NM State Investment Council withdraws $8M in Russian stocks and bonds – By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico State Investment Council on Tuesday voted to get rid of nearly $8 million in investments in Russian stocks and bonds.
The unanimous vote comes amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an act that has drawn sanctions and boycotts from countries and companies across the globe. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called for the divestment last week, saying any direct or indirect aid to Russia by New Mexico is “unacceptable.”
Tuesday, the council voted with little debate to divest.
Members noted that the amount of money held in Russian stocks and bonds was a tiny fraction of the $36 billion the council manages across four permanent funds, governmental client investments, endowments and reserve funds.
The 11-member council includes the governor, state treasurer and other prominent finance and government leaders. Together, the funds they manage comprise the nation’s third biggest sovereign wealth fund and contribute about 15% toward the state budget each year, according to the council website.
New Mexico is just the latest in a movement by state governments or government pension funds to divest their financial holdings from Russia.
Other states that have called for or succeeded in divesting include Oregon, Kansas, Montana, Pennsylvania and Missouri.
Methane survey from small plane finds more pollution, waste - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
A pollution survey using sensors on small airplanes to detect methane emissions across a major U.S. oil and natural gas production zone points to greater releases of the potent climate-warming gas that previous estimated by other methods, according to results published Wednesday.
Underwritten by philanthropists and the fossil fuel industry, the study examined emissions from October 2018 through January 2020 across New Mexico's portion of the Permian Basin, one of the world's largest sources of oil and natural gas that extends into West Texas.
The study estimated that methane emissions are equivalent to roughly 9% of the overall gas production in the surveyed area. That's more than double the rate in several previous studies of the Permian Basin and national estimates by the U.S. government of natural gas lost to leaks and releases.
"The bad news is that emissions in this time and this region were as high as they are," said Evan Sherwin, co-author of the study and a research fellow at Stanford University's department of energy resource engineering. "The good news is it was only about 1,000 sites out of 26,000 active wells. ... It's just a few percent that were emitting during this extensive study."
The study arrives during a pivotal period for efforts by government regulators and industry to measure and rein in greenhouse gas emissions from oilfield infrastructure.
For more than a decade, government auditors have warned that bad data was blinding regulators to the amount of greenhouse gases being pushed into the atmosphere by the oil and gas industry's flaring and venting.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new regulations to eliminate venting at both new and existing oil wells and require companies to capture and sell gas whenever possible.
New Mexico recently adopted its own rules to limit most venting and flaring in oilfields to reduce methane emissions and environmental regulators are poised to impose new restrictions on oilfield equipment that emits smog-causing pollution.
Robert McEntyre, a spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said progress already has been made to address methane emission since surveys were conducted for the study.
"This report being 2 years old offers a snapshot in time that may not be reflective of conditions today but certainly underscores the industry priority and the industry commitment to advancing those rules that will help eventually in reducing the emissions over time," he said. "We would certainly expect that that primary figure cited would only continue to decline."
Plumes of methane can be detected by signature frequencies of light. Images of methane were collected by a small propeller plane flying 3,000 feet above ground over the course of 115 flight days, in the survey of New Mexico oilfields by Kairos Aerospace.
"The main advantage of airplanes is that they strike a balance between sensitivity and rapid coverage," said Sherwin, acknowledging recent advances in satellite surveying technology. "This is the largest survey that has been used to estimate total methane emissions from a region."
Sherwin says he and colleagues at Stanford and the University of Michigan quantified significant methane emissions not only at well sites but also pipelines where they merge. Funding came from sources including the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative, and industry consortium.
Climate scientists have warned that without immediate and steep reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, the world will miss its chance to avert the most destructive and deadliest effects of climate change.
Española veterans plead to keep the local VA clinic - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Ben Pearce, a disabled veteran living in Española, said he feels blessed to have people in his life who help him figure out all the logistics of getting medical care.
