Judge sides with feds in suit alleging Homeland Security was negligent in death of NMSP officer- Albuquerque Journal
A judge dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in the case of a New Mexico State Police officer who was gunned down while assisting federal authorities with a drug bust in 2021 near Deming.
U.S. District Judge Kea Riggs on Wednesday ruled that the government had sovereign immunity in the Feb. 4, 2021 death of Darian Jarrott as its employees were exercising a discretionary function at the time.
Jarrott was assisting Homeland Security Investigation agents when he was shot to death by suspected drug trafficker Omar Cueva, 39, during a traffic stop along Interstate 10 east of Deming.
Cueva led authorities on a chase that ended in a gunfight in Las Cruces that left Cueva dead and another officer injured.
Jarrott, a 28-year-old father of four, was the first State Police officer shot and killed in the line of duty in more than 30 years.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed in the case on behalf of Jarrott’s widow and children, against the Department of Public Safety and U.S. government, alleging that both HSI and Jarrott’s superiors at State Police were negligent and did not warn the officer of Cueva’s dangerousness beforehand.
In the federal suit, Judge Riggs sided with the U.S. government.
“The Federal Tort Claims Act waives the United States’ sovereign immunity for certain tort claims,” Riggs wrote in his ruling. “However, Defendant asserts that sovereign immunity has not been waived here due to the ‘discretionary function’ exception.”
Riggs added, “The Court will dismiss this case without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
Eric Loman, an attorney representing Jarrott’s family, said they are discussing the case with his clients but “no decisions has been made on what’s going to happen next.”
The state and federal lawsuits were initially filed by Sam Bregman but were handed off to other attorneys when Bregman became the District Attorney for Bernalillo County.
An investigation by State Police found HSI agents made a plan to arrest Cueva after he sold large amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine to an undercover agent in Deming.
In the hopes of protecting the identity of their informant, HSI agents asked for State Police assistance in detaining Cueva as he made his way to a drug buy in Las Cruces on Feb. 4.
Jarrott was told by a superior, Sgt. Mark Madrid, to be on the lookout for the truck Cueva was driving. When he spotted the truck headed east on I-10, Jarrott pulled Cueva over.
Within minutes Jarrott had been fatally shot and died soon after.
Former State Police Chief Tim Johnson later told Bregman, in a deposition, that Jarrott should have never come into contact with Cueva, who was using meth, known to be carrying a rifle and had previously said he "wasn't going back to jail."
Johnson said at the time, "I think some mistakes were made by everybody.
A car crashed into the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, causing a small fire- Associated Press
A car crashed into the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Friday, causing a small fire in the building that sits along a busy street in southwest Albuquerque near the Rio Grande.
The crash also triggered an evacuation, but the center's director said that the only person present was in an adjacent building, according to the Albuquerque Police Department.
The male driver of the car is in critical condition and was taken to a hospital, according to APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos Jr. The male and a female were involved in a "confrontation" prior to the crash, with the female passenger telling the male driver to slow down. The female passenger was also taken to the hospital with minor injuries, according to police.
The car went completely inside the building after going through the front doors, according to police.
It is unclear how much damage the crash caused the building. APD detectives are investigating whether the crash was intentional. No arrests have been made, according to police.
Automaker Tesla is opening more showrooms on tribal lands to avoid state laws barring direct sales-Associated Press
Tesla is ramping up efforts to open showrooms on tribal lands where it can sell directly to consumers, circumventing laws in states that bar vehicle manufacturers from also being retailers in favor of the dealership model.
Mohegan Sun, a casino and entertainment complex in Connecticut owned by the federally recognized Mohegan Tribe, announced this week that the California-based electric automaker will open a showroom with a sales and delivery center this fall on its sovereign property where the state's law doesn't apply.
The news comes after another new Tesla showroom was announced in June, set to open in 2025 on lands of the Oneida Indian Nation in upstate New York.
"I think it was a move that made complete sense," said Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, which has lobbied for years to change Connecticut's law.
"It is just surprising that it took this long, because Tesla had really tried, along with Lucid and Rivian," she said, referring to two other electric carmakers. "Anything that puts more electric vehicles on the road is a good thing for the public."
Brown noted that lawmakers with car dealerships that are active in their districts, no matter their political affiliation, have traditionally opposed bills allowing direct-to-consumer sales.
The Connecticut Automotive Retail Association, which has opposed such bills for years, says there needs to be a balance between respecting tribal sovereignty and "maintaining a level playing field" for all car dealerships in the state.
