ALBUQUERQUE – The New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management  announced Sept. 23 that New Mexico firefighters are en route to California to help crews battle wildfires. This is the second mobilization this year by New Mexico in response to California wildfires.

The New Mexico Task Force departed from Albuquerque Fire and Rescue’s Training Academy with six engines and crews. AFR’s Captain Brian Fox has been assigned as the leader of the task force, consisting of 20 total firefighting personnel.

Four departments from Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, Los Alamos County and the village of Corrales are sending resources as part of the New Mexico Task Force...

Michigan, Hawaii come off the list

SANTA FE – The state of New Mexico amended the list of states from which visitors and arriving residents must quarantine Sept. 23 in connection with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive order.

Based on the executive order intended to protect New Mexicans by minimizing the risk of spread from out-of-state travel, Colorado, Oregon and 
Rhode Island have been added to the list of high-risk states. Individuals arriving from those states must quarantine for a period of 14 days or for the duration of their stay in the state of New Mexico, whichever is shorter.

Michigan and Hawaii moved from high-risk to low-risk, according to the rolling...

Week ending Friday, September 18, 2020


Avian Tragedy

Scientists are trying to determine what caused untold thousands of migratory birds to fall from the sky dead or dying across parts of the Southwestern U.S. The songbird fatalities could be linked to the thick pall of wildfire smoke they flew through en route from Alaska and Canada to their winter grounds in Central or South America. Or they could have used up their fat reserves trying to fly around it before they perished in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and parts of Nebraska. Some fear the smoke damaged their lungs. “They’re literally just feathers and bones,” New Mexico State University graduate student Allison Salas...

WASHINGTON, D.C.— U.S. House Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. and U.S. Representative Joe Wilson, R-S.C. secured a bipartisan amendment in the Clean Economy Jobs and Innovation Act to establish a nonprofit partner to the U.S. Department of Energy that would channel private-sector investments and accelerate the commercialization of innovative energy technologies.

The IMPACT for Energy Act was introduced by Luján and Wilson in the House and by U.S. Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del. and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. in the Senate. The bipartisan, bicameral bill was included as an amendment in the Clean Economy Jobs and Innovation Act.

The legislation would establish a nonprofit foundation...