Ruidoso sues PNM over 2022 McBride Fire, alleges negligence - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
The village of Ruidoso has sued the Public Service Co. of New Mexico (PNM), alleging the utility’s negligence caused the 2022 McBride Fire.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the village accuses PNM of not maintaining vegetation along its power lines.
According to the lawsuit, winds toppled a tree into a PNM line on April 12, 2022. A resulting spark then lit nearby vegetation and debris on fire.
The McBride Fire burned around 6,200 acres, destroying homes and businesses and killing two elderly residents. Flooding on the burn scar caused additional damage.
The village is seeking unspecified damages in the case.
A spokesperson for PNM told the Journal the company can’t comment on pending litigation.
Former U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez enters Bernalillo DA race – Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico In Depth
The former U.S. attorney for New Mexico plans to run for Bernalillo County district attorney in the Democratic primary next year.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Damon Martinez will challenge current DA Sam Bregman, who said in June he will run to retain his post. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Bregman in January when his predecessor, Raúl Torrez, won election to be attorney general.
Martinez was one of 14 attorneys who applied for the DA post. He also ran for the Democratic nomination for U.S. House District 1, losing to Deb Haaland.
Martinez served as U.S. attorney for New Mexico from May 2014 until his resignation in March 2017. He was one of 46 U.S. attorneys asked to resign by then-president Donald Trump.
Martinez was hired by Mayor Tim Keller in 2018 as a senior policy advisor with the Albuquerque Police Department. That was controversial with many community groups. According to New Mexico In Depth, Martinez oversaw a large-scale federal law enforcement operation in 2016 in which agents arrested a disproportionately high number of black people for relatively minor crimes.
In a statement announcing his candidacy, Martinez referred to violent crime, theft, fentanyl and vandalism and said families are looking for real solutions.
Rio Arriba shooter supported 2020 Oñate shooting, online posts show radical rabbit hole - By Andrew Beale, Source New Mexico
Ryan Martinez, the Donald Trump supporter who shot activist Jacob Johns (Hopi, Akimel O’odham) last month at a prayer vigil where a statue of war criminal Juan de Oñate was set to be installed, had an extensive history of posting and engaging with extremist content on social media, a review of archived posts by Source NM found.
In hundreds of posts spanning a two-year timeframe, he repeatedly expressed belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory, advocated violence against Democrat officials and frequently used racist and antisemitic language and homophobic and sexist slurs.
He also reacted with enthusiastic support to news of a separate shooting by another Trump supporter at a statue of Oñate outside Albuquerque in 2020.
Martinez is charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault for the shooting, and was denied release pending trial after the FBI reported he had a history of violent threats on social media. He will face a state district court judge in Tierra Amarilla on Friday morning.
John Day, an attorney representing Johns, said as of Tuesday that Johns was still at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and his condition was unstable. The hospital has scheduled and then delayed multiple surgeries because they’re worried he couldn’t make it through them, Day said.
Day also wants Martinez to be charged with a federal hate crime.
‘I WROTE A Q ON MY HAND AND I’M SURE THE PRESIDENT SAW IT’
In a series of posts following a Trump rally in Rio Rancho in 2019, Martinez wrote that rally security took away a sign he made expressing belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory.
He then wrote a letter “Q” on his hand in black marker, and became convinced Trump saw it and was sending him coded messages during the rally.
“I wrote a Q on my hand and I’m sure the president saw it,” he wrote in a post that contained a picture of himself with the Q on his palm.
In a series of follow-up posts, Martinez and other QAnon believers became convinced that Trump tapping the podium during his speech was a coded message, one that Martinez believed was meant for him personally.
“Did you count how many times he was tapping the podium?? … I think he was doing that directed at me,” he wrote.
QAnon adherents falsely believe that Democrats traffic children, sexually abuse them and harvest their brains to stay preternaturally young, and a key demand of the movement is the public execution of Trump’s political enemies.
The conspiracy theory played a major role in the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2020, and believers in the theory carried out a string of murders, terror attacks and kidnappings in the U.S. and abroad during Trump’s presidency.
The FBI has repeatedly warned that followers of the conspiracy theory pose a violent risk to the country’s security.
Martinez frequently interacted with Q-themed content and posted Q slogans dozens of times on a now-deleted social media account, though hundreds of posts are preserved on the Internet Archive. His archived posts cover mid-2018 to late 2020.
