New Mexico Democrats seek new gun restrictions, enforcement - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
Responses from public officials in New Mexico to the killing of 19 children and two teachers by a lone gunman at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, are falling along partisan lines when it comes to proposals to improve public safety and regulating access to guns.
Democratic candidates for the state's top law enforcement job say New Mexico needs new gun control legislation, more enforcement resources for gun safety, or both. A top Republican Party official said Thursday that gun control is not the right answer.
In a Wednesday night debate, state auditor and Democratic candidate for attorney general Brian Colón said he supports legislation to ensure safe gun storage proposed by legislators including state Rep. Pamelya Herndon of Albuquerque.
A failed bill from Herndon this year would have established gun storage requirements and established new crimes with misdemeanor and felony penalties for recklessly making a firearm available to a minor.
Albuquerque-based District Attorney Raúl Torrez — also seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general — said law enforcement agencies need greater funding and training to harness New Mexico's 2020 "red flag" law that allows police or sheriff's deputies to ask a court to temporarily take away guns from people who might hurt themselves or others. The legislation was proposed in response a racist attack targeting Hispanics at a Walmart in El Paso that killed 23 people in 2019.
Torrez also said parents who fail to secure firearms from child access need to be held accountable, and that he supports the creation of a gun-violence prevention office within the state Department of Health.
State Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce on Thursday said that "gun control is not the answer" to school safety concerns.
"We must provide better security, more police presence, metal detectors, one-point secure entrances and take other appropriate measures to make our schools a safe place for all," Pearce said in a statement.
Since Tuesday's school shooting, Democratic governors and lawmakers across the country have issued impassioned pleas for Congress and their own legislatures to pass gun restrictions. Republicans have mostly called for more efforts to address mental health and to shore up protections at schools, such as adding security guards.
Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says elected officials should do everything they can to reverse the proliferation of firearms.
"We must do everything in our power to reduce the number of firearms and deadly weapons on our streets to make sure that everyone in this country lives in peace and free of fear," said Lujan Grisham in a statement.
Since 2019, Lujan Grisham has signed a raft of legislation that restricts access to guns, including an extension of background-check requirements to nearly all private gun sales and a ban on firearms possession for people under permanent protective orders for domestic violence.
Five Republican candidates are vying for the nomination in New Mexico's June 7 primary for the chance to challenge Lujan Grisham as she runs for a second term.
The Uvalde attack was the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in nearly a decade.
Law enforcement officers killed the shooter, identified as a local 18-year-old who had shot and wounded his grandmother and spelled out his violent plans in online messages shortly before the massacre at Robb Elementary. Investigators say they don't yet know a motive.
New Mexico wildfire nears 50% containment as weather shifts - Associated Press
Crews in northern New Mexico have cleared and cut containment lines around nearly half of the perimeter of the nation's largest active wildfire while bracing for a return of weather conditions that might fan flames and send embers aloft, officials said Thursday.
The 7-week-old fire east of Santa Fe was boxed in around 46% of its 635-mile perimeter, enclosing an area larger than Oklahoma City.
Recent weather that included lighter winds, cloud cover and light rain and snow in some areas helped firefighters' effort to surround the fire and slow its growth. But forecasts for Friday and through the holiday weekend call for higher temperatures, less humidity and stronger winds.
The National Weather Service issued fire weather watches for the region on Saturday.
"All across the fire, we're making a lot of really good progress over the last few days," incident commander Carl Schwope said at a briefing Wednesday night. "We do have some more critical fire weather moving in ... starting now and getting warmer and drier throughout the weekend. (But) feeling real confident that we are ahead of the curve on that," he said.
Crews continued to battle a handful of other large fires in New Mexico and Arizona in areas of forest, brush and grass in a region that many fire managers have described as "ripe and ready to burn" due to a megadrought that has spanned decades and warm and windy conditions brought on by climate change.
Jayson Coil, an operations section chief, said crews were clearing containment lines and retracing their steps in some areas to strengthen lines already in place.
"Everything we're doing right now is to make sure we're prepared for the potential of high winds and the limitations that those brings, along with the potential for large fire growth," Coil said Thursday.
The expected high winds could ground aircraft that have supported ground crews and bulldozer operators by dropping water on hot spots, Coil said.
"Everything we're doing right now is to make sure we're prepared for the potential of high winds and the limitations that those brings, along with the potential for large fire growth," Coil said.
APS board holds off on approving nearly $2 billion budget as deadline quickly approaches - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education has tabled discussion of its budget ahead of a May 31 deadline.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the district leaders narrowly approved the motion to hold off on sending the budget to the Public Education Department on a 4-3 vote Wednesday.
The proposed budget was for $1.9 billion dollars, up from $1.87 billion dollars last year, which concerned some board members who wanted more details about what had changed and the potential impact of the increase on schools, students and programs.
Those who voted against stalling the proposal expressed concern over the delay with a deadline to submit it to PED for review approaching next week. Superintendent Scott Elder says he’ll meet with state Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus to discuss the possibility of an extension.
In the meantime, Elder says he’ll work with budget planners to get APS board members more information to inform their decisions.
