Lujan Grisham calls on local governments to ban fireworks sales around New Mexico – By Marisa Demarco, Source New Mexico
As at least 20 wildfires consumed thousands of acres this weekend, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that she would ask local governments to temporarily ban the sale of fireworks around the state.
State government can ban the use of fireworks — and it has — but under the law, banning sales is something that has to happen at a local level.
“I don’t have the power to prevent those sales,” Lujan Grisham emphasized at a news briefing on Saturday afternoon.
This is not a new consideration in New Mexico, and previous state officials — regardless of political affiliation — grappled with their inability to restrict fireworks sales statewide as New Mexico’s fire conditions grew more dangerous in recent years.
The governor issued an executive order Monday urging municipalities and counties to ban the sale of fireworks.
“While many of us like to celebrate with fireworks, no momentary display is worth causing a wildfire that could threaten the lives and property of your neighbors,” Lujan Grisham said.
If 2020 and 2021 in Albuquerque were any indication, celebrating with fireworks during the pandemic can often extend well beyond the Fourth of July holiday.
Local governments are facing great need as high winds on Friday accelerated wildfire spread in 16 of the state’s 33 counties by Saturday. “I do not want to minimize how dangerous the situation is, and how dramatic it is,” Lujan Grisham said. “Even with the weather and all of the brave men and women who are on the front lines of all of these fires, it’s going to be a tough summer.”
That’s why the state has implemented bans and is looking for more from local governments, she explained. And there are ways to compensate businesses that would lose their annual income if the sale of fireworks were banned, the governor added.
Fire officials also said that they don’t yet know what or who ignited the fires and they were somewhat behind in their investigations because there were so many at once.
But the exceptionally dry environment and high winds in New Mexico are why they spread so quickly beyond the state’s capacity to fight them alone.
Though drought conditions in the state can vary within a year, the overall picture shows that the last two decades here have been the driest in 1,200 years, according to climate scientists who just released a study. They call it a “megadrought” and say it intensified rapidly in 2020 and 2021.
That plus higher temperatures in New Mexico — both a result of human-caused climate change — increase the “severity, frequency, and extent of wildfires,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
There are severe drought conditions in 93% of the state, the governor’s news release indicated, with conditions escalating into the “extreme” or “exceptional” designations in 70%.
Residents staying in Mora are running out of food, official says – By Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
Mother Nature showed some sympathy to the people of Northern New Mexico by dropping a smattering of snow over massive wildfires, sparing villages and giving fire crews some leverage in slowing the massive Calf Canyon-Hermit’s Peak fire.
But it didn’t make too much of a dent in extinguishing the flames up north, and cities and villages remain under mandatory evacuation orders, with more issued Monday. The Calf Canyon and Hermit’s Peak fire had burned more than 56,000 acres by Monday morning and only 12% of it was contained.
“It wasn’t enough,” said Mora County Commissioner Veronica Serna. “It was an exciting blessing for a moment, but once the moisture dries up the fire will pick up again.”
The snow that fell in Mora County is melting, and officials are worried about the weather forecast that is predicting more wind in the area by the end of the week.
Sunday afternoon, state fire officials estimated that the entire village of Mora would be destroyed by the fire. An estimated 300 people remained despite the mandatory evacuation order.
Due to the snow, Serna was able to visit those people this morning with breakfast from Teresa’s Tamales. The restaurant is located in Cleveland, N.M., a few miles north of Mora proper but within the fire zone.
“We have to stay and help out,” said owner Teresa Olivas. “We are feeding the firefighters, police and the people that are staying. We have to.”
Food is becoming an issue for the people that are choosing to stay. One, there isn’t a grocery store nearby, and the gas stations that do sell food are closed. Mora County residents shop in Las Vegas, Taos or Española. But if they go out to get supplies, those choosing to stay won’t be allowed back through a New Mexico State Police blockade, Serna said.
“They thought the snow would help, but it won’t, and it’s so smokey,” she said Monday evening moments before heading into the heart of the fire zone to deliver dinner for residents.
Along with the Mora County Sheriff’s Office, Serna and Olivas are committed to feeding the community breakfast and dinner as long as they can.
“They have run out of groceries,” Serna said. “All of our resources are shut down.”
