Slip | The Navajo company takes over the operation of its own coal mine | Kingman Daily Miner

FARMINGTON, NM – A Navajo Nation company is operating its own coal mine in northwest New Mexico.

Navajo Transitional Energy Co. has owned the Navajo Mine since 2013 but had a contract with a subsidiary of North American Coal Corp. to operate it.

Clark Moseley, the company’s chief executive officer, said the company would take over Navajo on Friday.

The mine, which feeds the adjacent Four Corners power station, has nearly 400 employees – 85% of whom are Native Americans. Moseley said the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. will keep the workforce.

The company is one of the largest coal producers in the United States as the resource is increasingly falling out of favor. The company owns three coal mines in Montana and Wyoming and an interest in the Four Corners power plant near Farmington, New Mexico.

Woman found dead in Saguaro National Park, Tucson

TUCSON – A woman was found dead in Saguaro National Park in Tucson, park authorities said.

The body was found on Wednesday near the Grass Shack campsite on the south side of the Rincon Mountains. Authorities said the woman had obvious signs of trauma.

Authorities did not say Thursday whether the woman has still been identified.

Based on the investigation, park officials said the campsite will be closed at least until Sunday.

The park is named after the large saguaro cactus that is native to its desert setting.

The Saguaro National Monument was created in 1933, expanded in 1961 and declared a national park in 1994.

Tucson man accused of illegal voting in prison

TUCSON – An Arizona grand jury has charged a Tucson man with illegally registering and casting a vote while a detainee in Pima County Jail, authorities said Thursday.

The indictment charged 45-year-old Kenneth Russell Nelson with falsely filling out a voter registration form in 2018 stating that he was not convicted of a crime or his rights were restored.

It is also alleged that Nelson was previously convicted of a crime and that his rights have not been restored since being convicted in 2017.

Nelson is said to have voted in the 2018 primaries and general election, as well as in the 2020 general election.

He was charged with misregistration and triple illegal voting.

As of Thursday, it was unclear whether Nelson had a lawyer to speak for him.

Nelson’s next trial is a pre-trial conference on November 8th in the Pima County Superior Court.

The case is being prosecuted by the Electoral Integrity Unit of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.