the trial. Witnesses include Krebs' former assistant, others who worked with the athletics department and donors who traveled to Scotland.
Krebs, 66, was accused of using university and Lobo Club funds to help pay for a trip to Scotland that included himself and family members, several prospective donors, and former UNM men's basketball coach Craig Neal. The Lobo Club is a nonprofit fundraising organization that helps student athletes.
At the time he announced his retirement in 2017, Krebs was the longest-tenured athletic director in Mountain West Conference history. He was hired by UNM in 2006.
Prosecutors allege that the athletics department paid about $24,500 for golf tours for three people not affiliated with the university or the UNM Association. They also claim that Krebs used $13,625 in university funds to reimburse the Lobo Club for a golf tour package after Lobo Club funds were used to pay a deposit to a travel company.
The dismissed charges involve Krebs allegedly using school funds to pay his own expenses for the Scotland trip and attempts to conceal evidence related to a $25,000 donation he allegedly made anonymously to the UNM
Foundation in 2017 to cover the university's losses from the Scotland trip.
Black Fire relief funds should be at correct state agency by end of month - Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
Millions in disaster relief dollars should soon sit with the right New Mexico agency after lawmakers and the governor approved a 2023 budget that sent the money to the wrong place.
The state budget allocated $2 million for “response and restoration” to the Black Fire that devastated parts of the Gila National Forest in 2022. Southern New Mexico communities that include acequia stewards, ranchers and local governments have been trying to find funds to repair expensive fire and flood damage since.
The Black Fire disaster aid got sent to the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. That was a mistake, agency spokesperson Sidney Hill told Source NM last month.
He said it should’ve gone to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, where the funds will soon be deposited.
The two departments signed a memorandum of agreement on June 30, assigning responsibility to the finance department to get the $2 million to Black Fire victims.
The state agencies have 30 days from the execution of the agreement to transfer the funds over to the Department of Finance and Administration. It has to be done by July 30.
The agencies had until September to get the funds to the right place. Officials committed to getting it done quickly before then.
Once the money is available, it’s still unclear when and how the finance agency will distribute the funds to victims moving forward.
The full agreement can be read here.
4 bystanders injured after Albuquerque street-racing crash; 1 driver arrested - Associated Press
A man has been arrested after a street-racing crash injured four pedestrians in Albuquerque, police said Sunday.
Albuquerque police said Abraham Corral Alvarez, 18, faces three counts of DWI resulting in great bodily harm for his role in the overnight street racing crash.
Police said the injured were bystanders at a food truck parked near the site of the street racing late Saturday night.
According to witnesses, three vehicles were racing cars at high speeds when one of the vehicles struck the divider along a bus lane, causing the vehicle to leave the roadway.
Police said four pedestrians were injured. Three of them were taken to a hospital, with two currently in critical condition and the third in stable condition.
Corral Alvarez was detained by police, who said he allegedly was driving impaired.
It was unclear Sunday if Corral Alvarez has a lawyer yet who can speak on his behalf.
The drivers of the other cars involved in the street racing were being sought by police.
This story has been updated to correctly reflect Abraham Corral Alvarez faces three counts of DWI resulting in great bodily harm.
Hundreds of migrants in southern Mexico form group to head toward US - By Edgar H. Clemente Associated Press
Nearly a thousand migrants that recently crossed from Guatemala into Mexico formed a group Saturday to head north together in hopes of reaching the border with the United States.
The group, made up of largely Venezuelan migrants, walked along a highway in southern Mexico, led by a Venezuela flag with the phrase "Peace, Freedom. SOS." The men, women, children and teenagers were followed by Mexican National Guard patrols.
Migrants told The Associated Press they crossed into Mexico illegally through a river dividing the two countries. They said they decided to organize the group and start out because many had been sleeping on the street and had run out of money to buy food.
"We just want to move forward, to fulfill our American dream and work, because we're all workers here," one Venezuelan, Roseli Gloria said while taking a brief rest along the highway.
