- NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Jersey-based company has reached an agreement with a construction trades group as it pushes for approval to build a multibillion-dollar facility for temporarily storing spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors around the U.S.Holtec International announced the labor agreement with the New Mexico Building and Construction Trades Council on Wednesday to establish a framework for cooperation between labor groups and management.
The company is seeking a permit from federal regulators to build the facility in southern New Mexico. Holtec says the project will help the nation deal with growing stockpiles of spent nuclear fuel.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and others have voiced opposition, saying the federal government has no long-term plan for the waste and they don't want the state to get stuck with it.
- DRUG TRAFFICKING-POLICE LINK
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Federal officials say one or more employees for a northern New Mexico police department may have tried to help a suspected drug trafficker.The Las Vegas Optic reports a search warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court shows the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration believes someone within the Las Vegas Police Department alerted suspected trafficker Robert Corbin Padilla about an investigation against him.
The recently-unsealed search warrant affidavit details DEA agents' months-long investigation of Padilla. The warrant alleges Padilla was responsible for 70% of the cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine coming into Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Padilla was arrested and faces multiple federal charges.
Las Vegas Police David Bibb says it would be a criminal offense if any employee provided confidential information to an investigation's target.
- PECAN GROWERS-TARIFFS
CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's U.S. senators want the Trump administration to defend the state's pecan growers from tariffs during ongoing trade negotiations with India.The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall recently signed on to a bipartisan letter from 12 senators urging U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to negotiate a lift of a trade barrier.
Records show India charges a 36% tariff on pecan imports, while other tree nuts such as pistachios and almonds are charged tariff rates of 10% or less.
New Mexico became the largest pecan-producing state last year, after Hurricane Michael ravaged Georgia's crop.
New Mexico was estimated to have produced about 90 million pounds of pecans in 2018, down about 2 million from 2017.
- UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT
SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) — The Western New Mexico University Board of Regents has extended President Joseph Shepard's contract.The board voted last week to extend Shepard's tenure until 2024 and give him a raise. He also was awarded a three-month sabbatical.
Shepard's contract was due to end in 2020.
Regent Chairwoman Janice Baca-Argabright says the board has confidence in Shepard and appreciates what he's done for the university.
- AIR FORCE-RESCUE TRAINING
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The U.S. Air Force wants to use 179 public and private properties across the Southwest for training on recovering personnel such as downed pilots.Davis-Monthan Air Force officials announced that a draft environmental assessment calls for continued use of 154 training sites as well as 25 additional sites.
The sites are in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Nevada.
Davis-Monthan in Tucson is home to an Air Force personnel recovery unit that hosts large multinational exercises in the region.
A public comment period on the draft environmental assessment runs until Oct. 26.
- CENSUS-INCOME INEQUALITY
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The gap between the haves and have-nots in the United States grew last year.The U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday that an index that measures income inequality in the U.S. increased from 2017 to 2018.
The increase in income inequality comes as two Democratic presidential candidates, U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, are pitching a "wealth tax" on the nation's richest citizens as a way to reduce wealth disparities.
States that had statistically significant gains in inequality last year were Alabama, Arkansas, California, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas and Virginia.
The data released Thursday comes from the bureau's American Community Survey program.
- NAVAJO COAL PLANT
LECHEE, Ariz. (AP) — One of three generating units at a coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation has closed.The 2,250-megawatt Navajo Generating Station near Page is scheduled to completely shut down before the end of the year. It's run by the Phoenix-based utility, the Salt River Project.
Utility spokesman Jeff Lane says Unit 3 went offline last week. The other two units will operate full-time until the plant runs out of coal on site.
The power plant recently received its last delivery of coal via electric train from its sole supplier, the Kayenta Mine.
The plant has been operating since the mid-1970s on land leased from the Navajo Nation.
Its owners decided to close it this year because of cheaper prices for power made from natural gas.
- TRUMP-ENDANGERED SPECIES
SEATTLE (AP) — Seventeen states are suing to block Trump administration rules weakening the Endangered Species Act.The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, follows a similar challenge filed last month by several environmental groups, including the Humane Society and the Sierra Club.
The new rules begin taking effect Thursday. They for the first time allow officials to consider how much it would cost to save a species. They also remove blanket protections for animals newly listed as threatened and make it easier for creatures to be removed from the protected list.
The administration and congressional Republicans have said the changes improve the law. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said they ease "the regulatory burden on the American public" without sacrificing conservation goals.
Democratic Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson called it "death by a thousand cuts" for the law.