New Mexico responds to Pope Francis death: Services, news and other updates- Albuquerque Journal
Pope Francis died Monday at the Vatican's Casa Santa Maria. He was 88. This story will collect tidbits of news, services and other items from around New Mexico. It will be updated throughout the day. Email web@abquournal.com to share a news item.
2:45 pm. — visitors pay their respects: A steady stream of tourists and visitors alike have made their way to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in downtown Santa Fe to quietly pray for Pope Francis.
Dennis Brandon of Santa Fe said he is not Catholic, but said it was worth pausing to reflect on the late pope's legacy.
"He was unique in so many ways," Brandon said in an interview. "He created a sense of positive faith in people from all walks of life."
12 p.m. — church bells ring: The bells of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe tolled 88 times at noon Monday to honor Pope Francis, who died earlier in the day at age 88.
11:23 a.m. — mass in Santa Fe: A memorial mass for Pope Francis is scheduled for today at 6 p.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe.
Prior to today's mass, the doors of the cathedral will be draped in black at 11:30 a.m., said a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. At noon, the bells of the cathedral will toll 88 times.
The cathedral will be open from noon until the 6 p.m. mass.
Flags also will be flown at half-staff throughout New Mexico until sunset on the day of the Pope's internment, according to a statement released by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office.
"Pope Francis embodied values that resonate deeply with New Mexicans - compassion for the marginalized, dignity for the forgotten, and grace extended to all," Lujan Grisham said in the statement.
"I invite all New Mexicans, regardless of faith tradition, to reflect on Pope Francis's legacy of compassion and to answer his call to build a more just, more merciful world," she said.
11:21 a.m. — what they're saying: New Mexico leaders mourned the death of Pope Francis Monday and reflected on his life. Here's what they said.
NM Delegation: Three national monuments could be reduced, eliminated- Source New Mexico
In advance of an expected executive order on Tuesday, New Mexico’s federal delegation, led by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sent a letter on April 21 to U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum requesting the federal government leave the state’s monuments intact.
“National monuments are vitally important to our history and any proposals to reduce their boundaries will not be reflective of the voices of New Mexicans,” the delegation wrote. “Each monument in New Mexico represents years of community advocacy and support for the protection of the value they hold. In New Mexico, we have a $3.2 billion outdoor recreation sector and monuments are a significant contributor to this robust economy.”
The letter particularly singles out Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, Rio Grande del Norte, and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, which the letter says “are under consideration for reduction or elimination.”
Organ Mountains in the southern part of the state hosts “significant petroglyph and archeological sites,” the letter notes, while Rio Grande del Norte “boasts some of New Mexico’s most prized recreational opportunities in an area where the Rio Grande carves an 800-foot gorge through historic volcanic activity” and “provides access for traditional use like piñon nut collection.” Regarding Tent Rocks, the delegation notes that TIME included it on its list of the World’s Greatest Places of 2025. “Not only is Tent Rocks ‘geologically surreal,’ the letter says, “but it is also a sacred landscape to the Cochiti Pueblo.”
“There is no greater value to these natural landscapes than what is brought to the community through their continued protection,” the letter concludes. “Withdrawing protections from these sites would threaten the economic benefits associated with New Mexico’s outdoor recreation economy and it undermines our community and tribal voices.”
Arizona AG queries ICE about arrest of New Mexico man- Source New Mexico
Arizona’s top state prosecutor is seeking more information about immigration officials’ arrest of a U.S. citizen from New Mexico earlier this month.
A federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona on April 9 filed a criminal complaint against 19-year-old Jose Hermosillo, of Albuquerque.
The complaint alleges that on April 8, immigration agents found Hermosillo “without proper immigration documents” near Nogales, Arizona.
Arizona Public Media reports that Hermosillo and his girlfriend were visiting from Albuquerque to see family in Tucson, Arizona. The radio station reports that Hermosillo said he has never been to Nogales and that he was held in the Florence Correctional Center for 10 days.
