MON: Communities on evacuation alert as Black Feather Fire grows south of Gallina, + More

Communities on evacuation alert as Black Feather Fire grows south of Gallina - Alice Fordham, KUNM

Several communities are on evacuation alert after a wildfire began on Saturday about 44 miles northwest of Santa Fe and nine miles south of Gallina.

The Black Feather Fire is more than 2,000 acres in size and fire managers are expecting very active fire behavior over the next several days, as hot, dry windy weather is forecast.

The fire is in the San Pedro Parks Wilderness area of the Santa Fe National Forest, which the Continental Divide Trail passes through. Hikers are being discouraged from using that part of the trail.

Officials say a Type 1 incident management team and hotshot crews are on their way to the fire, and meantime numerous aircraft have been assigned, including five large air tankers, one very large air tanker and helicopters.

The community of Wetherill has been placed in ‘Ready’ status, and the communities of Mesa Pinebetal, and Mesa Poleo have been placed in ‘Set’ status, meaning residents should make an evacuation plan and pack a bag.

The Coyote Senior Center will be set up as an evacuation center and livestock can be taken to the Rio Arriba Rural Event Center near Abiquiu.

Crews are also fighting smaller fires. The American Mesa Fire is about 16 miles southwest of Dulce, and is burning near oil and gas infrastructure. And a new fire was reported Monday northwest of Navajo Lake in San Juan County.

Updates on the fires can be found at the interagency website NMfireinfo.com.

Biden heads west for a policy victory lap, drawing an implicit contrast with Trump - By Chris Megerian Associated Press

President Joe Biden set out Monday on a Western swing aimed at showcasing his work on conservation, clean energy and veterans' benefits as he seeks to draw an implicit contrast between his administration's accomplishments and former President Donald Trump's legal troubles.

Biden's first stop will be the Grand Canyon area, where he's expected to announce plans Tuesday for a new national monument to preserve about 1,562 square miles and limit uranium mining. After Arizona, he will travel to New Mexico and Utah.

The Democratic president will be in Albuquerque on Wednesday and will talk about how fighting climate change has created new jobs, and he'll visit Salt Lake City on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the PACT Act, which provides new benefits to veterans who were exposed to toxic substances. He'll also hold a reelection fundraiser in each city.

Biden will use the three-night trip to "continue to highlight the progress he's making across his agenda," particularly when it comes to climate change, said Natalie Quillian, the White House deputy chief of staff.

"You can expect to us to highlight more groundbreakings of projects, more ribbon cuttings and opportunities to show the American people how these investments and jobs are reaching their communities and their neighborhoods," she said.

The White House has been pushing to demonstrate the impact of Biden's policies, hoping to harness lower inflation numbers and strong employment figures to alleviate the president's sagging poll numbers.

Biden will be fresh from more than a week of vacation in Delaware, where he stayed at family homes in Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington. On the day that Trump faced a new indictment for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss, Biden went to a fish restaurant with first lady Jill Biden, attended a screening of the movie "Oppenheimer" and took a moonlit walk across the beach.

He hasn't commented at all about the charges against his predecessor, maintaining the same strategic silence he did regarding the previous two indictments.

The criminal charges appear to have done little to dampen Republican voters' enthusiasm for Trump, and he's still the leading candidate for his party's 2024 nomination for president. The situation has also provided a challenge and an opportunity for Biden.

The legal dramas have drawn attention away from the White House, making it harder for Biden to generate public attention for his accomplishments. But it's also created a suitable backdrop for Biden's promise to break with years of Trump-fueled chaos and focus on governing.

Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg said Trump's legal trouble "sucks the oxygen out of everything else" and limits the chances for Republicans to discuss other issues, such as the economy.

"People like to say nothing matters anymore," she said. "But the conversation that you're not having actually does matter."

Biden's trip will traverse a varied political landscape.

