Supreme Court Allows Recall Effort Against Trump Booster – Associated Press
An effort to recall the founder of Cowboys for Trump from his public office as a county commissioner can move forward under an order of the New Mexico state Supreme Court.
In a written order Monday, the Supreme Court rebuffed an appeal from Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin and upheld a lower court ruling that said voters can circulate a recall petition. A successful petition would trigger an election vote on whether Griffin can finish his four-year term in office.
Cowboys for Trump has held horseback-riding parades across the country in support of President Donald Trump.
Retired military veteran Paul Sanchez and other members of the Committee to Recall Couy Griffin are accusing Griffin of using his elected county position for personal gain.
They say Griffin used his office space to solicit contributions to Cowboys for Trump that covered his personal expenses. They also are criticizing Griffin's pursuit of travel reimbursements from taxpayers for a cross-country trip that culminated in a visit with Trump at the White House.
Griffin has called those allegations frivolous, baseless and politically motivated. Griffin says that Cowboys for Trump is a for-profit endeavor that is not subject to financial disclosure requirements for political organizations.
Separately, Griffin is defending himself against criminal charges in connection with the siege on the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6.
New Mexico GOP Wants Public Debate On Pandemic Relief Money - By Cedar Attanasio, Associated Press / Report For America
Republican lawmakers in the minority of the New Mexico Legislature are objecting to private negotiations with the Democratic governor regarding $1.75 billion in federal pandemic relief and how it will be spent.
On Monday the spending was discussed during a closed meeting of a panel of leading legislators, disappointing Republicans. They called for an additional session of the Legislature to debate the funding and the veto.
"She is completely bypassing the appropriating body," Rep. Rod Montoya said following the closed discussion he took part in.
Lujan Grisham believes the funds are hers to appropriate, because of the way the federal statute is written.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature disagreed and appropriated the funds as part of a budget passed this spring. In order to gain control over the funds, Lujan Grisham vetoed portions of the bill. Some Democrats complained about the move, but haven't aggressively pursued a lawsuit.
Lujan Grisham's Republic predecessor Susana Martinez was sued over her use of the veto.
The governor also says she's consulting with lawmakers and will announce her plans for the funds "soon."
"The governor has talked to all legislative leadership, including the Republican leadership, about some aspects of the federal spending she plans to prioritize," said Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett.
Airman From Albuquerque Dies At Military Base In Qatar – Associated Press
The Department of Defense says a member of the New Mexico Air National Guard has died at a military base in Qatar.
The department said Sunday in a news release that Lt. Col. James C. Willis of Albuquerque died the previous day in events unrelated to combat that are under investigation.
The 55-year-old airman was providing support to military efforts against the Islamic State group of Iraq and Syria.
Willis had been assigned as commander of the 210th Red Horse Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base.
Navajo Nation Reports 3 New COVID-19, No Additional Deaths – Associated Press
The Navajo Nation on Sunday reported three new cases of COVID-19, but no additional deaths.
Tribal health officials had announced eight new cases and four deaths on Saturday.
The sprawling reservation that stretches into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah now has seen at least 30,987 known cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
The known death toll remains at 1,352.
Health officials said the first case of the Delta variant has been identified on the reservation.
The variant has become prevalent in the U.S. over the past few weeks and has been detected in many states, including the Four Corners states.
"The good news is that the health care experts state that the vaccines are effective against the variants," Navajo Nation president Jonathan Nez said in a statement Saturday. "Many of the new infections across the country are individuals who have not been fully vaccinated."
5 Who Died In New Mexico Hot Air Balloon Crash Identified - Associated Press
Authorities on Sunday released the names of the pilot and two couples who died after a hot air balloon they were riding in struck a power line and crashed onto a busy street in Albuquerque.
New Mexico State Police on Sunday identified the pilot as 62-year-old Nicholas Meleski and the four passengers as Susan Montoya, 65; John Montoya, 61; Mary Martinez, 59; and Martin Martinez, 62. The ages of the Martinez couple were reversed when authorities released their identities Saturday.