Source NM asked his attorney Nicole Moss for comment via email, but did not receive a response. Martinez was initially represented by a public defender before hiring Moss.
SHOOTER REPEATEDLY ADVOCATED POLITICAL VIOLENCE
In 2020, Martinez received a visit from FBI agents over a 2018 tweet that seemingly threatened violenceagainst members of the Federal Reserve.
That post and two others highlighted by the FBI were absent from the archived posts reviewed by Source NM. But other posts by Martinez indicated support for politically-motivated violence.
“@BarackObama ready to be hung?” Martinez posted in 2019.
In response to a Washington Post article about police killing an antifascist activist wanted for the shooting death of a far-right activist without warning or attempting to arrest him–a police shooting that Trump claimed credit for ordering as an act of “retribution”–Martinez wrote “Good.”
Following a 2020 shooting by a Trump supporter at a statue of Oñate near Albuquerque, Martinez blamed Albuquerque mayor Tim Keller for the shooting, and trolled online commentators expressing sadness at the violence.
That shooting was carried out by failed city council candidate Steven Ray Baca after Baca committed a series of physical attacks on anti-Oñate protesters.
Video of the incident showed Baca push a woman from to the ground, injuring her legs; mace a man in the face; push a second woman to the ground, injuring her head; and finally shoot a demonstrator Scott Williams four times in the back at close range with a .40-caliber handgun.
Prosecutors initially charged Baca with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the shooting, but later dropped that charge. Baca pleaded guilty to battery and aggravated battery for other assaults on protesters and unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon. His sentencing is set for November.
In response to a video of Baca assaulting one of the women, Martinez wrote “I would’ve pushed that (expletive) out of the way too,” using a gendered slur to refer to the woman.
Many other posts on his account were deeply bigoted, with frequent use of anti-gay slurs and gendered insults.
Martinez also posted numerous racist and antisemitic messages, telling an American of foreign descent to leave the country and advocating for other nonwhite Americans accused of crimes to lose their citizenship.
He asserted then-candidate Kamala Harris was “Indian” instead of American.
And he frequently posted antisemitic conspiracy theories about liberal philanthropist George Soros and wondered if right-wing commentator Matt Drudge was an Israeli spy.
EXPERTS SAY ONLINE SPREAD OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES INCREASE RISK OF VIOLENCE
Three experts interviewed by Source NM said that while they couldn’t comment on Martinez’s specific motivations, in general QAnon and related conspiracy theories have a high risk of motivating adherents to violence.
A belief in conspiracies like QAnon or false claims that the election was stolen from Trump, which he also expressed belief in, can cause people to “feel like they have to act on their own to fix it,” according to Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy director of research, analysis and reporting at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). “That’s really concerning, because then there is a propensity towards violence and other forms of harm,” she said.
Stolen election conspiracy theories allegedly motivated a string of shootings in the Albuquerque area following the election last year, with failed New Mexico House candidate Solomon Peña charged with organizing shootings at the residences of Democratic officials and thereby interfering with the elections.
Jessica Feezell, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Mexico who studies the relationship between social media and political behavior, said most people who believe in conspiracy theories don’t turn to violence, and it’s unclear exactly what factors cause someone to take violent actions based on false beliefs.
“Probably it is an intersectional result of a lot of different variables. It could be their mental health, it could be socioeconomic status, it could be their age,” she said.
One factor increasing the risk of political violence is that Republican politicians have become increasingly unwilling to denounce violence by their supporters, Feezell said.
“I don’t remember hearing any instances of Republican leadership taking a position that actively discourages acts of violence,” she said. “People like Donald Trump will regularly go on the media to say that the election is rigged (and) to actually say that shoplifters should be shot and generals should be tried for treason. Those statements have consequences for people that follow him.”
Threats against Democrats, some encouraged by Republican officials, proliferated on social media in recent weeks following governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency public health order that included a gun ban in Bernalillo County before it was stopped by a federal judge.
Jared Holt, a senior research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said that conspiracy theories like QAnon “tend to attract people that may be disposed in one way or another to these kinds of (violent) actions.”
And the equation works the other way around, with people attracted to QAnon encouraged to commit violence by the belief system itself, he said.
