Albuquerque Mayor Wants Businesses Reopened With Precautions - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
The mayor of New Mexico's largest city says he favors reopening nearly all businesses with precautions such as reduced indoor crowds, face coverings and COVID-19 screenings for workers.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller on Tuesday answered questions in a town hall-style meeting by phone about business restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The presentation offered clues about a possible statewide approach to ending closures. Keller said he is talking with Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office as she decides on a strategy that guards against a resurgence of infections. Keller said state orders should trump any city decisions.
Shopping malls and businesses like barber shops and tattoo parlors where people are close together may pose special challenges, said Keller, adding that authorities are watching Colorado and Georgia for practical lessons as they restore nonessential areas of the economy.
Keller said a coordinated, statewide approach to economic recovery is essential, noting that coronavirus patients are often transferred to Albuquerque for treatment.
Lujan Grisham has indicated that she will extend the lockdown through at least May 15, with some revisions.
Legislative leaders are anticipating the largest budget deficit in state history that could quickly deplete $1.3 billion in financial reserves.
Government income is expected to nosedive as the pandemic and stay-at-home orders take a toll on tax revenue from sales and services and activity in the oil sector that typically provides for more than one-third of general fund spending.
Two More Inmates May Have COVID-19 As Cases Rise Around State – Albuquerque Journal, KUNM
Two more inmates at the largest county jail in New Mexico appear to have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Albuquerque Journal reported a male and a female inmate have tested positive in the Metropolitan Detention Center. That’s according to documents the jail turned over to defense attorney Christopher Dodd as part of a public records request.
Officials with the MDC said in March that an inmate tested positive. A spokesman for Bernalillo County said he was not aware of other cases but he told the Journal he would look into it.
There were 153 additional cases statewide on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 2,974. There were also six additional deaths, including four from McKinley and San Juan counties in northwest New Mexico and two from Bernalillo County.
The total number of deaths in New Mexico is now 110. McKinley County, which overlaps with the Navajo Nation, has the most cases at 820.
Navajo Nation Building Alternative Care Sites For COVID-19 Cases – Albuquerque Journal
Navajo Nation officials are working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on an alternative care site in Chinle, Arizona, for a potential overflow of COVID-19 patients.
The Albuquerque Journal reported a similar facility was built in a high school gym in Gallup and there will also be one in Shiprock. The sites would allow patients to recover and help stem community spread.
President Jonathan Nez said he is concerned that “hotspots” on the western part of the vast reservation are shifting east and north to towns such as Gallup and Farmington.
Native Americans make up half of the COVID-19 cases in New Mexico according to data from the Department of Health despite making up just over 10% of the population.
State's Virus Advisory Committee Deliberates In Private – Associated Press
An advisory commission to the governor on economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is not subject to the state's Open Meetings Act and its deliberations will be closed to the public. That’s according to a spokesman under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Taxation and Revenue Department spokesman Charlie Moore said Monday that summaries will be provided of work by the so-called economic recovery council that includes leaders from a gamut of businesses from a rural general store to national renewable energy and mass media companies.
A bipartisan council of mayors also is being assembled to provide advice through the governor's chief of staff, John Bingaman. It was unclear which mayors may participate.
Lujan Grisham is developing a strategy for reopening the state economy while limiting the spread of COVID-19. She has indicated that New Mexico will extend its public health order through May 15 in efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19, amid a surge in infections in the northwest of the state including vast areas of the Navajo Nation.
The governor has vowed to sanction businesses that flout restrictions on nonessential business.
Appeal Argues New Mexico Ignored Rules In OK Of Nuke Site Work - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
A watchdog group wants the New Mexico Court of Appeals to put the brakes on a key construction project at the nation's only underground nuclear waste repository.
The group alleges state environmental officials ignored regulations and past practices in giving temporary approval for contractors to begin building a new ventilation shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The state stands by its decision.
A radiation release in 2014 forced the repository's temporary closure. Resulting contamination limited the air flow underground, prompting the need for a new system so full-scale operations can resume.
The repository is part of a multibillion-dollar effort to clean up waste from decades of U.S. nuclear research and bomb making. Over more than 20 years, tons of waste have been stashed deep in the salt caverns that make up the southern New Mexico site.
