New Mexico lawmakers propose $45M school cybersecurity fund - By Cedar Attanasio Associated Press / Report For America
Lawmakers in New Mexico are considering major investments in cybersecurity, following two serious cyberattacks against school districts in the state just last month, and increased vulnerability of information technology in K-12 schools nationally.
On Monday, the House Education Committee unanimously advanced a bill that would allocate $45 million to hire cybersecurity experts for the state and a grant program for school districts to bolster their cyber defenses. It will be considered by another House committee.
New Mexico lags behind other states in establishing cybersecurity protocols and training in state agencies as well as in schools, according to Legislative analysts.
Last month, ransomware attacks shut down access to student attendance and grade databases in Albuquerque and Truth or Consequences. A similar cyberattack in Las Cruces in 2019 shut down all access to computers in the district for months.
The proposed bill would mandate the creation of a cybersecurity office for schools inside the state Public Education Department, while also adding positions at the Department of Information Technology.
The education department is reluctant to absorb responsibility for school cybersecurity, according to comments cited by Legislative analysts. The agency is already struggling to fill dozens of open positions, including around seven information technology jobs.
Voter-access bill advances in New Mexico Legislature - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
A Democrat-backed bill to expand voting access in New Mexico received a crucial endorsement Monday from a Senate panel, reviving prospects for legislative approval.
The committee voted 7-4 along party lines on a bill that would make Election Day a holiday to encourage voting, streamline mail-in voting and further automate voter registration procedures at state government offices.
The bill also would provide convicted felons with the opportunity to register to vote as they exit prison. New Mexico already allows felons to vote, with obstacles to register. They have to complete their sentence, parole or probation.
A least one more committee vetting lies ahead before the bill can reach a Senate vote to possibly pass to the House for consideration. Lawmakers have until Feb. 17 to approve legislation during a rapid-fire 30-day legislative session.
The initiative from legislators including Democratic Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth of Santa Fe has the support of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who both are running for reelection this year.
Wirth says New Mexico has an obligation to bolster access to voting as Republican-led states including neighboring Texas impose new restrictions on ballot access, with federal voting rights legislation stalled in Congress.
Republicans say the bill would undermine precautions against election cheating and undermine public confidence in election results, urging further vetting and amendments.
At least 19 states have enacted voting restrictions since the 2020 election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The national GOP campaign to tighten voting laws has been partly driven by former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
The proposed voting reforms in New Mexico would expand the availability of monitored ballot drop boxes and create a permanent absentee voter list, allowing voters to receive absentee ballots for each election without repeatedly requesting them.
The Republican Party has questioned that effort, raising doubts about how the state will properly maintain the absentee voter list and know when people die or move.
About 35% of 2020 voters voted by mail in 2020, up from less than 10% in 2016, according to a state-sponsored study from the University of New Mexico. About 45% of Democratic voters cast ballots by mail — at roughly twice the rate of Republicans.
The voting bill also would allow registration with the use of student identification documents from an accredited college or university. In-person voter registration would be extended to Election Day rather than the Saturday before.
Belen man indicted in hit-and-run crash that left a boy dead -Associated Press
A driver suspected in a December hit-and-run that left a 7-year-old boy dead in Albuquerque has been indicted, according to authorities.
Prosecutors said 27-year-old Sergio Almanza of Belen is facing six charges in the case including homicide by vehicle, driving while under the influence, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and tampering with evidence.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Almanza surrendered to authorities in southwest New Mexico seven weeks after the fatal crash.
Almanza remains jailed without bond and is scheduled to be arraigned on Feb. 14.
It was unclear Sunday if Almanza has a lawyer yet who can speak on his behalf.
Authorities said Pronoy Bhattacharya was with his family on Dec. 12 as they walked across a street after attending the River of Lights show at the ABQ BioPark.
Almanza was driving an illegal off-road vehicle and allegedly ran a red light before hitting the boy and then fleeing the scene, authorities said.
Authorities said tips from the public enabled investigators to identify Almanza as the suspected driver.
Santa Fe wants public's input in search for new police chief - Associated Press
Santa Fe officials are asking the public to weigh in on the search for the city's next police chief.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the search has been narrowed down to 10 candidates.
Kyra Ochoa, director of community health and safety, told the newspaper the city received 13 applications. No women applied.
The current crop of candidates include interim Santa Fe Police Department chief Paul Joye and applicants from as far away as New Jersey and North Carolina.
The city for the next two months will seek the public's opinion through panels, forums and surveys in English and Spanish.
