Middle Mesa Fire near CO border burns more than 2,000 acres, with ‘hot, very dry’ conditions ahead - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A wildfire burning near the Colorado Border has quickly grown to more than 2,000 acres, according to Forest Service maps and statements.
Lightning ignited the Middle Mesa Fire on Aug. 1 in a swath of the Carson National Forest about 20 northeast of Navajo Dam. It’s difficult to contain due to “extremely low fuel moistures” and low humidity, according to a news release.
The latest infrared map captured overnight puts the fire at roughly 2,115 acres. That’s a growth of more than 1,000 acres since Sunday. More than 140 personnel are tackling the blaze via airplane and on the ground in hopes of slowing its spread.
It’s burning in a remote area roughly a mile from the Colorado border, but natural gas wells and pipelines sit nearby, according to the Forest Service. According to an operations map, about a dozen oil and gas wells are within the existing fire perimeter, with dozens more in the area.
“Fire managers request that the public avoid the northern reaches of the [Jicarilla] ranger district for safety of themselves and fire crews,” according to the news release. The Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office has placed private inholdings and properties in the fire’s path on “set” evacuation status.
Forecasters predict “Hot, very dry, and unstable conditions” this week for firefighters tackling the fire. The fire is currently 0% contained.
According to the Southwest Coordination Center, 725 wildfires have burned more than 180,000 acres in New Mexico so far this year. Naturally caused wildfires, which includes lightning, are responsible for more than 150,000 acres of that.
Triple-digit temperatures expected for ABQ over the next few days - Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
After a wet July, New Mexicans can expect a few days of hot and dry weather as August kicks into high gear.
On Tuesday, heat advisories will be issued around the state. Albuquerque and Roswell are among the places where temperatures are expected to reach at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.
The steamy weather is a stark contrast to the cool and damp July that Ruidoso and other cities and towns experienced.
For the month, the village officially received 3.56 inches of precipitation, NWS meteorologist Carter Greulich said. However, NWS does not have enough reliable stations in the area and the amount could differ depending on where it rained, he said.
Ruidoso spokesperson Kerry Gladden said the town got more than a few inches of rainfall, especially on July 8, when a man and two children were killed during a flash flood.
Ruidoso was not the only place to get a lot of precipitation. Tucumcari received 6.55 inches of rain, which is about 135% above average, 2.79 inches, Greulich said. On the flip side, Farmington got 0.07 inches, which is about 91% less than average, 0.75 inches, he said.
Albuquerque got close to its normal amount of July precipitation after it received 1.22 inches in July, about 15% below average for the month, 1.43 inches, Greulich said.
While the chances for rain will be low in the coming days, the heat is expected to return as highs across the state are expected to reach the upper 90s and low 100s. Roswell residents could see temperatures in the lower-100s through Friday, Greulich said.
To deal with the hot weather, people should stay hydrated, take breaks if they are working outside, look for shade and make sure loved ones are staying cool and drinking plenty of water, he said.
In Albuquerque, one way people can stay cool is to go to a park.
The city announced it will turn on the sprinklers at several parks from 1-1:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of “Operation Cooldown 2025.”
During the operation, on days when Albuquerque is forecasted to reach 100 degrees or higher, Parks and Recreation offers sprinkler play in five parks around the city.
On Tuesday, the sprinklers will be on at Briar Ridge, Alamosa, Chelwood, 4-H and Ridgecrest parks. The following day, they will be operating at Redlands, Loma del Norte, Singing Arrow, Dennis Chavez and Aztec parks.
“Sprinkler play in parks gives families a fun, free way to cool off during (the) daytime heat,” Parks and Recreation spokesperson Emily Moore said in a news release on Monday.
People can also soak in some late summer fun at a city spray pad or in an outdoor pool or indoor pool.
Alleged UNM shooter's mom called 911 to report son 'hallucinating' - Nakayla McClelland and Colleen Heild, Albuquerque Journal
Hours before the discovery of a slain 14-year-old inside a University of New Mexico dorm, a Valencia County dispatcher received a frantic call from a woman reporting her son was on a roof, couldn’t breathe and was hallucinating.
The woman was Tessa Cannon, who identified herself as the mother of 18-year-old John Fuentes. She said she received a report from her son’s father, “All of a sudden they said something’s wrong with John. No one knows where he’s at.”
At 12:51 a.m. on July 25, Cannon never mentioned anything about someone being shot in the 911 call the Journal obtained through an Inspection of Public Records Act request. During the call, Cannon said she received a call from Joseph Fuentes, father of John Fuentes, just 20 minutes earlier.
“He’s on a building somewhere, he’s on drugs, hallucinating right now. I need his location to be located,” she said. Cannon told the dispatcher she had last seen her son at home in Peralta — just 10 minutes away from Los Lunas — after making breakfast burritos for him.
One of the young men in the dorm room told police Fuentes “appeared to be on drugs,” before shooting 14-year-old Michael LaMotte in the head, according to court records filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.
John Fuentes was ultimately arrested and charged with an open count of murder, aggravated battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence in the fatal shooting of LaMotte.
Fuentes and LaMotte, along with two other young men, were playing video games at Casas del Rio, a UNM dorm, when Fuentes allegedly opened fire on the others, killing LaMotte and wounding a 19-year-old. The 19-year-old later went to a hospital for treatment and officers discovered LaMotte’s body in the dorm room after 2:30 a.m.
The 911 call adds to the timeline of what happened after a detection device picked up gunfire near the dorms just after midnight and LaMotte’s body being found hours later. UNM Police Department, Albuquerque Police Department and New Mexico State Police have not released any additional information from their investigations.
