New Mexico
Containment climbs on the Black Fire
June 19, 2022 Each day Replace
SOUTHWEST AREA
INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM
TEAM 4 – AARON HULBURD – INCIDENT COMMANDER
Acres: 325,042 acres
Containment: 64%
Complete Personnel: 1,203
Begin Date: Friday, Might 13, 2022
Location: 31 miles NW of Reality or Penalties, NM
Fuels: Timber and tall grass
Trigger: Human-caused, below investigation
Highlights: Profitable suppression efforts and favorable climate circumstances have resulted in elevated containment on the Black Fireplace. As fireplace exercise decreases, firefighters are starting to restore hand traces and dozer traces across the perimeter.
New Mexico Freeway 152 is now open from milepost 40 (Kingston) to milepost 15 (San Lorenzo). Please proceed to make use of warning within the space and be aware of firefighters working within the space and elevated fireplace visitors.
To study concerning the present evacuation standing for the Black Fireplace, please entry the real-time, interactive evacuation map or contact your native emergency administration workplace for Sierra County, Catron County, and Grant County.
Operations: Along with suppressing the fireplace, crews are working to restore areas the place fireplace traces created early within the incident are now not wanted. Rainstorms all through the world have helped to decrease fireplace exercise and stop any vital motion to the south. Some warmth stays within the Hillsboro Lookout space and above Higher Properly Cabin alongside Forest Highway 4080. Firefighters proceed with vegetation removing and chipping operations in Kingston and the North Percha space. Nightshift crews efficiently cleared extra vegetation within the Kingston Cemetery for added safety. In Hillsboro, firefighters have assessed the defensibility of buildings within the occasion that the Black Fireplace, or any future fires, transfer towards this group. Firefighters are working alongside containment traces to carry out rehabilitation work to assist restore the land again to its pure state. As thunderstorms convey extra lightning into the world, fireplace crews will reply to any new fireplace begins positioned within the Short-term Flight Restriction space. As circumstances enable, firefighters are flying over the fireplace to evaluate fireplace exercise and collect data to tell the suppression plans on the bottom. With decreased fireplace exercise and growing night storms, firefighters are transitioning to daytime shifts solely shifting ahead. Some fireplace sources which are now not wanted throughout the nighttime hours will likely be reassigned to different wildfires throughout the Southwest.
Climate: Plentiful moisture will result in showers and thunderstorms into the center of subsequent week. Heavy rainfall from these thunderstorms could lead to flash flooding in and across the burn scar. In any other case, principally cloudy skies, cooler daytime temperatures, and excessive humidity ranges are anticipated by means of not less than early subsequent week.
Closures: A portion of the Gila Nationwide Forest affected by the Black Fireplace has been quickly closed.
Restrictions: Know Earlier than You Go! The general public can acquire present state and federal fireplace restriction data throughout New Mexico at NM Fireplace Information | Fireplace Restrictions or NM Forestry Division state-wide fireplace restrictions.
Security: The well being and security of firefighters and the general public is at all times the highest precedence. Members of the general public ought to keep away from Black Fireplace operations. A Short-term Flight Restriction is in place over the Black Fireplace space, which incorporates unmanned plane, or drones. Extra data on the risks drones pose to wildland firefighting plane and personnel on the bottom will be discovered at: https://uas.nifc.gov/.
Smoke: Smoke from the Black Fireplace could also be seen within the surrounding areas of Mimbres, Kingston, Hillsboro, and San Lorenzo, NM. Smoke-sensitive people and other people with respiratory issues or coronary heart illness are inspired to take precautionary measures. Info on air high quality and defending your well being will be discovered on the New Mexico Division of Well being Environmental Public Well being Monitoring web site: nmtracking.org. An interactive smoke map at https://fireplace.airnow.gov/ means that you can zoom into your space to see the newest smoke circumstances. For extra data, please view the Black Fireplace Smoke Report.
Fireplace updates are posted on InciWeb, the Gila Nationwide Forest Fb and Twitter pages, and NM Fireplace Info.
E mail: 2022.black@firenet.gov • Cellphone: (575)-249-1264 • Workplace Hours: 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM
New Mexico
Alec Baldwin sues New Mexico prosecutors, investigators for civil rights violations
Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ case dismissed by judge over ‘suppressed’ evidence
Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charge was abruptly dismissed with prejudice. He cannot be retried for involuntary manslaughter.
Alec Baldwin, whose involuntary manslaughter case was dismissed last summer over suppressed evidence, is taking the fatal 2021 “Rust” set shooting back to the court room.
The actor on Thursday filed a civil lawsuit in Santa Fe County District Court alleging prosecutors violated his civil rights and defamed him. The defendants named in the filing included special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, personnel within the district attorney’s office for New Mexico’s First Judicial District and members of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
The complaint detailed Baldwin’s claims that prosecutors and investigators “conspired to procure a groundless indictment against Baldwin” by not following the proper criminal process and also intentionally kept exculpatory evidence from the defense.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Morrissey said, “In October 2023 the prosecution team became aware that Mr. Baldwin intended to file a retaliatory civil lawsuit. We look forward to our day in court.”
