Raccoon sparks fire; wrong taco gun threat; humpback rescued
- Updated
Odd and interesting news from around the West.
- By RUSSELL CONTRERAS Associated Press
- Updated
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) â Laughter can combat trauma. Spiritual cleansings could be used to fight an opioid addiction. Cactus extract may battle diabetes and obesity.
These insights are from curanderismo â traditional indigenous healing from the American Southwest and Latin America.
University of New Mexico professor Eliseo "Cheo" Torres' has included these thoughts in a new, unique textbook connected to his internationally-known annual course on curanderismo.
"Curanderismo: The Art of Traditional Medicine Without Borders," released last week, coincides with Torres' annual gathering of curandero students and healers around the world at the University of New Mexico. For nearly 20 years, healers and their students have come to Albuquerque to meet and exchange ideas on traditional healing that for many years were often ignored and ridiculed.
Torres, who is also the university's vice president for student affairs, said the popularity of the annual course and a similar online class he teaches convinced him that there needed to be a textbook on curanderismo.
"This textbook came out of the experience of this class and the ideas that have been shared through the years," Torres said during a special morning ceremony with Aztec dancers on campus. "From healers in Mexico to those in Africa, many have long traditions of healing that are being rediscovered by a new generation."
Curanderismo is the art of using traditional healing methods like herbs and plants to treat various ailments. Long practiced in Native American villages of Mexico and other parts of Latin America, curanderos also are found in New Mexico, south Texas, Arizona and California.
Anthropologists believe curanderismo remained popular among poor Latinos because they didn't have access to health care. But they say the field is gaining traction among those who seek to use alternative medicine.
"I believe people are disenchanted with our health system," Torres said. "Some people can't afford it now, and they are looking for other ways to empower themselves to heal."
The textbook gives a survey of medicinal plants used to help digestive systems and how healers draw in laugh therapy to cope with traumatic experiences.
Ricardo Carrillo, a licensed psychologist and a healer based in Oakland, California, said he's seeing younger people look to curanderismo to help with challenges like addiction and physical pain.
"Yes, you have to go through detox and do all that you are supposed to do to get yourself clean," said Carrillo, who came to the Albuquerque workshop to speak. "Curanderismo can give you the spiritual tools to keep yourself clean and look to a higher power."
Among the ailments curanderos treat are mal de ojo, or evil eye, and susto, magical fright.
Mal de ojo is the belief that an admiring look or a stare can weaken someone, mainly a child, leading to bad luck, even death.
Susto is a folk illness linked to a frightful experience, such as an automobile accident or tripping over an unseen object. Those who believe they are inflicted with susto say only a curandero can cure them.
___
Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
- Updated
BOISE, Idaho (AP) â Idaho officials are facing some early holiday pressure to avoid ending up with a sad and scraggly Charlie Brown type Christmas tree in front of the Statehouse this winter.
Idaho Department of Administration Facilities Manager Ric Johnston in a statement Tuesday says the agency needs more candidates for the official Idaho Capitol Christmas Tree.
He says a good candidate is a blue spruce that's at least 35 feet tall with a single main trunk located within 10 miles of the Capitol Building.
He says other species will be considered.
Johnston says the agency so far has identified one potential tree.
Anyone interested in having a tree removed from their property can call the Department of Administration.
The agency says it will also arrange to have the stump ground down.
- Updated
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) â A man who has pleaded guilty to stealing about $16,000 worth of items from a former Wyoming law enforcement officer's house told a judge he picked the house to steal from because a porch light was on and it looked like nobody was home.
The News Record reported (http://bit.ly/2tmZsvC ) Monday that 39-year-old Sean E. Kinion accepted a plea agreement in which prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of eight to 10 years in exchange for not filing felony theft charges against him. He pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.
Kinion says it only took him about 10-15 minutes to steal 150 items from the house in July 2015. He says he pawned most of it afterward.
Kinion is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 18.
