Alec Baldwin charge to be dropped in movie set shooting case- By Andrew Dalton and Morgan Lee Associated Press
Prosecutors in New Mexico plan to drop an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal 2021 shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the Western film " Rust," Baldwin's attorneys said Thursday.
"We are pleased with the decision to dismiss the case against Alec Baldwin and we encourage a proper investigation into the facts and circumstances of this tragic accident," Baldwin's attorneys Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in a statement.
Baldwin and the film's weapons supervisor, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, were both charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting.
Baldwin was pointing a pistol at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when the gun when off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said the gun went off accidentally and that he did not pull the trigger. An FBI forensic report found the weapon could not have fired unless the trigger was pulled.
Prosecutors didn't immediately comment on the case. It wasn't immediately clear whether charges could be refiled, nor whether the charge would also be dropped against Gutierrez-Reed.
Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys said that they "fully expect at the end of this process that Hannah will also be exonerated."
"The truth about what happened will come out and the questions that we have long sought answers for will be answered," the lawyers, Jason Bowles and Todd Bullion, said in a statement.
The case against Baldwin had already been diminishing. A weapons charge that would have meant a much longer sentence had already been dismissed, and the first special prosecutor appointed in the case resigned.
The charges against Baldwin had marked a stunning fall for an A-list actor whose 40-year career included the early blockbuster "The Hunt for Red October" and a starring role in the sitcom "30 Rock," as well as iconic appearances in Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" and a film adaptation of David Mamet's "Glengary Glen Ross." In recent years, he was known for his impression of former President Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live."
The 65-year-old worked little since the shooting but hardly went into hiding. He stayed active on social media, making Instagram videos and posting picture of his wife and seven children.
"Rust" safety coordinator and assistant director David Halls pleaded no contest in March to a conviction for unsafe handling of a firearm and a suspended sentence of six months of probation.
News of the dismissal came on the day that filming on the movie, relocated to Montana, was expected to restart.
Melina Spadone, attorney for the production company behind the movie, said via a representative this week that filming would restart Thursday at the Yellowstone Film Ranch.
Plans to resume filming were outlined last year by widower Matthew Hutchins in a proposed settlement to a wrongful death lawsuit that would make him an executive producer. Souza has said he will return to directing "Rust" production to honor the legacy of Halyna Hutchins.
After a scathing safety review by regulators in New Mexico that detailed ignored complaints and misfires before Hutchins' death in October of 2021, the production company agreed to pay a $100,000 fine.
Baldwin had yet to even travel to New Mexico for a court appearance, and none had been required of him under state law. Evidentiary hearings had been scheduled for next month to determine whether to proceed toward trial.
Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies had said previously that her office is pursuing justice in the death of Hutchins and wants to show that no one is above the law when it comes to firearms and public safety. She says the Ukrainian-born cinematographer's death was tragic and preventable.
Family of New Mexico man killed by police seek charges- By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
The family of a man shot and killed by police in northwestern New Mexico after they responded to the wrong address called Thursday for the officers to be charged with murder and the police chief to resign.
Lawyers for the family of Robert Dotson issued a statement outlining their concerns and planned to talk more about their pursuit of justice at a news conference Thursday afternoon in Farmington. They accused the Farmington Police Department of "wild use of force," saying there has been a lack of accountability.
"We demand that changes. We want what happened to Robbie to also result in a better community for everyone in Farmington," attorney Shon Northam said in a statement.
The family wants San Juan County's district attorney and New Mexico's attorney general to investigate other alleged excessive force cases involving the department. They also asked federal prosecutors in a letter sent Thursday to bring charges against the officers involved in Dotson's shooting for civil rights violations.
"He died in his doorway. It was no different than an execution," the letter reads. "The officers did not have probable cause to suspect any crime had occurred at the residence when they entered his gated yard late at night and knocked on his door."
Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe has called the April 5 shooting tragic, saying his agency is trying to understand what happened that night when officers mistakenly approached the Dotson home.
Farmington police declined to comment on the family's demands but confirmed Thursday that the officers involved remain on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation.
The State Police Investigations Bureau continues to review the case, saying findings will be shared with the district attorney. It remains unclear why the officers responded to the wrong address after getting a domestic violence call from a home across the street.
The district attorney's office said Thursday it will evaluate the case as soon as state police wrap up their investigation.