Arizona is a key battleground state that Biden won narrowly. New Mexico is considered safe for Democrats. Utah is a Republican stronghold whose governor, Spencer Cox, has stressed finding common ground across party lines.

It's also a critical region for conversations about climate change. Phoenix saw 31 days in a row of temperatures at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.4 degrees Celsius).

Biden's senior adviser on clean energy, John Podesta, said the president would talk about "the investments that we need to ensure that we are building a resilient society going forward in the face of what is becoming a challenging situation."

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has claimed without evidence that he's being targeted by Democrats trying to keep him from reclaiming the White House.

Traffic delays expected during Presidential visit Tuesday and Wednesday - Alice Fordham, KUNM

President Joe Biden is due to visit Albuquerque Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Albuquerque Police Department is warning drivers about likely delays during the visit.

Drivers are advised to avoid I-25 south of I-40 and I-40 west of the Big I on Tuesday afternoon, as well as Wednesday morning. Some side streets may also be impacted.

APD will have a heavy presence to block traffic and asks the public to please be patient if they have to drive in these areas.

There will be no parking allowed along the route for the motorcade. Parked cars will be towed.

Health alert issued in the wake of 2-alarm fire at plastic recycling facility near Albuquerque - Associated Press

The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Program has issued a Health Alert after authorities evacuated a plastic recycling facility south of Albuquerque as a two-alarm fire broke out Sunday, authorities said.

Bernalillo County Fire Rescue crews and Albuquerque firefighters responded to the scene around 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

The fire started outside the recycling facility, but the cause wasn't immediately clear, authorities said.

There was no immediate word on any injuries.

The fire was pumping thick, black smoke into the area that could be seen from downtown Albuquerque.

The health alert will last from 5:00 p.m. Sunday until 10:00 a.m. Monday, August 7.

Everyone regardless of their health status is encouraged to limit their time outdoors. The program warns the smoke contains hazardous air pollutants and that winds may push it into the metro area’s southeast quadrant, the South Valley and Albuquerque’s Westside.

Hot harvest season begins in New Mexico chile country - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico

Harvest season is starting for New Mexico’s signature crop, but hotter isn’t always better for chile.

Higher temperatures increase the spread of certain diseases (such as curly top virus) and limits fruit production for all kinds of crops, chile included. The heat can also threaten the lives of workers that must pick them by hand.

In recent years, stronger monsoons have flooded fields and wiped out crops and irrigation infrastructure alike. The heat is making this year different.

While the pavement shimmers, a breeze buffeting red ristras, much of the propane roasters crouch idly, without the signature roar and flames.

“The chile season has been on and off, to be honest, since the rise in heat levels this year,” said Fabian Grajeda, pointing out white ends of sunscalding on bright red ristras. “You can notice and a lot of the chilies here hanging, the tip is rotting off.”

Grajeda, 24, transports and sells chiles for Grajeda Farms, started 30 years ago by his father, Ubaldo. He said an earlier harvest is pulling in good numbers, with 4,000 stacks of chile already sold by the family farm.

The streets of Hatch are still quiet, with only a few license plates from Arizona or Texas pulling out of parking lots with freshly-roasted chiles hauled away in plastic bags.

Harvest and sales are expected to pick up for autumn, especially for the September Chile Festival.

Rafael García, who helps sell at Chile Fanatic, said that’s where bags of chiles are sold in the hundreds of thousands.

EXTRA HOT

New Mexico is the second-largest grower of green chile in the United States, and it must be handpicked. In 2022, workers picked more than 49,000 tons of chile, with another 4,000 tons of red chile, which can be harvested by machines.

Climate disruption is putting farmworkers at higher risk, said Carlos Marentes, who operates Centro de los Trabajadores Agricolas Fronterizos in El Paso. Marentes has nearly forty years of experience housing and organizing farmworkers who often travel hours to work in New Mexico fields.

“The heat in the fields is unbearably higher, and it seems that farmworkers are now experiencing chronic dehydration,” Marentes said about a recent trip to the fields, where he delivered envelopes of electrolyte mix.