All were Albuquerque residents.
State Police said John Montoya died at a hospital from his injuries while the other victims were declared dead at the crash scene Saturday.
Witnesses told authorities that the balloon descended toward the ground around 7:30 a.m. Saturday and struck an overhead power line.
The gondola detached from the envelope and fell about 100 feet and crashed in the median of a busy city street before catching on fire, authorities said.
The envelope of the balloon floated away, eventually landing on a residential rooftop.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration will be investigating the cause of the crash.
The NTSB sent two investigators to the scene and will look into the pilot, the balloon itself and the operating environment, according to agency spokesman Peter Knudson.
"This is a tragedy that is uniquely felt and hits uniquely hard at home here in Albuquerque and in the ballooning community," Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said.
According to an NTSB database, there have been 12 fatal hot air ballooning accidents in the United States since 2008 with two of those occurring in Rio Rancho just outside Albuquerque, which is a mecca for hot air ballooning.
The city hosts a nine-day Balloon Festival in October that draws hundreds of thousands of spectators and pilots from around the world. It is one of the most photographed events globally.
Meleski was known for flying a multi-colored balloon with a Zia symbol which appears on the New Mexico state flag.
The retired UPS driver had been a licensed balloon pilot since 1994 and was a regular at the Balloon Fiesta.
Paul Fields, an Albuquerque resident who was friends with Meleski, said he was an amazing pilot who made every passenger smile.
"The skies will be a little less bright without him," Fields said.
Martin "Marty" Martinez retired from the Albuquerque Police Department as a patrol officer and had been a police field sergeant for Albuquerque Public Schools the past 16 years.
Some Albuquerque officers who responded to the crash had worked with Martinez and were sent home because it took a toll on them, police Chief Harold Medina said.
New Mexico Home Schoolers Drive Drop In Enrollment, Funding - By Cedar Attanasio Associated Press/Report For America
Home schooling nearly doubled in New Mexico last year as thousands of parents opted out of virtual learning programs offered in public schools.
The unprecedented defection from the public school system is putting a strain on school budgets, which are rooted in student enrollment.
Parents with the time and patience to school at home said they love the flexibility of home school and have learned how to give their children a more tailored education.
"We had no interest in doing virtual learning through a public or charter school," said Jennifer Fischer, 43, who moved with her partner and two sons from Los Angeles to Albuquerque during the pandemic in August.
Raised by school teachers and experienced in teaching media classes, the filmmaker couple were unintimidated by prospect of teaching their fourth-grade and fifth-grade boys.
For others, there was a learning curve.
"It was a little bit tough at first just trying to get the schedule and the routine down," said Albuquerque homemaker Cynthia Sanchez, who home-schooled her four children, who range in age from kindergarten to seventh grade.
Both parents joined the Facebook group Homeschool Homies last summer to see what other home-school families were doing. They weren't alone.
"I went from getting, you know, maybe 10 requests a week to getting maybe 25 to 30 requests a day," said Sarah Candelaria, 35, who administered Homeschool Homies and a few other homeschool-focused groups.
She fielded some of the same questions over and over again: "What curriculum should we use? Do we have to register with the state?"
The number of children registered with the state as home schoolers nearly doubled from around 8,800 before the pandemic to around 15,400 this past school year, according to Public Education Department data. K-12 enrollment was already shrinking by around 1.1% each year following a decade of decreased births and more childbearing-aged people moving out of the state than moving to it.
The home-schooling data validates a Census survey that found home schooling doubled in New Mexico and across the U.S.
Because federal and state education funding is pegged to student enrollment, a retreat from public school systems will hit budgets. In Albuquerque Public Schools, officials anticipate a loss of as much as $53 million because of the decline in enrollment.
Home schooling increased in all but the tiniest New Mexico school districts, according to additional home-schooling data obtained by The Associated Press in a public records request.
