Category Archives: New Mexico

Secretaries of state ask social media companies for moderation plans on election day

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Democratic top elections officials are concerned about inflammatory and AI-generated content

A group of Democratic secretaries of state are calling on social media companies to detail their plans to moderate inflammatory content and artificial intelligence on their platforms during and after election day.

Seven secretaries of state – representing Maine, Rhode Island, Illinois, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and New Mexico – sent the letters to Google, X and Meta on Friday. Secretaries of state typically play some role in overseeing elections in their states.

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Some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, report says

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Mississippi’s firearm-related violence rate nearly double that of Haiti, which is plagued by political and gang strife

A new report by the Commonwealth Fund finds some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, and even states with the fewest firearms deaths are far higher than peer developed democracies.

For instance, Mississippi’s rate of firearm-related violence (28.5 per 100,000 people) was nearly double that of Haiti (15.1 per 100,000) in 2021, when mercenaries assassinated the country’s president, unleashing a fresh round of gang warfare which pushed the country into a state of civil war.

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At least two dead in New Mexico from severe floods after record rain

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National guard conducting search-and-rescue missions as officials say more than 300 people rescued since Saturday

The New Mexico national guard is conducting search and rescue missions in Roswell after record rainfall resulted in severe flooding.

New Mexico state police said on Sunday that at least two people have died as a result of the flash flood, but information on the victims or the circumstances of their deaths were not immediately released.

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Migrant deaths in New Mexico have increased tenfold in last two years

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In 2020, nine bodies were found near US-Mexico border. In the first eight months of 2024, there were 108.

Ten times as many migrants died in New Mexico near the US-Mexico border in each of the last two years compared with just five years ago.

During the first eight months of 2024, the bodies of 108 presumed migrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America, were found near the border in New Mexico, according to the most recent data. Many of the bodies were discovered less than 10 miles (16km) from El Paso.

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Rust armorer pleads guilty to gun charge in separate case

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Hannah Gutierrez-Reed changed her plea in exchange for a reduced sentence for carrying a gun into a bar

The weapons supervisor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film Rust pleaded guilty Monday to a separate criminal charge of carrying a gun into a licensed liquor establishment.

Movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed agreed to change her plea to guilty on the charge in exchange for a reduced sentence of 18 months supervised probation.

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Plutonium levels near US atomic site in Los Alamos similar to Chornobyl, study finds

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Much of the land near the atomic bomb’s birthplace was converted to recreational areas, but toxic waste remains

Soil, plants and water along popular recreation spots near Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, are contaminated with “extreme concentrations” of plutonium, a new study has found, but calls for the federal government to act have been dismissed.

Michael Ketterer, a Northern Arizona University scientist and lead researcher on the project, said the plutonium levels in and around New Mexico’s Acid Canyon were among the highest he had ever seen in a publicly accessible area in the US during his decades-long career – comparable to what is found in Ukraine at the site of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

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Alec Baldwin trial: judge mulls dismissal after claim that state withheld evidence

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Actor’s defense team at Rust film set shooting trial accuses state of concealing ammunition turned over to police

The judge in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial is considering a motion from the defense to dismiss the case after the actor’s lawyers argued that the state improperly withheld evidence.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the Rust armorer who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year, was initially expected take the stand at Baldwin’s trial on Friday. But the proceedings took a dramatic turn as Baldwin’s defense team accused the state of concealing evidence that would have been favorable to the actor and asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to throw out the case.

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Alec Baldwin jury views video of grim aftermath of Rust film set shooting

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Actor on trial in New Mexico for involuntary manslaughter after shot from gun he was holding killed cinematographer

The jury in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial on Wednesday viewed harrowing footage depicting the aftermath of the shooting on a New Mexico film set and medics’ desperate efforts to treat cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch where the actor and crew were filming the western Rust was captured via body-camera footage from a New Mexico sheriff’s deputy who responded to the incident and testified in court this week.

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Floods drive people from homes in Iowa as much of US swelters in extreme heat

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Residents rescued by boat as Governor Kim Reynolds declares disaster in 21 counties in north of state

Floodwaters forced people out of their homes in parts of Iowa, the result of weeks of rain, while much of the US longed for relief on Saturday from yet another round of extraordinary heat.

Sirens blared at 2am in Rock Valley, Iowa, population 4,200, where people in hundreds of homes were told to get out as the Rock River could no longer take rain that has slammed the region. The city lacked running water because wells were unusable.

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Prosecutors say Alec Baldwin was ‘engaged in horseplay’ with gun before fatal shooting

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Actor is due to go to trial over death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed on set of Rust

Fewer than three weeks before actor Alec Baldwin is due to go on trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico, prosecutors have said that he “engaged in horseplay with the revolver”, including firing a blank round at a crew member on the set of Rust before the tragic accident occurred.

Baldwin is facing involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

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Heatwaves and wildfires strike across US as tropical storm forms in gulf

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Tropical storm due to form in Gulf of Mexico, adding to extreme weather as north-east and midwest bake

Potential Tropical Cyclone One – a slow churning system of low atmospheric pressure in the Gulf of Mexico – was badgering the Texas coast but had not fully developed, meteorologists said on Wednesday.

