NEW MEXICO

Jailed Cowboys for Trump leader urged to quit county office

ALAMOGORDO – A New Mexico county official who runs the group Cowboys for Trump and who was arrested in connection with the riot at the U.S. Capitol is facing calls to resign.

Otero County Commissioners Gerald Matherly and Vickie Marquardt demanded in a statement Jan. 19 that fellow district commissioner Couy Griffin step down immediately.

They say his arrest Jan. 17 by the FBI is a culmination of a series of investigations and lawsuits stemming from his promotion of Cowboys for Trump.

Griffin faces charges of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol. He did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.

According to court documents, Griffin told investigators that he was “caught up” in the crowd, which pushed its way through the barricades and entered the restricted area of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But he said he never entered the building and instead remained on the U.S. Capitol steps.

A video posted to Griffin’s personal Facebook page shows Griffin in the restricted areas, according to the affidavit.

During a Jan. 14 meeting of the Otero County Board of Commissioners, Griffin said he planned to travel with firearms to Washington, D.C., for Biden’s inauguration.

Matherly and Marquardt said they will join a recall effort and the New Mexico attorney general’s lawsuit to remove him from office if he doesn’t resign.

Lawmakers seek amendment to ensure ‘environmental rights’

ALBUQUERQUE – Two Democratic state senators are seeking to strengthen protections for the environment and natural resources through a joint resolution that seeks to amend the state constitution and bring New Mexico in line with numerous other states that already guarantee residents rights to clean air and water.

Environmentalists are calling it New Mexico’s “Green Amendment.” It is among numerous environmental proposals up that will be up for consideration during the 60-day legislative session that began Jan 19.

If approved, the proposal would be put on the ballot for voters to decide.

Introduced by Sens. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez of Albuquerque and William Soules of Las Cruces, the resolution is modeled after similar provisions in Montana and Pennsylvania.

Soules said he views the proposed amendment as a way to shift the paradigm from a right to pollute unless otherwise prohibited to a right that ensures protection.

The push comes as environmentalists pressure state regulators to adopt tougher limits on methane and other emissions from the oil and gas industry, one of New Mexico’s biggest economic drivers.

Environmentalists also plan to support legislation that would limit carbon emissions from other sources such as transportation and the construction industry.

Paul Gessing, president of the Rio Grande Foundation, a libertarian-leaning think tank, said while climate change has become a concern for this generation, the environment is in relatively better shape than it was even 40 years ago when there were fewer laws related to air and water quality. He said the proposed amendment implies the opposite.

WYOMING

Committee sets table for budget cuts ahead of legislative session

CHEYENNE – With the Wyoming Legislature set to consider hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to state agencies this year, the legislative committee tasked with overseeing the state’s budget advanced an all-encompassing bill outlining those reductions in a committee meeting Jan. 22.

While several steps remain before the cuts would become final, the Joint Appropriations Committee unanimously advanced a supplemental budget for the 2021-22 biennium during the meeting.

Normally, the supplemental budget, which is approved in the middle of Wyoming’s two-year budget cycle, offers a chance for state agencies to request additional funding for newfound needs.

However, that won’t be the case this year, as long-term declines in the state’s energy sectors, combined with the crippling economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, led Gov. Mark Gordon to initiate a sweeping round of budget cuts and layoffs last summer. Those cuts, along with new ones included in Gordon’s supplemental budget, amount to about a 15% cut to most state agencies, totaling roughly $515 million in reductions.

The joint committe ultimately advanced a budget largely in line with Gordon’s proposal. Lawmakers agreed to an additional $2.5 million reduction in the state’s general fund, along with a $3.1 million reduction to the state’s school foundation program funds, according to the Legislative Service Office.

The committee also advanced a capital construction bill that includes roughly $147 million in funding for a wide variety of projects. The legislation contained many of the same projects as last year’s capital construction bill, which failed in the final days of the session due to an impasse between the House and Senate over funding for a new swimming pool at the University of Wyoming.

While plans have yet to be finalized, both the budget bill and the capital construction bill will likely be considered during the in-person portion of the Legislature’s session, tentatively set to begin March 1.

UTAH

Feds triple daily numbers allowed to hike The Wave

SALT LAKE CITY – Outdoor enthusiasts and landscape photographers hoping to land one of the elusive permits needed to explore the colorful, contoured landscape of a hike called The Wave in the U.S. Southwest will have a better chance under a federal plan announced Jan. 11 that allows more than three times the previous number of daily visitors.

The plan takes effect Feb. 1 and will allow 64 people per day to hike the popular rock formation near the Utah-Arizona border, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said in a news release. That is up from the previous limit of 20 people per day, which had been in place for two decades.

Conservation groups decried the decision as a mistake that will damage the fragile desert landscape and cut into the solitude of hikers’ experience.

Fueled by a rise in selfies and pictures shared on social media, requests to do the hike more than doubled over the last seven years, to 215,500 through November 2020, when less than 4% who applied were approved for permits through online and in-person lotteries, government figures show.

The Bureau of Land Management can increase the daily number up to 96 if officials determine the trail can handle it or decrease it below 64 if the new rule leads to negative effects, a spokesman said.

The Wave’s wide, sloping basin of searing reds, oranges and yellows in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is one of the most photographed landscapes in North America. Visitors must make a 6-mile round-trip hike to get to the red rock formation.

OKLAHOMA

Lawmaker proposes ‘Bigfoot’ hunting season

OKLAHOMA CITY – A mythical, ape-like creature that has captured the imagination of adventurers for decades has now become the target of a state lawmaker in Oklahoma.

A Republican House member has introduced a bill that would create a Bigfoot hunting season. Rep. Justin Humphrey’s district includes the heavily forested Ouachita Mountains in southeast Oklahoma, where a Bigfoot festival is held each year near the Arkansas border. He says issuing a state hunting license and tag could help boost tourism.

“Establishing an actual hunting season and issuing licenses for people who want to hunt Bigfoot will just draw more people to our already beautiful part of the state,” Humphrey said in a statement.

Humphrey says his bill would only allow trapping and that he also hopes to secure $25,000 to be offered as a bounty.

Micah Holmes, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, which oversees hunting in Oklahoma, told television station KOCO that the agency uses science-driven research and doesn’t recognize Bigfoot.