New Mexico environmentalist group on ‘high alert’ after Trump’s shrinks Utah national monuments
—Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A New Mexico environmentalist group is sounding the alarm about what President Donald Trump’s decision to dramatically reduce the footprints of two national monuments in Utah could mean for several “beloved” national monuments in New Mexico.
Trump on Monday signed a pair of executive orders to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah by about 3 million acres or 90% of their original size. The decision drew outrage across the West from environmental advocates and Indigenous organizations, including the Navajo Nation and Zuni Tribe, who said they were not consulted in the decision.
Trump and Utah’s top Republican leaders said the reduction will allow the remaining protected lands to be better managed and preserved while also enabling better public access.
But Mark Allison, executive director of New Mexico Wild, told Source NM on Tuesday that Trump’s move was a “travesty” and illegal, in his opinion. And he said the move opens the door for Trump to keep stripping protections from national monuments across the country, including three in New Mexico that he said might be next on Trump’s list.
Allison noted that the monuments — Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Río Grande del Norte,and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks — all have similarities with Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Democratic presidents designated all three monuments relatively recently, and leaked U.S. Interior Department documents have listed those monuments as potential targets for reductions.
Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks was one of six the Trump administration identified as targets, along with the two Utah mountains that lost protections Monday, according to a Washington Post report in April 2025.
Also, when he was a member of Congress representing New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, newly confirmed U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Steve Pearce opposed the designation of the Organ-Mountains Desert Peaks monument near Las Cruces.
“So all that means we’re on high alert,” Allison said.
If Trump comes next for any New Mexico national monument, Allison said, New Mexico Wild would prepare to fight any reductions in court and mobilize New Mexicans in opposition.
A Trump rollback of any New Mexico site will be met by “fierce opposition by the overwhelming majority of New Mexicans,” Allison said. “These are places that we know and love, and we would be united as New Mexicans opposing that.”
Albuquerque Hispano Chamber taps South Valley native as new leader
—Kylie Garcia, Albuquerque Journal
The Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce has named a new leader.
Roberta Ricci, the chamber’s chief experience officer, will become its new president and CEO starting Monday. She succeeds Ernie C’deBaca, who has held the position for nearly a decade and announced in April his plans to retire.
“(W)e look forward to Roberta leading our chamber into its next chapter with vision and strong commitment to our business community,” said Casey Anglada DeRaad, chair of the chamber’s board of directors, which conducted a weeks-long national search before choosing Ricci.
The announcement follows 50 years of operation for the chamber, which offers resources and support to Albuquerque entrepreneurs and businesses, particularly in the Hispanic and small-business communities.
Ricci has been with the chamber as its chief experience officer for the last four years, helping shape the organization’s membership engagement, strategic partnerships, and programs and events.
A native New Mexican, Ricci was born and raised in Albuquerque’s South Valley and launched her professional career in higher education at the University of New Mexico after returning to school later in life, she said.
After years of working at UNM’s Alumni Relations Office, she moved to the Central New Mexico Community College’s foundation as its director of development for four years. She then served as executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation for three years before joining the Hispano Chamber.
When offered the top role, Ricci said she felt inspired to accept because the chamber’s mission of contributing to a greater cause aligns with her personal values.
“I really think that the chamber is a heartbeat of our community,” Ricci said. “We’re there to support our businesses, our artists, our performers and our local community to make sure that we’re all growing and thriving.”
In her new role, Ricci is tasked with leading chamber initiatives aimed at supporting local entrepreneurs and small businesses, advocating for pro-business policies in local government, strengthening partnerships in the public and private sectors, and expanding opportunities for businesses throughout Albuquerque and New Mexico.
Ricci said she also looks forward to continuing and expanding the chamber’s international trade partnerships that C’deBaca helped cultivate.
C’deBaca, whose last day with the chamber is Friday, is optimistic about the chamber’s future.
“(Ricci) knows this organization, understands our mission and has dedicated her career to creating opportunities for businesses and our community,” C’deBaca said. “I have every confidence she will lead the Hispano Chamber to even greater success, and I look forward to seeing all that she and the team will accomplish together.”
Ricci said she is stepping into the role with “tremendous excitement” but also “a profound sense of responsibility,” as the appointment comes at a time when Ricci would describe New Mexico’s business landscape as “hurting.”