The case comes amid an ongoing reckoning across the country over use of force by law enforcement officers. Just weeks ago, prosecutors in California charged seven Highway Patrol officers and a nurse with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2020 death of a man who was being restrained following a traffic stop.
Body camera footage released by Farmington police last week showed officers arriving at the home. They walked up to the front door, passing the address that was posted on the home and illuminated by an exterior light. They knocked on the door and announced themselves.
While knocking twice more, the officers can be heard asking a dispatcher to confirm the address and to tell the caller to come to the door. The dispatcher states the address of a home across the street.
Within seconds, Dotson, armed with a handgun, opened the door and the officers immediately began shooting, firing multiple rounds as they backed away. The man can be seen dropping to the ground.
The family's lawyers said footage from the home's doorbell camera shows the officers were smirking and laughing before Dotson opened the door and was blinded by the officers' flashlights.
The video released by police showed a chaotic scene erupting about 4 minutes after officers first arrived at the wrong address. Once the gunfire stopped, sirens could be heard blaring as more officers arrived and Dotson's wife could be heard pleading with officers that her husband had been shot and needed help after realizing they were outside her home.
Additional COVID-19 booster available for people over 65 and with compromised immune systems - KUNM News
The New Mexico Department of Health announced Thursday that people over 65 and those with compromised immune systems are eligible to receive a second shot of the bivalent booster.
The vaccines are available free of charge.
The announcement followed the CDC signing off on the additional boosters earlier this week.
In a statement, Heath Secretary Patrick Allen urged New Mexicans to stay current with their COVID vaccinations.
The statement said that about 20% of people eligible for the Omicron booster have gotten their first dose of the shot.
People can sign up online at vaccinenm.org
New Mexico St players file lawsuit alleging sexual assault - By Eddie Pells Ap National Writer
Two former New Mexico State basketball players filed a lawsuit Wednesday, alleging they were sexually assaulted by teammates and that the coaching staff and other administrators did nothing when they reported the assaults.
The lawsuit was filed by Deuce Benjamin and another player who said three teammates forced them to pull their pants down below their ankles, then assaulted them. The Associated Press normally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Benjamin had earlier referenced the alleged assaults while announcing his departure from the team on social media.
Chancellor Dan Arvizu canceled the season in February after Benjamin took his allegations to school police. Arvizu framed the allegations as stemming from a hazing episode. The civil lawsuit, filed in district court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, took issue with that description, saying "when the behavior goes too far, and crosses the line into nonconsensual touching, it is not mere hazing; it is battery and sexual assault."
The lawsuit listed as defendants the NMSU board of regents, two former members of the coaching staff and three former players. It seeks "amounts to reasonably compensate" the plaintiffs for their damages, and for punitive damages against the defendants. One count in the lawsuit alleges sexual assault, battery and false imprisonment.
School spokesman Justin Bannister said New Mexico State is working with a law firm to investigate the allegations.
"While NMSU does not comment on pending litigation, we want to assure everyone that this issue is being taken seriously," Bannister said.
The lawsuit says when the player whose name the AP is not using first approached an assistant coach about the incidents, the coach reacted by laughing and saying "What do you want me to do about it?" It says the player discussed the incidents three times with another coach, who "said that he was looking into it and would issue some suspensions," but no action was taken.
The lawsuit says one of a number of assaults against Benjamin came in front of a group of women in a hotel room where the players were staying before a road game. It says one of the players "exposed Deuce's backside and forcefully grabbed (him), inflicting great pain and humiliation. All this occurred in front of the women, which only added to Deuce's degradation."
Benjamin ultimately told his father, a former New Mexico State star and current high school coach in Las Cruces, about the assaults. His father, William Benjamin, tried to reach coaches and the school's athletic director, Mario Moccia, but neither returned his calls, the lawsuit said. That led to the player taking his story to campus police, who opened an investigation.
The lawsuit said the school's new coach, Jason Hooten, told Benjamin, who was New Mexico's Gatorade high school player of the year before signing with the Aggies, that he should try to find a new place to play.
In a section titled "The Downward Spiral of the NMSU Basketball Program," the lawsuit details events that led to the fatal shooting on Nov. 19, 2022, of a student at University of New Mexico by NMSU player Mike Peake. Peake, who has not been charged in the shooting, is shown on video acting in self defense after the student, Brandon Travis, pulled a gun on him. The morning after the shooting, most of the NMSU players were loaded onto a team bus, which police had to chase down so they could question the coaching staff and witnesses.