A few days after the U.S. Marshals took Hermosillo to Florence, his family presented documents showing his U.S. citizenship, according to a statement provided to Source on Monday in response to an emailed inquiry to its Office of Public Affairs email address. The statement is attributable to a “senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security official,” the unsigned email said.
On Monday morning, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes posted on X that her office had reached out to ICE for more information about Hermosillo’s arrest, “for answers on how this was allowed to happen to an American citizen.”
“It is wholly unacceptable to wrongfully detain U.S. citizens,” she wrote.
A spokesperson for Mayes’ office told Source NM in an email that the request was made over the phone but declined to comment further.
The complaint, signed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a prosecutor, alleges that Hermosillo “admitted to illegally entering the United States from Mexico” on April 7. It also wrongfully states that he is a “citizen of Mexico.”
According to the DHS official, Hermosillo “said he wanted to turn himself in and completed a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully.”“This arrest was the direct result of Hermosillo’s own actions and statements,” the DHS official said.
A federal judge dismissed the case on April 17, court records show. The DHS official said Hermosillo was then released to his family.
The judge’s dismissal order states that the government moved to dismiss the case. In an email on Monday, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona declined to answer Source NM’s questions about the case, and wrote, “The U.S. Attorney’s Office does not have anything to add beyond what is found in the public record.”
The case against Hermosillo is absent from a news release the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona published three days after his arrest, in which the agency touted “immigration-related criminal charges” it had filed in the previous week.
Requests for comment from ICE and Hermosillo’s attorney were not returned on Monday.
John Mitchell, immigrants’ rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, told Source NM that we don’t have a full account of what transpired in Hermosillo’s case but people who suffered a wrongful arrest or detention can generally seek relief by filing a complaint under the Federal Tort Claims Act, detailing any harm they suffered at the hands of the federal government’s agents. Someone who brings a claim would have to show that their arrest lacked probable cause and that the arrest caused a tangible injury, Mitchell said.
People can also bring suits against the government for violations of their constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, commonly known as Section 1983 claims, Mitchell said. These claims typically involve violations such as wrongful arrest or excessive force, and can result in monetary or injunctive relief against the government, he said.
“In both types of cases, a central and challenging issue is to connect the harm suffered to the relief sought (e.g. money),” Mitchell said. “Obviously, the duration of wrongful detention is important. Other details matter; what did officers say to the plaintiff or to each other? Any indications of animas or hostility? These can all factor in.”
The Florence Correctional Center where Hermosillo was detained is a prison complex that CoreCivic privately owns and operates, Mitchell said. The prison holds, among others, immigrants in removal proceedings, he said.
In 2022, a Mexican national named Benjamin Gonzalez-Soto died while in ICE custody at FCC, Mitchell noted.
This story was updated following publication to include comment from the ACLU of Arizona.
Navajo advocates condemn energy actions, call for government accountability- Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
Navajo Nation advocates urged their leaders to stand against federal attempts to increase uranium extraction on Diné lands and the transport of uranium ore across the reservation.
The advocates spoke Monday as Tribal leaders gathered in Window Rock, Arizona, for the start of the spring Navajo Council session.
The coalition of advocates say they want more transparency and accountability from the Navajo Nation leaders, especially President Buu Nygren.
The speakers expressed concerns that tribal leaders could repeat the mistakes of the past that have left Navajo Nation lands scarred with abandoned uranium mines and oil and gas infrastructure. They also spoke out against a push to increase coal mining and power production even as plants on and around the reservation have closed in recent years or are scheduled to shut down.
They say Nygren and other Tribal leaders should stand up against future coal, oil and gas development on Navajo lands and should stop the transport of uranium ore across the reservation.
The protest comes after Nygren issued a statement of support for President Donald Trump’s executive order supporting coal development.
In his statement, Nygren noted that the Navajo Transitional Energy Company was the third largest producer of coal in the country in 2024.