“For people to take dramatic actions based on a very dramatic belief system isn’t a complete surprise,” Holt said. “These kind of conspiracy theories are still quite powerful and motivating (the) kind of hyperactive fringe to behave badly and make people feel that they’re in danger even if they aren’t actually in danger.”
Like other experts interviewed, Holt said that it’s too early to determine Martinez’s motivations for the shooting or whether it was directly inspired by QAnon but added “I think it would be a mistake to discount it from the equation.”
Belief that the 2020 election was stolen can also be a powerful motivator to violence, Holt said, and Republican officials and media figures have fanned the flames by endorsing or refusing to condemn false claims of election fraud.
“Nobody cries tears when dictatorships fall. So if you adopt that frame of mind, you can see how somebody might consider priorly unthinkable options might seem viable,” he said. “These kinds of false beliefs, unfortunately they’ve become so commonplace in America today that it’s easy to kind of feel numb to them or forget how extreme the claims that underlie them are.”
Asked whether more politically motivated violence was likely in New Mexico’s future, Carroll Rivas of the SPLC has a dire outlook.
“There are a lot of guns, and there are a lot of people trying to sew division in our communities, and there are a lot of people trying to sew division in New Mexico, so it’s way too likely,” she said.
Source NM Senior Reporter Austin Fisher contributed reporting.
French ballooning team goes the distance to finish ahead in prestigious long-distance race - Associated Press
Spending more than three and a half days aloft and traveling more than 1,653 miles, a French ballooning team has traveled the farthest in the world's oldest and most prestigious air race.
Pilots Eric Decellières and Benoît Havret landed just shy of the North Carolina coast Wednesday after having launched from an annual balloon fiesta in Albuquerque on Saturday night along with 15 other teams representing nine countries.
Organizers of the Gordon Bennett Cup said Decellières and Havret surpassed a German team by about 46 miles to take the lead. The unofficial results will have to be confirmed by a jury of ballooning experts.
The balloonists spend days in the air, carrying everything they need to survive at high altitudes as they search for the right combination of wind currents to push their baskets as far as they can go.
Their hydrogen-filled balloons fly throughout the night and into the next day, with pilots trading off so one can get some sleep while the other keeps an eye on weather conditions. Each team communicates regularly with race officials, their ground crews and meteorologists as they gauge the prospects for pushing ahead.
Two pilots from Poland continued to recover Wednesday in Texas, where their balloon caught fire and crashed after hitting a high-voltage power line while competing.
The race has been held in the United States only 13 times before, and this marked the fifth time the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta played host.
The teams are due back in Albuquerque on Saturday for an awards ceremony.
The race has roots that stretch back to 1906 when adventurer and newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett Jr. brought together 16 balloons for a competition that launched from Paris, France.
New Mexico governor defends approach to attempted gun restrictions, emergency order on gun violence - Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday defended her decision to treat gun violence as a public health epidemic, citing statistics on recent firearms seizures, reduced reports of gunfire in the Albuquerque metro area and an uptick in jail bookings, while awaiting a crucial court ruling on a signature effort to suspend gun-carry rights in public parks and playgrounds.
The governor last week extended an emergency public health order regarding gun violence an additional 30 days into early November. A federal judge has temporarily blocked provisions that suspended the right to carry guns in public parks, playgrounds and other areas where children recreate, setting a Wednesday deadline for a ruling on whether to indefinitely block the restrictions while several court challenges are resolved.
Lujan Grisham appeared at the news conference alongside Cabinet secretaries not only for New Mexico's Public Safety and Corrections departments but also child welfare services, pubic health and environmental protection agencies that are under orders to respond to the ravages of gun violence and drugs.
They unveiled a new website dashboard for statistics related to gun violence in the Albuquerque area. Administration officials said some new efforts to contain gun violence and drugs wouldn't be possible without the emergency orders — such as a mandate that expanded behavior health services from major medical insurers and emergency funding for wastewater testing for drugs at schools.
"I won't rest until we don't have to talk about (gun violence) as an epidemic and a public health emergency. That's the goal — and if we turn the tide and it's sustainable," Lujan Grisham said.
Lujan Grisham is confronting a public backlash from critics of her public health order who describe its gun restriction provisions as an assault on constitutional rights that allow a person to carry a firearm for self defense.
