Dozens of US nuclear lab workers sue over vaccine mandate –Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Dozens of workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory — the birthplace of the atomic bomb — are suing over the mandate, saying exemptions have been unduly denied and their constitutional rights are being violated by Triad National Security LLC, the contractor that runs the lab for the U.S. Department of Energy.
It will be up to a state district judge whether to grant an injunction to prevent employees from being fired while the merits of the case are decided. A hearing was underway Thursday.
The lawsuit alleges that lab management has been harassing employees and has created a hostile work environment. The complaint outlines the experiences of many of the workers, including one who was screamed at for not being vaccinated and was told by a fellow crew member that he and his family deserved to die.
The lab has declined to comment on the lawsuit and has not answered questions about the current vaccination rate among employees, whether any exemptions have been approved or what will happen to employees who refuse to be inoculated when Friday rolls around.
The plaintiffs include scientists, nuclear engineers, project managers, research technicians and others who have some of the highest security clearances in the nation for the work they do. Many are specialists in their fields and would be difficult to replace in the short term.
Some of the employees who are part of the lawsuit have worked for Los Alamos lab for decades, while others are newer hires who have relocated to New Mexico from other states and countries.
Some employees have estimated the lab could lose anywhere from 4% to 10% of the workforce because of the mandate.
“In any organization there are people, not always recognized, who quietly make the work of others possible. Lose them, and you are in trouble,” said Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group, a watchdog group that has been monitoring lab activities for years.
The lab currently employees nearly 14,000 and is among the largest employers in New Mexico. It's also located in a county that is among the most affluent in the U.S. because of its high population of Ph.Ds.
Attorney Jonathan Diener, who is representing the workers in their lawsuit, said the case includes a wealth of scientific information to consider, but he was hopeful the judge would make a decision soon as people's lives stand to be upended.
The lawsuit cites statements made over the last year by top officials in the U.S. and with the World Health Organization in which they noted that there is more to be learned about how the vaccines reduce infection and how effective they are when it comes to preventing infected people from passing it on.
“The fact that the vaccines have only been shown to reduce symptoms of the recipient and not prevent infection or transmission is a fact extremely important to plaintiffs' claims," the lawsuit states.
Since the lab's vaccination rate already is thought to be high, Mello said forcing the few holdouts to get shots would make no epidemiological difference.
“If LANL doesn’t have herd immunity at this point, there is no basis for the mandate. LANL is not being scientific," he said.
Some of the workers have raised similar arguments, saying the high degree of scrutiny that is required of them when working with nuclear weapons or other high-level projects is not being applied on the vaccine front despite the lab's extensive modeling work for the state on spread and other COVID-19 related trends.
Lab Director Thomas Mason has said the pandemic has had a serious impact on the lab, citing higher numbers of COVID-19 cases in unvaccinated employees. However, employees who are pushing back said the cases among the unvaccinated would naturally be higher because the lab had removed vaccinated employees from its regular testing pool.
At Sandia National Laboratories, based in Albuquerque, all employees and subcontractors must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 or file for an exemption by Friday. Lab managers made COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for new hires on Sept. 13.
So far, more than 88% of Sandia employees, interns, post-doctoral staffers and contractors at sites in New Mexico and California are fully vaccinated.
In New Mexico, nearly 72% of people 18 and over are fully vaccinated. That percentage hasn't moved much in recent weeks as more people are pushing back against the vaccine push.
New Mexico explores public financing for cannabis businesses – Morgan Lee, Associated Press
The New Mexico Finance Authority suggested a $5 million line of credit to licensed cannabis microbusinesses, seeking preliminary approval from a panel of state legislators. The panel voted 6-5 against immediate endorsement, stalling the effort amid a variety of concerns about rules for lending to the fledgling recreational pot industry.
Under the proposal lending rules, loans would be made available to qualified cannabis “microbusinesses" that are licensed to cultivate and sell marijuana from up to 200 plants at a single location, operating much like a craft winery or brewery. That business niche was authorized in sweeping legislation to regulate and tax recreational marijuana sales, signed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in April.