"We respect the Mohegan Tribe's sovereignty and the unique circumstance in which they operate their businesses on Tribal land but we strongly believe that this does not change the discussion about Tesla and other EV manufacturers with direct-to-consumer sales, and we continue to oppose that model," Hayden Reynolds, the association's chairperson, said in a statement. "Connecticut's dealer franchise laws benefit consumers and provide a competitive marketplace."
Over the years in numerous states, Tesla has sought and been denied dealership licenses, pushed for law changes and challenged decisions in courts. The company scored a victory earlier this year when Delaware's Supreme Court overturned a ruling upholding a decision by state officials to prohibit Tesla from selling its cars to directly customers.
At least 16 states have effectively changed their laws to allow Tesla and other direct-to-consumer manufacturers to sell there, said Jeff Aiosa, executive director of the Connecticut dealers association. He doesn't foresee Connecticut changing its law, noting that 32 "original equipment manufacturers," a list that includes major car companies like Toyota and Ford, currently abide by it.
"It's not fair to have an unlevel playing field when all the other manufacturers abide by the state franchise laws and Tesla wants this exception to go around the law," he said. "I would suggest their pivoting to the sovereign nation is representative of them not wanting to abide by the law."
Tesla opened its first store as well as a repair shop on Native American land in 2021 in New Mexico. The facility, built in Nambé Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, marked the first time the company partnered with a tribe to get around state laws, though the idea had been in the works for years.
Brian Dear, president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico, predicted at the time that states that are home to tribal nations and also have laws banning direct car sales by manufacturers would likely follow New Mexico's lead.
"I don't believe at all that this will be the last," he said.
Tesla's facility at Mohegan Sun, dubbed the Tesla Sales & Delivery Center, will be located at a shopping and dining pavilion within the sprawling casino complex. Customers will be able to test drive models around the resort. and gamblers will be able to use their loyalty rewards toward Tesla purchases.
Tesla also plans to exhibit its solar and storage products at the location.
People held in NM women’s prison never notified about bacteria found in drinking water- Source New Mexico
People incarcerated at a state prison in northeastern New Mexico were never officially notified about dangerous bacteria found in their drinking water, according to court records and emails obtained by Source NM.
Springer Correctional Center officials have since fixed the water problem first reported in June, and the water is safe to drink, according to state water regulators. New Mexico Corrections Department attorneys argued in court that the prison did not have to notify the incarcerated people about the water contamination.
Prison officials on June 8 told people incarcerated inside the women’s prison in Colfax County not to drink the water, but did not officially notify them coliform had been found in the water.
Around the same time, families of the incarcerated people started telling attorneys representing them that they were getting sick.
A water sample taken at Springer on June 6 contained coliform bacteria, according to an email sent between opposing sides in Duran v. Grisham, the decades-long class action lawsuit about conditions in the state’s prison system.
Coliform is a family of bacteria that includes the more commonly known E. coli. Some strains of E. coli can cause severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea and vomiting.
The New Mexico Environment Department’s drinking water bureau told the state prison system on June 7 that the sample contained coliform, and required a follow-up test to confirm, according to the email.
Four more samples were taken at Springer on June 8, the email states. Two of them contained coliform.
Through spokesperson Anisa Griego-Quintana, the corrections department on July 12 denied the tests found coliform. However, the agency’s statement is contradicted by an email written by its own attorneys and included in a briefing on the matter submitted in federal court.
Griego-Quintana said the initial test results showing the presence of coliform was “due to a faulty testing method,” and there was no violation found in the follow-up test.
“Retest was completed and due to a violation not being found, a notice was not posted within the facility,” Griego-Quintana said.
Environment Department Public Relations Coordinator Jorge Armando Estrada confirmed both the initial sample and at least one of the repeat samples taken in June contained coliform.
The Corrections Department has not responded to multiple requests for follow-up comment on Griego-Quintana’s false statement. The most recent request for comment came July 27.
On June 20, the Environment Department told state corrections officials it had “received adequate compliance documentation verifying” Springer had reviewed the water problem and “implemented appropriate corrective action to address sanitary defects.”
Armando Estrada said state environment department inspectors believe the water at the prison is now safe to drink.
“While we believe the water is safe right now, it is ultimately the Springer Correctional (Center)’s obligation to comply with drinking water standards,” he said.