Until recently, several shipments a week of special boxes and barrels packed with lab coats, rubber gloves, tools and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements were being trucked to the remote facility from South Carolina, Idaho and other spots. The work has nearly halted as a result of fallout from the coronavirus outbreak and public health orders.
Tribes Urge Treasury To Disburse Coronavirus Relief Funding - By Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press
Tribal nations are urging the federal government to quickly disburse coronavirus relief funding after a judge handed them an early victory in a legal battle involving the money.
At least 18 tribes, including the Navajo Nation and the pueblo of Picuris, sued the federal government seeking to keep any portion of the $8 billion in funding allocated to tribes out of the hands of Alaska Native corporations. A judge in Washington issued a ruling late Monday to temporarily halt any payments to the corporations while he settles the larger question of eligibility.
The decision clears the U.S. Treasury Department to begin distributing money to 574 federally recognized tribes. An attorney for the agency declined comment.
Plaintiffs Say Education-Funding Lawsuit Still Necessary - Associated Press
Civil rights attorneys behind a long-running lawsuit alleging inadequate funding for public education are asking a judge to disregard recent efforts by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to dismiss the case.
Attorneys for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said Monday that state lawmakers have failed to address a landmark 2018 state district court ruling that found New Mexico fails to provide adequate educational opportunities to poor and minority students and those with disabilities.
MALDEF attorney Thomas Saenz in a statement called the state's motion to dismiss the case “nothing but political gamesmanship.”
Judge Sarah Singleton died April 2019 shortly after her final rulings, throwing into limbo the lawsuit on behalf of frustrated school districts and parents.
Since early 2019, the governor and lawmakers have increased annual spending on public schools by hundreds of millions of dollars with special allocations to at-risk students.
The state's ability to maintain spending on a range of programs is in doubt as the coronavirus pandemic undermines employment and crucial oil production.
Democratic New Mexico House Speaker Brian Egolf is anticipating the biggest budget deficit in state history. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says she's likely to call a special session in June to amend the state budget.
New Mexico Mayor Urges Businesses To Reopen As Cases Rise – Russell Contreras, Associated Press
Grants Mayor Martin “Modey” Hicks said Monday that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was killing the state’s economy over “a little bug.”
Once a booming town connected to logging, Route 66 tourism and uranium mining, Grants took a big economic hit when the mines closed and many businesses shuttered.
State health officials say cases have surpassed 2,800 and more than 104 New Mexicans have died from COVID-19.
State Police have warned that any businesses that violate the order could face citations and fines from $100 to $5,000. So far, officers have issued 124 cease-and-desist orders and only four citations statewide since late March.
In Grants there was no heightened police presence Monday.
City Workers In New Mexico Capital Brace For Furloughs - Associated Press
The belt-tightening includes furloughs for all city of Santa Fe workers except front-line public safety employees. The furloughs are projected to save almost $1.5 million. That’s just 3% of the gap the city needs to close over the next two months.
Gross receipts tax revenue accounts for about 70% of the city’s general fund budget, which pays for day-to-day operations. However, disbursements from the state lag by two months. Overall, the city is estimating a $46 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Other cost-cutting measures the City Council will consider Wednesday include a hiring freeze on nonessential personnel and a spending freeze that will generate about $25 million in savings. The city also let 41 temporary workers go.
If approved by the council, the furloughs would go into effect May 6.
Habitat Safeguard For Snakes In Arizona, New Mexico Proposed - Associated Press
The Center for Biological Diversity said Monday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposition is somewhat of a relief. However, Jenny Loda, the group's attorney, says the number of acres that would receive protection is far less than previously stated.
Under the proposal, more than 18,700 acres of critical habitat for narrow-headed garter snakes and nearly 27,800 acres for the northern Mexican garter snake would be safeguarded across both states.
According to Loda, both snake species have been on the brink of extinction for years. They live on riverbanks.
This proposal is a culmination of a failed attempt by U.S. Fish and Wildlife to finalize a proposal in 2013 that would have protected more than 420,000 acres . The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit last year. This resulting agreement calls for the proposal to be finalized by April 13, 2021.
Conservationists say the snakes now live only in small, isolated populations across the Southwest.