Tree falling on power lines blamed in fatal New Mexico fire - Associated Press
An investigation has determined that a tree falling in power lines started a fatal fire that also destroyed more than 200 homes in the Ruidoso area four months ago, according to a newspaper.
The Albuquerque Journal said a report issued by the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department states that wind gusts of up to 80 mph toppled a 49-foot-tall drought-stressed tree on April 12, causing electrical lines to arc and ignite the fire.
The following day, authorities reported finding the remains of an elderly couple who died while trying to evacuate their burning home.
The fire has spawned two lawsuits filed on behalf of dozens of Ruidoso property owners.
The suit alleges that Public Service Company of New Mexico and a contractor caused the fire by failing to properly maintain trees and vegetation near its power lines.
PNM has denied any fault or wrongdoing, saying the tree that struck the electrical lines was located outside of the company's right-of-way.
Son of suspect in Muslim slayings to remain in custody - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
The son of an Afghan refugee suspected in the shooting deaths of four Muslim men in New Mexico will remain in custody pending trial on a charge that he allegedly provided a false address on a form when purchasing a gun last year.
Shaheen Syed, 21, appeared in U.S. district court in Albuquerque on Monday, with the judge granting a motion by federal prosecutors to keep him behind bars pending the ongoing investigation.
In their motion, prosecutors pointed to cellphone records that they say show Syed possibly helped his father track Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old man from Pakistan who was fatally shot on Aug. 5 in the parking lot of a refugee resettlement agency in southeast Albuquerque.
"The evidence that agents have been able to gather thus far in this rapidly unfolding investigation is obviously alarming with respect to the defendant's short and frequent communications with his father both before and after the murder of Naeem Hussain," the motion stated.
Albuquerque police have charged Muhammad Syed, 51, with murder in the deaths of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain. Hussein, 41, was slain on the night of July 26 after parking his car in the usual spot near his home. Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who had worked on the campaign of a New Mexico congresswoman, was gunned down on the night of Aug. 1 while taking his evening walk.
The elder Syed is the primary suspect — but hasn't been charged — in the death of Naeem Hussain and the slaying of Muhammad Zahir Ahmadi, a 62-year-old Afghan immigrant who was fatally shot in the head last November behind the market he owned in the city.
Court documents filed in federal court provided more details about Naeem Hussain's killing, saying it appeared he had been followed to Lutheran Family Services, the resettlement agency, following funeral services for two of the other shooting victims. Shots were fired at his SUV around 4 p.m., striking him in the head and the arm.
Prosecutors claim that Shaheen Syed spoke with his father when his phone was somewhere in the general area of the Islamic Center of New Mexico and soon after his father's phone pinged in an area that included Lutheran Family Services.
After Hussain was fatally shot, Shaheen Syed's phone moved to an area closer to the crime scene, according to the motion. Ten minutes after the shooting, the motion states the men shared a second call as their phones remained in the "general area of the murder."
Syed's attorney argued that prosecutors gave no indication of the size of the area that his phone was in relative to the shooting.
The Syed family home is a few minutes drive from both the Islamic Center and Lutheran Family Services.
John Anderson, Shaheen Syed's attorney, did not return messages seeking comment but said in court filings that the allegations against his client were "thin and speculative."
"The United States' motion boils down to an effort to detain defendant for a crime with which he has not even been charged," Anderson argued, referring to the slayings of the Muslim men.
Anderson also included a photo of a Florida driver's license issued to Shaheen Syed in 2021, contradicting prosecutors' claims that he misrepresented himself as a Florida resident while making a purchase at an Albuquerque gun store.
Prosecutors also presented prior police reports of Shaheen Syed allegedly beating his father and sister and an unrelated incident in which he and his brother were allegedly involved in a shooting outside a Walmart.
Court documents state that two guns purchased by Syed and his father at an Albuquerque gun store in July had been partially painted white. The guns were seized during a search of the family's home; and testing determined bullet casings found at the July 25 and Aug. 1 shootings matched the rifle that belonged to Muhammad Syed.
Casings found at one of the crime scenes also matched a handgun found in the elder Syed's vehicle when he was taken into custody, according to a criminal complaint.