The fire is now also receiving federal help to combat the flames and create a barrier away from the homes and the watershed in the area. The two fires combined this weekend when wind conditions hit historic levels.
Southwest wildfire outlook grim as flames char New Mexico - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Bulldozers were busy Monday scraping through New Mexico's high country as firefighters scouted more rugged terrain, looking for places where they could wield tools to dig lines that stop what has grown into the largest wildfire burning in the U.S.
Nearly a dozen new large fires were reported over the weekend across the nation — four in New Mexico, three in Colorado and one each in Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas. With more than 1,350 square miles burned so far this year, officials at the National Interagency Fire Center said the amount of land singed so far is outpacing the 10-year average by about 30%.
Hotter, drier weather has combined with a persistent drought to worsen fire danger across many parts of the West, where decades of fire suppression have resulted in overgrown and unhealthy forests and increasing development have put more communities at risk.
In northern New Mexico, evacuations remained in place for several communities Monday and conditions were still too volatile for authorities to assess the damage caused Friday and Saturday as fierce winds pushed flames across tinder-dry mountainsides in multiple counties.
Fire officials said they were able to protect pockets of homes threatened by the largest fire, which had joined over the weekend with another blaze that was sparked in early April when a prescribed fire escaped containment. Together, they have charred more than 88 square miles.
Operation sections chief Jayson Coil said Monday that crews working on the complex were trying to take advantage of better weather to keep the flames from moving closer to the villages and homes that dot the valleys along the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
"There's a whole bunch of effort going on around this fire right now," Coil said during a briefing.
In Arizona, firefighters were taking advantage of lighter winds to boost containment of a more than 33-square-mile blaze that has been burning outside of Flagstaff for more than a week. Strong winds that had fueled the fire are expected to return later this week. Meanwhile, hundreds of residents who were evacuated were given the OK on Sunday to return home.
Crews in Nebraska continued securing fire lines Monday after a blaze that started last week near the Kansas border had spread rapidly — moving nearly 30 miles in a short period of time. The blaze killed one person and injured at least 11 firefighters.
Elected officials in Arizona and New Mexico have declared emergencies related to the latest wildfires, freeing up disaster aid. Meanwhile, local, state and federal land managers in some areas have started to impose burn bans and fire restrictions, citing the continued dry conditions that plague much of the region.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday signed an executive order urging municipalities and counties around the state to ban the retail sale of fireworks. While state statutes don't allow the governor to implement a statewide ban on fireworks, the executive order follows the implementation of statewide fire restrictions prohibiting fireworks, outdoor smoking, campfires and open burning for all non-municipal, non-federal and non-tribal lands.
Lujan Grisham called the situation extremely dangerous.
"It's essential that we mitigate potential wildfires by removing as much risk as possible," she said.
The latest blazes follow one earlier this month in southern New Mexico that destroyed more than 200 homes in the mountain community of Ruidoso. Two residents who were attempting to evacuate were found dead outside their charred home.
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Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
Navajo President Jonathan Nez says he'll seek reelection - Associated Press
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, whose tenure has been dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, is seeking a second term in office.
Nez made the announcement over the weekend from his hometown of Shonto. Nez, 46, highlighted his administration's handling of COVID-19 and said he wants to ensure that plans to rebuild the economy, and extend power and water lines continues.
"We must continue on the path of recovery and healing together," he said in a statement.
A handful of others also have said they'll seek the position, including Buu Van Nygren, Ethel Branch, Frank Dayish Jr. and Earl Sombrero.
Nygren, a vice presidential candidate in the tribe's 2018 election, recently resigned as chief commercial officer at the Navajo Engineering and Construction Authority.
Branch, who served as Navajo Nation attorney general while Nez was vice president, launched a COVID-19 relief fund for Navajo and Hopi families that has raised over $18 million, according to its website.
Dayish lost a bid for the tribal presidency in 2006 after serving as vice president under Joe Shirley Jr. Dayish has since worked in administrative positions in the health care and housing industries.
Sombrero is the manager of a Navajo chapter, or precinct, near the Arizona-Utah border.
