The last person known to have seen a Navajo elder alive has been arrested in an unrelated incident, raising questions about whether he will be sent back to federal prison. Preston Tolth is the only person ever charged and convicted in connection with the 2021 disappearance of Ella Mae Begay. He was released early from federal prison in June and was on supervised release at a transitional housing facility in Phoenix. According to court records, Phoenix police arrested him this week, and he faces a home burglary charge. Under the terms of his federal plea agreement, he is not to commit any additional crimes. Tolth's federal public defender didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday from The Associated Press.

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The New Mexico attorney general is asking a judge to prevent the state child welfare agency from removing children from the U.S., absent a court order. The request is part of a civil lawsuit Raúl Torrez filed this week against New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department. Torrez's office alleges that the department drove a 15-year-old U.S. citizen to the Mexican border and instructed him to cross the bridge alone to find his estranged mother, a Mexican national arrested on drug charges and deported earlier this year. The department says the child is safe. It also says it's reviewing the complaint and will respond in court.

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A man who gave his son the gun he used in a deadly high school shooting in Georgia has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Colin Gray was convicted of charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after his then 14-year-old son, Colt Gray, used the weapon to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in September 2024. Colt Gray was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors say Colin Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift. The elder Gray is among a handful of American parents who have been charged after their children were accused in shootings.

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Bullets recovered from two bystanders killed during a shootout at a Seattle festival last weekend do not appear to have come from the gun that a 15-year-old arrested at the scene was firing, police said in court documents filed Wednesday. The King County prosecutor’s office filed charges of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement as well as unlawful possession of a handgun by someone under 18. In a statement supporting the charges, police said the teen was seen firing an untraceable ghost gun into a crowd, but preliminary testing of bullets recovered from two bystanders killed showed they did not match that weapon. Shell casings found at the scene of Sunday’s shooting indicate four weapons were fired during the shootout.

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A man has been convicted of federal terrorism charges in the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie. A jury delivered its verdict Wednesday in Buffalo, New York. Jurors found Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. The 28-year-old had pleaded not guilty. Matar already is serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction in the August 2022 attack. Rushdie has faced a decades-old death threat over his novel “The Satanic Verses.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci will face a contempt of Congress vote in a Senate committee next week after he invoked the Fifth Amendment in a hearing about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Wednesday's hearing, Fauci declined to answer dozens of questions from senators. The scientist's decision to not testify injected drama into the lingering tensions between Fauci and GOP lawmakers over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and accusations he lied about its origins, which he denies. Fauci was subpoenaed by Sen. Rand Paul, who led the charge to have the now-retired infectious disease expert testify again. The hearing was part of a campaign to arrest Fauci, spearheaded by some congressional Republicans. Fauci says Paul has an “obvious obsession” with calling for his prosecution.