“If the federal government is serious about increasing domestic energy production, enhancing permitting, and bolstering energy security, it must work in partnership with tribal nations,” Nygren said in his statement supporting Trump’s executive order. “Together, we can strengthen local economies, generate revenue, and create good-paying jobs in historically underinvested areas like ours.”
The sole remaining coal-fired power plant in New Mexico is located on Navajo Nation lands and is partially owned by NTEC.
During the protest, speakers altered between Diné bizaad — the Navajo language — and English as they called for action and accountability from their Tribal leaders.
“Our lands have been affected by oil and gas, coal, uranium mining, and there’s a lot of waste issues associated with all of that extraction that has happened on our land,” Robyn Jackson with the advocacy group Diné CARE said.
Jackson, who is a resident of Wheatfields, Arizona, spoke about the potential for future extractive industry and the impacts of climate change on the Nation.
She said there are proposals for increased oil and gas drilling, coal mining and “also some projects out there that haven’t really been tested elsewhere, but they want to test it on Navajo lands.”
Jackson gave the example of carbon sequestration and hydrogen pipelines.
The advocates say the Navajo Nation should not be used as a test site for emerging technologies, including the high-pressure slurry ablation that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has evaluated as a possible means to clean up abandoned uranium mine waste.
These proposals come even as residents of the Navajo Nation do not have access to water either for irrigation or drinking.
While many Navajo Nation residents may not have access to water, energy projects such as coal-fired power plants have drawn on water resources. The Four Corners Power Plant, which began operating in the mid-1960s, uses about 14.3 million gallons of water daily, which is drawn from the San Juan River, according to the advocates.
In other parts of the Navajo Nation, water resources have been contaminated by the uranium industry. While uranium mining ended on the Nation in 1986, a renewed interest in nuclear power has led to increased interest in uranium extraction. This comes even as existing abandoned uranium sites remain unremediated on the Navajo Nation.
Jackson spoke about the toll the uranium industry has had on the Navajo Nation.
“There isn’t one Diné family who hasn’t lost someone to something like cancer,” she said.
The advocates condemned the Nygren administration’s support for the failed state Senate Bill 316, which would have impacted efforts to move uranium mine waste from the Church Rock area to a landfill near Thoreau.
They further demanded that no new uranium mining occur on lands near the Mount Taylor Traditional Cultural Property area. Mount Taylor is a sacred site for several Indigenous tribes including the Navajo Nation.
Cheyenne Antonio — the energy organizer with Diné CARE who is from Pueblo Pintado, a community near Chaco Culture National Historical Park — spoke about the trauma that the extractive industries “have inflicted on our people.”
“We need to start shaming our leaders for selling us out,” Antonio said.
South Carolina man gets life sentence for killing New Mexico officer - Associated Press
A South Carolina man was sentenced to life in prison Monday for gunning down a New Mexico state police officer who had stopped to help him.
The sentence stemmed from an agreement Jaremy Smith reached with federal prosecutors earlier this year. He had pleaded guilty to charges that included carjacking resulting in death, using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, and possession of a stolen firearm.
He also is facing multiple charges in South Carolina, where he is accused of carjacking a woman and killing her before driving her car cross country. It was the gun he had stolen from the woman's roommate that authorities say he used to shoot the officer.
While then- U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland opted at the time to not pursue the death penalty against Smith, it could be on the table with the pending state case in South Carolina, federal prosecutors have said.
The fatal shooting of Officer Justin Hare happened before dawn on March 15, 2024, along Interstate 40 near the community of Tucumcari. The killing set off a search for Smith, who was wounded and captured two days later in Albuquerque after authorities got a tip from a gas station clerk.
Ryan Ellison, the newly appointed U.S. attorney for the district of New Mexico, said Smith’s actions left a trail of destruction across state lines.
