US military used laser to take down Border Protection drone, lawmakers say - By Josh Funk And Konstantin Toropin, Associated Press
The U.S. military used a laser Thursday to shoot down a "seemingly threatening" drone flying near the U.S.-Mexico border. It turned out the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection, lawmakers said.
The case of mistaken identity prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to close additional airspace around Fort Hancock, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of El Paso. The military is required to formally notify the FAA when it takes any counter-drone action inside U.S. airspace.
It was the second time in two weeks that a laser was fired in the area. The last time it was CBP that used the weapon and nothing was hit. That incident occurred near Fort Bliss and prompted the FAA to shut down air traffic at El Paso airport and the surrounding area. This time, the closure was smaller and commercial flights were not affected.
Washington U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen and two other top Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Homeland Security committees said they were stunned when they were officially notified.
"Our heads are exploding over the news," the lawmakers said in a joint statement. They criticized the Trump administration for "sidestepping" a bipartisan bill to train drone operators and improve communication among the Pentagon, FAA and Department of Homeland Security, which includes CBP.
"Now, we're seeing the result of its incompetence," they said.
Government defends use of anti-drone laser
The FAA, CBP and the Pentagon issued a joint statement late Thursday that acknowledged the military "employed counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace."
The statement said it happened far from populated areas and commercial flights as part of the administration's efforts to strengthen protections at the border.
"At President Trump's direction, the Department of War, FAA, and Customs and Border Patrol are working together in an unprecedented fashion to mitigate drone threats by Mexican cartels and foreign terrorist organizations at the U.S.-Mexico Border," the statement said.
Second time these laser systems shut down Texas airspace this month
The El Paso shutdown two weeks ago lasted only a few hours, but it raised alarm and led to a number of flight cancellations in the city of nearly 700,000 people.
In that case, an anti-drone laser was deployed by CBP without coordinating with the FAA, which then decided to close the El Paso airspace to ensure commercial air safety, according to sources familiar with what happened and weren't authorized to discuss it.
Afterward, members of Congress said it appeared to be another example of different agencies failing to coordinate with each other.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he was planning to brief members of Congress about the incident. He said at an unrelated news conference last Friday that it wasn't a mistake for the FAA to close the airspace in El Paso and that he doesn't think it was a communication issue that led to the problems.
Lawmaker demands an investigation
Illinois Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the ranking member on the Senate's Aviation Subcommittee, called for an independent investigation.
"The Trump administration's incompetence continues to cause chaos in our skies," Duckworth said.
The investigation into last year's midair collision near Washington, D.C., between an airliner and Army helicopter that killed 67 people highlighted how the FAA and Pentagon were not always working well together.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the FAA and the Army did not share safety data with each other about the alarming number of close calls around Reagan National Airport and failed to address the risks.
Concern about drone threats growing
Two months ago, Congress agreed to give more law enforcement agencies — including some state and local departments — the authority to take down rogue drones as long as they are properly trained. Previously, only a select few federal agencies had that power.
Armed drones regularly carry out devastating attacks in Ukraine and have also allowed Ukraine to strike deep within Russia. The U.S. government has handed out more than $250 million to help the states prepare to respond to drones before hosting World Cup matches and celebrations planned this summer for America's 250th birthday.
Another $250 million in grants will be awarded later this year to strengthen the nation's drone defenses.
Drones already causing problems
Drones already cause problems along the border. Cartels routinely use drones to deliver drugs across the Mexican border and surveil Border Patrol officers. Officials told Congress last summer that more than 27,000 drones were detected within 1,600 feet (500 meters) of the southern border in the last six months of 2024.
The threat to planes from drones continues to increase along with the number of near misses around airports. Homeland Security estimates there are more than 1.7 million registered drones flying in the United States.
Anti-drone systems can use radio signals to jam drones, or high-powered microwaves or laser beams like the ones that have been used in Texas that are capable of disabling the machines. Some others station small drones to take flight quickly and ram into threatening drones. And there are systems that use bullets, but those are more common on battlefields than in domestic use.