- Updated
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) â A New Mexico man is facing charges after police say he threatened to pull a gun on a taco shop employee for giving him the wrong order.
The Los Alamos Monitor reports (https://goo.gl/6FnvBv ) Lex Norman Deines was arrested Sunday following a heated exchange with an employee at Rigoberto's Taco Shop near one of the nation's premiere weapons labs.
Los Alamos Police Department Cpl. Jemuel Montoya says an employee told him the 48-year-old Deines promised to retrieve a gun out of his car over the allegedly botched tacos. Witnesses also told police they heard Deines make the gun threat.
Deines was booked at the Los Alamos County Detention Center and is facing disorderly conduct and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges.
It was not known if he had an attorney.
___
Information from: Los Alamos Monitor, http://www.lamonitor.com
- Updated
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) â A Utah mother has pleaded guilty to child abuse charges after her 12-year-old son was found severely malnourished in a feces-strewn bathroom where authorities believe he was locked for about a year.
KSL-TV reports the 36-year-old woman pleaded guilty to three counts of abuse in a St. George courtroom Tuesday. She's scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 28.
The boy weighed just 30 pounds when he was found in January in a feces-strewn bathroom with one blanket, a few empty cans of beans and a camera.
Defense lawyer Edward Flint has said the boy's mother was overwhelmed and didn't know what to do.
The boy's father also faces charges after prosecutors say he failed to help the child until the boy's weight dropped to 30 pounds.
The Associated Press is not naming either parent to avoid identifying the child.
___
Information from: KSL-TV, http://www.ksl.com/
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) â A government program expects to hand out more fans to vulnerable seniors during Utah's heat wave.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/2tmysMF ) Wednesday that Utah has seen record-setting temperatures this year. Last month was marked as the third hottest June recorded in Utah and this month is on its way to becoming the hottest July ever recorded.
Emergency Medicine Specialist Bill Swiler says seniors are more prone to exhaustion and heat stroke than other age groups in high temperatures.
Meals on Wheels delivers food to homebound seniors and during the summer, it also offers fans to those without air conditioners or swamp coolers. It has handed out over 120 fans in the past two years, but the organization expects to pass out even more fans this year because of the intense heat.
___
Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
- Updated
LAS VEGAS (AP) â And now it's down to nine.
The final table for the marquee Main Event of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas was set early Tuesday. The nine players who emerged from 10 days of play now have a chance to win a grand prize of more than $8.1 million, a gold bracelet and bragging rights.
Twenty-five-year-old Scott Blumstein is the chip leader. The resident of Brigantine, New Jersey, who is the youngest player remaining in the tournament, ended play with more than 97 million chips.
The final nine players bested more than 7,200 others to make it to the last stage of the event. Organizers say the players represent the U.S., Argentina, France and the United Kingdom.
The players are taking a two-day break, returning to play Thursday.
- Updated
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) â A mountain lion has killed eight goats on a Montana ranch in three separate attacks this month.
Three were killed this past weekend at the ranch northwest of Missoula.
Rancher Eugene Gisselbeck tells the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/2uyP8QN ) that he's lost a yearling goat and seven newborn goats. The Gisselbeck's have been raising goats since 1968 and have lost goats to lions before.
The latest killings occurred despite a large trap being set up last week by a U.S. Department of Agriculture trapper.
Jamie Jonkel of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks says Missoula and its outlying areas have about 25 mountain lions at any given time.
___
This story has been corrected to eight goats killed instead to seven.
___
Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
- Updated
CRAIG, Colo. (AP) â Thirty-one homeowners in Colorado have a pesky raccoon to blame for a power outage and fire on Sunday.
The Craig Daily Press reports (http://bit.ly/2u4xkuf ) the raccoon had climbed on a power pole transformer, causing it to spark and igniting a fire that burned about 7 acres on private property southwest of Craig.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze in about an hour. No other structures were impacted by the fire.
