New Mexico
President Biden Bans New Oil and Gas Drilling at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in New Mexico to Preserve Archaeological Ruins | Artnet News
The Biden administration is banning new oil and gas drilling for the next 20 years at New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.
The order withdraws public lands within 10 miles of the park from from new oil and gas leasing and mining claims for the next 20 years, part of an effort to protect 4,700 known archaeological sites. In total, it covers an area of 336,404 acres.
The historic region was home to the Chaco culture, an Indigenous civilization that flourished from the year 850 to about 1250. Many contemporary tribes across the Southwest trace their roots to the Chacoan people, who built an urban ceremonial center with monumental buildings of stacked stones—some designed to align with the sun or moon based on the season—and an elaborate system of roads across New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.
“Efforts to protect the Chaco landscape have been ongoing for decades, as Tribal communities have raised concerns about the impacts that new development would have on areas of deep cultural connection,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement. “Today marks an important step in fulfilling President Biden’s commitments to Indian Country by protecting Chaco Canyon, a sacred place that holds deep meaning for the Indigenous peoples whose ancestors have called this place home since time immemorial.”
View of the ancient settlement of Anasazi, Chaco Ruins Culture National Park, Chetro Ketl, 11th century, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, United States of America. Anasazi civilization. Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images.
At the White House Tribal Nations Summit in 2021, Biden announced plans to draw up protections for the park after a two-year review and environmental analysis in consultation with Pueblo and Tribal Nations.
The Bureau of Land Management has not issued a permit for new drilling in the affected region in about a decade. The organization considered a smaller, five-mile withdrawal, as well as not taking any specific action, but determined that the 10-mile radius provided the greatest protection for vulnerable historic sites. (A five-mile withdrawal would have left some 2,800 archaeological sites vulnerable to drilling.)
The bureau published a proposal for the 10-mile withdrawal in the Federal Register in 2022, and had a 120-day public comment period. The newly enacted order does not affect private-, state-, or tribal-owned lands, or public lands under existing leases for drilling.
The ruins of Chetro Ketl house built by Ancient Puebloan People is seen at Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images.
Predictably, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association opposed the order, with a spokesperson telling the New York Times that the “arbitrary” restrictions would limit economic opportunities. The Navajo Nation also objected.
“The Navajo Nation attempted to compromise by proposing a five-mile buffer as opposed to the 10-mile,” Navajo Nation council speaker Crystalyne Curley said in a statement, as reported by ABC News. “The Biden administration has undermined the position of the Navajo Nation with today’s action and impacted the livelihood of thousands of Navajo allotment owners and their families.”
The Greater Chaco Coalition, which includes members of the Diné and Pueblo tribes, on the other hand, are calling for the end to existing drilling in the Greater Chaco region.
Pueblo Bonito, the ruin of an ancient Ancestral Puebloan Native American Great House in Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Chaco Culture is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Photo by Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
“The Greater Chaco Landscape has endured generations of legacy oil and gas extraction,” Julia Bernal, executive director of Pueblo Action Alliance, said in a statement. “Phas[ing] out new and existing oil and gas development is a necessary next step. The Greater Chaco coalition will continue to advocate for the end of the fossil fuel economy, and the remediation and clean up of historic oil and gas infrastructure, and the implementation of environmental justice principles for future land management practices that center frontline community voices.”
More than 90 percent of the area around the park—which had 41,000 visitors in 2022—has either been promised to the gas industry or is already being used for gas and oil extraction, according to the Western Environmental Law Center.
By the bureau’s own estimates, according to Colorado paper the Journal, the new ban will have minimal impact on the area, with a .5 percent decrease in natural gas production and 2.5 percent for oil production.
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Nearly three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico film set of “Rust,” actor Alec Baldwin is set to stand trial.
Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter for his role in the deadly incident that also injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.
Jury selection for Baldwin’s criminal trial begins Tuesday. It’s unclear if the actor will take the stand to testify.
How did we get here?
Baldwin was rehearsing with a prop gun for a scene on Oct. 21, 2021, at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has maintained in multiple interviews that he did not pull the trigger and that the gun misfired a bullet. Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he was taking direction from Hutchins and pulled the hammer back as far as he could without cocking it. But in 2022, results from FBI testing of the .45-caliber Colt prop revolver stated that the gun would not have gone off without the trigger having been pulled.
Just last month, Baldwin’s attorneys asked the judge to throw out the case, saying the firearm was badly damaged during forensic testing at the FBI lab, but the motion was denied.
Twists and turns
Baldwin was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter and a firearm enhancement charge. But the firearm enhancement charge was eventually dropped. It reduced his potential prison sentence by five years.
In March 2023, special prosecutor Andrea Reed stepped down after it was determined that she could not oversee the case because, as a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, she was disqualified under state law. But it didn’t stop there. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies resigned from the case and appointed special prosecutors Kari T. Morrissey and Jason Lewis.
The following month, the charges against Baldwin were dismissed, with the prosecutors citing “new facts in the case.” “We therefore will be dismissing the involuntary manslaughter charges against Mr. Baldwin to conduct further investigation,” prosecutors said in a statement at the time. “This decision does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled.”
