ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Viruses are in the air and very contagious this time of the year and there are some steps you can take to keep yourself well.

According to the New Mexico Department of Health, now until February is prime time for seasonal viruses like COVID, RSV and the flu. The virus circulating the most now, NMHealth officials say, is COVID. They’re seeing COVID pop up three times as much as flu or RSV but say we could soon see RSV cases rise in New Mexico.

“With RSV, what we’re seeing is the southeast of the United States, the cases are starting to go up, and usually the pattern is, it goes up in the southeast and then shortly we see it in New Mexico,” said Miranda Durham, the chief medical officer at NMHealth.

It can be confusing because they all share similar symptoms, like a runny nose, having a cough and body aches. Durham said flu and COVID both share the symptom of having a fever and a linger cough with RSV.

To prevent these illnesses, officials say washing your hands, wearing a mask if you have symptoms, staying home and getting your vaccines is paramount.

“Number one for prevention is vaccines. And it’s really not too late. We hear a lot about vaccines in the early fall. If you have put it off and think its too late, it’s not too late. Right now, is a great time to go and get vaccinated,” Durham stated.

Durham added your body needs two weeks to build the maximum protection against viruses when you get a vaccine.

For more information about vaccines and where to get them, visit this website.

For the TCU Horned Frogs, it’s again the most wonderful time of the year – College Football Bowl Season! On Sunday, TCU was selected to play in the Isleta New Mexico Bowl against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (10-3). The New Mexico Bowl kicks off Saturday, Dec. 28, at 1:15 p.m. CT from University Stadium in Albuquerque, N.M. Catch the game on ESPN.

What can TCU fans expect from the Frogs’ final foe of the 2024 season? Let’s dive in.

Despite sitting in neighboring states, TCU hasn’t faced Louisiana on the gridiron before. Don’t call them “ULL” or “Louisiana-Lafayette” – that moniker was dumped very publicly a few years back. To be official, the university’s official name is the Univerty of Louisiana at Lafayette, but that isn’t used for athletics.

This season, Louisiana went 10-3 and finished as Sun Belt Conference runners up. Despite a lame duck head coach, Marshall upended them, 31-3, in the title game played in Lafayette.

This year marks the seventh-straight bowl game from a program that recently has been excellent. Head coach Michael Desormeaux took over the program after Billy Napier left for Florida and accrued a 23-17 record over three years. This year may have saved Desormeaux from finding a new position, as he led Louisiana to consecutive 6-7 seasons. He was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year last week.

Starting quarterback and Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year Ben Wooldridge unfortunately suffered a broken collarbone in Week 13 and won’t play in this game. His backup, Chandler Fields, is a sixth-year senior with 35 games of experience. Fields exited the Sun Belt Championship with an injury and true freshman Daniel Beale stepped in relief.

Fields’ status for the bowl game isn’t certain. However, this would be his last opportunity to play for Louisiana, as his eligibility expires after this bowl game. Barring serious injury–which it didn’t appear to be–Fields likely starts the New Mexico Bowl.

Six Ragin’ Cajuns were named First Team All-Sun Belt: Wooldridge, tight end Terrance Carter (of Killeen, TX), offensive linemen A.J. Gillie and Landon Burton, linebacker K.C. Ossai, and kicker Kenneth Almendares. Five others earned second and third team honors.

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What makes Louisiana so difficult to defend is how multiple the team is. Two players, WR Lance LeGendre and TE Terrance Carter, combine for over 1,700 yards and 10 touchdowns. Three players rushed at least 65 times for over 450 yards, with two–Bill Davis and Zylan Perry–rushing for over 600 yards and 13 combined touchdowns.

Through the air, Wooldridge was an excellent distributor, leading to the success of multiple pass catchers. His absence certainly hurts the Louisiana passing attack. Though undersized (5′ 10″), Fields is experienced and seasoned in the system. He completed about 65% of his career passes with 23 touchdowns and just eight interceptions (compare to Wooldridge’s 61%, 38 TDs, 11 INTs). Either player is capable of running the offense.

Another key to the successful passing game–and run game–is a strong offensive line led by two all-conference selections. That line gave up sacks on fewer than 4.5% of dropbacks, good for the 34th-best number nationally and fourth-best in the Sun Belt.

As efficient as the offense is, the defense lacks. Louisiana surrendered 30 points four times this year, including most recently in the Sun Belt Championship. While the points per game measure is solid (24.5 ppg allowed is 55th), teams move the ball better against this defense than most. Louisiana ranks 108th in rushing efficiency allowed.