The demands to pick chile for packing plants means people are taking less time to drink water. Despite federal requirements to provide water, some workers are bringing in their own liquids to keep energy during the work day, he said.

Federal field sanitation standards mandate that cool drinking water must be readily accessible to all employees, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Currently, there are no heat-specific federal standards to protect workers from heat-related illness. OSHA is in the process of making a rule, but nothing is enacted yet.

Commercial chile growing is limited to southern New Mexico. The majority of acreage is in Doña Ana and Luna counties. The region faced record-breaking streaks of triple-digit temperatures, only broken up by a handful days above 97 degrees, according to 2023 temperature data.

Just over 25 percent of this year’s chile crops have been harvested so far, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s national crop progress report. It is higher than the previous year that was slowed by monsoons.

The 2023 crop is showing higher rates of “very poor and poor” conditions compared to last year, as drought conditions across the state increase, according to the USDA.

Another factor is in part due to a small bug called the beet leafhopper. Early in the chile crop season, the increased beet leafhopper population spread an infection known as curly top, said Stephanie Walker, a vegetable specialist at the New Mexico State University Extension.

Fruiting plants – including chile – are also slowed by hotter temperatures.

“If it gets too hot, the plants stop putting on fruit, because pollination only occurs at a certain temperature range,” Walker said. “Certainly over 95 degrees, the plants really slow down actual pollination of the flowers and fruit.”

Instead, Walker said, chiles are growing earlier in the season, slowing down during the summer and fruiting again in the fall.

THIRSTER SYSTEMS

Hotter temperatures increase all crop demands for water. The Rio Grande ran high this year from good snowmelt and offered a boost to the groundwater under the river pumped out to quench crops.

Much of Southern New Mexico is harsh desert. Crops can grow on strips of land around the Rio Grande, fed by the surface water, and the water that percolates through the earth.

In Luna County, chile is fed by pools of groundwater sucked up by wells faster than they can refill. With just 10 inches of rain or snow a year on average to recharge the Mimbres River Underground Water Basin, the groundwater used for crops in Luna County is essentially mined.

Much of New Mexico’s chile plants are grown with drip irrigation, a system that uses less water than flood irrigation, Walker said.

With the end of surface irrigation, groundwater pumps will be turned on to finish out the irrigation season, said Erek Fuchs, the groundwater resources director for Elephant Butte Irrigation District.

“I don’t have any major concerns for chile going the way, the dodo,” but we all need to be obviously attentive to ongoing drought conditions and aquifer impacts,” he said. “Salt accumulation is going to continue, and that, I think, will be a tricky road to try to navigate here.”

ROASTING THE NUMBERS

Despite its prominence on car license plates (or breakfast, lunch and dinner plates), chile is fourth in line of New Mexico’s more lucrative crops.

Hay and alfalfa make up the most acreage across the state, with more than 450,000 acres harvested last year, generating more than $409 million dollars, according to the USDA 2022 census. Pecans brought in more than $141 million and onions $120 million.

Chile requires less water than alfalfa or pecans, but also brings in less money.

Chile acreage peaked in the 1990s with more than 36,000 acres dedicated to growing chile. After the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, that acreage significantly decreased, as chiles could be grown in Chihuahua, Mexico for cheaper prices.

In addition to climate change and water concerns, Walker said higher production prices and labor costs are “squeezing” growers.

Last year, there were only 8,400 acres dedicated to chile, bringing in an estimated $91 million, according to the state’s agriculture review.

“Pecans have spread like wildfire,” said Walker, noiting an estimated 47,000 acres harvested last year. “Fields that I watched grow chile for many, many seasons suddenly have young pecan trees on them.”

Compensation for New Mexico wildfire victims tops $14 million and is climbing - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press

More victims of a devastating wildfire sparked last year by the U.S. Forest Service in northern New Mexico are getting compensated, with payouts to landowners totaling more than $14 million as of early next week, federal emergency managers said.

