Seven Cabins Fire grows to 25,000 acres - Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
A wildfire in the Capitan Mountains that ignited over a week ago has grown to 25,000 acres as firefighters continue to battle the blaze.
The Seven Cabins Fire sparked on May 14 after a medical plane crashed near Ruidoso, killing all four people aboard. The wildfire continues to burn heavy dead fuels in the Peppin burn scar.
As of Sunday, the fire was 43% contained.
“Crews have made substantial progress towards containment, using a combination of ground ignitions, aerial operations, and both direct and indirect suppression tactics,” according to an update posted on wildfire information management system New Mexico Fire Information.
A forest closure from N.M. 246 around the Forest Service boundary and south to the South Base Trail System remains in place. Baca campground is included in the closure.
Residents near N.M. 246 to the ridge top of the Capitan Mountains, between mile marker 13 and Boy Scout Mountain, have been evacuated.
The Lincoln County Fire Service said residents near Ft. Lone Tree and South Base Road east of Capitan Gap Road are in a SET status, meaning they should be prepared to evacuate.
Multiple aircraft will be deployed to aid in fire suppression and a temporary flight restriction is in place.
Aerial capabilities increased over the weekend and firefighters now have access to 200,000 gallons of water.
Light winds from the south will push the blaze into an area where “very active fire behavior" is expected, though showers and thunderstorms are expected in the afternoon.
Fire breaks out at South Valley recycling plant - Albuquerque Journal staff
Firefighters late Saturday were battling a blaze at a South Valley recycling plant that sent a plume of smoke visible citywide.
Bernalillo County Fire Rescue said the fire on about 2 acres sparked around 6:30 p.m., and more than 50 firefighters from 19 county and Albuquerque Fire Rescue units were at the scene near Prosperity and Broadway SE, which sits between Second and Interstate 25, south of Rio Bravo.
"Broadway … has been closed between Rio Bravo and Prosperity ... as emergency operations continue," Bernalillo County Fire Rescue said in a news release late Saturday.
No injuries were reported.
Thick smoke from the fire prompted the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Program to issue a health alert that remains in effect through 9 a.m. Sunday.
"Those with respiratory conditions in the City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County should limit outdoor activity," the advisory said.
Additionally, the county advised residents in the surrounding area to turn off swamp coolers to prevent smoke from being drawn indoors.
The county didn't say what ignited the fire but indicated that further updates will be provided on Facebook and Instagram.
Fentanyl, meth found at house where New Mexico responders got sick after answering overdose call - By Susan Montoya Bryan and Matthew Brown, Associated Press
Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found at a home where first responders became sick after answering a call about suspected overdoses in a rural county in New Mexico, authorities said Friday.
Three people found inside the house on Wednesday died. A fourth person who was in the house and one of the emergency responders who became sick were still being treated at a hospital Friday.
A doctor who saw the responders exhibiting symptoms — including nausea and dizziness — said their symptoms most closely resembled fentanyl exposure. However, the investigation into how the exposure happened and what caused it was ongoing.
University of New Mexico Hospital Chief Medical Officer Steve McLaughlin said during a news conference in Albuquerque that authorities were working "under the assumption" that fentanyl was to blame. He said the responders' symptoms ranged from mild to slightly more severe.
"It's probably not absorbed through your skin, but it would be absorbed through your eyes, nose, mucous membranes, or if you inhale it," McLaughlin told The Associated Press.
Meth is notoriously toxic when exposed to it, and fentanyl less so. Authorities noted during Friday's news conference that the responders who became ill had directly treated the people found inside the house east of Albuquerque, in the rural town of Mountainair.
More than a dozen first responders were quarantined and decontaminated after responding to the scene.
Of the two people still hospitalized Friday, one was a person who was found unresponsive in the home where three died. Authorities said they were called to the home by a co-worker of one of the people inside after they failed to show up to work.
New Mexico State Police Chief Matt Broom said investigators did not immediately find evidence of drug manufacturing in the house.
State police said early on that there was no threat to the public and that investigators did not believe the substance that caused the responders to become sick was airborne.
Two of the victims were identified Friday as Mika Rascon, 51, and Georgia Rascon, 49. The name of the third person who died has not been released, and the cause and manner of their deaths has not been determined.
Audio archives from the Torrance County Fire Dispatch channel on the site Broadcastify showed that responders went to the home following a report of a 60-year-old man unconscious but breathing.
Within minutes, a dispatcher is heard saying there were three other people at the home, two of whom might not be breathing. Then came a call for naloxone, the opioid-overdose antidote. One person was revived using naloxone, authorities said.