The weakness to the defense is in the front seven, meaning TCU may have to lean more into the ground game to find offensive success. The Louisiana secondary is the strength of the unit, but the Ragin’ Cajuns rank just 64th in passing efficiency allowed.

Per ESPN’s strength of record metric, Louisiana ranks 48th, behind 7-5 Boston College and 6-6 Washington.

Team: Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns

Record: 10-3 (7-2 Sun Belt)

Coach: Michael Desormeaux (third season)

Scoring Offense: 32.5 points per game (28th)

Scoring Defense: 24.5 points allowed per game (55th)

*Notes Sun Belt Championship game.

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A new chapter in the decade-long lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court over Rio Grande water is set to begin.

After a close, 5-4 ruling from the Supreme Court dashed a proposed deal to end the litigation, the federal government and states of Colorado, New Mexico and Texas have been ordered back to mediation, which begins Tuesday in Washington D.C.

In addition to the parties, there will be attorneys for groups including farming interests, the cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces, water utilities and irrigation districts, joining the talks.

In 2013, Texas sued New Mexico, alleging that groundwater pumping in southern New Mexico diverted water out of the Rio Grande owed to Texas violating the 86-year old agreement called the Rio Grande Compact. Signed in 1938, the compact divided use of the Rio Grande between Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

Only the Supreme Court has the power to rule on disputes between states.

A dispute over baselines for groundwater

One of the core disagreements between the federal government and the three states is determining how much groundwater pumping needs to be cut along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico. In the arid region, water is crucial for growing crops like chile and pecans, and both groundwater and water from the Rio Grande are used for irrigation.

In the rejected settlement agreement, the states requested a baseline adjusted to more groundwater pumping and drought conditions determined by an equation called the “D2 curve.”

The D2 curve was used as part of a 2008 settlement ending a fight between the irrigation districts and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation over drought concerns.

Alternately, the federal government has previously asked for the states to adopt restrictions from when the compact was first signed.

The states will continue to argue for the D2 curve baseline, said James Grayson, the chief deputy for the New Mexico Department of Justice.

“In 1938, there was essentially no groundwater being used, and so the United States is essentially advocating to go back to that time and that way of using only surface water,” Grayson said.

The City of Las Cruces and the New Mexico Attorney General have urged federal officials in recent months to make a deal with the states before the start of Donald Trump’s presidency in January and compromise on its position to drastically limit groundwater pumping in southern New Mexico.

New Mexico’s congressional delegation asks feds to wrap up Rio Grande lawsuit

In a Nov. 14 letter, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, appealed to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Halaand to drop the objections.

“Time is running out,” Torrez wrote. “And I am pleading with you to resolve this issue for the benefit of all parties, but especially for the people of southern New Mexico, rather than leaving the matter to become a political bargaining chip for the next administration.”

In an October letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the City of Las Cruces stated that cutting pumping to a 1938 level would reduce the city’s groundwater use by 93%.

This action “would cripple farmers, families and communities in southern New Mexico,” and would require the state’s second-largest city to find a new source of water, requiring a $1 billion investment and take about 15 years to put into place.

In 2023 testimony before lawmakers, state officials said New Mexico would need to cut groundwater use in southern New Mexico by at least 17,000 acre-feet to meet the deal set by the D2 curve baseline, by reducing pecan and chile fields. If the 1938 standard was required, cuts would need to be in the hundreds of thousands of acre-feet.

How we got here

The contours of the dispute have changed since the case was first brought in 2013. Drought conditions in the early 2000s sparked a protracted series of water lawsuits in lower courts between the federal government, states, cities and counties and irrigation districts along the Rio Grande.

In 2019, the high court unanimously allowed the U.S. federal government to intervene as a party in the case, arguing that a series of federal dams, irrigation canals and ditches were threatened by New Mexico’s groundwater pumping. That federal infrastructure is used to deliver Rio Grande water to Mexico under a 1906 treaty and also meets agreements with two regional irrigation districts.

While the federal government initially sided with Texas in the lawsuit, a series of compromises eventually put the states in one camp and the federal government (and the regional irrigation districts) in another.

Colorado, New Mexico and Texas came to an eleventh-hour settlement in 2022, but the federal government objected and said that the deal couldn’t be made without their agreement.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the federal government’s objections, rejecting the proposed deal.

Earlier this year, justices appointed a new special master, who oversees the progress of the case.

After an October hearing, Judge D. Brooks Smith ordered the parties into mediation, which starts Tuesday and will end Thursday, but could continue to be extended. If mediation talks break down entirely, the parties will resume going to trial.