Amid a nationwide surge of protesters taking to Tesla dealerships to voice their disdain for billionaire owner Elon Musk’s hand in aggressive federal agency downsizing, demonstrators are planning to occupy the showroom of a dealership in Bernalillo Thursday afternoon.

According to a press release, the “Tesla Takedown" organizers plan to be arrested as they block entrances to “take direct action.”

Community organizations such as Planet Over Profit, Climate Defenders, Sunrise Movement, Rise & Resist, Extinction Rebellion, and Scientist Rebellion expect hundreds to attend.

Head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, Musk is spearheading an unprecedented effort to slash tens-of-thousands of federal jobs, effectively dismantling or hindering many agencies that deliver global aid , regulate pollution , and run the nation’s tax collection system .

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day of office, officially creating DOGE. However, questions about the agency’s legality still remain unanswered.

Just last week, nine people were arrested as anti-Musk protests sparked outside a Tesla dealership in New York City.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled with whether to restart plans to temporarily store nuclear waste at sites in rural Texas and New Mexico even as some justices worried about safety issues and the lack of progress toward a permanent solution.

The justices heard arguments in a case that reflects the complicated politics of the nation's so far futile quest for a permanent underground storage facility. A plan to build a national storage facility northwest of Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain has been mothballed because of staunch opposition from most Nevada residents and officials.

The court took up a challenge by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a private company with a license for the Texas facility to an appellate ruling that found the commission had no authority to grant the license. The outcome of the case will affect plans for a similar facility in New Mexico roughly 40 miles (65 kilometers) away.

The licenses would allow the companies to operate the facilities for 40 years, with the possibility of a 40-year renewal.

"That doesn't sound very interim to me," Justice Neil Gorsuch said, while also questioning the advisability of storing spent nuclear fuel "on a concrete platform in the Permian Basis, where we get all our oil and gas from."

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas joined Gorsuch in asking questions suggesting they were the most likely to uphold the ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Roughly 100,000 tons (90,000 metric tons) of spent fuel, some of it dating from the 1980s, is piling up at current and former nuclear plant sites nationwide and growing by more than 2,000 tons (1,800 metric tons) a year. The waste was meant to be kept there temporarily before being deposited deep underground.

The NRC has said that the temporary storage sites are needed because existing nuclear plants are running out of room. The presence of the spent fuel also complicates plans to decommission some plants, the Justice Department said in court papers.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, looking ahead to the United States' 250th anniversary next year, said, "I hope that we make it another 250, but if it takes 40 or 80 years for a solution to come, it would still be temporary, correct?"

Justice Department lawyer Malcolm Stewart agreed, noting that the spent fuel has to be kept somewhere, whether at operating and decommissioned plants or elsewhere.

Security also is cheaper with the waste in one or two locations, Stewart said, relying on arguments made by Interim Storage Partners LLC, the company with the Texas license.

Sotomayor, along with Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh, seemed most inclined to reverse the 5th circuit. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett said little or nothing to reveal where they stand.

The NRC's appeal was filed by the Biden administration and maintained by the new Trump administration. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott,. a Republican, and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, are leading bipartisan opposition to the facilities in their states.

The justices will consider whether, as the NRC and Interim Storage Partners argues, the states and a private energy company forfeited their right to object to the licensing decisions because they declined to join in the commission's proceedings.

Two other federal appeals courts, in Denver and Washington, that weighed the same issue ruled for the agency. Only the 5th Circuit allowed the cases to proceed.

The second issue is whether federal law allows the commission to license temporary storage sites. Opponents are relying on a 2022 Supreme Court decision that held that Congress must act with specificity when it wants to give an agency the authority to regulate on an issue of major national significance. In ruling for Texas, the 5th Circuit agreed that what to do with the nation's nuclear waste is the sort of "major question" that Congress must speak to directly.

But the Justice Department has argued that the commission has long-standing authority to deal with nuclear waste reaching back to the 1954 Atomic Energy Act.

