SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has appointed Julie J. Vargas to the state Supreme Court, closing the vacancy left by the Honorable Justice Judith K. Nakamura, who retired Dec. 1.

“Judge Vargas has demonstrated her quality as a consistent and conscientious jurist,” Lujan Grisham said. “She is a fair, trustworthy and thoughtful representative of New Mexico’s judicial system, and I know New Mexico will benefit from her service now as a justice.”

Vargas has served as a judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals since her election in 2016, reviewing District Court decisions and drafting opinions, in addition to evaluating court performance measures and implementing a...

Week ending Friday, December 11, 2020

La Niña Persists

U.S. forecasters predict there is a 95% chance the current moderate La Niña episode will prevail until at least March, triggering a unique set of global weather shifts. They add there is a chance it will peak in the strong range during January. While El Niños typically last just one year, La Niñas often fade, then redevelop the following year. Australian meteorologists say the ocean-cooling across the tropical Pacific can probably be linked to a cyclone-like storm that was lashing the coast of Queensland in mid-December. The deepening climate crisis is also said to be a factor in that storm and accompanying...

from the Center for Biological Diversity and its newsletter Endangered Earth

JUDGE HALTS PLAN TO FRACK 60,000 ACRES IN UTAH

Thanks to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and its allies, on Dec. 11 a judge overturned the Trump Administration’s plan to lease out more than 60,000 acres of public land for fracking in northern Utah’s Uintah Basin, including areas near Dinosaur National Monument.

“This is a strong rebuke of Trump’s disastrous fracking frenzy across our public lands, which is destroying the climate, wildlife and frontline communities,” the Center’s Taylor McKinnon said. “President-elect Biden’s ban on new federal fossil fuel leasing can’t...

On this, the next to the last day of the year, Navajo Nation nurse Raymond Joe, was taken to his final resting place after succumbing to COVID-19. KOB-TV's Nathan O'Neal reported that Joe, a 48-year-old combat veteran  was among the first health care workers to draw attention to the dangers of the novel coronavirus on the Navajo Nation.

Joe's common law wife, Eugenia Johnson, said Joe was one of the few people in the region who was fluent in Navajo and as a nurse, he used to go out into the Navajo Nation, parts of Shiprock, Kirtland, and Cove to see patients.

In November, both Joe and Johnson, who is also a nurse on the Navajo Nation, contracted the virus. While she recovered, Joe got...