Congress set aside nearly $4 billion at the end of last year to pay claims resulting from the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. Officials have acknowledged that the recovery process would be long and challenging, but many residents and some lawmakers have been frustrated with the pace.

Angela Gladwell, the director of the claims office, said more than 1,600 notices of loss have been filed so far and that her office has around $50 million worth of claims that are currently being processed. She estimated her office would be operational for the next five to six years to ensure that "everyone gets every penny that they are due."

"We're excited because this funding will begin to provide some much needed relief to our claimants who have been patiently waiting for an opportunity to start recovering," Gladwell told The Associated Press.

The claims office also recently began working with the National Flood Insurance Program so that eligible claimants can receive five years of flood insurance protection, with premiums paid by the claims office. One of the big concerns for residents has been post-fire flooding, particularly in the spring as snow melts. Now that concern also extends to the summer rainy season.

The claims office has had about 350 requests for flood policies, and many already have been approved.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is among those who have said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to act faster to get payments out to New Mexicans who are still suffering more than a year after the fire.

"While we're glad to see these funds finally start flowing, the federal government has a long way to go to meet its commitment to make impacted New Mexicans whole," Caroline Sweeney, the governor's spokesperson, said Friday.

Numerous missteps by forest managers resulted in prescribed fires erupting last spring into what became the largest wildfire in New Mexico's recorded history. The blaze forced the evacuation of thousands of residents from villages throughout the Sangre de Cristo mountain range as it burned through more than 530 square miles (1,373 square kilometers) of the Rocky Mountain foothills.

The fire destroyed homes and livelihoods — and forced the Forest Service to review its prescribed fire polices before resuming operations last fall. Experts have said the environmental consequences will span generations.

The U.S. Forest Service also recently acknowledged that another 2022 fire in northern New Mexico that burned near Los Alamos was caused by prescribed fire operations.

Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico said Friday that he plans to introduce legislation that would expand the claims process to cover losses from that blaze.

Federal officials said they were aware of those plans and were reviewing what additional resources might be needed if such legislation were to pass. They also acknowledged that it has taken time to build the compensation program to address losses from the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire.

"This was the largest fire in the state of New Mexico. It has types of losses that are extraordinarily complex," Gladwell said, adding that the program needed to be flexible so wildfire victims would have options.

The claims office has a staff of nearly 90 people, but more are needed as more claims are expected to come in, Gladwell said.

Meanwhile, members of Congress have been pressuring the Forest Service to do more to address a wildfire crisis that they say will destroy more landscapes, communities and livelihoods as long-term drought persists around the West. The Biden administration says it has been trying to turn the tide through a multibillion-dollar cleanup of forests choked with dead trees and undergrowth.

Santa Fe Recovery Center secures $1.5 million federal grant — By Nash Jones, KUNM News

Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation announced Friday that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department has awarded a $1.5m grant to the Santa Fe Recovery Center.

The bulk of the funding comes from the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, according to the office of Sen. Martin Heinrich, which prioritizes expanding access to Medication Assisted Treatment. The office says the work aims to “eliminate outdated, bureaucratic barriers preventing practitioners from prescribing lifesaving drugs like buprenorphine.”

About a third of the funds comes to the Santa Fe nonprofit through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — or ‘SAMSA’ — to improve its capacity to address substance use and mental health disorders among New Mexicans.

Hundreds of layoffs planned in the Albuquerque area - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News

Over 300 Albuquerque area residents will lose their jobs if two businesses move forward with planned layoffs.

The Albuquerque Journal reports California-based Tattooed Chef Inc. — a plant-based frozen food company - will lay off 272 New Mexico workers by the end of the month, according to filings with the Department of Workforce Solutions. The company recently announced plans to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Meanwhile, vacuum insulation panel builder Kevothermal LLC will let 118 workers go by mid-September, according to the WARN list.