The deadline to file for the tribe's top elected post is May 4. More than a dozen people typically run for president of the Navajo Nation, which has the largest land mass of any Native American tribe in the U.S. and is second in population with about 400,000 tribal members.
The primary election is Aug. 2. The top two vote-getters move on to the November general election.
Emergency declaration for multiple wildfires in New Mexico - Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed emergency declarations as 20 wildfires continued to burn Sunday in nearly half of the state's drought-stricken 33 counties.
One wildfire in northern New Mexico that started April 6 merged with a newer fire Saturday to form the largest blaze in the state, leading to widespread evacuations in Mora and San Miguel counties. That fire was at 84 square miles Sunday and 12% contained.
An uncontained wind-driven wildfire in northern New Mexico that began April 17 had charred 81 square miles of ponderosa pine, oak brush and grass by Sunday morning north of Ocate, an unincorporated community in Mora County.
Meanwhile in Arizona, some residents forced to evacuate due to a wildfire near Flagstaff were allowed to return home Sunday morning.
In Nebraska, authorities said wind-driven wildfires sweeping through parts of the state killed a retired Cambridge fire chief and injured at least 11 firefighters.
Winds and temperatures in New Mexico diminished Saturday but remained strong enough to still fan fires. Dozens of evacuation orders remained in place.
Fire officials were expecting the northern wildfires to slow Sunday as cloud and smoke cover moves in, allowing the forests to retain more moisture. But they added that the interior portions of the fires could show moderate to extreme behavior, which could threaten structures in those areas.
More than 200 structures have been charred by the wildfires thus far and an additional 900 remain threatened, Lujan Grisham said.
Fire management officials said an exact damage count was unclear because it's still too dangerous for crews to go in and look at all the homes that have been lost.
"We do not know the magnitude of the structure loss. We don't even know the areas where most homes made it through the fire, where homes haven't been damaged or anything like that," said operation sections chief Jayson Coil.
Some 1,000 firefighters were battling the wildfires across New Mexico, which already has secured about $3 million in grants to help with the fires.
Lujan Grisham said she has asked the White House for more federal resources and she's calling for a ban of fireworks statewide.
"We need more federal bodies for firefighting, fire mitigation, public safety support on the ground in New Mexico," she said. "It's going to be a tough summer. So that's why we are banning fires. And that is why on Monday I will be asking every local government to be thinking about ways to ban the sales of fireworks."
Wildfire has become a year-round threat in the West given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall, scientists have said. The problems have been exacerbated by decades of fire suppression and poor management along with a more than 20-year megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change.
In Arizona, two large wildfires continued to burn Sunday 10 miles south of Prescott and 14 miles northeast of Flagstaff.
Coconino County authorities lifted the evacuation order Sunday morning for residents living in neighborhoods along Highway 89 after fire management officials determined the Flagstaff-area wildfire no longer posed a threat.
The fire near Flagstaff was at 33 square miles as of Sunday with 3% containment. It forced the evacuation of 766 homes and burned down 30 homes and two dozen other structures since it began a week ago, according to county authorities.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey declared the fire a state of emergency Thursday for Coconino County to free up recovery aid to affected communities.
The wildfire near Prescott began last Monday and was at 4.8 square miles and 15% contained as of Sunday morning as helicopters and air tankers dropped water and retardant to slow the fire's growth.
The cause of the wildfires in New Mexico and Arizona remains under investigation.
Nebraska Emergency Management Agency officials said John P. Trumble, of Arapahoe, was overcome by smoke and fire after his vehicle left the road Friday night because of poor visibility from smoke and dust.
Trumble, 66, was working with firefighters as a spotter in Red Willow County in the southwestern corner of the state and his body was found early Saturday, authorities said.
Wildfires were still burning Saturday night in five Nebraska counties. The Nebraska National Guard deployed three helicopters and several support trucks to help battle the blazes.
New Mexico officials review plan to address potash pollution - Associated Press
State environmental regulators are reviewing plans submitted by Mosaic Potash to investigate and define the extent of groundwater contamination from discharges associated with potash mining along the Pecos River in southern New Mexico.
The state Environment Department announced earlier this month that contamination had been detected in nearby groundwater monitoring wells between the company's Laguna Grande lake and the river. As a result, the company was required to submit a plan for monitoring and dealing with the pollution.