“Officer Justin Hare, a hero who saw someone in need and selflessly stepped in to help, paid the ultimate price,” Ellison said in a statement. “We honor his memory by ensuring that Jaremy Smith will never again be able to endanger the lives of others.”
According to a criminal complaint, Hare was dispatched to help someone in a white BMW. He parked behind it and a man approached his patrol car on the passenger side. The two then began talking about a flat tire, and the officer offered Smith a ride to a nearby town because no repair shop was open at that hour.
Seconds later, Smith shot Hare, then went to the driver’s side and waited until traffic passed to shoot the officer again, according to dash camera video that was released as part of the investigation.
Authorities said Smith then pushed the officer into the passenger seat and drove away. Court records state the officer can be heard gasping for air on a body camera recording, and the duress signal on his radio was activated, alerting other officers.
Hare was found about an hour later, alive but fatally injured on the side of the road. The 35-year-old father had been with the state police agency since 2018.
State Police later learned the BMW had been reported missing in South Carolina and belonged to a woman who was killed there — Phonesia Machado-Fore, a 52-year-old paramedic. Her body was found in a neighboring county, still wearing pajamas and house slippers, and her wrists showing signs that she had been bound.
Authorities had used cellphone data and the car's GPS location data to track Smith and Machado-Fore's movements.
Authorities had said Smith had a long criminal history. A review of South Carolina Department of Corrections records showed he spent time in prison for attempted armed robbery and hostage-taking before being released on parole in Marion County in December 2023. The records also showed numerous infractions while he was incarcerated from possessing a weapon to attacking or attempting to injure employees and inmates.
Rio Arriba County sheriff found dead - Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield died “unexpectedly” at his home Sunday morning, Rio Arriba County Manager Jeremy Maestas said in a news release Sunday.
The cause of death has not been released.
“Sheriff Merrifield dedicated his life to serving and protecting the residents of Rio Arriba County, and his loss is felt deeply throughout our county,” Maestas said.
Further details will be released as they become available, he said.
New Mexico State Police is also investigating the death, according to a spokesperson.
“Sheriff Merrifield served with honor, courage and an unwavering dedication to protecting others,” an Española Police Department Facebook post states. “His courage, strength, and unity will be deeply missed.”
Merrifield was appointed sheriff, replacing James Lujan in late 2021 before being elected to the same position in 2022.
“Rest in Peace Sheriff Billy Merrifield, may you find peace and comfort in the arms of angels,” Sen. Leo Jaramillo, D-Española said in a Facebook post Sunday afternoon. “Your leadership and presence will be missed.”
Three inspector general reports released; others still held up - Colleen Heild, Albuquerque Journal
For the second time in the past month, a volunteer citizens committee has put off the public release of investigations into allegations of misconduct or malfeasance completed by the city of Albuquerque Office of Inspector General.
The city’s Accountability in Government Oversight Committee recently approved three of nine completed OIG investigative reports, deferring until May six others that have been reportedly ready for public release for months. The committee’s meetings are closed to the public under city ordinance.
Inspector General Melissa Santistevan didn’t return a Journal phone call last week, but had urged the committee in a public notice to release all nine reports.
Santistevan’s four-year contract is up for renewal in June, but the city is soliciting applicants for the job.
Under city ordinance, once the committee receives an investigative report from the OIG, it can approve, defer until the next meeting or vote not to approve the report. Unless deferred, the reports become public.
Santistevan in early April published a notice that the pending reports “deal with fraud, waste, or abuse that impact our City. Some of these reports have been completed for months without citizen awareness.”
The chairperson of that committee posted an online response that its members identified “multiple concerns regarding the quality of the reports and the underlying investigations.”
The committee, which also oversees the city auditor, wants to ensure “the accuracy and the quality of published reports,” wrote Victor Griego, a CPA who chairs the committee.
