New Mexico

A New Mexico abortion doctor has said he will retire at the end of the year for the sake of his own sanity.

Project Defending Life and Operation Rescue announced that Dr. Bruce Ferguson told a private investigator that he is retiring on Dec. 30 and closing his clinic for his own “sanity” and that "someone else needs to carry the burden now."

Project Defending Life and Operation Rescue aims to keep women informed of the dangers of abortion, close abortion clinics, and eventually work with the government to acknowledge rights of the unborn and end abortions entirely. more >>

The Los Alamos wildfire, called Las Conchas, is still raging on in New Mexico, but it no longer poses a real danger to the military nuclear facility, Los Alamos National Laboratory, or the town of 12,000.

So far, the fire that is believed to have started in the vicinity of Santa Fe National Forest has burnt more than 110,000 acres as of Saturday, July 2, and has caused authorities to issue a mandatory evacuation of the local population in Los Alamos, N.M.

Although the state of emergency at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory has been called off, more than 10,000 residents have not been permitted to return to their homes, according to CNN. more >>

Correction appended

New Mexico governor Susana Martinez assured the public on Wednesday that all resources necessary to battle the Las Conchas Fire have been made available. The fire is currently burning close to Los Alamos.

The fire started Sunday and is three percent contained, spanning over 108 miles. It has consumed 69,555 acres so far, according to InciWeb, which tracks wildfires and other natural disasters. The 12,000 residents of Los Alamos have been evacuated. And so far, the Los Alamos National Laboratory – America’s premier nuclear weapons facility in New Mexico – has been kept safe. more >>

Los Alamos National Laboratory, America’s premier nuclear weapons facility in New Mexico, assured Tuesday evening that its safety program was capable of handling the Las Conchas wildfire despite it being “a road away.”

“There are fire mitigations at all of our nuclear facilities, and I am confident in our ability to protect all of them. This is a strong team protecting a national treasure,” the lab’s director, Charles McMillan, said at a press conference in Los Alamos Tuesday.

“The Lab and our interagency partners have applied the lessons learned from Cerro Grande [fire in 2000],” Los Alamos Site Office Manager of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, Kevin Smith, said in a statement late Tuesday. more >>

Los Alamos National Laboratory in north-central New Mexico is safe for now from the Las Conchas fire, which was crouching at about a mile from the lab’s southwestern boundary on Monday night.

The famed Los Alamos National lab was a central part of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb, during World War II. The lab, which still houses the U.S. military’s nuclear research, reported on its website Monday evening that fire crews contained a spot fire in a remote area of the lab. The blaze was brought under control after burning about one acre of the 25,600-acre property.

“No other fires are currently burning on Lab property, no facilities face immediate threat, and all nuclear and hazardous materials are accounted for and protected,” said the Los Alamos National Laboratory in a statement. more >>

A New Mexico man has lost the fight to keep a billboard expressing his remorse for the abortion of his unborn child.

State District Judge James Counts ordered Alamogordo resident Greg Fultz to immediately take down a pro-life billboard endorsed by the New Mexico Right to Life. The ruling this week was part of a protective order sought by Fultz's ex-girlfriend whose name has not been revealed to the press.

She argued she was the subject of the billboard positioned above the city's main thoroughfare in mid-May. more >>