Potash mining is a main economic driver in Eddy County. A salt rich in potassium, potash is used mostly as a plant fertilizer and in animal feed.
Carlsbad was the site of potash's first discovery in North America in 1925 during oil drilling, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported. The discovery led to a boom in development in the former ranching town that predated the area's prominence in fossil fuels.
Mosaic's mine, about 16 miles east of Carlsbad, produces the ore both through its underground mining and surface operations.
Waste resulting from mining the ore is moved around the facility into multiple disposal areas, potentially leeching into groundwater supplies.
Extracting potash from underground generates tailings that are disposed of along with salty brine water. The salt and clay settle and the brine water and residual clay flow into a settling pond. The brine is then discharged from the pond through a pipeline into Laguna Grande, and then into evaporation cells where the resulting chloride salt is harvested.
Mosaic's discharge permit allows for up to 7.5 million gallons (34 million liters) per day of tailings, brine and other liquids, including 29,000 gallons (109,777 liters) per day of untreated domestic wastewater.
These discharges have the potential, according to the state Ground Water Quality Bureau, to increase groundwater in the area to more than state standards for total dissolved solids, potentially impacting the Pecos River.
Should that happen, the Environment Department has the authority to close the facility and require Mosaic provide an immediate plan to mitigate the pollution.
The agency holds a bond with Mosaic for about $82 million to fund such a closure should elevated contaminant levels be detected.
Mosaic's discharge permit was last renewed in 2011. The permit includes the abatement plan that defines how the company reduces its environment impact.
Mosaic is required to collect water samples quarterly from several monitoring wells in the area and from the Pecos River, and report to the state on the levels of dissolved solids and other contaminants.
Once Mosaic characterizes the nature and extent of groundwater contamination from mine discharges between Laguna Grande and the Pecos River, the state may require the company to develop a more detailed abatement that outlines strategies to clean up the groundwater contamination.
New Mexico politicians work to keep local VA clinics open - By Phil Scherer Las Vegas Optic
More than a month after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recommended closing down four New Mexico VA clinics, including the one in Las Vegas, Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, as well as Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, were in town to speak to local veterans as they fight to keep them open.
On March 14, the VA announced recommendations, following years of analysis, that would lead to the closure of community-based outreach clinics in Las Vegas, Española, Raton and Gallup, forcing veterans in those areas to seek treatment elsewhere, specifically at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, nearly two hours away from the current clinic in Las Vegas. In total, it was recommended that 174 local clinics, across all 50 states, close.
Though the process of actually following through on these recommendations, and potentially closing the local clinics, will be a long one, potentially taking years, lawmakers are wasting no time getting in front of veterans and letting them tell their stories in the hopes that personal accounts will sway the VA.
"Don't feel like you need to convince me that it needs to stay open," Heinrich said Tuesday as he spoke to a room full of veterans at the Las Vegas VFW Post 1547. "What I need from you is to arm me with the stories of what it's like to live in a community and to need help where you are, and why it's unreasonable to have to drive to Albuquerque."
More than 50 veterans attended at least one of the two meetings with the senators this week, the Las Vegas Optic reported. Many of them shared stories and detailed how losing access to their local clinic would impact them. Among the most vocal in attendance at Heinrich's event was Bob Phillips, who spoke at length about the challenges he would face.
Phillips, who struggles with various back and knee issues, said traveling the long distance regularly to Albuquerque would do nothing to improve his current situation.
"Driving to Albuquerque is not comfortable," Phillips said. "And the older you get, the harder it gets."
He also said he feels, based on this ruling as well as several of his personal experiences, that veterans like him are not seen as a priority when it comes to healthcare.
"The feeling that I get is, why are veterans at the bottom of the healthcare system?" Phillips said. "I served my country, I've paid my taxes, and I have to fight like heck to get healthcare."
The VA made its recommendations earlier this year based on the decline that local VA clinics in rural New Mexico have seen over the past five years. That includes a 55% decline in unique patients at the Las Vegas clinic, with more decline expected over the next decade, according to the VA's recommendation.
