Latest news with #NewMexico
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Health
- Yahoo
US measles cases reach 33-year high with active outbreaks in 14 states
The United States is having its worst year for measles spread in more than three decades. The national case count reached 1,288 on Wednesday, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), though public health experts say the true figure may be higher. The CDC's count is 14 infections higher than 2019, when the US almost lost its status of having eliminated the vaccine-preventable illness – something that could happen this year if the virus spreads without stopping for 12 months. But the US is still far from 1991, when there were 9,643 confirmed cases. In a short statement, the federal government said that the CDC 'continues to recommend (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines as the best way to protect against measles'. Related Measles in Europe: Where are cases of one of the world's most contagious diseases on the rise? It also said it is 'supporting community efforts' to tamp down ongoing outbreaks as requested. Fourteen states have active outbreaks; four other states' outbreaks have ended. The largest outbreak started five months ago in undervaccinated communities in West Texas. Three people have died – two children in Texas and an adult in New Mexico – and dozens of people have been hospitalized across the US. 'What concerned me early on in this outbreak was is it spreading to other parts of the United States, and that's definitely what's happening now,' said Katherine Wells, the public health director from Lubbock County in Texas. Related Romania's measles crisis: What's driving Europe's biggest outbreak? In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) and CDC said measles had been eliminated from the US. But continuing vaccine hesitancy could threaten that status. 'What we're seeing with measles is a little bit of a 'canary in a coal mine,'' said Lauren Gardner, leader of Johns Hopkins University's independent measles and COVID-19 tracking databases. 'It's indicative of a problem that we know exists with vaccination attitudes in this county and just, I think, likely to get worse'.
CNN
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal square off in Ari Aster's ‘Eddington'
A New Mexico town during the 2020 COVID lockdown is the setting for Aster's darkly comic satire. Topher Gauk-Roger contributed to this story by David Daniel.
Fast Company
12 hours ago
- Science
- Fast Company
Why FEMA's flood maps often miss dangerous flash flood risks
Deadly and destructive flash flooding in Texas and several other states in July 2025 is raising questions about the nation's flood maps and their ability to ensure that communities and homeowners can prepare for rising risks. The same region of Texas Hill Country where a flash flood on July 4 killed more than 130 people was hit again with downpours a week later, forcing searchers to temporarily pause their efforts to find missing victims. Other states, including New Mexico, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Iowa, also saw flash flood damage in July. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood maps are intended to be the nation's primary tool for identifying flood risks. Originally developed in the 1970s to support the National Flood Insurance Program, these maps, known as Flood Insurance Rate Maps, or FIRMs, are used to determine where flood insurance is required for federally backed mortgages, to inform local building codes and land-use decisions, and to guide flood plain management strategies. In theory, the maps enable homeowners, businesses, and local officials to understand their flood risk and take appropriate steps to prepare and mitigate potential losses. But while FEMA has improved the accuracy and accessibility of the maps over time with better data, digital tools, and community input, the maps still don't capture everything—including the changing climate. There are areas of the country that flood, some regularly, that don't show up on the maps as at risk. I study flood-risk mapping as a university-based researcher and at First Street, an organization created to quantify and communicate climate risk. In a 2023 assessment using newly modeled flood zones with climate-adjusted precipitation records, we found that more than twice as many properties across the country were at risk of a 100-year flood than the FEMA maps identified. Even in places where the FEMA maps identified a flood risk, we found that the federal mapping process, its overreliance on historical data, and political influence over the updating of maps can lead to maps that don't fully represent an area's risk. What FEMA flood maps miss FEMA's maps are essential tools for identifying flood risks, but they have significant gaps that limit their effectiveness. One major limitation is that they don't consider flooding driven by intense bursts of rain. The maps primarily focus on river channels and coastal flooding, largely excluding the risk of flash flooding, particularly along smaller waterways such as streams, creeks, and tributaries. This limitation has become more important in recent years due to climate change. Rising global temperatures can result , leaving more areas vulnerable to flooding, yet unmapped by FEMA. For example, when flooding from Hurricane Helene hit unmapped areas around Asheville, North Carolina, in 2024, it caused a huge amount of uninsured damage to properties. Even in areas that are mapped, like the Camp Mystic site in Kerr County, Texas, that was hit by a deadly flash flood on July 4, 2025, the maps may underestimate their risk because of a reliance on historic data and outdated risk assessments. Political influence can fuel long delays Additionally, FEMA's mapping process is often shaped by political pressures. Local governments and developers sometimes fight high-risk designations to avoid insurance mandates or restrictions on development, leading to maps that may understate actual risks and leave residents unaware of their true exposure. An example is New York City's appeal of a 2015 FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps update. The delay in resolving the city's concerns has left it with maps that are roughly 20 years old, and the current mapping project is tied up in legal red tape. On average, it takes five to seven years to develop and implement a new FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map. As a result, many maps across the U.S. are significantly out of date, often failing to reflect current land use, urban development, or evolving flood risks from extreme weather. This delay directly affects building codes and infrastructure planning, as local governments rely on these maps to guide construction standards, development approvals, and flood mitigation projects. Ultimately, outdated maps can lead to underestimating flood risks and allowing vulnerable structures to be built in areas that face growing flood threats. How technology advances can help New advances