Prescott Valley mayor Kell Palguta faces charges following an apparent bar fight at the Bird Cage Saloon. Staff intervened and stopped the fight, according to police. Palguta acknowledged the incident on social media but didn’t elaborate on the details.
Two Phoenix police officers are booked into jail on numerous felony charges following a violent traffic stop. Luis Vasquez Junior and Antonio Felix are accused of stopping a couple earlier this month, allegedly assaulting them with their fists and a stun gun without giving a reason for the stop. The officers didn’t report the incident, nor did they activate their body-worn cameras.
Officials recovered skeletal remains from Lake Powell after being discovered by a group on a houseboat on August 14. Several bodies have been discovered in the region’s reservoirs as drought and overuse continue to cause plunging water levels in lakes Powell and Mead.
More than 1,300 mail-in ballots never made it to voters in Navajo County during this year’s primary election. County Recorder David Marshall said just before the election that his office was experiencing a quote, “issue,” with the US Postal Service but didn’t elaborate. Navajo County had the highest rate of undeliverable ballots in the state at nearly 4 percent.
The mission by Katalyst, a Flagstaff company, to save a sinking NASA telescope was called off last week. It’s doomed the observatory to a flaming reentry to Earth later this year. NASA paid $30,000,000 to to try to rescue it, but intense solar activity caused it to lose altitude faster than expected.
Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs has a double-digit lead over her challenger, Republican Congressman Andy Biggs. Noble Predictive Insights that shows the governor ahead among likely voters by 13 percentage points.
The US Small Business Administration is opening offices in Flagstaff Tuesday to assist businesses impacted by this summer’s Pocket Fire to offer low-interest disaster loans to organizations hurt financially by the blaze that burned more than 27 thousand aces, forced residents to evacuate and closed Highway 89 through Oak Creek Canyon for weeks in June and July. Slide Rock State Park, remains closed due to the fire.
