An Environmental Protection Agency official says she doesn't believe wildlife will suffer significant health impacts from the large volume of wastewater that spilled from an abandoned mine in southwestern Colorado. The EPA also said Sunday the amount of wastewater that spilled from Colorado's Gold King Mine into the Animas River is three times larger than its initial estimate. The agency says three-million gallons spilled into the river Wednesday and Thursday, instead of one-million. The revision came after the EPA used a stream gauge from the U.S. Geological Survey. EPA toxicologist Deborah McKean says the sludge laced with heavy metals moved so quickly after the spill that it would not have harmed animals that consumed it. The EPA still doesn't know if there are any health risks posed to people or aquatic life.
New Mexico State Police are searching for a fugitive accused of reversing his vehicle toward a Las Vegas police officer and hitting a patrol car early Saturday. NMSP says the officer located a vehicle that matched the description of one involved in a shooting two weeks earlier in the Las Vegas area. When the officer approached the vehicle, he said he saw Marvin Maestas in the vehicle with a rifle. Maestas was a suspect in the shooting. State police say the officer gave verbal commands, but Maestas ignored them and reversed the vehicle toward the officer, striking a patrol car. The suspect then fled the area. According to NMSP, the officer fired his weapon during the incident. Maestas currently has a warrant out for his arrest. Anyone with information about Manetas’s whereabouts should contact New Mexico State Police
The chief financial officer for Albuquerque Public Schools has been placed on paid administrative leave for reasons that aren't being publicly revealed. The Albuquerque Journal reports that Chief Financial Officer Don Moya was placed on paid administrative leave Friday. APS spokeswoman Johanna King says she couldn't provide information about the reasons for the leave or how long it might last because Moya's status is considered a personnel matter. Moya became chief financial officer in July 2010. In 2013, Moya entered the public fray over what some teachers and parents said was excessive state-required testing for students. Previously, Moya served as deputy secretary for finance and operations at the New Mexico Public Education Department.
A sheriff says a French couple who perished during an afternoon hike across the searing New Mexico desert likely saved their nine-year-old son by giving him two sips for each one they took from their water bottles before the supply was exhausted. Otero County Sheriff Benny House says that the boy was in remarkably good shape when he was found alongside his dead father on a trail in the White Sands National Monument. They were located about an hour after park rangers found the mother dead Tuesday. House identified the couple as 42-year-old David Steiner and his 51-year-old wife, Ornella Steiner. They were tourists from the small town of Bourgogne (BEHR'-goyn-ya) near the city of Reims, France. The couple apparently died from heat-related causes.
Authorities in Las Cruces have released surveillance video in an effort to help identify a person of interest in two explosions that startled churchgoers last Sunday. At a news conference last week, an FBI spokeswoman said the agency has located two devices and believes the explosions are connected. A 20-thousand dollar reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest in the case. No one was hurt in the explosions outside the Holy Cross Catholic Church and Calvary Baptist Church, which reportedly occurred about 20 minutes apart. But authorities say the explosives could have killed or seriously injured someone nearby. The video released by the FBI shows a man wearing a dark blue T-shirt, plaid shorts and hiking boots carrying a package or bag in the Baptist church's parking lot.
Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye has signed into law a proposal to tax alcoholic beverages sold in the tribe's casinos. The three-and-a-quarter-percent tax is expected to raise 73-thousand dollars a year. The revenue would go into a fund administered by the tribe's Division of Public Safety to combat drunken driving on the reservation. Tribal officials say the tax is directed on retailers and distributors, but consumers are responsible for paying it. People legally can buy alcohol and drink it only in tribal casinos and at a tribal marina at Lake Powell in Page. The measure was previously approved by lawmakers for the Navajo Nation.
Santa Fe Weather: Showers and thunderstorms likely between this afternoon and tonight, with an 80-percent chance for rain today, dropping to 70-percent tonight with some of the storms producing heavy rain. Today’s high, 82, tonight’s low dipping to 59. Tomorrow: Partly sunny with a 50-percent chance for rain and the high reaching 82.