The law requires that the state promote business opportunities for communities that were penalized disproportionately by past criminal enforcement of marijuana laws, without saying exactly how. The social-justice provisions also mandate some form of help for farmers from economically disadvantaged communities and residents of rural areas where the marijuana industry may take hold.
New Mexico Finance Authority CEO Marquita Russel, an architect of preliminary rules for the loan program, said traditional business loans are still scarce for small-scale cannabis entrepreneurs.
“They have very few options. If you are a startup cannabis microbusiness, you can’t go to a bank, you can’t go to the Small Business Administration,” she told legislators. “There is not a space for a small business to get a loan of this sort.”
The proposed loan program would be underwritten by the state’s Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund, which helps stimulate the economy in remote regions of the state. Russel says the program would draw on idle loan reserves, including unspent money set aside for critical services during the coronavirus pandemic.
State cannabis and finance regulators acknowledged that challenges likely lie ahead in vetting small loan applications from unproven business in a startup industry emerging partly from the black market.
“We anticipate that most of them will not have current financial statements,” Russel said.
Experienced medical marijuana companies would not qualify under proposed lending rules aimed at helping small, newly licensed growers.
Republican state Sen. Stuart Ingle of Portales warned that it may be difficult to fully recover loans from marijuana farmers and highlighted a lack of farming and ranching experience among board members at the New Mexico Finance Authority.
“There are still so many questions in here, where questions can't be answered,” he said. “We may need to slow things down.”
State-sanctioned recreational cannabis sales are scheduled to start no later than April 1. State cannabis regulators have received at least 22 license applications to form cannabis microbusiness, according to public records.
For the loan program to move forward, approval is needed from a legislative oversight committee and the New Mexico Finance Authority board that includes several state cabinet secretaries and representatives of municipal and county governments.
Loan applications would require collateral guarantees of repayment such as land or equipment, with loan periods of up to five years.
“We will be fully secured. These are our dollars, they need to be repaid,” Russel said. “These aren't (loans) for people who just kind of decided this might be fun.”
Treasurer says governor overstepped authority on aid funds - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
New Mexico's state treasurer says the governor of New Mexico is overstepping her authority in deciding independently how to spend more than $1 billion in federal relief without legislative approval or accountability, in court filings obtained Wednesday.
In a Supreme Court briefing, Democratic State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg has sided with a pair of legislators who say that the Legislature's core authority over state spending decisions is being overridden by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Republican Senate minority leader Gregory Baca of Belen and Democratic Sen. Jacob Candelaria of Albuquerque have asked the Supreme Court to intervene to rein in the governor's authority to spend without legislative approval. The governor's office is preparing its response.
Eichenberg, thrust into the controversy as guardian of state treasury accounts, said that the federal relief legislation signed by President Joe Biden in March assigns broad discretion to states on how to allocate spending, discretion that shouldn't be left to the governor alone.
"To hold otherwise will eliminate constitutionally sourced legislative authority ... and allow disbursement of public funds without necessary oversight and public accountability," the treasurer's briefing says.
Lujan Grisham, a Democrat running for reelection in 2022, has used the relief funds to replenish the state unemployment insurance trust and underwrite millions of dollars in sweepstakes prizes for people who got vaccinated, asserting that relief spending is the responsibility of the executive branch, not the Legislature. Decisions are pending on more than $1 billion in federal relief.
Baca and Candelaria have asked the high court to block the governor's spending authority. Eichenberg says he will defer to the court.
"The federal government cannot, by allocation of funds, endow the governor — even a well-intentioned governor acting in the aftermath of a public health emergency — with powers greater than those granted by the state Constitution," the state treasurer's office said.
A former state senator, Eichenberg was reelected to second term as treasurer in 2018.
Film TV workers union says strike to start next week – Albuquerque Journal, Associated Press
An impending strike by the union representing film and TV crews could bring production to a halt in New Mexico.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE, announced Wednesday that its more than 60,000 members would begin a nationwide strike Monday unless it can reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The strike would affect about 2,000 workers in New Mexico who are part of the union. The President of IATSE Local 480 Liz Pecos told the Journal there are nine active productions around the state and the strike would affect seven of those.
