Here’s a look at today’s headlines:
The New Mexico Department of Health and the New Mexico Environment Department are monitoring air quality in New Mexico due to smoke from wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. These conditions may change on a daily basis. In areas without air quality monitoring equipment, visibility can serve as a good substitute in determining air quality. The departments remind residents to use the 5-3-1 approach to gauge air quality: When visibility starts to go below 5 miles, people in sensitive groups should start to minimize outdoor activity until air quality improves. When visibility starts to go below 3 miles, people in sensitive groups should avoid all outdoor activities until air quality improves. For everyone else: minimize outdoor activities when visibility starts to go below 3 miles. When visibility is below about one mile, everyone should be staying indoors.
The Silver City Town Council approved amendments to Sections 6-187 and 6-190 of the town’s municipal code regarding animals running loose and the providing of proper care and maintenance, sponsored by District 1 Councilor Cynthia Bettison. One amendment is “really is to ensure that folks have their animal on a lead when they’re out in public,” Bettison said. The other amendments prohibit single-point tethering of animals whether on public or private property, with exceptions for working, hunting, or search and rescue dogs. For those pet owners who have no enclosure or fenced yards, a trolley system of tethering is recommended. Access for the dog to shelter, fresh water and fresh food is the driving force behind the ban on single-point tethering, Bettison said.
At the 149th Birthday celebration of the founding of For Bayard in 1866, participants were treated to a short presentation by Florence Bowers about her husband’s great-grandfather, a Buffalo soldier who served at Fort Bayard, almost simultaneously with the founding; ragtime and fiddle music from the 1912 era; and a report on the demolition of the old Fort Bayard Medical Center facility. That Saturday evening, only posts stood where the chain link fence would be put in place on Sunday. By Monday, access to the area was limited.
Anthony Perez of Deming was recently sentenced in federal court in Las Cruces to 60 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release for his methamphetamine trafficking conviction. Perez was arrested on February 20, 2014, on a two-count indictment charging him and co-defendants Rebecca Torres and Matthew Peña, both of Deming, and Robert Snow, now deceased, with distributing methamphetamine in Doña Ana County.