Benjamin's departure leaves only one player left on the roster from the 2022-23 team.
It comes less than two weeks after Arvizu said he would be leaving immediately, instead of waiting for his previously scheduled June 30 departure date.
'Rust' movie reboots after Alec Baldwin shooting - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
Filming on the Western movie "Rust" could resume this week in Montana, the production company said Wednesday, in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a rehearsal with actor Alec Baldwin on the original production in New Mexico.
Baldwin will continue his involvement as an actor and coproducer, and Rust Move Productions attorney Melina Spadone said via a representative that filming will restart Thursday at the Yellowstone Film Ranch.
The production company finalized a settlement last month with New Mexico workplace safety regulars over "serious" violations, agreeing to a $100,000 fine to resolve a scathing safety review that detailed unheeded complaints and misfires on set before cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed in October 2021.
Plans to resume filming were outlined last year by widower Matthew Hutchins in a proposed settlement to a wrongful death lawsuit that would make him an executive producer on a rebooted "Rust."
Prosecutors in Santa Fe are pressing forward with involuntary manslaughter charges against actor Baldwin and a weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed have pleaded not guilty.
Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins during a rehearsal when the gun when off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said the gun went off accidentally and that he did not pull the trigger. An FBI forensic report found the weapon could not have fired unless the trigger was pulled.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham this month signed a new $360,000 allowance for prosecution of the case. Evidentiary hearings are scheduled in early May in state District Court to decide whether to proceed toward trial. Baldwin has indicated that he won't attend those hearings.
Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies says her office is pursuing justice in the death of Hutchins and wants to show that no one is above the law when it comes to firearms and public safety. She says the Ukrainian-born cinematographer's death was tragic and preventable.
"Rust" safety coordinator and assistant director David Halls pleaded no contest in March to a conviction for unsafe handling of a firearm and a suspended sentence of six months of probation.
Souza, the director, has said he'll return to the "Rust" production to honor the legacy of Halyna Hutchins.
Parts of a documentary about Hutchins' life will be filmed simultaneously with "Rust."
Abandoned oil, gas wells get plugged in New Mexico - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
More than 200 inactive oil and natural gas wells in New Mexico have been plugged as land managers have tried to crack down on producers as part of an accountability and enforcement program in one of the top producing states in the U.S., officials said Wednesday.
The State Land Office estimates it has saved taxpayers at least $20 million in cleanup costs over the past few years by having the industry pick up the tab.
The Land Office's efforts are separate from work elsewhere that's being funded by the federal government.
Congress in 2021 committed $4.7 billion in infrastructure spending to plug and reclaim orphaned wells and associated sites. The Bureau of Land Management awarded its first contracts last summer for work in Utah and California, while New Mexico and other states were awarded multimillion-dollar grants.
In New Mexico, the State Land Office says its work has resulted in a nearly 20% decrease in the number of abandoned wells on state trust lands, property that was allocated to New Mexico by the federal government more than a century ago so it could be used to raise revenues for public schools, hospitals, colleges and other public institutions.
Several inactive wells dated to the 1980s, including one that hadn't produced anything since 1982. Another well that went on the inactive list in 2020 had been drilled in 1925.
Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said the idea is to keep the state — and ultimately taxpayers — from having to pay for any messes that companies create on state trust lands.
"This program has proven that we can require companies to clean up after themselves and still deliver billions of dollars in record revenues for our schools and other institutions," she said in a statement, adding that environmental compliance has been a priority for the office amid booming production in the state.
Home to a portion of the Permian Basin, New Mexico has become the No. 2 oil producing state in the U.S. Much of the development has been on federal land, but state officials have been using a new satellite imagery program to identify spills on state trust lands. They also have ramped up auditing of royalties that are owed by producers.
Under the Land Office's' plugging program, officials contact producers first to give them an opportunity to plug inactive wells and remediate any contamination on state leases. Litigation is possible if operators fail to meaningfully respond.
Ari Biernoff, general counsel at the State Land Office, said the agency will continue to use all available tools to bring companies into compliance.
"While many lessees and operators act responsibly, this program exists for those who don't," Biernoff said.