Clean drinking water required by court order
New Mexico’s prison system is bound by a court order to ensure safe drinking water at Springer.
In the most recent settlement agreement in Duran, the Corrections Department in February 2020 agreed to “ensure there is an adequate supply of safe drinking water” at Springer, and if the water is unsafe or inadequate, they “will provide inmates with bottled water.”
The prison started providing inmates with bottled drinking water on June 8, according to the email.
“Inmates are allowed to exchange the empty bottles for a new issuance, as needed,” the email states. “Inmates will continue to receive bottled water, until such time the drinking water is deemed safe by the Environment Department.”
The attorney who wrote the email, Taylor Rahn, a partner with Robles, Rael & Anaya, P.C., declined to comment for this story.
Griego-Quintana said prison officials handed out bottled water and set up water fountains in June 2023 only as a precaution.
“Bottled water and freshwater dispensers were provided as a precautionary measure pending the results of the retest,” Griego-Quintana said.
On June 30, attorneys for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the Corrections Department asked U.S. District Court Judge Kirtan Khalsa to determine if the state is in compliance with the drinking water requirement in the settlement.
New Mexico’s corrections department is complying with the settlement, Khalsa wrote in a July 12 order. Attorneys for the incarcerated people “no longer oppose” the state’s request to be found in compliance, the judge wrote.
Attorneys representing the incarcerated people could not be reached for comment.
Lawyers for the corrections department argued the settlement does not specifically require compliance with state water regulations, the areas of the prison in question do not have drinking fountains, and the documented violations “do not demonstrate unsafe drinking water.”
The state also argued the settlement “does not provide a guarantee of the quality of all water at (Springer Correctional Center), but rather only that inmates have adequate drinking water.”
“(Corrections) has complied with this requirement,” the state’s attorneys wrote. “At no point has the (Environment Department) required (Corrections) to notify (Springer) inmates that the water was not safe to drink.”
Review finds warning sign of contamination
Whenever a public water system tests positive for coliform bacteria, state and federal law require them to also test for any sanitary defects that might explain the contamination.
If the level of disinfectant is too low, it can act as an early warning sign there is some kind of contamination in the water, according to the EPA.
In this case, when the Drinking Water Bureau told prison officials about the positive test, it gave corrections 30 days to hire a certified water operator to check the water system at Springer for any sanitary defects.
“The water system was required to conduct an assessment to determine the cause of the total coliform samples in order (to) prevent any future coliform positive results,” said Estrada, the Environment Department spokesperson.
On June 19, a consultant hired by state prison officials found there was “low/inadequate disinfectant residual” in the places where he collected samples, and in the water lines.
In it, consultant Robert Towle wrote he found an “unclean or unsuitable sample tap.”
“The sample location at a deep basin (slop) sink,” they wrote. “The sink is typically dirty.”
Source NM obtained copies of the six-page assessment form and other emails between the two state agencies through a public records request with the Drinking Water Bureau.
US Senate votes to expand radiation-exposure compensation, from Guam to original A-bomb test site - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
The U.S. Senate has endorsed a major expansion of a compensation program for people sickened by exposure to radiation during nuclear weapons testing and the mining of uranium during the Cold War, with a vote Thursday on a massive defense spending bill.
Advancing on a 86-11 Senate vote, the provisions would extend health care coverage and compensation to so-called downwinders exposed to radiation during weapons testing to several new regions stretching from Guam to the New Mexico site where the world's first atomic bomb was tested in 1945.
The Senate-backed plan also would extend compensation to more former uranium industry workers. The proposed changes to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act are not yet included in a House-approved defense bill, amid negotiations toward final legislation.
The hit summer film "Oppenheimer" about the top-secret Manhattan Project and the dawn of the nuclear age during World War II has brought new attention to a decades-long efforts to extend compensation for families who were exposed to fallout and still grapple with related illness.
"We're elated with the vote today. We're extremely hopeful," said Mary Martinez White, who recounted that her parents and several siblings were ravaged by cancer after the family's exposure to nuclear fallout at a farm in Carrizozo, New Mexico, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) for the Trinity Site test.
She blames her family's suffering on decisions at the outset of the Cold War — and applauded efforts to make amends through federal compensation by lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri.
"I have faith that people who are alive today will right those choices, and quickly, especially when so much is being asked of New Mexico in terms of storage" of radioactive waste and nuclear weapons production, she said.
