Authorities arrest APS bus driver linked to 4 cold-case rapes- By KOB 4 News
Special agents with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office arrested a 61-year-old APS bus driver allegedly linked to four cold-case rapes.
According to the DA’s office, a DNA investigation linked Ralph Anthony Martinez to the cold cases that happened in Albuquerque over 30 years ago.
Agents with the DA’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Team reportedly collected DNA from Martinez’s school bus steering wheel, gear shift and switches.
Upon further investigation, the agents said that DNA matched the DNA evidence collected years ago.
The first case was near Wyoming and Indian School in October 1988. The DA’s office said a 19-year-old was sleeping in her home when a man broke in, told her he had a knife and raped her.
The second case was near Wyoming and Constitution on August 3, 1991. The man broke in and used the victim’s own gun to threaten her, then raped her. The victim escaped to their neighbor’s home.
At the victim’s home, the suspect left behind his underwear and shirt before he ran away.
The third case happened just four days later near San Mateo between McLeod and Osuna. An 18-year-old was sleeping in her apartment when a man broke in and sexually assaulted her.
The victims in each case went to the hospital where they completed sexual assault kits. That’s how they collected the DNA that eventually linked Martinez to the cases.
Agents also linked Martinez’s DNA to a fourth sexual assault. However, that victim is now dead.
“I am really proud of the hard work our Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit is doing. We hope this brings some amount of justice to these women and their families,” said Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman.
This is a developing story. Stay with KOB 4 Eyewitness News and KOB.com for updates.
Mountain Lion Captured In Northern Meadows- By Rio Rancho Observer
There was a mountain lion roaming around the Northern Meadows Neighborhood at around 3:30 pm July 26.
The wild cat was seen near Camino De Los Montoyas and Sunny Meadows Drive.
The Department of Game and Fish darted the animal with a sedative out of a tree that it had climbed at around 3:50 pm.
It is now safe for residents to come out of their homes.
New Mexico pension board seeks investigation into one of its members - By Albuquerque Journal
The board overseeing a massive pension fund for public employees in New Mexico is preparing to launch an investigation into allegations one of its members tried to get the agency to pay for a newspaper advertisement supporting her reelection.
The board member, Loretta Naranjo Lopez, contends the allegations are unfounded and defamatory.
She said she never asked for the pension fund to pay for a campaign ad.
The pension board, in any case, voted earlier this month to refer the matter to an outside investigator.
The dispute centers on a series of emails last month between Naranjo Lopez and Greg Trujillo, executive director of the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico.
She sent him a message June 21 saying she wanted a flyer — attached to the email — published in the Santa Fe New Mexican “as my bio, per your request,” according to documents posted on the PERA website. The flyer had a photo of Naranjo Lopez, listed her position on the ballot for reelection to the PERA board and boasted that she had added more value to the PERA fund than any board member in history.
Trujillo responded with an email the next day saying the attachment appeared to be an election ad and that PERA couldn’t pay for it.
What he actually needed, he said, was just a short statement that could be published in the PERA newsletter. He requested a wording change to something she’d sent earlier to make clear she was a board member, not an employee of the agency.
In a follow-up message, Naranjo Lopez accused Trujillo of insubordination and suggested he wasn’t qualified to hold his job as executive director. She again directed him to “connect with the newspaper that will run this ad.”
The exchange caught the attention of PERA board chairwoman Diana Rosales-Ortiz, who described it as evidence of potential misconduct. She sent a memo to the full board and sought approval for an independent investigation.
Rosales-Ortiz said Trujillo was right to withstand pressure from Naranjo Lopez and refuse to seek publication of the ad.
“The assets of the PERA Trust Fund do not serve as a campaign slush fund to be used by current Board members to promote their candidacy or maintain their position,” Rosales-Ortiz said in the memo.
Naranjo Lopez, in turn, vigorously defended herself in the board meeting. She said she never asked for PERA resources to pay for her reelection ad.
She called the agenda item proposing an investigation “defamatory.”
“It’s ridiculous,” she said.
Naranjo Lopez said she didn’t initiate the back-and-forth with Trujillo over email. She was simply responding to his request as the PERA staff prepared to publish election information.
“I didn’t ask for any advertising,” she said. “It was his request, not mine.”