Albuquerque teens accused of using drug deal to rob and kill woman - Associated Press

Two teenage boys in Albuquerque are facing murder charges after police say they set up a drug deal to rob the victim.

Police spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said Friday that a 14-year-old and 15-year-old were arrested in the July 4 killing of Alana Gamboa.

They were both booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center. The 15-year-old is charged with one count each of murder, robbery and evidence tampering, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. The 14-year-old faces the same charges, Gallegos said.

The Associated Press does not generally identify juvenile crime suspects.

According to investigators, Gamboa and one of the teens had been chatting via social media and agreed to meet so he could buy mushrooms and marijuana vape pens.

The victim was sitting in her car around 12:35 a.m. and reaching for a gun when she was shot. Gamboa died by the time authorities got to the scene.

Gallegos said detectives used social media conversations, witness statements and surveillance video to identify one of the boys as a juvenile who was on supervised probation.

They located him Thursday at an apartment complex, where the second teen suspect was also present and admitted to shooting Gamboa.

The investigation into Gamboa's death is ongoing.

The arrests come a day after a 13-year-old Albuquerque boy was charged with murder and other counts in the shooting of a different woman. She allegedly confronted him and other teens who were riding around in her vehicle, which had been stolen days earlier.

The suspect in that case made his first court appearance Friday and was ordered held pending trial. His public defender, David Richter, acknowledged the allegations were upsetting for the community.

"We try to make sense of what happened, and we question what in our society makes this possible," he said in a statement. "What we find when we ask these questions is more tragedy and sadness and systemic failures. What we also find is that children are fundamentally different from adults. Their brains aren't fully developed. They are impulsive and reactive in ways that we can't put our adult framework on."

___ This story has been corrected to show that Gilbert Gallegos is a civilian spokesperson, not a sergeant.

Movie weapons supervisor waives preliminary hearing in fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin - By Morgan Lee Associated Press

The woman who was overseeing the use of weapons on the movie set where Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer agreed Friday to forgo a preliminary hearing that would have provided court testimony from dozens of people, including eyewitnesses to the shooting.

Arizona-based armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, in a court filing, waived her right to a courtroom review of evidence on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie "Rust." Gutierrez-Reed also waived her right to a review of charges by a grand jury.

Defense attorney Jason Bowles has described Hutchins' death on Oct. 21, 2021, as a tragic accident and says that Gutierrez-Reed committed no crime. Gutierrez-Reed has not entered a plea to charges of involuntary manslaughter and evidence-tampering. If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison.

"Rust" safety coordinator and assistant director David Halls has pleaded no contest to a charge of unsafe handling of a firearm and received a suspended sentence of six months' probation.

In April, prosecutors dropped charges against Baldwin, who was pointing a gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing her and injuring director Joel Souza.

That left Gutierrez-Reed as the sole remaining defendant.

Baldwin has said the gun fired accidentally after he followed instructions to point it toward Hutchins, who was behind the camera. He said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the gun fired.

Prosecutors have reserved the right to refile charges against Baldwin and commissioned additional weapons testing to investigate whether the gun's hammer was intentionally modified.

Authorities have not fully explained how live ammunition found its way onto the film set and into the .45-caliber revolver.

Authorities say Gutierrez-Reed loaded the gun prior to a lunch break with what should have been inert dummy ammunition. Prosecutors say the armorer was negligent amid a breakdown of safety protocols as cast and crew began rehearsing with the weapon — containing a live round — in the early afternoon.

Prosecutors have recently filed the evidence-tampering charge on allegations that Gutierrez-Reed handed off a small bag of narcotics to a colleague amid police interviews on the day of the shooting.

Bowles says prosecutors are engaged in "character assassination." Gutierrez-Reed will undergo regular drug testing at her own expense under new terms of pretrial release approved Thursday by a New Mexico judge.