However, Heinrich believes the statistics used in the report don't take into account the current reality, as many numbers used are from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Luján in his meeting with veterans at New Mexico Highlands University on Wednesday said that across New Mexico, 32 of the 33 counties in the state are facing healthcare staffing shortages, making it more difficult for individuals, and especially veterans, to access the care they need.
"It doesn't sound to me like we should be closing off even more access to care," Luján said.
Heinrich, Luján and Leger Fernandez wrote a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough last week, inviting him to visit New Mexico and meet with the veterans himself to get a better understanding of how important these clinics are to people living in rural areas.
In the letter, the state's elected officials ask the VA to reconsider its recommendations because of the impact the decision would have on rural veterans' access to healthcare, due to travel and increased wait times from all of New Mexico's veterans being forced into one centralized location.
The officials also said the decision does not take into account the increased healthcare worker shortages caused by the pandemic and how the lack of broadband access, specifically in rural areas, would prevent telemedicine from being as realistic as it may be elsewhere.
All VA recommendations must be approved by an AIR Commission, appointed by President Joe Biden. The president is tasked with nominating individuals to the commission, all of whom must be approved by the Senate. The recommendations also must be approved by the president and Congress.
Heinrich stressed that they are just now at the beginning of a years-long process, and nothing has been officially decided. But he told the veterans he met with that he would continue to fight to keep the clinic open as long as it takes.
Luján detailed the process that will take place. By Jan. 31, 2023, the commission must make a determination on the recommendations. The recommendations will then go to the president, and then to Congress, which will have the final say. Even if approved by Congress, it would take several years for everything to be finalized, according to Luján.
"Nothing is happening today, tomorrow or next week, but we want to make sure we keep pushing forward," Luján said.
Phillips said keeping the clinic alive is important to him for his own sake, but especially for those that will come after him — the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom are not yet seeking frequent care from the VA, but likely will be in the years to come.
"There is not one of us here that wants to see that close because it needs to be there for the next generation of veterans that come along," Phillips said. "I think anyone who lays down their life to serve this country and protect it deserves, and has earned the right, to be taken care of."
Jurors reject array of defenses at Capitol riot trials - By Michael Kunzelman Associated Press
Jurors have heard — and rejected — an array of excuses and arguments from the first rioters to be tried for storming the U.S. Capitol. The next jury to get a Capitol riot case could hear another novel defense this week at the trial of a retired New York City police officer.
Thomas Webster, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD, has claimed he was acting in self-defense when he tackled a police officer who was trying to protect the Capitol from a mob on Jan. 6, 2021. Webster's lawyer also has argued that he was exercising his First Amendment free speech rights when he shouted profanities at police that day.
Webster, 56, will be the fourth Capitol riot defendant to get a jury trial. Each has presented a distinct line of defense.
An Ohio man who stole a coat rack from a Capitol office testified he was "following presidential orders" from Donald Trump. An off-duty police officer from Virginia claimed he only entered the Capitol to retrieve a fellow officer. A lawyer for a Texas man who confronted Capitol police accused prosecutors of rushing to judgment against somebody prone to exaggerating.
Those defenses didn't sway the juries at their respective trials. Collectively, a total of 36 jurors unanimously convicted the three rioters of all 17 counts in their indictments.
Webster faces the same fate if a federal judge's blistering words are any guide. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who will preside over Webster's trial, has described his videotaped conduct as "among the most indefensible and reprehensible" that the judge has seen among Jan. 6 cases, with "no real defense for it."
"You were a police officer and you should have known better," Mehta told Webster during a bond hearing last June, according to a transcript.
But a dozen jurors, not the judge, will decide the case against Webster, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who retired from the NYPD in 2011. Jury selection is scheduled to start on Monday.
A wealth of video evidence and self-incriminating behavior by riot defendants has given prosecutors the upper hand in many cases. Mary McCord, a Georgetown University Law Center professor and former Justice Department official, said jurors often won't have to rely on witness testimony or circumstantial evidence because videos captured much of the violence and destruction on Jan. 6.
"When I was a prosecutor trying cases, I would have loved to have had cases where the entire crime was on video. That just doesn't happen that often. But for jurors, it can be very powerful," she said.
