Boeing capsule lands back on Earth after space shakedown - By Marcia Dunn AP Aerospace Writer
Boeing's crew taxi returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Wednesday, completing a repeat test flight before NASA astronauts climb aboard.
It was a quick trip back: The Starliner capsule parachuted into the New Mexico desert just four hours after leaving the orbiting lab, with airbags attached to cushion the landing. Only a mannequin was on board.
Aside from thruster failures and cooling system snags, Starliner appeared to clinch its high-stakes shakedown cruise, 2 1/2 years after its botched first try.
NASA astronauts will strap in next for a trip to the space station. The space agency has long wanted two competing U.S. companies ferrying astronauts, for added insurance as it drastically reduced its reliance on Russia for rides to and from the space station.
Elon Musk's SpaceX is already the established leader, launching astronauts since 2020 and even tourists. Its crew capsules splash down off the Florida coast, Boeing's Starliner returns to the Army's expansive and desolate White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Boeing scrapped its first attempt to reach the space station in 2019, after software errors left the capsule in the wrong orbit and nearly doomed it. The company fixed the flaws and tried again last summer, but corroded valves halted the countdown. Following more repairs, Starliner finally lifted off from Cape Canaveral last Thursday and docked to the space station Friday.
Station astronauts tested Starliner's communication and computer systems during its five days at the space station. They also unloaded hundreds of pounds of groceries and other supplies that flew up in the Boeing capsule, then filled it with empty air tanks and other discarded gear.
A folded U.S. flag sent up by Boeing stayed behind, to be retrieved by the first Starliner crew.
"We're a little sad to see her go," station astronaut Bob Hines radioed as the capsule flew away.
Along for the ride was Starliner's test dummy — Rosie the Rocketeer, a takeoff on World War II's Rosie the Riveter.
The repairs and do-over cost Boeing nearly $600 million.
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AG says Sandoval County deputy arrested for having images of child sex abuse on devices - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
Authorities say a Sandoval County sheriff’s deputy has been arrested in connection with a child sexual exploitation investigation.
The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office announced in a news release Wednesday that it found images of child sexual abuse on the devices of Deputy Robert Jesse Strand while executing multiple search warrants.
Some of the exploited children depicted in the images were infants, according to the statement.
The AG Office says Strand’s devices were searched after its Internet Crimes Against Children Unit received tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which accepts anonymous reports of suspected child sex abuse.
No additional information about the charges Strand faces or his status with the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office were immediately released.
The investigation was conducted in partnership with several other New Mexico law enforcement departments, the FBI and Homeland Security.
Firefighters rescue 'Cinder' the elk calf from fire's ashes - Morgan Lee Associated Press
Firefighters have rescued an abandoned newborn elk calf found amid the ashes of the nation's largest wildfire, as calving season approaches its peak in New Mexico and fires rage across the American West.
Missoula, Montana-based firefighter Nate Sink said Tuesday that he happened upon the motionless elk calf on the ground of a fire-blackened New Mexico forest as he patrolled and extinguished lingering hot spots.
"The whole area is just surrounded in a thick layer of ash and burned trees. I didn't think it was alive," said Sink, who was deployed to the state to help contain a wildfire that by Wednesday had spread across 486 square miles and destroyed hundreds of structures. It’s one of five major uncontained fires burning in New Mexico amid extremely dry and windy conditions.
Wildlife officials in general discourage interactions with elk calves that are briefly left alone in the first weeks of life as their mothers forage at a distance. Silver says he searched diligently for traces of the calf's mother and found none.
The 32-pound singed bull calf, dubbed "Cinder," was taken for care to a nearby ranch and is now regaining strength at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Espanola, north of Santa Fe.
Veterinarian Kathleen Ramsay at Cottonwood Rehab says she paired Cinder with a full-grown surrogate elk to be raised with as little human contact as possible.
"They do elk things, they don't do people things," said Ramsay, noting Cinder arrived at a tender days-old age with his umbilical cord still attached.
Ramsay said the calf hopefully can be release into the wild in December after elk-hunting season. The strategy has worked repeatedly with elk tracked by tags as they rejoined wild herds.
The calf's rescue was reminiscent of events 70 years ago in New Mexico involving a scalded black bear cub and the fire prevention mascot "Smokey Bear."