“It’s been really difficult for (local businesses),” Ricci said, citing inflation, scarce resources and staffing difficulties. Longtime local businesses are shutting their doors as a result — an issue Ricci said she wants to address through outreach, planning and execution.
“We need to figure out how to make this work for our community,” Ricci said.
Federal judge tosses DOJ suit seeking state voter list
—Olivier Uttyebouck, Albuquerque Journal
A federal judge in Albuquerque dismissed a lawsuit on Tuesday filed by the Trump administration demanding that New Mexico turn over detailed voter registration data to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Judith C. Herrera adds New Mexico to a growing list of states where federal judges have tossed similar suits filed by the DOJ demanding state voter registration rolls and personal voter information.
The DOJ filed the lawsuit in December asking a federal judge to order the state to turn over an electronic copy of New Mexico's voter registration list, including names, dates of birth, addresses and other data.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico against Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver by attorneys in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
Toulouse Oliver on Tuesday cheered Herrera's decision to toss the suit.
"Federal and state legal guardrails on social security numbers and dates of birth exist for the identity protection of every voter in our state,” Toulouse Oliver said in a statement.
“I absolutely will not risk any disclosure of voters’ private data, as it could carry very real and severe consequences for the personal lives of New Mexicans participating in our democratic process,” she said.
The DOJ's lawsuit alleged that former-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's office sent a letter to Toulouse Oliver in September seeking information "regarding New Mexico's compliance with federal election law."
The letter demanded a current electronic copy of its computerized statewide voter registration list. Information demanded in the letter included each voter's full name, date of birth, residential address, state driver's license number and the last four digits of the registrant's Social Security number.
Toulouse Oliver responded in a Sept. 23 letter refusing the demand.
Herrera noted in her order that the DOJ sent similar demand letters to 48 states and the District of Columbia.
"After thirty states and D.C. did not comply with the DOJ's request, the DOJ sued each state to compel production," Herrera wrote. "To date, twelve of those cases have been dismissed."
All the DOJ lawsuits alleged that the federal government is entitled to personal voter data under the 1960 Civil Rights Act, the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993.
In her ruling, Herrera found that the DOJ failed to show that New Mexico violated federal laws as alleged in the suit.
"Nowhere does the DOJ articulate any factual suggestion that New Mexico has violated the NVRA or HAVA," Herrera wrote. Nor did the DOJ show that New Mexico has a pattern of noncompliance with the laws, she said.
New Mexico advocates back effort to expand federal radiation exposure compensation program
—Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers announced Tuesday they will soon seek to further expand the 2025 federal Radiation and Exposure Compensation Act to include more communities sickened by historic nuclear tests and production.
The virtual news conference featured elected members of Congress from Missouri and Nevada, as well as U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), and advocates including New Mexico’s Tina Cordova, who founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. The consortium has advocated for federal compensation for those exposed to radiation from the 1945 Trinity Test.
Last year, Congress greatly expanded RECA to include Downwinders and post-1971 uranium miners in New Mexico, along with Downwinders in the states of Idaho and Utah, and portions of Nevada and Arizona. But Cordova and Vasquez said the bill still does not go far enough, and the application period’s 2027 expiration date comes too quickly, to fully compensate those who can trace their radiation exposure to various cancers and other ailments in the decades since.
“I think that it’s high time our government realizes that we are not going to stand for justice for some,” Cordova said. “We are in favor of justice for not just a few, but justice for the many, and we will continue to fight until we receive justice for all.”
Cordova said two close friends who have joined her in the roughly two-decade fight for compensation do not qualify for RECA because they have prostate and bone cancer, diseases ineligible for compensation. Her brother and sister have skin cancer and kidney cancer, which also do not qualify, she said.
Vasquez and other speakers Tuesday said the legislation will extend eligibility to additional qualifying illnesses, allow the parents of radiation victims to apply and expand geographic eligibility. The bill, the Radiation Exposure Reauthorization Act of 2026, is expected later this summer.
In addition to expanding qualifying illnesses, the bill would allow the use of affidavits in cases in which claimants, predominantly in rural and Indigenous communities, are unable to collect what are often decades-old medical records.
The bill would also increase compensation from $100,000 to $150,000, Vasquez said.
States that would be fully eligible under the proposed expansion include Arizona, Colorado, Guam, Montana and Nevada, and the bill would cover communities in St. Louis, Missouri, Washington, Ohio, and elsewhere whose residents were exposed to waste from the Manhattan Project.