If a plan by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs goes through, he and his fellow veterans in rural parts of New Mexico will need more than blessings — and even more help from friends and family — to get the care they need.
For example, just on Friday, Pearce needed to get to an appointment at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, he said.
It’s the only VA facility in New Mexico where more serious conditions can be treated, and it’s nearly 93 miles one way from this smaller northern city of about 10,000 people.
Pearce has five children, aged 2- to 12-years-old. Seeing a VA doctor in the metro area means finding child care for all of them.
“Having so many kids, taking them into the VA hospital isn’t an option,” Pearce said.
To get to the one-hour visit with a doctor in Albuquerque, Pearce said he had to find three babysitters, and call on the help of a family member, a friend and one of his kids’ after-school programs to make it happen.
These kinds of “daylong fiascos,” as Pearce puts it, could become the status quo for him and others across western and northern parts of the state who rely on community clinics.
Four in New Mexico could be shuttered under recommendations released a week ago by the federal Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission: Gallup, Las Vegas, Raton and Española.
All four of those clinics are inside the district of Democratic U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez.
When the VA plan came out March 14, she wrote to VA Secretary Denis McDonough, saying the recommendations are “ill-advised” and pointing out that people served by the clinic in Española would have to drive to one in Santa Fe, an-hour-and-a-half drive round trip.
“It is our nation’s solemn obligation to provide veterans the health care, services and support they have earned,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, these closures would jeopardize that obligation and make it harder for veterans to receive essential health services. The VA should not discriminate against rural veterans.”
Leger Fernandez met Tuesday with veterans in-person inside the American Legion Post 17 building in downtown Española. Numerous veterans and their families pleaded with the congresswoman to do everything she can to not let the clinic close.
Pearce told Leger Fernandez the local clinic offers him and his family the convenience of treatment nearby.
“I love the clinic here,” Pearce told her.
When he moved back to Española about five years ago, he said one of the first things he did was become a patient at the clinic, because it is so convenient for him. If the VA does close the Española clinic, Pearce would have to go back to Albuquerque and get assigned to a new VA doctor and have to re-establish that relationship.
Pearce said he wouldn’t be as impacted as some of his fellow veterans in Española because his time with the doctor has been short, so finding a new one would not be as much of an ordeal.
But many of the veterans who attended the meeting said Dr. Joseph J. Keel, a VA-contracted doctor who works out of the clinic, is their “personal doctor” and knows exactly the kind of care they need.
Ron Gallegos said veterans in Española don’t want to go to Santa Fe or Taos to get their treatment.
“We are not asking for much,” he said. “We want a place to call home. We’re going to be feeling like orphans, going somewhere else.”
Chris Archuleta said the local clinic is vital for the people living in the rural areas in and around Española. Around 40,000 reside throughout the valley.
Archuleta has his own issues with the clinic in Taos, he said, and rising fuel costs make it infeasible to travel to the one in Santa Fe.
Pearce works with the Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter here and the local commission that oversees the Veterans’ Memorial wall on the Plaza de Española. He was one of the younger veterans in the hall. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of a field artillery team in the U.S. Army, based out of Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
The older veterans, Pearce said, face severe limitations just getting down to Albuquerque.
“A lot of ’em are aging out of driving, and they have a spouse or a son, daughter, somebody that they care for most of the time as well,” Pearce said. “It’s what you do up here.”
For them to have to go to Albuquerque, Pearce said, would probably entail a lot more hardship because they would need to find someone to care for their spouses while they’re gone.
Telehealth is one solution for health care often suggested to people living in more rural parts of the state. Archuleta pointed out many older veterans do not know how to use computers and need to be seen by a doctor in person. He said there’s also a lack of good Internet service in remote areas.
Pearce agreed, saying the Española area does not have the infrastructure to modernize and do telehealth for aging veterans.
“It’s the same issues we faced when schools closed down and when COVID started: kids couldn’t get the internet to get to school,” he said. “It’s gonna be elderly people not being able to use the Internet to get to their doctor.”