This comes on the heels of a record-breaking year for production in New Mexico with productions spending $623 million in the state.
It would be the first nationwide strike in the 128-year history of IATSE, whose members include cinematographers, camera operators, set designers, carpenters, hair and makeup artists, animators and many others.
Union members say they are forced to work excessive hours and are not given reasonable rest via meal breaks and sufficient time off between shifts.
Leaders say the lowest paid crafts get unlivable wages. And streamers like Netflix, Apple and Amazon are allowed to pay even less under previous agreements that allowed them more flexibility when they were up-and-comers.
US nuclear repository completes key mining project - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
After seven years of mining, federal officials say work to carve out the eighth disposal area at the U.S. government's underground nuclear waste repository is complete.
Managers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant are planning to use the space beginning next year. Workers still need to run power to the excavated area known as Panel 8 and install air monitors and chain link to protect the walls.
Constructed in a deep layer of salt in southern New Mexico, the repository entombs the radioactive remnants of decades of nuclear research and bomb-making. That includes special boxes and barrels packed with lab coats, rubber gloves, tools and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements.
Having enough space for the waste became more of an issue in 2014, when a radiation release contaminated parts of the underground facility and forced an expensive, nearly three-year closure. Some parts of the repository became off-limits. The incident also delayed the federal government's cleanup program and prompted policy changes at national laboratories and defense-related sites across the U.S.
State regulators currently are weighing a permit change that some critics say could open the door to expanded operations at the repository. A decision is expected later this year.
The repository has been in operation for more than two decades, having received nearly 13,000 shipments. The idea is that the shifting salt will eventually encapsulate the waste after the underground vaults are filled and sealed.
Reinhard Knerr, a manager with the Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office, said the completion of Panel 8 was a long time coming but that it will be ready just in time. Panel 7 is expected to be full by April.
The rooms that make up Panel 8 are 300 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 15 feet high. Officials say laser measuring devices were used to guide the mining machines that cut the salt and large trucks were used to take the material to a hoist for transport to the surface.
Officials say more than 157,000 tons (142,428 metric tonnes) of salt were mined during the project.
The next project for the mining machines will be carving out drifts, or passageways, that will connect with a utility shaft that's under construction.
Gary Paulsen, celebrated children's author, dies at 82 – Hillel Italie, Associated Press
Gary Paulsen, the acclaimed and prolific children's author who often drew upon his rural affinities and wide-ranging adventures for tales that included “Hatchet,” “Brian's Winter” and “Dogsong,” has died at age 82.
Random House Children's Books announced that Paulsen died “suddenly" Wednesday but did not immediately provide further details. Literary agent Jennifer Flannery told The Associated Press that he died at his home in New Mexico, where he lived with his third wife, Ruth Wright Paulsen, an artist who illustrated some of his work.
Author of more than 100 books, with sales topping 35 million, Paulsen was a three-time finalist for the John Newbery Medal for the year's best children's book and recipient in 1997 of the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement.
He was a Minnesota native who deeply identified with the outdoors, whether sailing on the Pacific Ocean, hiking in New Mexico or braving the cold of the Alaskan dogsled race, the Iditarod. For a time he lived in a cabin in rural Minnesota, where he finished his first novel “The Special War,” and on a houseboat in the Pacific Ocean. He spent his latter years on a remote ranch in New Mexico, a bearded outdoorsman sometimes likened to Ernest Hemingway.
“I can’t live in towns anymore,” he told The New York Times in 2006. “The last time I was up in Santa Fe, I wasn’t there 20 minutes before I brewed up, almost slugged a tourist on the steps of my wife’s gallery.”
Paulsen received the Newbery Honor prize for “Hatchet,” “The Winter Room” and “Dogsong," about a young native Alaskan in search of a simpler past and the old ways. He also wrote hundreds of articles, poetry, historical fiction and such nonfiction works as the memoir “Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood," which came out earlier this year. His final novel, “Northwind,” will be published in January by Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers.