Finally, the bill would extend the application period by 15 years, which Vasquez said will enable more eligible people to apply and also potentially decrease fraud.
Shortly after the 2025 expansion went into effect, the New Mexico Department of Justice warned about potential fraud by organizations and attorneys soliciting paid work filing claims for recipients.
“The sense of urgency around filing has opened the door to rampant fraud in communities across New Mexico,” Vasquez said. “Bad actors are preying on our communities because of this short timeline, because folks are very eager and desperate to get their rightfully owed compensation.”
According to data from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, which is administering the RECA funds, the division has received roughly 4,400 claims for RECA under the 2025 expansion. Of those, 558 have been approved, amounting to $55.8 million in compensation. About 3,800 claims are still pending, and three have been denied.
Lindy’s Diner owners sue city over Bliss Building demolition - Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
The owners of the now-defunct Lindy’s Diner have sued the city of Albuquerque for its handling of the demolition of the historic Bliss Building.
Attorney Michael Cadigan, representing Lindy’s Diner owners Steve and Dawn Vatoseow, alleges the city did not need to demolish the building and rushed the Vatoseows into doing so.
The lawsuit was filed in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque on Sunday.
“The Bliss Building was fixable, but the City of Albuquerque demanded that the building be demolished, repeatedly giving the owners varying and conflicting timelines to complete the work,” the suit states.
In a Monday statement sent to the Journal, the city said it gave the Vatoseows time to address the situation and make whatever decision fits them.
“The City understands the historic importance of Lindy’s and the impact of losing the Bliss Building, but when a building becomes a threat to public safety, we act,” wrote a city spokesperson. “We made the difficult decision to remove the unsafe structure to protect downtown businesses, residents, and visitors who use Central Avenue and 5th Street every day.”
Demolition began on the Bliss Building roughly two months after a portion of the historic building crumbled in late April, leaving a slew of debris and building materials in its wake.
State Farm, the building’s insurer that provided coverage for seven years, is also being sued. The complaint alleges the insurance company was aware of the 120-year-old Bliss Building’s age and condition and still provided coverage, only to later deny claims that the Vatoseows filed.
It is unclear if State Farm has an attorney yet.
Cadigan, a former city councilor who served from 2001 to 2009, including one term as city council president, said that city officials denied the Vatoseows due process by denying the family the time to make a decision or consider other options before demolishing the building.
"The government can't decide that your house needs to be torn down because it's not safe and not give you any due process rights,” he said.
He added that the city rushed the process due to the Bliss Building’s location and because of the Route 66 Centennial, which has brought various events to the area.
“The most shocking thing that I think the city did in this is they just ignored state law and their own city law on how you condemn a building,” Cadigan said. "There was a political decision to tear it down and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”
“I understand that this is downtown and the Route 66 festival is coming up, but it's an interesting question,” he added. “If this building had been at the corner of Eubank and Lomas, would the city have acted like this?”
The demolition timeline
Demolition on the building began June 30 after officials announced that the city would begin the process of razing the building after the Vatoseows "failed to follow through on their promise to demolish the collapsing building,” states a June 30 news release.
Officials said the city chose to step in after it became “clear that they are unwilling or unable” to perform the deconstruction of the Bliss Building in what the city deemed was a timely manner.
A lien was placed on the property to allow the city to recover demolition costs, potentially through a future sale of the site. The suit alleges that the lien is invalid because an order from a zoning hearing officer is required before a lien can be placed.
Since a portion of the property’s wall collapsed on April 27, sections of Downtown Albuquerque have been closed as officials worked to sequester the debris, voicing concerns about the building harming people or other nearby businesses.
The Bliss Building had been red-tagged and shut down by the city just one week before the building partially collapsed.
On April 30, a structural engineer deemed the property unstable and said it would need to be demolished. The Vatoseows requested a two-week extension on May 15, stating they would perform the demolition themselves.
Roughly one month later, city officials state that the agreement between the Vatoseows and a construction company had “dissolved.” The following day, Code Enforcement sent a letter requesting immediate action to get the demolition back on schedule, though the Vatoseows did not respond.
The lawsuit alleges that the city caused further harm to the building after they “recklessly pulled down the remaining wall and roof,” adding that if the city had hired an engineer and worked with the owners to stabilize the building, it could have been saved and eventually rebuilt.
