POLICE OFFICER'S SON-ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING
- SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Almost six months after a Santa Fe police officer's 2-year-old son was accidentally shot and killed in his home, state prosecutors are conducting an investigation into possible charges. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Sunday the New Mexico Attorney General's Office confirmed they're in the process of an independent review. When asked if the involvement of a police officer was affecting the pace, a spokeswoman for the attorney general said they are just following the process. Last December, officer Jonathan Harmon's 4-year-old son found an off-duty handgun in their Rio Ranch home and accidentally discharged it. Harmon remains on administrative duty. Sandoval County prosecutors requested the attorney general's office assistance in March.
AP POLL-IMMIGRATION
- PHOENIX (AP) — With anti-immigrant rhetoric bubbling over in the leadup to this year's critical midterm elections, about 1 in 3 U.S. adults believes an effort is underway to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains. That's according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Almost 3 in 10 people expressed concern that more immigration is causing native-born Americans to lose economic, political and cultural influence. Those views mirror swelling anti-immigrant sentiment espoused on social media and cable TV, with conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson exploiting fears that new arrivals could undermine native-born Americans.
PARKING LOT-MURDER-SUICIDE
- ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Albuquerque police say a man shot and killed two teenagers before turning the gun on himself in what appears to be a murder-suicide. Officers responded to reports of a man shooting himself in the head in the parking lot of a Party City store on Sunday around 12:30 p.m. They discovered the 53-year-old man and a boy and girl—both 16 years old and shot. All three were pronounced dead at the scene. A police spokesman says investigators are looking into a history the man had with the girl and her family. They say he knew both teens but did not elaborate on their relationship.
AP-US-SPRING-WILDFIRES
- LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Firefighters in New Mexico's Rocky Mountain foothills are preparing to excavate new firebreaks and clear brush that can serve as tinder to create more defensive lines. They're trying to prevent a massive wildfire from destroying more homes and pine forests. The fire that is largest in the U.S. has burned about 300 homes and it jumped a highway late Sunday. That allowed it to take hold in rugged areas difficult for firefighters to reach. That prompted a warning for more residents of rural villages to be prepared to flee quickly. Another New Mexico wildfire in the mountains near a key nuclear research facility prompted preparations for evacuations.
RURAL ARIZONA-VACCINATIONS
- PHOENIX (AP) — In a pandemic that has seen sharp divides between urban and rural vaccination rates nationwide, Arizona is the only state where rural vaccine rates outpaced more populated counties according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health experts believe the unexpected trend was mainly fueled by a group that lost a disproportionate number of lives to COVID-19: Native Americans. The devastating loss — particularly of elders — drove pushing vaccination as an act of selflessness. Arizona's own data did not include vaccinations conducted through the Indian Health Service, a federal agency. But the CDC's did.