Wind whips destructive wildfires in New Mexico, Colorado - By Susan Montoya Bryan And Paul Davenport Associated Press
Firefighters scouted the drought-stricken mountainsides around a New Mexico village on Wednesday as they looked for opportunities to slow a wind-driven wildfire that a day earlier had burned at least 150 homes and other structures while displacing thousands of residents and forcing the evacuation of two schools.
Homes were among the structures that burned Tuesday, but officials did not have a count of how many were destroyed in the blaze that torched at least 6.4 square miles of forest, brush and grass on the east side of the community of Ruidoso, said Laura Rabon, spokesperson for the Lincoln National Forest.
No deaths or injuries were reported from the fire fanned by winds between 50 mph and 90 mph, Rabon said.
While the cause of the blaze was under investigation, fire officials and forecasters warned Wednesday that persistent dry and windy conditions had prompted red flag warnings for a wide swath that included almost all of New Mexico, half of Texas and parts of Colorado and the Midwest.
Five new large fires were reported Tuesday, and nearly 1,600 wildland firefighters and support personnel were assigned to large fires in the southwestern, southern and Rocky Mountain areas, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Hotter and drier weather coupled with decades of fire suppression have contributed to an increase in the number of acres burned by wildfires, fire scientists say. And the problem is exacerbated by a more than 20-year Western megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change. The fire season has become year-round given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall.
In Ruidoso, officials declared a state of emergency and said school classes were canceled Wednesday as the village — about 140 miles northeast of El Paso, Texas — coped with power outages due to down power lines.
The residences that burned were mostly a mix of trailers and single-family homes, and close to 4,000 people were displaced by evacuations. Village spokeswoman Kerry Gladden said authorities were out trying to survey as much damage as possible before Wednesday afternoon, when gusts were expected again, raising the fire threat.
"Right now, everybody is just rallying around those who had to be evacuated," Gladden said. "We're just trying to reach out to make sure everyone has places to stay. Plus in the middle of all this, our village is still without power. Everybody is just trying to get the resources here on the ground where they're needed and get everyone fed."
Ruidoso in 2012 was hit by one of the most destructive wildfires in New Mexico history, when a lightning-sparked blaze destroyed more than 240 homes and burned nearly 70 square miles.
Rabon said Wednesday that no precipitation was in the forecast and humidity levels remained in the single digits, which would make stopping the flames more difficult.
"Those extremely dry conditions are not in our favor," she said.
Another wildfire in the Lincoln National Forest northwest of Ruidoso burned at least 400 acres after it was sparked Tuesday by power lines downed by high winds. Crews confirmed Wednesday 10 structures were lost.
Elsewhere in New Mexico, wildfires were burning along the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque, in mountains northwest of the community of Las Vegas and in grasslands along the Pecos River near the town of Roswell.
In Colorado, crews were battling wind-whipped grass fires that had destroyed two homes and forced temporary evacuations.
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Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Davenport from Phoenix.
New Mexico fires gain ground amid dry, windy conditions - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
It's a simple recipe that requires only a couple ingredients, and New Mexico has them all.
Strong winds, low humidity and dry conditions that stem from two decades of persistent drought combined Tuesday for another day of critical fire weather across New Mexico. Forecasters warned of similar conditions elsewhere in the West as land managers and firefighters braced for what was expected to be another busy season.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a plea on social media: "Do not burn!"
She joined the chorus of forecasters and authorities who were urging people to take precautions as red flag and high wind warnings were issued for a large swath spanning the Central Plains, West Texas, all of New Mexico and parts of Arizona.
Two new wind-whipped fires reported Tuesday afternoon in the mountains of southeastern New Mexico prompted authorities to call for immediate evacuations.
The National Weather Service in Albuquerque shared satellite imagery of a fire signature near the community of Ruidoso and tweeted: "Take this fire seriously. This is a very dangerous situation."