Less than an hour after the initial call, the dispatch center relayed that there were multiple exposures.
Some first responders began coughing, vomiting and experiencing dizziness, authorities said. Most had no symptoms, hospital officials said.
The initial responders on the scene did not have protective gear but followed safety protocols, said Torrance County Fire Chief Gary Smith. They saw two victims inside, pulled them into the fresh air and attempted to resuscitate them, he said.
"This did come in as an overdose. There was no indication of any type of hazmat type scenario," Smith said.
Debriefings were planned in coming days to determine if there were any weaknesses in the response, he added.
Scientific evidence shows fentanyl, a potent opioid, does not cause overdoses through casual skin contact or brief airborne exposure in typical field scenarios. Experts say overdoses require significant ingestion, injection or inhalation of the substance.
Residents around Mountainair, a town with fewer than 1,000 people, have voiced frustration about drug use in the community and elsewhere.
New Mexico had the fourth-highest rate of drug overdose deaths of any U.S. state in 2024, with 775 deaths, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Claudia Lauer contributed reporting from Philadelphia.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
Much of MDC tactical team resigns following assaults – Matthew Reisen, Albuquerque Journal
More than a dozen members of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center’s tactical team have resigned amid repeated assaults on officers and a no-confidence vote on Warden Kai Smith.
MDC spokesperson Candace Hopkins said 14 members, including at least one team leader, of the Corrections Emergency Response Team (CERT) have resigned, leaving 22 officers on the team.
Joseph Trujeque, president of the union representing MDC corrections officers, said he was among those who resigned from CERT, which is described on an MDC recruiting webpage as “the last line of defense for many prison incidents.”
Trujeque said recent assaults on officers and simmering issues with Smith’s decision-making led to more than 300 MDC employees, including over 200 officers, signing a vote of no confidence in the warden. MDC currently employs 586 staff, including 383 officers.
Trujeque said the union plans to present the vote to the Bernalillo County Commission next month.
In a statement released Friday, Smith said, “The safety and security of inmates, staff, and the community remain MDC’s highest priority.”
“As Warden, I have a responsibility to uphold that mission and make decisions that are in the best interest of the facility, staff, and those we serve. Following incidents such as these, a thorough investigation is conducted, and our leadership team carefully evaluates whether policy or procedural changes are necessary,” according to Smith’s statement. “I want to ensure both our staff and the public that my commitment to maintaining a safe and secure MDC remains unwavering.”
Trujeque said that since Smith took over MDC in April 2024, “We have had a rocky road.”
“It's overall ongoing issues with the warden's decisions, which is affecting the security and the safety of the facility,” he added. The issues include using CERT members to serve food and do cell checks while delaying training for members, which certifies them to use stun guns, Mace and other less-lethal weapons.
Trujeque said the union took the issues to Bernalillo County Manager Cindy Chavez and “it’s been acknowledged but ignored.”
On Friday, Chavez said the concerns had not been ignored and she appreciated the union raising them, while also expressing support for Smith’s leadership, adding that both sides have “a lot of integrity and talent.”
"There is a very real and, I think, somewhat healthy tension between the leadership of the union and MDC, and even my office, as we look to continue to make improvements to the facility,” she said. “I do understand that their frustration is real, and I would also say that when you're in an environment where you're trying to make improvements and changes, there will be some inevitable conflicts while these processes are moving forward.”
‘A slap in the face’
The straw that broke the camel’s back, Trujeque said, was Smith’s response following a mid-April assault on officers by inmates moved from the juvenile jail. He said the inmates attacked an officer at the juvenile jail and were transferred to RHU 4, MDC’s maximum security unit.
During the move, Trujeque said the inmates attacked one officer, then the officer who responded to help. By the end of the melee, he said, five MDC officers had been assaulted and RHU 4 was on the verge of a riot.
“Every inmate in the unit was banging and saying, ‘Hey, we're going to war with the officers, we're going to kill you, open our doors,’” Trujeque said. “That type of behavior needs to be put in check, otherwise it emboldens behavior, and that's exactly what happened.”
In the immediate aftermath, he said the assistant CERT commander made a plan to search the unit for weapons and “quell the situation.” Trujeque said Smith, in so many words, told CERT, “absolutely not, because it would look like retaliation.”
That’s when many members resigned from the CERT team, he said.
Trujeque said Smith’s suggestion of retaliation was “like a slap in the face to these people on the CERT team, like myself, who've been there for 27 years and have the training to be professional and not abuse our power.”
He said the CERT team took Smith’s words as “saying that he has no faith in us to actually do what we're trained… in a professional manner, without crossing any lines.”
