Rain brings relief to massive, record-wildfire in New Mexico — Susan Montoya Brown, Associated Press
Lightning sparked a few new small fires in the drought-stricken Southwest Monday but the thunderstorms brought welcome rain to the monster blaze that's been churning for a month in New Mexico and is now the state's largest in recorded history.
"We haven't seen rain in a really long time so that's exciting," San Miguel County Sheriff Chris Lopez said Monday might at a briefing on the biggest active fire in the U.S. burning east of Santa Fe.
"It gave us a little bit of a breather," he said at one of the command posts in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the southeast flank of the blaze that's charred 465 square miles (1,204 square kilometers).
More than 2,000 fire personnel remain on the lines in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range south of Taos. The fire now covers an area nearly one-quarter the size of Delaware.
More than 260 homes have burned and more evacuations were prompted over the weekend as the blaze moved through dry — and in some cases dead — stands of pine and fir trees. Huge columns of smoke could be seen from miles away, and fire officials and weather forecasts continue to refer to it as an unprecedented situation.
Stepped up aerial attacks also helped about 1,000 firefighters continue to make progress Monday on a big fire west of Santa Fe.
Richard Nieto, wildland fire manager officer for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said Monday night authorities were preparing to relax the status of evacuation alerts as crews were pushing back the flames about 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the lab's federal boundary.
New lightning-sparked fires Monday included one about 2.5 miles (4 km) from Sedona, Arizona, but fire officials said Monday night it had burned less than an acre and the growth potential was low.
Forecasters said the weather will remain unstable throughout the week with shifting winds and rising humidity. But crews should enjoy at least another day of more favorable fire conditions.
It should be a "good work day for the crews," fire behavior specialist Stewart Turner said Monday night. "Not suspecting big growth at all."
Monday's reprieve allowed ground crews to move into position to capitalize on retardant drops from airtankers and water spilled from helicopter buckets to expand contingency plans for back-up fire lines in the days ahead farther south of Santa Fe and to the northeast toward the Colorado line.
"We're trying to think bigger box, bigger picture," Nickie Johnny, an incident commander from California who is helping with the fire, said about efforts to find places miles ahead of the flames where crews can cut fire lines and mount a defense.
Fires also were burning elsewhere in New Mexico and in Colorado as much of the West has marked a notably hot, dry and windy spring. Predictions for the rest of the season do not bode well, with drought and warmer weather brought on by climate change worsening wildfire danger.
Colorado Springs enacted a fire ban after a series of fires have spread quickly due to hot and dry conditions, including a fatal one caused by smoking. Under a ban taking effect Monday, smoking and grilling will be prohibited in parks in Colorado's second-largest city and people grilling at home will be allowed to use only gas or liquid fuel, not charcoal or wood.
Burn bans and fire restrictions also have been put in place in cities and counties around New Mexico in recent weeks, with officials warning that any new fire starts would further stress firefighting resources.
Nationwide, about 2,030 square miles (5,258 square kilometers) have burned so far this year — the most at this point since 2018, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
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Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin in Denver and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
Man convicted in fatal shooting of a Santa Fe star athlete - Associated Press
A man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting of a Santa Fe High School basketball star nearly two years ago.
A jury on Tuesday returned the verdict against Estevan Montoya in the August 2020 shooting of Fedonta "JB" White.
Prosecutors said Montoya was 16 at the time of the incident and the 18-year-old White was shot at a house party in Chupadero in front of numerous witnesses.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Montoya took the stand in his own defense Monday and said he shot White in self-defense after a two argued.
Prosecutors said Montoya went to the party armed and lured White into a fistfight before shooting him point blank and running away.
Jurors also convicted Montoya of counts of tampering with evidence, unlawful carrying of a handgun and negligent use of a deadly weapon, based on allegations he disposed of the murder weapon and the clothing he wore the night of the shooting.