Many readers knew him best for his “Hatchet” novels, beginning with the eponymous 1986 release, in which 13-year-old Brian Robeson survives a plane crash and lives for weeks in the wilderness, relying in part on the hatchet his mother had given him. In an introduction for the book's 30th anniversary edition, Paulsen wrote that the novel “came from the darkest part” of his childhood, when books and the woods were his escapes from the pain of his parents' miserable marriage and his own social isolation.
“On my own, under the trees or on the lake or next to the river, I was protected and as far from danger as I'd ever been,” he wrote. “In the wilderness, I was at ease. I learned the rules and I not only survived, I thrived. The woods and books are the only reason I got through my childhood in one piece.”
The “Hatchet” series continued with “The River,” “Brian's Winter,” in which Paulsen imagined an alternate ending for the first novel, "Brian's Return" and “Brian's Hunt.” He also turned out such series as the Francis Tucket adventure books and Murphy Westerns.
Paulsen, who grew up in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, had all too much personal experience to draw from for his work. He would recall his parents becoming so debilitated by rage and alcohol that he was essentially taking care of himself by his early teens, even hunting for his own food with a makeshift bow and arrow. He graduated from high school, raised his own tuition money to attend Bemidji State University and, in his early 20s, served in the U.S. Army. He had been a devoted reader since his teens, when he stopped into a local library on a freezing day, and in his mid-20s felt such a compulsion to write that he abruptly left his job as an aerospace engineer in California.
“The need to write hit me like a brick. I had a career and a family and a house and a retirement plan and I did all the things that responsible grown-ups do until suddenly, irrevocably, I knew had to write,” he explained in the introduction to the “Hatchet” anniversary edition. "I edited a grubby men's magazine and, every night, I slaved over short stories and articles for two editors who ripped me to shreds every morning.
"They didn't leave a single sentence unscathed, but they taught me to write clean and fast. And the dance with words gave me a joy and a purpose I had been looking for my entire life."
A more comfortable goodbye? Vets bring pet euthanasia home – Leanne Italie, Associated Press
She and her husband, Steve, had recently lost their 21-year-old daughter in a car accident. Soon after, their other child went off to college and Steve returned to work, leaving Penny home alone with her grief. That's when they brought Clarence into the family.
Earlier this year, the beloved pet became critically ill with advanced kidney disease. Their veterinarian wouldn’t allow them to stay with him until the end at the clinic due to COVID protocols, so they decided to have him put down at home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in a favorite laundry room spot.
A vet working with a company called Pet Loss at Home arrived and greeted Clarence and the Wagners. She gave the couple all the time they needed before administering two injections, one to relax the 90-pound dog and the other to let him go. The couple cuddled him as they cried, and their other dog, Cooper, was able to say goodbye as well.
“He’ll always have a special place in my heart,” said a tearful Wagner. "I think he was very comforted by the fact that he was home and that he was with loved ones up to the moment we said goodbye.”
Private services that offer home euthanasia for pets have been busier than ever since the pandemic led to restrictions on humans inside veterinary practices and animal hospitals. But home euthanasia isn't for everybody. It tends to cost more, and some pet owners believe it is unduly upsetting to small children and other pets in their households.
The vast majority of pet euthanasia is still done in a clinical setting, though some vets have begun to offer end-of-life care at home as part of their practices.
For Wagner, the human touch was a gift. The same is true of Diane Brisson, 72, in Pinellas Park, Florida.
Brisson used Lap of Love when it came time to bid farewell to Champagne, her 12-year-old Yorkie, last December. Champagne was the only dog her mother, since passed, enjoyed. Champagne fell critically ill with pancreatitis and other organ failure, and Brisson couldn't bring herself to leave him at the vet alone at the end.
“I couldn't have asked for anything more peaceful,” she said.
Lap of Love allowed her to have a neighbor with her for support. The neighbor took photos as Champagne sat in Brisson's lap in a favorite chair, the only piece of furniture she brought from her hometown in Massachusetts when she moved to Florida. The vet waited patiently until Brisson was ready to let go. The doctor placed Champagne in a small wicker basket with a white satin pillow and a lavender satin blanket after he passed to take him away for cremation.
