Week ending Friday, December 24, 2021


Arctic Beavers

Beavers are slowly migrating farther north into the Arctic due to the warming climate, producing what a new U.S. government report says is a “significant impact” on the landscape.  NOAA’s Arctic Report Card 2021 says western Alaska has seen a doubling of its beaver population to more than 12,000 during the past 20 years, compared to none between 1949 and 1955. Their dams are increasing surface water and adding to the rate of permafrost melt, which in turn releases the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide. The ponds are also said to be helping new fish and invertebrate species move in.

Earthquakes

A temblor along the...

A call for a domestic dispute led to deputies being assaulted by a suspect.

McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeremy Shirley arrived at the residence on Portal Avenue in Gamerco about 6:29 pm on Dec. 12. He met the calling party, who told him her husband, Joseph Harker, 37, of Gamerco, went to Kirkland to pick up their children. However, she said her oldest daughter had to drive the children home and pick her up from work because her husband sounded intoxicated.

The caller said she and her husband began arguing on the drive back to their residence. She told him to get out of the vehicle, but he refused, and it escalated when they got back to Gamerco and she wanted him removed from...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Brodie Coonsis, 28, of Zuni, N.M., and an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Zuni, pleaded guilty on Dec. 27 in federal court to second-degree murder in Indian Country.

According to the plea agreement and other court documents, Coonsis shot and killed John Doe on Feb. 26 at John Doe’s residence in Zuni. Coonsis, who had been using drugs and was upset with John Doe, travelled to the victim’s house on the Pueblo of Zuni. After John Doe opened the door, Coonsis fired his shotgun four times as he followed the victim up the stairs, eventually killing him.

Coonsis is currently in custody pending his sentencing, which has not been scheduled. He faces up to life in...

The New Mexico Minimum Wage increased to $11.50 an hour on Jan. 1. This increase is in accordance with an amendment to the New Mexico Minimum Wage Act signed into law by Governor Lujan Grisham on April 1, 2019.


Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, the wage rate is as follows:

 

State minimum wage: $11.50 per hour

State tipped minimum wage: $2.80 per hour


The 2022 Minimum Wage Act Summary poster is required by businesses to display in a place where employees can easily see it.


Minimum wage is the lowest wage that an employer is legally required to pay to workers. NMDWS enforces the state and federal minimum wage. Please be advised that the City of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, the...