New US hospitals face fiscal crisis over COVID relief money - By Jay Reeves Associated Press
A whole town celebrated in 2020 when, early in the coronavirus pandemic, Thomasville Regional Medical Center opened, offering state-of-the-art medicine that was previously unavailable in a poor, isolated part of Alabama. The timing for the ribbon-cutting seemed perfect: New treatment options would be available in an underserved area just as a global health crisis was unfolding.
In the end, that same timing may be the reason for the hospital's undoing.
Now deep in the red two years into the pandemic, the 29-bed, $40 million hospital with a soaring, sun-drenched lobby and 110 employees is among three medical centers in the United States that say they are missing out on millions in federal pandemic relief money because the facilities are so new they lack full financial statements from before the crisis to prove how much it cost them.
In Thomasville, located in timber country about 95 miles north of the Gulf Coast port of Mobile, hospital officials have worked more than a year to convince federal officials they should have gotten $8.2 million through the CARES Act, not just the $1 million they received. With a total debt of $35 million, the quest gets more urgent each day, said Curtis James, the chief executive officer.
"No hospital can sustain itself without getting the CARES Act money that everybody else got," James said.
Employees are trying to save money by cutting back on supplies but residents including Judy Hutto are worried about the hospital's future. Hutto drove there recently for tests from her home 15 miles (24 kilometers) out in the country.
"The areas needs it," she said. "It's a nice hospital."
CEO Barry Beus also is trying to plug a gap at Rock Regional Hospital, located south of Wichita in Derby, Kansas. The hospital is due as much as $15.8 million, officials said, but because it only opened in April 2019 and lacks complete pre-pandemic financial statements, it has received just a little more than $985,000.
The only thing that's saved the facility from financial ruin so far is the cooperation of doctors, contractors and vendors who haven't pushed for payments, he said. "If we lose them, we lose the hospital," said Beus.
Three Crosses Regional Hospital opened in 2020 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and piled up a staggering $16.8 million in losses in just three quarters while receiving only $28,000 in aid, said Landon Fulmer, a Washington lobbyist working with all three hospitals to obtain additional funding. Each facility is being penalized for being new even though they provided the same costly COVID-19 care as other medical centers and lost revenue from other procedures including elective surgeries, he said.
"It really is quite a strange situation in a way, one that shouldn't have happened," Fulmer said.
With about 420,000 health care providers nationwide already receiving assistance from a $178 billion pot, the government isn't covering 100% of losses for anyone, said Chris Lundquist, a spokesman for the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, which is overseeing the program.
"HRSA has strived to provide as much support as possible to as many hospitals as possible within the limits of the law and funding," he said. The agency said it used proxy financial information for hospitals that opened in 2019 or 2020 to create an equitable payment system.
"They have all received funding," said Lundquist.
While virtually all the aid money is spoken for, Lundquist said hospitals seeking additional aid can go through an appeals process. Hospitals also can seek a supplemental appropriation or funding in the upcoming fiscal years, he said. All three of the hospitals say they deserve more.
Officials in Thomasville are trying to leverage congressional influence. Mayor Sheldon Day has made several trips to Washington, D.C., to speak with members of the state's congressional delegation and health officials, and the president of the Alabama Hospital Association, Dr. Don Williamson, has contacted the White House seeking help.
"They've been assured they're going to be taken care of. But the fact is, when you're dealing with government entities, you don't have the money until you have the money," said Williamson.
Located in southwest Alabama, Thomasville lies within an impoverished area called the Black Belt. About 70% of Black Belt residents qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, and health care has been limited for generations.
The last hospital shut down in Thomasville more than a decade ago, leaving only hospitals that offer fewer services in the surrounding region. Officials worked for years to secure a new hospital so residents wouldn't have to drive 90 minutes for high-tech services such as digital imaging, full surgical options, echocardiograms, 3D mammography and more.
Using a partnership between the city and a municipal health care authority, Thomasville Regional secured federal funding from the Department of Agriculture and opened on March 3, 2020, before cases of COVID-19 caught fire in the rural South.
