WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer signed a proclamation recognizing the month of Sept. 2020 as Navajo Nation Census Month to encourage the Navajo people to participate in the 2020 Census to ensure a complete count of all citizens on the Navajo Nation.

Every 10 years, the Census Bureau is required by the Constitution to conduct a count of the U.S. population. The federal government shortened this year’s census count by one month by imposing a deadline of Sept. 30. As of the signing of the proclamation, only 17.9-percent of households on the Navajo Nation had been counted.

“The 2020 Census Count is a prime opportunity to...

ALBUQUERQUE — American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Stephanie Ly and Executive Vice President Kathy Chavez released the following statement Sept. 9:

On Aug. 19, AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFT New Mexico President Stephanie Ly alerted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that many Pre-K-12 school re-openings around the state have not met the standard set by her administration for safety and consistency. As a union of educators, public employees, and healthcare workers, we outlined the following conditions necessary for a safe return to in-person instruction:

1. Low infection rates and adequate testing in any...

Whistleblower’s grievance reveals LANL tritium release over legal limit

SANTA FE —The New Mexico Environmental Law Center and Nuclear Watch New Mexico notified the Environmental Protection Agency Aug. 28 that its rubber stamping of plans by the Department of Energy and the Los Alamos National Laboratory to vent up to 114,000 curies of radioactive gaseous tritium is unacceptable.

The two organizations stated:

“We believe that EPA and DOE, as federal agencies mandated to serve and protect the public, need to entirely reconsider their decision to allow this tritium venting project to move forward. The venting project has been poorly thought out; it would put an inestimable number...

Week ending Friday, September 4, 2020

Wounded Ice

This summer’s record heat around icy areas of the Northern Hemisphere has left a “deep wound” in the planet’s cryosphere, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says.

It said the damage to the icy landscape came amid record Arctic heat, dwindling polar sea ice and the fracturing of what had been Canada’s last fully intact ice shelf.

WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis  called the Arctic heating at twice the global warming average a “vicious circle” that influences warming elsewhere.

“The rapid decline of sea ice in turn contributes to more warming, and so the circle goes on and the consequences do not stay in the...