Muhammad Syed is scheduled to appear before a state district judge Wednesday as prosecutors seek to have him detained without bond pending trial on the two counts of murder.
Medical investigator rules Baldwin set shooting an accident - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
The fatal film-set shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin last year was an accident, according to a determination made by New Mexico's Office of the Medical Investigator following the completion of an autopsy and a review of law enforcement reports.
The medical investigator's report was made public Monday by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office along with numerous reports from the FBI on the revolver and ammunition that were collected following the shooting.
Prosecutors have not yet decided if any charges will be filed in the case, saying they would review the latest reports and were awaiting cell phone data from Baldwin's attorneys.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when it went off on Oct. 21, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza. They had been inside a small church during setup for filming a scene.
While it's too early to say how much weight the medical investigator's report will carry with the district attorney's office, Baldwin's legal team suggested it was further proof that the shooting was "a tragic accident" and that he should not face criminal charges.
"This is the third time the New Mexico authorities have found that Alec Baldwin had no authority or knowledge of the allegedly unsafe conditions on the set, that he was told by the person in charge of safety on the set that the gun was 'cold,' and believed the gun was safe," attorney Luke Nikas said in a statement.
Baldwin said in a December interview with ABC News that he was pointing the gun at Hutchins at her instruction on the set of the Western film "Rust" when it went off after he cocked it. He said he did not pull the trigger.
An FBI analysis of the revolver that Baldwin had in his hand during the rehearsal suggested it was in working order at the time and would not have discharged unless it was fully cocked and the trigger was pulled.
With the hammer in full cock position, the FBI report stated the gun could not be made to fire without pulling the trigger while the working internal components were intact and functional.
During the testing of the gun by the FBI, authorities said, portions of the gun's trigger sear and cylinder stop fractured while the hammer was struck. That allowed the hammer to fall and the firing pin to detonate the primer.
"This was the only successful discharge during this testing and it was attributed to the fracture of internal components, not the failure of the firearm or safety mechanisms," the report stated.
It was unclear from the FBI report how many times the revolver's hammer may have been struck during the testing.
Baldwin, who also was a producer on the movie "Rust," has previously said the gun should not have been loaded for the rehearsal.
Among the ammunition seized from the film location were live rounds found on a cart and in the holster that was in the building where the shooting happened. Blank and dummy cartridges also were found.
New Mexico's Occupational Health and Safety Bureau in a scathing report issued in April detailed a narrative of safety failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set prior to the fatal shooting.
The bureau also documented gun safety complaints from crew members that went unheeded and said weapons specialists were not allowed to make decisions about additional safety training.
In reaching its conclusion that the shooting was an accident, New Mexico's medical investigator's office pointed to "the absence of obvious intent to cause harm or death" and stated that there was said "no compelling demonstration" that the revolver was intentionally loaded with live ammunition on the set.
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Associated Press writer Walter Berry in Phoenix contributed to this report.
Coroner: Central Illinois plane crash killed Santa Fe couple – Associated Press
A coroner Monday identified a Santa Fe, New Mexico, couple as the two people killed when a single-engine plane crashed on a roadway in central Illinois.
Killed in the crash Saturday in the small community of Hanna City were 75-year-old pilot James Everson and 67-year-old Lisa Evanson, Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood said.
An initial report from the Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft "experienced engine issues" and attempted an emergency landing on Illinois Route 116 before striking powerlines, the Peoria Journal Star reported.
The aircraft, a Mooney M20K, crashed about 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
The National Transportation Safety Board also is investigating the crash.
Hanna City is about 180 miles southwest of Chicago.
Deadline looms for western states to cut Colorado River use - By Sam Metz And Felicia Fonseca Associated Press
Banks along parts of the Colorado River where water once streamed are now just caked mud and rock as climate change makes the Western U.S. hotter and drier.
More than two decades of drought have done little to deter the region from diverting more water than flows through it, depleting key reservoirs to levels that now jeopardize water delivery and hydropower production.
Cities and farms in seven U.S. states are bracing for cuts this week as officials stare down a deadline to propose unprecedented reductions to their use of the water, setting up what's expected to be the most consequential week for Colorado River policy in years.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June told the states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — to determine how to use at least 15% less water next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. The bureau is also expected to publish hydrology projections that will trigger additional cuts already agreed to.