Only 1 inmate stole McKinley County Sheriff's transport van - Associated Press
Authorities released updated information Tuesday about three inmates who stole a McKinley County Sheriff's Office transport van before being captured.
New Mexico State Police officials had said Monday that the inmates were being transported by a sheriff's deputy who apparently had a medical episode and had to stop the van.
But county Undersheriff James Maiorano said Tuesday that it was one of the two male inmates — 35-year-old Josh Hall — who slipped out of his handcuffs, faked a heart attack and overpowered the deputy when he opened the van's door.
Maiorano said Hall then drove away in the van with the other inmates still shackled in the back.
The inmates were from the Bernalillo County jail and were being transported back to Gallup at the time.
State police spotted the van near Tohajiilee on Interstate 40 and that started a lengthy pursuit.
Police said they successfully deployed tire deflation devices on the van and the inmates were taken into custody east of Grants.
Authorities said Hall, of Milan, is facing additional charges since the other inmates weren't involved.
Both the Bernalillo County and Cibola County sheriff's offices are investigating the incident.
Jans: Mississippi State hoops will have swagger, confidence - Associated Press
Chris Jans leaned down to pick up a cowbell and rang it during his introduction as Mississippi State's basketball coach. It's an MSU sports tradition he acknowledged struggling with upon getting off the plane.
He plans to get better at it by ringing up more wins with the Bulldogs.
Jans was introduced Wednesday and vowed his program will play with confidence and swagger. While that depends on which players stay, who arrives via the transfer portal and recruiting, he's intent on transforming MSU from its current state of mediocrity and into a NCAA Tournament regular.
"This is a dream opportunity for me," said Jans, who was hired on Sunday, a day after guiding New Mexico State to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. "I've been coaching for 30 years and when I started this odyssey, I wanted to be in a place like Mississippi State.
"I didn't dream of being at Mississippi State. I didn't really have a dream job. I just wanted to be somewhere where it was important and we were on the biggest stage, we're competing with and against the best players in college basketball and the best coaches in college basketball. And obviously in the SEC and at Mississippi State, we're going to get the opportunity to do that."
Jans, 52, received a four-year contract with a base salary of $2.4 million for 2022-23 and up to $650,000 in performance incentives. He led the 12th-seeded Aggies to a first-round upset of No. 5 Connecticut before falling to No. 4 Arkansas, a team he'll see often in the Southeastern Conference. He brings in a career head coaching record of 143-44 including 122-32 in five seasons at NMSU with three Western Athletic Conference Tournament championships.
His .765 winning percentage ranks fourth among active head coaches, behind Gonzaga's Mark Few (.837), Kansas' Bill Self (.768) and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (.766).
MSU's 2019 NCAA appearance was the only one in seven seasons under veteran Ben Howland, who departed last week. The Bulldogs were 134-98 during his tenure with three NIT berths the past four years including this season. But since a fourth-place SEC finish in the 2019-20 season halted before the tournament by the coronavirus outbreak, they never got above ninth and finished 18-16 in 10th this season.
Athletic director John Cohen said tremendous interest in the job made it important to move quickly to find Howland's replacement. Jans checked off all the qualities he sought, his impressive record being the most obvious.
"Coach Jans is a proven leader and a proven winner," Cohen said. "He's considered by many industry experts to be one of the elite coaches in the entire country. His overall résumé really speaks for itself."
Jans met with half of his roster earlier this week before severe weather postponed a meeting with other players. The Fairbank, Iowa, native didn't promise a style, but the Aggies' ability to hold Arkansas' high-octane offense to season lows in scoring and shooting (28%) in the 53-48 West Region loss suggests his teams won't be awed.
"We're never going to step on the floor without a chip on our shoulder," he added, "and we're never going to look down at the other bench or the other half of the court as we're warming up and fear anybody."
Jans' arrival follows MSU's March 12 hiring of longtime Louisville assistant Sam Purcell as women's basketball coach. He will take over the program when the top-seeded Cardinals are finished in the women's NCAA Tournament.