"We thought we were off to a good start," said James, the chief executive. "And then everything shut down."
Patients stopped showing up for scans, elective surgeries, mammographies and other moneymaking services because of pandemic shutdowns, and financial reports that looked promising turned perilous within weeks.
Recognizing that new hospitals couldn't calculate COVID-19 losses because they couldn't compare 2020 numbers with past years, Health and Human Services allowed hospitals to use budget numbers for calculations rather than prior financial statements. That's how the hospital determined that it was missing out on more than $7 million in aid, James said.
While the hospital is still waiting on that aid, he said, the government did agree to provide $1 million in assistance that went to all other hospitals.
"That was OK, but other hospitals that are in our region got $8 million, $9 million," he said.
The Birmingham-based Medical Properties Trust recently gave the hospital $2 million and James said leaders are confident Thomasville Regional will eventually get the extra federal aid. "But it will take time," he said.
Like Thomasville Regional, Rock Regional in Kansas saw revenues dry up soon after opening, said Beus, the CEO. It's still experiencing staff shortages because of the pandemic and having to pay a premium to travel nurses to work shifts on the wards, he said, all while working with consultants and members of Congress just trying to stay afloat.
"It's been a little frustrating," he said.
Council approved budget would up spending by 20% – Jessica Dyer, Albuquerque Journal
The Albuquerque city budget is growing by about 20 percent in a plan approved by city councilors last night.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the council approved the budget by a 7-2 vote, and that it includes items such as a 5 percent pay raise for city workers, a one time incentive of up to two thousand dollars per employee and increases in resident rental support programs.
The new fund appropriations of $857 million are up from $714.5 million this year, according to the Journal.
The fund covers most basic city services like parks and police officers, and is mostly financed through tax dollars.
It does not include departments that largely pay for themselves, like aviation for example. When those departments are included, the total city budget comes to about 1.4 billion dollars.
New US hospitals face fiscal crisis over COVID relief money — Jay, Reeves, Associated Press
A whole town celebrated in 2020 when, early in the coronavirus pandemic, Thomasville Regional Medical Center opened, offering state-of-the-art medicine that was previously unavailable in a poor, isolated part of Alabama. The timing for the ribbon-cutting seemed perfect: New treatment options would be available in an underserved area just as a global health crisis was unfolding.
In the end, that same timing may be the reason for the hospital's undoing.
Now deep in the red two years into the pandemic, the 29-bed, $40 million hospital with a soaring, sun-drenched lobby and 110 employees is among three medical centers in the United States that say they are missing out on millions in federal pandemic relief money because the facilities are so new they lack full financial statements from before the crisis to prove how much it cost them.
In Thomasville, located in timber country about 95 miles (153 kilometers) north of the Gulf Coast port of Mobile, hospital officials have worked more than a year to convince federal officials they should have gotten $8.2 million through the CARES Act, not just the $1 million they received. With a total debt of $35 million, the quest gets more urgent each day, said Curtis James, the chief executive officer.
"No hospital can sustain itself without getting the CARES Act money that everybody else got," James said.
Employees are trying to save money by cutting back on supplies but residents including Judy Hutto are worried about the hospital's future. Hutto drove there recently for tests from her home 15 miles (24 kilometers) out in the country.
"The areas needs it," she said. "It's a nice hospital."
CEO Barry Beus also is trying to plug a gap at Rock Regional Hospital, located south of Wichita in Derby, Kansas. The hospital is due as much as $15.8 million, officials said, but because it only opened in April 2019 and lacks complete pre-pandemic financial statements, it has received just a little more than $985,000.
The only thing that's saved the facility from financial ruin so far is the cooperation of doctors, contractors and vendors who haven't pushed for payments, he said. "If we lose them, we lose the hospital," said Beus.
Three Crosses Regional Hospital opened in 2020 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and piled up a staggering $16.8 million in losses in just three quarters while receiving only $28,000 in aid, said Landon Fulmer, a Washington lobbyist working with all three hospitals to obtain additional funding. Each facility is being penalized for being new even though they provided the same costly COVID-19 care as other medical centers and lost revenue from other procedures including elective surgeries, he said.
