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Latest New Mexico news, sports, business and entertainment at 11:20 a.m. MDT

 

  • LAWMAKER-MEMORIAL SERVICES

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Flags across New Mexico are at half-staff in honor of state Sen. Carlos Cisneros, who died earlier this month of a heart attack.Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered flags lowered Friday in recognition of the long-time lawmaker lying in state. The senator's casket, blanketed by a white cloth adorned with the state seal, was in place in the Rotunda for a public viewing.
A funnel service is scheduled Saturday at a church in Santa Fe.
Cisneros had recently announced his bid for re-election to represent a vast district that stretches from the state line with Colorado to the outskirts of Los Alamos, including Taos, Peñasco, Truchas and Pojoaque Pueblo.
Cisneros joined the Senate in 1985 and went on to play a leading role in annual budget negotiations.

  • OIL ECONOMY-NEW MEXICO

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A vice president and research adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas says job growth in New Mexico is accelerating.Dallas-branch Federal Reserve Vice President Mine Yucel told a panel of state legislators Friday that job growth for the current year already has eclipsed 2018 growth.
She says the state economy is on track to add 20,000 jobs by year's end and that construction is the fastest growing sector for employment. Statewide, employment has increased 2.6% since 2018.
Yucel also noted a growing dependence by New Mexico state government on revenues from the oil industry.
State lawmakers are investing a windfall in tax revenue into road construction, higher public-sector salaries and incentives for the film industry.
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This version corrects that construction is the fastest growing sector for jobs.

  • THREATENED OWL-FIREWOOD PERMITS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's congressional delegation wants the U.S. Forest Service to quickly address concerns about a threatened owl and to allow firewood gathering and other activities to resume on six Southwest forests.The agency has suspended timber sales, thinning projects, prescribed burns and the sale of firewood permits on five New Mexico forests and one in Arizona.
The decision stems from a recent court order in which environmentalists accused the federal government of failing to track Mexican spotted owls.
The Forest Service says it can't interpret the order as it sees fit. But the agency says it supports excluding firewood permits from the activities that have been put on hold.
A pending motion would modify the court order to exclude firewood cutting and gathering for personal use.

  • OBIT-JOE WILSON

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The former ambassador who disputed U.S. intelligence on Iraq that was used to justify going to war has died. Joseph Wilson was 69.Wilson's ex-wife Valerie Plame confirmed in a text message that Wilson died Friday of organ failure in Santa Fe. She called him a "patriot" with "the heart of a lion."
Wilson traveled to Niger to investigate allegations Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein tried to purchase uranium and later alleged that the administration of President George W. Bush twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq to justify war.
Subsequently, Plame's identity as a CIA operative was leaked in a scandal that led to the conviction of vice presidential aide Scooter B. Libby for lying to investigators and justice obstruction.
President Donald Trump pardoned Libby in 2018.
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This version corrects in the first paragraph that Wilson died, not Plame.

  • CUTTHROAT TROUT RULING

DENVER (AP) — A judge has asked U.S. biologists to explain part of a determination that a trout native to Colorado and New Mexico doesn't merit an endangered species listing.But U.S. District Court Senior Judge Marcia S. Krieger found that a 2014 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the Rio Grande cutthroat trout was otherwise sound.
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the agency after it changed course from a 2008 finding that the trout merited protection.
In a ruling issued Thursday, Krieger vacated part of the 2014 decision. She ordered the agency to explain why it considers isolated trout populations of less than 2,500 to be stable.
The Rio Grande cutthroat was the first North American trout to be recorded by Spanish explorers centuries ago.

  • IMMIGRATION-CHILD DETENTION-THE LATEST

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A U.S. judge says she will block Trump administration rules for the detention of immigrant children, calling them inconsistent with a longstanding agreement that lays out conditions for their custody.The decision came Friday after a hearing where attorneys for detained immigrant children said the rules would let the U.S. government keep kids locked up indefinitely and in facilities that aren't licensed by the state.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said the Flores settlement reached in 1997 remains in place and she will issue an injunction blocking the new rules from taking effect.
The longstanding settlement governs the detention conditions for immigrant children caught on the Mexico border.

  • PREGNANT MIGRANTS-LAWSUITS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Civil rights groups are seeking an investigation by Homeland Security's watchdog into the practice of sending pregnant women back over the U.S.-Mexico border to wait out their asylum claims.The complaint filed Friday with the Homeland Security's inspector general details more than a dozen women who have been returned to Mexico. Some were more than eight months pregnant at the time.
More than 45,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico since January. Lawsuits have been filed challenging the practice, and there have been reports of migrants threatened, kidnapped and robbed by cartels.
The complaint argues that vulnerable populations, like pregnant women, should be excluded. It argues women need special medical care they are not receiving.
The complaint was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Texas Civil Rights Project.

  • NEW MEXICO-ATHLETICS SPENDING

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Former University of New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs will stand trial on embezzlement and other charges next year.A state district judge on Thursday scheduled Kreb's trial for October 2020. Attorneys say the proceedings could last three weeks.
An indictment filed in August charges Krebs with embezzlement for using $24,500 in public money to pay for three people not affiliated with the university to go on a lavish golf trip. He's also charged with lesser embezzlement counts, larceny and tampering.
Prosecutors allege Krebs bypassed university oversight, deleted records and tried to cover up the spending by reimbursing the university for part of the 2015 trip.
Krebs' attorney Paul Kennedy said he's confident his client will be vindicated by a jury.
Krebs served as athletic director from 2006 to 2017.