Official guilty of illegally entering Capitol grounds Jan. 6 - By Michael Kunzelman Associated Press
A federal judge on Tuesday convicted an elected official from New Mexico of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct during the riot that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden's presidential election victory.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden heard one day of testimony without a jury on Monday before handing down a verdict in the misdemeanor case against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, a 48-year-old former rodeo rider who helped found a group called Cowboys for Trump.
McFadden, a nominee of then-President Donald Trump, said there was ample evidence that Griffin knew he was in a restricted area and didn't leave. Griffin crossed over three walls, needing help from others or a ladder to get over them, the judge noted.
"All of this would suggest to a normal person that perhaps you should not be entering the area," McFadden said from the bench.
But the judge said prosecutors didn't meet their burden to prove that Griffin engaged in disorderly conduct.
"Arguably, he was trying to calm people down, not rile them up," he said.
Griffin's trial in Washington, D.C., was the second among the hundreds of federal cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. Earlier this month, in the first trial, a jury convicted a Texas man, Guy Wesley Reffitt, of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun, interfering with police and obstructing Congress' joint session to certify the Electoral College vote.
The outcome of Griffin's trial could have a ripple effect, helping other Capitol riot defendants decide whether to let a judge or a jury decide their case.
But the case against Griffin is unlike most Jan. 6 cases and may not be a bellwether for defendants who are charged with storming the Capitol.
Griffin is one of the few riot defendants who wasn't accused of entering the Capitol building or engaging in any violent or destructive behavior. His lawyers argued that he was selectively prosecuted for his political views.
Griffin was charged with two misdemeanors: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds. Both carry maximum sentences of one year imprisonment.
Griffin is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17. He was jailed for more than two weeks after his arrest on Jan. 19, 2021.
Griffin described himself as "halfway pleased" with the split verdict and said he will continue to view his involvement in Jan. 6 as "a badge of honor."
"I stand proud of where I'm at today and the fight that I've been in over the course of the last year-and-a-half," he told reporters outside the courthouse.
Griffin, one of three members of the Otero County Commission in southern New Mexico, is among a handful of riot defendants who either held public office or ran for a government leadership post in the 2 1/2 years before the attack.
He is among only three riot defendants who have asked for a bench trial, in which judges decide a case without a jury. Griffin said he doesn't regret waiving his right to a jury trial.
"If I was anywhere but Washington, D.C., I would say, 'Go with a jury trial,'" Griffin said. "You can't get a fair jury trial in Washington, D.C., if you're someone like me, a strong conservative."
Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson said the conviction for entering restricted grounds helps establish for the government that the area was off limits to the public and will discourage other defendants from using similar arguments.
"This will send a message to other defendants that they are unlikely to win on a technical argument that the areas outside the Capitol were not off limits," Levenson said.
The verdicts also may lead some defendants facing the same charges as Griffin to go to trial if they believe the judge deciding their fate has a high standard of what constitutes disorderly conduct, Levenson said. Still, Levenson said the argument wouldn't be helpful to defendants who entered the Capitol building or committed violence on Capitol grounds.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Janani Iyengar said Griffin climbed over metal bike racks, up a plywood ramp and shouted over the crowd about his belief that the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump.
"He was being extremely loud, climbing over barriers, engaging with the crowd," she said in her closing arguments.
Defense attorney Nicholas Smith said the case against Griffin was "built on a series of false assumptions and premises." Trial testimony showed Griffin went to the Capitol to support "free and fair elections," Smith told the judge.
A key question in Griffin's case was whether he entered a restricted area while Vice President Pence was still present on Capitol grounds, a prerequisite for the U.S. Secret Service to invoke access restrictions.
Griffin's attorneys said in a court filing that Pence had already departed the restricted area before the earliest that Griffin could have entered it, but Secret Service inspector Lanelle Hawa testified that Pence never left the restricted area during the riot.