UNM, Nusenda announce 10-year, $17.4 million naming rights deal for the Pit - Geoff Grammer, Albuquerque Journal
The six-decade-old arena, dug 37 feet into the New Mexico dirt at the corner of Avenida Cesar Chavez and University Avenue in southeast Albuquerque, has never been called "the Pit."
At least not officially.
On the books, it's a facility known as University Arena.
But the Pit, as generations of New Mexicans who attended a state basketball tournament game, a UNM men's basketball game or a nationally renowned rodeo have called it, is as beloved a part of the state's culture as just about anything.
Thursday, the University of New Mexico, wanting to preserve the Pit's standing in the community and needing to unearth new revenue streams for Lobo Athletics, announced a new partnership with Nusenda Credit Union to bring those ideas together.
A 10-year, $17.4 million naming rights deal will rename University Arena as "The Pit — Powered by Nusenda" — a play on the credit union's tagline "The Power of We."
"Nusenda and the University of New Mexico has had a 40-year partnership," Nusenda President and CEO Michelle Dearholt, a UNM graduate and Albuquerque native, told the Journal in an interview prior the public announcement. "For us, this is a deepening of the partnership. There's no better partner, in my opinion, to do this because we've already been with them down this road for 40 years. That's number one.
"I think the other reason for us to really step up is college athletics — we're in a different era. There's so much happening, there's so much with name, image and likeness, the transfer portal. There's a lack of stability, from my perspective, in what's happening in college athletics. But community partners can provide that stability. This is where we can step up."
Officially, the deal is pending UNM Board of Regents approval, but an on-court presentation with Dearholt, University President Garnett S. Stokes, Interim Athletic Director Ryan Berryman, dozens of top administrators from both Nusenda and the university along with a pre-made announcement video including Lobo athletes — something not even allowed by the NCAA until recent years — certainly suggests the "pending" approval is all but a formality.
The sponsorship agreement is between Nusenda and Playfly Sports, UNM Athletics' multimedia rights partner with local operations more commonly referred to as UNM Sports Properties. As a third-party partner, companies like Playfly have maintained that such naming rights contracts are not public record, though the Journal has filed an Inspection of Public Records Act request for the agreement.
The deal, which has been in the works for more than a year with Deputy Athletic Director Jalen Dominguez and UNM Sports Properties General Manager Brent Moore leading the charge for the school, will begin with the start of the 2026-27 Lobo men's and women's basketball seasons and will include signage on the exterior of the arena, in addition to the signage already inside. Nusenda's previous six-figure annual agreement with UNM Athletics allows the credit union logo to be on Bob King Court.
Nusenda will pay no upfront money for the new naming-rights deal, but rather what will average out to $1.74 million per fiscal year to UNM Athletics (it starts at $1.5 million next fiscal year and will have a small escalator each year until completion).
The money will go into a general fund to support revenue sharing for athletes in all UNM sports. "The funds are intended to really help take a holistic look at the athletic needs across the board," Dearholt said.
Berryman said that while there's not a guarantee there will be a revenue sharing contract or payment for every athlete, all 16 varsity sports sponsored by the school will have at least some revenue sharing for players, not only the high-revenue sports of men's basketball and football, which were the only two sports to receive such funding when it became allowed just this past year.
"We've made a conscious effort as a leadership team to prioritize that for the future ahead," Berryman said of NIL funding for all athletes. "... We have over 400 student athletes. I think it's probably challenging to say that every student athlete will be under an agreement, but we certainly made that a priority, to prioritize every sport through that effort.
"I'll also say that we're on very stable footing financially as an athletic department. And I think when you're in that position, and we've seen a lot of athletic departments that are not in that position, every new dollar that comes in, we can be targeted in our approach. And so we're not filling a hole, we're not plugging a gap. We can choose collectively how we want to invest that new investment. And so I think that's what's really exciting about this partnership, in particular."
The deal does not include sponsorship or branding of other facilities, such as the nearby University Stadium or either the baseball or softball fields adjacent to the Pit. That, Berryman and Stokes both hinted at, and with Dominguez already spearheading the efforts toward, is something that could be in the future.