She carried a backpack and a piece of rolled up foam for sleeping. She said she had been in Mexico for a week before joining the group.
Participants in the group said that they received little aid from Mexican immigration authorities and that they were given mixed and confusing instructions about how to move forward or seek asylum in the U.S.
The formation of the latest migrant group in southern Mexico comes amid a record migratory flow to the United States from countries across Latin America. In the 12 months through May 2023, U.S. authorities reported nearly 2.5 million encounters with migrants on its southern border, an uptick from the year before.
The journey is not an easy one, with migrants often targeted by kidnappings, extorsion and other violence from armed groups in the region. As a result, migrants often travel in groups of hundreds to stay safe.
Migrants from Venezuela previously sought refuge in other South American nations like Colombia and Peru, but increasingly they are making the perilous journey through the jungles of the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama in an attempt to reach the U.S.
US Southwest swelters under dangerous heat wave, with new records on track - By Anita Snow Associated Press
A dangerous heat wave threatened a wide swath of the Southwest with potentially deadly temperatures in the triple digits on Saturday as some cooling centers extended their hours and emergency rooms prepared to treat more people with heat-related illnesses.
"Near record temperatures are expected this weekend!" the National Weather Service in Phoenix warned in a tweet, advising people to follow its safety tips such as drinking plenty of water and checking on relatives and neighbors.
"Don't be a statistic!" the weather service in Tucson advised, noting extreme heat can be deadly. "It CAN happen to YOU!"
Over 110 million people, or about a third of Americans, were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings Saturday as the blistering heat wave was forecast to get worse this weekend for Nevada, Arizona and California. Temperatures in some desert areas were predicted to soar past 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius) during the day, and remain in the 90s F (above 32.2 C) overnight.
Around 200 hydration stations distributing bottles of water and cooling centers where potentially thousands of people can rest in air-conditioned spaces opened Saturday in public spaces like libraries, churches and businesses around the Phoenix area.
Charles Sanders spent Friday afternoon with his Chihuahua mix Babygirl at the air-conditioned Justa Center, which offers daytime services to older homeless people in downtown Phoenix. It's also serving as a hydration station, distributing free bottles of water.
Because of funding and staffing limitations, the center can only stay open until 5:30 p.m., so Sanders, a 59-year-old who uses a wheelchair, has spent the sweltering nights with his pet in a tattered tent behind the building.
"I've been here for four summers now and it's the worst so far," said Sanders, a former welder originally from Denver.
David Hondula, chief heat officer for the City of Phoenix, said Friday that because of the health risks some centers were extending hours that are sometimes abbreviated because of limited volunteers and money.
"This weekend there will be some of the most serious and hot conditions we've ever seen," said Hondula.
He said just one location, the Brian Garcia Welcome Center for homeless people in downtown Phoenix, planned to be open 24 hours and direct people to shelters and other air-conditioned spaces for the night. During especially hot spells in the past, the Phoenix Convention Center has opened some space as a nighttime cooling center, but Hondula said he had not heard of that possibility this year.
Stacy Champion, an advocate for homeless people in Phoenix, took to Twitter this week to criticize the lack of nighttime cooling spaces for unsheltered individuals, saying they are "out of luck" if they have no place to go.
In Las Vegas, casinos offered respite from the heat for many. Air-conditioned libraries, police station lobbies and other places from Texas to California planned to be open to the public to offer relief for at least part of the day.
Emergency room doctors in Las Vegas have been treating more people for heat illness as the heat wave threatened to break the city's all-time record high of 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 degrees Celsius) this weekend.
Dr. Ashkan Morim, who works in the ER at Dignity Health Siena Hospital in suburban Henderson, Nevada, spoke Friday of treating tourists this week who spent too long drinking by pools and became severely dehydrated, and a stranded hiker who needed liters of fluids to regain his strength.