Statewide, the increase in home schoolers accounts for more than half of the 4% decline in public school enrollment in New Mexico last year, an AP analysis shows. Thousands of students left the system by transferring to a private school. An unknown number moved out of state.
Federal pandemic aid is boosting school budgets for the next two years. But long term, enrollment is declining.
Candelaria, the Facebook group administrator, said lots of parents will stick with home schooling even as the pandemic wanes.
Sanchez is one of them. She said her children have been learning more at home than at public school.
"They didn't have the time catered to them to make sure they understood the material before moving ahead," Sanchez said. "I had the time available to give to the kids."
Her two daughters asked to go back to school this year so that they could be around friends. She compromised with them by allowing them to play group sports.
Fischer, the filmmaker, said her family is ready to send the kids back to public school this year "assuming there are not variants or a spike in numbers."
But she hopes school districts draw on the lessons of the pandemic to offer more tailored learning to students, and more programs where students attend three days per week and home school the other two days, Fischer said.
"We can expand and say even a public system needs to be more customizable and meet the needs of different learners," she said.
Rock 'Cairn' Vandalism Marks Petroglyph Park In New Mexico - Associated Press
Authorities at Petroglyph National Monument said Friday that visitors committed extensive vandalism by collecting rocks and stacking them in the form of cairns, sometimes used as a hiking trail marker.
The federally protected park was created to preserve rock designs scratched by Indigenous people starting at least 700 years ago, and Spanish settlers as far back as 400 years ago.
Venturing off trails and rearranging rocks in modern times is a violation of federal regulations.
"Moving, stacking, or making shapes out of rocks is a form of vandalism and will impact every visitor who comes after," said Park Superintendent Nancy Hendricks, asking visitors to "respect these sacred landscapes."
National Park Service workers are dismantling the stacks of rocks, but can't be sure they'll return the rocks where they came from along the largely preserved desert landscape.
The agency is asking the public to share information about the person or persons who may have moved the rocks. The vandalism was first reported to the agency on June 17, according to a statement.
Last year, a visitor was shocked with a Taser by a park ranger after he left a trail at the park, which lies northwest of Albuquerque.
In March 2021, the National Parks Service said it concluded the officer's actions were appropriate. The male visitor was cited by the agency for being in a closed area off the trail, providing false information and failing to comply with a lawful order. A female visitor who was with him was cited for providing false information and being in a closed area off the trail.
Drought Woes In Dry US West Raise July 4 Fireworks Fears - By Lindsay Whitehurst Associated Press
Many Americans aching for normalcy as pandemic restrictions end are looking forward to traditional Fourth of July fireworks. But with a historic drought in the U.S. West and fears of another devastating wildfire season, officials are canceling displays, passing bans on setting off fireworks or begging for caution.
Fireworks have already caused a few small wildfires, including one started by a child in northern Utah and another in central California.
Last year, a pyrotechnic device designed for a baby's gender reveal celebration sparked a California blaze that killed a firefighter during a U.S. wildfire season that scorched the second-highest amount of land in nearly 40 years.
Some regions of the American West are experiencing their worst drought conditions in more than a century this year, said Jennifer Balch, director of Earth Lab at the University of Colorado. People setting off fireworks at home is a concern because of both the tinder-box conditions ripe for starting wildfires and the threat of injuries. Last year, injuries spiked to their highest level in 15 years after the pandemic canceled large gatherings, federal data shows.
"As a fire scientist, I'm bracing myself for this fire season because of how dry and hot it is already," Balch said. "I think fireworks right now are a terrible idea."
Fireworks industry professionals, who also stressed caution in drought-prone areas, expect strong sales despite a shortage caused by pandemic-related manufacturing slowdowns and trade disruptions.
"We think we're going to have a tremendous year," said James Fuller, a fireworks safety expert with Alabama-based TNT Fireworks.
