Pilot dies after plane crashes into home near Santa Fe- Albuquerque Journal
The pilot of a small plane was killed when it crashed into a home near Santa Fe on Tuesday morning.
Wilson Silver, a spokesperson for New Mexico State Police, said the twin-engine Cessna crashed shortly after takeoff from the Santa Fe Regional Airport.
The plane left the airport a little after 9 a.m. and was on its way to Santa Monica, California, Silver said.
Shortly after takeoff, the pilot radioed back to the tower to report a left-engine failure. The plane went down about 30 seconds later, striking an unoccupied home on Agua de Oro, Silver said.
"Thankfully, no one was inside," Silver said.
Police did not confirm the identity of the deceased pilot.
The crash site is just north of Interstate 25, near the Downs at Santa Fe.
Nathalie Waldman witnessed the crash. She said she saw a plane flying east and thought the plane was turning around. But then she saw the plane go down.
"Then there was this huge, massive black smoke," she said.
Marcos Cervantes, 31, said he was inside his home about five or six houses away from the cash site when he heard an explosion.
"It shook the windows," he said in an interview.
Cervantes said he ran outside and saw a neighbor grabbing a fire extinguisher.
"There was smoke as high as I could see — black smoke," Cervantes said.
Planes overhead, he said, are a common sight in the neighborhood, which is in the La Cienega area near the airport in unincorporated Santa Fe County.
Opening arguments begin in embezzlement trial against former UNM athletics director- Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
In 2015, Kole McKamey traveled to Scotland for the golf trip of a lifetime with people who could drastically change the direction of athletics at the University of New Mexico with a very high-dollar donation.
This week, he’s on the witness stand in the Second Judicial District courtroom testifying in a case against the organizer of the event, Paul Krebs, the former athletic director at New Mexico’s largest university who now faces two counts of embezzlement.
Krebs sat with his two attorneys at the defense table dressed in a dark blazer, light pants and silver and cherry tie that is a slight hue away from the cherry he was typically fashioned with at Lobos games.
He is charged with one count of embezzlement over $25,000 and another count of embezzlement of more than $2,500 but under $25,000. Both are second degree felonies.
On Monday, Krebs faced potential jurors in the morning and then heard opening statements from a prosecutor with the New Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, his attorney and testimony from McKamey.
Dozens of supporters sat behind him, many dressed in pastel golf clothing from their morning rounds. A fitting fashion statement since golf is what landed Krebs in this legal trouble.
Prosecutors in August 2019 alleged Krebs used his position as athletic director to move thousands from that budget, funded by state taxpayers, to cover losses from the Scotland golf trip that was designed to be a fundraiser for the Lobo Club, the university’s arm that takes in private donations for Lobo athletics.
There isn’t much question about whether Krebs broke policy at the university, his attorneys are centering the argument to question if he broke the law.
“Let me start by saying Mr. Krebs is charged with embezzlement,” defense attorney Paul Kennedy said. “He is not charged with breaking the rules at UNM.”
This standard was already conceded by the attorney general’s office when it dropped five counts from the indictment that included tampering with evidence, criminal solicitation to commit tampering with evidence, tax fraud, unlawful interest in a public contract, larceny and an additional embezzlement charge.
On June 16, Judge Cindy Leos dismissed four of those charges because evidence was insufficient, “due to an error in the indictment.”
The attorney general’s office said in court filings Krebs may have violated policy and best financial practices at UNM with his conduct, but conceded it could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed a crime.
While that bogey from the attorney general’s office appears to be the premise for Kreb’s defense, the trip to Scotland and how Krebs pushed to make it happen despite clear lack of interest is the way the prosecutor on Monday set it’s argument that Krebs broke the law.
“He indicated to his staff that to bring in more donors to the trip that their golf package would be paid for,” prosecutor Andrew Coffing said in his opening statement. “Three donors accepted the deal, the golf was paid for by the UNM Athletic Department fund. $24,500. This is strictly against the rules.”
To explain the golf trip play, prosecutor John Duran brought McKamey to the witness stand to discuss his role in the fundraiser that was intended to bring in money for Lobo sports that could be a “transformational gift, something that moves the needle,” McKamey said.
Krebs came up with the idea for the trip in 2014. He found a program that would give donors five plays at prestige golf courses in Scotland and lodging in exchange for an $8,000 donation to the Lobo Club. Any potential donors would need to cover their travel expenses.
He enticed donors with NFL Hall of Famer and UNM Lobo Brian Urlacher as a featured celebrity guest. McKamey, a former quarterback for the Lobos, had been had been recently hired by the UNM Foundation to solicit “major gifts” from people to donate at least $25,000 and his first major assignment was to get people to pay and join the golf trip.
Quickly, the fundraiser hit a bunker.
Urlacher backed out of the trip. One person who committed got sick and died. Other potential donors didn’t want to go on the European vacation because it fell on Father’s Day weekend.
Suddenly, McKamey needed to fill three spots in order to meet the requirements for the trip Krebs set up. And the athletic director came up with a plan to cover his losses, McKamey testified.