Tensions over the extent of the cuts and how to spread them equitably have flared, with states pointing fingers and stubbornly clinging to their water rights despite the looming crisis.
Representatives from the seven states convened in Denver last week for last minute negotiations behind closed doors. Those discussions have yet to produce concrete proposals, but officials party to them say the most likely targets for cuts are Arizona and California farmers. Agricultural districts in those states are asking to be paid generously to bear that burden.
The proposals under discussion, however, fall short of what the Bureau of Reclamation has demanded and, with negotiations stalling, state officials say they hope for more time to negotiate details.
"Despite the obvious urgency of the situation, the last sixty-two days produced exactly nothing in terms of meaningful collective action to help forestall the looming crisis," John Entsminger, the General Manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority wrote in a letter on Monday. He called the agricultural district demands "drought profiteering."
The Colorado River cascades from the Rocky Mountains into the arid deserts of the Southwest. It's the primary water supply for 40 million people. About 70% of its water goes toward irrigation, sustaining a $15 billion-a-year agricultural industry that supplies 90% of the United States' winter vegetables.
Water from the river is divided among Mexico and the seven U.S. states under a series of agreements that date back a century, to a time when more flowed.
But climate change has transformed the river's hydrology, providing less snowmelt and causing hotter temperatures and more evaporation. As the river yielded less water, the states agreed to cuts tied to the levels of reservoirs that store its water.
Last year, federal officials for the first time declared a water shortage, triggering cuts to Nevada, Arizona and Mexico's share of the river to help prevent the two largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — from dropping low enough to threaten hydropower production and stop water from flowing through their dams.
The proposals for supplemental cuts due this week have inflamed disagreement between upper basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and lower basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — over how to spread the pain.
The lower basin states use most of the water and have thus far shouldered most of the cuts. The upper basin states have historically not used their full allocations but want to maintain water rights to plan for population growth.
Gene Shawcroft, the chairman of Utah's Colorado River Authority, believes the lower basin states should take most of the cuts because they use most of the water and their full allocations.
He said it was his job to protect Utah's allocation for growth projected for decades ahead: "The direction we've been given as water purveyors is to make sure we have water for the future."
In a letter last month, representatives from the upper basin states proposed a five-point conservation plan they said would save water, but argued most cuts needed to come from the lower basin. The plan didn't commit to any numbers.
"The focus is getting the tools in place and working with water users to get as much as we can rather than projecting a water number," Chuck Cullom, the executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, told The Associated Press.
That position, however, is unsatisfactory to many in lower basin states already facing cuts.
"It's going to come to a head particularly if the upper basin states continue their negotiating position, saying, 'We're not making any cuts,'" said Bruce Babbitt, who served as Interior secretary from 2003-2011.
Lower basin states have yet to go public with plans to contribute, but officials said last week that the states' tentative proposal under discussion fell slightly short of the federal government's request to cut 2 to 4 million acre-feet.
An acre-foot of water is enough to serve 2-3 households annually.
Bill Hasencamp, the Colorado River resource manager at Southern California's Metropolitan Water District, said all the districts in the state that draw from the river had agreed to contribute water or money to the plan, pending approval by their respective boards. Water districts, in particular Imperial Irrigation District, have been adamant that any voluntary cut must not curtail their high priority water rights.
Southern California cities will likely provide money that could fund fallowing farmland in places like Imperial County and water managers are considering leaving water they've stored in Lake Mead as part of their contribution.
Arizona will probably be hit hard with reductions. The state over the past few years shouldered many of the cuts. With its growing population and robust agricultural industry, it has less wiggle room than its neighbors to take on more, said Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke. Some Native American tribes in Arizona have also contributed to propping up Lake Mead in the past, and could play an outsized role in any new proposal.
Irrigators around Yuma, Arizona, have proposed taking 925,000 acre-feet less of Colorado River water in 2023 and leaving it in Lake Mead if they're paid $1.4 billion, or $1,500 per acre-foot. The cost is far above the going rate, but irrigators defended their proposal as fair considering the cost to grow crops and get them to market.
Wade Noble, the coordinator for a coalition that represents Yuma water rights holders, said it was the only proposal put forth publicly that includes actual cuts, rather than theoretical cuts to what users are allocated on paper.