The NRC granted the Texas license to Interim Storage for a facility that could take up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants and 231 million tons of other radioactive waste. The facility would be built next to an existing dump site in Andrews County for low-level waste such as protective clothing and other material that has been exposed to radioactivity. The Andrews County site is about 350 miles (560 kilometers) west of Dallas, near the Texas-New Mexico state line.

The New Mexico facility would be in Lea County, in the southeastern part of the state near Carlsbad. The NRC gave a license for the site to Holtec International.

Alito, who said the interim sites could remove the incentive to find a permanent solution, asked Brad Fagg, a lawyer for Interim Storage Partners, for a prediction of when a permanent site would open.

"I've been in this stew for a lot of years," Fagg said. "I would be kidding myself and this court if I said I had a date."

A decision is expected by late June.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Vice President JD Vance visited the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday and said that arrests for illegal crossings had fallen sharply because President Donald Trump is demanding that all of government prioritize the issue in ways his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, never did.

Vance was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, as he took a helicopter tour of the area around Eagle Pass, Texas, around 150 miles southwest of San Antonio. They also visited a Border Patrol facility and sat for a roundtable with Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and national, state and local officials.

Vance pointed to arrests for illegal border crossings plummeting 39% in January from a month earlier. The numbers have actually been falling sharply since well before Republican Trump took office for his second term on Jan. 20, coming down from an all-time high of 250,000 in December 2023. After that, Mexican authorities increased enforcement within their own borders and Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions early last summer.

"President Trump has empowered — and in fact demanded — that his whole government take the task of border control seriously," Vance said.

In an effort to impose harder-line immigration policies, the Trump administration has put shackled immigrants on U.S. military planes for deportation fights and sent some to the U.S. lockup at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It has also expanded federal agents' arrests of people in the U.S. illegally and abandoned programs that gave some permission to stay.

The presence of Hegseth and Gabbard on the visit underscores how Trump is tasking agencies across the federal government with working to overhaul border and immigration policy, moving well beyond the Department of Homeland Security, the traditional home of most such functions.

"The border crisis has become a matter of national intelligence and it's also become something that requires the Department of Defense to engage," Vance said.

Gabbard blamed the Biden administration for the presence in the U.S. of people who crossed the border illegally and had possible ties to terrorists but were released into the country while they await immigration court proceedings.

"Who are they? What may they be plotting?" Gabbard asked. "This is just the beginning."

As part of his visit, Vance went to Shelby Park, a municipal park along the Rio Grande that Abbot seized from federal authorities last year in a feud with the Biden administration, after the governor accused the Biden White House of not doing enough to curb illegal crossings.

A group of friends and neighbors gathered two blocks from the park ahead of Vance's arrival. Dennis Charlton, a veteran and Eagle Pass resident with property along the border, wore two hats, one to commemorate his service and the other a red "Make America Great Again" cap.

He said he's witnessed human and drug smuggling activity on his border property that scared his wife and neighbors, but said such crossings have diminished significantly of late.

"I love it," Charlton said of the visit. "I just wish we could talk to him to thank him for everything that he and Trump have done."

Vance came to South Texas after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, saying neither country is doing enough to stem illegal immigration and address drug trafficking, especially the flow of fentanyl across the U.S. border.

Asked about Trump's tariffs, Vance responded, "I actually think he's doing a huge favor to the people of Mexico because, if they don't get control of these cartels, the people of Mexico are going to wake up in a narco state, where the cartels have more power than their own government."

When asked about the potential for the U.S. to send troops to Mexico to battle drug cartels, Vance said he was "not going to make any announcements about any invasions of Mexico here today. The president has a megaphone and he'll of course speak to these issues as he feels necessary."

When pressed by reporters on if an invasion was really coming, Vance was more direct: "No," he said. "Next question."

Vance was also asked why more large-scale operations haven't been started to deport people who are in the U.S. illegally.

"Rome wasn't built in a day," Vance said. "We have seen pretty significant increases in deportations and apprehensive and arrests," he added. "But we have to remember, President Biden gutted the entire immigration enforcement regime of this country."

