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Latest New Mexico news, sports, business and entertainment at 3:20 p.m. MDT

  • SPRING WILDFIRES

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Federal officials are warning that expanding drought conditions coupled with hot and dry weather, extreme wind and unstable atmospheric conditions have led to explosive fire behavior in the Southwest. U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore cited the extreme conditions Friday in announcing a pause on prescribed fire operations on all national forest lands while his agency conducts a 90-day review of protocols and practices. Large wildfires burning in New Mexico were fanned Friday by gusty winds, and crews battled blazes in Texas and Colorado. Weather forecasters had issued red-flag warnings due high fire danger for a large swath that stretched from Arizona through New Mexico to Texas.

  • BC-NM-TRIBAL CANNABIS TAXATION

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Two tribes in northern New Mexico are closer to having recreational cannabis sales after signing taxation agreements with the state last week. State officials are announcing the agreement this week saying they're formally recognizing the authority of the Pojoaque and Picuris pueblos to sell and tax cannabis. The state's 12% tax on the product won't be levied on products sold by the tribes. Tribes will still have to operate in a legal gray zone, as cannabis is illegal at the federal level. Federal law enforcement have raided cannabis grow sites in Picuris Pueblo, including those that followed state laws.

  • AP-US-SPRING-WILDFIRES

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — More than 5,000 firefighters are battling multiple wildland blazes in dry, windy weather across the Southwest. The fires include one that has destroyed dozens of structures in western Texas and another that is picking up steam again in New Mexico. Evacuation orders remained in place Thursday for residents near fires in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. Dangerous fire weather was forecast to continue through Friday, especially in New Mexico where the largest U.S. fire has burned for more than a month. The governor expects the number of structures that have burned to rise to more than 1,000. That fire has burned more than 473 square miles.

  • FEDEX CRASH-LAWSUIT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday upheld jury awards of $165 million against FedEx in a wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from a deadly crash involving a Texas family and a contract driver for the delivery company. The 2011 crash on Interstate 10 west of Las Cruces killed Marialy Venegas Morga of and her 4-year-old daughter and critically injured the El Paso woman's 19-month-old son when the family's small pickup was rear-ended by the big rig. Truck driver Elizabeth Quintana also died. FedEx' argued unsuccessfully that the damage awards were excessive and that a judge should have ordered a new trial.

  • INFLATION PAYMENTS-NEW MEXICO

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico is delivering the first in a series of direct payments to the state's adult residents to offset higher consumer costs brought on by inflation. Individual taxpayers who receive direct deposit rebates are scheduled to receive $250 as early as Thursday and couples are set to get $500. Checks for another 200,000 taxpayers will arrive in the mail in coming weeks. The payments are among $1.1 billion in tax relief and payouts authorized by state lawmakers. High fuel prices are hurting household finances as New Mexico's state government benefits financially from record-setting oil production in the Permian Basin.

  • AP-US-SAVING-OLD-TREES

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Joe Biden's order to protect the nation's oldest woodlands is raising a simple but vexing question: When does a forest grow old? The answer could affect millions of acres of federally-managed forests where environmentalists want logging restricted as climate change, wildfires and other problems devastate vast forests. Scientists say there's no simple formula for what's old — in part because growth rates among species can vary greatly. That's likely to complicate Biden's efforts to protect older forests as part of his faltering climate change fight, with key pieces stalled in Congress. Underlining the issue's urgency are wildfires that have killed thousands of California's giant sequoias in recent years.