In New Mexico's largest city of Albuquerque, splash pads will be open for extended hours and many public pools are offering free admission. In Boise, Idaho, churches and other nonprofit groups were offering water, sunscreen and shelter.
In Southern California, temperatures soared into the triple digits in inland areas, and a ridge of high pressure was expected to keep its hold on the region for a couple of weeks.
By mid Saturday afternoon, it was 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) in Death Valley, California, where forecasters have said the temperature could hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 C) this weekend. The hottest temperature recorded at Death Valley was 134 F (56.6 C) in July 1913, according to the National Park Service.
In Lancaster and Palmdale, north of Los Angeles, temperatures hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42.2 degrees Celsius), said National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Wofford. In Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, the thermometer cleared triple digits in some areas.
"We are going to be pretty warm for a while," Wofford said, adding that temperatures would be above normal for about two weeks. "There's been a lot of triple digits" across the region.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass announced the city was opening cooling centers where residents can escape the heat. "The extreme heat that is forecasted this weekend can pose serious risks," she warned.
The hot, dry conditions sparked a series of blazes in Southern California southeast of Los Angeles, where firefighters Saturday were battling three separate brush fires amid blistering heat and low humidity in sparsely populated, hilly areas. The fires were all within 40 miles (65 kilometers) of each other in Riverside County, where temperatures in some areas spiked into the triple digits.
"Heat is definitely a concern out there," said April Newman of the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department, adding that the blazes were burning through dense, dry brush in rugged terrain.
Phoenix on Saturday saw the city's 16th consecutive day of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) or higher temperatures, hitting that mark before noon and putting it on track to beat the longest measured stretch of such heat. This was recorded 18 days in 1974.
By late afternoon, the temperature in Phoenix had hit 118 degrees Fahrenheit (47.8 degrees Celsius), breaking the daily record set on July 15, 1998, of 117 F (47.2 C), the National Weather Service in Phoenix tweeted. The normal high for the date is 107 F (41.6 C).
Emphasizing how dangerous the heat can be, police in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise said Saturday its officers on Friday found two older women sweltering at home in 114 degrees Fahrenheit (45.5 degrees Celsius) with just a tiny, overtaxed unit that failed to cool most of the house. After the women were taken to the senior center to cool off, the department's community services team bought and installed an adequate air conditioner and several fans in the home.
Extreme heat is especially dangerous for older people; medications they may take or chronic conditions like heart or kidney disease can make it harder for their bodies to cool down.
Regional health officials in Las Vegas launched a new database Thursday to report "heat-caused" and "heat-related" deaths in the city and surrounding Clark County from April to October.
The Southern Nevada Health District said seven people have died since April 11, and a total of 152 deaths last year were determined to be heat-related.
Arizona's Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, reported this week that so far this year there have been 12 confirmed heat-associated deaths going back to April, half of them people who were homeless. Another 55 deaths are under investigation.
There were 425 confirmed heat-associated deaths in Maricopa County last year, with more than half of them occurring in July and 80% of them happening outdoors.
Closer to the Pacific coast, temperatures were less severe, but still have made for sweaty days on picket lines in the Los Angeles area, where actors joined screenwriters in strikes against producers.
In Sacramento, the California State Fair kicked off with organizers canceling planned horseracing events due to concerns for animal safety. Pet owners around the Southwest were urged to keep their animals mostly inside.
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This story has been updated to correct the number of people under heat advisories, watches and warnings in the U.S. Over 110 million Americans live in those zones, not 110,000.
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Associated Press reporters Michael Blood in Los Angeles, Ken Ritter in Las Vegas, and Susan Montoya in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
New Mexico's top election official met with federal prosecutors for 2020 special counsel probe - By Christina A. Cassidy And Eric Tucker Associated Press
The top state election official in New Mexico has spoken with federal prosecutors as part of the special counsel's probe into the 2020 election, the official's spokesman said Friday.
The meeting with New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver occurred sometime in the past few months, according to spokesman Alex Curtas, who declined further comment.
