Here’s a look at today’s headlines:
Give Grandly-Give Local is an opportunity to create a culture of giving by focusing donations to local non-profits in a short 24-hour window. The Grant County Community Foundation sponsors the event locally. Last year Grant County raised $56,852 for 37 non-profits in 24 hours. This year in addition to the online giving non-profits will provide information on their work and entertainment in Gough Park on May 5 from 11 to 6. Freeport McMoRan is offering $1,000 matching grants to the following participating: First Born, Friends of the Library, WILL, The Learning Center for Dyslexia and Academic Success, Literacy Link – Leamos, Guadalupe Montessori, Gila Valley Library, and the Southwest Festival of the Written Word. Freeport is also contributing $1,000 to Imagination Library even though they are not participating in Give Grandly! KURU has an additional $500 matching grant, and the Gila Valley Library another $1,000 matching grant.
A 29 year-old Silver City man was arrested Monday night after leading Silver City Police in a car chase through Silver City. The suspect threatened a female passenger in his car with a gun, ran into a residence after being tasered by police and after being cornered in the residence, told police he was going to “kill himself” or shoot the police. A Silver City Police Captain was able to talk him out of the residence and he was placed in custody and booked at the Grant County Detention Center.
US Senator Tom Udall issued the following statement after the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted to move his bipartisan Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act to the full Senate: “I want to thank all of the members of the committee for their thoughtful consideration of our legislation to finally overhaul the failed 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act [and] their work to improve key protections for consumers and to give states greater power to restrict chemicals and enforce laws,” Udall said. The bill ensures the Environmental Protection Agency has the ability to regulate and ban dangerous chemicals for the first time since 1991, when a court ruled that the EPA could not even ban asbestos. The Udall-Vitter bill dramatically improves current law by requiring EPA to consider only the health and safety impacts of a chemical — never the cost or burden to manufacturers — when assessing chemicals for safety. It ensures special protections for those most vulnerable from chemicals — defined in the bill as pregnant women, infants, the elderly and chemical workers.
US Senator Martin Heinrich yesterday received the National Park Heritage Award from the National Parks Conservation Association for his efforts to secure major public lands bills in the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, which included the largest expansion of the National Park System in nearly three decades. Senator Heinrich was recognized for his recent work to pass into law provisions to transition the Valles Caldera National Preserve to new management to increase public access and establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Los Alamos.
