FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities say the body of a Flagstaff man reported missing in July has been found near Fredonia.

The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office says the body of 30-year-old Richard Clay Branham in a parked car about 14 miles south of Fredonia.

Arizona Game and Fish Law Enforcement officers discovered the body while conducting an unrelated enforcement detail Saturday.

The body has been sent to the Coconino County Medical Examiner for further investigation, but authorities don’t believe foul play was a factor in Branham’s death.

The Arizona Republic believe Branham may have been staying in either a Fredonia motel or his car between July 14 and 18 due to his credit card activity at local stores for food purchases.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Department of Transportation urges drivers to use caution and allow extra time for construction zones on state highways over the holidays.

ADOT says some necessary work zone lane restrictions can slow traffic during peak travel times even when construction is not active.

Drivers planning trips to California from the Phoenix area could experience delays on Interstate 10 lasting as long as 90 minutes during peak travel times.

I-10 is narrowed to one lane in both directions for bridge improvements 40 miles west of Phoenix.

Alternates include U.S. 60 through Wickenburg.

ADOT will use I-10 message signs in Phoenix and near the California border to advise drivers of traffic conditions at the Hassayampa River Bridge.

Online:

www.azdot.gov

AZ511

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

An Arizona Department of Public Safety bomb robot that was sent into the Chase Bank in Flagstaff, Arizona when a suspicious bag was found in the building after the bank was robbed. (Brandon Neuman / NAZ Today)

Flagstaff (NAZ Today)-   While students at NAU were taking part in the winter graduation ceremony at the Northern Arizona University (NAU) police officers were busy searching the northern and central areas around the campus for a bank robbery suspect.   The Chase Bank branch located just west of the NAU campus along South Milton Rd. was robbed at approximately 10:53 a.m.

Witnesses to the robbery told officers that a male subject had entered the bank and began demanding money.  The subject reportedly displayed or mentioned that he had some sort of a device.  After collecting an undetermined amount of money from the tellers the suspect then fled from the scene in an unknown direction.  No injuries were reported during the incident.

The bank was closed for several hours after the robbery as police conducted an investigation.  Bomb technicians from the Flagstaff Police Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety were also called to the bank.  Bomb robots were sent into the bank to check a bag that was left in the bank during the robbery.  Police officials did not specify what was in the bag.

The Flagstaff Department is still looking for a male subject who was last seen wearing brown or tan boots, dark pants and a dark jacket and carrying a purple backpack or duffle bag. This subject is to be considered armed and dangerous.

There was a collaborate effort between Flagstaff Police Department, Northern Arizona University Police, Arizona Department of Public Safety and Coconino County Sheriffs Office during the investigation of this bank robbery.

Interview with Flagstaff Police Sergeant James Jacskon -  (Raw Interview)

A Department of Public Safety Bomb Robot sent into the Chase Bank in Flagstaff, Arizona after the bank had been robbed. (Brandon Neuman / NAZ Today)

A Department of Public Safety Bomb Robot approaching the entrance to the Chase Bank in Flagstaff, Arizona. The robot was sent in to investigate a suspicious bag after the bank had been robbed. (Brandon Neuman/NAZ Today)

One of the suspects, Bradley Woolf, was stopped for a traffic violation near the suspect’s 11th Street home and was cited for having a suspended driver’s license.

Detectives followed the suspects after the traffic stop and obtained a search warrant for the home after locating evidence of methamphetamine use and sales involving Woolf.

Inside the house, YCSO detectives found “usable quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana,” along with drug pipes, vials, and syringes.

In addition to the illicit drugs, detectives found a pawn slip and, upon investigation, discovered a pawned gun that was stolen out of the Phoenix area.

Suspects Thomas Lewis Jr. and Diana Obeso were booked at the Camp Verde Detention Center. Lewis was charged with Possession of Methamphetamine, Cocaine and prescription narcotics. He was also charged with possessing a weapon during a drug offense, prohibited possessor. He’s being held without bond on a Parolee at Large warrant. Obeso was charged with possession of Methamphetamine, cocaine, and a prescription narcotic.

The other four suspects involved, Lisette Meza, Erin Finley, Rachel Walters, and Woolf, were cited with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and released.

—

Information from: the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office

The money is part of a $270 million nationwide settlement with Tronox, an Oklahoma City-based company that sought bankruptcy protection last year to reorganize its operations and alleviate environmental liabilities and litigation costs.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Navajo officials say the money should be enough to do initial assessments of 49 sites. They say full investigations and actual cleanup would require more money.

The EPA says it will seek out other parties responsible for contamination at those sites to supplement the settlement funds.

Answer: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved 1,553 shipments of commercial nuclear waste from 1979 to 2007, mostly using the interstate highway system. The most heavy transport is on the east cost, but almost every state is connected.

Q: What is the nuclear waste being shipped?

A: The waste is low level commercial nuclear waste. Low level is a bit misleading because it does not mean that it is not highly radioactive. The most common form of the waste, however, is medical grade. This could come from hospital x-ray machines and is usually not too highly radioactive. Transuranic radioactive waste, however, can be highly radioactive. No high level, which is the type of waste that comes from spent fuel, is currently allowed to be transported in the United States.

Q: Is it dangerous?

A: The shipment process is highly secure. The NRC states that in the more than one million miles of travel, none of the shipments have resulted in an injury.

Q: Who has to report the shipments through the NRC.

A: The NRC does not regulate all shipments. The shipments involved come from universities with research facilities and reactors, utilities and private companies, such as hospitals. The U.S. Department of Energy or the U.S. Department of Defense have their own regulations.