“The City used heavy equipment to push the debris from the collapsed wall off the sidewalk and into the building and to pull down a section of the wall that had not yet collapsed,” the suit states. “This caused a larger portion of the wall and roof to collapse, which contributed to the building becoming a total loss.”
Additionally, the suit states city officials violated the Inspection of Public Records Act by failing to produce all requested documents relevant to the Bliss Building.
Cadigan said the issue mimics a similar situation that happened in New York City recently, in which the former Pfizer headquarters nearly collapsed after a severe structural failure.
He said in that case, however, the city provided aid to the building owners rather than place all the responsibility on them.
"The city came in and they helped the owners stabilize the building,” he said. “They didn't come in and tear it down. They found engineers before they started messing with it.”
Busy wildfire season tests US fire bosses as they juggle resources to stay ahead - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
It's already been a deadly year for firefighters, and authorities have been putting resources where they can more quickly pounce on wildfires before they get out of hand and increase the possibility of additional loss of life and property.
Fire managers try to anticipate nature's next move, placing thousands of firefighters, hundreds of engines, batteries of bulldozers and fleets of helicopters and air tankers where they'll make the biggest difference.
This year, they're dealing with persistent drought made worse by record-low snowpack levels and consecutive days of hot, dry and windy weather. Hundreds of homes have burned, three firefighters were killed battling flames in Colorado, and most recently a helicopter helping with another Colorado fire crashed into a reservoir, killing the pilot.
National preparedness has yet to reach its highest level, but resources are getting stretched as new fires pop up daily.
"The U.S. Wildland Fire Service is prioritizing pre-positioning of crews, engines and aircraft in areas with the highest likelihood of wildfire activity," the agency said in an email to The Associated Press when asked about available resources. "This allows for quicker initial attack when new wildfires ignite, which is often the most effective way to keep fires small."
US preparedness level ratchets up
The National Interagency Fire Center, a collection of federal and state agencies that supports on-the-ground wildfire firefighting efforts, sets the preparedness level at 1 to 5 based on fire activity, resource demands, weather and conditions on the ground that can be fuel for a fire. By late June, a surge of wildfire activity prompted coordinators to move the needle to level 4 and begin funneling more crews to the hottest spots.
More than 2,000 fires have been confirmed by the national fire center since the beginning of July alone. The explosion of fire activity across the West has resulted in more highly skilled and experienced incident management teams being assigned. Some have traveled from Alaska and California to help with fires in the Great Basin region.
As of Monday, there were 16 such teams overseeing nearly 17,000 people spread across more than a dozen states.
It's typical to see preparedness increase in July and August, but fire managers are hopeful they can keep juggling resources to avoid maxing out.
Over the past decade, fire managers have reached the top preparedness tier an average of 25 days per year, with the longest stretch happening in 2021, according to federal statistics. The earliest the designation ever occurred was June 21, 2002.
Firefighters hit the road to help
The nation has 10 geographic area coordination centers — or GACCs — that handle the mobilization of firefighters and other resources.
Mike Morgan, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, noted during a news conference in early July that his state was getting help from an Alaska-based team.
"Thank God that they have the ability to free those resources up," he said. "So I think at the moment I would say I feel pretty good about where we're at. But I'm very concerned about where we go."
In Utah, more crews arrived to help with the Babylon Fire, the largest active blaze in the U.S. at 166 square miles (430 square kilometers). That's larger than the size of Seattle.
In all, more than 5,600 square miles (14,504 square kilometers) — more than the size of Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks combined — have burned in the U.S. so far this year, outpacing the average for the past decade.
Sharing resources requires balance
The most recent outlook shows above normal wildfire potential in July from the Four Corners Region — where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah meet — north to Oregon, Idaho and Washington. It's not expected to simmer down until September.
Christopher Dunn, an assistant professor of wildfire risk science at Oregon State University, said these outlooks form the basis for determining how and where to mobilize resources. Those resources are shifted as the fire season moves from region to region.
In a busy year, states have to weigh whether to free up resources to help elsewhere or pressure federal officials to keep crews in reserve in case of increased risk. That's what Dunn described as hoarding resources.
"So there is sort of this delicate balance that has to be walked there, where you share, they share, everybody shares," he said, "and everybody benefits from that sharing while not overextending your resources so much that you find yourself in a losing position."
But along with sharing comes added exposure for firefighters who are in the field longer. That means more overtime and greater opportunities for burnout.
"With all this sharing and all of this increase in fire everywhere, we're just going to see increased pressure on them to work more and work harder and essentially burn out quicker," Dunn said.