Since Trump's second term began, about 6,500 new active duty forces have been ordered to deploy to the southern border. Before that, there were about 2,500 troops already there, largely National Guard troops on active duty orders, along with a couple of hundred active duty aviation forces.

Troops are responsible for detection and monitoring along the border but don't interact with migrants attempting to illegally cross. Instead, they alert border agents, who then take the migrants into custody.

Biden tasked Vice President Kamala Harris with tackling the root causes of immigration during his administration, seeking to zero in on why so many migrants, particularly from Central America, were leaving their homelands and coming to the U.S. seeking asylum or trying to make it into the county illegally.

Harris made her first visit to the border in June 2021, about 3 1/2 months deeper into Biden's term than Vance's trip in the opening weeks of Trump's second term.

Weissert reported from Washington.

After lengthy debates and public comments that spanned two meetings, along with hand wringing over a mayoral veto, the Albuquerque City Council ended where it began regarding funding for two high profile projects.

City councilors Monday night voted to override Mayor Tim Keller’s veto of the City Council’s decision to move funding from a high-profile, multi-use trail project to a planned sports complex project on the Westside. By the end of the meeting though, the council reversed its decision to transfer money from one project to the other.

“This is what our community asked for, restoring funding so the Rail Trail can keep moving forward and become a transformative landmark for Albuquerque,” Keller wrote in a statement Tuesday. “By working together, we’ve kept construction on track, without having to choose between projects or neighborhoods.”

After multiple residents pleaded with councilors to reconsider their decision during a meeting on Feb. 19, Councilor Joaquín Baca said he would work with Councilor Louie Sanchez and Keller’s administration to “figure something out.”

“This has obviously blown up into a lot,” Baca said at the time. “This is something we can work out, myself, Councilor Sanchez and the administration. I don’t think it needs to go beyond that.”

However, after that meeting, Keller vetoed the decision and said he supported the sports complex but not the money transfer. Councilors on Monday overrode the veto, but later in the evening passed a resolution that reversed the money transfer.

“I think that the way this veto occurred is completely inappropriate, disrespectful and enraging is the word I keep using,” Council President Brook Bassan said during Monday’s meeting.

The council originally approved the move during its Feb. 3 meeting. Councilors voted to transfer $500,000 from the ongoing Rail Trail project — a 7-mile multi-use trail that will connect the city’s historic destinations — to the planned Ken Sanchez Indoor Sports Complex.

Shortly after the veto, Keller held a public event at one of the sites for the Rail Trail project to celebrate progress and urge the council to uphold the veto. On Monday night, Bassan referred to the event as a “veto signing party,” and said she found it “really infuriating.”

“The process alone is not okay,” Bassan said. “Especially when I get told that I shouldn’t always go to the media or ‘let’s work together’…I hope that that is something the mayor understands and sees, because it’s not fair to us, as the legislative body, to be treated in the way we were in this veto.”

Chief Administrative Officer Samantha Sengel told the council that the Rail Trail is a multi-phase project which is not fully funded but couldn’t say which phases are funded. Sengel said two phases are underway but there is not a set timeframe for completion.

Former councilor Ken Sanchez, who died in 2020 while still in office, initially presented the idea of the sports complex and Councilor Louie Sanchez continued the plan after he was elected. Louie Sanchez said the transferred money was a miniscule amount compared to how much the Rail Trail project will cost.

“It’s up to us, this body, to make those decisions,” Sanchez said. “You’re looking at less than one half of a cent in the overall picture…I said it before, I don’t have a problem with the Rail Trail at all. It’s just going to be a project that is going to take many, many years and many, many millions of dollars. So this was something we can get going immediately, get Ken Sanchez Indoor Sports Complex built, and get the kids who need the practice facilities, the kids who need a facility to enjoy their sports. That’s what we need.”

Sandia National Laboratories is promoting from within.