In central New Mexico, authorities confirmed that at least one home and numerous barns, sheds and other outbuildings were damaged or destroyed by a fire burning along the Rio Grande in a rural area south of Albuquerque. About 200 structures were threatened, and the air was thick with smoke and dust.
Bulldozers were used to build a barrier between the fire and homes in the area. Managers were hoping for a break in the wind so a helicopter could drop water on the flames.
The fire had burned more than one square mile since being sparked Monday afternoon. That included a large portion of a wildlife conservation area along the river.
The cause remains under investigation.
In northern New Mexico, steep terrain and gusts up to 60 mph were keeping crews from directly attacking a fire near the community of Las Vegas. That blaze — which started last week when a prescribed fire jumped its containment lines — also forced evacuations.
About 100 people found shelter earlier this week at a school gym in Las Vegas, and San Miguel County authorities began evacuating several smaller communities Tuesday afternoon as the fire made a big push to the northeast.
Some people have criticized the U.S. Forest Service's decision to conduct a prescribed fire amid erratic spring weather conditions. Federal officials have said conditions were calm most of the day before unforeseen winds ignited spot fires beyond the project's boundaries.
An internal review is expected to be done once the fire is suppressed, officials said.
New Mexico GOP tells schools to reject social studies change - By Cedar Attanasio Associated Press / Report For America
A Republican lawmaker is telling New Mexico school districts to defy state education rules and ignore newly overhauled K-12 social studies standards enacted by the state's education department, calling them racially divisive.
The standards were the first complete overhaul of history, geography, economics, and social studies since 2001. In addition to race, they added sections, including LGBT history, the 9/11 attacks and personal finance. Some other states, however, have restricted the teaching of race in moves that New Mexico Republicans have cheered. They see the issue as a potent one in this years gubernatorial race.
"As local school officials, you are morally obligated to reject these standards and to proceed serving your community as the autonomous school official you were elected to serve as," wrote State House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, in the letter, shared Tuesday by Republican officials.
The letter marks an escalation in the politics of education in New Mexico because it urges school boards to ignore state rules codified by the Legislature and enforced by the education department.
By law, the Public Education Department sets education standards. School districts are funded by the Legislature with the expectation that they follow them.
Following a rulemaking process with public input, the education department increased the focus on Native American history, and required students to learn more about the role of privilege and race in public life.
Education officials say the implementation of new standards in fall of 2023 will increase inclusivity in the classroom and prepare students to live in an increasingly multicultural society.
About half of New Mexico is Hispanic, and around 10% of residents are Native American.
It's unclear what all-out defiance against the social studies standards Montoya is calling for would look like.
School districts are free to choose their textbooks and the overall content of their lessons. For example, the standards require students to evaluate "the role of race and racism in the acts of land redistribution" during European and U.S. conquests of the Southwest. But school districts decide how students learn those concepts.
Montoya, who is Hispanic, didn't elaborate in the letter and has not responded to a request for comment.
It's also unclear how the state would respond if school leaders found a way to reject the standards outright.
In a statement, education department spokeswoman Judy Robinson said that public schools are "charged with implementing the standards through specific, locally designed curriculum," but declined to comment on what would happen if they didn't do that.
School board leaders are elected locally but can be fired by the Public Education Department.
It removed one school board last August after it voted to make masks and social distancing optional, directly contradicting Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's health order at the time. It removed another board over alleged violations of ethics and transparency laws.
Albuquerque could ban tenant income discrimination – By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Lawmakers for New Mexico’s biggest city are anticipating a heated debate and controversial vote on a new housing policy, one that would prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to tenants who carry Section 8 vouchers or other subsidies.
At an Albuquerque City Council committee meeting Monday night, councilors voted to postpone a vote on the measure for 30 days. They said they did so to solicit more public comment and answer some outstanding questions about the legality and logistics of a so-called “source-of-income discrimination” ban.
“I definitely would like to hear from the public tonight …and ask some questions so that we can start the robust conversation that I think this deserves,” said Brook Bassan, a city councilor who co-sponsored the bill, along with Pat Davis.