On Tuesday, the governor said she has a responsibility to explore opportunities for gun-free "safe spaces" amid shifting judicial precedent.
"That's a question that's now moving to the courts," Lujan Grisham said of her proposed gun restrictions. "I need to know what we can and cannot do to keep New Mexicans safe."
The standoff is one of many in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year expanding gun rights, as leaders in politically liberal-leaning states explore new avenues for restrictions.
The governor's emergency orders also include directives for monthly inspections of firearms dealers statewide, reports on gunshot victims at New Mexico hospitals and voluntary gun-buyback programs.
Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero said her agency is taking custody of 48 high-maintenance inmates from Bernalillo County's Metropolitan Detention Center to free up staff to help the area contend with violent crime.
Environment Department Secretary James Kenney said the planned wastewater testing program aims to identify which opioids, including fentanyl, are present at public schools, with 250 testing points statewide, to inform the state's response.
The governor has scaled back initial gun restrictions in the emergency public health order that broadly suspended the right to carry guns in most public places, which the sheriff and Albuquerque's police chief had refused to enforce.
The latest health order also avoids interference with access to a municipal shooting range in Albuquerque located within a public park. Gun restrictions would be tied to a statistical threshold for violent crime that applied only to Albuquerque and the surrounding area.
State police would have authority under the governor's order to assess civil penalties and fines of up to $5,000 for infractions.
Efforts are underway to create a telehealth prenatal and postpartum service for rural patients - By Susan Dunlap,New Mexico Political Report
To solve an urgent issue caused by an increasing OB-GYN desert, New Mexico Hospital Association and New Mexico Human Services Department are proposing to establish a telehealth prenatal and postpartum program for rural patients.
Troy Clark, executive director of NMHA, told NM Political Report that OB-GYN services are being lost across the country as well as in New Mexico. He said rural hospitals are struggling to maintain labor and delivery services in hospitals and that affects all women patients.
“It affects women’s health care in those [rural] communities,” Clark said.
Timothy Fowler, public relations coordinator for HSD, said the proposal is still in development and that there are many elements still to be finalized.
“This proposal will be submitted to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services this year. Upon approval from CMS, HSD will formally announce the new program,” Fowler said via email
Fowler said it is too early to tell if the proposal will impact labor and delivery services and rural hospitals.
“The primary intent of this proposal is to allow perinatal Medicaid customers to access services near their homes, hopefully increasing their number of prenatal and postpartum visits and leading to healthier parents and infants across New Mexico,” Fowler said.
Clark said most OB-GYN doctors provide labor and delivery services in addition to handling regular patient visits. He said the exception would be nurse practitioners who provide OB-GYN visits but who do not offer labor and delivery services.
“I use the word OB-GYN as opposed to labor and delivery because it’s integral,” he said.
Clark said that within the past year and a half, two rural hospitals in New Mexico have closed their labor and delivery services due to workforce issues and the cost of keeping the services available. He said declining birth rates and the cost and quality burdens to maintain labor and delivery in a hospital are too great for many rural hospitals.
“Currently, we have four hospitals that deliver fewer than 100 babies a year,” Clark said.
He said there are eight hospitals that deliver 200 to 400 babies a year.
Clark said that maintaining labor and delivery services is similar to maintaining an emergency room.
Clark gave an example of a rural hospital that averaged 10 deliveries a month and one month the hospital had six deliveries in one day and the other four came a few weeks later.
He said that for that one day, the hospital experienced pandemonium to manage six newborns and new parents but for most the rest of the month, there were almost no deliveries. But, the hospital has to maintain staff ready for delivery three shifts a day, seven days a week.
“You have a greater than 50 percent chance of not being involved in a delivery for the entire month. It’s a component most people don’t understand. The hospital has to bear the cost of keeping people there. They don’t know when the mothers are going to come to deliver,” he said.
The problem isn’t just cost but keeping staff up-to-date on their skills. If they are routinely not delivering, then they are not maintaining the level of experience in the event of an emergency, Clark said.
Clark said the problem doesn’t just impact rural hospitals and patients. It has a ripple effect on urban hospitals because rural patients wind up in urban hospitals.
“It’s part of the cog of a bigger issue but it’s not the driver of that. It’s not the driver of the pressure on urban hospitals. It contributes but it’s not the driver,” Clark said.