Advocates also have been trying for years to bring awareness to the lingering effects of radiation exposure on the Navajo Nation, where millions of tons of uranium ore were extracted over decades to support U.S. nuclear activities.
"The Navajo Nation has borne the brunt of America's nuclear program, the cost of which can be measured in human lives, environmental devastation, and communities that are still suffering," President Buu Nygren of the Navajo Nation said Thursday in a statement. "We will not stand by and allow this legacy to be forgotten or dismissed."
The Senate bill would expand eligibility to more former uranium mining, processing and transportation workers who participated after 1971, the current cutoff date for eligibility.
Since the compensation program began in 1992, more than 54,000 claims have been filed and about $2.6 billion has been awarded for approved claims in Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Coverage would be expanded to New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana and previously excluded areas of Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
Earlier this month, Hawley promised to help people with cancer and other diseases connected to nuclear contamination in the St. Louis, Missouri, region. He cited reports by The Associated Press, The Missouri Independent and the nonprofit newsroom MuckRock that detailed nonchalance and indifference to the risks nuclear waste posed dating back to the 1950s.
St. Louis was part of the national campaign to build a nuclear bomb, with uranium processing that produced harmful waste.
New Mexico starts to expand pre-K programs to pueblos, tribes and nations - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Making good on a promise to expand pre-K programs to places other than large cities in New Mexico, the state has announced Thursday $11.7 million will go to 550 new seats in early education classrooms to Indigenous communities.
The joint effort between the Office of the Governor and Early Childhood Education and Care Department will see expansions in the Pueblos of Tesuque and Nambé, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, the Navajo Nation and the To’Hajiilee Navajo Chapter, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Although, the Navajo Nation will see the majority of slots –– with an estimated 500 of them for federally funded programs.
Thursday’s announcement is part of a statewide expansion of pre-K services touted by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham at the White House last week.
Funding for the expansion comes from a constitutional amendment approved by New Mexico voters in November.
Authorities arrest APS bus driver linked to 4 cold-case rapes - KOB-TV
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.
KOB-TV reports a DNA investigation by the district attorney 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.
As illegal crossings drop, the legal challenges over Biden's US-Mexico border policies grow - By Elliot Spagat Associated Press
Immigration advocates said Thursday that an online appointment system to seek asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico is out of reach for many migrants, in the latest legal challenge to the Biden administration's immigration agenda.
The lawsuit says the administration, often working with Mexican authorities, has physically blocked migrants from claiming asylum at land crossings with Mexico unless they have an appointment through the CBP One app. It says the app is "impossible" for those with inferior internet access, language difficulties or lack of technical know-how. Appointments are capped at 1,450 a day.
"CBP One essentially creates an electronic waitlist that restricts access to the U.S. asylum process to a limited number of privileged migrants," according to the lawsuit by advocacy groups Al Otro Lado and the Haitian Bridge Alliance and would-be asylum-seekers from Mexico, Haiti, Nicaragua and Russia who say they couldn't get appointments while waiting in Mexico.
More than 38,000 people were processed for entry using CBP One in June and more than 170,000 got appointments during the first six months of the year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said last week.
CBP said late Thursday that use of the app has increased processing at land crossings to "historic levels," significantly expanding access to asylum and humanitarian protections. At the same time, the agency said it continues to serve people "who walk up to a port of entry without an appointment."
The lawsuit is the latest legal threat to the Biden administration's carrot-and-stick approach to the border that combines new avenues for legal entry, like CBP One, and shuts down routes to asylum for those who enter the country without government permission.
Officials say the approach is working, noting a sharp drop in illegal crossings since a rule took effect on May 11 that allows authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the border without applying on CBP One or seeking protection in another country they passed through. In June, authorities stopped migrants nearly 145,000 times, the lowest level since February 2021 and down 43% from December's peak.
But the lawsuits complicate President Joe Biden's efforts to introduce new policies.
"Litigation is, to a certain extent, dictating immigration policy along the border, also in the interior," Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, said.
A look at some of the other legal challenges and where they stand:
NEW ASYLUM LIMITS
The government is appealing a federal judge's decision to block the new asylum rule. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar delayed his ruling from taking effect for two weeks. It may fall to an appeals court to decide whether to keep the rule in place during what may be a lengthy challenge.
Some legal observers don't expect a final resolution until 2025, probably in the Supreme Court.