Each fire season reignites the debate over public investment in a permanent wildland firefighting workforce and what agencies can do to retain their most experienced personnel.
"More experience is critical when dealing with extreme conditions," said Camille Stevens-Rumann, a former wildland firefighter and an associate professor at Colorado State University.
Red flag warnings determine strategy
Even with more resources, there's not much firefighters can do when facing multiple days of strong winds, low humidity and warm temperatures. Stevens-Rumann said that's where the strategic positioning of resources in advance comes in.
"They can be available for when those conditions die down, like in the evening," she said. "But when we have day after day of red flag warnings and high winds, it's really hard to control a fire."
Even though Stevens-Rumann has been on the front lines and studies wildfires, it's unsettling when flames are close to home.
"There's no denying it. It's easy to disassociate that when you're on a fire crew and you're arriving to a place that you don't have a connection to per se to fight a fire. You know, you're there to do a job," she said, "but when you see it in your own backyard, it's definitely a totally different experience."
This year, firefighters are being directed to attack every blaze as quickly as possible to limit growth, reversing a decades-long trend in which managers let some fires burn to clear out brush and dead vegetation to reduce future risks. Stevens-Rumann said there are concerns about what that means for firefighter safety and work done on the landscape to slow the flames.
"It doesn't do us any good to build miles and miles of line that just get burnt over, over and over again," she said, noting that newer strategies are helping managers figure out where best to take a stand.
Volunteers watch for smoke
Having eyes on the ground — or rather above the tree canopy — can help spot fires early. Despite once numbering in the thousands, there are some 350 lookout towers left in the U.S., with many staffed by volunteers due to dwindling budgets, said Michael Guerin, chairman of the Forest Fire Lookout Association.
They're not just in the West. New Jersey opened a new one just this year, and they're also used in Pennsylvania, Maine and other eastern states.
The recent fires have forced the evacuation of some towers in Colorado. Meanwhile, Guerin and fellow volunteers in California are ready for things to pick up in their state when the Santa Ana winds arrive.
They could be getting help in the future from satellites. Officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection announced in early July that the first satellites have been launched into orbit as part of what will be a space-based wildfire detection system.
For now, the lookout volunteers use a map, compass and their familiarity with landmarks to pinpoint the location for initial attack crews. But their job isn't done, Guerin said.
"We then become the overwatch — the people that keep them safe while they're doing the hard work on the ground."
Trump reduces size of 2 national monuments in Utah as Republicans reshape land management - By Matthew Brown and Savannah Peters, Associated Press
President Donald Trump on Monday sharply reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, undoing protections established by his Democratic predecessors on public lands that are sacred among many Native Americans.
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah have ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and scenic canyons, as well as coal and uranium deposits that state officials want made available for development.
Trump, a Republican, issued proclamations under the Antiquities Act to reduce their size by about 90% each. He took similar actions during his first term, but those were reversed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
The latest move comes as Trump and other Republicans have drastically reshaped the management of vast taxpayer-owned lands concentrated in Western states. Trump administration officials and congressional Republicans have sought to expand drilling, mining and logging on public lands, while removing protections for imperiled species and rolling back rules for conservation.
"They took the land from the people quite honestly," Trump said at a signing event at the White House Monday. "We're giving it back."
President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, established Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, and President Barack Obama, also a Democrat, created Bears Ears National Monument in 2016 under the Antiquities Act. The 1906 law gives presidents the powers to protect sites considered historic, archaeologically significant or culturally important.
Davina Smith-Idjesa, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said tribal leaders had braced for a reduction since Trump was elected to a second term. She said it was "heartbreaking" and accused federal officials of sidestepping their legal responsibility to consult with tribal nations that would be impacted.
"From a Navajo perspective, Bears Ears is not simply a piece of federal public land," Smith-Idjesa said. "This is a living cultural site that holds our histories, our ceremonies, our traditional foods and medicines and our ancestors' footprints."
'Big day for Utah'
Utah officials had long fought against the monument designations and argued that the state should be in charge of controlling its own lands. Trump in his first term reduced their size, calling their creation a "massive land grab." Combined they spanned more than 3.2 million acres (13 million hectares), an area nearly the size of Connecticut.
Trump reduced them Monday to less than 303,000 acres (123,000 hectares) combined.
That's a greater reduction than his first term, when he left Grand Staircase Escalante at 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) and Bears Ears at 213,000 acres (86,000 hectares).