Webster's trial is the sixth overall. In a pair of bench trials, a different federal judge heard testimony without a jury before acquitting one defendant and partially acquitting another.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee who acquitted Matthew Martin of all charges, said it was reasonable for the New Mexico man to believe that police allowed him to enter the Capitol. In the first bench trial, McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct.
Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington Law School professor and former Justice Department official, said it may be difficult for prosecutors to secure convictions against defendants who merely entered the Capitol and didn't exhibit any violent or destructive behavior.
"I think the people with the best chances are those who say, 'I was just there and I got swept up with everybody else.' The government is going to have to have some way to show there's more than that or the government will lose," Saltzburg said.
Webster brought a gun and a Marine Corps flag attached to a metal pole when he traveled alone to Washington from his home in Florida, New York, a village approximately 70 miles northwest of New York City. He wore his NYPD-issued bulletproof vest but says he left the pistol in his hotel room when he headed to the Jan. 6 rally where Trump spoke.
Police body camera video captured Webster's confrontation outside the Capitol with a line of officers, including one identified only as "Officer N.R." in court papers.
The unnamed Metropolitan Police Department officer described the encounter in a written statement. The officer said Webster swung the flagpole at him in a downward chopping motion, hitting a metal barricade, then charged at him with clenched fists.
"He pushed me to the ground and attempted to violently tear away my gas mask and ballistic helmet. This caused me to choke and gasp for air before another participant at the riot helped me to my feet," the officer wrote.
The officer said he retreated behind a police line after Webster pinned him to the ground.
"His actions, attack and targeted assault caused me to fear for my life and could have easily left my wife and two small children without a husband and father," the officer wrote.
Defense attorney James Monroe has claimed the unnamed officer gestured toward Webster, "inviting him to engage in a fight," before reaching over a police barrier and punching Webster in his face. Webster "used that amount of force he reasonably believed necessary to protect himself" by tackling the officer to the ground, Monroe said in a court filing.
Mehta, however, said the video doesn't show Webster getting punched in the face. The judge described Webster as an instigator.
"It was his conduct that sort of broke the dam, at least in that area," Mehta added.
Webster, now a self-employed landscaper, enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1985, was honorably discharged in 1989 and joined the NYPD in 1991. His department service included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg's private security detail.
Monroe claimed "Officer N.R." had reached over a metal barrier and pushed a "peaceful" man who was blinded by pepper spray.
"As a former U.S. Marine and a member of law enforcement, Mr. Webster's moral instinct was to protect the innocent," Monroe wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Mirell has argued that Webster should be held to a higher standard given his professional experience.
"If he were there to protect the innocent, then he should have been fending other rioters off from the barricade, not the other way around," Mirell said at the bond hearing.
Webster faces six counts, including assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer using a dangerous weapon. He's the first Capitol riot defendant to be tried on an assault charge. He isn't accused of entering the Capitol.
More than 780 people have been charged with riot-related federal crimes. The Justice Department says over 245 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. More than 250 riot defendants have pleaded guilty, mostly to nonviolent misdemeanors.
Jurors convicted two rioters of interfering with officers. One of them, Thomas Robertson, was an off-duty police officer from Rocky Mount, Virginia. The other, Texas resident Guy Wesley Reffitt, also was convicted of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun.
The third Capitol rioter to be convicted by a jury was Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man who said he was following Trump's orders.
"Even if jurors accepted that (Thompson) felt like he was doing what the former president wanted, that still wouldn't be a legal excuse," said McCord, the Georgetown professor. "When juries are able to witness what happened, they can make that assessment relatively easily."
Fires hit Southwest, New Mexico's season 'dangerously early' - By Paul Davenport And Cedar Attanasio Associated Press
New Mexico faces a long and potentially devastating wildfire season, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Saturday, as Southwestern wildfires cause destruction and force people from their homes.
Hundreds of structures were lost in a growing number of wind-driven blazes across drought-stricken New Mexico, Lujan Grisham said Saturday.
Over 20 active wildfires were burning in at least 16 of the state's 33 counties, in the wake of winds that gusted up to 90 mph on Friday, Lujan said during a briefing streamed online. "So half the state has a fire issue."
With so many fires burning in April, well before the normal May or June start of the wildfire season, "our risk season is incredibly and dangerously early," Lujan Grisham said.