Laura McGill, the deputy laboratories director for nuclear deterrence and chief technology officer at Sandia since 2021, will succeed James Peery as director, lab officials said in a news release.

McGill on May 1 will become the 17th director of Sandia, a federally funded research and development center that employs thousands and plays a key role in national security.

“Laura’s extensive experience in defense systems engineering and her proven leadership within Sandia makes her exceptionally qualified to guide the Laboratories into the future,” said Rich DeGraff, chair of the National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC board of managers and president of control systems at Honeywell Aerospace. “Her commitment to national security, innovation and modern engineering aligns perfectly with Sandia’s mission.”

McGill’s previous post as deputy director involved overseeing the safety, security, effectiveness and modernization of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, and guiding Sandia’s contributions to nuclear weapon systems engineering, development and surveillance.

Before joining Sandia, McGill spent the last three decades in the defense industry, notably at Raytheon Missiles & Defense. There, Sandia officials said, she oversaw the development and operational support for advanced weapons systems for the federal Department of Defense and held the position of vice president of engineering.

McGill holds a master’s degree in aerospace systems from West Coast University and a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Washington.

Her predecessor, Peery, announced his retirement in October 2024. Peery has held the position since January 2020 and will retire at the end of April.

Records containing personal identifying information about certain New Mexico abortion providers would be exempted from the state’s open records law under a bill approved by the state Senate.

The Albuquerque Journal’s Dan Boyd reports that backers of the legislation called the step necessary due to threats to providers in a state with among the least restrictions on abortion services in the country.

But Republican senators pushed back against the legislation, saying it could be used to keep statistics and data about how many abortions are performed in New Mexico confidential.

New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act already exempts public records dealing with trade secrets, medical exams and the identities of certain victims of crime.

Records containing personal identifying information about certain New Mexico abortion providers would be exempted from the state’s open records law under a bill approved Monday by the state Senate.

Backers of the legislation, Senate Bill 57 , which passed on a party-line 26-16 vote, called the step necessary due to threats to providers in a state with among the least restrictions on abortion services in the country.

“Asking for an exemption is a big deal,” said Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, during Monday’s debate. “What these folks face is also a big deal.”

But Republican senators pushed back against the legislation, saying it could be used to keep confidential statistics and data about how many abortions are performed in New Mexico.

“New Mexicans rightfully deserve to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent,” said Senate Minority Whip Pat Woods, R-Broadview. “This bill aims to directly contradict that.”

New Mexico lawmakers in 2021 voted to repeal a state abortion ban that had been largely dormant for decades.

That repeal proved impactful when the U.S. Supreme Court a year later overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide.

While other neighboring states subsequently enacted bans on abortion services, an estimated 21,000 abortions were performed in New Mexico in 2023. Patients coming to the state from Texas made up about 70% of that number, according to a study from the Guttmacher Institute.

New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act already allows for public records dealing with trade secrets, medical examinations and the identities of certain crime victims to be kept confidential.

But some anti-abortion advocates have talked openly about obtaining 911 calls as part of their campaign to gather information about abortion facilities.

The legislation advancing at the Roundhouse would add a new exemption related to records containing “personal identifying information or sensitive information” related to medical providers employed by a public body who perform abortion services.

It would only apply to doctors at the University of New Mexico Center for Reproductive Health, since the state’s other abortion clinics are private and are not subject to the state’s open records laws, Wirth said.

Several first-term Senate Democrats spoke in favor of the bill during Monday’s debate, with Sen. Angel Charley of Acoma citing statistics showing an increase in stalking of abortion providers.

Sen. Cindy Nava, D-Albuquerque, said the bill would address a “gap in provider safety” amid requests for records dealing with their travel plans and other information.

Another senator, Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, said one of his daughters is studying obstetrics in Texas and might eventually return to New Mexico to practice.

If she does, he said her personal identifying information should not be publicly accessible.

“I accept that risk, but she shouldn’t have to,” Cervantes said.

The bill now advances to the House of Representatives with less than three weeks left in the 60-day legislative session.