CBS News
Ban on guns at Albuquerque area parks and playgrounds allowed to lapse by governor
Santa Fe, N.M. — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Wednesday that she has ended an emergency public health order that suspended the right to carry guns at public parks and playgrounds in New Mexico’s largest metro area.
The original public health order in September 2023 ignited a furor of public protests, prompted Republican calls for the governor’s impeachment and widened divisions among top Democratic officials. It also sought to strengthen oversight of firearms sales and monitor illicit drug use at public schools through the testing of wastewater – before expiring on Saturday without renewal.
“I have decided to allow the public health order to expire, but our fight to protect New Mexico communities from the dangers posed by guns and illegal drugs will continue,” Lujan Grisham said.
She described strides toward reducing gun violence through gun buy-back programs, increased arrests, the distribution of free gun-storage locks and a larger inmate population at a county detention facility in Albuquerque.
She said more than 1,700 guns have been collected through gun buybacks, CBS Albuquerque affiliate KRQE-TV reports.
The governor’s initial order would have suspended gun-carry rights in most public places in the Albuquerque area, but was scaled back to public parks and playgrounds with an exception to ensure access to a municipal shooting range park. Lujan Grisham said she was responding to a series of shootings around the state that left children dead.
Gun rights advocates filed an array of lawsuits and court motions aimed at blocking gun restrictions that they say would deprive Albuquerque-area residents of 2nd Amendment rights to carry in public for self-defense. The implications for pending lawsuits in federal court were unclear.
The standoff was one of many in the wake of a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision expanding gun rights, as leaders in politically liberal-leaning states explore new avenues for restrictions.
The gun restrictions were tied to a statistical threshold for violent crime that applied only to Albuquerque and the surrounding area.
CBS News
Man rescued after 67 days adrift at sea describes how he survived after brother and nephew died: “I simply had no choice”
A Russian man rescued after 67 days adrift in a small inflatable boat in the Sea of Okhotsk described Wednesday how he survived by battling shivering cold and drinking rainwater.
Mikhail Pichugin, 46, had set off to watch whales with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. But the boat’s engine shut down on their way back on Aug. 9.
Initial efforts by emergency services to locate the trio failed. Pichugin’s brother and nephew later died, and he tied their bodies to the boat to prevent them from being washed away.
A fishing vessel spotted the boat this week and rescued Pichugin about 11 nautical miles off Kamchatka and about 540 nautical miles from its departure point.
“A boat called Angel saved me,” he said, smiling, referring to the name of the fishing boat whose crew spotted him.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday from his hospital bed, Pichugin described how the boat’s engine broke down and then one of the oars broke, making the boat uncontrollable.
The phone on board was useless as there was no network coverage, but the trio used it for geolocation for a week until the phone battery and a power bank ran out. They tried unsuccessfully to attract rescuers’ attention using the few flares they had.
“A helicopter flew past close, than another one after three days, but they were useless,” Pichugin said in comments broadcast by Russian state television.
He said they collected rainwater and struggled to get warm on the sea off eastern Russia.
“There was a sleeping bag with camel wool, it was wet and didn’t dry,” he said. “You crawl under it, wiggle a little and get warm.”
They had a limited stockpile of noodles and peas and tried to catch some fish.
Russian media quoted Pichugin as saying his nephew died of hypothermia and hunger in September. His brother started behaving erratically and tried at one point to jump off the boat.
Pichugin said he survived “thanks to God’s help,” adding softly that “I simply had no choice, I had my mother and my daughter left at home.”
Doctors at the Magadan hospital said he was suffering from dehydration and hypothermia but in stable condition.
Magadan deputy governor Tatiana Savchenko said his condition was “satisfactory.”
She said the administration would pay for Pichugin to fly home and for relatives to visit.
Pichugin comes from Ulan-Ude in Siberia but was working on the far eastern island of Sakhalin as a driver.
His wife Yekaterina told RIA Novosti news agency: “It’s a kind of miracle.” She said the men had taken enough food and water to last only two weeks.
Transport investigators have launched a probe into possible breaches of safety rules, raising the prospect that Pichugin could face a criminal charge and risk a jail term of up to seven years.
Russian television reported the men should have taken a satellite phone, the only means of communication in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Last year, an Australian sailor said he survived more than two months lost at sea with his dog. Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella were sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia when rough seas damaged their boat and its electronics system, leaving them adrift and cut off from the world.
AFP contributed to this report.
CBS News
Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to pay $880 million to settle over 1,300 sexual abuse claims
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Israel says Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar may have been killed
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.