State law requires a final budget to be approved by June 20 and finalized by July 1.
Firefighters battle blaze in the bosque - KUNM, Albuquerque Journal
Officials have successfully contained a fire that broke out yesterday/Wednesday in the Rio Grande Bosque. Albuquerque Fire Rescue and several other local and state resources established a fire containment line and will be on site until the fire is fully extinguished.
The fire burned about 34 acres on both sides of the river and began in the wooded bosque around Coors and Montaño.
No structures were threatened and nobody was reported to be injured. However, a picture from a photographer at the Albuquerque Journal showed a burnt porcupine narrowly escaping the flames.
At one point, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation order for the area stretching from the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park off Candelaria to the edge of the street of Montaño. That was quickly lifted after some miscommunication between first responders was resolved.
A spokesman with Albuquerque Fire Rescue said the Bosque trails and open spaces will remain open unless they present an immediate threat to the public. Parks and Recreation Director David Simon asked the community to continue to be vigilant for any new fires.
Residents can check for open space closures and other fire related information at cabq.gov/wildfires.
New Mexico County to Ease Oil & Gas Drilling Rules Despite New Evidence of Health Dangers - Jerry Redfern Capital & Main, Source New Mexico
A mapping project released today by nonprofit environmental groups EarthWorks and FracTracker shows that more than 12.3 million people live within a half-mile of an oil and gas facility in the United States — 144,377 of them in New Mexico. And earlier this month, a mostly rural county just south of Albuquerque passed an ordinance that could increase that number further.
In early May, the Valencia County Board of Commissioners passed a zoning “overlay” that would allow anyone in the county to apply to exploit any natural resources on property not along the Rio Grande greenbelt (which bisects the county) and not in an incorporated area. They also would not lose the original county zoning classification of the property. Proposals would still need to meet county and state guidelines for resource development, but the overlay would dramatically reduce the administrative steps and public hearings required by the county for zoning changes.
The change could help landowners exploit all sorts of resources, says County Commissioner Joseph Bizzell, who sponsored the bill. “It could be gravel, it could be hydrogen,” he says. He also has his own business idea: “I’m trying to go after the brackish water.” Bizzell says that water deposits in the west of the county could be tapped, desalinated and sold for both clean water and the resulting salt. Currently, that would require an industrial zoning change, he says, and if the brine ran out, he’d have to apply again to revert the land to either agricultural or residential use.
But the overlay has uses beyond rocks or salty water.
Harvey Yates Jr. of Albuquerque told the commission, “I think there’s a good chance that we could develop a new industry that would mean a better economy for Valencia County.”
And maybe a better economy for Yates, too.
The one-time head of the state Republican party runs Jalapeño Corporation, an oil and gas drilling and exploration company based in Albuquerque. He’s also part of New Mexico’s best-known and wealthiest oil family. It was a Yates who drilled the first successful oil well in New Mexico in 1907. And in 2016, the family sold Yates Petroleum to EOG Resources for $2.5 billion. While the family’s businesses no longer primarily revolve around owning oil and gas wells, a search at the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division shows that other companies still own nearly 320 wells with “Yates” in the name.
Bizzell, who sponsored the zoning overlay, invited Yates to the commission meeting that night, and Yates was direct when asked during the meeting if there are fossil fuel deposits in Valencia County.
“Are there resources in Valencia County? I think so,” he said. The U.S. Geological Survey thinks it’s possible, too. A 1995 study notes that the Albuquerque Basin “has the potential for large amounts of hydrocarbons, probably gas” — though none had been found to that point due to scattered and “mediocre” subsurface data.
Yates liked the fact that the overlay would allow people to keep doing what they’re doing on the surface as drilling and extraction take place below ground. “In Fort Worth,” he said, “there are 2,000 wells under the city.” He also noted wells beneath Hobbs and Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Valencia County isn’t exactly Fort Worth, or the middle of the Permian Basin. For one thing, there are only about 76,000 people and no oil or gas wells. The county attorney, David Pato, says the overlay allows landowners to quickly revert to previous uses “whether or not there are natural resources within the area.”
That could be important for Yates, as companies he controls — including Jalapeño Corporation, Petro Yates and Yates Exploration — own hundreds of parcels scattered around the eastern part of the county, many of them in ghost developments that were part of the massive ’60s and ’70s-era Horizon Land Corporation swindle. Yates didn’t respond to interview requests for this story.
But Yates’ ties to Valencia County run deeper than the land his companies own. His Jalapeño Corporation donated $1,500 to Bizzell’s 2020 county commissioner election campaign, according to records from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office. That’s about three-quarters of all the money Bizzell raised for the race. When asked about the campaign donations, he changed the subject, saying, “You know, again, I’m looking at the brackish water.”
Bizzell worked with county attorney Pato on the zoning draft: “I gave him the idea of what I wanted, and he wrote it.”
And Bizzell says he shared the proposed zoning overlay with Yates to get his opinions before the commissioners’ meeting. Asked if Yates proposed any changes, Bizzell says, “I don’t know if he brought anything up or not.”
