Santa Fe’s high school graduation rates went up over the last school year, although one-third of students in the capital city still fail to graduate, or they don’t get their diplomas on time, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Santa Fe’s graduation numbers climbed 2.4 percentage points under the leadership of Superintendent Joel Boyd. Since he took the helm in 2012, the Journal found, the rate has gone up by 5-percent. Overall, though, New Mexico’s grad rate dropped 7/10th of a percent. Other districts that saw a drop from the 2014 to 2015 school year, include Albuquerque Public Schools, Las Cruces, and Rio Rancho. Santa Fe’s went up, along with Belen Public Schools, and schools in the Los Lunas district, south of Albuquerque.
New Mexico health officials are looking into the ability to do their own tests for the Zika virus as early as next month. KOAT-TV reports that the New Mexico Department of Health recently started running test samples in its Albuquerque lab. States have been sending potential samples to the Centers for Disease Control's lab in Fort Collins, Colorado. Officials say having the state conduct its own tests means New Mexicans could receive results much quicker. Department spokesman Dr. Paul Ettestad says the state lab is still trying to make sure it can adequately perform the testing.
National parks and monuments across New Mexico saw sharp increases in visitors last month. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that White Sands National Monument and Carlsbad Caverns are among the parks that saw a rise in March. Carlsbad Caverns National Park spokeswoman Valerie Gohlke says people have come despite the broken elevators. Carlsbad received more than 51,000 visits, the best for the month of March since 2008. White Sands near Alamogordo recorded more than 71,000 visits, the highest since 2002. The National Park System is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Gohlke says the marketing tied to the centennial, including an offer of free admission to fourth-graders and their families were likely factors. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates New Mexico's national parks annually draw 1.6 million visits.
Santa Fe is considering establishing a program that would allow impaired drivers to leave vehicles overnight without the threat of a parking ticket. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that Mayor Javier Gonzales is pushing a proposal for a parking voucher program aimed at inebriated motorists. Under the initiative, a driver would be able to leave their vehicle in the downtown area until 10:30 a.m. the following day. Parking enforcement officers typically start issuing tickets for meter violations around 8 a.m. The idea was introduced to the City Council on Wednesday. It is part of a larger effort to reduce drunk driving while encouraging people to spend more money downtown.
Researchers who studied a river in Colorado after a massive mine spill say runoff from fall storms kicked up the levels of some contaminants in the water but not others. A report released Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency may offer clues about what will happen this year when melting mountain snow makes the Animas River run higher, potentially stirring up pollutants that settled to the bottom. An EPA cleanup crew inadvertently unleashed 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater from the Gold King Mine in August. The spill polluted rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The Mountain Studies Institute in Silverton monitored the river about 60 miles downstream from the mine for the EPA. Its report said concentrations of six contaminants increased after some storms, while the levels of five others decreased. Seven didn't change.
A Farmington family is featured in the latest episode of a National Geographic Channel series produced by actor Morgan Freeman. Michele Peterson tells the Farmington Daily Times that she and her family got to work with the star for an installment of "The Story of God with Morgan Freeman," which airs Sunday. The program follows Freeman as he travels around the globe to explore different cultures and religions. Peterson says her 12-year-old daughter re-enacted parts of the Kinaalda, a four-day womanhood ceremony for Navajo girls. She says meeting Freeman was a delight and he asked a lot of questions. Executive producer James Younger says filming took place near the Shiprock pinnacle in November. He says the Petersons appear in about eight minutes of the 50-minute episode.
A former U.S. Postal Service employee in New Mexico has been sentenced to one year of probation for opening and destroying mail. Federal prosecutors say 33-year-old Phillip Duran, of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge Thursday. After entering his guilty plea, Duran also was ordered to pay an $800 fine. Duran was charged last month with unlawfully opening other people's mail while employed as a U.S. Postal Service officer. Prosecutors say Duran committed the crime between November 2015 and January 2016 in San Miguel County.
State and federal officials will be gathering in northern New Mexico next week to begin discussions about restoration projects aimed at offsetting damage stemming from mining operations in Questa. The state, the U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department will be seeking public comment during a meeting next Wednesday regarding projects that would benefit groundwater and other aquatic resources in the area. The ideas will be evaluated and included in a draft environmental assessment. Any projects that are selected would be funded from a natural resources damage settlement that was approved by a federal judge in September 2015. The agreement required Chevron Mining Inc. to pay $4 million for restoration work and transfer 225 acres of land in Taos County to the Bureau of Land Management.
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Dead turtles have recently washed ashore along the Gulf Coast, and members of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies are working find out why. A TV station in the area reports officials are trying to determine if the turtle deaths are linked to the BP oil spill in the Gulf that happened in 2010. Wendy Hatchett, IMMS veterinarian technician, says the spike in deaths has officials concerned. She says whether its red tide or deaths left over from the oil spill, they really don't have a clue until tissue can be analyzed. So far this year, 48 dead Kemps Ridley turtles have washed ashore across the Gulf Coast; including one turtle recovered Sunday and three on Saturday.
The Supreme Court is taking up an important dispute over immigration that could affect millions of people who are living in the country illegally. The Obama administration is asking the justices in arguments Monday to allow it to put in place two programs that could shield roughly 4 million people from deportation and make them eligible to work in the United States. Texas is leading 26 states dominated by Republicans in challenging the programs President Barack Obama announced in 2014 and that lower courts have put on hold. The high court is expected to decide by late June whether the efforts can move forward in the waning months of Obama's presidency. A ruling will come amid a presidential campaign that has been marked by harsh Republican rhetoric over immigration.