Over the course of the next several months, Morrissey and Lewis continued to examine evidence and interview witnesses. In October 2023, two sources told NBC News that Baldwin and the special prosecutors had discussed taking a plea deal but that it was rescinded, and that the prosecutors intended to bring Baldwin’s case before a grand jury. Three months later, Baldwin was indicted by a New Mexico grand jury on one count of involuntary manslaughter.
Baldwin’s attorneys Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in response: “We look forward to our day in court.”
Following the actor’s indictment in January, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing over 150,000 actors, issued a statement slamming the prosecutors’ decision to re-charge him.
The armorer sentenced to jail
At the time of Baldwin’s initial charges, the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for overseeing the weapons on set, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in April and is currently serving an 18-month jail sentence.
Gutierrez-Reed was called upon to testify in Baldwin’s upcoming trial but she asserted her Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions pertaining to Baldwin during her pretrial interview in May. In June, the judge ruled that Gutierrez-Reed would not have to testify.
Meanwhile, Dave Halls, the assistant director on set who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation, is expected to take the stand. In interviews, Baldwin maintained that Halls declared the gun “cold,” meaning it had no live ammunition before it was handed to Baldwin.
But the prosecutors accused Baldwin of offering contradictory versions of events to law enforcement and in the media about whether he pulled the trigger and whether he was taking direction from Hutchins.
“In sum, every time Mr. Baldwin spoke, a different version of events emerged from his mouth,” said a court filing this spring from the special prosecutors.
Baldwin’s trial is expected to last about two weeks.
New Mexico
Los Alamos Sportsmen’s Club Shotgun League Members Compete At 76th Annual New Mexico State Trap Shoot
Los Alamos Shotgun League athletes shooting in the 76th Annual New Mexico State Trap Shoot in Raton are, from left, Alyssa Vigil, Mike O’Neill, Ben Salas, Jim Graham, and Vernon Vigil. Courtesy photo.
BY BARBARA VIGIL
Five Los Alamos Shotgun League athletes competed in the 76th Annual New Mexico State Trap Shoot recently at the Whittington Center in Raton. They are Alyssa Vigil and her father, Vernon Vigil, Mike O’Neill, Ben Salas, and Jim Graham.
Their scores and
Event 1 GRAF & Sons Singles in State Champion – Vernon Vigil – 98/100
Event 2 NMSTA Memorial Handicap Junior Gold – Alyssa Vigil – 1st place 95/100
Event 3 NMSTA HOF Doubles Class B – Alyssa Vigil – 1st place 90/100
Event 4 Winchester/White Flyer Singles in State Class C – Vernon Vigil – 1st place 97/100
Event 5 – GPT Twin PAK Handicap – Fourth Place in State Champion – Vernon Vigil – 93/100
Senior Vet – Mike O’Neill – 1st place 89/100
Junior Gold in State – Alyssa Vigil – 1st place 87/100
Event 6 – Quality Lube Doubles – Junior Gold – Alyssa Vigil – 1st place 88/100
Class D in State – Mike O’Neill – 1st place 83/100
Event 7 – Luke Bower Doubles Class B – Alyssa Vigil – 1st place 92/100
Event 8 – Aiden Brogdon Singles in State Champion – Alyssa Vigil – 100/100
Ben Salas Class AA 1st place 98/100
Vernon Vigil – Class C 1st place 96/100
Event 9 – John Algrim Handicap – Fourth place in State Champion – Ben Salas – 93/100
In State Junior Gold – Alyssa Vigil – 95/100
Event 10 New Mexico State Singles Champion
Event 11 New Mexico State Doubles Class A – Alyssa Vigil – 1st place 88/100
Event 12 New Mexico State Handicap Championship in State
HOA Junior Gold – Alyssa Vigil – 1199/1300
HOA Class C – Vernon Vigil – 1160/1300
Alyssa Vigil shot her first 100 Straight in Singles so she got to throw her hat for the other competitors to shoot at. She also received a leather shooting bag for becoming a member of the ATA Second State Team as a Junior with an average of 87.76.
Related
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – A 51-year-old man who is believed to be responsible for a fatal stabbing that happened early Saturday morning, July 6 in Las Cruces has been arrested and charged with murder, the Las Cruces Police Department (LCPD) announced via its Facebook page.
LCPD said William Clyde Turner, 51, is charged with one felony count of murder.
Las Cruces Police and Fire responded to a stabbing shortly after 3:30 a.m. Saturday on the 800 block of Avenida de Mesilla, according to LCPD.
The victim, later identified as Carlos Joseph Lakemper, 30, was found to have at least one stab wound to his back, according to LCPD.
LCPD said Lakemper was initially transported to MountainView Regional Medical Center and then to University Medical Center (UMC) of El Paso.
Lakemper died from his injuries shortly before 10 a.m. at UMC, according to LCPD.
LCPD said a witness identified the suspect who was charged by police.
Turner was booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center where he is initially being held without bond.
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