“I stayed with him for about 20, 25 minutes and said, ‘OK, you’re going to be with nanny now. You're going to watch over me with her and you're going to take care of her up there, and she's going to take care of you,'" Brisson tearfully recalled.
Lap of Love returned Champagne's ashes to Brisson. She plans to have them scattered at sea back in Massachusetts, along with her own ashes when the time comes.
Dani McVety, a hospice veterinarian in Tampa, Florida, founded Lap of Love in 2009. She considered her ability to help people manage grief to be rare among vets.
“A lot of times doctors aren't necessarily comfortable with that because they haven't been trained to do it,” she said.
She and her senior medical director, vet Mary Gardner, teach a course on end-of-life care at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.
“When I first started Lap of Love, I figured it would be a part-time job. I don’t think any of us knew that it could actually be a full-time thing where there would be enough people in any given area that would want this help,” said McVety.
Her company operates in 35 states with more than 230 vets.
In general veterinary practices, McVety said, euthanasia costs vary widely, depending on the services sought. It can be as inexpensive as under $100. At an emergency hospital, it may be more. Like Pet Loss at Home, Lap of Love's fees vary based on location. In Tampa, for instance, Lap of Love charges about $300. Each client receives a clay paw print.
Most clients pay for the vet to take their pets for cremation. Others drive there themselves or elect to bury their pets at home.
After Clarence was gone, the vet who assisted the Wagners sent a condolence card with marigold seeds inside, suggesting they plant them in the dog's honor. They did, and sent her a photo when the flowers were in bloom.
Pet Loss at Home has served more than 35,000 families since 2003. It operates with about 75 doctors in 50 metropolitan areas, including Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Houston and Minneapolis. The pandemic has caused a dramatic increase in business, said Rob Twyning, who founded the company with his wife, Karen, a veterinarian.
“Right now the phone is ringing off the hook,” said Twyning, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. “We have so many calls that we just can't help everybody.”
Pet Loss at Home charges anywhere from $300 to $600 or more, depending on the city and the drive time.
“It's about comfort,” he said. “At home, your pet is familiar with the smells and sounds. A vet clinic is filled with other pets' smells. It's filled with other noises, like barking dogs. It's typically a shiny table where the pet will be elevated. A lot of the time, it's not a veterinarian. It's a technician. At home, you can take your own time."
Twyning's vets serve mostly dogs and cats but have handled other species too, from snakes to parrots.
In Marietta, Georgia, 73-year-old Linda Sheffield went in a different direction last year when her rescue poodle, Timmy, fell ill with a collapsed larynx. She consulted animal communicator Nancy Mello, though she didn't let on that Timmy had been diagnosed and was on strong medication. With Timmy showing no outward symptoms during four or five video sessions, Sheffield made the decision to put him down.
“She told me Timmy didn't have long to live,” Sheffield said. “I'm very skeptical but she claimed that he told her, `I can't breathe, I can't breathe,' over and over again. I thought the medicine was really working."
Sheffield, a veteran dog rescuer who takes in senior pets, offered Timmy one last car ride. She drove him to her vet, who met them outside and administered the euthanasia drugs in the car as she held him on her lap. She then placed him in his bed on the seat beside her and drove him to the crematorium herself.
“This is the vet that he knew, who cared for him,” Sheffield said. “He loved to go for car rides and he got to be with me.”
Boy reportedly taken to Mexico after mother's killing 'safe' – Roswell Daily Record, Associated Press
A young Roswell boy said by authorities to have been taken to Mexico by his father after the killing of the boy's mother has been found safe, New Mexico state police said.
The state police's brief emailed announcement Tuesday said Osiel Ernesto Rico "has been located safe" and that an Amber Alert issued for him in 2020 has been canceled. The announcement said requests for additional information should be directed to the FBI.
FBI spokesman Frank Fisher told the Roswell Daily Record that the agency was not commenting on the case "at this time."