Hopkins confirmed the search was denied.
“There were no indications of, or implied threats involving a weapon, and all inmates were secured behind locked doors,” she said. “Additionally, no credible or documented intelligence suggested an immediate threat.
Therefore, the decision was made to maintain standard operating procedures.”
Hopkins said a scheduled search of RHU 4, planned prior to the assault, took place April 28. She added, “there was no operational need for a separate targeted-area search. The approach successfully achieved all operational objectives while minimizing potential harm to both staff and inmates.”
The search included the cell of Stewart Artis, who had been found with sharp weapons and had repeatedly attacked MDC officers since being booked in March 2022. On May 7, the 38-year-old allegedly took two officers hostage with a shank, locked them in a shower and stabbed another inmate.
Artis has been charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault upon a peace officer, aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm and possession of a deadly weapon by a prisoner. Court records show his phone and video visit privileges have been revoked.
Hopkins said, “due to ongoing criminal and internal investigations,” she could not provide additional details “at this time.”
Patients worry after Los Alamos Medical Center halts labor, delivery services – Margaret O'Hara, Searchlight New Mexico
Nicole O’Daniel won’t be able to give birth to her second child — due in early August — in the community where she lives.
Rather, she said her birth plan involves “going down the Hill,” making the half-hour trip from her home in Los Alamos to Presbyterian Española Hospital.
“Presumably, that’s where I’ll have this kiddo — although [I] would have preferred Los Alamos,” O’Daniel said.
By late June, giving birth at Los Alamos Medical Center will no longer be an option for expecting mothers. The 47-bed acute care facility, which is the sole hospital in Los Alamos County, announced plans late last month to discontinue labor and delivery services. Instead, it has partnered with Presbyterian Española Hospital and Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe to send birthing patients elsewhere.
The move — the latest in a series of painful contractions in obstetric care for New Mexico patients, particularly those who live in rural areas — sparked disappointment and fear among Los Alamos parents and patient advocates. An online petition, led by O’Daniel and aimed at pressuring the hospital to reverse the decision, has more than 200 signatures.
“Twenty minutes can matter,” O’Daniel said. “And realistically, I understand there are folks who live in very, very rural places, where their closest hospital is two or three hours away, but when you live in a town with a hospital, you want at least some of the hospital services.”
Kristi McBride, executive director of First Born Los Alamos, a local home visiting program, said the change in services is already pushing some local families to establish prenatal care in Española or Santa Fe in anticipation of birthing there. That distance, she said, could result in delays in diagnoses or accessing support services — even in New Mexico’s healthiest and wealthiest county.
“Are people less likely to seek care because it is farther away?” McBride said. “And then what are the things that are either going untreated or leading to bigger problems?”
She added, “We are a well-resourced community, and now this is a major resource that will no longer be accessible to us. It certainly hurts.”
Los Alamos Medical Center spokesperson Andrew Cummins wrote in an email the shift in services was “a model change — not a closure or withdrawal of obstetric care,” even though the hospital will no longer provide inpatient labor and delivery.
It stemmed from a declining number of births at the hospital, as well as physician and nursing labor shortages, Cummins added.
“These low volumes make it increasingly difficult to sustain a safe, high‑quality inpatient labor and delivery program,” Cummins wrote. “Transitioning to a regional model allows LAMC to protect patient safety, ensure continuity of care and connect families to a broader level of specialty resources when needed.”
Losing obstetrics
The change at Los Alamos Medical center is another local example of a nationwide phenomenon: Labor and delivery units at hospitals across the U.S. have shuttered in recent years, with hospital leaders largely attributing the closures to staffing issues and a baby bust.
Cummins pointed to fewer than 25 births at Los Alamos Medical Center in 2025, with even fewer expected this year.
After conducting a nationwide county-by-county review, researchers with the Maternity Care Team at the University of Minnesota’s Rural Health Research Center found 60% of rural counties and 38% of urban counties in the U.S. did not have any hospital-based obstetric services in 2023.
Their state-level analysis, published in January, shows New Mexico counties lost more hospital-based obstetric services than they gained between 2010 and 2023.
Three counties lost all services during that period. That includes San Miguel County, which lost hospital-based obstetric care in 2022 with the permanent closure of the maternity ward at Alta Vista Regional Hospital in Las Vegas, N.M.
‘Reimagining’ care
Los Alamos Medical Center made its announcement in a news release April 24: The hospital would participate in a “regional model” for obstetric care, in collaboration with CHRISTUS St. Vincent and Presbyterian Española.
“We are pleased to be able to reimagine and offer a new and more comprehensive model of obstetrical care here in Los Alamos,” Dr. Justin Green, chief of staff at Los Alamos Medical Center, said in a statement.