The three investigations released April 14 after approval by the city Accountability in Government Oversight Committee dealt with an employee’s parking validation; $18,587 in misplaced or lost city property; and an allegation that waste occurred when the city paid for three separate designs for the third-floor renovation of the old City Hall involving three different city managers. If the third design is used, the cost of the first two designs totaling $55,827 was a waste of taxpayers’ dollars, the OIG report stated.
The nonpartisan Office of Inspector General is responsible for investigating tips and allegations of fraud, waste and abuse, and in recent years has looked into violations of nepotism, mis-billing, abuse of authority and leave policies, and abuse of power.
The committee’s five members are appointed by the mayor and City Council. The members are to include a professional management consultant, a certified public accountant and a member with a law enforcement background. City ordinance states the committee is a “management committee” and not a public board subject to the state Open Meetings Act.
Trump administration makes major cuts to Native American boarding school research projects - By Hallie Golden, Associated Press
At least $1.6 million in federal funds for projects meant to capture and digitize stories of the systemic abuse of generations of Indigenous children in boarding schools at the hands of the U.S. government have been slashed due to federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump's administration.
The cuts are just a fraction of the grants canceled by the National Endowment for the Humanities in recent weeks as part of the Trump administration's deep cost-cutting effort across the federal government. But coming on the heels of a major federal boarding school investigation by the previous administration and an apology by then-President Joe Biden, they illustrate a seismic shift.
"If we're looking to 'Make America Great Again,' then I think it should start with the truth about the true American history," said Deborah Parker, CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
The coalition lost more than $282,000 as a result of the cuts, halting its work to digitize more than 100,000 pages of boarding school records for its database. Parker, a citizen of the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state, said Native Americans nationwide depend on the site to find loved ones who were taken or sent to these boarding schools.
Searching that database last year, Roberta "Birdie" Sam, a member of Tlingit & Haida, was able to confirm that her grandmother had been at a boarding school in Alaska. She also discovered that around a dozen cousins, aunts and uncles had also been at a boarding school in Oregon, including one who died there. She said the knowledge has helped her with healing.
"I understand why our relationship has been the way it has been. And that's been a great relief for myself," she said. "I've spent a lot of years very disconnected from my family, wondering what happened. And now I know — some of it anyways."
An April 2 letter to the healing coalition that was signed by Michael McDonald, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, says the "grant no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities."
The Associated Press left messages by phone and email for the National Endowment for the Humanities. White House officials and the Office of Management and Budget also did not respond Friday to an email requesting comment.
Indigenous children were sent to boarding schools
For 150 years the U.S. removed Indigenous children from their homes and sent them away to the schools, where they were stripped of their cultures, histories and religions, and beaten for speaking their native languages.
At least 973 Native American children died at government-funded boarding schools, according to an Interior Department investigation launched by former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. Both the report and independent researchers say the actual number was much higher.
The forced assimilation policy officially ended with the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978. But the government never fully investigated the boarding school system until the Biden administration.
In October, Biden apologized for the government's creation of the schools and the policies that supported them.
Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo citizen who's running for governor in New Mexico, described the recent cuts as the latest step in the Trump administration's "pattern of hiding the full story of our country." But she said they can't erase the extensive work already done.
"They cannot undo the healing communities felt as they told their stories at our events to hear from survivors and descendants," she said in a statement. "They cannot undo the investigation that brings this dark chapter of our history to light. They cannot undo the relief Native people felt when President Biden apologized on behalf of the United States."
Boarding school research programs are feeling the strain
Among the grants terminated earlier this month was $30,000 for a project between the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and Alaska Native Heritage Center to record and broadcast oral histories of elders in Alaska. Koahnic received an identical letter from McDonald.
Benjamin Jacuk, the Alaska Native Heritage Center's director of Indigenous research, said the news came around the same time they lost about $100,000 through a Institute of Museum and Library Services grant for curating a boarding school exhibit.
"This is a story that for all of us, we weren't able to really hear because it was so painful or for multitudes of reasons," said Jacuk, a citizen of Kenaitze Indian Tribe. "And so it's really important right now to be able to record these stories that our elders at this point are really opening up to being able to tell."