But Clark said it is still an urgent problem. In addition to the two hospitals that closed their labor and delivery in the last year, he said another rural hospital is considering closing its labor and delivery.
“Right now we need to keep them open,” he said.
Clark said the way it would work is a rural patient would go to the nearby hospital, which would provide a room and a nurse. The patient would have their routine prenatal and postpartum visits with the OB-GYN through telehealth with the local nurse taking vitals and providing any on-the ground work needed for the patient.
“ We can’t afford our current hospitals to stop labor and delivery,” Clark said.
Fiery crash during prestigious ballooning race leaves 2 Polish pilots with burns and other injuries - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Two balloon pilots from Poland who were competing in the prestigious Gordon Bennett Cup long-distance race were recovering Tuesday from burns, broken bones and other injuries after their hydrogen-filled balloon struck a high-voltage power line over Texas and exploded before falling to the ground.
Race organizers said the team was flying at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) to pass over the Dallas-Fort Worth airspace around 3:30 p.m. Monday and started their descent a short time later. Within a few hours, the balloon's tracking device indicated that the aircraft's motion had stopped.
Night already had fallen when the crash happened, according to authorities in Kaufman County, Texas. Flames were leaping from the side of the road where pieces of the balloon and basket had landed, not far from an electrical substation.
Residents shared stories on social media about seeing the balloon come down as if it was landing and then seeing it suddenly explode. Some also reported that their power went out while others said their lights flickered.
Steve Howie, the county's emergency management coordinator, said it's believed that the balloon first hit a 138,000-volt transmission line as it was floating about 90 feet above the ground. Then it hit a distribution line that was lower to the ground.
"The balloon filled with hydrogen exploded, caught fire and fell to the ground. Both occupants were injured, one more seriously than the other," he said in a phone interview.
Federal transportation officials would be investigating the crash, Howie said.
The weather and visibility were good at the time, race organizers said.
The pilots — Krzysztof Zapart and Piotr Halas — had been aloft since launching Saturday night from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta along with 16 other teams representing nine countries. Competitors were aiming to fly the farthest distance in what is known as the world's oldest air race.
The command team that oversees the international competition confirmed Tuesday that the pilots were in stable condition and expressed relief that the outcome was not any worse. Zapart sustained cuts and burns to his legs and arms, while Halas was being treated for burns and broken bones to his legs and midsection.
Event director Tomas Hora said the team's ground crew was at the hospital with the pilots and he thanked balloonists in Texas who were offering their support.
"We are receiving many words of encouragement and support from the other teams participating in the Gordon Bennett and from the ballooning community throughout the United States and the world," Hora said in a statement. "Balloonists are a tight-knit community who never hesitate to help each other in time of need."
There were only two teams remaining in flight as of Tuesday afternoon. Both were trying to catch up to the lead team, which landed earlier in the day along the eastern edge of Georgia.
The balloonists spend days in the air, carrying everything they need to survive at high altitudes as they search for the right combination of wind currents to push their baskets as far as they can go.
They fly throughout the night and into the next day, trading off so one pilot can get some sleep while the other keeps an eye on weather conditions. Each team communicates regularly with race officials and their own weather experts as they gauge their prospects for pushing ahead.
Race organizers described Zapart and Halas as people with adventurous spirits who understand the risks.
Zapart has flown in eight Gordon Bennett races and won the 2019 America's Challenge gas balloon race to break his streak of previous runner-up finishes. For Halas, this marked a return to the Gordon Bennett after having last competed in the event in 1997.
The gas balloon race has roots that stretch back more than a century, and this year marks the first time in 15 years that the United States has hosted the event.
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This story has been updated to correct the spellings of the pilots' names. They are Krzysztof Zapart and Piotr Halas, not Krzystotf Zapart and Pjotr Halas.
'Ring of fire' solar eclipse will slice across Americas on Saturday with millions along path - By Marcia Dunn Ap Aerospace Writer
Tens of millions in the Americas will have front-row seats for Saturday's rare "ring of fire" eclipse of the sun.
What's called an annular solar eclipse — better known as a ring of fire — will briefly dim the skies over parts of the western U.S. and Central and South America.
As the moon lines up precisely between Earth and the sun, it will blot out all but the sun's outer rim. A bright, blazing border will appear around the moon for as much as five minutes, wowing skygazers along a narrow path stretching from Oregon to Brazil.
