By Jacob Solis

INTERNATIONAL

Mexican authorities accused of torture during investigation into missing students

Strong evidence was released Sunday that Mexican officials tortured suspects in the search for 43 students who went missing in 2014, according to Time Magazine. The experts who released the data, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said that a study of 17 suspects yielded signs of beatings, bruises and cuts.

The 17 suspects interviewed were only a fraction of roughly 123 suspects detained by the Mexican government thus far. At least one of those suspects reported being asphyxiated with a plastic bag, while another was reportedly hit so hard on the ears that his eardrums broke.

These allegations could endanger the possibility of convictions for those responsible for the 2014 kidnappings because the government’s explanation for the crime — that corrupt police handed the students over to the cartels — now rests on confessions that could be the product of torture.

The experts group who released the report have also claimed that the Mexican government was hesitant to release certain data to them, and has been criticized by the group as “more interested in PR” than in investigating.

NATIONAL

Kasich, Cruz join forces to block Trump nomination

The presidential campaigns for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced a joint plan Sunday that aims to keep Donald Trump from being the Republican nominee. In a statement, the Cruz campaign said it would shift focus to Indiana while opening up the road for Kasich in Oregon and New Mexico.

Kasich has long been mathematically eliminated from the primary contest, and Cruz stands on the verge of being eliminated himself with poor performances predicted in today’s slate of primaries. Even so, it remains possible that this new effort from the pair could make it very difficult for Trump to lock up the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination on the first ballot.

In his trademark style, Trump took to Twitter Sunday night to respond.

“Wow, just announced that Lyin’ Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!” Trump’s tweet read.

Trump has won 846 delegates in the primaries up until now and has by far the best shot of taking the nomination on a first ballot. However, he has only recently begun efforts to woo delegates, and odds are Ted Cruz would perform best if the convention ever makes it to a second or third ballot.

LOCAL

Reno ranks among most polluted cities for air quality on new Lung Association list

The Biggest Little City landed 11th on a new list released last Wednesday by the American Lung Association, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Specifically, Reno’s short-term particulate pollution levels landed the city in 11th, though long-term particulate levels and ozone levels in the city are more moderate. Even so, the city still received an “F” in the ozone category.

The data behind the list comes from two years of EPA data collected between 2012 and 2014, though Reno has passed the EPA’s annual particulate standards. This is largely because of the fine particulates caused by wildfires in the summer and while the EPA does not include wildfire data in its standards, the American Lung Association does.

Jacob Solis can be reached at jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @TheSagebrush.