Some of the compensation-for-conservation funds could come from a $4 billion in drought funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act under consideration in Washington, U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona told the AP.
Sinema acknowledged that paying farmers to conserve is not a long-term solution: "In the short-term, however, in order to meet our day-to-day needs and year-to-year needs, ensuring that we're creating financial incentives for non-use will help us get through," she said.
Babbitt agreed that money in the legislation will not "miraculously solve the problem" and said prices for water must be reasonable to avoid gouging because most water users will take be impacted.
"There's no way that these cuts can all be paid for at a premium price for years and years," he said.
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Fonseca reported from Flagstaff, Arizona. Associated Press reporter Kathleen Ronayne contributed from Sacramento, California.
Suspect in 4 New Mexico killings left trail of violence - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Stefanie Dazio And Julie Watson Associated Press
In the six years since he resettled in the United States from Afghanistan, the primary suspect in the slayings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque has been arrested several times for domestic violence and captured on camera slashing the tires of a woman's car, according to police and court records.
The lengthy pattern of violence — which began not long after Muhammad Syed arrived in the states — has shocked members of the city's small, close-knit Muslim community, some of whom knew him from the local mosque and who initially had assumed the killer was an outsider with a bias against the Islamic religion. Now, they are coming to terms with the idea that they never really understood the man.
"I think based on knowing his history now — and we didn't before — he's obviously a disturbed individual. He obviously has a violent tendency," said Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico.
Police say Syed, 51, was acquainted with his victims and was likely motivated by "interpersonal conflicts."
He was arrested Monday night and remains in custody. Prosecutors say he is a dangerous man and plan to ask a judge next week to keep him locked up pending trial on murder charges in connection with two of the shooting deaths. Syed is also the primary suspect in the other two homicides, but police say they will not rush to charge him in those cases as long as he remains in jail and doesn't pose a threat to the community. The married father of six has denied involvement in the killings; his defense attorneys have declined to comment.
Few details have emerged publicly about Syed's life before he and his family came to America in 2016, but a U.S. government document obtained by The Associated Press says he graduated from Rehman Baba High School in western Kabul in 1990. Between 2010 and 2012, he worked as a cook for the Al Bashar Jala Construction Company.
In December 2012, Syed fled Afghanistan with his wife and children, the report states. The family made its way to Pakistan, where Syed sought work as a refrigerator technician. A native Pashto speaker who was also fluent in Dari, he was admitted to the United States in 2016 as a refugee.
The very next year, according to court records, a boyfriend of Syed's daughter alleged that Syed, his wife and one of Syed's sons pulled him out of a car and punched and kicked him before driving away. The boyfriend, who was found with a bloody nose, scratches and bruises, told police he was attacked because Syed, a Sunni Muslim, did not want his daughter in a relationship with a Shiite man.
In 2018, Syed was taken into custody after a fight with his wife about her driving. Syed told police that his wife had slapped him in the car, but she said he pulled her by the hair, threw her to the ground and made her walk two hours to their destination.
Months later, Syed allegedly beat his wife and attacked one of his sons with a large slotted metal spoon that left his hair blood-soaked, according to court documents. Syed's wife told police everything was fine. But the son, who was the one who called them, told officers that Syed routinely beat him and his mother.
Two of the cases were dismissed after the wife and boyfriend declined to press charges. The third was dismissed after Syed completed a pretrial intervention program. In 2020, Syed was arrested after he allegedly refused to pull over for police after running a traffic light, but that case was also eventually dismissed.
"If you're trying to understand how violence in a particular person evolves, you just have to know that he didn't wake up last year and become a serial killer," said former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole. "He had experience with violence. And that's the challenge of law enforcement ... to identify what is your experience with violence and when did it start?"
Syed told detectives that he'd served with the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command, a small, elite group of Afghan soldiers who fought the Taliban. He said he likes the AK-47-style weapon police found at his house because he'd used one in Afghanistan.
Yet the U.S. government profile the AP reviewed did not list any military experience, and Syed turned 40 the year the elite force was formed in 2011 — likely too old to be selected for combat in the heaviest fighting.
