SANTA FE - Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham met reporters for the second time this week to update the public on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our state April 24 in a phone call news conference.

The Gallup Sun was there and asked the governor the following questions:

Q) Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services has a lot of sick people and 11 employees have tested positive...What is being done to help rural hospitals and what is being done to help secure PPE (personal-protective equipment) for the frontline workers?

MLG: “I’m going to take that as an alert that we need to get PPE out to McKinley County. We have taken many shipments and we should keep doing it....

The FBI says cryptocurrency is on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Four fraud schemes have been identified.  They include:

1) Blackmail Attempts. Threatening emails or letters in which scammers claim to have access to your personal information or knowledge of your “dirty secrets” and demand payment in Bitcoin to prevent release of this information have been circulating for years. With the advent of COVID-19, there is a new twist on this scam. The correspondence claims that the writer will both release your information and infect you and/or your family with coronavirus unless payment is sent to a Bitcoin wallet.

2) Work from Home Scams. Scammers, posing as employers, may ask...

 

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.  -  Arizona’s second female governor, Jane Dee Hull, who previously served as a doctor for the Indian Health Service, died within hours of the passing of her husband of 66 years, Dr. Terry Hull, a teacher in Chinle. Jane Dee Hull was 84. The Hulls died April 16 of natural causes.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer offered their condolences to the family.

Gov. Hull was the first woman in the state of Arizona to serve as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Secretary of State, and first elected woman governor who is credited with initiating major changes in state government, education, and health care for over 25...

Councilors, commissioners talk solutions

Answers to the problem of community spread of COVID-19 through McKinley County and Gallup have been hard to define and even more difficult to realize.

An April 14 emergency meeting of the Gallup City Council and Gallup Mayor Jackie McKinney was held online to determine how to address the threat of community spread from people panhandling to buy alcohol at area convenience stores.

“We don’t want to do anything that penalizes law abiding citizens,” McKinney said.

But finding answers to how to flatten the curve in Gallup is a challenge. The mayor and city councilors listened to more than 12 people giving two minutes of public comment...