Plugging and cleanup costs can vary widely, ranging from $40,000 for one site to more than double that depending the depth of a well and contamination levels, according to the State Land Office. Although the number of inactive wells fluctuates, agency officials have identified just over 1,000 chronically inactive wells on state trust land. That total has accumulated over several decades.
Cloud seeding catching on amid Rocky Mountain drought - By Mead Gruver And Brittany Peterson Associated Press
Garrett Cammans and his brothers sometimes don't talk about their toughest moments on the job in the cloud seeding business, like the time when one of them got stuck in deep mountain snow and had to hike out alone in the dark.
"They're going out into some pretty remote and rural areas," Cammans said. "And there have been a few close encounters with wildlife we don't like to discuss at the family dinner table."
But snow — as much as possible — is at the heart of the Cammans family business, Utah-based North American Weather Consultants, which holds cloud seeding contracts throughout the U.S. West, centered in the Rocky Mountains.
Lately, business is up. Amid two decades of drought, cloud seeding — using airplanes or ground equipment to waft rain-and-snow-making particles into clouds — is on the rise in the Rockies.
Colorado has added three new programs in the last five years. Wyoming, which began seeding in 2014, added an aerial program in 2018. Utah has steadily increased its fleet of cloud seeding equipment, and the state legislature just approved record funding to further expand programs and research.
No small part of the growth is due to intense pressure drought is placing on the Colorado River and its tributaries that supply water to millions of people from Wyoming to Los Angeles.
Not everybody believes cloud seeding is a worthwhile remedy. Some experts say conserving water is a better, more down-to-earth way to ensure enough water to go around. Juicing clouds to produce marginally more precipitation, they say, is an iffy alternative.
"It's always easier to talk about how to get more water than to talk about how to use less," said Kathryn Sorensen with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University in Tempe. "When you look at the problem of over-allocation on the Colorado River, the numbers are so large that really the solutions lie in using less, particularly in the agricultural sector. Politically that's really painful to confront."
But in the Rockies, cloud seeding these days has a full embrace from local and state officials eager for a not-too-expensive way to put more water in streams, rivers and especially the big Colorado River system reservoirs that hit record lows last year.
Their approach: shoot silver iodide into clouds, where moisture binds to the particles, forms ice and falls as snow. That snowpack high in the mountains serves as year-round cold storage for water that's released as it melts.
In Wyoming, cloud seeding by plane attempts to increase snowpack on the west side of the Wind River Mountains, so snowmelt flows into the Green River and to communities downstream — eventually reaching the Colorado River and its reservoirs including Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
"Cloud seeding generates water that wouldn't have been there before," said Bryan Seppie, general manager of the Joint Powers Water Board providing water to southwestern Wyoming communities. "That's just a benefit to the entire system."
___
When the weather's dry and water's scarce in the West — where the saying goes that whisky's for drinking and water is for fighting over — those with water rights established long ago get preference. And divvying up increasingly limited water has pitted states against each other.
Yet cloud seeding has emerged as a partial solution they can agree on.
Water providers in the Lower Colorado River Basin contribute about $1.5 million annually to cloud seeding in the Upper Basin, where snowmelt feeds the river. Recently, the federal government announced a $2.4 million contribution to the effort, a nod to the desperate times.
Despite the renewed attention, cloud seeding has been used around the world and in the Rockies for more than 50 years.
Cloud seeding in the U.S. got "oversold" and federal funding dried up in the 1990s and early 2000s, said Frank McDonough, a scientist at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada.
"Water folks at the local level knew it worked so they continued to fund it with states," McDonnough said. "Now there's new evidence that shows it does work."
A study of Idaho aerial seeding in 2017 revealed a clear snowfall pattern on a radar that mirrored the seeding and offered evidence the method works.
Utah has calculated the amount of additional water cloud seeding created there. It added 186,000 acre-feet of water, or nearly a 12% increase, to the state's supply in 2018, according to an analysis by the Division of Water Resources. The agency says the cost was $2.18 per acre-foot — a fraction of the $20 California farmers pay for that amount of water.
"That cost per acre-foot was so low, it's kind of a no brainer," said Jake Serago, water resources engineer with the division.
But Sarah Tessendorf of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said more research is needed to conclusively show how much additional water is created by cloud seeding.
"It's really common for people to want to know what extra percent of precipitation formed," said Tessendorf, a co-author of the Idaho cloud seeding study.