The emails released by PERA don’t make it clear what request she’s referring to. Trujillo had asked a few days earlier about her responses to questions sent to all PERA board candidates for publication in a newsletter, not the New Mexican.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Naranjo Lopez said she wasn’t allowed to speak to the media.
But “the record is clear,” she said. “My statements are there.”
It isn’t Naranjo Lopez’s first dustup on the PERA board. She was reprimanded and censured by her colleagues last year after they determined she had made baseless allegations about others and disrupted the board’s ability to carry out its work.
The pension board oversees a $16.7 billion fund that operates the retirement system for 47,000 active employees and 44,000 retirees.
GOP measures would undo protections for endangered lesser prairie chicken, northern bat- By Associated Press
Congress has approved two measures to undo federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken and northern long-eared bat — two endangered animals that have seen their populations plummet over the years.
In separate votes Thursday, the House gave final legislative approval to rescind protections for the lesser prairie chicken — a rare prairie bird once thought to number in the millions, but now hover around 30,000, officials said — and the long-eared bat, one of 12 bat types decimated by a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome.
The legislative actions, backed mostly by Republicans, represent rare congressional involvement in matters usually left to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The Endangered Species Act tasks the agencies with deciding which animals and plants to list as endangered or threatened and how to rebuild their populations.
The lesser prairie chicken, which belongs to the grouse family, is found in parts of the Midwest and Southwest, including one of the country's most prolific oil and gas fields — the oil-rich Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas. The bird's range also extends into parts of Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas, but has diminished across about 90% of its historical range, officials said.
The House voted 221-206 to reverse protections for the prairie bird.
A separate 220-209 vote would overturn protections for the northern long-eared bat, which has seen its population reduced by 97% or more in some areas because of white-nose syndrome. The bat is found in 37 eastern and north-central states, plus Washington, D.C., and much of Canada.
The House votes follow similar action in the Senate in May and send both plans to President Joe Biden, who has threatened to veto both resolutions.
Overturning protections for the lesser prairie chicken "would undermine America's proud wildlife conservation traditions, risk the extinction of a once-abundant American bird and create uncertainty for landowners and industries who have been working for years to forge the durable, locally led conservation strategies that this rule supports," the White House said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the White House said bats are "critical to healthy, functioning ecosystems and contribute at least $3 billion annually to the U.S. agriculture economy through pest control and pollination.'' Overturning protections "would risk extinction of a species."
Environmentalists have long sought stronger federal protections for the prairie bird, which they consider severely at risk due to oil and gas development, livestock grazing and farming, along with roads and power lines.
The crow-size, terrestrial birds are known for spring courtship rituals that include flamboyant dances by the males as they make a cacophony of clucking, cackling and booming sounds.
White-nose syndrome, meanwhile, has spread across about 80% of the northern bat's range and caused a precipitous decline in bat populations. Critics of the endangered listing contend it would hamper logging and other land uses that aren't responsible for the bat's sharp decline.
Rep. Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, called the Endangered Species Act an important but outdated part of U.S. history.
"The unavoidable truth about the ESA is that a listing means less private investment, which harms conservation efforts,'' he said.
In the case of the lesser prairie chicken, the protected status "is a tool for Fish and Wildlife to go implement the Biden administration's none-of-the- above energy policy,'' Westerman said on the House floor. "It's another attack on low-cost energy for the American taxpayers. It's an attack on jobs in America and it's making us more dependent'' on hostile countries in the Middle East and South America, he said.
Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, the top Democrat on the natural resources panel, said the GOP measures "give industry and not science the upper hand in making decisions about endangered species.''
He labeled Republican opposition to the Endangered Species Act "a vendetta." He also said the two votes on Thursday were egregious since the GOP-controlled House has not taken action to address climate change, even as Arizona and other states suffer through "one of the most brutal summers in this country's recorded history.''
Climate change "isn't about some distant warning about melting icecaps in the far-off future. The climate crisis is here, it is now,'' Grijalva said, noting that Phoenix has set a record with a 27-day streak of temperatures over 110 degree Fahrenheit.
"People are suffering. People are dying, and the GOP isn't doing a thing about it,'' he said.
The Republican majority "has had zero hearings on climate change'' since taking over in January and has "introduced zero bills to seriously address climate change,'' Grijalva said.
The House votes follow actions by Congress earlier this year to block a clean water rule imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and a separate Labor Department measure that allows retirement plan managers to consider the effects of climate change in their investment plans. Biden vetoed both legislative measures.
