Today's News

By SARAH SKIDMORE SELL, AP Personal Finance Writer

Americans are getting an extra day to file their taxes after key elements of the IRS website crashed on deadline day.

The IRS said that individuals or businesses with a filing or payment due Tuesday now have until midnight Wednesday to complete the task.

Earlier Tuesday, Americans who had waited until the final day to file online got an unwelcome surprise: The agency's website for making payments and gaining access to other key services was down due to what Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later described as a "high-volume technical issue."

The website was back online late Tuesday.

"This is the busiest tax day of the year, and the IRS apologizes for the inconvenience this system issue caused for taxpayers," Acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter said in a statement. "The IRS appreciates everyone's patience during this period. The extra time will help taxpayers affected by this situation."

No additional paperwork is needed to get the one-day extension, the IRS said.

The IRS snafu also caused problems for popular third-party tax preparers such as Turbo Tax and H&R Block. Both said that they would hold on to customer tax returns and file after IRS system reopened.

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Family, friends and community leaders are mourning the death of a bank executive on a Southwest Airlines jet that blew an engine as she was flying home from a business trip to New York.

Jennifer Riordan, a mother of two, was well known in New Mexico, where she had built a career over more than two decades in community relations and communications after graduating from the University of New Mexico.

Gov. Susana Martinez called Riordan "an incredible woman who put her family and community first" and said her loss would be felt across the state.

"The hearts of all New Mexicans are with the Riordan family," Martinez, a Republican, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Before starting with Wells Fargo in 2008, Riordan had worked for the University of New Mexico hospital system in public relations and for Citi Corp.

At Wells Fargo, she was the vice president for community relations and was in charge of managing employee volunteer and board service to nonprofit groups in New Mexico and parts of Texas. She also served on numerous boards and oversaw the annual United Way community campaign.

Mayor Tim Keller said his thoughts and prayers were with Riordan's family.

Los Alamos National Laboratory partially evacuated workers from the Sigma Building around Monday as hazmat workers responded to the building.

“At 2:30, p.m. today Laboratory personnel and the Los Alamos Fire Department responded to a report of a bulging drum at the Sigma facility,” according to a laboratory spokesman. “The drum has been rendered safe. The area has been isolated and access control established. There is no threat to workers or the public.”

All workers in the building were safe from the incident, and the area where the evacuation took place was confirmed safe, according to the spokesman.

The Sigma building develops materials and components using engineering and metallurgical science in support of national security, according to the LANL website. This science includes a scope that spans alloys, ceramics and compounds from uranium to hydrogen, the website said.

As high school baseball and softball season moves along this spring, I have found great joy in watching the kids play games they love on a daily basis. It is obvious how much fun they are having on the field, and it is great to see the teams at Los Alamos High School find success late in the schedule. 

However, the one negative I have found about the schedule are the number of doubleheaders the teams are forced to play. From a scheduling standpoint, I absolutely understand the need for doubleheaders. The teams all have to play a certain amount of games, and they want the kids to miss as little school as possible. 

But I can’t see many other positives to the doubleheaders. First of all, playing two games back-to-back, which can take more than six hours, is physically draining for the players. Baseball is a game of lots of starts and stops. It requires laser-sharp focus and attention while in the field and in the batter’s box. 

By the end of a second game, it is possible that a player would have played 14 innings in the field, and taken eight or more at-bats. I can’t believe that a player is as sharp after playing that much as he would have been hours earlier, at the beginning of the first game.