Officials began the search Nov. 15, two weeks before Chief Andrew Padilla retired.
Environmental group supports plan to deal with feral cattle - Associated Press
An environmental group is supporting a U.S. Forest Service plan to put a dent in the feral cattle population on national forest land near the New Mexico-Arizona border.
The Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement Monday that it "commends" the federal agency for trying to remove unowned, feral cows that can threaten sensitive habitat along streams and wetlands in the Gila Wilderness.
The plan, which has drawn the ire of ranchers, calls for wildlife agents to shoot down unbranded livestock from helicopters.
While some environmentalists have long voiced concerns about leaving cow carcasses on the landscape, the Center says unowned feral cows are "dangerous and destructive."
"Getting them out of the forest hurts no one and helps everyone, including endangered species who have nowhere else to go," the group said.
The New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association is concerned about the ability of the wildlife agents to distinguish branded from unbranded livestock. Ranchers argue the plan is a violation of federal law and won't help to solve the problem.
Reward offered for information on damage to petroglyphs site -Santa Fe New Mexican, Associated Press
A New Mexico nonprofit wilderness group is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever was responsible for spray-painted graffiti and other damage to petroglyphs dating back thousands of years at a site west of Santa Fe.
Anyone with information about the damage to La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs should call the Bureau of Land Management's dispatch center, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance said Friday.
The BLM said last month the damage likely occurred Jan. 18 and that it was under investigation.
According to a BLM news release, those convicted of damaging cultural sites face penalties of up to two years in prison and a $20,000 fine per charge under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.
History shows every moment counts for Dems' hold on Senate - By Alan Fram Associated Press
More than 600 sitting senators have died or resigned from office since the first Congress met in 1789. That doesn't mean another will happen soon, but it does underline the precarious position that President Joe Biden and Democrats' reed-thin Senate majority are in following Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján's stroke.
Luján, 49, should recover and return to the Capitol in four weeks to six weeks, barring setbacks, Democrats say. If that happens, Luján's absence could have limited impact on his party's priorities, including Biden's pending nomination to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.
If the New Mexico senator's recuperation takes longer or he has setbacks, Democrats' agenda would confront serious problems. And with Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote all that gives them the 50-50 Senate's majority, each day presents a small chance that Democrats could abruptly lose control if something happens to any of their senators.
THE NUMBERS
According to Senate records, 301 sitting senators have died, most recently Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in 2018. An additional 326 have resigned; the last was Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who stepped down in ill health in 2019 and died two years later. The figures exclude senators who quit near the end of their terms, often to let a successor gain seniority in the chamber.
That means that of the 1,994 people who have served as senators over the chamber's 233 years, about 3 in 10 have died in office or quit. That's an average of 2.7 deaths and resignations annually.
Those events can come in spurts. Fifteen senators from Confederate states resigned because of the Civil War. Seven died in 1918 at the height of the Spanish flu, the most ever in one year, though all their deaths were attributed to other causes, according to Eric Ostermeier, a political research fellow at the University of Minnesota.
Life expectancy is longer today, and so far this century just seven senators have died in office, while 18 more have resigned to hold other offices or for health or personal issues — a combined average of a bit over one annually.
DEMOCRATIC SENATORS
Seventeen Democrats and the two independents who align with them — Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine — are age 70 or older. That includes Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper, who turns 70 on Monday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is the chamber's oldest member at 88.
The party has weathered at least two other recent health scares. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., 81, went to a hospital and was released within hours last year after not feeling well. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., 61, announced in September that she had been treated for breast cancer.
SHOULD A DEMOCRAT DIE OR LEAVE OFFICE ...
... things could get dicey.
Forty-five states empower governors to appoint replacements who serve until a special election can be held. Five states give the governor no role and only a special election fills the seat. Laws vary but it can take months until voting occurs.
Most Democratic senators' states have Democratic governors, who are all but certain to appoint Democrats should vacancies occur. Those include Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M.
But currently, 16 Democratic senators plus Sanders, the Vermont independent, represent nine states with Republican governors. In seven of them, the governor can name whomever he or she would like as a replacement.
Of the remaining two states in this group, Arizona and Maryland — with two Democratic senators apiece — require their GOP governor to appoint a replacement from the departed incumbent's party. In addition, Gov. Phil Scott, R-Vt., has said he would replace Leahy with a Democrat or Sanders with a Democratic-leaning independent.