Wildfire has become a year-round threat in the West given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall, scientist have said. The problems have been exacerbated by decades of fire suppression and poor management along with a more than 20-year megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change.
New Mexico as of Saturday had the most major wildfires burning of any state, though neighboring Arizona also had large fires that included one that burned 30 homes near Flagstaff on Tuesday.
Winds and temperatures in New Mexico diminished Saturday but remained strong enough to still fan fires, and dozens of evacuation orders remained in place.
Over 200 structures have burned, Lujan Grisham said, not providing specifics on locations or the numbers of homes included in that count.
With fires still burning and charred areas too dangerous to enter, "it's not safe for you or us to have a complete assessment to date," she said, indicating that the number of lost structures would rise.
She appealed to residents to refrain from using fireworks or burning trash and to evacuate when fire warnings are issued. "You need to leave. The risks are too great," she said.
The largest blazes were concentrated in northern New Mexico, where two major fires merged and numerous villages were threatened by advancing flames as residents heeded calls to leave.
Maggie Mulligan said Friday her dogs could sense the panic while she and her husband packed them up, agonized over having to leave horses behind and fled a fast-moving wildfire barreling toward their home.
"We don't know what's next," she said. "We don't know if we can go back to the horses."
Mulligan and her husband, Bill Gombas, 67, were among the anxious residents who hurriedly evacuated their homes Friday ahead of ominous wildfires fueled by tinder-dry conditions and ferocious winds.
The merged fires burned some structures but no figures were available, said fire information officer Mike Johnson. "They were able to save some structures and we know we lost other structures that we weren't able to defend."
Wind-blown clouds of dust and plumes of smoke obscured the skies near the fires, said Jesus Romero, assistant county manager for San Miguel County. "All the ugliness that spring in New Mexico brings — that's what they're dealing in."
An estimated 500 homes in San Miguel were in rural areas of Mora and San Miguel counties covered by evacuation orders or warning notices, Romero said.
Elsewhere in the region, the fire danger in the Denver area on Friday was the highest it had been in over a decade, according to the National Weather Service, because of unseasonable temperatures in the 80s combined with strong winds and very dry conditions.
Lena Atencio and her husband, whose family has lived in the nearby Rociada area for five generations, got out Friday as winds kicked up. She said most people were taking the threat seriously.
"As a community, as a whole, everybody is just pulling together to support each other and just take care of the things we need to now. And then at that point, it's in God's hands," she said as the wind howled miles away in the community of Las Vegas, New Mexico, where evacuees were gathering.
Areas ordered Saturday to evacuate because of another large fire still growing in northern New Mexico included Philmont Scout Ranch. Meanwhile, the nearby town of Cimarron remained on notice for possible evacuation, according to Colfax County officials.
The scout ranch, owned and operated by the Boy Scouts of America, attracts thousands of summer visitors, but officials said no scouts were on the property and staff were previously evacuated because of poor air quality.
The Flagstaff-area fire also burned numerous other buildings when the flames blew through rural neighborhoods Tuesday.
A shift in wind had crews working Saturday to keep the fire from moving up mountain slopes or toward homes in rural neighborhoods near areas that burned Tuesday, fire information officer Dick Fleishman said. "It has got us a little concerned."
Football helped immigrant brothers embrace being different - By Arnie Stapleton Ap Pro Football Writer
Komotay Koffie steps outside Landow Performance in suburban Denver where he's just finished another training session in his quest to join his brother, Indianapolis Colts edge rusher Kwity Paye, in the NFL.
"I'm not even supposed to be here," offers Koffie, 25, a chiseled 6-foot-1, 200-pound defensive back from Northern Colorado who was born in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone.
He isn't fretting over the break he's taking on the eve of his college pro day, where he'll deliver 20 reps on the bench press and solidify his status as a potential Day 3 selection.
What he means is he shouldn't even be here in the United States.
When war followed their family to Guinea, where Kwity was born, Agnes Paye reached out to her grandmother in Rhode Island, who agreed to sponsor her so she could move to the U.S.
Only she neglected to put the kids' names on the immigration affidavit. It was hard enough leaving behind the boys' father; there was no way she'd abandon her young children.