"That sounds a little fishy," said Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, who served two tours in Afghanistan and is a senior fellow and military expert at the Defense Priorities think tank. He said while Syed may have been a soldier, "special forces guys are usually 22, 25 years old, maybe 30, because it is so physically demanding."
The Syed family lives in a small duplex on the city's south side, a working-class part of town where many of the older homes and apartments have security bars affixed to their doors and windows. The area has become a magnet for Afghan refugees and other immigrants looking to make a new home in New Mexico's largest city.
The slayings of the four men — the first in November and the other three occurring in rapid succession over a period of less than two weeks in July and the first week of August — set off ripples of terror in Albuquerque's Muslim community of about 4,500. Residents were afraid to go out of their homes — to the point where city officials offered to deliver meals — and some considered leaving town.
That was what Syed told investigators he was doing when he left in his Volkswagen Jetta on Sunday: heading out of state to find a safer place for his frightened family.
Police say he was, in fact, skipping town after killing Naeem Hussain just days before.
Syed is the primary suspect — but hasn't been charged — in the death of Hussain, a 25-year-old man from Pakistan who was fatally shot on Aug. 5 in the parking lot of a refugee resettlement agency in southeast Albuquerque; and the slaying of Muhammad Zahir Ahmadi, a 62-year-old Afghan immigrant who was fatally shot in the head last November behind the market he owned in the city.
Ahmadi is the brother-in-law of the woman whose tires Syed slashed in 2020, while Syed and Hussain had known each other since 2016, police said.
Syed has been charged with murder in the deaths of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain. Hussein, 41, was slain on the night of July 26 after parking his car in the usual spot near his home. Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who had worked on the campaign of a New Mexico congresswoman, was gunned down on the night of Aug. 1 while taking his evening walk.
While Syed told police he recognized Hussein from parties in the community, it was unclear how he knew Afzaal Hussain.
Despite the violence he allegedly inflicted on his wife and children, Syed's family is standing by him.
"My father is not a person who can kill somebody," his daughter recently told CNN, which did not disclose her identity to protect her safety. "My father has always talked about peace. That's why we are here in the United States. We came from Afghanistan, from fighting, from shooting."
New Mexico updates public health order following CDC changes - Associated Press
New Mexico's emergency public health order was streamlined Friday, with state health officials saying the changes were in order given the evolution of the virus, the changing nature of the pandemic and new recommendations adopted by the federal government.
The move comes after the nation's top public health agency relaxed its COVID-19 guidelines and dropped the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said people no longer need to stay at least 6 feet away from others.
Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. David Scrase said it's clear by the CDC's adoption of less restrictive measures that the U.S. — New Mexico included — is in a different place than two years ago.
"Over the past eight months, we have excelled in implementing the tools to minimize the spread of COVID-19 such as vaccines, boosters, home testing and oral treatments that have helped reduce hospitalizations and deaths," Scrase said in a statement.
Among the changes for New Mexico, state officials say the Health Department will no longer require weekly testing for healthcare workers whose vaccine status is not up to date.
Employees and volunteers working in state correctional facilities still will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they qualify for an exemption. Hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities also were advised to evaluate CDC community transmission levels in their regions and adopt more stringent precautions, if needed.
New Mexico's order will be in effect until Aug. 26.
Drunk driver who hit Gallup parade-goers held till trial - Associated Press
A man charged with driving drunk without a valid license and then barreling into a parade in Gallup will remain jailed until trial.
A McKinley County-Gallup District Court judge on Friday denied 33-year-old Jeff Irving, who is accused of injuring at least 15 people last week, any conditional release.
Judge Louis DePauli said he "had no faith" that Irving could refrain from drinking and driving. He cited previous DWI charges and failures to show up in court.
Barry Klopfer, Irving's defense attorney, argued Irving was never convicted of most charges and deserved to be out of jail.
Irving faces aggravated DWI, 14 counts of leaving the scene of an accident, one felony count of leaving the scene resulting in great bodily harm and third-degree felony aggravated fleeing.
Prosecutors say Irving's blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit when he drove an SUV into the Inter-Tribal Ceremonial Parade on Aug. 5. Irving, who had two passengers, sped through downtown Gallup about 15 minutes after the nighttime parade started.
