Police identify man accused of stabbing on Albuquerque train – Associated Press
Authorities have identified a man suspected of stabbing a passenger and a security guard on a commuter rail train in Albuquerque and also injuring another passenger.
Albuquerque police said 33-year-old Luis Sanchez was arrested in connection with the Saturday afternoon incident on a Rail Runner train and he's facing several charges.
It was unclear Sunday if Sanchez has a lawyer yet who can speak on his behalf.
Police said the two people stabbed were taken to a hospital and one was listed in critical condition.
Rail Runner officials said the suspect got into an argument with another male passenger as the train traveled between stations.
As security attempted to escort him off, police say Sanchez allegedly stabbed a security guard and a woman and slashed another woman on one of her shoulders.
Authorities said Sanchez got off the train and ran down the tracks before he was arrested.
2 dead, 7 injured in Interstate 40 rollover in Albuquerque – Associated Press
Two people were killed and seven others injured in an Interstate 40 car crash in Albuquerque, authorities said Sunday.
City fire department officials said crews were dispatched to a report of an early morning rollover on the freeway and they reported finding nine people injured in the crash.
Authorities said all of the injured were taken to hospitals and two later died from their injuries.
The cause of the rollover wasn't immediately known and authorities didn't immediately identify the two people who died.
Albuquerque real estate market at record levels high and low – By Matthew Narvaiz, Albuquerque Journal
The average sale price for a single-family detached home hit an all-time high in Albuquerque, while the inventory of homes hit a historic low.
According to a February 2022 report from the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors, the average home price stood at $367,566. The median sale price was $315,000 – tying the record set in December. Both averages showed an 18% increase year over year.
"It's the highest that I've seen it," GAAR president Bridget Gilbert said.
Moreover, Albuquerque's inventory of single-family homes for sale reached a record-low of 540 in February, according to the report. That's a decrease of nearly 40% year over year. And it breaks the previous record set in December 2021.
The record numbers go back as far as 2008, Gilbert said. Data going back further wasn't immediately available.
New home builds have also slowed with supply chain issues hampering timelines, said Steve Duran, a local real estate agent with eXp Realty.
"There's more buyers and they can't build them fast enough," Duran said.
Duran said an influx of remote workers, retirees and investors have identified Albuquerque as a "hidden gem" with home prices still lower than the national average. The market is so hot that buyers are paying as much as 25% over list price, Duran said.
Single-family homes have on average spent 16 days on the market before buyers make a purchase, according to the GAAR report. That's a decrease of 10 days year over year. And the absorption rate – calculated using the amount of homes for sale at the end of a given month divided by the average monthly pending sales from the last year – currently sits at 0.5, showing that the metro area remains a seller's market.
"This figure truly underscores the housing shortage we are experiencing," Gilbert said.
The market has remained hot even in winter months when it is typically a slower time for both buyers and sellers. Both Duran and Gilbert said they expect the market to remain hot through the end of the year.
"The way it looks right now, it's just going to keep getting hotter and hotter," Duran said.
Report: 1,600 New Mexico children lost caregiver to COVID-19 – By Claudia L. Silva, Carlsbad Current-Argus
Roughly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic childcare experts are grappling with the long-term effects the virus will have on a whole generation of children.
Over 1,600 children in New Mexico lost a parent or caregiver to the virus at a rate of 341 per 100,000, according to a study published by the COVID Collaborative in December.
New Mexico had one of the highest rates of children that experienced the loss of a caregiver to COVID-19 in the country along with Arizona, Mississippi and Texas, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.
In total, 167,000 children in the U.S. lost a caregiver to COVID-19. More than 72,000 of these children lost a parent, while over 67,000 lost a grandparent and more than 13,000 children lost their only caretaker.
Caregiver loss for Native American children in New Mexico was more than 10 times that of white children. In total, 774 Native American children in the state lost a caregiver to the virus at a rate of 1,449 per 100,000, compared to 137 at a rate of 122 per 100,000 for white children, according to the study.
And health experts warned bereavement can have long-term consequences on a child.
According to the Children's Grief Center of New Mexico, they are five times more likely to die of suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to engage in substance abuse and are 20 times more likely to have behavioral health disorders.
Pediatricians are seeing a significant increase in mental health problems caused by the loss of loved ones and interruptions in daily routines, according to the New Mexico Pediatric Society.
Jade Richardson Bock, executive director of the grief center, said the organization aims to change the probability of these negative outcomes.
"Negative outcomes are extremely probable after a significant loss, which our entire society has been through, but that doesn't have to be our story," Richardson Bock said. "If we come together and acknowledge the reality of the loss, if we express our feelings honestly and find a way to commemorate and memorialize them, we can actually emerge from this experience stronger."
While most children will be able to process their grief with the support community and family support, some experts say 5 to 10% will experience traumatic, prolonged anguish that may require clinical intervention.
Richardson Bock said that sudden changes spurred on by the pandemic like losing a home or not being able to see loved ones can also lead to a form of grief.
According to the New Mexico Pediatric Society, pediatricians saw a significant increase in mental health problems caused by interruptions in daily routines over the last two years.
"Children are naturally very active and very social, so not being able to see friends and schoolmates has been difficult for them," said Alexandra Cvijanovich, board president of the society. "Returning to a normal school routine has helped, but the mental health concerns caused by the pandemic may have longer-lasting impacts that parents will need to address with their pediatricians."
The COVID Collaborative's study recommends creating public education campaigns that encourage families to seek help and connects them to community resources, expanding social and emotional learning programs and creating a coronavirus bereaved children's fund.
The fund can provide short-term financial assistance and support the mental health and other needs of children that lost a caretaker to COVID-19.
Richardson Bock said families and community leaders can help by letting children see them process their feelings in a healthy way.
"We've been trained for so long to hide our emotions and get the job done, but really something we can do that is even more powerful is to have these genuine feelings and let the children see us be sad, angry, confused or scared," Richardson Bock said.
Efforts have already been made to support the mental well-being of New Mexico's youth throughout the pandemic.
Organizations like the Children's Grief Center of New Mexico offer peer support groups, free specialty workshops, statewide training programs and other resources to help people of all ages deal with grief.
The organization brings a traveling youth program to rural areas throughout the state known as Camp Corazon. The camp came to Carlsbad in 2018 and 2019.
While the yearly camp was paused in 2020 because of the pandemic, Richardson Bock said she hope to bring it back in the near future.
The state and federal governments have made investments in addressing mental health issues brought on by the coronavirus.
By 2021, New Mexico received nearly $108 million in relief funds that would be distributed to school districts to safely reopen them and meet students' academic, social, emotional and mental health needs.
Under the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) schools were required to spend a portion of these funds to invest in social and emotional learning.
Carlsbad Municipal School allocated nearly $240,000 to conduct an assessment and provide students and staff with mental health services.
The district also provided students and teachers with mental health days, giving them additional days off to decompress from the tension of going to school during a pandemic.
Richardson Bock said she hopes people can use the trauma that came from the pandemic to appreciate the good things in their lives and value one another more.