“When constituents have concerns, they bring them up with their commissioners, which are then raised and considered by the board,” Pato says. It’s not clear if Yates is considered a constituent as he lives in another county. Asked what kinds of concerns came up when drafting the proposal, Pato says, “I don’t recall.”
The commission did hear other concerns at the meeting. Duana Draszkiewicz, who lives in the county, came to ask the commission to ban fireworks during this bone-dry season. She stayed when she saw the zoning overlay on the commission’s agenda. After Yates spoke, she told the commission it was “just going for oil and gas. I dare you to tell me I’m wrong.”
She says that, after the meeting, “I had [county workers] outside the door who gave me thumbs up because they can’t speak up.”
Kathy McCord, who also came to talk about fireworks and also lives in the county, got up to say, “This could be something that the people of the county would not support and would be aghast at happening.”
They both pleaded with the commissioners to have a larger public hearing — which, in the end, will likely be the case. The zoning change was publicly announced only once before the meeting, and it likely should have been posted twice. Pato said that once was enough for this kind of change but recommended the commissioners rescind the rule, readvertise it and hold another public hearing. Bizzell is in favor of the do-over. “That way everybody has public comment,” he says.
The public has new data to consider.
According to the Oil and Gas Threat Map released today by EarthWorks and FracTracker, none of the more than 144,000 New Mexicans who already live within a half-mile of an oil and gas facility are in Valencia County. By comparison, it’s difficult to find areas in huge portions of the Permian and San Juan fossil fuel basins that aren’t within a half-mile of a facility.
Many of those facilities leak toxic gases, and studies show that living close to those emitters leads to increased rates of cancer and other diseases. State and federal agencies have known about this for years, but to this point have been unable to stop the pollution. A case in point: One year into a new reporting program administered by the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, 262 operators didn’t file quarterly reports tallying natural gas lost to venting and flaring.
“It can be very overwhelming if you don’t have the means to pick up and move,” says Kayley Shoup, a community organizer with Citizens Caring for the Future. She lives in Carlsbad in the middle of the Permian Basin.
Overwhelming and unhealthy. According to the map data, about 80% of people in San Juan County in the San Juan Basin live within a half mile of an oil or gas facility. Joseph Hernandez with the NAVA education project in Shiprock, New Mexico, lives there and points out that about 60% of the county lies within the Navajo Nation, so the majority of people affected by high air pollution from leaking oil and gas facilities there are people of color.
“For generations we have been impacted at many levels [by] the fossil fuels industry,” he says. “I can’t stress enough how significant this is for future generations.”
Rancher and environmental gadfly Don Schreiber lives on a cattle ranch with 122 producing gas wells on the eastern end of the San Juan Basin. For years, he has goaded state and federal agencies to strengthen the rules governing fossil fuel companies, and he has sharp words for Valencia County’s commissioners and the people who live there.
“Planning and zoning commissions of counties have a huge responsibility,” he says. “They’re the last line of defense” when state and federal institutions can’t or won’t regulate an industry, be that oil, gas or brackish water. He points out that a well is never just a well. You need big drilling equipment. You need trucks or pipelines to carry the resulting liquids away. You need roads for the trucks and to access the wells and pipelines. All of that leads to further industrial development.
He says that companies come to new communities to begin drilling and promise a goose that lays golden eggs. But the companies tend to get the gold.
“The other things that come out of the goose,” he says, “everybody else is left with that.”
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 (1,260 square kilometers) and destroyed hundreds of structures.
It's is one of five major uncontained fires burning in New Mexico amid extremely dry and windy conditions. More than 3,000 firefighters battling the biggest blaze have made significant progress halting its growth in recent days ahead of more dangerous fire conditions forecast to return into the weekend, crew commanders said Wednesday night.
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. Sink 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 released 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.
Crews battling the biggest U.S. fire in northern New Mexico took advantage of one last day of favorable weather Wednesday before hotter, drier and windier conditions are forecast to return late Thursday and continue to worsen into next week.
"All across the fire, we're making a lot of really good progress over the last few days," incident commander Carl Schwope said at a briefing Wednesday night.
"We do have some more critical fire weather moving in ... starting now and getting warmer and drier throughout the weekend. (But) feeling real confident that we are ahead of the curve on that," he said.
Bruno Rodriguez, an inter-agency meteorologist assigned to the fire, said gusts should continue to increase by about 5 mph per day, from 25 mph Thursday to as strong as 50 mph by Monday.
"It's definitely going to be a critical fire weather pattern and unfortunately it's going to be fairly prolonged and persistent," he said.
The Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire is a combination of two blazes, one of which was started as a prescribed burn by the forest service just outside of Mora, New Mexico.
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 buckled in.
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. Flight controllers in Houston applauded and cheered the bull's-eye touchdown.
"It's great to have this incredible test flight behind us," said Steve Stich, director of NASA's commercial crew program. He described the demo as "extremely successful," with all objectives met.
Added Boeing's Mark Nappi, a vice president: "On a scale of one to 10, I think I'd give it a 15."
Based on these early results, NASA astronauts will strap in next for a trip to the space station, perhaps by year's end. 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 (kilograms) 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.