Former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland described the cuts as frustrating, especially given the size of the grants.
"It's not even a drop in the ocean when it comes to the federal budget," said Newland, a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe). "And so it's hard to argue that this is something that's really promoting government efficiency or saving taxpayer funds."
In April 2024, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced that it was awarding $411,000 to more than a dozen tribal nations and organizations working to illustrate the impact of these boarding schools. More than half of those awards have since been terminated.
The grant cuts were documented by the non-profit organization National Humanities Alliance.
John Campbell, a member of Tlingit and the Tulalip Tribes, said the coalition's database helped him better understand his parents, who were both boarding school survivors and "passed on that tradition of being traumatized."
When he was growing up, his mother used to put soap in his mouth when he said a bad word. He said he learned through the site that she experienced that punishment beginning when she was 6-years-old in a boarding school in Washington state when she would speak her language.
"She didn't talk about it that much," he said. "She didn't want to talk about it either. It was too traumatic."
Proposed Endangered Species Act regulations changes would impact NM wildlife — Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
Wildlife advocates say proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act regulations could harm New Mexico’s wildlife by allowing industries to destroy habitats.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a notice this week in the Federal Register announcing rulemaking that would rescind the definition of “harm” in the ESA regulations.
“The existing regulatory definition of ‘harm,’ which includes habitat modification, runs contrary to the best meaning of the statutory term ‘take,’” the notice states.
These changes could allow oil and gas developers to drill in areas where lesser prairie chickens gather to lek. In that situation, the developers would only be prevented from intentionally killing or removing lesser prairie chickens.
In the past, groups such as WildEarth Guardians have brought lawsuits against entities based on the definition of harm in the regulations, Joanna Zhang, the endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians, said.
She gave the example of a settlement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. In the lawsuit, WildEarth Guardians maintained that actions taken as part of the Middle Rio Grande Project were harming the Rio Grande silvery minnow and other species by removing too much water from the river system, or damaging the habitat the fish and several bird species rely upon.
“When you have that definition of harm as habitat damage, we’re essentially saying, okay, by taking water out of the river, you’re doing the same thing as killing them,” Zhang said.
She said the proposed changes wouldn’t necessarily mean that habitat is no longer protected, but it would make it easier for industries to destroy vital habitats.
“You need strong and clear protections in place for habitat in order for the species to do well, because if you take an animal or plant’s food and home away, then how are they supposed to live?” she said.
Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity said the Endangered Species Act itself includes the term harm.
“For more than 40 years, harm has been defined to include significant, significant habitat modification or degradation leading to actual death or injury of endangered species,” he said. “And that’s really one of the primary places in the act where habitat is protected.”
Greenwald said from the Center’s perspective, the changes the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed are “not what the Act says or intended.”
The proposal also comes as the world is facing a biodiversity and extinction crisis.
“Scientists around the world warn that we’re at risk of losing more than a million species in the coming decades. It’s something we should all be concerned about,” Greenwald said. “Species are really the building blocks of ecosystems, and ecosystems cycle our nutrients. They pollinate crops, they moderate climate, they moderate flooding, they clean our air and water, and so the fact that we’re degrading the natural world and losing all these species should be a great concern, because it indicates that we’re undercutting our own quality of life.”
These proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act regulations come as Republicans have pushed measures that would weaken the law in an effort to promote economic interests. For example, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, is pushing legislation that would require economic impact analyses whenever there’s a proposal to list a species as endangered or threatened.
Republicans in Congress have also sought to remove the lesser prairie chicken’s protections because of the impacts it could have on energy development. Lesser prairie chicken habitat is becoming increasingly fragmented in eastern New Mexico amid oil and gas development, a burgeoning wind energy industry and new transmission lines. Former President Joe Biden vetoed a bill in 2023 that would have overturned the lesser prairie chicken’s listing.