The U.S. fire-safety campaign took on new urgency in 1950 with the rescue by firefighters of a black bear cub that was badly burned by wildfire in southern New Mexico. The cub — named Smokey Bear after the mascot — recovered and lived at the National Zoo until its death in 1976.
Wildfires have broken out this spring in multiple states in the West, where climate change and an enduring drought are fanning the frequency and intensity of forest and grassland fires.
Rain, snow slow New Mexico fire, but hot, dry weather looms - Associated Press
The largest wildfire in North America slowed to a near standstill in northern New Mexico Tuesday amid light rain and a bit of snow in the mountains as nearly 3,000 firefighters scrambled to get ahead of a worsening fire forecast in the days ahead.
The Memorial Day weekend historically marks the beginning of the primary wildfire season across many parts of the Southwest. But wildland blazes already have burned an area larger than the state of Delaware this year in extremely dry conditions created by lingering drought and climate change.
In Arizona, a new fire briefly forced evacuations Tuesday near Flagstaff. Authorities investigating the cause said they were looking for a person of interest near where it started a half-mile from the Lowell Observatory.
Fire officials in New Mexico said they hoped to continue to clear flammable vegetation and deploy aircraft to douse smoldering forests on Wednesday before windier, hotter, drier conditions return into the weekend.
By Friday, "fire weather starts to enter the critical stage where we'll probably see more growth and fire moving," Forest Service fire behavior analyst Stewart Turner said at a briefing Tuesday night.
The blaze that started about seven weeks ago in the Rocky Mountains foothills east of Santa Fe was 41% encircled by clearings and barriers that can stop a wildfire from spreading farther.
The fire has consumed more than 486 square miles of timber, grassland and brush, with evacuations in place for weeks. Its perimeter stretches 634 miles — more than the distance between New York City and Detroit.
It's among six active large fires in the state that have burned across 536 square miles .
So far this year, wildland fires have burned across roughly 2,650 square miles of the U.S. That's roughly twice the average burn for this time of year, according to a national center for coordinating wildfire suppression.
Jayson Coil, one of the operations chiefs in New Mexico, said the thing that will be "keeping me awake at night" are the hidden hot spots where extremely dry roots and dead logs smoldering beneath the ground can quickly burst into flames.
"You can have one of those (logs) that's stuck in a snow bank, but the wood's going to keep heat in there," he said Tuesday night.
"Once one side of them burns, it will be just like a cigar. It may take several days depending on what is around it, but the fire will creep down, stay in there and then it will pop out the other side," he said.
A wildfire on the outskirts of Los Alamos National Laboratory was 85% contained Tuesday. In the vicinity, Bandelier National Monument is preparing to reopen some areas to visitors Friday.
In southwestern New Mexico, a fire was burning through portions of the Gila National Forest and outlying areas.
Stricter campfire and smoking restrictions will take effect Wednesday or Thursday in all six national forests in Arizona because of the heightened fire threat, Forest Service officials said Tuesday.
MLG asks feds to consider ‘extreme’ scenarios ahead of every prescribed burn - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
As the United States Forest Service conducts a review of its prescribed burn protocol over the next several months, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office is calling for several big changes to the way federal agencies determine whether a burn is a good idea.
The changes the governor seeks are generally aimed at ensuring federal agencies are adapting to realities of climate change, according to a spokesperson.
“The governor stressed that what used to be extreme is now much more common,” spokesperson Nora Sackett said in an email Friday, “which I understand the Forest Service was very receptive to.”
What became the Hermits Peak fire started as Las Dispensas prescribed burn about 12 miles north of Las Vegas in early April. The burn was carried out of containment lines due to “unexpected erratic winds” and then joined forces with the Calf Canyon fire a couple weeks later. The combined fire is now the biggest in state history.
The governor and members of the state Congressional delegation have criticized Santa Fe National Forest officials for igniting the burn, particularly on a windy April day during a severe drought. They say the federal government is liable for the damage the blaze has since caused, including the displacement of thousands of people and destruction of hundreds of homes.
Late last week, Lujan Grisham spoke with Randy Moore, chief of the United States Forest Service, and other federal officials after the blaze. Shortly afterward, Moore announced a 90-day “pause” on the burns, citing high fire risk and a review of agency protocols around controlled burns.