The celestial showstopper will yield a partial eclipse across the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
It's a prelude to the total solar eclipse that will sweep across Mexico, the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada, in six months. Unlike Saturday, when the moon is too far from Earth to completely cover the sun from our perspective, the moon will be at the perfect distance on April 8, 2024.
Here's what you need to know about the ring of fire eclipse, where you can see it and how to protect your eyes:
WHAT'S THE PATH OF THE RING OF FIRE ECLIPSE?
The eclipse will carve out a swath about 130 miles (210 kilometers) wide, starting in the North Pacific and entering the U.S. over Oregon around 8 a.m. PDT Saturday. It will culminate in the ring of fire a little over an hour later. From Oregon, the eclipse will head downward across Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas, encompassing slivers of Idaho, California, Arizona and Colorado, before exiting into the Gulf of Mexico at Corpus Christi. It will take less than an hour for the flaming halo to traverse the U.S.
From there, the ring of fire will cross Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and, finally, Brazil before its grand finale over the Atlantic.
The entire eclipse — from the moment the moon starts to obscure the sun until it's back to normal — will last 2 1/2 to three hours at any given spot. The ring of fire portion lasts from three to five minutes, depending on location.
WHERE CAN THE ECLIPSE BE SEEN?
In the U.S. alone, more than 6.5 million people live along the so-called path of annularity, with another 68 million within 200 miles (322 kilometers), according to NASA's Alex Lockwood, a planetary scientist. "So a few hours' short drive and you can have over 70 million witness this incredible celestial alignment," she said.
At the same time, a crescent-shaped partial eclipse will be visible in every U.S. state, although just barely in Hawaii, provided the skies are clear. Canada, Central America and most of South America, also will see a partial eclipse. The closer to the ring of fire path, the bigger the bite the moon will appear to take out of the sun.
Can't see it? NASA and others will provide a livestream of the eclipse.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR EYES DURING THE ECLIPSE
Be sure to use safe, certified solar eclipse glasses, Lockwood stressed. Sunglasses aren't enough to prevent eye damage. Proper protection is needed throughout the eclipse, from the initial partial phase to the ring of fire to the final partial phase.
There are other options if you don't have eclipse glasses. You can look indirectly with a pinhole projector that you can make yourself, including one made with a cereal box.
Cameras — including those on cellphones — binoculars, or telescopes need special solar filters mounted at the front end.
SEEING DOUBLE
One patch of Texas near San Antonio will be in the cross-hairs of Saturday's eclipse and next April's, with Kerrville near the center. It's one of the locations hosting NASA's livestream.
"Is the city of Kerrville excited? Absolutely!!!" Mayor Judy Eychner said in an email. "And having NASA here is just icing on the cake!!!"
With Saturday's eclipse coinciding with art, music and river festivals, Eychner expects Kerrville's population of 25,000 to double or even quadruple.
WHERE'S THE TOTAL ECLIPSE IN APRIL?
April's total solar eclipse will crisscross the U.S. in the opposite direction. It will begin in the Pacific and head up through Mexico into Texas, then pass over Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, the northern fringes of Pennsylvania and New York, and New England, before cutting across Canada into the North Atlantic at New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Almost all these places missed out during the United States' coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in 2017.
It will be 2039 before another ring of fire is visible in the U.S., and Alaska will be the only state then in the path of totality. And it will be 2046 before another ring of fire crosses into the U.S. Lower 48. That doesn't mean they won't be happening elsewhere: The southernmost tip of South America will get one next October, and Antarctica in 2026.
GOING AFTER THE SCIENCE
NASA and others plan a slew of observations during both eclipses, with rockets and hundreds of balloons soaring.
"It's going to be absolutely breathtaking for science," said NASA astrophysicist Madhulika Guhathakurta.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Aroh Barjatya will help launch three NASA-funded sounding rockets from New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range before, during and after Saturday's eclipse. The goal is to see how eclipses set off atmospheric waves in the ionosphere nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) up that could disrupt communications.
Barjatya will be just outside Saturday's ring of fire. And he'll miss April's full eclipse, while launching rockets from Virginia's Wallops Island.
"But the bittersweet moment of not seeing annularity or totality will certainly be made up by the science return," he said.