While deliveries will take place at hospitals in Española or Santa Fe “as part of the regional approach,” the news release said, Los Alamos Medical Center will continue to provide prenatal, postpartum and women’s health services.
The hospitals will implement the new model over the next few months, with delivery services transitioning in late June.
Los Alamos Medical Center’s emergency department will still be prepared to manage pregnant and postpartum patients in emergent cases, Cummins noted.
“Our team will continue to provide prompt medical screening, stabilization and, when needed, coordinate timely transfers to Christus St. Vincent, Presbyterian Española Hospital or another regional obstetric provider,” he added.
Hospitals ready to step in
Brenda Romero, chief executive of Presbyterian Española Hospital, said in a statement the hospital is prepared to absorb additional births from Los Alamos Medical Center patients.
“Our goal is to help ensure continued access to quality obstetric care for our northern New Mexico neighbors,” Romero said. “Patients receiving prenatal care at Los Alamos Medical Center can choose the delivery location that’s right for them, including Presbyterian Española Hospital.”
Though policy shifts have resulted in interruptions in OB-GYN coverage at Christus St. Vincent, the Santa Fe hospital said it, too, has the staff and infrastructure in place to manage additional patients from Los Alamos, spokesperson Arturo Delgado wrote in an email to The New Mexican.
“CHRISTUS St. Vincent is prepared to accommodate the additional patient volume associated with this transition,” Delgado wrote. “Through our partnership with OB Hospitalist Group, the hospital now provides 24/7 labor and delivery coverage for expecting mothers.”
Calls for reversal
Still, the Los Alamos hospital’s announcement brought fear and anxiety to some families in the community, including mothers planning to give birth at the local medical center, O’Daniel said.
“Folks are nervous about going down the Hill,” she said. “Plenty of folks choose to because that’s what they want to do, but it has been kind of pushed upon folks to give birth down the Hill now.”
O’Daniel’s petition urges Los Alamos Medical Center officials not to close the hospital’s labor and delivery unit, encouraging them to instead “work with providers and the community to continue providing this vital service.”
It includes more than a dozen testimonials from parents, many of whom shared positive experiences with Los Alamos Medical Center providers.
Cummins said hospital leaders are aware of the petition and have reached out to O’Daniel directly to discuss questions and concerns.
“LAMC is committed to ongoing dialogue and to ensuring appropriate outreach and education for our patients and community members as we navigate this transition,” he wrote.
First Born also called on Los Alamos Medical Center to reverse course.
“We hope that LAMC will reconsider this decision so Los Alamos County residents can be assured that local healthcare is there when they need it,” McBride said.
Birthing in a nearby hospital can also be emotionally and logistically beneficial for families — something O’Daniel experienced firsthand while giving birth to her first child.
Her daughter, now 2, was born premature, requiring a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit in Albuquerque. O’Daniel said it meant the family had to live in Albuquerque for weeks during her care.
The past preterm labor made her ineligible to receive care at Los Alamos Medical Center for her second pregnancy, she added.
“As much as there are serious cases and things that you do need to go to bigger hospitals for — like having a preemie — there’s also the standard, normal labor and delivery cases,” she said. “It just feels like, why can’t we have this service close to home?”
BLM reports $4 billion from Texas-New Mexico oil and gas leases - Justin Horwath, Albuquerque Journal
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday said it generated $4 billion from an oil and gas lease sale of public lands in New Mexico and Texas.
The agency said it leased 74 parcels of land totaling 33,530 acres in its latest quarterly lease sale. Counting bonus bids and rental payments, the BLM earned $4,007,944,870 in revenue, which is shared between the federal government and the states where the parcels are located. In New Mexico, the sale included parcels in Lea, Eddy and Quay counties.
In a statement, Doug Burgum, U.S. Interior secretary, said that the U.S. is “sitting on some of the richest energy resources in the world, and President Donald J. Trump is committed to putting those resources to work for the American people.”
“This over $4 billion lease sale is another sign that President Trump’s American Energy Dominance Agenda is delivering results,” Burgum continued. “By cutting costs and removing barriers to development, we are unleashing American energy, strengthening national security, creating jobs and generating significant revenue for taxpayers and local communities.”
Oil and gas companies are enjoying a friendly policy environment under the Trump administration. Legislation signed by Trump cut the federal mineral leasing royalty rate to 12.5%, down from 16.67%, a rate set under former President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration has also moved to install leadership at BLM aligned with its agenda. Steve Pearce, a former Republican congressman from New Mexico, was confirmed Monday as the BLM’s director. Pearce has long backed expanding oil and gas drilling on public lands.
