- URANIUM CONTAMINATION-VIRTUAL REALITY
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — Activists are using virtual reality technology to focus on areas of the Navajo Nation affected by uranium contamination.The Gallup Independent reports the arts collective Bombshelltoe has collected 360-degree footage of Churchrock, New Mexico, to show how people and the land have changed since a 1979 uranium mill spill.
The project started four years ago after Washington, D.C.-based nuclear policy program manager Lovely Umayam met Navajo activist Sunny Dooley at an event in Santa Fe.
Umayam says the group wanted to use the new technology of virtual reality with the stories to show the impact of uranium mining.
In 1979, a dam on the Navajo Nation near Church Rock broke at an evaporation pond, releasing 94 million gallons (356 million liters) of radioactive waste to the Puerco River.
- ELECTION 2020-HOUSE-NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A Republican House candidate running for a key seat in southern New Mexico is facing criticism for old social media posts attacking Donald Trump.Claire Chase wrote several Facebook posts in 2015 and 2016 denouncing Trump as he sought the GOP nomination for president before publicly supporting him in the general election.
Her two Republican opponents, Yvette Herrell and Chris Mathys, say the old posts show she still has disdain for the president.
The social media posts were first reported by the conservative online news organization, Breitbart News .
Chase campaign spokesman Craig Murphy says Chase wrote the posts before Trump won the GOP nomination and was open about her support for another candidate.
Murphy says Chase voted for Trump in the general election and has been very pleased with his actions as president.
- ALBUQUERQUE-SHOOTINGS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Albuquerque police say six people were killed in separate shootings in the city.There have been no arrests in Thursday night's shootings, which also left five people wounded.
Officers responded shortly after 9 p.m. to a call of shots fired at 1028 Lura Place. Three people were found dead, a fourth died at the hospital and two others suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
At 8:44 p.m., officers received a report of gunfire at the Rio Volcan Apartments at 1919 Ladera. Two people later died at the hospital and two others were injured.
Earlier, at 7:30 p.m., officers went to the Casa Bonita Apartments and found a man who was shot in the neck after confronting a couple who'd broken into a neighbor's apartment and stolen a purse by force.
- CLERGY ABUSE-NEW MEXICO-THE LATEST
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former Roman Catholic priest who authorities say fled the country in the early 1990s as he faced sex abuse allegations in New Mexico has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after being returned to the U.S.A judge sentenced 81-year-old Arthur Perrault on Friday in Santa Fe, saying it was the worst case of child sex abuse she had handled over the course of 26 years.
Prosecutors had requested a maximum of more than 30 years in prison for Perrault after several men testified that they had been abused by him as children.
The abuse counts in an indictment filed against Perrault stem from the treatment of one boy at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque and at Santa Fe National Cemetery.
Perrault, a former pastor at an Albuquerque parish and a chaplain at the base, pleaded not guilty after he was returned to the U.S. from Morocco in 2017.
His defense team plans an appeal.
- NATIONAL GUARD-POLAND
RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) — Members of a New Mexico Army National Guard medical unit are deploying to Poland.Officials said a yellow ribbon ceremony was planned Saturday in Rio Rancho for about 65 soldiers with the 1209th Medical Support Company.
They will be in Poland for about nine months and will be providing medical support to U.S. military units stationed in the area as part Operation Atlantic Resolve.
The operation stems from the standoff between Ukraine and Russia that began in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Since then, the U.S. Army, led by Army Europe, has conducted enhanced multinational training and security cooperation activities with allies and partners in eastern Europe because of increased regional tensions.
- LESSER PRAIRIE CHICKEN
DALLAS (AP) — A federal judge has approved an agreement that will require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make a recommendation by May 2021 whether the lesser prairie chicken should be federally protected as a threatened or endangered species.The agreement was reached Thursday between the federal agency and three conservations groups: the Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians.
The groups sued the federal government in June to force it to make a designation for the lesser prairie chicken and its habitats.
Once a designation is proposed, there will then be a public comment period followed by a final determination made later by Fish and Wildlife. The agency also could decide that no federal protections be provided for the bird.
It was listed as threatened in 2014 but a federal court overturned the designation.
The grouse roams parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, but the groups said fewer than 38,000 remain .
- ARIZONA-NAVAJO VOTERS
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters who forget to sign the envelope on their early ballots will have a chance after Election Day to fix their mistake.The Arizona Republic reports the state Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has agreed to a new policy to require officials to notify voters about missing signatures on early ballots. The new policy is part of a settlement in a voting rights lawsuit filed by the Navajo Nation last year.
According to the changes, state election officials will give voters five business days after an election to remedy the problem.
The Navajo Nation filed a federal lawsuit last year that sought emergency relief for more than 100 tribal members who either weren't able to address mismatched signatures or didn't know to sign the ballot envelope.
- FATAL CRASH-ARIZONANS KILLED
HATCH, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico authorities say a Tucson, Arizona, couple died in a two-vehicle crash when their eastbound vehicle crossed a highway's center line and collided with the side of a westbound truck's trailer.The State Police on Friday identified those killed Thursday as 76-year-old Jerry Douglas Livingston and 72-year-old Margaret Ann Livingston.
The truck driver was not injured on the crash that occurred on State Route 26 west of Hatch.
The State Police said it wasn't known why the Livingstons' vehicle crossed the center line but said alcohol was not believed to be a factor.