Hawa said agents took Pence from his office at the Capitol to a secure location at an underground loading dock on the Capitol complex. Pence remained in the loading dock location for four to five hours, until the joint session of Congress resumed on the night of Jan. 6, Hawa testified.
Smith said prosecutors apparently believe Griffin engaged in disorderly conduct by peacefully leading a prayer on the Capitol steps.
"That is offensive and wrong," Smith told the judge during his brief opening statements.
Prosecutors didn't give any opening statements. Their first witness was Matthew Struck, who joined Griffin at the Capitol and served as his videographer. Struck has an immunity deal with prosecutors for his testimony.
After attending Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6, Griffin and Struck walked over barriers and up a staircase to enter a stage that was under construction on the Capitol's Lower West Terrace for Biden's inauguration, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors played video clips that showed Griffin moving through the mob that formed outside the Capitol, where police used pepper spray to quell rioters.
"I love the smell of napalm in the air," Griffin said in an apparent reference to a quote from the war movie "Apocalypse Now."
After climbing over a stone wall and entering a restricted area outside the Capitol, Griffin said, "This is our house … we should all be armed," according to prosecutors. He called it "a great day for America" and added, "The people are showing that they have had enough," prosecutors said.
In a court filing, prosecutors called Griffin "an inflammatory provocateur and fabulist who engages in racist invective and propounds baseless conspiracy theories, including that Communist China stole the 2020 Presidential Election."
Griffin's attorneys say hundreds if not thousands of other people did exactly what Griffin did on Jan. 6 and haven't been charged with any crimes.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. More than 230 riot defendants have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors, and at least 127 of them have been sentenced. Approximately 100 others have trial dates.
Griffin had vowed to arrive at the courthouse on horseback on Monday. Instead, he showed up as a passenger in a pickup truck that had a horse trailer on the back.
Ex-Las Vegas school guard gets 10 years for sexual abuse - Las Vegas Optic, Associated Press
A former Las Vegas, New Mexico, school security guard will serve 10 years in prison for sexually abusing a female student.
The Las Vegas Optic reports 53-year-old Abran Ulibarri was sentenced Monday at a hearing where the victim, who was 14 at the time, spoke in favor of prison time.
Ulibarri pleaded guilty last month to criminal sexual penetration of a minor, three counts of false imprisonment, criminal solicitation to commit tampering with evidence and bribery of a witness.
"This was not a lapse of judgment," Judge Abigail Aragon said during sentencing. "It was premeditated, predatory conduct on a vulnerable child."
An investigation by the Attorney General's Office found evidence that Ulibarri sexually abused the girl, a student at West Las Vegas Middle School, for months in 2019
Investigators say Ulibarri texted with the victim using a code name and instructed her to delete texts from him. The victim said she started texting him back out of fear.
Las Vegas police initially investigated the allegations but then the state took over.
Only 1 inmate stole McKinley County Sheriff's transport van - Associated Press
Authorities released updated information Tuesday about three inmates who stole a McKinley County Sheriff's Office transport van before being captured.
New Mexico State Police officials had said Monday that the inmates were being transported by a sheriff's deputy who apparently had a medical episode and had to stop the van.
But county Undersheriff James Maiorano said Tuesday that it was one of the two male inmates — 35-year-old Josh Hall — who slipped out of his handcuffs, faked a heart attack and overpowered the deputy when he opened the van's door.
Maiorano said Hall then drove away in the van with the other inmates still shackled in the back.
The inmates were from the Bernalillo County jail and were being transported back to Gallup at the time.
State police spotted the van near Tohajiilee on Interstate 40 and that started a lengthy pursuit.
Police said they successfully deployed tire deflation devices on the van and the inmates were taken into custody east of Grants.
Authorities said Hall, of Milan, is facing additional charges since the other inmates weren't involved.
Both the Bernalillo County and Cibola County sheriff's offices are investigating the incident.