Q: Why was the proposal revised?

A: Tribal officials were not against the original 1999 proposal. There were disputes on the method the NRC proposed to use.

Q: Who gets to know now?

A: Any state governor, or a single designated top-ranking official.

Q: Could this extend to high-level waste in the future?

A: If high level waste is approved for transport it will most likely be  under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy.

Q: How often does waste pass through reservations?

A: The NRC has no information on that.

Q: Why would nuclear waste pass through Arizona?

A: Low level nuclear waste can come from anywhere. Hospitals are the most prominent example. Northern Arizona also lies between two Department of Energy facilities which are currently moving transuranic waste. WIPP, or the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and the Nevada National Security Site which both currently store and transfer all types of  low level waste.

Q: How do I read or comment on the document?

A: It’s available for comment and review here.

FLAGSTAFF (AP) — The custodial mother of an Arizona toddler who was found dead in a wash this summer, weeks after his family reported him missing from a campsite, was arrested Monday on suspicion of child abuse.

However, it was unclear if the charges involved the boy who died or some other child.

Yavapai County sheriff’s officials arrested Christina Priem, 36, at a Flagstaff auto parts store. She faces three felony counts of involving a minor in a drug offense.

Sheriff’s spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn couldn’t say which child or children the three counts refer to, or when and where the alleged offenses occurred.

“They (deputies) want to talk to her and clear up some of the things they’re working on,” he said. “They had probable cause to justify the arrest on these counts.”

It was unknown Monday if Priem had an attorney.

The arrest stems from an investigation into the disappearance and death of 2-year-old Sylar Newton. The boy was camping with Priem and her family near Rimrock in July when they reported that he wandered away from a tent and disappeared.

Searchers walked up and down washes, and scoured a landfill, trash bins and other areas of the campsite for more than a week but could not find him.

Weeks later, a distant relative of Sylar who lives in the area and had been looking for the boy called authorities to say he spotted something in the bottom of a wash near the campsite. DNA tests confirmed it was Sylar.

Witnesses at the campground, about 40 miles south of Flagstaff, told detectives that Sylar appeared to be under the influence of drugs or medication. The results of toxicology tests are pending, D’Evelyn said.

Sylar’s biological mother, Charity Newton, was pregnant with Sylar when she met Priem through Priem’s sister. Newton had intended to have Priem adopt Sylar.

She told The Associated Press on Monday she is hopeful authorities will figure out exactly what happened to her son.

“They’re continuing in the direction of bringing justice to my son, I know that,” she said. “They’ve told me numerous times that they’re not going to give up.”

Priem was being held at the Camp Verde Detention Center.

UPDATES

Priem is accused of giving her children – a son and a younger daughter – and the son’s teenage friend drugs. D’Evelyn wouldn’t say what drugs she is accused of giving them.

“We’ve broken open the door a little bit to have some idea what was going on, where detectives felt they could make a case for these other victim children and dig in further  to figure out what was going on with Sylar,” D’Evelyn said.

Priem appeared in court Tuesday, where her bond was set at $250,000. Court documents indicate she would hire her own attorney. She was scheduled to enter a plea Dec. 14.

Patrick Williams

Chino Valley (NAZ Today) – Authorities with the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office say they have arrested 18 year old Patrick Williams of Chino Valley for the murder of his 67 year old neighbor Stella Streppa.

On the afternoon of December 5th, deputies were called to perform a welfare check on the victim, after family members became concerned due to not hearing from her recently. Once inside the home, deputies found the victims body and determined she had been killed by another person.

Deputies learned that the victims truck was also missing and on Monday, December 6, the vehicle was located in Prescott. Officials found Williams near the vehicle, and developed information linking him to Streppa’s death.

Williams lived in the same neighborhood as the victim.

Detectives assigned to the case are asking for the public’s help. Detectives learned that sometime last week, possibly Tuesday, November 30th, someone called 911 and spoke to Prescott Police dispatchers after seeing Williams in the victim’s truck. Detectives would like to speak with the person who made this call. Please call Detective Mike Poling at 928-771-3260 with any information you may have.

In all, two Flagstaff Fire units, two Guardian Medical ambulances, and Flagstaff PD were on the scene to assist with five patients in the home.

Firefighters obtained readings of CO over 400 ppm (parts per-million). These levels can be lethal within a short amount of time. Normal CO limits can range from 0 ppm up to 20 ppm. Two of the patients were transported to Flagstaff Medical Center, while three others were being treated on scene.

Firefighters ventilated the home and after a primary investigation determined a wood stove may have created the near lethal levels.

There were no CO detectors in the home; the 911 call came in from a friend who had stopped by the residence at around 6:20am this morning.  After finding all five occupants of the home in various stages of CO poisoning, he called 911.

The Flagstaff Fire Department reminds everyone to place a CO detector in your home. If you suspect a CO leak, exit the home and call 911.

CO poisoning symptoms are very similar to flu-like conditions; nausea, vomiting, lethargy.

Tyrone Wilson (Booking photo from the U.S. Marshal's Office)

A man wanted in connection with a recent sexual assault on the NAU campus is in custody.  According to the US Marshals Service, 22-year-old Tyrone Wilson was arrested this afternoon at a residence on the Navajo Nation.  Wilson was wanted by NAU police for numerous sexual charges,  assault, and kidnapping.  An 18-year-old N-A-U student was assaulted on November 19 and Wilson was identified as the suspect.  Wilson was extradited to Flagstaff and has been booked into the Coconino County Jail.