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WASHINGTON — Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, told lawmakers on Wednesday that she would not restart the agency’s defunct torture program if confirmed to head the CIA — but she refused to weigh in on the morality of the program. Asked several times whether she thought the so-called “enhanced...

Gina Haspel, President Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, told Senators Wednesday that she would not reinstate the brutal torture program the agency ran at black sites after 9/11, pledging to put her moral beliefs ahead of any immoral orders. “I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal legislators grilled U.S. and Puerto Rico officials on Tuesday on why power has not been fully restored to the island nearly eight months after Hurricane Maria, and as a new storm season looms. Lawmakers at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources also questioned why the U.S....

Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich (N.M.) said Monday he will not support Gina Haspel to be President Trump’s new CIA director. "This is about trust, and the public is not being afforded an open and honest debate about the nominee," Heinrich told NBC News. "There are questions that absolutely need to be answered publicly, and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., introduced on Monday the White Sands National Park Establishment Act, a bill to designate White Sands National Monument as New Mexico's newest national park. “The vision to create White Sands National Park has been driven by a diverse coalition of community leaders and local elected...

It’s now been seven months since Hurricane Maria shredded Puerto Rico. Thousands Americans on the island still don’t have power, and this year’s hurricane season, expected to be busy, begins in less than a month. Last year’s Category 4 storm that toppled 80 percent of the island’s power lines and flooded its...

Eight months after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico’s power grid, causing the largest blackout in U.S. history, more than 98 percent of the people have their power back. The remaining two percent may have to wait a while. Though about 23,000 of the 1.47 million customers remain without power, U.S. officials said Tuesday they plan on...

A key Democratic senator said he would not vote for Gina Haspel, Donald Trump's pick for CIA director, after a meeting Monday at which she failed to satisfactorily answer questions about her background in the agency, an aide said. The meeting with Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., a member of the Senate intelligence committee, took place in a...

One summer night in the late 1980s, Gina Haspel, a young CIA field officer on her first overseas assignment, found herself standing outside a hotel in Addis Ababa talking to Jimmy Carter. The former president was visiting Ethiopia to foster peace talks between the government and Eritrean rebels and urgently needed to get word to a...

FARMINGTON — U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and Aztec Police Department Chief Mike Heal met during the senator’s visit to the Four Corners this past week to discuss school safety and security efforts, and potential action. “I met with a number of students from Aztec a few weeks ago who came back to Washington, D.C.,"...

ALAMOGORDO – U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich visited White Sands National Monument Friday to meet with community leaders and discuss legislation he plans to introduce to Congress that will designate the monument as a national park. State Sen. Ron Griggs, R- Dist. 34, and former Alamogordo mayor kicked off discussion of the White...

A vast expanse of shifting white sand dunes in southern New Mexico would be elevated from a national monument to a national park under legislation proposed Friday by one of the state’s senators. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, made the announcement while visiting the state as part of a multiday tour that also included looking at the...

WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT - A vast expanse of shifting white sand dunes in southern New Mexico would be elevated from a national monument to a national park under legislation proposed Friday by one of the state’s senators. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, made the announcement while visiting the state as part of a multiday tour that...

A report Thursday by the National Park Service found that more than 2 million people visited national park units in New Mexico last year, spending $116 million in the state. That produced 1,720 jobs and an overall impact to the state’s economy of $141.6 million. And, those numbers are only for the seven sites managed by the National Parks...

Many of us in New Mexico are fortunate to have a national forest right outside our backyard. We rely on these forests for drinking water and firewood, to fill our freezers, and to support our outdoor recreation economy. However, as temperatures heat up and we enter fire season after a particularly dry winter, we are also acutely aware that some of...

In a bid to help more New Mexican residents, businesses, power providers, and municipalities go solar, US Senator Martin Heinrich has launched an online solar toolkit that offers resources for those considering solar power, along with solar success stories and information on potential funding sources. “It is my hope that this solar toolkit...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three Democratic senators on Wednesday stepped up their demands for more information about the former undercover spy President Donald Trump has picked to lead the CIA, and said the public has a right to know about her role in the harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists after 9/11 as well as other “disturbing facts...

The CIA has refused to declassify information about Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to be the agency’s next director, infuriating Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee who have questioned her suitability for the role. “It’s unacceptable for the CIA to hide [Haspel] behind a wall of secrecy, particularly when...

For this week's Let's Talk New Mexico, we reached out to New Mexico's congressional delegation for their thoughts on the 2018 Farm Bill and SNAP funding. Here's what they sent us via email: Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D) “We need a bipartisan Farm Bill that feeds our kids and families, supports our farmers and ranchers, and creates...

The CIA is proposing to let senators weighing Gina Haspel's nomination to lead the spy agency view classified material about her record in a secure setting, an offer quickly dismissed as insufficient by Democrats seeking more transparency about Haspel's past. The CIA released a disciplinary memo late last week that absolved Haspel, a longtime...