His license had been revoked or suspended for another drunken driving charge and the SUV had no registration or insurance, police said.
The event was the kick-off of the 10-day Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial Centennial Celebration. Videos on social media showed people yelling for others to get out of the way and some pushing parade-goers to safety.
New Mexico seeks proposals with mine spill settlement funds - Associated Press
New Mexico is calling for proposals that would be funded with $10 million received as part of a recent settlement stemming from a 2015 mine spill that polluted rivers in three western states.
The state and the federal government reached the agreement in June. Colorado and the Navajo Nation also have inked multimillion-dollar agreements to settle claims and sort out responsibility for cleanup following the spill at the inactive Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado.
Any proposed projects should aim to benefit farming, outdoor recreation or natural resources in northwestern New Mexico.
New Mexico's Office of the Natural Resources Trustee will consider applications for the settlement funding. Priority will be given to projects that are ready to begin soon and will be completed within three years.
"Regular monitoring of the San Juan and Animas rivers in New Mexico shows that the water is safe for agricultural and recreational uses, but the ongoing stigma associated with the Gold King Mine remains," Natural Resources Trustee Maggie Hart Stebbins said in a statement. "We encourage creative ideas that restore or replace natural and cultural resources and rebuild the region's economic sectors that depend on clean and healthy rivers and watersheds."
The spill released 3 million gallons (11 million liters) of wastewater from the inactive mine, sending a bright-yellow plume of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals south to New Mexico, through the Navajo Nation and into Utah through the San Juan and Animas rivers.
Water utilities were forced to scramble and shut down intake valves while farmers stopped drawing from the rivers as the contaminants moved downstream.
In addition to New Mexico's $32 million settlement with the federal government announced in June, the state reached an $11 million settlement with the mining defendants last year.
80 years later, Navajo Code Talker marks group's early days - Associated Press
It's been 80 years since the first Navajo Code Talkers joined the Marines, transmitting messages using a code based on their then-unwritten native language to confound Japanese military cryptologists during World War II — and Thomas H. Begay, one of the last living members of the group, still remembers the struggle.
"It was the hardest thing to learn," the 98-year-old Begay said Sunday at a Phoenix ceremony marking the anniversary. "But we were able to develop a code that couldn't be broken by the enemy of the United States of America."
Hundreds of Navajos were recruited by the U.S. Marines to serve as Code Talkers during the war. Begay is one of three who is still alive to talk about it.
The Code Talkers participated in all assaults the Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945 including Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu and Iwo Jima.
They sent thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications crucial to the war's ultimate outcome.
President Ronald Reagan established Navajo Code Talkers Day in 1982 and the Aug. 14 holiday honors all the tribes associated with the war effort.
It's also an Arizona state holiday and Navajo Nation holiday on the vast reservation that occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah.
Begay and his family came from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Phoenix for Sunday's event at the Wesley Bolin Plaza where a Navajo Code Talker statue is displayed.
Rio Rancho police arrest man after shootout with officers - Associated Press
Police in the Albuquerque suburb of Rio Rancho said they have arrested a man who fled a Walmart parking lot after opening fire on officers at very close range as they tried to detain him Saturday morning.
Rio Rancho Police said in a statement that officers were investigating a suspicious vehicle in the store parking lot just before 6:30 a.m. when a man came out of the Walmart and ran for the vehicle as they approached it. The statement said that as the officers tried to detain the man, he grabbed a gun from between the seats of the vehicle an opened fire.
Officers retreated, took cover and fired back, but the man drove off. No officers were hurt.
Officers later located the suspect's vehicle in Albuquerque and took the man and two other people into custody. The man police were seeking had been shot during the gunbattle with officers. Police did not say now serious his injuries were.
Judge revives Obama-era ban on coal sales from US lands - By Matthew Brown Associated Press
A federal judge on Friday reinstated a moratorium on coal leasing from federal lands that was imposed under former President Barack Obama and then scuttled under former President Donald Trump, in an order that marked a major setback to the already struggling coal industry.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Brian Morris requires government officials to conduct a new environmental review before they can resume coal sales from federal lands. Morris faulted the government's previous review of the program, done under Trump, for failing to adequately consider the climate damage from coal's greenhouse gas emissions and other effects.