The deal will not diminish or otherwise affect any current agreements UNM and Nusenda have, including a on-campus branch in the student union, Nusenda's funding of UNM's Center of Financial Capability, the UNM Rainforest, and other joint initiatives teaming with UNM Hospital and Popejoy Hall.
"They are not new to this campus. They are not new to the state. They understand this place and today, we are proud to expand that partnership," Stokes said. "... As part of this partnership, we will preserve the identity of the Pit that generations of logos cherish while recognizing a partner that has long stood alongside our university."
The public's protectiveness of the Pit may have played a role in the credit union's name being placed after the venue's colloquial name. Dearholt knows some fans will insist on calling it just the Pit.
"We were really mindful of that as we approached the naming opportunity," she said. "Something that was really critical to me and my team here at Nusenda was that we were preserving the tradition of the Pit, recognizing what it means to the community. We sought feedback and did a lot of focus group surveys so that we could understand what the community wants and needs, and the feedback was really clear, to your point, the Pit has to remain the Pit. ...
"We're local. We were founded in Albuquerque. I'm a two-time graduate of UNM. I want to say the Pit as well. But really, the point isn't that we take over the name. We support, we power the work that they're doing, and also recognizing how much this will positively impact the community."
UNM and Nusenda's agreement is similar to what one regional university recently got for its arena naming rights deal. The University of Arizona, a member of the Big 12 conference, announced a 15-year, $27.7 million agreement with an insurance company to rename its basketball facility the McKale Center at ALKEME Arena. UA will get roughly $1.8 million per year from ALKEME.
History of Pit naming rights
UNM Athletics signed a naming rights deal for University Arena for the first time in 2014. The deal with a local pizza chain for "WisePies Arena (aka the Pit)" was for $5 million over 10 years. The name didn't sit well with fans and the back-loaded deal ended within a couple of years with the university receiving fewer than $1 million.
In May 2017, UNM announced Dreamstyle Remodeling, the local construction business owned by Albuquerque native and longtime Lobo sports booster Larry Chavez, had agreed to a 10-year, $10 million agreement for "Dreamstyle Arena" and, across the street, "Dreamstyle Stadium" for the football stadium.
Disagreements between Chavez and UNM administrators led to the deal ending within three years, with the university reportedly receiving about $2.5 million. Chavez and UNM Athletics are now in good standing. Last year, Chavez donated $1 million to athletics — no naming rights involved.
Trump administration ends protections for rare dancing prairie bird - By Mead Gruver, Associated Press
A ground-dwelling bird known for elaborate mating dances on the southern Great Plains will no longer be federally protected after the Trump administration agreed with arguments by three states and the beef and petroleum industries that the species was listed improperly.
Thursday's delisting by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formalized a recent court ruling that acknowledged the federal agency has now sided with opponents of federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken.
The ruling by a federal judge in Midland, Texas, in effect ended Endangered Species Act protections for the bird last summer. The protections required the energy industry and ranchers to take steps to avoid disrupting the birds' habitat and especially their mating areas, called leks.
The crow-sized birds once numbered in the millions. Habitat loss from energy and agriculture development has shrunk their population to about 30,000 across parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Wildlife watchers delight in the male birds' spring dances and their warbling, clucking and stomping ruckus to attract mates. Native American tribes mimic the flamboyant displays — also a behavior of the more common greater prairie chicken — in some of their dances.
The lesser prairie chicken has been federally protected twice in recent years. In 2015, a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Midland reversed the bird's listing as a threatened species the year before, siding with petroleum developers who argued that sufficient protections were already in place.
In 2022, President Joe Biden's administration listed the lesser prairie chicken as threatened in the northern part of its range in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and as endangered in a "distinct population segment" to the south in New Mexico and Texas.
The listing prompted a lawsuit filed by Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and groups including the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
After President Donald Trump took office last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service reevaluated the bird and agreed with the states and groups that it lacked justification to classify the lesser prairie chicken into two distinctly different populations.
Last August, another judge in U.S. District Court in Midland granted a Fish and Wildlife Service motion to reverse its Biden-era listings for the lesser prairie chicken.