"This is a big day for Utah," Utah Gov. Spencer Cox as he stood next to Trump at the White House. "These monument designations are supposed to be the smallest area as possible to protect the antiquities."
Bears Ears was the first national monument created at the request of tribal nations that consider the land sacred. The landscape contains ancestral villages, ceremonial and burial sites and features in some tribes' creation and migration stories. Its designation honored five tribes in the region — Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute and Uintah-Ouray Ute.
Home to hundreds of thousands of objects of cultural and scientific significance, Bears Ears is jointly managed by an agreement between tribal nations and federal agencies.
Grand Staircase-Escalante consists of cliffs, canyons, natural arches and archaeological sites, including rock paintings. It holds large coal reserves, while the Bears Ears area has uranium.
The national monument designation provides sweeping protections not just for significant geological features or artifacts but also for the surrounding landscape, banning drilling, mining and new construction nearby. Proponents of Trump's move to downsize say the protective boundaries stretch too far and hinder mining for critical minerals.
Trump asserted Monday that people can not hunt, fish or "virtually not even walk" on the monuments. That's false: Hunting, fishing, camping and other recreation are permitted under state and federal regulations, said Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a conservation group.
Biden designated or expanded more than a dozen monuments and had a goal to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
Trump's policies are largely the opposite: He wants to tap into the natural resource wealth of federal lands that total more than 100,000 square miles (260,000 square kilometers) and offshore areas under federal control, such as in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.
That's drawn backlash from Democrats who warn of the wholesale disposal of treasured landscapes for commercial gain.
"Today's executive action is another chapter in this administration's war on the West," Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said Monday. He added that Trump was "turning the Antiquities Act on its head."
Land sale proposals fell flat
Trump Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said last year that federal officials would review and consider redrawing monument boundaries as part of a push to expand U.S. energy production.
Trump in his current term has used proclamations to lift commercial fishing prohibitions within expansive marine monuments in areas of the Pacific Ocean and in the Atlantic Ocean off the New England coast. Those monuments were created by Democratic and Republican administrations. The effort to boost the fishing industry, which has been challenged in court, marks a dramatic shift in federal policy by prioritizing commercial interests over efforts to allow the fish supply to increase.
Some Republicans have tried to sell or transfer federal lands to states or other entities. Those efforts have largely fallen flat: A push by some GOP lawmakers in the House to sell public lands ran into bipartisan opposition, while another proposal by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah to sell more than 3,200 square miles (8,300 square kilometers) of federal lands was removed from Republicans' big tax and spending bill.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year turned back a lawsuit from Utah officials who sought to wrest control of vast areas of public land within the state from the federal government.
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Hannah Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.
Kenney’s latest Washington trip renews pressure on DOE over Los Alamos waste - Justin Horwath, Albuquerque Journal
James Kenney, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s environment secretary, flew to the nation’s capital for a July 7 meeting with top U.S. Department of Energy officials.
It was Kenney’s latest attempt to remind D.C. that radioactive and hazardous waste has been festering in Los Alamos since the 1940s Manhattan Project.
It was one of roughly six trips Kenney has made to Washington during President Donald Trump’s second term, he said in a wide-ranging interview before his latest visit.
Kenney met last week with Timothy Walsh, assistant secretary for the Office of Environmental Management in the U.S. Department of Energy.
The two discussed New Mexico’s April request to revise DOE’s 10-year permit to store radioactive debris in the underground caverns of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, in Carlsbad.
In a 2023 settlement with New Mexico, the DOE agreed to prioritize shipments of radioactive waste from LANL over out-of-state U.S. nuclear facilities.
“The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad office is favoring cleanup everywhere else in the country except New Mexico’s backyard,” Kenney said.
A spokesperson for Kenney’s agency said it received 859 public comments on the permit modification. Roughly half supported New Mexico’s revisions and the other half opposed them.
DOE runs the WIPP site with Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, or SIMCO. WIPP disposes of waste materials from sites across the U.S. Kenney expects a resolution on the permit by this fall.
Kenney said Walsh “seems very level-headed and very interested in solving problems.”
“If everybody’s rowing in the same direction at the same time, between our Congressional delegation, the Department of Energy, the state of New Mexico, the community, this actually could be a good moment,” he said.