MIGRANTS FROM CUBA, HAITI, NICARAGUA AND VENEZUELA
Another closely watched case challenges the administration's policy to grant parole for two years to up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela if they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive at an airport. Texas is leading 21 states to argue that Biden overreached his authority, saying it "amounts to the creation of a new visa program that allows hundreds of thousands of aliens to enter the United States who otherwise have no basis for doing so."
A trial is scheduled Aug. 24 in Victoria, Texas, before U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton. Legal observers anticipate a decision in the fall.
Mexico says the policy was critical to it agreeing to take back people from those four countries who enter the U.S. illegally and are denied asylum.
RELEASING ASYLUM-SEEKERS IN THE U.S.
An appeals court could rule soon on the Biden administration's use of what is known as humanitarian parole, in which asylum-seekers are released in the U.S. while they pursue cases in immigration court.
U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II said in a March ruling prohibiting the practice that the administration "effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand."
The Border Patrol paroled 572,575 migrants last year, including a record-high 130,563 in December. The practice sharply subsided even before the administration lost a lawsuit by the state of Florida, but it wants the option in case Border Patrol stations become too overcrowded.
OTHER REPUBLICAN-LED CHALLENGES
Texas sued the administration in May to block Biden's policies, particularly the use of CBP One. "The Biden Administration's attempt to manage the southern border by app does not meet even the lowest expectation of competency and runs afoul of the laws Congress passed to regulate immigration," the lawsuit states.
Indiana and 17 other states sued the administration on similar grounds, saying in its federal lawsuit filed in North Dakota that new policies "will further degrade our nation's border security and make it even easier to illegally immigrate into the United States."
Neither case appears headed toward swift resolution.
GOP measures would undo protections for endangered lesser prairie chicken, northern bat - By Matthew Daly 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.
A board member for New Mexico public employee pension fund may face an investigation – Albuquerque Journal
The board overseeing a large pension fund for public employees in New Mexico has voted to hire an outside investigator to look into allegations against one of its members.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the board member, Loretta Naranjo Lopez emailed the executive director of the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico, Greg Trujillo. She asked him to publish a flier in the Santa Fe New Mexican that included her position on the ballot for reelection to the PERA board as well as language touting her value to the board.
Trujillo told Naranjo Lopez that her flier appeared to be a campaign ad and PERA could not pay to publish that.
She accused him of insubordination and suggested he was unqualified to hold his job. The chair of the PERA board called the exchange potential misconduct and wrote in a memo that the organization’s assets do not serve as a “campaign slush fund.”
Naranjo Lopez called the proposed investigation of her actions “defamatory.”
PERA oversees a $16 billion fund that operates the retirement system for thousands of current and retired public employees.
Suffocating heat wave in metro Phoenix starts easing after first major monsoon storm of the season - By Anita Snow Associated Press
The persistent heat wave that has suffocated Phoenix for most of July was slightly easing Thursday after the first major monsoon storm of the season kicked up dust and high winds and brought the first measurable rainfall in some areas since March.
The Wednesday night storm, featuring high winds hitting over 60 mph (96.5 kph), ripped the roofs and awnings off numerous manufactured homes in Mesa. It even lifted the roof of a small one-story apartment building in that Phoenix suburb, pushing the overnight low below 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius) for the first time in 16 days.
"The heat wave is not over yet," said Tom Frieders, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. "It will continue to be hot, but we're hoping that once we get beyond Saturday it will start to cool off."
The Wednesday night storm brought heavy dust, lightning and rainfall of 0.25 inches (0.63 cm) to 1 inch (2.54 cm) in some locations, according to the Maricopa County Flood Control District.
No injuries were reported, but some people in that area temporarily lost power when utility poles were knocked down. Scores of trees were toppled across the region.
Despite the storm, an excessive heat warning remained in effect for Phoenix through Saturday night. The high was forecast to hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 degrees Celsius) on Thursday, and temperatures were expected to remain above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) at least through Sunday.
By Monday, the high was forecast to fall to 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42.2 degrees Celsius).
In the meantime, isolated scattered thunderstorms are possible across south-central Arizona for the rest of this week, with brief, localized downpours and blowing dust that could reduce visibility.
Possible hazards from thunderstorms are expected to increase over the weekend and into next week.
Until then, the heat will remain extremely dangerous, Frieders said.
Heat-associated deaths have continued to rise in recent weeks, with seven more confirmed in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, as of Saturday. That brought the county's total confirmed for the year so far to 25.
There were 425 confirmed heat-associated deaths in the county of nearly 4.5 million last year.