- GUN LAWS-NEW MEXICO
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Responses from public officials to the killing of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, are falling along partisan lines in New Mexico when it comes to proposals to improve public safety and regulating access to guns. Democratic candidates for the state's top law enforcement job say New Mexico needs new gun control legislation, more enforcement resources for gun safety or both. A top Republican Party official said Thursday that gun control is not the appropriate answer. Since 2019, New Mexico has enacted a raft of Democratic-backed legislation that restricts access to guns, including an extension of background-check requirements.
- BOEING-CREW CAPSULE
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing's astronaut taxi has returned to Earth from the International Space Station, completing a repeat test flight with a mannequin on board. The Starliner capsule parachuted into the New Mexico desert just four hours after leaving the orbiting lab Wednesday. Aside from a few snags, Starliner appears to have clinched its high-stakes shakedown cruise 2 1/2 years after its botched first attempt. That means NASA test pilots will fly next, perhaps by year's end. NASA wants two competing U.S. companies ferrying astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX is already the established leader.
- SPRING WILDFIRES-RESCUED ELK
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Firefighters have rescued an abandoned newborn elk calf from the ashes of the nation's largest wildfire as calving season approaches its peak in early June and fires rage across the American Southwest. Missoula, Montana-based firefighter Nate Sink says he happened upon the motionless calf on the floor of a fire-blackened forest in New Mexico as he extinguished smoldering trees. Elk are seldom outrun by wildfire, and the rescue of the singed calf dubbed "Cinder" evoked events 70 years ago in New Mexico involving a scalded black bear cub and the fire prevention mascot "Smokey Bear." Crews made significant progress battling the blaze Wednesday ahead of worsening conditions into the weekend.
- SPRING WILDFIRES
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Light rain and a bit of snow in the mountains of northern New Mexico helped slow the largest wildfire in North America. But nearly 3,000 firefighters are continuing to scramble to clear flammable vegetation and deploy aircraft to douse flames ahead of a worsening fire forecast into the weekend. The Memorial Day weekend traditionally marks the beginning of the primary wildfire season across many parts of the Southwest. But wildland blazes already have burned an area larger than the state of Delaware this year in extremely dry conditions created by lingering drought and climate change. A new fire that broke out Wednesday briefly forced some evacuations near Flagstaff, Arizona.