USA TODAY has reached out to lawyers for Baldwin as well as the DA’s office for comment. The sheriff’s office declined to comment.
Last summer, Baldwin’s lawyer Alex Spiro forewarned the sheriff’s office and prosecutor in letters sent to the parties on July 12 to preserve evidence for “potential for future litigation,” according to copies obtained at the time by USA TODAY.
The actor and producer’s attorney advised Morrissey and Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza to preserve all “devices, hard drives, emails, text messages, and other electronic communications” in addition to “documents, records, electronically stored information (‘ESI’), and other materials and data existing in any form whatsoever, that are actually or potentially relevant or relate in any way to the investigation(s) and/or prosecution(s) conducted by the State in connection with the death of Halyna Hutchins.”
The filing comes nearly six months after First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer abruptly dismissed the criminal case against Baldwin on the grounds that prosecutors and law enforcement withheld evidence that might be favorable to the actor’s defense. In October, she upheld her dismissal; though prosecutors appealed the judge’s decision in November, they withdrew the notice of appeal the following month.
Baldwin’s criminal charge stemmed from an Oct. 21, 2021, incident in which Baldwin’s prop gun, which he said he’d been told did not contain live ammunition, discharged during a rehearsal for the movie, killing 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
‘No verdict’ can ‘undo the trauma’ of criminal case against Alec Baldwin, lawsuit says
Baldwin’s legal complaint accused New Mexico investigators and prosecutors of being ” blinded by their desire to convict Alec Baldwin for all the wrong reasons, and at any cost, for the October 2021 accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins.”
“Defendants sought at every turn to scapegoat Baldwin for the acts and omissions of others, regardless of the evidence or the law,” the filing continued.
Baldwin seeks a jury trial and an award of financial compensation for his “injuries suffered” as well as punitive damages against the defendants.
“Defendants must now be held accountable for their malicious and unlawful pursuit of Baldwin,” the lawsuit states. “Although no verdict in this civil case can undo the trauma the State’s threat of conviction and incarceration has inflicted, Alec Baldwin has filed this action to hold Defendants responsible for their appalling violations of the laws that governed their work.”
Why was Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter case dismissed?
The conclusion of Baldwin’s case with the state of New Mexico arrived more than two years after the on-set tragedy. Sommer dismissed the charge with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile the same claim.
Baldwin’s lawyers alleged in their filing that Santa Fe sheriffs and state prosecutors “concealed” evidence that could be linked to the source of the bullet that killed Hutchins. Prosecutors and sheriffs argued the evidence had no relevance or value to Baldwin’s case.
The judge reprimanded Morrissey and her team as “they have continued to fail to disclose critical evidence to the defendant.”
“The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate,” Sommer said. “If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching.”
Testimony revealed withheld evidence in ‘Rust’ case
On July 12, Baldwin’s lawyers said the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office was in possession of live rounds they argued might be connected to the one that killed Hutchins but failed to list them as evidence in the “Rust” investigation file or disclose their existence to defense lawyers.
On July 11, testimony revealed Troy Teske, a friend of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s stepfather, had delivered Colt .45 live rounds to the sheriff’s office on March 6. Baldwin’s team claimed this was evidence that could have established a connection to Seth Kenney, the prop supplier for “Rust.”
Baldwin’s attorneys alleged the rounds were evidence that the bullet that killed Hutchins came from Kenney. Kenney has denied supplying live ammunition to the production and has not been charged in the case.
Baldwin’s team has blamed Gutierrez-Reed, who is serving 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter, and first assistant director Dave Halls for negligence that led to Hutchins’ death. Meanwhile, prosecutors argued Baldwin handled the gun irresponsibly, exhibited “bullyish behavior on set” and changed his story to cast blame on others.
Contributing: Andrew Hay, Reuters
New Mexico
New Mexico Supreme Court Strikes Down Local Abortion Restrictions
New Mexico
Snowy and slick Thursday expected in New Mexico
We’re expecting widespread light snow Thursday in New Mexico. See the latest forecast at KOB.com/Weather.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The snow was falling and the roads were slick to start Thursday in parts of New Mexico and it’s likely that will continue throughout the day.
We’ll see on and off scattered snow showers, especially in parts of southern New Mexico. That will become more widespread with blowing snow possible.
A winter weather advisory is still in effect until Friday morning for 1-3 inches of snow expected and 5-6 inches of snow in higher-elevation areas. It encompasses most of southern New Mexico and stretches just above Interstate 40 near Tucumcari, heading toward the Texas state line.
High temperatures will be at least 10° below average for pretty much everyone.
Meteorologist Kira Miner shares all the details in her full forecast in the video above.
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