WHY EVERY VOTE, AND DAY, MATTERS
Republicans could capture House and Senate control in November's elections. That sound you hear is the dwindling days of 2022, when Democrats control the White House and Congress. The party wants accomplishments now — and definitely before autumn, when campaigning will be the priority and bipartisan cooperation will be nil.
In Luján's absence, Democrats still run the Senate but have lost their ability to muscle bills and nominations through the chamber by themselves. Any controversial legislation or nomination unanimously opposed by Republicans would lose 50-49, and worse if any Democrats defected.
Luckily for Democrats, some top items on the near-term agenda will need bipartisan agreement to reach the 60 votes that legislation usually requires. Such compromises, once reached, usually attract well over 60 votes, meaning Luján's absence might not matter.
One such effort is aimed at preventing a Feb. 18 government shutdown and financing federal agencies through September. Another would strengthen American research and manufacturing. A third would revamp how Congress certifies electoral votes in presidential elections, following former President Donald Trump's effort to undermine that normally routine ceremony on Jan. 6, 2021, amid his false claims that his reelection defeat was fraudulent.
Bipartisan talks are underway on each of those bills.
BOLDER GOALS WILL HAVE TO WAIT
Two top Democratic priorities that will likely encounter strong Republican opposition, but will need just 50 votes to pass, probably will not be ready for Senate votes for a while. That could give Luján time to return.
One is Biden's Supreme Court selection. The president has said he will pick a Black woman; Democrats hope several Republicans will support the nominee.
Biden has said he will announce his choice this month. The Senate would likely take weeks for hearings and votes. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week that Luján's absence was not expected to affect the schedule.
Many Democrats, wary of risking that nomination should they suddenly lose the majority, want faster action.
"Anything they can do to speed up the process would be good," said Adam Jentleson, a progressive strategist and former top Senate aide.
The other key goal is their long-delayed, roughly $2 trillion social and environment bill. It will take weeks of negotiations at best for them to revive that effort by reaching compromise with holdout Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
Its prospects are uncertain, with or without Luján.
Santa Fe cathedral's spruce remembered as 'Grandpa's tree' - By Michael Tashji Santa Fe New Mexican
Parishioners of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi took to social media Dec. 15 to mourn the predawn toppling of a nearly century-old, 60-foot spruce tree by fierce winds that had wrought destruction throughout northern New Mexico.
Hundreds of people drove by the cathedral to see the fallen tree one last time. Most had never seen the cathedral without it and could never have imagined they would.
For 72-year-old Grace Luper, the tree's fall had a more personal significance. "My grandfather, Charles J. Eckert, planted (that) tree," she wrote in an email. "He planted it around 1922."
"We always call the tree in front of the cathedral 'Grandpa's tree,'" Luper said in an interview with the Santa Fe New Mexican. "And we always said, 'We're going to get a plaque to put there.' People need to know that Grandfather planted that tree."
Eckert was the treasurer of First National Bank on the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe and would walk past the cathedral every day. Luper said he thought the yard looked barren and bought the spruce tree to have it planted in front of the church.
"Because the bank was almost right across the street from the cathedral, on his way home every day after work, he would stop and water that tree," she said, adding he also would help with other chores around the church yard.
"He was always coming (home) late, and my grandmother was furious with him because she had nine children to feed, and they wouldn't eat until he got home," Luper said.
The Eckerts were devout Catholics and were members of the cathedral's congregation for decades. They sat in the same pew each Mass for more than 50 years.
"He was a Knight of St. Gregory," Luper said of her grandfather. The honor is given to Catholics to recognize their service to the church.
Eckert was born in St. Louis in 1889. He suffered from tuberculosis, so he was sent to Santa Fe, where the climate would allow him to recuperate.
As a patient at what was then known as St. Vincent Hospital adjacent to the cathedral — now Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center — he met nurse-in-training Josephine Mary Perea. They fell in love and were married in 1912, the same year New Mexico gained statehood.
The couple lived on Garcia Street, where Eckert planted a second spruce tree that grew as large as the one in front of the cathedral. Luper recalled climbing it often with Charles and Josephine Eckert's other grandchildren.
"They had 29 grandchildren," she said. "We're spread out all over the country. I don't know how many great-grandchildren there are."
Luper's mother, Margaret, grew up on Garcia Street, and she met Luper's father, Larry Cornell, at La Fonda on the Plaza. The couple moved to Hastings, Michigan, where Luper lived until she was 5 before returning to New Mexico.
