Youths Seek Emergency Climate Declaration In New Mexico – Associated Press
Student activists including several Native American high school students urged Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday to take more aggressive action to address climate change.
About 20 climate activists — mostly high school students — went to the state capitol building and called on Lujan Grisham to declare a climate emergency and set aside state income from the oil and gas industries to pay for the transition to an economy without greenhouse gas emissions.
The students delivered a letter from two climate action groups, including Youth Unified for Climate Crisis Action, that states New Mexico does not appear to be on track to meet carbon reduction goals or end dependence on fossil fuels.
State government and school districts in New Mexico rely heavily on income from oil and natural gas production. Demands by the activists include the creation of a "Just Transition Fund" from oil and gas revenues to pay for the transition to a carbon-neutral economy.
The governor's chief of staff, John Bingaman, met briefly with the protesters, promising to take their concerns into consideration and highlighting the governor's commitment to a long list of initiatives and alliances to address climate change.
Lujan Grisham was attending indigenous feast day events at the Taos Pueblo community of Native Americans and sent a letter expressing solidarity with protesters.
Monsoon Brings High Hope, Delivers Little Rain In Southwest – Associated Press
The monsoon season was a dud across much of the U.S. Southwest this year, bringing high hope but delivering little rainfall.
Several communities in northern Arizona had the driest monsoon season on record, including Flagstaff. Phoenix's season was the fifth driest recorded.
The seasonal weather pattern is characterized by a shift in wind patterns and moisture being pulled in from the tropical coast of Mexico. It runs from mid-June through the end of September.
Usually it means rain that can cool down scorching cities, water crops and reduce wildfire risk. But it also can be disappointing.
The Four Corners region had abnormally low rainfall. St. George in southern Utah received traces of rain.
Las Vegas, Nev., got a little more than a quarter-inch, making it the 14th driest on record.
National forests in New Mexico and Arizona largely were free of fire restrictions this summer, thanks to an above-average snowpack last winter.
The odds for the upcoming winter are tilted toward above-average temperatures but no strong signal on snow or rain.
7 Mumps Cases Reported At New Mexico's Torrance County Jail – Associated Press
The New Mexico Department of Health is investigating seven mumps cases at the Torrance County Detention Facility.
Other details about the mumps cases at the jail weren't immediately released Monday.
Health officials say mumps is a highly contagious disease that is spread through the air and by droplets of saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose, or throat of an infected person, usually when the person coughs or sneezes.
The virus can also spread through shared use of drinks, cups or eating utensils and on occasion through contaminated surfaces.
People exposed to mumps may become ill up to 25 days after the exposure.
Health officials say the best way to be protected from mumps is to be vaccinated.
Juárez Mayor To Testify On Migrants At New Mexico Hearing – Associated Press
A key group of New Mexico lawmakers will tour both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border this week and hear from the mayor of the largest Mexican city in the region about the migrant influx.
Ciudad Juárez Mayor Armando Cabada will be among those who will meet with members of New Mexico's Legislative Finance Committee during a packed agenda.
The mayor has said his city has spent $300,000 on shelter for some 12,000 migrants who are waiting to seek asylum in the U.S.
The lawmakers also will visit the Antelope Wells port of entry, a remote spot that was overwhelmed earlier this year by large groups of migrants.
The committee will stop at a shelter in Deming and talk with a rancher who says he has dealt with break-ins, litter and property damage from trespassing migrants.
New Mexico GOP Lawmakers Say Firewood Ban Will Be Devastating – Associated Press
New Mexico Republican lawmakers say a federal court decision that halts firewood gathering and other forest projects will have devastating consequences.
The 21 legislators sent a letter Monday to the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, saying the ruling will affect thousands of New Mexicans and jeopardize fire management programs. They called the order 'indiscriminate.'
The Forest Service has suspended timber sales, thinning projects, prescribed burns and the sale of firewood permits on five New Mexico forests and one in Arizona.
The decision stems from a case in which environmentalists accused the federal government of failing to track Mexican spotted owls.
A pending motion would modify the court order to exclude firewood cutting and gathering for personal use. It's unclear when the judge will rule.
New Mexico GOP Hits US House Hopeful For 'False Statements' – Las Cruces Sun-News, Associated Press
The Republican Party of New Mexico sharply is criticizing one of its candidates in a closely watched GOP primary for a U.S. House seat in the southern part of the state.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports the state the party last week accused candidate Chris Mathys of Las Cruces of making "intentional misstatements of the facts and untrue accusations" against former state Rep. Yvette Herrell.
The party says Mathys was wrong for describing a bill introduced by Herrell filed during New Mexico's 2015 legislative session as "pro-abortion."
The bill called for a ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.
Herrell, who lost to Democratic U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in 2018, is seeking the GOP nomination again to challenge her.
Oil executive Claire Chase also is running in the Republican primary.
Search Continues For Small Plane Missing Near Santa Fe - Associated Press
Authorities continue to search for a small plane that might have crashed in the Pecos Wilderness northeast of Santa Fe.
Authorities have not identified the two people aboard the single-engine, four-seater plane that disappeared after a refueling stop.
They say the pilot and passenger were both from Colorado.
New Mexico State Police say the plane took off from Santa Fe Regional Airport at 5:49 p.m. Thursday and air traffic controllers lost radar contact with the aircraft 12 minutes later.
State Police say the plane's emergency beacon pinged a mile south of Tererro and that's the aircraft's last known location.
The air and ground search began Friday and included State Police, National Guard and Civil Air Patrol aircraft.
Chief: No Evidence Of Corruption In Las Vegas Police Force - Associated Press
A northern New Mexico police chief says his investigation found no evidence of corruption in his department in the wake of suspicions that word of a federal drug investigation was leaked to an alleged trafficker.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that Las Vegas Police Chief David Bibb said Friday there was "no evidence of any employee of the police department that would suggest corruption of any kind."
The Las Vegas Optic previously reported that a recently unsealed search warrant affidavit indicated that one or more employees of the Las Vegas department may have tried to help the alleged trafficker by providing word of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.
The affidavit cited information from a wiretap.
Team To Study Historic Inscriptions At New Mexico Ruins - Associated Press
A Colorado historian is leading a team to survey the historic inscriptions on the ceilings of the 900-year-old ruins in northwestern New Mexico.
The Farmington Daily Times reports Fred Blackburn and his team will study lengthy messages — or graffiti — left at the Aztec Ruins National Monument to shed light on how others saw the engineering marvel.
Blackburn wants to know the stories of those folks and add historical context to their inscriptions in as many cases as possible.
The Aztec Ruins National Monument is made of 400 masonry rooms and is an ancestral pueblo structure that dates back to the 11th to the 13th centuries. White settlers named it after mistakenly believing it was built by Aztecs from central Mexico.
AP-NORC Poll: Most Disapprove Of Trump On Race Relations - By Russell Contreras And Deepti Hajela Associated Press
A new poll finds that large majorities of black and Latino Americans think that President Donald Trump's actions have made things worse for people like them.
The poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about two-thirds of Americans overall disapprove of how Trump is handling race relations.
About half of all Americans think Trump's actions as president have been bad for African Americans, Muslims and women, and slightly more than half say they've been bad for Hispanics.
Trump's 33% approval rating on handling race relations makes that one of his worst issues in recent AP-NORC polls. That stands in stark contrast to his handling of the economy.