Rio Arriba County Commissioners are meeting this morning in Espanola, presumably to fire Sheriff Tommy Rodella. Despite being convicted last Friday of federal charges, the Albuquerque Journal reports that Rodella will not resign. Santa Fe District Attorney Angela Pacheco says Rio Arriba County "needs to have a duly qualified sheriff to ensure the protection of the public" and the commission needs to appoint a replacement. The Commission is meeting in executive session, where personnel matters are discussed. Rodella faces up to 17 years in prison on charges of pulling his gun on a driver and violating a 26-year-old man's civil rights. He’ll be sentenced the day after Christmas in Albuquerque.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s recovery plan for cleaning up and resuming operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico calls for spending more than 240-million dollars. The D-O-E released its WIPP recovery plan Tuesday. It outlines what needs to be done to safely decontaminate the underground facility by early 2016. Shipments of plutonium-contaminated waste from federal installations around the country have been on hold since February. That's when a truck fire and an unrelated release of radiation several days later forced the closure of the the plant. WIPP is the nation’s only permanent repository for waste such as contaminated gloves, tools and clothing from decades of nuclear bomb building.
The Obama administration is spending four-million dollars on lawyers for unaccompanied immigrant children in deportation proceedings, a move an influential Republican lawmaker says is illegal and will fuel an increase in illegal immigration. Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, said Tuesday it is the first time the office that oversees programs for unaccompanied immigrant children will provide money for direct legal representation. The grants to two organizations are part of a bigger nine-million dollar project that aims to provide lawyers to 26-hundred children. The move comes after the number of Central American children arriving on the U.S.-Mexico border surged this past year, many of them fleeing violence. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (good-latt) says the move encourages illegal immigration.
Federal biologists say there's no danger of the native Rio Grande cutthroat trout going extinct now or in the foreseeable future. The finding announced Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a blow to environmentalists' efforts to get the fish added to the list of endangered species. The Center for Biological Diversity argues that the trout are gone from nearly 90 percent of their range in New Mexico and Colorado and that populations are declining. The Fish and Wildlife Service says it reviewed the best available scientific and commercial information before deciding not to list the fish. Known for the red slash marks below its jaw and its large irregular spots, the Rio Grande cutthroat was the first North American trout to be recorded by Spanish explorers centuries ago.
A state Democratic Party official alleges ethical misconduct by a Democratic legislator who has broken party ranks to back Republican Governor Susana Martinez on some issues. An ethics complaint against Representative Sandra Jeff of Crownpoint was filed Tuesday with the secretary of state's office by Democratic Party Executive Director Jon Lipshutz, who alleges the legislator was improperly reimbursed twice for some expenses. The complaint said Jeff received about 21-hundred dollars in taxpayer money for mileage and per diem payments for legislative trips last November and December, and she reimbursed herself with nearly 13-hundred from her campaign for "gas and food" during the same time. Jeff didn't immediately respond to an email and telephone message seeking comment. She lost in the Democratic primary and is a write-in candidate in the general election.
The former speaker of the Navajo Nation Council has pleaded guilty in a scheme to divert nearly 37-thousand dollars to his family. Johnny Naize entered his plea Tuesday to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery. He originally faced 11 counts of bribery and conspiracy. Prosecutors dropped those charges as part of an agreement with Naize to resolve the case. Naize will be sentenced to probation, community service and possibly jail time at a later date. He could be called to testify against former colleagues. The tribe's retirement office is withholding deferred compensation for Naize until the tribe decides whether to seek restitution. The tribe's elections office says the guilty plea would have forced Naize from his position as speaker and a council delegate had he not resigned Monday.
Santa Fe Weather: Mostly sunny today with a high of 71. Tonight: Partly cloudy with the overnight low, 38. Tomorrow: Sunny skies with the high, 66.