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Latest New Mexico news, sports, business and entertainment at 6:20 a.m. MDT

  • MARIJUANA-NEW MEXICO

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Legislation to legalize cannabis in New Mexico advanced Thursday toward a decisive Senate floor vote under a framework that emphasizes government oversight of pricing and supplies along with social services for communities where the criminalization of pot has led to aggressive policing. The Senate judiciary committee advanced a Democrat-sponsored bill on a 5-4 vote amid stinging criticism from Democratic Sen. Joseph Cervantes, who fears the regulatory framework will create a powerful, government-protected monopoly. The Senate has until noon Saturday to send a legalization bill to Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Legislators discarded a Republican-sponsored proposal that stressed low taxes and cheap consumer prices to stamp out illicit marijuana.

  • MEXICAN GRAY WOLF DEATH

EAGAR, Ariz. (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating what it says is a suspicious death of an endangered Mexican gray wolf near Eagar. The agency and others are offering a reward of up to $37,000 for information that leads to a conviction. Federal law enforcement officers removed the carcass from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest on Feb. 19. They say a vehicle was seen stopped or driving slowly near the Saffel Canyon trailhead the night before. The wolf was part of the Hoodoo pack that was hazed away from Nutrioso in December. 

  • GRAND CANYON-TOURIST TOWN

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Grand Canyon National Park officials tentatively plan to reopen the park's eastern entrance in late May, but some in Page say sooner would be better. That's a tourist-dependent small city in northern Arizona where many campsites and other facilities remain empty. Park officials closed the east entrance last year as a courtesy to the neighboring Navajo Nation, which was hit hard by the pandemic. But with the slowing of the outbreak, the tribe is reopening some of its own facilities. Park officials say they have several factors to consider and that a tentative date to reopen the park's eastern entrance is May 21. 

  • STATE BUDGET-NEW MEXICO

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico state Senate approved an annual budget plan for state government that increases general fund spending by nearly 5% to shore up educational funding, bolster environmental oversight and provide an array of economic relief to low-income workers and businesses. The state Senate voted 29-13 on Wednesday with most Republicans in opposition to approved a $7.45 billion spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1. Recent budget amendments would tap into newly approved federal pandemic aid to pay down the state's unemployment insurance debt and funnel more dollars toward health care for the poor under Medicaid.

  • VIRUS OUTBREAK-NEW MEXICO-EMHOFF

KEWA PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — The husband of Vice President Kamala Harris joined officials in New Mexico on Wednesday to tour a tribal vaccination clinic. Kewa Pueblo has vaccinated the majority of its tribal members. Doug Emhoff called it a vaccination model and acknowledged how hard the coronavirus has hit Native American communities. He says he was inspired by the work Kewa and other pueblos have done to bring their communities together at a trying time. Emhoff also met with four working mothers in Albuquerque and talked with them about the challenges brought on by the pandemic. His visit was part of a tour to promote the $1.9 trillion federal relief package.

  • LEGISLATURE LIQUOR LAWS

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The governor has signed a sweeping liquor reform law that will allow home delivery in New Mexico. The bipartisan law makes it easier for businesses to get a liquor license. To compensate existing license holders, it provides for a tax break. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says she signed the reform in part to increase revenue opportunities for the hospitality industry, which has been hit hard by shutdowns during the pandemic. The bill directs officials to study the effect of the delivery policy on public health, and it bans the sale of wine and spirits at gas stations in McKinley County. The prohibition was included at the urging of a centrist Democrat representing that area of northwestern New Mexico, citing high levels of alcoholism.

  • BOTTLED WATER RECALL-VEGAS FIRM

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Health officials are warning people not to drink a Las Vegas-based bottled water brand, Real Water, after linking it to liver illness in five hospitalized children. Company President Brent Jones on Wednesday said stores should stop selling the product until the issue is resolved. It comes in boxy blue plastic bottles labeled "alkalized" and "infused with negative ions" at stores in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and the Los Angeles area. The company also was sued Tuesday in Nevada state court by a father, mother and their young son seeking damages and saying they became sick from the water. 

  • MURDER TRIAL-MISTRIAL

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge has declared a mistrial in the murder trial of a teenager accused of killing a man from Michigan in 2018. State District Judge T. Glenn Ellington said in his Tuesday ruling that the state's key witness would require an attorney present in order to testify in the case. The witness, Jesus Arrieta-Perez, is facing federal charges in another case. The case accuses then-17-year-old Zachary Gutierrez of killing 64-year-old Richard Milan. At the time, Milan was driving through New Mexico with his wife on a cross country trip. Gutierrez's attorneys have said that evidence has emerged to show Arrieta-Perez might have been the one who shot Milan.