Yampa Valley Electric Member Outreach Specialist Tammi Strickland says the raccoon knocked out power for 31 homeowners.
Strickland says the raccoon unfortunately did not survive the incident.
___
Information from: Craig Daily Press, http://www.craigdailypress.com
- Updated
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) â Prosecutors are seeking to combine two criminal cases against an embattled former northern New Mexico superintendent facing a slew of fraud and forgery charges.
The Las Vegas Optic reports (https://goo.gl/YF6gMp) prosecutors recently filed a motion to combine the two criminal cases against former Mora superintendent Charles Trujillo.
Trujillo is facing fraud and forgery charges for using fake credentials to obtain state educator licenses and high-paying administrative positions with the Mora and Pecos school districts in different criminal cases.
One case alleged Trujillo gave forged documents to the Pecos schools to obtain the assistant superintendent position.
The second case involves a position Trujillo applied for at Luna Community College.
Court documents say defense attorney Sam Bregman, who represents Trujillo, agrees with combining both San Miguel County cases.
___
Information from: Las Vegas Optic, http://www.lasvegasoptic.com
- Updated
PHOENIX (AP) â Authorities say a bobcat that attacked a large dog and bit a man in the Anthem Country Club area last weekend has tested positive for rabies.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department received a call Sunday night that a man was bitten on the hand by a bobcat.
The man says the bobcat attacked a German shepherd and he was bitten while trying to separate the two animals.
The bobcat was caught and underwent a necropsy.
Tissue samples were sent to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Officials announced Monday that results showed the bobcat tested positive for rabies.
Game and Fish officials say bobcats are rarely a threat to people, but they can be aggressive if they become sick, trapped or are defending offspring or a territory.
- By RUSSELL CONTRERAS Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) â Laughter can combat trauma. Spiritual cleansings could be used to fight an opioid addiction. Cactus extract may battle diabetes and obesity.
These insights are from curanderismo â traditional indigenous healing from the American Southwest and Latin America.
University of New Mexico professor Eliseo "Cheo" Torres' has included these thoughts in a new, unique textbook connected to his internationally-known annual course on curanderismo.
"Curanderismo: The Art of Traditional Medicine Without Borders," released last week, coincides with Torres' annual gathering of curandero students and healers around the world at the University of New Mexico. For nearly 20 years, healers and their students have come to Albuquerque to meet and exchange ideas on traditional healing that for many years were often ignored and ridiculed.
Torres, who is also the university's vice president for student affairs, said the popularity of the annual course and a similar online class he teaches convinced him that there needed to be a textbook on curanderismo.
"This textbook came out of the experience of this class and the ideas that have been shared through the years," Torres said during a special morning ceremony with Aztec dancers on campus. "From healers in Mexico to those in Africa, many have long traditions of healing that are being rediscovered by a new generation."
Curanderismo is the art of using traditional healing methods like herbs and plants to treat various ailments. Long practiced in Native American villages of Mexico and other parts of Latin America, curanderos also are found in New Mexico, south Texas, Arizona and California.
Anthropologists believe curanderismo remained popular among poor Latinos because they didn't have access to health care. But they say the field is gaining traction among those who seek to use alternative medicine.
"I believe people are disenchanted with our health system," Torres said. "Some people can't afford it now, and they are looking for other ways to empower themselves to heal."
The textbook gives a survey of medicinal plants used to help digestive systems and how healers draw in laugh therapy to cope with traumatic experiences.
Ricardo Carrillo, a licensed psychologist and a healer based in Oakland, California, said he's seeing younger people look to curanderismo to help with challenges like addiction and physical pain.
"Yes, you have to go through detox and do all that you are supposed to do to get yourself clean," said Carrillo, who came to the Albuquerque workshop to speak. "Curanderismo can give you the spiritual tools to keep yourself clean and look to a higher power."
Among the ailments curanderos treat are mal de ojo, or evil eye, and susto, magical fright.