"I told them I can't leave my babies," she recounted.
A woman processing her paperwork fell for her precocious kids and added the boys' names under Agnes' — Komotay and Kwity are full-blooded brothers; their different surnames are a cultural tradition — and all three were granted passage to a better life.
"It was just a blessing," Agnes said. "I knew that God had a better place for these children.
"We were just coming to survive, to be in peace, a place where you don't have to get up in the morning and run for your lives or worry about finding food."
Yet, even in the U.S. she found herself steering her boys from the sounds of gunfire that sometimes rattled their modest apartment.
To keep them off the streets and out of trouble, she signed them up for sports at the Boys & Girls Club. Soccer, basketball, track. When football season rolled around, she signed them up for that, too.
When they arrived at that first practice and heard the thud of bodies smashing into each other, "we were scared to play," Koffie said.
When the coaches asked all the kids to bring their birth certificates the next day, the brothers, who were years away from becoming U.S. citizens, could only provide their immigration cards.
"It looked like a mugshot with all these fancy numbers," Koffie recalled, "and I remember me and Kwity were embarrassed even to pull them out because they made us stand out."
This was one more thing to get teased about, along with their accented English and western African diet. Those taunts, however, "only added to our fire," Koffie said.
"It was like, 'OK, you guys want to make us stand out and tease us like we're different, we're going to show you how different we are,'" Koffie recollected.
The brothers made a pact to run faster and hit harder than the other kids.
"When we got onto the football field, it was like nobody could compare to us. We were on a whole different level. We stood out," he said.
They soon won over their teammates and quickly learned the ins and outs of the game.
"And that's when we fell in love with it," Koffie said.
So they made another vow, to do all they could to repay their mother, who was working long hours as a nursing assistant, for all she'd done to provide them a better life.
"I remember we were in our bedroom one night, we were like 10 and 8 and we promised each other we'd do everything we could to get her out of there," Koffie said.
His younger brother blossomed into a 6-foot-2, 260-pound defensive end who, after starring at Bishop Hendrickson, a Catholic academy in Warwick, Rhode Island, excelled at the University of Michigan on his way to becoming a first-round pick in last year's NFL draft.
"The first thing he did was retire my mother and buy her a car," Koffie said. "Then, he started working on finding her a nice home."
If Koffie can join his baby brother in the NFL, he wants to send for their father, who didn't have a sponsor like their mother did when she fled the warfare almost a quarter-century ago.
"The war broke them up all those years ago, but they're back together now, they're engaged," Koffie said. "I want to try to bring him over here to America so we can all be a family once again."
Agnes is edgy as this year's draft approaches.
"With Kwity we were sure-sure," she said. "For Komotay, I'm just a little nervous and praying someone will give him a shot because he's a fighter."
At 15, he moved in with a family friend in Tennessee to face better competition and try to earn a college scholarship.
After three seasons at Knoxville Central High School, Koffie transferred to Milford Academy in New York for his senior season.
He played one year of junior college ball at North Dakota College of Sciences, earning that coveted Division I scholarship at New Mexico State University.
He transferred to Northern Colorado for his final season so he could play for head coach Ed McCaffrey and secondary coach Jimmy Spencer, who had a combined 25 years of NFL playing experience.
He earned his criminal justice degree when the pandemic wiped out the Bears' 2021 season, then provided leadership and savvy play in McCaffrey's inaugural season in 2022 while his younger brother was playing out his rookie season in Indianapolis.
"My brother took a straight road to the NFL and my road has been up and down," said Koffie, who played safety, cornerback, nickelback and inside linebacker, a versatility he hopes makes him an attractive prospect for somebody.
"I'm just hoping for an opportunity," Koffie said. "The thing about me, once I get my foot in the door, I'm gonna take care of the rest."
Here's the stunning part: Despite their two-year age difference and divergent paths, the brothers have never played football together.
"We were never on the same field, either. We practiced at different times," Koffie said. "So, my brother has never seen me play."
That could soon change.
"I just talked to him last night," Koffie said. "I was like, 'How crazy would it be to be on the same field warming up?' I'm telling you, it would probably be a very emotional moment to look across the grass and see each other.'"
Fulfilling a dream and a promise, together.