ABQ’s long-awaited Gateway Center aims to open doors this summer - Albuquerque Journal
After numerous delays, the Albuquerque Gateway Center is set to complete its first phase by the summer’s end.
Albuquerque’s Mayor Tim Keller made the announcement at a real estate luncheon on Tuesday, where he expects all three phases to be done by the end of the fiscal year. The project has been met with multiple barriers –– including a lawsuit, a zoning battle, and an asbestos problem.
According to the Albuquerque Journal, the center will occupy the 572,000-square-foot former Lovelace hospital building. The city acquired the property in 2021 for $15 million.
Advocates and city officials have described the center as a one-stop shop with an emergency shelter and additional services for homeless people that, on paper, will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Mayor Keller said he’d like all services to be available by the year 2025.
New Mexico lifts debt-based suspensions of driver's licenses for 100,000 residents - Associated Press
New Mexico's motor vehicle division has lifted the suspension of driver's licenses for more than 100,000 residents under new anti-poverty legislation, officials announced Wednesday.
Bipartisan legislation signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in March called for an end to the widespread practice of suspending driver's licenses for failure to pay a fine or failure to appear in court.
At least 23 other states have taken similar steps to end debt-based suspensions of driver's licenses that can make it harder for individuals to pay off debts and care for their families.
The New Mexico law does not apply to commercial driver's licenses nor suspensions for other reasons related to dangerous driving or accumulated traffic violations.
License suspensions also have been cleared for more than 160,000 out-of-state drivers with New Mexico citations, the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department said in a news release. New Mexico will notify other states.
The changes leave underlying citations and fines on drivers' records. There is no fee under the new law to reinstate a driver's license after a suspension is lifted, though payments may be required for licenses that expired while under suspension.
Sponsors of the law, including Republican state Sen. Crystal Diamond of Elephant Butte and Democratic state Rep. Christine Chandler of Los Alamos, say debt-based license suspensions are counterproductive.
Teamsters-UPS reach ‘game-changing’ labor deal to avert strike Casey Quinlan, States Newsroom via Source New Mexico
UPS and its workers, represented by the Teamsters, reached a tentative deal on Tuesday to prevent an Aug. 1 strike of 340,000 union members at the package carrier. A work stoppage could have cost the U.S. economy billions by disrupting supply chains and upending distribution to both large and small businesses, hospitals and homes.
Representatives of the UPS Teamsters locals will meet to review the deal on July 31 and members will vote on it between Aug. 3 and Aug. 22.
The five-year contract includes a wage increase to bring part-time workers’ pay to at least $21 an hour immediately and full-time workers to an average top rate of $49 an hour. UPS also agreed to workplace safety protections such as air conditioning in vehicles purchased after January 2024, and to stop the practice of requiring overtime on days off. UPS drivers have been demanding better protections for working in the heat after instances where workers have been hospitalized, and in some cases died, on the job.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement, “UPS has put $30 billion in new money on the table as a direct result of these negotiations. We’ve changed the game, battling it out day and night to make sure our members won an agreement that pays strong wages, rewards their labor, and doesn’t require a single concession. This contract sets a new standard in the labor movement and raises the bar for all workers.”
Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS, called the deal a “win-win-win agreement.”
President Joe Biden congratulated UPS and the Teamsters on the tentative deal and stated, “While this agreement still awaits final ratification by Teamsters members, today’s announcement moves us closer to a better deal for workers that will also add to our economic momentum.”
A strike could have cost the economy $7 billion, according to an analysis from Anderson Economic Group. A 10-day strike would have cost consumers $4 billion and UPS workers $1.1 billion in lost wages, according to the analysis. In 2021, UPS made up 37% of parcel market share in the United States. UPS announced in April that its first quarter revenue was $22.9 billion and its operating profit was $2.5 billion.
“Workers are all powerful right now, particularly in this sector where it takes roughly twice as many workers to process the same volume of product that goes out in e-commerce as opposed to brick and mortar retail,” said Thomas Goldsby, Haslam chair in logistics at the University of Tennessee.
Goldsby said that he doesn’t see demand for e-commerce going away as so many consumers have become accustomed to receiving their items quickly and efficiently, which requires a lot of labor.