Republicans have also decried logging restrictions in areas where Mexican spotted owls are found and they argue that these restrictions on logging are creating dangerously dense forest conditions.
Meanwhile, ranchers in New Mexico oppose habitat protections for the meadow jumping mouse because of restrictions on grazing.
The public comment period on the proposed rule is open through May 19 and organizations like EarthJustice, WildEarth Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity are planning to submit comments.
If the Fish and Wildlife Service moves forward with the proposed changes, the groups are gearing up to challenge it in court.
Public comments can be submitted here under docket FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0034.
Military officials identify 2 Marines killed in crash during border deployment - Associated Press
Military officials have identified the two Marines from California who were killed when their vehicle crashed as a convoy was traveling along the U.S.-Mexico border near Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
They were Lance Cpl. Albert Aguilera, 22, of Riverside and Lance Cpl. Marcelino Gamino, 28, of Fresno. Both were members of the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion based at Camp Pendleton.
Another Marine with the battalion remains in critical condition.
The investigation into Tuesday's crash is ongoing, military officials said in a statement.
The region where the accident took place is just over the state line and west of Fort Bliss, a major Army installation in West Texas that has played a critical role in dispatching military deportation flights and served as a touchpoint for thousands of soldiers and pieces of equipment now deployed along the border.
The troops are deployed there in support of President Donald Trump's executive order to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
NM health officials: No new measles cases — Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Earlier last week, health officials urged parents to consider seeking one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine for infants aged 6-11 months who live in Doña Ana County — the fourth and latest New Mexico county with cases — or who will be traveling to either Doña Ana or Lea counties, where the bulk of the state’s cases have thus far taken place.
Normally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends infants receive the first dose at 12 to 15 months and a second dose between 4 to 6-years old. Dr. Jana Shaw, a State University of New York professor of pediatrics, notes that babies gain some antibodies from measles when the mother is vaccinated, so the recommendation is often to wait until 1 year of age for the most effective protection.
Except when there’s an outbreak.
“If the risk is increased, vaccinating children less than one year of age is recommended; it’s safe,” Shaw told Source. And with no antiviral therapies to treat measles, “the only preventive tool we have is vaccination,” she said. “Once your child is infected, our tools are pretty limited in terms of what we can do to treat, support and help your child to heal.”
New Mexico’s cases as of April 18 stood at 63, with no new cases reported on Friday, according to a Department of Health spokesperson. The bulk of those cases —59 — occurred in Lea County. Of the total cases, 46 afflicted non-vaccinated people; six were vaccinated; and 11 had unknown vaccination statuses. In nearby West Texas, where New Mexico’s outbreak likely began, the health department on Friday reported 597 confirmed since late January, an increase of 36 since the April 15 update.
Nationwide, according to the CDC’s most recent figures, a total of 800 confirmed measles cases have been reported by 25 jurisdictions. The 2019 series of outbreaks totaled 1,249 measles infections, and were the largest in the U.S. since the CDC declared measles eradicated in 2000.
Shaw praised the strong responses from local health departments and vaccination strategies for bringing that outbreak under control, but expressed concern about misinformation’s impact on public health.
“It was through vaccination how we stopped [the 2019] outbreak,” Shaw said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have such a strong intervention in place now, and certainly doesn’t seem to be very coordinated. I’m concerned this will continue to spread.”
Public health authorities warned about the threats of vaccine safety misinformation even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the concerns have accelerated since then, according to Jagdish Khubchandani, a public health professor at New Mexico State University.
Khubchandani co-authored a 2021 paper on vaccine hesitancy during the pandemic and is currently funded by the National Science Foundation grant to further study misinformation impacts on public health.
“It’s a complicated problem, and I think it needs urgent action at the local, regional and global levels,” he told Source. “We have seen, in the meanwhile, that the rise of misinformation and vaccine hesitancy proliferates at a faster rate than awareness campaigns for vaccination.”