"Fish and Wildlife's concession points to serious error at the very foundation of its rule," District Judge David Counts wrote in his Aug. 12 ruling praised by Texas officials.
Texas oil and gas regulatory officials including Texas Railroad Commission spokesperson Bryce Dubee and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham welcomed the delisting.
"It will ensure American oil and gas production in the Permian Basin remains robust and our economy steadfast," Buckingham said in an emailed statement.
Environmentalists vowed to fight on in court.
"It's shameful that the Trump administration sees fit to sacrifice these magnificent birds for oil and gas industry profit," Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute, said in a statement. "Lesser prairie chickens may be lost forever without Endangered Species Act protections."
NM residents take control of state meeting’s public comment to oppose PNM private equity acquisition - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
A small crowd attended Thursday morning’s New Mexico Public Regulation Commission meeting to oppose a proposed private equity takeover of the state’s largest electric provider — a topic that wasn’t on the agenda.
Blackstone Infrastructure, a private equity firm, and TXNM Energy Inc, PNM’s parent company, jointly announced acquisition plans last May. The companies at the time asked PRC commissioners to sign off on the $11.5 billion deal, which would give ownership of TXNM to a Blackstone subsidiary. Their application cited a need to “provide the financial resources necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing energy environment.”
Several residents who attended in-person at the Roundhouse and virtually by Zoom used the open comment period of the meeting to tell PRC commissioners to kill the deal when the time comes to vote.
“New Mexico’s resources have been drained enough and its people should not pay the price for the capital gains of another industry,” Albuquerque filmmaker Luis Peña Alvarez told commissioners.
Priscilla Del Aguila, an Albuquerque teacher who attended virtually, told the commission that “private equity companies are looking out for their pocketbooks and not the people.” Blackstone, she told commissioners, “is not welcome in New Mexico, and our voices have been very clear.”
Recent public comment meetings about the proposed acquisition, which have included stiff community pushback, have run for hours. Commissioners on Thursday said that formal hearings on the matter will begin May 4.
Pat Thomas, a New Mexico attorney, told commissioners they ought to strike the deal down because a $400 million stock sale between TXNM and a Blackstone affiliate “plainly” broke the law.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez last week sounded the same alarm. His New Mexico Department of Justice filed a brief supporting a motion from Prosperity Works, an Albuquerque nonprofit with a focus on anti-poverty initiatives, which alleged shareholders were informed the stocks would be converted into cash in such a manner that required oversight under the state Public Utilities Act, which charges the PRC with overseeing stock sales.
A Blackstone spokesperson disputed that at the time.
“Under their interpretation, even the purchase of a single share of utility stock without any control rights by anyone affiliated with a utility would require preemptive Commission approval – an outcome inconsistent with the statute’s language and unsupported by decades of Commission practice,” spokesperson Paula Chirhart wrote in an email to Source NM Friday.
NSF to proceed with demolition and site restoration at Sacramento Peak Observatory - KUNM News
A solar observatory in Southern New Mexico is being shut down.
The U.S. National Science Foundation announced this week that the Sunspot Solar Observatory is going to be closed and the building demolished. Officially known as the Sacramento Peak Observatory, the facility is located in the unincorporated community of Sunspot, about 18 miles south of Cloudcroft.
In January this year, the observatory was closed after liquid mercury was found in the telescope building.
The observatory is located on public land in Lincoln National Forest, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service requested that the National Science Foundation remove all mercury and remediate the site. Federal officials in charge of the observatory say that after assessing costs and risks, the best choice would be to close the observatory.
The Dunn Solar Telescope in use at Sunspot was originally constructed by the U.S. Air Force in 1969.
The Air Force transferred ownership of the facility to the National Science Foundation in 1976. In 2017, the observatory was taken over by a consortium led by New Mexico State University. The telescope has been in limited operation since 2019.
Embattled McKinley DA steps down before NM Supreme Court removal hearings - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Bernadine Martin, the embattled district attorney for McKinley County, announced her resignation Thursday, just days before the state Supreme Court was slated to consider a petition by Attorney General Raúl Torrez to remove her from office.