This week, her office released more details about requests the governor made of the Forest Service in response to an inquiry from Source New Mexico.
For one, Lujan Grisham said the state would like more consultation with local officials ahead of prescribed burns “to incorporate their deep knowledge of the terrain and weather patterns.” The Forest Service did not consult New Mexico State Forestry officials or San Miguel County, where the burn took place, ahead of the prescribed burn, the agencies previously told Source New Mexico.
In addition, the governor, citing climate change, said burn bosses need to add more variables to their calculation about whether a burn is safe, and they need to re-evaluate their rules more often to make sure they’re adapting to the realities of a hotter, drier climate.
Specifically, the Forest Service should add the “vapor pressure deficit” to its models, Lujan Grisham is suggesting. That measure, which is an alternative to relative humidity, allows burn bosses to evaluate how much moisture is in plants, soils and fire fuels. A study from 2014 determined that the variable was a better predictor of damage after wildfires than drought, temperature or precipitation.
The Forest Service currently looks at relative humidity, which was predicted to be between 9% and 13% on April 6, the day of the burn, according to spot forecasts the fire crew reviewed before ignition.
The governor’s office is also hoping federal burn bosses will heed the “Hot-Dry-Windy Index” more closely. That index, which the Forest Service first announced as a new tool in 2018, seeks to help forest managers better determine whether it’s safe to ignite a burn.
It’s not clear whether the burn boss would have looked at that or any other indicator before the burn, though the service has said that conditions were within the parameters they use to determine a burn is safe. The service has refused to provide a copy of its burn plan to Source New Mexico, saying it would be “premature” as the agency conducts a review of its decision-making that day.
The governor’s office is also asking the Forest Service to assume that spot fires will occur 1-2 miles away from the burn site and evaluate fuel conditions in that area. Unprecedented high winds have carried embers more than a mile in recent weeks, officials have said, which has made fighting the megafires here even more dangerous and complicated.
Finally, the governor’s office is asking the federal forest management agencies to improve their wind modeling ahead of burns. The spot forecast on April 6 showed wind gusts up to 25 mph.
Taken together, the governor’s office said the Forest Service needs to adapt to the realities of climate change on a rolling basis and change their rules accordingly to account for hotter, drier, windier conditions that could allow a prescribed burn to escape.
“Models and protocols should be reviewed on an annual basis,” Maddy Hayden, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office, said in an email Monday, “because climate change is happening faster than many expected and we need to assume even a one-year-old model is outdated.”
Heightened wildfire threat prompts stricter restrictions - Associated Press
Arizona's six national forests and some local governments and land management agencies are implementing stricter campfire and smoking restrictions because of the heightened wildfire threat, officials announced Tuesday.
Heightened restrictions ordered by the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Coronado, Kaibab, Prescott and Tonto national forests take effect either Wednesday or Thursday, officials said.
Along with restricting campfires and smoking, the forests' heightened restrictions prohibit or impose limits on activities such as shooting, welding, using chain saws, running generators and driving motor vehicles off roads.
"The restrictions are necessary to reduce human-caused wildfires during periods of high fire danger and persistent severe fire conditions," according to a statement by the Apache-Sitgreaves forests.
Other jurisdictions implementing stricter fire restrictions this week include the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, the city of Flagstaff and federal Bureau of Land Management units in southern Arizona.
In rural southeastern Arizona, winds and warmer temperatures were expected to challenge crews trying to protect power lines and scattered homes from a wildfire that has burned six square miles of grass and brush near Elgin in eastern Santa Cruz County.
Cause of the fire was under investigation. It started Monday.
Border agency plans vehicle pursuit policy to raise safety - By Elliot Spagat Associated Press
The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday that he is developing a new policy for vehicle pursuits with an eye toward increasing safety after a spate of deaths.
Commissioner Chris Magnus, who took over the nation's largest law enforcement agency in December, told The Associated Press that the policy is expected "soon" and will be made public. It will rely on extensive discussion with people inside and outside the Border Patrol, data analysis and a review of practices at other law enforcement agencies.