"It really is quite a strange situation in a way, one that shouldn't have happened," Fulmer said.
With about 420,000 health care providers nationwide already receiving assistance from a $178 billion pot, the government isn't covering 100% of losses for anyone, said Chris Lundquist, a spokesman for the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, which is overseeing the program.
"HRSA has strived to provide as much support as possible to as many hospitals as possible within the limits of the law and funding," he said. The agency said it used proxy financial information for hospitals that opened in 2019 or 2020 to create an equitable payment system.
"They have all received funding," said Lundquist.
While virtually all the aid money is spoken for, Lundquist said hospitals seeking additional aid can go through an appeals process. Hospitals also can seek a supplemental appropriation or funding in the upcoming fiscal years, he said. All three of the hospitals say they deserve more.
Officials in Thomasville are trying to leverage congressional influence. Mayor Sheldon Day has made several trips to Washington, D.C., to speak with members of the state's congressional delegation and health officials, and the president of the Alabama Hospital Association, Dr. Don Williamson, has contacted the White House seeking help.
"They've been assured they're going to be taken care of. But the fact is, when you're dealing with government entities, you don't have the money until you have the money," said Williamson.
Located in southwest Alabama, Thomasville lies within an impoverished area called the Black Belt. About 70% of Black Belt residents qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, and health care has been limited for generations.
The last hospital shut down in Thomasville more than a decade ago, leaving only hospitals that offer fewer services in the surrounding region. Officials worked for years to secure a new hospital so residents wouldn't have to drive 90 minutes for high-tech services such as digital imaging, full surgical options, echocardiograms, 3D mammography and more.
Using a partnership between the city and a municipal health care authority, Thomasville Regional secured federal funding from the Department of Agriculture and opened on March 3, 2020, before cases of COVID-19 caught fire in the rural South.
"We thought we were off to a good start," said James, the chief executive. "And then everything shut down."
Patients stopped showing up for scans, elective surgeries, mammographies and other moneymaking services because of pandemic shutdowns, and financial reports that looked promising turned perilous within weeks.
Recognizing that new hospitals couldn't calculate COVID-19 losses because they couldn't compare 2020 numbers with past years, Health and Human Services allowed hospitals to use budget numbers for calculations rather than prior financial statements. That's how the hospital determined that it was missing out on more than $7 million in aid, James said.
While the hospital is still waiting on that aid, he said, the government did agree to provide $1 million in assistance that went to all other hospitals.
"That was OK, but other hospitals that are in our region got $8 million, $9 million," he said.
The Birmingham-based Medical Properties Trust recently gave the hospital $2 million and James said leaders are confident Thomasville Regional will eventually get the extra federal aid. "But it will take time," he said.
Like Thomasville Regional, Rock Regional in Kansas saw revenues dry up soon after opening, said Beus, the CEO. It's still experiencing staff shortages because of the pandemic and having to pay a premium to travel nurses to work shifts on the wards, he said, all while working with consultants and members of Congress just trying to stay afloat.
"It's been a little frustrating," he said.
___
The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Death penalty sought in Texas for man who admitted killing 5 — Associated Press
Prosecutors in Texas said Monday that they will seek the death penalty for a man who authorities have said confessed to killing five people, including three whose dismembered bodies were found in a burning dumpster last year.
The Tarrant County district attorney's office said they've filed the paperwork to seek the death penalty for Jason Thornburg, 41. He was arrested in September on a charge of capital murder in the deaths of David Lueras, 42, Lauren Phillips, 34, and Maricruz Mathis, 33. Their bodies were found in a burning dumpster in Fort Worth.
During an interview with police, Thornburg confessed to killing those three as well as his roommate and girlfriend, according to his arrest warrant.
Thornburg also faces a charge of murder in the death of his roommate, 61-year-old Mark Jewell. He was found dead in a house fire last May.