In her 911 call, Cannon asked police to meet her at an Albertsons in Los Lunas, roughly 15 minutes away from where she was in Meadow Lake.
When asked by a dispatcher with the Valencia Regional Emergency Communications Center, Cannon said she was unsure if Fuentes had any weapons on him. She said he had no mental health issues.
According to Cannon, Joseph Fuentes had received a FaceTime call from his son, who told his father that he could not breathe. John Fuentes was on an unknown rooftop, shirtless and in a frenzy.
Court records stated there was blood on the rooftop of Mesa Vista Hall, an academic building around the corner from Casas del Rio.
Fuentes had dropped his phone from the rooftop, and Joseph Fuentes was only able to see concrete during the FaceTime call.
Police called Joseph Fuentes after speaking with Cannon and Joseph Fuentes said he was in Albuquerque looking for his son. He said he did not have his son’s location .
“They told us he was down here in Valencia County, are you guys looking for him in Albuquerque,” the dispatcher asked while speaking with Joseph Fuentes.
At 1:01 a.m., Valencia County dispatchers called AT&T to track down the last known location of Fuentes based off of his phone data. AT&T was able to track Fuentes’ phone to an 89-meter (or 300-foot) radius near an Einstein Bros. Bagels on Roma Avenue.
“He’s got to be pinging somewhere over there,” a dispatcher said on the phone.
The dispatcher also noted pings from the police administration building and the UNM Anderson School of Management. The UNM Anderson School of Management is less than five minutes away from the Casas del Rio dormitories, where the shooting occurred.
Joseph Fuentes told police his son said his phone’s battery was at 1%. AT&T relayed to Valencia dispatchers that once the phone battery was dead, they would no longer be able to ping the phone’s current location.
Einstein Bros. Bagels on Roma and Las Lomas Road was the last location discussed on the 911 calls.
New Mexico State Police said Fuentes was picked up by someone in a truck around 1:40 a.m., but they didn’t say who.
Roughly 12 hours later, State Police arrested Fuentes during a traffic stop in Los Lunas. Police tracked Fuentes to the area using license plate readers, State Police Chief Troy Weisler said.
The 18-year-old has been booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center and is scheduled for a pretrial detention hearing on Tuesday.
NMHU wildfire study institute faces funding crisis – Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Officials from a conservation institute at New Mexico Highlands University say the institute will survive federal cuts through at least the end of the year, but will need help after that.
The New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute at NM Highlands University comprises one-third of the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes — SWERI —a collaborative that includes Colorado State University and Northern Arizona University.
As the United States Forest Service slashes spending on research and other scientific endeavors, SWERI’s funding decreased from about $6.6 million to $3 million for the remaining few months of the federal fiscal year. Highlands’ piece of that is $1 million, according to Gilbert “Buddy” Rivera, the chief of staff of the institute at the university in Las Vegas, NM, said during a presentation Tuesday afternoon to the interim legislative Science, Technology and Telecommunications Committee.
The upcoming fiscal year budget eliminates all SWERI funding, according to Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz’s exchange with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich early last month. During the June 11 exchange, Schultz defended the cuts to SWERI as a necessary money-saving measure.
“The funding in the future is going to have to come more from those universities themselves and other grant opportunities,” Schultz said. “The Forest Service is going to be shifting its funding away from [research and development] in general in the budget.”
Rivera’s comments on the institute’s fiscal future came during a hearing in which he and colleagues demonstrated to lawmakers the wildfire maps they developed that aim to compile “critical” wildfire information for New Mexicans dealing with wildfires. The institute created its first map during the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire in 2022, compiling multiple different data sources into a single map with fire boundaries, satellite imagery, smoke forecasts, building footprints and more, Rivera said.
The map has been viewed more than 300,000 times, according to Rivera’s presentation. A similar map the team made for the South Fork and Salt Fires in Ruidoso last summer has received more than 175,000 views.
The maps constitute just one component of the work at the institute, Rivera said, which employs between 22 and 26 full-time staff, along with up to four students and interns. The institute also performs ecological monitoring with the help of a field crew and research on “the fire-vulnerable human and ecological systems of the Southwest,” according to the presentation.
Heinrich, in his exchange with Schultz, asked the Forest Service to reconsider the cuts because institutes like the one at Highlands “have really provided the Forest Service an enormous amount of science” amid rapidly changing forest conditions.
Rivera said the institute is staying afloat this summer with the help of outside grants. Going forward, the New Mexico Higher Education Department’s Research and Public Service Projects could help provide a funding stream. The agency recently provided guidance to universities on finding funding for projects the federal government just cut.
But if the Forest Service carries through on its promise to eliminate all SWERI’s funding next year, “we’ll have to do some head scratching,” he said.
Native American professional group calls for restoration of workforce training funds workforce training KUNM News, Jeanette DeDios
Among ongoing federal funding cuts, the Native Professional Advancement Center is urging Congress to reverse a budget proposal that would eliminate money for Native workforce training programs.
NPAC Board Chair Lorraine Edmo recently sent a letter to Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, requesting action to restore $60 million.
Executive Director of NPAC Darius Lee said the elimination of federal funding, “undermines decades of progress and violates the government’s responsibility to honor Tribal sovereignty.”
According to a press release by the organization, the federal budget proposal by the Trump administration is calling for the elimination of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and instead creating a new state-controlled block grant called, “Make America Skilled Again.”
If created, it would cut tribes and nonprofits from direct access to workforce resources, force tribes to compete with the state for funding, and shut down culturally specific support systems that have helped Native people earn employment.
The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to possibly take another vote on this portion of the budget on September 2, 2025.