Magnus, a former police chief in Tucson, Arizona, informed Border Patrol agents of his plans during a visit to Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings, telling them it was "an issue that I want to look at."
"I appreciate that a lot of agents get very nervous when they hear that," Magnus said during an interview at a migrant holding facility in Donna, the site of extreme overcrowding last year. "That is not uncharacteristic of police officers in every department I've ever worked in, but you still have to come back to the reality that a professional law enforcement agency continually evaluates its tactics with one key thing in mind, and that is the safety of the public. And the public actually includes the agents themselves, who are often injured or killed in these pursuits."
CBP, as the Border Patrol's parent agency is known, has been working with the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit advisory group that develops police policies. CBP has also informed some advocates who have been pressing for change.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents agents, said he couldn't comment without knowing specifics.
Although CBP doesn't disclose the number of Border Patrol car chases, the American Civil Liberties Union chapters in Texas and New Mexico said 22 people were killed in such pursuits last year, up from 14 in 2020 and two in 2019.
There have been 75 people killed in Border Patrol pursuits since January 2010, according to the ACLU, which based its numbers on CBP statements and news reports.
The agency's own numbers show 537 use-of-force incidents classified as "vehicle/vessel" involving CBP employees in the 12-month period through September, up from 210 the previous year and 161 the year before that. The agency is not more specific about how force was used.
Shaw Drake, an attorney for the ACLU of Texas, said the policy review was "certainly a welcome step in the right direction" but that it was difficult to comment without specifics.
The current policy, which is 19 pages long, is likely difficult for many agents to interpret and lacks specifics on how to weigh law enforcement benefits against risks when deciding whether to pursue someone, Drake said.
"What we see in practice is that agents will engage in pursuits really on the basis of zero information and under any circumstances," Drake said.
Earlier this month, Magnus said the Biden administration was disbanding evidence collection teams within the Border Patrol after critics said they were secretive and put the agency in an untenable position of investigating itself in cases that might involve agent misconduct. The "critical incident teams" will cease operations by Oct. 1.
EXPLAINER: How cities in the West have water amid drought - By Suman Naishadham Associated Press
As drought and climate change tighten their grip on the American West, the sight of fountains, swimming pools, gardens and golf courses in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Albuquerque can be jarring at first glance.
Western water experts, however, say they aren't necessarily cause for concern. Over the past three decades, major Western cities — particularly in California and Nevada — have diversified their water sources, boosted local supplies through infrastructure investments and conservation, and use water more efficiently.
Peter Gleick, president emeritus of the Pacific Institute, has studied water resources for decades. He calls the reduction in per capita water use a "remarkable story" and one that's not widely acknowledged.
"That's a huge success throughout the West," Gleick said. "All of the cities in the West have made progress."
But with less water flowing into the Colorado River, which serves 40 million people in the West and northern Mexico, experts say the measures taken by cities will still not be enough long-term.
Here's a look at how Western cities have prepared for a future with less water.
WHERE DO WESTERN CITIES GET THEIR WATER?
Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Albuquerque and other Western cities use water from the 1,450-mile (2,334 kilometer) Colorado River for residential and commercial needs.
Overuse of the river, hotter temperatures, less melting snow in the spring, and evaporation have greatly reduced water flows in the river — by 20% on average since 2000.
Agriculture remains the single-largest consumer, using 70% of available water in the Colorado River basin, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
While the river remains the lifeblood of the region, many cities have other water sources. That's due to spending billions of dollars over decades on infrastructure aimed at withstanding a future with less reliable water sources.
"It really has to do with the modern engineering marvels of the 20th and 21st centuries," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "This is sort of the perennial story of the West."
Los Angeles imports the bulk of its water through a vast storage and delivery system. Its water sources include the Sierra Nevada mountains in Northern California, the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and the Colorado River in the east. It also uses some groundwater and recycled water.
"Los Angeles is less vulnerable," Gleick said, "because they do have this very broad, diverse set of options."
Still, Southern California's behemoth water supplier last month ordered about 6 million people to cut their outdoor watering to once a week due to record dry conditions. The Metropolitan Water District said a total ban on outdoor watering in the affected areas could follow in September if the restrictions don't work.
The lion's share of Las Vegas' water supply comes from the Colorado River. The agency serving the city of 2.4 million, its suburbs and 40 million annual visitors gets 90% of its water from the river and 10% from groundwater.
