By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It’s a name many people have trouble pronouncing, but these synthetic chemicals have been used in everything from fast-food packaging to nonstick cookware, clothing, household cleaning products and even firefighting foam.

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PFAS — or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — resist breaking down and as a result have found their way into drinking water, soil, air and the bloodstreams of 99% of Americans.

This is certainly true for people who live or work near a plume of contamination that has seeped beyond the boundaries of Cannon Air Force Base, where PFAS-laden firefighting foam was used for years.

New Mexico health and environmental officials conducted a $1.2 million testing project, drawing blood from nearly 630 people. They shared the results Thursday night during a public meeting.

What did they find?

The research shows 99.7% of participants had one or more PFAS in their blood, with the most common being associated with firefighting foams.

While the percentage isn’t surprising given the overall prevalence of so-called forever chemicals in the environment, officials said some residents living in the plume area showed dramatically higher concentrations than the broader testing group. About one-quarter of them had levels reaching the highest concentration tier used in national guidelines.

The findings suggest a correlation with groundwater contamination migrating from the base, state officials said.

New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney said during the meeting that his agency will help the community in any way that it can but that the state is still locked in litigation with the U.S. Defense Department over the damage caused by the contamination.

At Cannon Air Force Base, state officials have reported that PFAS has been detected in groundwater at concentrations of 26,200 parts per trillion, exceeding state and federal drinking water standards by over 650,000%.

Cannon reported earlier this year that it has spent more than $73 million so far on investigating the problem and installing pilot projects to treat contaminated groundwater.

Kenney said it’s time for the federal government to move ahead with cleanup outside the base.

“We need the whole of New Mexico to stand up and say we’ve had it,” he said.

Health concerns

Exposure to PFAS has been linked to increased cholesterol levels, small decreases in birth weight, kidney and testicular cancer and changes in liver enzymes.

State officials in a report published in August said some of the chemicals can linger in the blood for several years after exposure. Research by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also found it can take weeks to years for levels of many PFAS to decrease by half in human blood, assuming exposure isn’t ongoing.

It’s not easy to draw a bright line between exposure and health effects, said Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist with the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group.

“There are so many different factors that affect individual health outcomes and also affect what levels you will see in your blood,” she said, explaining that a person’s age, where they live, what they eat and drink and where they work can all play a role.

According to slides shared with the audience, the tests in Curry County showed PFAS levels tend to increase with age, that males had higher levels, and those who had military or aviation careers had higher concentrations — all things consistent with national data.

The state on Friday announced a $12 million effort to connect about 100 private well users in rural Curry County to a drinking water system that meets state and federal standards.

An expanding problem

Watchdog groups that track PFAS nationwide say contamination is more widespread than previously thought. They’re using data released by the EPA and states to compile maps showing spots across the country where drinking water systems report levels above what’s recommended. Contamination has also been confirmed at hundreds of military bases around the country.

That includes a base in southern New Mexico, where state officials are embarking on another health survey to gauge exposure at a nearby lake where scientists documented some of the highest PFAS levels in wildlife and plants worldwide.

In Clovis, Thursday’s audience was sparse but outspoken. They voiced frustrations that properties have been devalued and rural livelihoods threatened due to the contamination.

New Mexico is among hundreds of plaintiffs that are part of multi-district litigation in a South Carolina federal court that aims to hold producers and users of PFAS-laden firefighting foam accountable for contamination at sites across the country.

Separate from the legal front, some states have adopted their own PFAS rules while the focus of federal regulations has been narrowed. New Mexico just this week held a webinar on a new state law that calls for phasing out and ultimately prohibiting the sale of products containing intentionally added PFAS.

By KIM CHANDLER

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Statues of Rosa Parks and Helen Keller, pivotal figures who fought for justice and inspired change across the world, were unveiled Friday on the grounds of the Alabama Capitol.

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The monuments honoring the Alabama natives whose advocacy helped dismantle racial segregation and promoted the rights of people with disabilities are the first statues of women to be installed on the lawn of the Alabama Capitol, broadening the history reflected on the grounds that also include tributes to the Confederacy, which was formed at the site in 1861.

Gov. Kay Ivey, currently the nation’s longest serving female governor, said Parks and Keller “rose to shape history through quiet strength and unwavering conviction.”

“Courage changes the course of history, and today, these statutes stand as symbols of that courage — testaments to what one person, especially one determined one, can do to make the world a better place,” Ivey said.

Known as the mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955, when she refused to leave her bus seat for a white passenger. While Parks was not the first woman arrested for defying bus segregation laws, her arrest became the catalyst for the yearlong boycott by Black passengers and helped usher in change nationwide.