La Fonda would play an outsize role in the extended family's life, serving as the primary venue for Communion celebrations and wedding receptions.
"We always have a mariachi band play because everybody loves mariachi music," said Luper, who now lives in Tequesta, Florida, with her husband, Larry Luper. She has a little phone book with all her cousins' names and phone numbers, so they can keep in touch.
Luper said she found out about the toppled spruce from her son, Dennis Mosqueda, 52, who lives in Albuquerque. "He called me one day and said, 'Mom, you're not going to believe this, but Grandpa's tree blew down.' "
Elsa Thompson, 71, another of Charles Eckert's grandchildren, grew up in Farmington. As a student at New Mexico State University, she lived with her grandfather on Garcia Street for several summers.
"He would walk every day to Mass," Thompson said. "He just loved the cathedral."
Eckert died in 1969 at the age of 80 from a heart attack and was buried in Rosario Cemetery. A funeral Mass was held for him at the cathedral. His wife, Josephine, had died years earlier, at the age of 57.
After Eckert's death, his house was sold, and the tree he had planted there was uprooted, having grown too large for the residence.
The beloved spruce at the cathedral was one of two evergreens on the church property brought down by winds up to 60 mph during a storm that swept through the region. The spruce knocked over a sign but caused no damage to the church and missed the statues of St. Kateri Tekakwitha and Archbishop Jean Baptiste-Lamy that stand in the church yard.
The cathedral's rector, Rev. Tim Martinez, offered pieces of the tree trunk to santeros and woodcarvers. The trunk was — coincidentally — cut into 29 pieces, equal to the number of Eckert's grandchildren. When Luper learned of the coincidence, she cried. She said she'd like to have a cross made from one of the pieces of wood.
Martinez said he'd like to have a show of all the works made from the tree. He added the wood already has been assigned to local artists.
"It had already been decorated for Christmas when it fell," Martinez said of the spruce tree. "As much as we lost our Christmas tree that day, we also saw how a group of people came together to tell stories about the memories they had surrounding the cathedral and surrounding the tree."
Martinez said discussions about whether to plant another tree on the site are just getting started.
The fallen spruce uncovered a small human arm bone, likely from an old burial ground on the church property, so it's currently an archaeological site, he said.
The tree served as a marker of people's lives, Martinez said. "It's nice to have things that have been there all your life."
Luper said she and her cousins are going to have another family get-together in the spring, if the coronavirus pandemic will allow it, "because we realize how important family is. It's nice to have that history."
Family highlights behavioral health care gaps in New Mexico - By Elise Kaplan Albuquerque Journal
Police officers, health care workers and rescue personnel in Albuquerque know Shawnna Boyd well.
The 37-year-old is what they call a "frequent flyer." She has been calling 911 for years — expressing thoughts of suicide and getting taken to the hospital.
Last July, she ran from her group home into the middle of a busy street and caused a three-car crash. Other times, she has been arrested — charged with battery on a health care worker, assault for threatening another resident at a group home or criminal damage to property — although all cases against her end up getting dismissed when she is found incompetent.
Officers have had more than 150 contacts with her over the years.
"She knows she needs help and she's not getting it," said Shawnna's mother, Kathy Boyd. "I don't know what she needs, but I know she needs something that she is absolutely not getting. It's going to end up … she is going to kill herself."
For law enforcement and disability advocates alike, cases like Shawnna Boyd's highlight a lack of services to treat behavioral health issues in the state, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Advocates say jail is not a treatment facility and putting people with mental health issues into the criminal justice system won't help them. And officers tasked with responding to calls say they can take someone to a local hospital instead, but that is just a "Band-Aid fix."
"It's really difficult when there's not a whole lot for us to refer to," said Matt Dietzel, the acting commander of the Albuquerque Police Department's Crisis Intervention Division. "There's not a whole lot of intensive case management that we need so your police department's doing that."
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Lack of coverage
Kathy Boyd said her youngest daughter has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. She also has a traumatic brain injury.
She was living in a group home until she got kicked out last fall. Now she is living with her mother and sister in their Albuquerque home. She has a caretaker and takes daily medication but she continues to act out, hurt herself and run away.
So Shawnna Boyd's treatment team recommended she be sent to Nexus Health Systems neurorecovery center outside of Houston for a month.
"The services available within the state of New Mexico at this time are inadequate to provide ongoing support of Ms. Boyd's recovery and rehabilitation," her outpatient psychiatrist wrote in an affidavit provided to the Journal by Shawnna Boyd's attorney.
