Israel Saldivar

Aug. 11, 2:30 am

DWI (refusal)

McKinley County Sheriff Deputy Frank Villa Jr. said he was dispatched to be on the lookout for an intoxicated driver.

He found the suspect vehicle and followed it to a house on Crystal Avenue where the car went into a driveway. He said he recognized the driver as Israel Saldivar, 27, of Gallup. Saldivar went into the house.

Villa said he was walked up to the door and knocked and identified himself, but there was no answer. After several minutes more, then was still no answer so Villa called out his name, and he finally answered the door.

Villa said Salvador was agitated and said this was private property. By this time, another...

Two Navajo Interagency Hotshot Crew members were injured Aug. 14 while conducting fire suppression activities on the Rattlesnake Creek Fire, burning near Pollock, Idaho, in the Nez Perce Clearwater National Forest.

The firefighters were removed from the fire line and transported to a hospital in McCall, Idaho. One firefighter was released to go home while the other was taken to a burn facility in Salt Lake City for additional care.

“The bravery of our Navajo Interagency Hotshot Crew impacts communities far beyond the Navajo Nation. In this instance, the hotshot crew was fighting a fire in Idaho when two members were injured,” President Russell Begaye said. “Our prayers go out to...

Attorney General Hector Balderas secured a guilty plea Aug. 15, from a nursing home office manager at rehabilitation center, who stole thousands of dollars from elderly patients who suffered from dementia. Leanne Bennett worked at the Rehabilitation Center of Albuquerque, and between 2012 and 2013, she used her position as office manager to steal more than $30,000 from elderly residents.

Bennett gained access to residents’ checking accounts, ATM accounts and debit cards, and wrote checks to herself and made cash withdrawals from victims’ accounts from ATMs.

Bennett could face up to three years in prison, and will be required to pay more than $44,000 in restitution to the victims...

Family fighting to help him remain in the U.S.

When Nery Alejandro Amador Contreras, 30, was booked for his second DWI last November, it should have been a routine DWI case with court appearances, possible jail time and fines – or complete dismissal.

Instead, Contreras is now facing possible deportation to Mexico, pending the verdict of a trial set for Aug. 30.

Contreras’s mother, Elvira Amador, spoke about how his family and attorney are preparing their case to allow him to remain in the United States, and why their best opportunities are here.

“The life in Mexico is hard,” Amador said. “What will we do [if he is deported]?”

Specifically, Amador is referring to...