FILE – Rosa Parks speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 15, 1969. (AP Photo/Joe Holloway, Jr., File)

Born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Keller became deaf and blind after a serious illness before her second birthday. Her tutor, Anne Sullivan, taught her to communicate through sign language and Braille, and she became a well-known writer and lecturer who championed the rights of workers, poor people, women and people with disabilities.

The statue of Parks, themed as “a step into equality,” shows her as if boarding a bus, just across the Capitol steps from a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, a fitting location for an icon who showed “how to fight against racial segregation and inequality in a non violent way,” the Rev. Agnes M. Lover said.

Parks appears to peer down Dexter Avenue. That’s the street where she boarded the bus that history-making day, and also the site of slave markets in the 1800s as well as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dexter Avenue Church, where mass meetings were held to organize the bus boycott.

Park’s statue looks over the grounds where a huge crowd formed at the end of the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. That her monument is also just a stone’s throw from Davis, who helped tear the nation apart trying to preserve slavery — is likely to raise some eyebrows.

The removal of memorials to Confederate figures like Davis was a key goal of the wave of activism that followed the 2015 slaughtering of nine Black church parishioners by a white supremacist gunman who idolized Confederate symbols. More than 480 symbols and statues were removed nationwide since then, according to the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Whose Heritage?” campaign.

But Alabama forbids the removal of longstanding monuments, and while few cities, such as Birmingham, have defied that law, the Davis statue remains.

People view a newly unveiled statue of Helen Keller on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Keller’s statue depicts her as a young woman sitting on a bench. In her lap is a book with instructions, in both text and Braille, on the technique of tactile lipreading. Visitors are invited to sit with her figure, placing their face in her outstretched hand.

Keller Johnson Thompson said she knows how pleased her great-grand-aunt would be, to be honored alongside Parks at the Capitol. Their stories remind us that no obstacle is insurmountable, and each of us can make a lasting difference, she said.

“As my aunt Helen so beautifully reminded us, although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it,” Johnson Thompson said.

FILE – Helen Keller poses in New York on Jan. 8, 1946. (AP Photo/RK, File)

Their unveiling on Friday was more than six years in the making. Alabama lawmakers approved the statues in 2019, and the Alabama Women’s Tribute Statue Commission completed the project.

Rep. Laura Hall, who sponsored the authorizing legislation, said visitors to the Capitol should “see the full picture, the history and the impact that women have played.”

“Helen Keller and Rosa Parks just seemed to be the image that — whether you were Black or white, Democrat or Republican — you could identify with and realize the impact that they had on history,” Hall said.

Contributors include Associated Press writer Aaron Morrison in New York.

By DIDI TANG and PAUL WISEMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials are launching an investigation into whether China lived up to its commitments under a 2020 trade pact that President Donald Trump described at the time as “an incredible breakthrough.’’

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The announcement Friday by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer came the same day Trump was scheduled to head to Asia, where he said he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to ease trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

Beijing has announced that Xi will travel to South Korea to attend a regional economic meeting and for a state visit, but it has yet to confirm that he will meet with Trump while both are in South Korea.

The possible leaders summit is highly watched as trade tensions have risen again, with both countries imposing more trade restrictions on the other and Trump threatening a new 100% tariff on China. Beijing has demanded that the U.S. not threaten new restrictions while seeking talks with China, and it’s not immediately clear how Greer’s announcement could affect the negotiations.

In starting the investigation, “the administration seems to be looking for new sources of leverage to use against Beijing, while adding another pressure point to get China to buy more U.S. soybeans as well as other goods,” said Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

During his first term, Trump imposed tariffs on a wide swath of Chinese imports — and Beijing retaliated by targeting American products — in a dispute over China’s aggressive efforts to supplant U.S. technological leadership. The Americans charged that China unfairly subsidized its own tech companies, stole technology and forced U.S. and other Western companies to hand over trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market.

The two countries held talks over two years and ultimately reached a truce that took effect in early 2020. The so-called Phase One deal called for China to dramatically step up purchases of U.S. exports, especially soybeans and other farm products. But it left tougher issues — such as China’s subsidies — for future talks.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted trade between the two countries just as the Phase One deal went into effect. In 2022, U.S. farm exports to China did hit a record but then fell. They are down sharply this year as tensions between the two countries have escalated over a new tariff war following Trump’s return to the White House.

In fact, China has stopped buying American soybeans. It had been the top overseas market for U.S. soybean farmers.