The boy's father, Jorge Rico-Ruvira, is charged in state District Court with first-degree murder in the January 2020 strangulation of Isela Mauricio-Sanchez, 27. He's also charged with child abuse.
According to online court records, an arrest warrant for Rico-Ruvira remained active as of July 14, the latest item in the case's docket.
Rico-Ruvira is charged in U.S. District Court with flight to avoid prosecution. The case docket contains no entries since mid-2020.
Airman convicted of kidnapping, killing Mennonite teacher - By Felicia Fonseca Associated Press
Sasha Krause loved words. She loved learning and translating them into different languages. She loved reading them in nursery rhymes and assembling them into poetry.
She wrote about her purpose in life, her unwavering faith, the possibility of dying young and the glories of heaven — all of which have taken on new meaning to her family after her death last year, said her father, Bob Krause.
On Wednesday, a jury in Arizona found U.S. Air Force airman Mark Gooch guilty of kidnapping and first-degree murder in Krause's killing. The two didn't know each other and lived hundreds of miles apart but shared an upbringing in the Mennonite religion. Krause committed to the church, while Gooch did not.
Krause, 27, was last seen in January 2020 at the church in her tight-knit Mennonite community outside Farmington, in northwestern New Mexico, where women wear head coverings and long dresses and men don plain, button-up shirts. She had been gathering material for Sunday school.
Her body was found more than a month later in a forest clearing outside Flagstaff, Arizona, nearly 300 miles (480 kilometers) away. A camper collecting firewood spotted Krause face-down among pine needles near a national monument. Krause's wrists were bound, and she had been shot in the head.
Gooch was raised in a Mennonite community in Wisconsin, where he worked on his family's dairy farm and went to school through eighth grade. He later rejected the religion and joined the U.S. Air Force.
During his trial, half the courtroom was filled at times with Krause's parents and others who shared in the conservative Christian faith, including the general manager of the Farmington publishing ministry where Krause worked. Paul Kaufman said Wednesday his heart goes out to both families, and the community doesn't want to be vindictive toward Gooch.
"We desire his complete repentance, that he would turn from darkness to light," Kaufman said.
Gooch, 22, faces up to life in prison at his sentencing, set for Nov. 24. Coconino County Attorney William Ring said his office will seek swift justice and thanked the jury for its service.
"Through some hard work, the community will be a safer place tonight," he said in a statement.
Jurors heard 10 days of testimony from those who knew Krause and investigated her disappearance. They heard from ballistics experts who disagreed on whether the bullet taken from her skull was fired from a .22-caliber rifle Gooch owned. They heard from Gooch's father, Jim, but they did not hear from the defendant.
Gooch showed no emotion when the verdict was announced. He stood in a military stance, with one hand resting over the other behind his back. As he left the courtroom, he looked at two family members who sat behind him. They declined to comment.
Coconino County Superior Court Judge Cathleen Brown Nichols separately convicted Gooch of a misdemeanor charge of theft, related to Krause's belongings.
Gooch's attorney, Bruce Griffen, tried to raise reasonable doubt among the jury by pointing to a lack of forensic evidence and to testimony about another car seen in the Mennonite community the day Krause went missing. He said Gooch was peaceful and volunteered information to a detective who interviewed him at Luke Air Force Base in metropolitan Phoenix, where he was stationed.
"The circumstantial evidence from my perspective was substantial, and the jury perhaps concluded that the circumstantial evidence was enough to outweigh those problems," Griffen said Wednesday.
Sean Clements, a spokesman for the air base, said proceedings would begin soon to discharge Gooch from the Air Force following his conviction.
Jim Gooch testified that his son left the Mennonite faith and joined the military because he lacked a converted heart — words that prosecutor Ammon Barker drew on during closing arguments.
"What the scripture says is you turn from darkness to light," Jim Gooch said. "What it says is you've decided to follow the lord with your entire heart and with the tenets of the scripture would call for."
Krause taught school for six years at a Grandview, Texas, Mennonite community before moving to Farmington less than two years before she died. She was a person of deep faith who found great joy in working with children and learning, her father told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
"She was always studying something, especially languages, which came almost naturally to her," he said. "She loved words: big words, funny words, poetry, classics and nursery stories — very word-oriented but not garrulous."