Silver iodide can have a minimal impact in some clouds and a high impact in others, so how much is created over an entire winter season is what matters most, she said. "We don't have answers on that yet, but we hope to have them in the next few years with our new computer model results."
___
In foothills north of Boulder, the first cloud seeding project of the rapidly growing Rocky Mountain Front Range urban corridor north and south of Denver is underway. This winter, two ground-based generators have been pumping silver iodide into the air for the St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District.
Each is a two-wheeled trailer containing a tank of silver iodide released by a roaring, propane-fueled flame atop a metal mast. There's a communications antenna for signals to turn the generator on and off, depending on conditions.
The right conditions — wet weather headed upslope, from the east — have occurred a couple times a month, said Scott Griebling, a water resources engineer with the district.
Lately in the Rockies, the problem isn't too little snow. Amid a wet spring, some cloud seeding generators have been shut down due to fears the heavy snowfall already is enough to cause flooding.
Among those idled are generators in southern Wyoming's Sierra Madre Range, where snowpack is rivaling the deepest on record, said Jonathan Bowler with the Savery-Little Snake River Water Conservancy District that monitors runoff.
"You kind of live and die by the moisture here," Bowler said. "Too dry is one extreme and too wet is another. But kind of regardless of what it's going to give you, you just kind of have to make do."
For the Wyoming Water Development Commission in charge of the state's cloud seeding program, the long-term averages are what's important, Chairman Ron Kailey Jr. said. "You have to take in the good years, the bad years and everything in between to determine how successful the program is," said Kailey.
___
North American Weather Consultants has been cloud seeding for over 40 years. Cammans, who has a background in physics, chemistry and computer software, bought the company four years ago.
After expanding locations, including to the Colorado Front Range for the Boulder-area pilot program, North American Weather Consultants now has about 250 ground-based sites and two planes in use across the Western U.S. Cammans now has about 20 employees including meteorologists and his brothers.
"Once seedable conditions do occur, then we spring into operation," he said. "We've got a pilot that will go up and fly if conditions are favorable for aerial seeding. We've got remotely operated equipment that meteorologists can operate from their home offices."
Many of the company's ground-based generators are turned on and off manually by about 150 paid contractors, some on their own land.
Cammans often reserves those toughest jobs for his brothers Parker and Carver, who drive trucks with knobby, 35-inch (1-meter) tires suited for snow and mud.
"They get to do some of our most exciting and more precarious work," he said.
Small New Mexico city challenges state abortion-rights law - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
A city of about 3,000 residents in southeastern New Mexico has filed a legal challenge against a new state law that guarantees access to abortion.
The lawsuit by the city of Eunice was filed Monday in state District Court and adds to a thicket of legislation and litigation in New Mexico in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year to rescind the constitutional right to abortion.
The U.S. Supreme Court is leaving women's access to a widely used abortion pill untouched until at least Friday, while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on the drug mifepristone to take effect.
Eunice is among five local jurisdictions in eastern New Mexico that have enacted local anti-abortion ordinances since late last year, referencing provisions of a 19th century federal law that restricts the shipping of supplies intended to aid abortions.
"We believe and I believe that all the abortion industries in New Mexico are working against federal statute, so they should be closed down," said Republican state Sen. David Gallegos, of Eunice, on Wednesday. "I know that's not the governor's premise."
New Mexico's Democratic governor signed an abortion-rights bill in March that overrides local ordinances aimed at limiting access to abortion procedures and medications and guarantees access broadly to reproductive health care.
Eunice officials, including the mayor, could not be immediately reached by phone. Gallegos traveled to Washington earlier in the week to join a group that announced the city's lawsuit outside the U.S. Supreme Court building.
Democratic state Attorney General Raúl Torrez has petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court to intervene and to prohibit local governments from denying access to reproductive healthcare.
The attorney general's office says Eunice is raising the same arguments as other local jurisdictions in support of abortion ordinances.
"The (state) Supreme Court is better situated to address these issues in the first instance, and the attorney general's office will be seeking a stay of the district court action," the agency said in a statement.
Anti-abortion ordinances in Lea and Roosevelt counties and the cities of Hobbs and Clovis have been placed on hold as the high court in Santa Fe awaits written briefs from all parties.
In 2021, New Mexico's Democrat-led Legislature passed a measure to repeal a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures, which ensured access to abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision last year.
New Mexico is viewed increasingly as a destination for abortion patients from states, including Texas, with strict abortion bans.