Public comment Monday showed the corners of the debate on a new policy: It could impose additional burdens on landlords and government housing inspectors, but it would also help hundreds of low-income families finally find a place to live. Tenant advocates and groups trying to handle the city’s homelessness crisis were in favor of the ban, while the state apartment association and real estate groups were opposed.
The measure would amend portions of the city’s Human Rights Ordinance, which already prohibits landlords from refusing to rent to tenants based on things like race, sexual orientation or disability. The change would insert a ban on refusing to give a lease to tenants who pay rents with a Section 8 voucher or other sources like Social Security, pandemic-related emergency rental assistance, or even gifts and inheritances.
Section 8 vouchers allow low-income tenants to find housing on their own and get most of their rent (often 70%) covered by the federal government. But a landlord must agree to accept the voucher and agree to a home inspection to ensure the tenant is not moving into substandard conditions.
There are at least 200 individuals or families in Albuquerque that have successfully received Section 8 housing vouchers — sometimes after waiting for months or years — only to be turned away at the door of some apartments or houses, according to Alexandra Paisano, an official with the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness.
“Some of them have been looking for housing for close to a year, since June of last year,” Paisano said. “It’s taking on average well over 100 days to find housing right now, just because so many landlords and property managers refuse to accept housing vouchers, even though they’re guaranteed to get their rent every single month.”
As of Tuesday, there were 54 Albuquerque apartment advertisements on Craigslist.org that included the phrase “No Section 8.”
A Searchlight New Mexico analysis in October 2021 found that 81 percent of households who are successfully making use of their Section 8 vouchers live in the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.
Alan LaSeck, director of the Apartment Association of New Mexico, told the committee that requiring landlords to accept Section 8 would come with many “unintended consequences,” including adding more burdens to landlords with few properties and requiring them to accept tenants without steady income streams.
“I really want to stress that our opposition is really with the policies and not with the participants in these programs,” he said. “We have many members that accept housing vouchers voluntarily and will continue to do so without new laws.”
LaSeck also noted that state lawmakers have twice punted on legislation that would have banned Section 8 discrimination across the state. Both times, a bill containing a suite of housing law changes died in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Albuquerque councilors asked legal officials whether the city would face any fallout from adopting a source-of-income discrimination ban without waiting for the rest of the state.
Torri Jacobus, managing attorney for the city’s Office of Civil Rights, said Albuquerque has a history of leading the charge in New Mexico — and the rest of the country — when it comes to human rights protections. She said Albuquerque should again lead by example in this instance.
There are at least 16 states that ban source-of-income discrimination, and some cities have also banned it themselves, including Boulder and Denver in Colorado, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.
She also pointed out that landlords can face lawsuits under existing federal housing law for discriminating against minority groups. Because Section 8 recipients already tend to be tenants of color, LGBTQ folks, veterans or other protected groups, refusing to rent to people using Section 8 would have negative effects on those groups, even if that’s not the landlord’s intent.
“So right now in the city of Albuquerque, in the state of New Mexico, and in our country, an attorney can bring a lawsuit alleging that a landlord’s actions in declining vouchers has a disparate impact on those populations,” she said.
She added that attorneys tend not to bring those lawsuits, calling them “challenging,” but said banning Section 8 discrimination could protect landlords from being sued for discrimination while also helping tenants find housing.
City councilors said they needed more information on a few fronts before they’d be willing to vote on the measure. For one, they said they wanted a clearer picture of exactly how many tenants have vouchers but can’t find housing, how long it takes for federal Housing and Urban Development inspectors to approve a new apartment for a tenant and find out exactly why landlords are refusing Section 8 tenants.
Rachel Biggs, a spokesperson for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, said the organization did a survey of 176 landlords who had fair-market-rate apartments for lease. Of them, just 35% said they were accepting Section 8 tenants.