The last stanza in a poem she wrote titled "I do not walk alone" perhaps was about passing in old age, he said, but "it is amazingly apt to what seems to have happened to her."
Sasha Krause wrote:
"When stress + fear shall take their toll
When cruel tyrants grasp my soul
When death + all its horrors roll
I shall not walk alone"
For Sasha Krause's headstone, her family chose the words: "She did not walk alone."
No one saw Krause being taken from the community or killed. When the camper found her body near Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, her wrists were bound with duct tape, she had suffered blunt force trauma, and she had a gunshot wound in the back of her head.
Authorities used cellphone and financial records, and surveillance video to tie Gooch to the crimes. Barker said Gooch was driven by a resentment for Mennonites, partly displayed through text messages with his brothers.
Authorities found inconsistencies in Gooch's story when he talked to a sheriff's detective shortly before he was arrested in April 2020. They said Gooch's cellphone was the only device that communicated with the same cell sites as Krause's phone before her signal dropped off west of Farmington.
Coconino County Sheriff's Detective Lauren Nagele said the hundreds of hours spent on the investigation and the jury's decision brought justice for Krause and her family.
"The verdict unfortunately cannot bring Sasha back, but it does protect our society by preventing Mark Gooch from ever murdering another innocent person," she said in a statement.
The San Juan County Sheriff's Office in New Mexico, which investigated her disappearance, said it will pursue a separate kidnapping charge against Gooch since the case originated in that state.
William 'Bud' Davis, former university leader, dies at 92 – Idaho State Journal, Associated Press
William Eugene "Bud" Davis, who was a higher education leader in Idaho, Oregon, New Mexico and Louisiana as well as a college football coach and candidate for U.S. Senate, has died.
He was 92.
The Idaho State Journal reports that Davis, who died Sept. 24, became president of Idaho State University in 1965, just two years after the school gained university status. He was 36 years old, making him one of the youngest university presidents in the nation.
"We owe much to his leadership and dedication," current ISU President Kevin Satterlee said in a statement. "Fifty years ago, he saw Idaho State's potential and set us up for future growth and success."
Davis oversaw the completion or start of more than $25 million in enhancement and construction projects that eventually doubled the building square footage on campus, officials said.
Davis took temporary leave from his position in 1972 to run for the U.S. Senate. While he won the Democratic nomination, he ultimately lost the race to Republican James McClure, who went on to serve three terms.
ISU's Davis Field, which hosts women's soccer and track and field events, is named in his honor.
Davis left ISU in 1975 to serve as the president of the University of New Mexico. He was later named chancellor of the Oregon State System of Higher Education (1982-1988) and then chancellor of Louisiana State University from 1989 to 1997.
In addition to his educational career, Davis served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a platoon leader in Korea and Japan from 1952 to 1954.
He was also a prolific writer, producing nearly 200 published manuscripts, short stories, magazine articles, scholarly articles and biographies and nine books.
A former high school football coach, Davis in 1962 served as the interim football coach for the University of Colorado. The Buffaloes posted a 2-8 record that year.
A memorial service will be held for Davis and his wife, Pollyanne Peterson Davis, who died last year at the age of 91, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Border residents rejoice as US says it will lift travel ban - By Zeke Miller And Elliot Spagat Associated Press
Beleaguered business owners and families separated by COVID-19 restrictions rejoiced Wednesday after the U.S. said it will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze.
Travel across land borders from Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to workers whose jobs are deemed essential. New rules will allow fully vaccinated foreign nationals to enter the U.S. regardless of the reason starting in early November, when a similar easing of restrictions is set for air travel. By mid-January, even essential travelers seeking to enter the U.S., such as truck drivers, will need to be fully vaccinated.
Shopping malls and big box retailers in U.S. border towns whose parking spaces had been filled by cars with Mexican license plates were hit hard by travel restrictions.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said the economic impact was hard to quantify but can be seen in the sparse presence of shoppers at a high-end outlet mall on the city's border with Tijuana, Mexico. The decision comes at a critical time ahead of the holiday shopping season.
