By Julia Goldberg | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning, folks. It’s Monday. Hope your holiday weekends were the right combinations of festive and relaxing. We’re just getting going here, but have a few new stories below to kick off your news week, with more on the way at sourcenm.com. Thanks for being here!
The Sunspot Solar Observatory, pictured in 2022, is slated for demolition after liquid mercury leaked from the main telescope. (Photo courtesy of New Mexico State University and Josh Bachman)
New Mexico residents push to save nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory as demolition nears
Source senior reporter Joshua Bowling reports a coalition of New Mexico residents are pushing to save the nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains near Alamogordo, after the National Science Foundation announced its plans to demolish the site.
A man fills his water tank at a well a few miles from the Hopi village of Mishongnovi, on the tribe’s northern Arizona reservation. (Photo by Sharon Chischilly for ProPublica)
Native American tribes came together to secure their rights to Colorado River water
ProPublica reports that a deal to bring Colorado River water to Native American communities in northern Arizona is being blocked by neighboring states, including New Mexico. Opposition from the so-called Upper Basin states has stalled what would be the largest tribal water rights settlement in U.S. history.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sent a letter late last week requesting a wide range of materials from federal law enforcement agencies that could shed light on federal agents’ practice of allowing shipments of fentanyl into New Mexico. (Photo by Danielle Prokop/Source NM))
NMDOJ seeks records related to federal drug agents’ fentanyl investigations in NM
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is formally seeking a wide array of records related to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s fentanyl investigations in New Mexico between 2022 and 2025. That’s the time period during which allegations have been made agents allowed large quantities of the drug to enter communities without seizing them.
Emergency management experts from Western states last week discussed efforts at FEMA reform and the agency's continued lack of wildfire focus. (Photo courtesy Ellen Jaskol/WGA)
Western US emergency experts say FEMA response still favors East Coast hurricanes over Western fires
A group of emergency management experts from Western states, including New Mexico, recently convened in Utah for the Western Governors’ Association annual meeting and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to prioritize hurricanes and other Eastern perils over much more common wildfires in the West.
ICYMI
Thanks for reading!
We're reading New Mexico Magazine’s latest roundup of state trails.
Thanks for reading Direct From the Source. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.