Mal de ojo is the belief that an admiring look or a stare can weaken someone, mainly a child, leading to bad luck, even death.
Susto is a folk illness linked to a frightful experience, such as an automobile accident or tripping over an unseen object. Those who believe they are inflicted with susto say only a curandero can cure them.
___
Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
BOISE, Idaho (AP) â Idaho officials are facing some early holiday pressure to avoid ending up with a sad and scraggly Charlie Brown type Christmas tree in front of the Statehouse this winter.
Idaho Department of Administration Facilities Manager Ric Johnston in a statement Tuesday says the agency needs more candidates for the official Idaho Capitol Christmas Tree.
He says a good candidate is a blue spruce that's at least 35 feet tall with a single main trunk located within 10 miles of the Capitol Building.
He says other species will be considered.
Johnston says the agency so far has identified one potential tree.
Anyone interested in having a tree removed from their property can call the Department of Administration.
The agency says it will also arrange to have the stump ground down.
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) â A man who has pleaded guilty to stealing about $16,000 worth of items from a former Wyoming law enforcement officer's house told a judge he picked the house to steal from because a porch light was on and it looked like nobody was home.
The News Record reported (http://bit.ly/2tmZsvC ) Monday that 39-year-old Sean E. Kinion accepted a plea agreement in which prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of eight to 10 years in exchange for not filing felony theft charges against him. He pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.
Kinion says it only took him about 10-15 minutes to steal 150 items from the house in July 2015. He says he pawned most of it afterward.
Kinion is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 18.
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) â A New Mexico man is facing charges after police say he threatened to pull a gun on a taco shop employee for giving him the wrong order.
The Los Alamos Monitor reports (https://goo.gl/6FnvBv ) Lex Norman Deines was arrested Sunday following a heated exchange with an employee at Rigoberto's Taco Shop near one of the nation's premiere weapons labs.
Los Alamos Police Department Cpl. Jemuel Montoya says an employee told him the 48-year-old Deines promised to retrieve a gun out of his car over the allegedly botched tacos. Witnesses also told police they heard Deines make the gun threat.
Deines was booked at the Los Alamos County Detention Center and is facing disorderly conduct and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges.
It was not known if he had an attorney.
___
Information from: Los Alamos Monitor, http://www.lamonitor.com
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) â A Utah mother has pleaded guilty to child abuse charges after her 12-year-old son was found severely malnourished in a feces-strewn bathroom where authorities believe he was locked for about a year.
KSL-TV reports the 36-year-old woman pleaded guilty to three counts of abuse in a St. George courtroom Tuesday. She's scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 28.
The boy weighed just 30 pounds when he was found in January in a feces-strewn bathroom with one blanket, a few empty cans of beans and a camera.
Defense lawyer Edward Flint has said the boy's mother was overwhelmed and didn't know what to do.
The boy's father also faces charges after prosecutors say he failed to help the child until the boy's weight dropped to 30 pounds.
The Associated Press is not naming either parent to avoid identifying the child.
___
Information from: KSL-TV, http://www.ksl.com/
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) â A government program expects to hand out more fans to vulnerable seniors during Utah's heat wave.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/2tmysMF ) Wednesday that Utah has seen record-setting temperatures this year. Last month was marked as the third hottest June recorded in Utah and this month is on its way to becoming the hottest July ever recorded.
Emergency Medicine Specialist Bill Swiler says seniors are more prone to exhaustion and heat stroke than other age groups in high temperatures.
Meals on Wheels delivers food to homebound seniors and during the summer, it also offers fans to those without air conditioners or swamp coolers. It has handed out over 120 fans in the past two years, but the organization expects to pass out even more fans this year because of the intense heat.
___
Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
LAS VEGAS (AP) â And now it's down to nine.
The final table for the marquee Main Event of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas was set early Tuesday. The nine players who emerged from 10 days of play now have a chance to win a grand prize of more than $8.1 million, a gold bracelet and bragging rights.
