Author: The Associated Press

NEW MEXICO Compensation for wildfire victims passes $14 million ALBUQUERQUE – More victims of a devastating wildfire sparked last year by the U.S. Forest Service in northern New Mexico are getting compensated, with payouts to landowners totaling more than $14 million by the week of Aug. 7, federal emergency managers said. Congress set aside nearly…

ARIZONA Phoenix ends 31-day streak of highs at or above 110 degrees PHOENIX – A record string of daily highs over 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix ended on July 31 as the dangerous heat wave that suffocated the Southwest throughout July receded slightly with cooling monsoon rains. The historic heat began blasting the region in…

NEW MEXICO Drilling withdrawal sparks debate over economic costs for Navajos ALBUQUERQUE – Some Republican members of Congress on July 13 denounced the Biden administration’s recent move to withdraw hundreds of square miles of federal land in New Mexico from oil and gas development, offering their support instead to legislation that would unravel the ban.…

UTAH Sailors rejoice after wet winter raises Great Salt Lake – for now ON THE GREAT SALT LAKE – After years of sailboats being hoisted out of the shrinking Great Salt Lake amid fears they might not return, sailors are back this summer. That’s thanks to an abnormally wet winter that has raised the lake…

NEBRASKA Dig begins for remains at site of Native American boarding school GENOA – Archeologists began digging in a central Nebraska field on July 10 trying to find the bodies of some 80 children who were buried more than a century ago at a Native American boarding school. Crews are using shovels, trowels and smaller…

UTAH ‘Watermelon snow’ piques curiosities after abnormally wet winter LOGAN – High up in the mountains, amid pinyon pine and quaking aspen trees, the remaining remnants of the winter’s snow is dotted with hues of pinks, purples and oranges. Hikers, campers and church youth groups journeying by grasp it in their palms and liken it…

MONTANA Clean-up begins on train derailment in Yellowstone River HELENA- Work was underway to clean up rail cars carrying hazardous materials that fell into the Yellowstone River in southern Montana after a bridge collapsed over the weekend, officials said on June 26. Montana Rail Link was developing a cleanup plan and working with its unions…

ARIZONA Female Mexican gray wolf released into wild PHOENIX – A female Mexican gray wolf that a group of schoolchildren nicknamed Asha has been returned to the wilds of Arizona after she was found wandering in northern New Mexico outside of a zone set up for the recovery of her subspecies, the U.S. Fish and…

MONTANA Youth first to trial over whether state must protect from climate change HELENA – A two-week trial over state government obligations to protect people against climate change began June 12 in Montana, where a group of youth say they’re already being harmed as wildfires get worse, streams dry up and mountain glaciers melt away.…

ARIZONA Drought, water overuse prompt construction limits in parts of Phoenix PHOENIX – Arizona will not approve new housing construction on the fast-growing edges of metro Phoenix that rely on groundwater thanks to years of overuse and a multi-decade drought that is sapping its water supply. In a news conference on June 1, Gov. Katie…