Senate OKs bill to expand child alerts to tribal landThe U.S. Senate has approved a bill that expands a child abduction alert system to tribal land.
The bill is named for Ashlynne Mike, an 11-year-old girl who was lured into a van on the Navajo Nation in May 2016, sexually assaulted and killed. An Amber Alert wasn’t issued until the day after she was reported missing. Her body was found near Shiprock.
The bill cleared the Senate on Thursday. It now goes to President Donald Trump.
The bill gives tribes access to federal grants that law enforcement agencies use for Amber Alerts. It also makes permanent a pilot program that offers training for tribes.
The Department of Justice would have a year to review challenges tribes face in accessing regional systems.
Police: Woman tortured with wrench, blowtorchTwo Albuquerque women are being accused of kidnapping another woman and torturing her with a wrench and blowtorch before throwing her from a moving vehicle.
A complaint filed in Metropolitan Court says 30-year-old Jessica Villarreal bragged in jail phone calls about killing the woman, unaware that the victim had survived.
The Albuquerque Journal reported that Villarreal and Jessica Diaz, 30, face charges of kidnapping, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment.
Police say the pair abducted the woman in early March from a gas station and kicked her out of the car after traveling to the city’s West Side.
House ransacked after being taken for estate saleA Colorado woman says her house was ransacked by people who mistakenly thought it was the site of an estate sale.
The Daily Camera reported Mary Andrews said she left her Longmont home unlocked and came back Friday morning to find people taking items from her house.
Longmont police told Andrews it was a “very, very bad misunderstanding.”
Andrews says a house just a few doors down was having an estate sale, and somehow someone got into her house and began spreading the rumor that an estate sale was going on there and that everything was free.
Despite the mix-up, Andrews says people should have found something odd about an estate sale where everything was being given away at no cost.
Police say they have closed the case because they do not have any suspect leads.
Feds: 2 eagles found shot on Navajo NationFARMINGTON – Federal authorities are offering a reward for information regarding two eagles who were shot – one fatally – on the Navajo Nation.
The Daily Times of Farmington, New Mexico, reports the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says a bald eagle and a golden eagle were found shot in different areas at the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry headquarters this month with their tail feathers removed.
The bald eagle, found March 13, died of its injuries.
The golden eagle was found March 21 with injuries that led to the amputation of its left wing tip.
Bald and golden eagles are protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Eagle parts and feathers are used in cultural and religious ceremonies in many Native American cultures.
Associated Press