Twenty-five-year-old Scott Blumstein is the chip leader. The resident of Brigantine, New Jersey, who is the youngest player remaining in the tournament, ended play with more than 97 million chips.
The final nine players bested more than 7,200 others to make it to the last stage of the event. Organizers say the players represent the U.S., Argentina, France and the United Kingdom.
The players are taking a two-day break, returning to play Thursday.
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) â A mountain lion has killed eight goats on a Montana ranch in three separate attacks this month.
Three were killed this past weekend at the ranch northwest of Missoula.
Rancher Eugene Gisselbeck tells the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/2uyP8QN ) that he's lost a yearling goat and seven newborn goats. The Gisselbeck's have been raising goats since 1968 and have lost goats to lions before.
The latest killings occurred despite a large trap being set up last week by a U.S. Department of Agriculture trapper.
Jamie Jonkel of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks says Missoula and its outlying areas have about 25 mountain lions at any given time.
___
This story has been corrected to eight goats killed instead to seven.
___
Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
CRAIG, Colo. (AP) â Thirty-one homeowners in Colorado have a pesky raccoon to blame for a power outage and fire on Sunday.
The Craig Daily Press reports (http://bit.ly/2u4xkuf ) the raccoon had climbed on a power pole transformer, causing it to spark and igniting a fire that burned about 7 acres on private property southwest of Craig.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze in about an hour. No other structures were impacted by the fire.
Yampa Valley Electric Member Outreach Specialist Tammi Strickland says the raccoon knocked out power for 31 homeowners.
Strickland says the raccoon unfortunately did not survive the incident.
___
Information from: Craig Daily Press, http://www.craigdailypress.com
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) â Prosecutors are seeking to combine two criminal cases against an embattled former northern New Mexico superintendent facing a slew of fraud and forgery charges.
The Las Vegas Optic reports (https://goo.gl/YF6gMp) prosecutors recently filed a motion to combine the two criminal cases against former Mora superintendent Charles Trujillo.
Trujillo is facing fraud and forgery charges for using fake credentials to obtain state educator licenses and high-paying administrative positions with the Mora and Pecos school districts in different criminal cases.
One case alleged Trujillo gave forged documents to the Pecos schools to obtain the assistant superintendent position.
The second case involves a position Trujillo applied for at Luna Community College.
Court documents say defense attorney Sam Bregman, who represents Trujillo, agrees with combining both San Miguel County cases.
___
Information from: Las Vegas Optic, http://www.lasvegasoptic.com
PHOENIX (AP) â Authorities say a bobcat that attacked a large dog and bit a man in the Anthem Country Club area last weekend has tested positive for rabies.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department received a call Sunday night that a man was bitten on the hand by a bobcat.
The man says the bobcat attacked a German shepherd and he was bitten while trying to separate the two animals.
The bobcat was caught and underwent a necropsy.
Tissue samples were sent to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Officials announced Monday that results showed the bobcat tested positive for rabies.
Game and Fish officials say bobcats are rarely a threat to people, but they can be aggressive if they become sick, trapped or are defending offspring or a territory.
View this profile on Instagram#ThisIsTucson đĩ (@this_is_tucson) âĸ Instagram photos and videos
Most viewed stories
-
Horchata lattes and breakfast burritos: Tucson's Barista del Barrio opens 2nd location
-
What a delicious year: the best meals I ate in Tucson in 2025 đ
-
Nearly 50 fun events happening in the month of January! â¨
-
New eats! 10 new restaurants that opened in Tucson this fall
-
Free and fun events to check out this January!
-
Looking ahead to Tucson's new and cool for '26
-
23 exciting events to start your new year, January 2-4 2026! đĒŠâ¨
-
Get ready to eat all the spicy tuna rolls you can at this viral sushi spot đŖ
-
Create the icy dessert of your dreams at this new frozen yogurt spot đ¨
-
Strolls and Stories Tours liven up Tucson history