in satellite imaging, rainfall modeling, and high-resolution lidar, which is similar to radar but uses light, make it possible to create faster, more accurate flood maps that capture risks from extreme rainfall and flash flooding. However, fully integrating these tools requires significant federal investment. Congress controls FEMA's mapping budget and sets the legal framework for how maps are created. For years, updating the flood maps has been an unpopular topic among many publicly elected officials, because new flood designations can trigger stricter building codes, higher insurance costs, and development restrictions. In recent years, the rise of climate risk analytics models and private flood risk data have allowed the real estate, finance and insurance industries to rely less on FEMA's maps. These new models incorporate forward-looking climate data, including projections of extreme rainfall, sea-level rise and changing storm patterns—factors FEMA's maps generally exclude. Real estate portals like Zillow, Redfin, and now provide property-level flood risk scores that consider both historical flooding and future climate projections. The models they use identify risks for many properties that FEMA maps don't, highlighting hidden vulnerabilities in communities across the U.S. Research shows that the availability, and accessibility, of climate data on these sites has started driving property-buying decisions that increasingly take climate change into account. Implications for the future As homebuyers understand more about a property's flood risks, that may shift the desirability of some locations over time. Those shifts will have implications for property valuations, community tax-revenue assessments, population migration patterns, and a slew of other considerations. However, while these may feel like changes being brought on by new data, the risk was already there. What is changing is people's awareness. The federal government has an important role to play in ensuring that accurate risk assessments are available to individuals and communities everywhere. As better tools and models evolve for assessing risk evolve, FEMA's risk maps need to evolve, too.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'Nearly 10%' of Xfinity customers in Albuquerque affected by internet outage
Jul. 15—Thousands of Xfinity customers in Southeast Albuquerque have been without internet service for almost 24 hours. "Nearly 10% of residential and business customers in Albuquerque are impacted," said Comcast spokesperson Kyle Biederwolf. Comcast owns Xfinity. The outage started about 6 p.m. Monday and was ongoing as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. This story will be updated if Xfinity internet service resumes. Comcast confirmed its technicians are on site working to restore internet service. "We know any time without service is frustrating and apologize for the inconvenience to our customers," the company said in a statement to the Journal. What caused the outage? Nodes across Albuquerque were down due to "damage by a third party," according to a text message Xfinity sent to affected customers. Xfinity did not specify the third party New Mexico Gas Co. took responsibility for damaging the internet line. Tim Korte, public information officer for NMGC, said a team "struck and damaged" the line while responding to a gas leak near Elm and Silver. "We identified the leak and learned that it occurred after a third party was performing a bore to install a fiber optic cable," Korte said. Documents from NM811 — a website that handles communications between utility companies and people or companies planning to do digging activity — listed Denca in the area around the time of the gas leak. Denca is listed on the documents as a contractor for Gigapower, one of three companies in Albuquerque that install fiber optic lines. "Contractor (Denca) hit two inch plastic line with bore head," the documents stated. "Two inch gas line was labeled plastic on ground." Gigapower was not available for comment.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Another Top 10 Quarter Horse Trainer Suspended Over Carmoterol Positive
Another Top 10 Quarter Horse Trainer Suspended Over Carmoterol Positive originally appeared on Paulick Report. Quarter Horse trainer Jeremy Derozin received a one-year suspension from the Louisiana State Racing Commission after two of his horses tested positive for carmoterol, according to published reports in TRACK Magazine and Advertisement Derozin, who ranked 10th on the American Quarter Horse Association's list of leading trainer by 2024 earnings, is the fifth Top 10 trainer to be sidelined for the same drug. Toby Keeton, who set an all-time earnings record in 2024, was summarily suspended earlier this year in two states, Texas and New Mexico, after 30 of his horses allegedly were found to have carmoterol in their system. One of the horses was Hezgothelook Z, who became Quarter Horse racing's second Triple Crown winner with his victory in the 2024 All American Futurity, the sport's biggest race. Juan Diaz Jr., second on the 2024 earnings list, was also summarily suspended in Texas for multiple carmoterol positives. Heath Taylor, third on the money list, has been summarily suspended in New Mexico for carmoterol. Monty Arrossa, who led the list in 2020 and '21 and was sixth in 2024, was notified of two positive carmoterol tests by the California Horse Racing Board. The regulator has taken no action against Arrossa to date, but according to Daily Racing Form, officials at Los Alamitos, where Arrossa was leading trainer in 2024, have banned him from training at the Southern California track while the regulatory process plays out. According to the StallioneSearch report, samples from two of Derozin's horses were cleared by Industrial Laboratories in Colorado, but secondary samples were sent to the Maddy Laboratory at the University of California at Davis. The latter detected the carmoterol, the reports said. The samples were reported to be from a race at Delta Downs in June 2024 and Evangeline Downs in December 2024. Derozin received consecutive six-month suspensions for each of the positive findings, the reports said. Both horses reportedly were owned by Rogelio Marquez Jr. Advertisement Derozin and Marquez had six horses entered to race in stakes at Delta Downs July 12. All were ordered scratched by the stewards. All of Derozin's horses have been put on the vet's list. Carmoterol is a fast-acting and potent bronchodilator that was used in clinical trials about 15 years ago but was not approved by the FDA and never made it to market. It was also reported that a Derozin/Marquez Jr. horse was denied entry for the $597,622 Lee Berwick Futurity July 12 after hair testing allegedly detected the prohibited drug olodaterol, another bronchodilator, used in humans to treat COPD. A second positive for the same drug was allegedly detected in a horse trained by Patrick Clemons for owner Luis Armando Castellanos. This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