The filming of "Rust" resumed in April in Montana under an agreement with the cinematographer's husband, Matthew Hutchins, that makes him an executive producer.

Rust Movie Productions, the company that originally bankrolled the movie, has paid a $100,000 fine to New Mexico workplace safety regulators who issued a scathing narrative of "serious," but not willful, safety failures, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set before the fatal shooting.

With major productions on hold during the Hollywood writers and actor strikes, no weapons of any kind are being used on those sets for the time being.

Since the fatal shooting on "Rust," there has been a significant industry shift toward replacing real guns that fire blanks with replicas and digital-effects gunfire. But moves that some supported — including gun bans via legislation, studio requirements or union demands — have not happened.

Actor Mark Margolis, murderous drug kingpin on 'Breaking Bad' and 'Better Call Saul,' dies at 83 - By Jocelyn Noveck Ap National Writer

Veteran character actor Mark Margolis, who had a breakout role as a mobster in "Scarface" but became best known decades later for his indelible, fearsome portrayal of a vindictive former drug kingpin in TV's "Breaking Bad," has died. He was 83.

The actor died on Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City following a short illness, according to a statement from his son, Morgan Margolis.

Margolis was nominated for an Emmy in 2012 for outstanding guest actor in "Breaking Bad" as Hector "Tio" Salamanca, the murderous elderly don who was unable to speak following a stroke. But this actor did not need dialogue; he communicated via facial expressions and the sometimes menacing use of a barhop bell taped to his wheelchair.

Much of his character's backstory later played out on "Better Call Saul," the prequel in which he guest-starred from 2016 to 2022. Margolis has said he based his portrayal of the kingpin partly on his own experience caring for a relative who'd suffered a stroke.

On social media, admirers shared scenes of Hector — especially of his explosive demise. Margolis was hailed on the official X (formerly Twitter) account of "Breaking Bad" as an "immensely talented" actor "who — with his eyes, a bell, and very few words — turned Hector Salamanca into one of the most unforgettable characters in the history of television." And the show's star, Bryan Cranston, praised his co-actor on Instagram, saying he was "fun and engaging off the set, and (in the case of 'Breaking Bad' and 'Your Honor') intimidating and frightening on set. His quiet energy belied his mischievous nature and curious mind."

Margolis also was known for many film roles, particularly in the films of Darren Aronofsky: "Requiem for a Dream," The Fountain," "Noah," "Black Swan," "The Wrestler" and "Pi." But his breakout film role was mobster Alberto "The Shadow" in Brian de Palma's 1983 "Scarface," opposite Al Pacino's Tony Montana, who famously shoots and kills Alberto before the latter can detonate a car bomb and kill an innocent woman and her kids.

Other film roles included "The Thomas Crown Affair," "Gone Baby Gone," "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," and "Stand Up Guys."

Margolis was born in Philadelphia in 1939 and studied acting in New York City with noted teacher Stella Adler. "I used to say, if God is a woman, this is him," Margolis said in a 2022 interview about Adler.

Focusing on the stage in his early career, he appeared in dozens of shows off-Broadway, including at the Public Theater in New York, and on Broadway in the short-lived "Infidel Caesar," based on Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" but set in Cuba. "The play crashed in about four weeks," Margolis mused in the 2022 interview. "It was beautiful but ahead of its time." He also founded Blue Dome, a touring theater troupe.

Though best known for "Breaking Bad" and "Better Called Saul," Margolis' many TV roles also included "The Equalizer," "Oz," "American Horror Story: Asylum," "Crossing Jordan," "Californication," and "The Affair." He most recently appeared in five episodes of Showtime's "Your Honor" as a Mafia kingpin.

His roles on the big screen spanned some 70 movies, most recently Matthew Coppola's 2022 "Broken Soldier" with Sophie Turner and the late Ray Liotta.

Margolis is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jacqueline Margolis, and his son Morgan, who is CEO of Knitting Factory Entertainment. The family plans to have a private memorial and funeral.