But at the state level, the environment is less friendly to industry.
Stephanie Garcia Richard, the state land commissioner, pushed to increase the royalty rate for premium oil and gas leases to 25%. And Deb Haaland, the Interior secretary under Biden, who is leading in polls to be the Democrats’ nominee for New Mexico governor, restricted drilling around Chaco Canyon.
Haaland earlier this month issued a statement on X saying that Pearce “has spent years putting corporate profits over people and threatening public lands and resources that make New Mexico home.”
Trump’s 2025 executive order, Unleashing American Energy, allowed the heads of his agencies to “use all possible authorities, including national emergency authorities, to expedite the adjudication of federal permits.”
Environmental organizations also filed protests to the leases, saying no such national emergencies exist that justify the drilling surge.
In one such protest, the Wilderness Society wrote that “the BLM must take the requisite hard look at the impacts of methane emissions that will result from development of and production on these lease parcels, including the economic, public health, and public welfare impacts of venting and flaring.”
But draft environmental assessments “barely touch on methane emissions, let alone flaring, venting, or the BLM’s own waste rule,” an attorney for the Wilderness Society wrote.
Oil and gas leases are issued for a term of 10 years and continue as long as oil and gas are produced in paying quantities, the BLM noted.
The Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas industry trade group, said the highest bid was $357,129 per acre for a 640-acre parcel. The group said during Trump’s time in office, the BLM earned $4.5 billion from lease sales in New Mexico compared to $140 million during Biden’s tenure.
“By law, nearly half the sale revenues are shared with the state,” Western Energy Alliance President Melissa Simpson said in a statement. “Therefore, more than $2 billion will be available to fund local schools, hospitals, local infrastructure projects and more in the state.”
NM lawmakers say counties defying immigrant detention bill vulnerable to legal action - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico Top lawmakers on an interim legislative committee Thursday warned county leaders who defied a newly enacted immigrant detention bill that they should be setting aside money for an eventual lawsuit.
House Bill 9, the Immigrant Safety Act, passed in the most recent legislative session, prohibits counties from contracting with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
New Mexico has three counties with immigrant detention facilities. Private company CoreCivic owns two of them in Torrance County and Cibola County, and the company has since contracted directly with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to continue housing immigrant detainees. Doing so removed those counties from the contracts and made HB9 no longer applicable there,
But because Otero County owns its facility, HB9 requires the county to sell the facility or find another use for it, potentially resulting in its closure and, officials say, the loss of up to 280 jobs.
Instead, earlier this year, the Otero County Commission approved a five-year extension of its contract with ICE and a private company to continue to hold immigrant detainees at the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral in apparent defiance of HB9.
The commission renewed the contract with ICE before HB9 became effective on May 20. The new contract also contained a provision that prohibited the county from canceling the contract unilaterally, which state officials and lawmakers said was an effort to prevent the state being able to force the county to cancel the contract.
While not naming Otero County specifically, Interim Courts and Criminal Justice Committee Vice Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) said counties will be vulnerable to lawsuits from trial lawyers and “unlimited liability” if they continue to contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to hold immigrant detainees at local jails.
He said he hopes the county officials “have lots of money set aside” to pay in a civil judgement should someone get hurt or die at a facility that is operating outside the bounds of HB9.
“If somebody dies, the question will be whether they are immunized under the Tort Claims Act,” Cervantes said, referring to a state law that caps liability for government employees who are found to be acting within the law.
Cervantes said he “might argue” New Mexico county officials are not acting within the law, “because we said they don’t have the authority to be in these relationships,” he said. “So now they’re not protected by the laws that normally protect counties.”
Committee Chair Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos) echoed Cervantes’ assessment that the county officials would be vulnerable to a lawsuit. She also said county officials, in seeking to bypass House Bill 9, ceded disproportionate power to the federal government through a contract the county gave up the right to exit from.
“If people think they really put the state under the barrel, and, aren’t they so clever to change the leases before the law took effect, well, they may have been too clever by a half,” she said. “Because there are real problems with these ongoing activities.”
Otero County Attorney RB Nichols did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for a response Friday to Cervantes’ comments.
Days before the Immigrant Safety Act was set to go into effect, the U.S. Department of Justice sued New Mexico, saying the law was unconstitutional because it illegally regulated the federal government and it would cause Otero County to lose roughly 280 jobs while also depriving ICE of a facility leaders said they need to implement President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push.
The lawsuit is pending. Attorney General Raúl Torrez has agreed not to enforce House Bill 9 while the lawsuit makes its way through federal court.