While fireworks are integral to the country's Independence Day celebrations, they ignite thousands of fires a year — including one that burned Bobbie Uno's home in Clearfield, Utah, on the holiday last year. She had to jump out of the way before it struck the side of her house.
"Within five seconds, my house, from the bushes to the rooftop, it was burning," Uno said. The blaze caused $60,000 in damage and forced her family out of their home for weeks.
"I want everyone to be aware of the danger, because it's scary even in a small cul-de-sac," Uno said.
Several Utah cities are banning people from setting off their own fireworks this year during the record drought, but many Republicans are against a statewide prohibition. GOP Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton supports restrictions but thinks this year is a bad time for a blanket ban.
"We're just coming out of this pandemic where people already felt like government was restricting them in so many ways," she said. "When you issue bans arbitrarily, we could have a situation where people who weren't going to light fireworks purposely go and buy fireworks to just send a message to government."
State fireworks laws vary considerably across the U.S., but local bans on personal fireworks are popping up from Montana to Oregon, which was stricken by massive wildfires last year.
In Arizona, which already is being scorched by more than a dozen wildfires, many cities have canceled their public fireworks shows. The Yavapai-Apache Nation typically hosts a display outside its casino near the central Arizona city of Camp Verde.
"This year, with conditions being worse than last year, we decided in May that we would not have fireworks," said James Perry, a spokesman for the tribe's Cliff Castle Casino Hotel. "Based on the large fires currently burning in and around our community, we're happy with our decision."
It's a similar story in Colorado, where dozens of shows have been scuttled, including in Steamboat Springs, a ski town where firefighters are already spread thin.
"The grass always catches on fire ... why are we doing something that causes fire when fire's our biggest issue?" said Winnie DelliQuadri, town special projects manager.
But in neighboring Wyoming, business is booming at fireworks stores, including sales of products prohibited elsewhere. The parking lots fill on weekends, and many cars have out-of-state plates.
"It's not just Colorado," said Ben Laws, manager of Pyro City. "We see people from Nebraska, we see people from Montana, we see people from all over coming to buy."
Other cities, including Boise, Idaho, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, are working to ban personal fireworks while keeping their public displays, where safety precautions are often stronger and firefighters are on alert.
In North Dakota, where more than two-thirds of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought — the two worst categories — some areas are passing local bans. In South Dakota, where conditions are somewhat less dire, the governor is fighting the federal government to hold a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore.
A show that draws tens of thousands of people to Lake Tahoe, Nevada, near the California state line, was originally canceled for the second year in a row, but organizers later decided to mount a "smaller, safe fireworks experience." Holding fireworks shows over water is one of the safer ways to celebrate, said Balch, the professor.
The industry urges people lighting their own fireworks to follow local restrictions, pick a flat location a safe distance from homes, have a water source at hand to douse used products and dispose of them carefully.
Some safety officials would rather see people avoid lighting their own fireworks all together. Michele Steinberg with the National Fire Protection Association pointed to federal data showing 15,600 Americans went to emergency rooms for fireworks-related injuries last year, thousands more than the year before.
"I love watching the fireworks displays, but they're honestly not safe in consumer hands," she said. "Even a sparkler can get up to 1,200 degrees, which is actually how hot a wildfire burns."
Navajo Nation Reports 3 New COVID-19, No Additional Deaths - Associated Press
The Navajo Nation on Sunday reported three new cases of COVID-19, but no additional deaths.
Tribal health officials had announced eight new cases and four deaths on Saturday.
The sprawling reservation that stretches into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah now has seen at least 30,987 known cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
The known death toll remains at 1,352.
Health officials said the first case of the Delta variant has been identified on the reservation.
The variant has become prevalent in the U.S. over the past few weeks and has been detected in many states, including the Four Corners states.
"The good news is that the health care experts state that the vaccines are effective against the variants," Navajo Nation president Jonathan Nez said in a statement Saturday. "Many of the new infections across the country are individuals who have not been fully vaccinated."