“He said basically, ‘offer them a discount. They gotta get themselves out there and we’ll take care of the rest,’” McKamey told the jury. “I filled the three spots after that.”
Prosecutors say this action is the reason for the first indictment. By covering the $8,000 plus taxes for three people to play five courses professional golfers usually play on, Krebs covered his responsibility to set up the trip, but then used university money from the athletic budget to pay back the more than $24,000.
Krebs’ lawyers argue that the money came from discretionary funds that are a part of the athletics budget that allow him to spend as he deemed fit. They said he moved the money after he returned from the trip, right before the end of the school’s fiscal year.
McKamey, just weeks into his new job with the UNM Foundation, an entity that fundraises for programs university wide, joined the golf trip with his father-in-law.
He testified that his direct supervisor told him the trip was ill-advised and he shouldn’t go. However, he was encouraged by Krebs to join the Scotland trip.
“It was incredible. It was flawless. Trip of a lifetime,” McKamey testified. “I knew I was happy to be a part of it.” In retrospect to a question he was asked by a prosecutor, he responded it was “not very good.”
Tuesday, defense attorneys for Krebs will have their opportunity to cross-examine McKamey and his statements.
“There was urgency, the trip was coming up soon, (Krebs) needed people, an amount to make even foursomes to play,” McKamey said before court adjourned. “I needed to get the job done.”
The three people McKamey brought in to finish his job and who benefited from Krebs direction’ to waive their fees — Raleigh Gardenhire, Darin Davis and Paul Gibson — are on the witness list and could testify Tuesday.
FEMA has so far paid out less than 1% of what Congress allocated for victims of NM wildfire - Patrick Lohmann and Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
A couple months after two planned fires escaped to become the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, President Joe Biden promised to “fully compensate survivors.” Late last year, Congress allocated $3.95 billion to do so.
Seven months later, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid only about $3 million in claims.
REQUESTS FOR COMMENT
Until a Thursday news conference, FEMA’s Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Claims Office had not responded to multiple requests since late May seeking the amount the agency has paid so far to victims of the wildfire.
Most of that went to the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico, which narrowly escaped the blaze but suffered damage to its water system. The rest — a total of $400,000 at most — has gone to individuals, an agency official acknowledged last week. The blaze burned hundreds of homes and over 530 square miles of land.
The pace of payments has frustrated fire victims and members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, who in May urged FEMA to move more quickly. U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a Democrat from Las Vegas, said in a written statement on Thursday that her office will keep up the pressure.
“We know how painful and hard this process has been for those who lost so much,” Leger Fernández said. “We will continue to push to get payments out as fast and efficiently as possible.”
The Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire grew out of two prescribed burns ignited by the United States Forest Service. In April 2022, fueled by high winds in a drought-stricken forest, they merged. Over the next few months, the fire rolled through Mora and San Miguel counties in northern New Mexico.
The Forest Service took responsibility for the blaze, and Congress tasked FEMA with paying victims through a new claims office.
At a news conference on Thursday, Angela Gladwell, director of that office, said that beyond the $3 million in claims that have been paid, several million dollars more are close to being paid out.
Even still, that would be a fraction of 1% of the money allocated by Congress.
There’s widespread agreement about the need to repair the Las Vegas water system, which was damaged when water laden with sediment and contaminants flowed into the treatment plant during heavy rains that followed the fire.
At one point last summer, while the Gallinas River was contaminated, the city had in reserve just 21 days of clean drinking water for residents. When its reservoirs are full, the city has 200 days of water.
Las Vegas Mayor Louie Trujillo said the $2.6 million is the first installment toward what will ultimately be a $140 million project.
But he said he’s far more concerned about people dealing with the “slow and agonizing” process of being compensated by FEMA for losses to their homes, properties and livelihoods.
The $400,000 that has gone to individuals is surprisingly little, he said: “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but my concern is not as much how efficient they’ve been for the city government, as they are about individuals who had losses.”
Gladwell said the claims office has received more than 1,500 notices of loss from more than 2,500 people, businesses, governments and other claimants since November. A notice of loss signals that a victim intends to make a claim for damages.
The office has formally acknowledged 850 of those notices, she said, which starts a 180-day clock to decide how much FEMA will pay.
Meanwhile, FEMA is winding down its emergency response, which came in the form of disaster assistance payments and, in some cases, temporary housing offered in the weeks and months after the fire.
FEMA offered housing to some people who had lost their primary residences, saying it would try to put trailers or mobile homes on their land. But in late April, Source NM and ProPublica found that just two households had gotten housing on their land. Eleven others received housing at commercial parks that in some cases were miles away.
The federal government accidentally burned down their houses, then made it hard to come home
The rest of those eligible — people whose uninsured primary residences were destroyed or badly damaged — found other housing options, which in some cases was a friend or relative’s couch or substandard housing during a grueling winter.
The agency marked them as having found “another housing resource,” according to a FEMA spokesperson.
Since then, another couple has gotten housing on their land and another person got housing at a commercial park.