An analysis by the Peterson Institute for International Economics shows that China purchased only 58% of the total U.S. goods and services exports in 2020 and 2021 that it had committed to buy under the agreement.

Cutler said it is “no secret that China did not live up to its obligations under the Phase One agreement, most notably its commitments to buy more U.S. goods.”

The investigation announced Friday is being carried out under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which is meant to counter unfair trading practices by other countries. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has scheduled a public hearing on the case for Dec. 16.

The investigation could result in additional trade sanctions on China. U.S. tariffs on Chinese products already come to 55%, including tariffs left over from Trump’s first term.

The president in early October threatened to add an additional 100% levy, possibly bringing the total to 155%, after Beijing expanded export rules on rare earth materials. However, Trump also said the triple-digit tariff would be “not sustainable.”

The St. Thomas women’s hockey team knew Friday was going to be a big-picture day as it prepared to host the Providence Friars in the inaugural event at Anderson Arena, St. Thomas’ new on-campus home for hockey and basketball.

Then the details took a little shine off a special day.

In a game that will be hard to top in terms of the number of twists and turns, the 13th-ranked Tommies rallied from a 5-2 deficit only to lose 7-6 before an announced crowd of 1,456.

“There are so many emotions, and excitement and gratitude that goes into opening a building like this,” Tommies head coach Bethany Brausen said. “Of course, you want to be on the winning side of that, and we talked about that after the game. It’s not the results we wanted, but I think it’s the information we needed about where our team is. To see them climb back in the third period gives me a lot of promise about the direction of our program this year.”

The Tommies scored four straight goals in the third period to take a 6-5 lead. The Friars pulled their goaltender in the final minute and got the equalizer with 32 seconds to play. Providence’s Reichen Kirchmair then scored midway through the 5-minute overtime — her fourth goal of the game — to drop the Tommies to 6-3-0.

“We expected a crazy game today,” Brausen said. “We’re moving into this brand new facility, energy is high, emotions are high. So, I was trying to play out what every scenario could look like. I didn’t play this one out.”

Brausen remained upbeat despite the loss.

“As we entered into the third period, I challenged our team to be a different program than we’ve ever been in the past,” she said. “ And that was a tall order under those circumstances. I am very encouraged by the response that they had.

“Over the years we’ve had good hockey teams. This is a different group now; they truly believe they’re never out of a game. When you start to get that in your locker room and on your bench, that’s when championship culture starts to develop.”

The opening of the arena coincides with Tommies teams being eligible for the NCAA postseason for the first time, signally a start of a new era in Tommies athletics.

Athletics director Phil Esten was all smiles prior to the game, proud of what the athletic department has accomplished and eager to see what tomorrow will bring.

“One of the greatest rewards for me was moving our student athletes in over the last two or three weeks,” Esten said. “The looks on their faces, the sheer joy that they had in their eyes — It’s been a long journey for them, too. They came to St. Thomas at a time we weren’t eligible for postseason and they took a chance on it, which I greatly appreciate. So the greatest reward has been that.

“Secondly, I would say that, as beautiful as this facility is, it’s more than just bricks and mortar. It’s about the memories we’re going to make here. We’re in the business of building people in personal and professional development, and how we can grow affinity for St. Thomas and make sure people have memories that last lifetimes.”

The arena, which seats 4,000 for hockey and 5,300 for basketball, became a reality in large part to a $75 million donation by Lee and Penny Anderson. A fundraising campaign eventually raised over $131 million for the project.

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The university’s decision to build on campus was met my stiff opposition from some nervy residents who were —and remain —concerned about traffic and a shortage of parking.

School officials are hopeful the two sides can more than simply co-exist.

“We’re neighbors, and it is important that we find mutually beneficial solutions,” Esten said. “I think we work together to mitigate what I think are going to be some traffic and parking concerns and challenges. Any time you go to a large event there is some traffic. We’ve been hosting football games on campus for 10 years. Last week, we had 4,200 people at O’Shaughnessy Stadium. Three weeks ago, we had 5,500 people there and parking and traffic were handled just fine.”

The building features a second ice surface, which Esten said will do more than serve as a practice site for the Tommies.

“We’re able to provide the St. Paul Capitals and other youth organizations the opportunity to play in their community,” Esten said. “So, I think this is a an asset both for college hockey and for our community. We’re going to welcome high school hockey. We’ll welcome youth hockey. We’ll welcome public skating. We’ll welcome anybody who wants to use that auxiliary ice sheet because we do think it is important to engage with the community in that way.”