Tanya Begay, a Navajo woman from Gallup, New Mexico, went missing after taking a trip to Arizona with Thornburg in 2017.
In March, Thornburg was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree murder, assault with intent to commit murder and assault resulting in serious bodily injury in the March 2017 slaying in the Navajo Nation of person listed as T.T.B., according to an indictment filed in U.S. district court for the district of Arizona.
Thornburg remained jailed in Fort Worth on over $1 million bond. His attorneys did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Monday.
In US, states struggle to replace fossil fuel tax revenue — Morgan Lee and Mead Gruver, Associated Press
Government budgets are booming in New Mexico: Teacher salaries are up, residents can go to an in-state college tuition-free, moms will get medical care for a year after childbirth, and criminal justice initiatives are being funded to reduce urban violence.
The reason behind the spending spree — oil. New Mexico is the No. 2 crude oil producer among U.S. states and the top recipient of U.S. disbursements for fossil fuel production on federal land. But a budget flush with petroleum cash has a side effect: It also puts the spotlight on how difficult it is to turn state rhetoric on tackling climate change into reality.
State governments in the nation's top regions for producing oil, natural gas and coal have by far the highest per-capita reliance on fossil fuels — led by Wyoming, North Dakota, Alaska and New Mexico. The revenue bankrolls essential public services, from highway maintenance to prisons. In Carlsbad, New Mexico, oil infrastructure property taxes are underwriting a high school performing arts center, expanded sports facilities and elementary school renovations.
None of that would be possible without oil revenue, said schools superintendent Gerry Washburn.
"We can't slow down in that area and what we do to fund schools until we have a legitimate replacement" for oil and natural gas income, he said. "Whether you're in the middle of the oil patch or in an area with no oil and gas drilling going on, those policies are going to impact revenue in every school district in the state."
Federal, state and local governments receive an estimated $138 billion a year from the fossil fuel industry, according to a study from the Washington-based nonpartisan economics group Resources for the Future, which does not advocate on energy policies. That's equivalent to the annual state spending of New York and Texas combined.
The cashflow is dominated by gasoline and diesel retail taxes in every state, but energy-producing states have the deepest dependence on fossil fuel income through a gamut of taxes, royalties, lease sales and fees. Because that revenue helps pay for government services, they tend to tax residents less, said Daniel Raimi, a fellow at Resources for the Future, and co-author of the study.
"That's a really challenging dynamic if you think about a shift away from fossil fuels," he said. "They're going to be faced with the question: Do we raise our taxes on our residents or do we reduce the level of services we provide?"
In New Mexico, oil and gas account for 42% of state government income, a share that is rising amid the war in Ukraine and record-setting oil production in the Permian Basin that stretches across southeastern New Mexico and western Texas. Additional oil income flows to a new interest-bearing trust for early childhood education.
Soaring fossil fuel industry profits also allowed the Democratic-controlled New Mexico Legislature to try to tackle the highest-in-the-nation unemployment rate and persistently high poverty. Lawmakers provided $1.1 billion in tax relief and direct payments of up to $1,500 per household to offset inflation.
At the same time, legislators balked this year at climate initiatives that might restrain petroleum production. They rejected a bill to limit climate-warming pollution in the production and distribution of transportation fuels, a step taken by West Coast states. New Mexico also shunned a state constitutional amendment for the right to clean air.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, up for reelection in November, said her administration is working to contain oilfield methane pollution and diversify the economy. New mandates call for electricity production from solar, wind and other renewable sources. But she has cautioned the federal government against significant restrictions on oil exploration and production, still the lifeblood of the state budget.
"We can work very effectively with oil and gas producers to both meet clean energy standards ... while still managing pretty incredible exploration of fossil fuels to meet the current energy demands of the world," the governor said in April.
Preserving income from oil, natural gas or coal production while acting on climate change can be especially tricky in blue states where Democrats often campaign on tackling global warming.
Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis is pursuing an ambitious clean-energy plan while trying to preserve $1 billion in annual oil and gas production tax revenue. To justify air pollution restrictions, Polis has cited real-time evidence of climate change, drought and fire.
But Polis, a wealthy tech entrepreneur, last year threatened to veto a proposal that might impose per-ton emission fees on polluters. William Toor, executive director of the governor's Colorado Energy Office, said the state's not targeting fossil fuel production — only the industry's emissions.
On Colorado's northeastern plains, Weld County Commission Chairman Scott James said state regulations stifle new drilling needed to support production and government revenue, especially for schools. The county is centered on a vast oil field stretching from the Denver area into Wyoming and Nebraska.
"I agree with the overall mission of reducing greenhouse gas, but there's an environment that exists at the state Legislature that we must electrify everything, we must mandate it, we must do it now," James said. "And these technologies are not yet ready for prime time. We simply don't have the capacity to do it."
Rural and economically isolated communities could find it hardest to adapt to a low-carbon economy, said Montana-based Headwaters Economics researcher and economist Kristin Smith, who studies public finances in North Dakota's Bakken oil region. She anticipates "very hard decisions" about cutting areas like public health care and policing.
Some major petroleum producing states are forging ahead with their climate agendas.
Pennsylvania in April became the first major fossil-fuel state to adopt a carbon-pricing policy, joining an 11-state regional consortium that sets a price and declining limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's initiative comes without approval from the Republican-controlled Legislature in the nation's No. 2 state for natural gas production — and a major exporter of gas-generated electricity. A per-well drilling fee on the state's booming Marcellus Shale gas industry has rained cash on rural counties and municipalities for nearly a decade.
South of Pittsburgh, Washington County reaped over $100 million in the past decade. That's equivalent to $500 per resident — a "game changer," said county board chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan. The windfall paid for park and bridge improvements, among others.
Democratic state Rep. Greg Vitali, an advocate for stronger climate change action, said local governments relying on gas drilling money will simply have to use traditional tools such as property taxes to get by.
Republican-dominated Wyoming, the top coal production state, has bold goals to reduce greenhouse emissions to less than zero even while fossil fuels account for over half its revenue.
That vision relies on eventually capturing carbon dioxide from coal- and gas-fired power plants and pumping it underground, possibly to increase oil production in aging fields in the middle of the state. Wyoming leaders are also looking to alternative fuels like hydrogen and nuclear power, using reactors that produce less waste.
Meanwhile, a decade of declining coal demand has sapped government income. Republican Gov. Mark Gordon in March signed a coal tax reduction, forgoing about $9 million annually to help the coal industry stay economically viable.
The state — one of only two with no taxes on individual income, corporate income or gross receipts — must confront its dependence on fossil fuel money eventually, said Jennifer Lowe, executive director of the Equality State Policy Center, a government watchdog group.
"At some point, there's going to have to be a come-to-Jesus moment," Lowe said.
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Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Associated Press writers Jim Anderson in Denver and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
Albuquerque Asian-owned businesses getting boost in security — Associated Press
Albuquerque's Asian American community is testing a new way to bolster security for Asian-owned businesses in the wake of two deadly shootings.
KOAT-TV reported Sunday that an Albuquerque start-up is trying out an online service that connects armed security guards with Asian-owned businesses.
Businesses would report suspicious activity to "toServo." The service then utilizes GPS-enabled mobile technology to put them in touch with a private security team. The security on call would respond within minutes.
It is part of an initiative established by the Asian Business Collaborative. The nonprofit started a "Good Neighbor Program" to check up on shops and restaurants. For now, four businesses will be chosen for the service. But there are hopes to expand its use by the end of the year.
Collaborative organizers say the city's Asian community has been on edge since shootings at two Asian-owned spas.
In January, the female owner of one spa was shot and killed during an attempted robbery. Two men have been charged in her killing. Less than a month later, another woman of Asian descent was killed inside another massage business during a robbery. The suspect was killed in a police pursuit 10 days later.