The Justice Department has spent months examining pressure campaigns by Trump associates aimed at getting battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden to undo the results of their elections. Special counsel Jack Smith and his team have issued subpoenas to election officials in states that Trump disputed, seeking correspondence from Trump associates and campaign aides, and have also lined up interviews in recent months with state officials.
The communications with state officials are one prong of a much bigger probe by Smith and his team into efforts to block the transfer of power from Trump to Biden. It is not clear when Smith's investigation into the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot might end or whether anyone might be charged.
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment on Friday.
CNN first reported the interview with the New Mexico secretary of state.
It's unknown what questions were asked of Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat in her second term, about the 2020 election in New Mexico.
After Biden won the state by nearly 11 percentage points, Trump's campaign briefly challenged the results in court before dropping the lawsuit. Republicans in the state submitted false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner – though the fake electors added a caveat saying the certificates were submitted in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified electors.
Although Democrats control every statewide elected office in New Mexico, with majorities in the Statehouse, false claims of fraud and manipulation of voting machines in 2020 have resonated in some politically conservative communities, including Otero County, where commissioners in June 2022 initially refused to certify election results.
Former Otero County commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin was barred last year from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson have also spoken with officials from Smith's office in recent months, according to their staffs.
Kathy Boockvar, the chief state election official in Pennsylvania during the 2020 election, said Friday she has not been asked for an interview.
It was not currently clear whether state officials overseeing elections in 2020 in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin – other states disputed by Trump -- have been interviewed. Claire Woodall-Vogg, the head of Milwaukee's election commission, said in an email that she met virtually with investigators a month or two ago.
"I'm not sure what if any details I can divulge, so not much more to say," she said.
Efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his loss in Georgia are also the subject of a separate investigation in Atlanta's Fulton County with local prosecutors saying they expect a decision later this summer on next steps. It was in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call that Trump suggested Raffensperger could help "find" the votes necessary to reverse Biden's win.
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Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
New Mexico police officer dies after being shot in the face - Associated Press
A suspect has been arrested in the shooting of an Alamogordo police officer who died from his injuries.
Dominic De La O, 26, of Alamogordo was arrested after a shootout with the officer around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, police said.
The officer was shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun and was airlifted to a trauma center where he died of his injuries. Officer Anthony Ferguson was 41 years old.
Police said officers attempted to pull over the vehicle De La O was driving without headlights or tail lights.
De La O fled, crashed into a light pole, then ran. Shots were fired and De La O suffered a leg wound.
He was arrested after being treated and released from a hospital, police said.
New Mexico State Police said De La O was being held at the Otero County jail, where he faces multiple charges.
It was unclear Sunday if De La O had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
This story has been updated to reflect Officer Anthony Ferguson died of his injuries.
Mexico files border boundaries complaint over Texas' floating barrier plan on Rio Grande - Associated Press
Mexico's top diplomat said Friday her country has sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government expressing concern that Texas' deployment of floating barriers on the Rio Grande may violate 1944 and 1970 treaties on boundaries and water.
Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said Mexico will send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see whether any of the barrier extends into Mexico's side of the border river.
She also complained about U.S. efforts to put up barbed wire on a low-lying island in the river near Eagle Pass, Texas.
Bárcena said that if the buoys impede the flow of water, it would violate the treaties, which requires the river remain unobstructed. Mexico has already asked that the barriers be removed.
Texas began rolling out the new floating barrier on the Rio Grande in early July. It is part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's multibillion-dollar effort to secure the U.S. border with Mexico, which already has included busing migrants to liberal states and authorizing the National Guard to make arrests.
Migrant advocates have voiced concerns about drowning risks from the buoys and environmentalists questioned the impact on the river.
Once installed, the above-river parts of the system and the webbing they're connected with will cover 1,000 feet (305 meter) of the middle of the Rio Grande, with anchors in the riverbed.