- VIRUS OUTBREAK-NEW MEXICO
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico health officials are temporarily banning many mass gatherings that involve 100 or more people in spaces such as stadiums or auditoriums to limit the spread of the new coronavirus. A nonprofit lab on Thursday increased the state's capacity to test for the virus by an additional 5,000 people. The state announced a fifth person had tested positive for the virus. Exceptions to the ban on gatherings includes airports, mass transit, shopping malls, homeless shelters, courthouses, health care facilities, places of worship, weddings and funerals. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has declared a public health emergency to help secure emergency provisions and personnel.
- SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Federal regulators are recommending licensing a proposed multibillion-dollar complex in southern New Mexico that would temporarily store spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors around the United States. But the preliminary recommendation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is making waves with critics who say the agency did not look closely enough at potential conflicts with locating the facility in the heart of one of the nation's busiest oil and gas basins. New Mexico's governor and other politicians are among those with concerns. But regulators indicated in a draft environmental review released this week that the facility wouldn't interfere with the oil industry or affect the environment.
- AP-US IMMIGRATION-TRANSGENDER DETAINEE
PHOENIX (AP) — Advocates say a transgender woman seeking asylum should be released after she was sexually assaulted and harassed while being detained in an Arizona immigration facility for nine months. Several groups say the woman from Mexico is suffering from PTSD and should be released on humanitarian grounds while she awaits an appeal to her asylum denial. They say transgender immigrants face unsafe conditions in detention and none are being held with members of the gender they identify with. ICE says it prioritizes the health, safety, and welfare of all of those in its care and custody, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people.
- AP-US-NAVAJO-COAL
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana regulators have reached a deal allowing the state to enforce environmental laws at a large coal mine bought last year by a Navajo-owned company. Company executives and state officials had been at odds for months over demands that the Navajo Transitional Energy Company waive its immunity as a tribal entity from future lawsuits. Thursday's agreement came a day before a temporary waiver for the Spring Creek mine was set to expire. The 275-worker strip mine is one the of the largest in the U.S. Litigation is a key tool to enforce many environmental laws. But tribal entities can't normally be sued in state court.
- VIRUS OUTBREAK-NAVAJO NATION
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — The Navajo Nation is now under a public health state of emergency declared by tribal President Jonathan Nez due to the growing spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Nev's office said in a statement announcing the declaration Wednesday that there were no confirmed cases on the the tribé's sprawling reservation that includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. But Nez said the declaration is a "proactive measure to help ensure the Navajo Nation's preparedness and the health and well-being of the Navajo people." Nez also imposed travel restrictions for all executive-branch employees For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. But for some, it can cause more severe illness.
- CLERGY ABUSE-NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A lawyer says a creditors committee of clergy abuse survivors believes the Archdiocese of Santa Fe moved assets to hinder creditors before it filed for bankruptcy protection. The Albuquerque Journal reported that attorney James Stang told a federal judge Monday that the committee may seek standing in the case to challenge the movement of assets. Parties in the Chapter 11 case were in court Monday updating a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge on the status of mediation. Ford Elsaesser, an attorney representing the archdiocese, says good faith mediation continues and he was hopeful litigation involving church assets could be avoided.
- RELIGIOUS SECT-CHILD ABUSE
GRANTS, N.M. (AP) — The mother of a teen whose death prompted a raid of a paramilitary Christian sect in New Mexico has been sentenced to prison. The Gallup Independent reports Stacey Miller was sentenced earlier this month to nine years in prison after pleading guilty in connection with the death of her 13-year-old son, Enoch Miller. Miller entered a plea agreement Dec. 16 in which she admitted to abandonment of a child resulting in death. The secretive sect Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in the small ranching community of Fence Lake, New Mexico, was spotlighted when authorities raided its compound in 2017 in connection with a child abuse investigation.
- BUDGET CRUNCH-NEW MEXICO
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham trimmed $100 million in infrastructure projects as she signed a $7.6 billion annual general fund budget that makes major new investments in public education. The governor said Wednesday that the slightly trimmed budget strikes a balance by investing in transformative changes while ensuring financial stability in the event of an economic downturn. It increases salaries across state government and at public schools by an average of 4% and overall state general fund spending by 7.5%. Republicans in the House minority voted in unison against the budget bill as an unsustainable expansion of state spending and favored a rebate instead.