ALBUQUERQUE – On an unseasonably warm fall morning, a crowd of more than 500 people gathered outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building Nov. 15.

A diverse group, they assembled with a unified purpose: To protest the Dakota Access Pipeline as part of a nationwide display of solidarity for the people of Standing Rock, S.D.

The protest, which was organized by 350 New Mexico, drew support from numerous other local organizations including The Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch and Power Through Peace.

Since Sept. 9, members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and sympathizers to their cause have camped on the site of the proposed DAPL, halting its progress. Energy Transfer Partners...

Navajo Nation official also recognized

Patricia Lundstrom, the executive director at the Greater Gallup Economic Development Corporation, was named Economic Developer of the Year by the New Mexico IDEA. Lundstrom received the honor for her work with the newly planned Gallup Energy Logistics Park.

“Patty was chosen because of her impressive work in advancing, on multiple fronts, the Gallup Energy Logistics Park, which is a unique 2,500-acre rail and industrial project that will enhance McKinley County’s position in the global economy,” Therese Varela, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico IDEA, said.

Lundstrom’s nomination was made by Steve Vierck, the executive director of the...

Vacant buildings persist, official says

Officials from the city’s Business Improvement District gave the Gallup City Council an update on the organization at the Nov. 9 regular city meeting. Francis Bee, executive director at the BID, and Louie Bonaguidi, president of the BID’s board of directors and the proprietor of City Electric along Coal Avenue, spoke to council members.

Both Bee and Bonaguidi noted some of the organization’s successful programs and vowed to keep pounding the pavement to recruit new businesses and rectify delinquent BID accounts.

“A city’s reputation rests in large part on its downtown physical attributes,” Bonaguidi told council members from...