Cosy Balok is a name many people in the Gallup-McKinley County community associate with animals. For ten years she has served as the animal protection supervisor at Gallup-McKinley County Humane Society. She and her husband Clint founded it in 1988 to help homeless and unwanted animals wandering in the county and the west-central area of the state.

Cosy Balok has decided the time has come to retire. Her decision gave rise to appreciative comments by Gallup Planning and Development Director Clyde Strain, who spoke about her work.

“She did an excellent [job] and put her time in,” Strain said. “She has a tremendous love for animals.

“We’re going to miss her. She was a great...

Two people traveling four miles over the speed limit got stopped at Lendnation at 815 E. Hwy. 66 on Oct. 20 around 9:16 am. They both got out of a white Ford Expedition with Texas plates and fled from McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Salazar. But one of them fell.

The driver, Carlos Ramirez-Becerril, 33 of Elendorf, Tex., was detained. While Ramirez-Becerril sat in the sheriff’s unit, Salazar cleared the Ford SUV and found a gift bag of marijuana in the back seat and four large duffel bags in the interior of the vehicle.

The driver, who needed his Miranda Rights translated, let it be known that he would not answer any questions, but did give written consent to search the...

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Large black trash bags, supposedly full of air were what greeted McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Salazar when he stopped a Toyota Sienna with a California license plate after the driver failed to maneuver to the left lane when passing a construction worker on the right shoulder of the highway at exit 33 on Interstate 40 eastbound Oct. 19.

When Salazar questioned the driver of the blue car, the answers he got didn’t make sense to him and seemed inconsistent. So, after the man later identified as Christopher Tucker, 38, of Amarillo, Tex., informed him the black trash bags were full of air, Salazar asked again. This time he phrased it differently. He asked Tucker how...

HAND SANITIZER INSTEAD OF BEER
Thoreau, Oct. 23

A man who entered the Speedway store in Thoreau before 3 am, couldn’t get the beer out of the refrigerator, so he took hand sanitizer instead. Julius Hoskie, 55, of Thoreau was upset about something when he approached the beer refrigerators and tried to open them.

The cashier saw him take two bottles of hand sanitizer and put them into his pockets and leave the store without paying. The cashier called 911 and McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Miguel Bittony drove to the store. He confirmed Hoskie matched the caller’s description and detained him while he spoke with the cashier about the incident.

Hoskie appeared intoxicated and...