FEMA noted that terrain and weather, among other factors, made it hard to provide housing. It said it couldn’t place trailers on people’s land in many cases because of federal laws and its own requirement that trailers be hooked up to utilities.
Lawmakers who signed the legislation compensating victims for the federal government’s mistakes have said they wanted individuals and families to be paid first, and businesses, nonprofits and governments later.
At public meetings, FEMA officials have defended their rollout of the claims office. Creating a compensation program is a major undertaking for a federal bureaucracy, and this is the fastest FEMA has ever established an office, the agency said in May. The agency had to work quickly to create policies, open three field offices and staff up. About a dozen navigators, all locals, have been hired to guide victims through the process.
This is the second time FEMA has been in charge of compensating wildfire victims. The first one was also in New Mexico, when the National Park Service ignited a blaze that escaped and burned homes in Los Alamos in 2000.
Six months after legislation was passed to compensate victims of that fire, known as the Cerro Grande Fire, FEMA had paid about $20.5 million to individuals and businesses — about 4% of the $545 million eventually paid out. That $20.5 million included more than $10 million to 1,625 individuals, according to a news release at the time.
FEMA has not yet finalized its rules governing what types of losses and expenses will be covered for the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire. Gladwell has said those rules must be approved by higher-ups at FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House Office of Management and Budget.
She said Thursday she doesn’t know when the rules might be approved.
Even without final rules, FEMA officials stress that claimants can receive partial payments now for some losses.
“The claims process is operational today and ready to support New Mexicans who suffered losses by these fires immediately,” FEMA spokesperson Michael Hart said.
The office has announced it’s working with an office in the Department of Agriculture to help people calculate their losses. And it will now pay victims’ flood insurance premiums for up to five years.
Nov. 14, 2024, is the deadline for people to submit notice of loss forms to the claims office.
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Source New Mexico. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.
Force behind New Mexico film incentive program Eric Witt dies - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
The man behind New Mexico’s highly praised film incentive program has been found dead.
As the Albuquerque Journal reports, Eric Witt was found dead with no apparent signs of trauma in his garage Monday morning after his wife requested a welfare check.
Back in 2003, Witt worked closely with then New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to develop a film incentive program meant to attract the film industry to the state.
Before working at the highest levels of New Mexico government, Witt was a film and TV executive in production and worked corporate finance for a number of companies in Los Angeles.
He was known for expanding production in the state, but he also pushed for the establishment of statewide crew training programs, educational and business development, and community outreach efforts — which, the Journal reports, have become global standard practices.
Amid surging heat wave, Albuquerque ERs see uptick in patients - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
More residents of Albuquerque are seeking medical care in emergency rooms across the city as highs expected to peak around 105 degrees this week triggered a slew of heat-related illnesses.
As the Albuquerque Journal reports, Dr. John Lissoway, the assistant medical director of Presbyterian Hospital’s emergency department says they have seen an uptick in emergency room visits this July compared to last year, although they're not certain if that increase is the direct result from the heatwave.
Once expected temperatures in Albuquerque’s metro hit 105 degrees today, the area will shift from a “heat advisory” to an “excessive heat warning.”
Lissoway tells the Journal mild to moderate heat exhaustion can cause dehydration, nausea, headaches and possible loss of consciousness. He added heat stroke can be fatal.
Health officials recommend staying indoors as much as possible –– while drinking plenty of water.
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.
Police officer in New Mexico fatally 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 during a foot chase with a suspect has died, authorities said Monday.
Forty-one-year-old Anthony Ferguson, an 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, according to police. He died late Sunday.
Police said 26-year-old Dominic De La O, of Alamogordo, was charged with attempt to commit first-degree murder and aggravated battery on a police officer with a deadly weapon. He is being held at the Otero County jail.
De La O will likely face upgraded charges now that Ferguson has died.
District Attorney Scot Key said that because the defendant was arrested on a no bond warrant in another pending felony drug case, he cannot get out of jail.
"The state will be presenting the case to the Otero County grand jury as early as next week. It is anticipated that the charges will include first-degree murder," Key said.
In January, De La O was arrested on suspicion of pulling out a handgun during a fight with officers, court records show. He was shot by Alamogordo police during the incident.
A warrant for De La O's arrest was issued last Wednesday because authorities said he violated his conditions of release by being at a party where a shooting occurred.
De La O will be represented by Raymond Conley with the public defender's office. He could not immediately be reached for a comment.
On Saturday, 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, and then ran from the scene before the shooting, according to authorities.
De La O suffered a leg wound and was arrested after being treated and released from a hospital, police said.
Alamogordo Mayor Susan Payne has called on the city's 31,000 residents to contact state lawmakers and the governor's office to ask them to revisit New Mexico's bail reform laws.
Republican members of the New Mexico Senate also said Monday that more needs to be done to address gaps in the criminal justice system.
"Not one more New Mexican should become the victim of a preventable violent crime," Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
Alamogordo residents planned to gather along city streets Monday evening for a procession during which the officer's body would be brought home. The procession was due to stop in front of police headquarters to honor Ferguson's service to the community.