Teen's Death Highlights Free-Roaming Dogs On Tribal Land - Santa Fe New Mexican, Associated Press
SUNDANCE, N.M. (AP) — A lone dog with sad eyes and no collar trotted up a dusty dirt road in a hardscrabble community near the southeast corner of the Navajo Nation.
In a flash, a pack of other free-roaming, collarless dogs scurried up the same road. One lunged at the lone canine, unleashing a ferocious attack with bursts of snarling, growling and barking that sent them all fleeing in different directions.
The scene isn't unusual here or in nearby communities where an estimated 250,000 of the animals referred to as "rez dogs" roam unchecked. Sometimes, with deadly consequences.
Tribal lawmakers recently passed a resolution to establish criminal penalties for vicious dog attacks like the one that Lyssa Rose Upshaw's family believes killed her. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez later vetoed the resolution, saying it didn't go far enough and needs more input.
Lyssa Rose, 13, went for a walk before dinner in Fort Defiance on the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation last month and was mauled by a neighbor's dogs, her family said. Police have not released an exact cause of her death.
"She had no skin on her legs," Lyssa Rose's mother, Marissa Jones, told the Santa Fe New Mexican. "They chewed her legs. She was gone."
The teenager's family described her as sweet and quiet, and said she was looking forward to joining the track and cross-country teams as a freshman in high school. She was buried May 25.
At least six deaths on the Navajo Nation have been blamed on dog packs, including the death of two boys. Other people have lost limbs or had to be treated for dog bites, Animal Control Manager Kevin Gleason recently told a committee of tribal lawmakers.
Violating animal control laws is considered a civil offense, with a maximum $500 fine. Gleason said none of the laws hold dog owners responsible for deaths.
While residents are prohibited from owning more than four animals and must restrain dogs, those limits seemingly are ignored. Animal Control Officer Gregory Pahe said he has removed up to 32 cats and dogs from a single home.
The tribe doesn't have enough manpower to address the problem. Gleason told tribal lawmakers that only a handful of animal control officers cover the 27,000-square-mile reservation that stretches into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, forcing them to be more reactive than proactive.
The pandemic made things worse. Animal shelters shut down, enforcement nearly ground to a halt, and spaying and neutering services were drastically cut back.
A small team of animal control officers and others captured multiple dogs in Sundance earlier this month, including two that were part of the fight on the dusty road using cages, ropes and poles.
"A lot of times, these dogs live out in the hills, in the canyons, so they don't know any other way except to be feral," Pahe said.
Jimmy Begay, who lives in the Sundance community, said he was relieved when animal control officers hauled away a dog that showed up at his doorstep. But he's contacted officers before about free-roaming dogs and got no response.
"There's just dogs everywhere," he said.
Unincorporated areas and cities that border the Navajo Nation also are understaffed and trying to avoid tragedy, said Tiffany Hubbard, an animal control officer in Gallup, New Mexico. But, she said, someone is always on call.
Hubbard said her agency has received calls for help from the Navajo Nation but cannot respond, other than to take in animals when there's room.
"We have to explain to them we have no jurisdiction," she said.
Individuals and animal shelters outside the reservation have rescued stray animals at times. Hubbard said state, local and tribal governments need to direct more funding for animal control.
"It doesn't pop into people's heads until something bad happens that they need to help these guys out and give them the funding, give them the tools that they need to do their job," she said.
Police: Death Of Infant At Albuquerque Hotel Not Suspicious - Associated Press
An infant has been found dead in an Albuquerque hotel, according to police.
They said officers were called to the Roadway Inn on Sunday morning in reference to a child who was unconscious and not breathing.
The infant was declared dead at the scene.
Police haven't released the child's name, age or gender.
They originally said the infant's death appeared to be suspicious, but that was ruled out by the Office of the Medical Investigator.
However, detectives with the Crimes Against Children Unit will continue investigating the death.