The Supreme Court accepted a settlement between the New Mexico Department of Justice and Martin, according to court filings Thursday afternoon, and dismissed the case.
Torrez filed the petition in August, which alleged an investigation had revealed that Martin’s office had failed to prepare prosecutions or subpoena witnesses; violated state procurement laws; inappropriately relied on contract attorneys; and fostered a hostile work environment. Torrez also alleged Martin illegally continued to work in a private law practice while serving as DA.
In a statement announcing her resignation obtained by Source NM, Martin thanked voters for their support and also defended her record. “Over the years, we moved thousands of cases through the criminal justice system that benefitted victims, the public and defendants,” she wrote,” adding that she was “most proud of the reduction of the DWI rate.”
She also blamed Lujan Grisham for the removal proceedings, noting that the governor had made the complaint “despite the fact that the Governor has never spoken with Martin.”
Torrez’s original petition cited a request from the governor to remove Martin from office.
Martin did not respond to a call, texts or several emails seeking further comment. The NMDOJ also did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
Michael Coleman, the director of communications for the governor’s office, told Source NM in a statement that Lujan Grisham would appoint a replacement.
“The governor believes Ms. Martin did the right thing and that it’s time to put this behind us and move on,” Coleman told Source NM.
Martin also took aim at state Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup) for the Legislature’s decision to strip funding from her office and give it to the neighboring district attorney in San Juan County.
Muñoz told Source NM in a phone call Thursday that the Legislature’s decision to strip the funding from the Gallup office was due to years of warnings from “other DAs, courts and public defenders,” and said he’d make the choice again.
“I take a lot of hits because of what I did, but at the end of the day, I know what I did was right,” he said.
The 2026 budget, which lawmakers approved and sent to Lujan Grisham, included a measure to release the funds for the McKinley County district attorney’s office from the San Juan office’s control after a ruling by the Supreme Court regarding Martin’s removal.
In the call with Source NM, San Juan District Attorney Jack Fortner, whose office retains financial control of the Gallup office, said he was only made aware of Martin’s resignation Thursday.
“Hopefully the governor will be able to appoint someone and eventually we can transfer all the funding back to McKinley County,” Fortner told Source NM. “I’m just glad that has come to a resolution.”
$8M plan to raise rails at Gorge Bridge still a go as Cabinet secretary steps down - John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
The New Mexico Department of Transportation says it remains steadfast in fulfilling a historic commitment by its former Cabinet secretary to build higher railings at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, the site of numerous suicides over the years.
"The resignation of Cabinet Secretary (Ricky) Serna does not delay or alter the plan to raise the rails at the Gorge Bridge," Kristine Bustos-Mihelcic, NMDOT communications director, told the Journal in response to an inquiry about the future of the project following Serna's resignation, which took effect Friday. "The project is currently in the design phase, and funding is allocated in our operational budget. This remains a priority for NMDOT."
The department's announcement that the multimillion-dollar renovation will move forward was coupled with confirmation that the new railings and related renovations will cost $8 million, in alignment with details Serna revealed at a rally at the bridge in December.
Before the 30-day legislative session wrapped up Thursday, lawmakers included $5 million for the project in House Bill 2, the General Appropriation Act, and NMDOT subsequently identified an additional $3 million in its fiscal year 2027 budget to complete construction as planned.
"The project is ongoing and making progress," Bustos-Mihelcic said. "Staff is working toward completing the design by July 2026. Once design is complete, the project will be let, a contractor will be awarded, and then construction can begin."
Serna announced on Dec. 12 that the state would respond to years of advocacy for higher railings at the bridge at the Community Rally for Accountability, one of two gatherings held last year near the 60-year-old structure following a string of seven suicides there in 2025, including three in September alone.
In response to last year's spike in suicides, which included the death of a local teenager in September, NMDOT closed the bridge to foot traffic until the higher railings could be installed.