Nevada lost 7% of its share of Colorado River water this year as part of cuts announced by Reclamation, but Las Vegas was shielded from the effects thanks to water conservation and reuse.
"It's fair to say that Las Vegas has taken the most dramatic steps to reduce its dependence on Colorado River water," said Anne Castle, a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment.
San Diego's water wholesaler gets two-thirds of its supplies from the Colorado River, but has sought other water sources since the early '90s. The San Diego County Water Authority gets 10% of its water from a $1 billion desalination plant that removes salt and impurities from seawater. The city has also conserved more water and cut per-person use while its population has grown.
Phoenix, the nation's fifth largest city, relies on imported Colorado River water, too. It also gets water from the in-state Salt and Verde Rivers, which are nowhere as challenged as the Colorado River, said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. Phoenix also uses sterilized wastewater for limited uses, like maintaining parks and recharging some aquifers with groundwater.
Arizona was the hardest-hit among Western states losing Colorado River water this year, with 18% of its supply gone. But cities were spared from that round of cuts. Officials in Phoenix say they have enough water to weather future cuts because of diversified supplies and water saved and stored underground.
HAS CONSERVATION BOLSTERED WESTERN CITIES' WATER SUPPLIES?
Yes. There may be no better example than Las Vegas. Sin City's fountains, swimming pools, and showers use recycled water. About 40% of the Southern Nevada Water Authority's water supply is for indoor use. Once used, much of that wastewater is treated and then returned to Lake Mead, the reservoir behind Hoover Dam, before it is drawn and used again.
Las Vegas started conserving, reusing and recycling water in 1999. Since 2002, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has slashed its use of Colorado River water by 26% while the region's population grew by 49%.
In 2003, the water authority banned front yard lawns in new subdivisions. Grass was prohibited in new commercial developments. Last year, Nevada outlawed what it called 'non-functional turf' in the Las Vegas area, or grass used at office parks, in street meridians and at entrances to housing developments. Officials said the measure could save an amount equal to 10% of its Colorado River allocation.
Not all cities and states have acted with the same urgency. Phoenix does not offer rebates to tear out grass. Utah only recently passed a turf buyback measure.
In California, urban water use has steadily dropped since peaking in 2007, according to the Pacific Institute. Much of that progress is from repairing leaks, replacing lawns with more drought-proof landscaping, and installing efficient washers, dishwashers and other fixtures.
But even more water can be conserved, the Pacific Institute found in a recent report. California recycles 23% of its municipal wastewater. The report found the state's urban areas could cut consumption by another 30% to 48% by conserving more.
Gleick, one of the authors, pointed out that water use trends in California over the past few decades show that population growth no longer means additional water is needed to support more people.
"We're past the point where we can find a place to build another dam that makes sense or another river to tap," Gleick said. "We're now in a new era of efficiency and reuse."
WHAT ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?
Even as Western cities diversify supplies, consume less and reuse more, scientists say climate change will be disruptive and could force cities to adopt more expensive technologies, like desalination, and mandate water cuts more often.
"There's an assumption baked into almost all of these drought mitigation strategies and plans and water allocations that in the long run, drought is temporary," said Swain of UCLA. "Increasingly, it's an assumption that is wrong."
Swain added that conservation is easier in its earlier stages.
"The first conservation gains are always the easiest," he said. "You fix leaks, put in (efficient) toilets and fixtures and things like that in urban areas. After a certain point, you then have to start going for the higher hanging fruit."
Last month, the Southern Nevada Water Authority announced that water levels at Lake Mead had fallen so low that Las Vegas is drawing water from deeper in the reservoir, from the so-called "third straw."
The pipeline near the bottom of the lake was completed in 2015 and built so that Las Vegas can still get water if the lake's surface drops below two other intake pipes.
"What we have now is a new reality of reduced flows in the whole Colorado River system," said Castle of the Getches-Wilkinson Center. "That's going to require the per capita usage in these various cities to continue to go down, and not just when the governor declares an emergency."
This story was first published on May 24, 2022. It was updated on May 25, 2022 to correct a mistaken reference to San Diego. The correct entity is the San Diego County Water Authority.