Before Congress is an appropriations package that would slash the office’s budget and hike funding for accelerated production of plutonium pits, the radioactive triggers inside nuclear weapons at LANL. The package passed a House Appropriations Committee. Kenney visited the Hill in April to meet with U.S. lawmakers and staff to request more cleanup funds.
But Kenney has found that not everyone, in New Mexico and D.C., is rowing in his direction.
“They want it to be over 50% of the shipments,” Jack Voltato, a pharmacist and GOP politician who has held several local offices in Carlsbad, said of LANL waste. “And there’s no way they can ever get to that number. They don’t have the capacity. They don’t have the characterization teams. They don’t have the real estate basically.”
‘Difficult tradeoffs’
In late May, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican, introduced the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. A committee report on the bill follows Trump’s prior recommendation that the DOE cut cleanup spending while hiking funds for new nuclear weapons.
The committee report justified cuts to the Office of Environmental Management, saying the office has $507 million in unspent funds.
“Given resource constraints, the Committee must make difficult tradeoffs to prioritize the greatest needs in a fiscally responsible manner,” the report said, adding that it expects DOE to make progress on nuclear waste cleanup with $275 million of those unspent funds.
Among other criticisms of the bill, Democratic lawmakers said cuts to the Office of Environmental Management budget by $863 million, or 10%, would leave “communities vulnerable to radioactive waste leftover from our nation’s atomic weapons program.”
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee took a different posture on defense spending, saying in their report that NNSA’s national defense programs should be the DOE’s “top priority” amid rising global threats.
It recommended $22 billion for those programs. That includes money to support the production of 80 plutonium pits annually by 2030 at LANL and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The bill specifically allocates $2 billion for pit production at LANL — $755 million over last year’s budget.
A public comment period on NNSA’s proposal to expand plutonium production at LANL and the Savannah River Site closes July 16.
Asked about cleanup funds, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a member of the Senate’s Appropriations and Intelligence committees, told the Journal in a statement that the “federal government has a responsibility to support the communities that safely manage our nation’s nuclear materials and waste, including maintaining the roads used to transport that waste.”
Heinrich referenced Kenney’s longstanding request for money to improve the roads in Carlsbad where heavy trucks carry the waste.
Chromium plume
Thom Mason, director of LANL, was asked during a June town hall how long it would take to remove the legacy waste.
“I probably shouldn’t talk too directly about the legacy waste,” he said, pointing to the DOE’s Environmental Management Office as responsible for the cleanup.
He faced another question about a plume of hexavalent chromium — a dangerous pollutant that is encroaching on San Ildefonso Pueblo.
“Some of the things that are concerns of the community (like) the chromium plume — those are things that we’re not responsible for,” Mason said, describing the relationships between different agencies and contractors.
“What we are responsible for is the waste generated as a part of our current operations,” Mason said, adding later that the lab does not cut corners on safety.
Kenney noted hexavalent chromium is not in San Ildefonso’s drinking water today. Roughly one mile long and half as wide, the plume is beneath Mortandad Canyon and at the edge of the Sandia Canyon at LANL, according to DOE, which says there is “no immediate threat to human health or the environment.”
Republicans control the Senate and House in Washington. Kenney said members from both parties are on the same page in funding cleanup alongside weapons programs, even if Republicans have not been as vocal about it.
“When you dump hexavalent chromium in the 1950s, and it is still threatening people’s drinking water in 2026, you have to ask yourself what meaningful effort the Department of Energy has achieved to mitigate that risk,” Kenney said.
School districts ignore law requiring period products in bathrooms - André Salkin and Elizabeth Nickell, Santa Fe New Mexican
Three years after New Mexico started requiring schools to offer free period products in bathrooms, districts are still struggling to comply.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that a lack of oversight and reporting requirements allow districts to essentially treat the law as optional.
The law passed in 2023 requires all New Mexico middle and high schools to carry the free products in all women and gender neutral restrooms.
However, many districts only offered them in nurses offices due to a lack of dispensers. Some districts didn’t offer free period products at all.
The funds the districts receive aren’t earmarked, and the districts were never told how to access them. The Public Education Department says school districts are responsible for setting aside the money and getting in compliance with the law.
According to studies by the state, 1 in 4 teenagers who have a period have missed class time due to inadequate access to period products. It also notes 1 in 5 young women struggle with affordability.
New Mexico environment department issues advisory, rolls out map for harmful algae on state lakes - Source New Mexico staff
Seven New Mexico lakes are currently under advisories for harmful algal blooms, the state environment department announced on Monday.