“You think about a big store that would receive a full pallet of product and it might have hundreds or thousands of items on that pallet. Well, e-commerce takes it upstream and says we’re breaking down the pallets in a regional distribution center and it’s going to be a worker in a warehouse that unpacks the box that grabs the items, that repackages, that labels, and ships,” he said. “Then ultimately, it takes people to deliver the item. So it’s much more labor intensive and I just don’t see us moving away from e-commerce, even if growth kind of tempers and tapers off a bit.”
Goldsby, who has closely followed the developments in the UPS-Teamsters negotiations, said he believes it’s likely membership will vote to accept the deal because of the broad gains workers made in the agreement.
“In so many categories — economic, non-economic, wages, benefits, holidays, work conditions, there were gains virtually across the board,” he said.
Albuquerque police seek tips in hit-and-run that killed cyclist — KUNM News
Police are asking the public for help solving a fatal hit-and-run involving a cyclist.
Just after midnight, early Saturday morning, Rosanna Breuninger was hit near 12th and Los Arboles NW. But a white and silver sedan picked her up and drove her to her home nearby, according to an announcement from Crime Stoppers.
Breuninger was found dead in her home the next day when she didn’t show up for work. Her house and clothes had blood covering several areas, and her phone and personal items were all missing.
It’s not clear if the sedan is the same vehicle that hit her, but police want to speak to the driver, and are offering a reward of $2,500 for information that helps solve the case.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at (505) 843-STOP.
22 attorneys general oppose 3M settlement over water systems contamination with 'forever chemicals' - By John Flesher AP Environmental Writer
Twenty-two attorneys general urged a federal court Wednesday to reject a proposed $10.3 billion settlement over contamination of U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially dangerous chemicals, saying it lets manufacturer 3M Co. off too easily.
The deal announced in June doesn't give individual water suppliers enough time to determine how much money they would get and whether it would cover their costs of removing the compounds known collectively as PFAS, said the officials with 19 states, Washington, D.C., and two territories. In some cases the agreement could shift liability from the company to providers, they said.
"While I appreciate the effort that went into it, the proposed settlement in its current form does not adequately account for the pernicious damage that 3M has done in so many of our communities," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, leader of the multi-state coalition.
3M spokesman Sean Lynch said the agreement "will benefit U.S.-based public water systems nationwide that provide drinking water to a vast majority of Americans" without further litigation.
"It is not unusual for there to be objections regarding significant settlement agreements," Lynch said. "We will continue to work cooperatively to address questions about the terms of the resolution."
The company, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, manufactures per- and polyfluorinated substances — a broad class of chemicals used in nonstick, water- and grease-resistant products such as clothing and cookware, as well as some firefighting foams.
Described as "forever chemicals" because they don't degrade naturally in the environment, PFAS have been linked to a variety of health problems, including liver and immune-system damage and some cancers.
3M has said it plans to stop making them by the end of 2025.
Some 300 communities have sued 3M and other companies over water pollution from the compounds. A number of states, airports, firefighter training facilities and private well owners also have pending cases.
They have been consolidated in U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina, where the proposed settlement was filed last month.
Although the company put its value at $10.3 billion, an attorney for the water providers said it could reach as high as $12.5 billion, depending on how many detect PFAS during testing the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered over the next three years.
The law firm representing the water providers did not immediately respond Wednesday to messages seeking comment.
EPA in March proposed strict limits on two common types, PFOA and PFOS, and said it wanted to regulate four others.
In addition to California, states urging Judge Richard Gergel to reject the deal included Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin. Also opposed were Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
In a court filing, the attorneys general said it would force nearly all public water providers nationwide to participate unless they withdraw individually — even those that haven't filed suits or tested for PFAS.
"Troublingly, they would have to make their opt-out decisions without knowing how much they would actually receive and, in many cases, before knowing the extent of contamination in their water supplies and the cost of remediating it," the officials said in a statement.
A provision in the proposed deal would shift liability from 3M to water suppliers that don't opt out, the statement said. That could enable the company to seek compensation from providers if sued over cancer or other illnesses in PFAS-affected communities, it said.
"As such, the proposed settlement is worth far less than the advertised $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion," the attorneys general said.
The attorneys general did not take a position on a separate $1.18 billion deal to resolve PFAS complaints against DuPont de Nemours Inc. and spinoffs Chemours Co. and Corteva Inc.