"A higher rail can interrupt a moment," Serna told a crowd of local residents, politicians and sheriff's deputies, who had recovered the body of the seventh person to die at the bridge the day before. "A conversation can interrupt a spiral. Compassion can interrupt despair, and a connection can truly save a life."
Serna said NMDOT commissioned an engineering study last fall that called for higher, curved railings and the replacement of the bridge's current sidewalks with "lightweight concrete" to help support the new railings' added weight.
The project is listed as part of the department's Statewide Transportation Improvement Program.
The initiative adds the Gorge Bridge to a growing list of high bridges across the U.S. that have undertaken renovations in recent years to mitigate the risk of suicide, which remains a significant concern across New Mexico compared to many other states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Owners of former Zorro Ranch ordered to stop construction due to lack of permits - Santa Fe New Mexican
In Santa Fe County, at the former ranch of convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein, state and county officials have ordered a pause on construction on the property.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that a new front gate at the ranch’s entrance sits unfinished. Officials say the new owners of the formerly-named Zorro Ranch failed to obtain the required permits.
Texas businessman and former state Sen. Don Huffines and his family purchased the property in 2023 under an anonymous holding company. They renamed it San Rafael Ranch.
Huffines is a Republican running for Texas comptroller. He said earlier this month he plans to develop a Christian retreat at the ranch.
However, state and county officials told the owners to stop construction at the site in January.
The New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department issued an order to halt work Jan. 16, and the county issued one Jan. 28.
New Mexico state agency to hold public hearing on proposed uranium mine - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico office charged with permitting what would be the state’s first new uranium mine in decades has agreed to hold a public hearing after receiving more than 200 letters in opposition.
Laramide Resources, Inc. announced a major milestone in mid-January for its years-long effort to build La Jara Mesa uranium mine about 10 miles north of Grants. After the state’s Mining and Minerals Division deemed the company’s 72-page mining plan “administratively complete,” officials opened a public comment period that ended last week.
The division received more than 200 letters, all of which expressed opposition to the mine, according to a Source NM review of the letters the division published online Thursday.
According to the plan, the mine, once built, will produce 12 to 15 truckloads a day of uranium ore to be processed at an unspecified offsite mill. The operation could run in New Mexico for up to 20 years, the company says.
Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Public Information Officer Sidney Hill said the department received “dozens” of hearing requests in addition to the comments, and has committed to holding a hearing.
But the hearing won’t happen until Laramide responds to questions the division has regarding the company’s mining plan. The division expects to send questions to the company before June, Hill said, though he said he couldn’t estimate when a hearing would be scheduled.
The proposed site is near Mount Taylor, which is one of four mountains sacred to the Navajo people and other local pueblos. Tribes and pueblos in the early 2000s successfully convinced the state to designate the mountain and outlying areas a “traditional cultural property” in an effort to protect it from mining.
Dozens of the letters also recounted harms uranium mining has caused Indigenous communities. Alicia Gallegos, an organizer for the Pueblo Action Alliance, told Source that in addition to running an online campaign, she collected several dozen hand-written letters.
“I think it’s important to have these public hearings, so that the folks who would be pushing this project forward are seeing the faces of the people who are impacted,” she said.
Leona Morgan, a Diné anti-nuclear advocate, wrote in her letter that the state should hold multiple public hearings along a potential uranium transport route in the Navajo Nation, because the only operating uranium mill is in Northern Arizona.
“This means the transport may go through Navajo Nation,” she wrote. “As such, the Navajo public must be informed and afforded the opportunity to give public comments.”
Josh Leftwich, vice president of operations and strategic development for Laramide, told Source NM in an email Thursday that the company “respects” the division’s decision to hold a hearing. He also said that the company “recognizes that mining projects can generate strong viewpoints.”
“However, regulatory decisions are ultimately based on technical standards, environmental protections, and compliance with established law,” he said. “Our focus remains on following the science, complying with the rules, and working constructively within the regulatory framework established by the State of New Mexico and federal agencies.”
Both the state and the federal government have to approve the mine through parallel permitting applications, though the federal government has signaled it intends to fast track approvals. Still, the division previously promised a “robust permitting process” that can diverge from the federal process if needed.