With his presidency now nearing its end, Donald Trump is rushing through a process to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain to lease for oil drilling.

The administration has invited oil companies to name the areas they’d like to drill in one of the nation’s most iconic and sacred landscapes. The Center for Biological Diversity joined Indigenous groups this week in condemning the move.

“On his way out the door, Trump is trying to lock in climate chaos and the extinction of polar bears and other endangered Arctic species. This is unconscionable,” the Center’s Kristen Monsell said. “The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge can’t be replaced, so we can’t...

 

 

 

People in the East Wilson and East Pershing areas were left without water from about 3:45 pm Nov. 28 to approximately 5 pm, when an unscheduled leaking water line on Second Street was discovered around 9 am and the Gallup Water Department worked to make repairs there.

Dennis Romero, Executive Director of Water and Sanitation for Gallup told the Sun that the leak was in a pipe with flowable fill, a workable slurry of cement which adds weight around the pipe and weakens it when it hardens.

The pipe had a lengthwise crack.

In order to make the repair, water pressure was killed to the East Pershing and East Wilson area in the afternoon, but was restored by around 5 pm.

In keeping with the Christmas holiday season, the state has announced a tiered “red to green” system which is meant to help counties reopen further when they meet key health metrics.

The shift in the state’s “reopening” framework will come after a two-week “reset” period, in which state health officials enacted the most heightened level of statewide public health restrictions upon places of business and day-to-day activities in an effort to blunt the spread of COVID-19 all across New Mexico.

“The county-by-county framework enables counties, and the businesses and nonprofits within their borders, to operate with fewer restrictions when they slow the spread of the virus...