The announcement coincided with the rollout of an algal bloom advisory map that shows the condition of lakes statewide, which will be active during prime algal bloom season, July through November.
According to an NMED news release, such blooms “can produce toxins that are harmful to humans and animals.” They can appear blue, bright green, brown or red and may resemble “scum or floating grass clippings on the water’s surface.”
According to the state, people should observe several precautions around lakes with harmful algal bloom watch advisories, such as avoiding the blooms while swimming or wading; avoiding drinking untreated surface water; keeping pets away from water and shoreline algae and rinsing them should they touch the blooms; rinsing fish with clean water caught in the lake prior to cooking, and only eating the fillet.
For lakes under warning advisory, the same precautions should be taken, and people should also avoid swimming or water skiing all together and, if paddleboarding or boating, avoid areas with algae. NMED also advises using caution when fishing “because the effects of [harmful algal bloom] toxins on fish are not well understood.”
As of Monday, Quemado Lake in Catron County; Clayton Lake in Union County; and Lower Charette Lake in Mora County are under a harmful algal bloom warnings; El Vado Reservoir, in Rio Arriba County; Bluewater Lake in Cibola County; Eagle Nest Lake in Colfax County; and Santa Cruz Lake in Santa Fe County are under harmful algal bloom watches. More information about harmful algal blooms is available online through the state environment department’s online guidance document.
“The department reminds the public: if the water smells bad or looks scummy — like grass clippings floating on the surface, thick like paint or pea-green, blue-green, or brownish red in color — it’s best to stay out,” the news release said. “When in doubt, stay out.”
In response to questions from Source NM, an NMED spokesperson said this year’s algae blooms are not worse than in years past, but have become more frequent over the past 30 years nationwide, with scientists believing they correlate with higher temperatures and higher nutrient levels.
Researchers “around the world are working to understand their causes and effects,” spokesperson Jorge Armando Estrada wrote. “Not all algae blooms produce toxins, so researchers are trying to understand why and where toxic blooms may occur.”
As for NMED’s new map, he wrote, it “provides recreationists a place to check waterbody conditions, allows them to report a bloom through a link on the map, and helps them know where risks exist so they can avoid contact with affected waters. Our intent is to improve outreach and coordination to protect public health.”
Roswell Daily Record to cease operations - Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
The newspaper that reported the alleged UFO crash in 1947 may be going away.
After over 100 years of serving southeast New Mexico, on Monday, the Roswell Daily Record announced “with great regret” on social media it is ceasing its operations.
“The company is undertaking an orderly liquidation of its assets to satisfy outstanding liabilities, obligations, and operating expenses to the extent possible,” the post states.
The company added, however, it is “actively pursuing a solution that could allow the Roswell Daily Record to continue serving the community under new ownership or another sustainable arrangement.”
“While we cannot make any guarantees, we remain committed to exploring every viable option,” the post states.
On Monday afternoon, the Daily Record removed the post from its website and social media. Attempts were made to reach out to the newspaper for comment, but they were unsuccessful.
In 2024, the newspaper made changes in response to declines in revenue. Among them were reducing its print frequency to three days a week and eliminating the Sunday comics.
In October 2025, it announced it would print at the Santa Fe New Mexican “after dealing with years of rising production costs, declining print revenue, and the growing challenge of maintaining an aging press.”
Then, in May, the Daily Record notified readers it was making additional changes such as transitioning from carrier delivery to direct mail.
If operations did not stabilize, according to the newspaper, “we may be forced to take further steps, including relying more heavily on digital updates or a much more difficult outcome.”
The Roswell Daily Record, which has a circulation of less than 12,000, is owned by Barbara Beck and Saralei Fajardo, according to its website. The paper’s history dates back to 1891 when it was known as the Roswell Record before becoming the Daily Record in 1903.
Its most famous edition came out on July 8, 1947, with a beaming headline that read, “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.”
Monday’s announcement marked the second New Mexico newspaper to close its doors this year. The Gallup Independent printed its last issue in late January.
Mescalero Apache Tribe Council president impeached - KOAT-TV
Mescalero Apache Tribe council president Thora Walsh-Padilla has been impeached by a unanimous vote.
Walsh-Padilla announced her impeachment in a social media post Friday.
KOAT-TV reports Walsh-Padilla had previously been suspended for 90 days due to an investigation into accusations of nepotism.