Stacey Adams, the senior national complex care liaison for Nexus, said the facility sits on 26 acres and is a "home-like environment" that can offer one-on-one care if needed but the goal is to help residents transition to being more independent. Residents participate in group and individual cognitive and "neurorehab" sessions to improve behavioral issues and increase their ability to function.
But Shawnna Boyd's insurance through Medicaid wouldn't cover the cost.
According to a denial letter, the Blue Cross Community Centennial medical director determined Shawnna Boyd is not able to do three hours of therapy each day and does not need skilled nursing care.
Attorney Max Kauffman, with Disability Rights New Mexico, disagrees, citing the psychiatrist's affidavit that said Shawnna Boyd can participate in three hours of therapy a day and does need ongoing skilled care.
"The reasons for the denial are not supported by the evidence that we see from the people working with her on a day to day basis — it's not supported by physicians who work with her," Kauffman said.
He has appealed the decision to an administrative law judge with the New Mexico Human Services Department. A decision has not yet been made.
"We tend to look at the individual and point the finger at them to say, 'why can't you get your life together,'" Kauffman said. "But when they try they meet a big barrier such as this — where nothing in the community is working out so what's left is to try this one last thing == and then she's shot down because the (Managed Care Organization) doesn't want to pay for it."
Blue Cross Blue Shield wrote in a statement that to protect the privacy of its members it doesn't disclose personal or benefit information. It added that there is a process in place to protect the member and hear their concerns.
"Our members are at the center of all we do, and we are committed to providing them access to the right care, at the right place, at the right time," the company said. "Our care management tools and processes are designed with this in mind, considering among other factors state and federal regulations and medical necessity criteria set forth in our medical policies and backed by evidence-based medicine."
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'Long-term fear'
When Dietzel joined APD's Crisis Intervention Division several years ago he began looking at reports to determine who were the "high utilizers" in terms of contacts with officers.
No matter how he looks at it, Shawnna Boyd is always No. 1.
"Her case is really difficult, because she calls police constantly," Dietzel said. "How this plays out is — in my mind — the care that she receives is not at a high enough level for the need that she has and so she has ways to get out of the system."
He said in one scenario, Shawnna Boyd calls 911, officers respond and she tells them she wants to hurt herself and they take her to the hospital.
"This happens extremely often, to the point where officers in that area command know her by name," Dietzel said. "The other scenario is, she'll get angry at the other people that she lives with and sometimes it becomes physical and there's occasional arrests as a result."
Dietzel said there are at least 155 cases involving Shawnna Boyd, although he expects there are more under incorrect spellings of her name or the wrong date of birth. Of those, 15 resulted in an arrest but the vast majority were reports for behavioral or mental health, several of which were transports to the hospital.
He expects responders with Albuquerque Community Safety — the city's newest department which responds to behavioral health calls — will soon know her by name as well.
Ultimately, Dietzel agreed that what's happening now isn't working.
He said the incident in July where Shawnna Boyd ran into traffic and caused a crash scares him because there are so many people his unit has tried to get help for who have ended up getting hit by a car and killed.
He said he worries what will happen if, in the future, Shawnna Boyd can no longer stay with her mother.
"What is the plan here?" Dietzel said. "She's living somewhere safe for now but my long-term fear is, that's not going to work out either and maybe this time there isn't a plan and she ends up completely homeless."
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A call for care
Sitting in the living room of the house she shares with her mother and older sister, Shawnna Boyd is outgoing and eager to contribute to the conversation. She shows off her nephew's puppy and a remote control WALL-E toy that lurches around the room, skirting the Christmas tree set up for a delayed family celebration.
Shawnna Boyd said she wants to go to Texas and she is hopeful that the center will help her feel better.
"I think it'll help me out," she said. "I'll be better and then I can live at home permanently with my family and not in the dang group home."
Kauffman and Dietzel are also optimistic that it could work, with Dietzel pointing out that if her calls to the police and for emergency transport get cut in half "it'd be a huge victory for everybody."
"If you want to look at this in terms of violent crime, that officer that's responding standing there with her, isn't responding to the person who just was involved in a shooting," Dietzel said.
As for Kathy Boyd, she remembers a time when spending time with her daughter was fun — they'd go to the park or the zoo, or ride horses training for the Special Olympics. Now there are a lot of fights and stress and she's always worried her daughter will get hurt.
"I just would like to have a quiet peaceful life," Kathy Boyd said. "I'd like to know she's taken care of. That's the main thing."