In Nogales, Arizona, travel restrictions forced about 40 retail businesses to close on the main strip in the city of 20,000 people, said Jessy Fontes, board member of the Nogales-Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce and owner of Mariposa Liquidation Store, which sells household appliances. His sales fell 60%, and he considered closing but instead cut his staff from seven to two.
In Del Rio, Texas, Mexican visitors account for about 65% of retail sales, said Blanca Larson, executive director of the chamber of commerce and visitors bureau in the city of 35,000 people.
"Along the border, we're like more of one community than two different communities," she said.
The ban has also had enormous social and cultural impact, preventing family gatherings when relatives live on different sides of the border. Community events have stalled even as cities away from U.S. borders have inched toward normalcy.
In Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where hockey and ice skating are ingrained, the Soo Eagles haven't had a home game against a Canadian opponent in 20 months. The players, 17 to 20 years old, have been traveling to Canada since border restrictions were lifted there two months ago. Now the U.S. team can host.
"I almost fell over when I read it," said Ron Lavin, co-owner of the Eagles. "It's been a long frustrating journey for people on a lot of fronts far more serious than hockey, but we're just really pleased. It's great for the city."
Fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents have been allowed into Canada since August, provided they have waited at least two weeks since getting their second vaccine dose and can show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test. Mexico has not enforced COVID-19 entry procedures for land travelers.
The latest move follows last month's announcement that the U.S. will end country-based travel bans for air travel and instead require vaccination for foreign nationals seeking to enter by plane.
The new rules only apply to legal entry. Those who enter illegally will still be subject to expulsion under a public health authority that allows for the swift removal of migrants before they can seek asylum.
Travelers entering the U.S. by vehicle, rail and ferry will be asked about their vaccination status as part of the standard U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection. At officers' discretion, travelers will have their proof of vaccination verified in a secondary screening process.
Unlike air travel, for which proof of a negative COVID-19 test is required before boarding a flight to enter the U.S., no testing will be required to enter the U.S. by land or sea, provided the travelers meet the vaccination requirement.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. will accept travelers who have been fully vaccinated with any of the vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, not just those in use in the U.S. That means that the AstraZeneca vaccine, widely used in Canada, will be accepted.
Officials said the CDC was still working to formalize procedures for admitting those who received doses of two different vaccines, as was fairly common in Canada.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was "pleased to be taking steps to resume regular travel in a safe and sustainable manner" and lauded the economic benefits of it.
Mexico, Canada and elected officials from U.S. border regions have pressured the Biden administration for months to ease restrictions.
"This is a win for families who've been separated and businesses and tourism industries whose operations have been blocked since the start of the pandemic," said U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, echoing reactions of other federal, state and local officials.
Mexico President Andres Manuel López Obrador said it took "many meetings to achieve the opening of the border." Bill Blair, Canada's minister of public safety, called the announcement "one more step toward returning to normal."
Cross-border traffic has plummeted since the pandemic, according to U.S. Department of Transportation figures.
The number of vehicle passengers entering the U.S. in Niagara Falls, New York — the busiest land crossing on the Canadian border — fell 83% to 1.7 million in 2020 and has remained low this year.
"Losing those customers over the last 18 months has been one of the primary reasons our hotels, restaurants and attractions have been suffering," said Patrick Kaler, president and chief executive of Visit Buffalo Niagara, the area's tourism agency.
At San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing, the nation's busiest, crossings dropped 30% last year to 18 million. Taxi drivers were largely idled Wednesday on a nearby bridge, including one who did exercises.
COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have dropped to about 85,000 per day, the lowest level since July. Per capita case rates in Canada and Mexico have been been markedly lower than the U.S. for the duration of the pandemic, which amplified frustrations about the U.S. travel restrictions.
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Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto; Juan A. Lozano in Houston; Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vermont; Ed White in Detroit, Anita Snow in Phoenix, Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York, Alexis Triboulard in Mexico City and Julie Watson in San Diego contributed.