Week ending Friday, January 8, 2021


Baked-In Warming

A new report warns that the amount of global warming already “baked in” to the atmosphere due to surging greenhouse gases is now enough to warm the planet more than the 2.0-degree Celsius cap outlined in the Paris climate agreement. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, a team from Texas A&M University, California’s Lawrence Livermore National Lab and China’s Nanjing University says the atmosphere is now set to warm to about 2.4 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. But they say that amount of warming can be delayed for centuries if the world quickly stops spewing extra greenhouse gases from the burning of...

WINDOW ROCK, NAVAJO NATION — The Navajo Nation Department of Justice announced a settlement with Kinross and Sunnyside Gold Corporation on Jan. 13, resolving its claims against the mining companies for creating the conditions that led to the Aug. 2015 Gold King Mine spill. This unprecedented disaster, triggered by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and its contractors, released millions of gallons of toxic acid mine waste into the waters upstream of the Nation, which then coursed downstream in a yellow plume through two hundred miles of the Nation’s sacred San Juan River. Under the terms of the settlement, Sunnyside, on behalf of itself and Kinross, will pay the Navajo Nation...

New Mexicans encouraged to check the list of recalled products on FDA website

LAS CRUCES — The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has issued an alert regarding a pet food recall. On Dec. 30, Midwestern Pet Foods, Inc. announced a recall of certain lots of Sportmix pet food products.

On Jan. 11, Midwestern Pet Foods, Inc. expanded the recall to include additional products (not just Sportmix) that contain corn and were made in the company’s Oklahoma manufacturing plant. The recalled products may contain potentially fatal levels of aflatoxins.

The FDA is working with several state departments of agriculture to investigate these products.

While the New Mexico Department of...

Honored by local Elks lodge

Mercedes Bischoff received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks Lodge 1440 Jan. 12.

The story of the honor goes back to Bischoff’s years growing up in Gallup. In 2017 she applied to become a National Elks Legacy Scholar in order to receive scholarship funds. She won and chose to attend Gonzaga University in Washington State.

But she didn’t forget her home town. Bischoff used to attend Sacred Heart Schools and her mother taught at Del Norte Elementary School, where she herself taught as a substitute for one semester.

In August, while thinking about the problem of students disengagement due to remote instruction...