CBS News
FBI offers up to $10,000 reward for information about deadly New Mexico wildfires
The FBI on Saturday offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in connection with the deadly New Mexico wildfires.
The federal agency, which said it’s still looking to identify the cause of the South Fork Fire and Salt Fire, suggested a person might be responsible for the blaze, which began on June 17. The reward is for help in finding a “person or persons responsible for starting the fires.”
The South Fork fire is 7% contained while the Salt fire is just 7% contained, according to the most recent National Interagency Fire Center information. An estimated 24,226 acres have burned and an estimated 1,400 structures were lost to the fires, according to a state wildfire dashboard.
FBI
The state has confronted more than just fires in the last week; New Mexico’s also dealt with a dust storm and catastrophic flooding. It’s been a “hell of a week here,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Wildfires consume vegetation and leave behind burn scars: areas covered in soot, ash and charred stumps and stems. Weather experts last year explained to CBS News that areas downstream and downhill from burn scars are very susceptible to flash flooding.
There have been several confirmed emergency rescues from flash flooding, Grisham previously said in a briefing. The National Weather Service on Saturday said the risk of flash flooding would continue over the next several days.
President Biden on Thursday issued a disaster declaration because of the New Mexico wildfires. The declaration freed up funding for recovery efforts.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell was on the ground in Ruidoso on Saturday, days after residents evacuated. She said on social media that communities there “have our support for as long as it takes to recover.”
New Mexico State Police reported Wednesday that it had confirmed two fire-related deaths in Ruidoso.
So far this year, 19,444 wildfires have burned 2,161,787 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Beryl, the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, took shape Friday as it barreled its way toward the Caribbean.
Beryl was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it approached the Windward Islands in the West Indies, the National Hurricane Center reported in its latest advisory late Friday night.
Beryl was centered about 1,110 miles southeast of Barbados, the hurricane center said, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour and tropical storm-force winds extending 45 miles from its center. It was moving west at 18 mph.
The system was expected to hit the Windward Islands by late Sunday or Monday, and was forecast to bring anything from 3 to 6 inches of rain to the Windward Islands and Barbados. No watches or warnings were yet in place.
NOAA
Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, according to the Associated Press.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and lasts through Nov. 30. According to the hurricane center, the season’s first hurricane usually forms in early to mid-August, which would make Beryl unusual if it were to reach hurricane strength. In a report released last month, the NOAA predicted an “above average” hurricane season with 17 to 25 storms, 8 to 13 hurricanes and 4 to 7 major hurricanes of category 3 or higher.
A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph, while a hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds greater than 74 mph.
CBS News
Martin Mull, beloved actor known for “Fernwood 2 Night,” “Roseanne” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” dies at 80
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood 2 Night,” on which he played the host of a satirical talk show.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and —the sign of a truly exceptional person— by many, many dogs.”
Melissa Joan Hart, who acted alongside Mull in the series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” paid tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, calling him “a wonderful man who I am better for knowing.”
“I have such fond memories of working with him and being in awe of his huge body of work,” she wrote.
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut. He studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”
He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”