Almost half the nation's annual coal production — some 260 million tons last year — is mined by private companies from leases on federal land, primarily in Western states such as Wyoming, Montana and Colorado.
Few coal leases were sold in recent years after demand for the fuel shrank drastically. But the industry's opponents had urged Morris to revive the Obama-era moratorium to ensure it can't make a comeback as wildfires, drought, rising sea levels and other effects of climate change worsen.
Coal combustion for electricity remains one of the top sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, even after many power plants shut down over the past decade because of concerns over pollution and changing economic conditions.
The coal program brought in about $400 million to federal and state coffers through royalties and other payments in 2021, according to government data. It supports thousands of jobs and has been fiercely defended by industry representatives, Republicans in Congress and officials in coal- producing states.
Among President Joe Biden's first actions in his first week in office was to suspend oil and gas lease sales — a move later blocked by a federal judge — and he faced pressure from environmental groups to take similar action against coal.
The administration last year launched a review of climate damage from coal mining on public lands as it expanded scrutiny of government fossil fuel sales that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. But no changes had been announced as a result of that review.
"This decision gives the Biden administration the opportunity to make good on its commitment to seriously battle the climate crisis," said Earthjustice attorney Jenny Harbine, who represented environmental groups and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in the case. "No progress has been made to reform the program or do what's needed to phase out existing leases."
The Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana is near several major strip mines. Tribal members have long fought against further development. Tribal President Serena Wetherelt said in a statement that Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland need to fulfill their trust obligation and take a hard look at the effects of the U.S. federal lands energy program.
"Our lands and waters mean everything to us," Wetherelt said.
Interior Department officials were reviewing the ruling, spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said.
National Mining Association President Rich Nolan said the industry lobbying group would appeal Friday's ruling.
"This is a deeply disappointing decision with energy-driven inflation, energy affordability and energy security top concerns for Americans," Nolan said. "Denying access to affordable, secure energy during an energy affordability crisis is deeply troubling."
Officials from Montana and Wyoming had intervened in the case on the side of the federal government and argued against reviving the moratorium.
A spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said the Biden administration's defense of the federal coal program was only "half-hearted" because of its close alignment with environmentalists. Knudsen spokesperson Kyler Nerison added that the decision was an example of environmentalists taking advantage of federal laws to endlessly delay energy development.
Extracting and burning fossil fuels from federal land generates the equivalent of 1.4 billion tons (1.3 billion metric tons) annually of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, according to a 2018 report from the U.S. Geological Survey. That's equivalent to almost one-quarter of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
Obama Interior Secretary Sally Jewell suspended coal sales in large part over climate concerns in 2016. After Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke revived the program in 2017, California, New York, New Mexico and Washington state sued. The Northern Cheyenne, joined by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, also filed a legal challenge.
In 2017 and 2018, the most recent years for which data was available, the U.S. government sold leases for 134 million tons of coal on public land in six states, according to figures provided by the Interior Department. That's a relatively small amount compared with previous years, for example 2011 and 2012, when more than 2 billion tons were sold in Wyoming alone.
Demand for coal has plummeted as many utilities switch to natural gas or renewables to generate power.
NM state police say armed Carlsbad man killed by deputies - Associated Press
New Mexico state police say a Carlsbad man has been shot and killed by Eddy County
A Carlsbad man who had an argument with his girlfriend and then left their home with her cell phone and a handgun was shot and killed by Eddy County sheriff's deputies after he reportedly pointed the gun at deputies, New Mexico State Police said late Friday.
The two deputies who fired at 48-year-old Gabriel Mesa provided medical aid until emergency medical technicians arrived, but he did not survive. The shooting happened Thursday evening, and New Mexico state police issued a statement about it a day later.
Maestas's girlfriend, who was not identified, called deputies and said he was intoxicated. She said they had argued before he took her phone and the gun, pushed her out of the way and left the house.
Deputies found Mesa about two blocks away in an open field and tried to persuade him to surrender peacefully, the state police statement said. Instead, he pointed the gun at the deputies and both fired at him.
State police said they will work to independently confirm the accounts of the incident and provide a report to the district attorney's office, which will determine if the shooting was justified.
The names of the officers were not released.