NEW MEXICO

State’s film industry gains amid abortion fights elsewhere

SANTA FE – New Mexico’s film industry appears to be on the brink of a boom due to abortion law controversies in other states and expanded incentives.

A recent spike in film production in the state comes as Hollywood targets both Georgia and Louisiana over recently passed restrictive abortion laws, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

The political developments are being watched closely in New Mexico, which is poised to benefit even though state officials have said there’s no organized campaign to lure film productions from those states.

The jump also comes as New Mexico is set to more than double its annual state spending cap on film incentives.

In addition, NBCUniversal announced it will build a television and film studio in a warehouse district just north of downtown Albuquerque as it seeks to expand its footprint in one of the fastest-growing film production hubs in the country.

The New Mexico Film Office said the coming Amazon TV series production “The Power” reached out to New Mexico because of Georgia’s political climate.

“The Power” will be a 10-part series based on Naomi Alderman’s 2016 novel in which women around the world suddenly gain the ability to electrocute people.

New Mexico was one of the first states to launch a film incentive program in 2003 and upped the ante with a new package of film and TV incentives passed by lawmakers during this year’s 60-day legislative session and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in March.

NORTH DAKOTA

$1.6B pipeline proposed to move crude oil

BISMARCK – Two companies are proposing a $1.6 billion pipeline to move North Dakota crude oil, making it the biggest such project to move oil out of the state since the Dakota Access pipeline that sparked violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement in 2016 and 2017.

Houston-based Phillips 66 and Casper, Wyoming-based Bridger Pipeline announced the joint venture called Liberty Pipeline. It’s designed to move 350,000 barrels of oil daily – the bulk of which from western North Dakota’s oil patch – to the nation’s biggest storage terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma. From there, the companies said shippers can access multiple Gulf Coast destinations.

The 24-inch pipeline would start in Guernsey, Wyoming, and end in Cushing, Oklahoma, Bridger Pipeline spokesman Bill Salvin said.

A separate 55-mile, 16-inchNorth Dakota line would run through the west-central part of the state, travel south though Montana and connect with the Liberty Pipeline at Guernsey, Salvin said.

North Dakota is the nation’s second-biggest oil producer behind Texas. The state’s oil production is pegged at 1.4 million barrels daily.

The $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline, which has the capacity to move about half of the oil produced daily in North Dakota, has been moving North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois since June 2017.

Native American tribes and other groups that feared environmental harm from the pipeline staged large protests that resulted in more than 760 arrests in southern North Dakota over a six-month span beginning in late 2016.

NEBRASKA

Strong job market hampers FEMA hiring

LINCOLN – The Federal Emergency Management Agency is facing an unexpected challenge in meeting the needs of the many people affected by this spring’s widespread flooding and violent storms: a strong economy.

Tasked with responding to natural disasters that seem ever more frequent and destructive, the agency finds itself further challenged by the robust job market and an inability to match what the private sector can offer, in many cases.

FEMA officials are turning for help to retirees, recent college graduates and those who lost their jobs to the disasters, though they’re finding few available workers in many of the rural communities that are in some of the hardest-hit areas.

In no place is that clearer than Nebraska and Iowa, which were ravaged by floods and have some of the nation’s lowest unemployment rates. Iowa had the third-lowest unemployment rate in April, at 2.4 percent, while Nebraska’s was the ninth-lowest, at 2.9 percent.

FEMA has gone to job fairs and sent emails to about 20 local colleges, with a focus on students who might be interested in an emergency management career, Doering said. He said the agency tries to focus on hiring students, retirees, veterans and those who lost their jobs or homes in the natural disasters. The agency also is working with the Nebraska Department of Labor to recruit employees.

FEMA officials are dealing with the same problem nationally, though they say it hasn’t hindered their ability to respond to disasters.

UTAH

Son who spoke out against polygamous leader dies

SALT LAKE CITY – A man who spoke out against his infamous father who led a polygamous sect has died, his sister said.

Roy Jeffs was abused sexually and psychologically as a child by his father Warren Jeffs, and died by suicide May 29, his sister and brother said. He was 26.

He was determined to tell his story to help other loved ones break away from the group controlled by their father, who is serving a life prison sentence in Texas after being convicted of sexually assaulting girls he considered wives.

Roy Jeffs told The Associated Press in 2015 that his father controlled the group based along the Utah-Arizona state line with an iron fist, separating families and banning things such as movies and bicycles.

He said his father imposed his control over followers by reassigning children and wives to different men, sending people to “houses of hiding” and wielding the constant threat of exile. Cellphones, toys, movies, the internet, bicycles and even swimming were strictly forbidden.

KANSAS

Zoo: Protocols weren’t followed before tiger attack

TOPEKA – A veteran zookeeper didn’t follow procedures for handling potentially dangerous animals in April when she was attacked at the Topeka Zoo by a tiger, zoo officials said.

A report detailing the zoo’s internal investigation says “multiple” zoo protocols that dictate what should happen before a person enters a space previously occupied by a tiger had prevented attacks at the zoo for decades.

“On the morning of April 20, a staff person omitted the crucial step of locking the tiger inside prior to the staff person entering the outdoor habitat,” according to the report.

Although he didn’t use her name, Zoo Director Brendan Wiley said in an email that the zookeeper who was injured, Kristyn Hayden-Ortega, was responsible for closing the gate.

Hayden-Ortega suffered puncture wounds and cuts to her head, neck and back when a 7-year-old Sumatran tiger named Sanjiv pounced on her. She was hospitalized after the attack.

Shortly after the attack, the zoo implemented a policy requiring an employee to check locks, doors and the location of animals before a second employee enters a space open to a potentially dangerous animal. That policy was already in place for elephants and apes and now applies to all carnivores.

Zoo officials didn’t consider euthanizing Sanjiv, who they said reacted normally to someone being in his habitat.