The storm, which will be named Tropical Storm Alberto when it forms fully, is set to unleash powerful winds, heavy rain and flood threats across the entire southern US, Mexico and Central America. Storm-force winds, which stretch more than 400 miles (640km) from the storm’s center, are already affecting southern Texas.

This article was amended on 19 June 2024 to correct a quotation from Bill Nye.

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‘The sky was on fire’: New Mexico villagers flee two deadly wildfires

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At least one killed as residents of Ruidoso escape blazes which are 0% contained

Two fast-moving fires killed at least one person in New Mexico, claimed 1,400 structures and forced the evacuations of thousands of residents as firefighters hope cooler temperatures and the chance of rain could bring some relief as they struggle to bring the “out of control” blazes to heel .

A state of emergency has been declared by New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, and by the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council, to speed recovery and response funding into the region.

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Andy Kim wins Democratic primary in race for Bob Menendez’s Senate seat

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Congressman bids to replace Menendez, who plans to run as independent despite being charged with accepting bribes

Democratic congressman Andy Kim has won New Jersey’s Senate primary, putting him in strong position for the general election in the blue-leaning state, though the win comes a day after Democratic senator Bob Menendez filed to run as an independent amid his federal corruption trial.

Menendez, who has denied allegations that he accepted bribes to promote the interests of the Egyptian government, has chosen not to seek the Democratic Senate nomination. Kim’s win comes after a bruising battle that led New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy to withdraw from the race in March.

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Three women diagnosed with HIV after getting ‘vampire facials’ in New Mexico

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CDC says incidents at unlicensed medical spa are first documented cases of virus transmitted by a cosmetic procedure using needles

Three women who were diagnosed with HIV after getting “vampire facial” procedures at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa are believed to be the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through a cosmetic procedure using needles, federal health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its Morbidity and Mortality Report last week that an investigation into the clinic from 2018 through 2023 showed it apparently reused disposable equipment intended for one-time use.

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Supreme court rules insurrection clause bars local official despite sparing Trump

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Decision on New Mexico election official’s 14th amendment appeal comes two weeks after court said ex-president could stay on ballot

The US supreme court declined an appeal on Monday from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office for his role in the January 6 attack, leaving intact a significant decision that enforced a constitutional ban on insurrectionists holding office.

The commissioner, Couy Griffin, is the only US public official thus far who has been removed from office for his role in the January 6 attack. Citing language in the 14th amendment that bars insurrectionists from holding office, a New Mexico judge removed him in 2022 after he was convicted of trespassing on the Capitol grounds. The New Mexico supreme court dismissed an initial appeal in the state.

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The downwinders: New Mexicans sickened by atomic bomb testing fight for compensation

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New film First We Bombed New Mexico sheds light on effects of Oppenheimer’s nuclear project and locals’ battle for justice

Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández watched Oppenheimer – a top contender at Sunday’s Academy Awards and Christopher Nolan’s treatment on the physicist who guided testing of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico – months ago.

And soon after the scene where Cillian Murphy, as J Robert Oppenheimer, peered through safety goggles in a fortified shed at the huge mushroom cloud, the New Mexico Democrat realized “the untold story” lay on the cutting room floor.

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Rust armorer found guilty of involuntary manslaughter over fatal film set shooting

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Hannah Gutierrez-Reed convicted over death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on New Mexico movie set in October 2021

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the film Rust, has been found guilty for her role in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a New Mexico film set.

Hutchins was fatally shot by Alec Baldwin while the actor was rehearsing a scene for the neo-western. Baldwin, who also served as a co-producer on the film, was pointing a prop gun at Hutchins during an October 2021 rehearsal when the weapon fired, hitting the 42-year-old and wounding the film’s director, Joel Souza.

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Expert testimony from Rust hearing casts doubt on Alec Baldwin’s account

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Firearms expert says he sees no evidence gun was broken, despite actor’s claim it went off without his pulling the trigger

Courtroom testimony by an independent gun expert on Tuesday cast new doubt on Alec Baldwin’s account that his gun went off without his pulling the trigger in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a 2021 rehearsal on the set of the western movie Rust.

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, with a trial scheduled for July in the death of Halyna Hutchins during a movie rehearsal on the outskirts of Santa Fe.

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Alec Baldwin’s trial on involuntary manslaughter charge to begin in July

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Jury selection for the case, stemming from the shooting on the Rust movie set, will start on 9 July and the trial the next day

A New Mexico judge has set a trial date for Alec Baldwin on an involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from the 2021 deadly shooting on the set of the Western movie Rust.

The scheduling order entered Monday calls for jury selection to begin 9 July, with the trial starting the following day with opening statements by special prosecutors and Baldwin’s defense attorneys. The proceedings are expected to last eight days.

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Alec Baldwin indicted for involuntary manslaughter in fatal gunfire on film set

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Grand jury in New Mexico charged the actor for a shooting on Rust set that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

Actor Alec Baldwin is facing a new involuntary manslaughter charge over the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the movie Rust.

A Santa Fe, New Mexico, grand jury indicted Baldwin on Friday, months after prosecutors had dismissed the same criminal charge against him.

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