The conversation will likely resume at the next meeting of the Council’s Finance and Government Operations Committee, which hasn’t been set, according to the city’s website, but is expected in about a month.
In drought-stricken West, officials weigh emergency actions - By Felicia Fonseca Associated Press
Federal officials say it may be necessary to reduce water deliveries to users on the Colorado River to prevent the shutdown of a huge dam that supplies hydropower to some 5 million customers across the U.S. West.
Officials had hoped snowmelt would buoy Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border to ensure its dam could continue to supply power. But snow is already melting, and hotter-than-normal temperatures and prolonged drought are further shrinking the lake.
The Interior Department has proposed holding back water in the lake to maintain Glen Canyon Dam's ability to generate electricity amid what it said were the driest conditions in the region in more than 1,200 years.
"The best available science indicates that the effects of climate change will continue to adversely impact the basin," Tanya Trujillo, the Interior's assistant secretary for water and science wrote to seven states in the basin Friday.
Trujillo asked for feedback on the proposal to keep 480,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell — enough water to serve about 1 million U.S. households. She stressed that operating the dam below 3,490 feet, considered its minimum power pool, is uncharted territory and would lead to even more uncertainty for the western electrical grid and water deliveries to states and Mexico downstream.
In the Colorado River basin, Glen Canyon Dam is the mammoth of power production, delivering electricity to about 5 million customers in seven states — Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. As Lake Powell falls, the dam becomes less efficient. At 3,490 feet, it can't produce power.
If levels were to fall below that mark, the 7,500 residents in the city at the lake, Page, and the adjacent Navajo community of LeChee would have no access to drinking water.
The Pacific Northwest, and the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico and Texas are facing similar strains on water supplies.
Lake Powell fell below 3,525 feet for the first time ever last month, a level that concerned worried water managers. Federal data shows it will dip even further, in the most probable scenario, before rebounding above the level next spring.
If power production ceases at Glen Canyon Dam, customers that include cities, rural electric cooperatives and tribal utilities would be forced to seek more expensive options. The loss also would complicate western grid operations since hydropower is a relatively flexible renewable energy source that can be easily turned up or down, experts say.
"We're in crisis management, and health and human safety issues, including production of hydropower, are taking precedence," said Jack Schmidt, director of the center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University. "Concepts like, 'Are we going to get our water back' just may not even be relevant anymore."
The potential impacts to lower basin states that could see their water supplies reduced — California, Nevada and Arizona — aren't yet known. But the Interior's move is a display of the wide-ranging functions of Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam, and the need to quickly pivot to confront climate change.
Lake Powell serves as the barometer for the river's health in the upper basin, and Lake Mead has that job in the lower basin. Both were last full in the year 2000 but have declined to one-fourth and one-third of their capacity, respectively, as drought tightened its grip on the region.
Water managers in the basin states — Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado — are evaluating the proposal. The Interior Department has set an April 22 deadline for feedback.
Lots of broadband money, but US expansion finds speed bumps - By Wilson Ring and Mark Gillispie Associated Press
In the remote Vermont community of Victory, Town Clerk Tracey Martel says she's regularly frustrated watching a spinning circle on her computer while she tries to complete even the most basic municipal chores online.
"Fast internet would be really good," said Martel, whose community of about 70 was one of the last in Vermont to receive electricity almost 60 years ago. The DSL service she has now works for basic internet, but it can be spotty and it doesn't allow users to access all the benefits of the interconnected world.
About 5 miles away as the bird flies in the neighboring community along Miles Pond in the town of Concord, a new fiber optic line is beginning to bring truly high-speed internet to residents of the remote area known as the Northeast Kingdom.
"I'm looking forward to high-speed internet, streaming TV," said Concord resident John Gilchrist, as a crew ran fiber optic cable to his home earlier this year.
The fiber optic cable that is beginning to serve the remote part of Concord and will one day serve Victory is being provided through NEK Broadband, a utility of nearly 50 Vermont towns working to bring high speed internet service to the most remote parts of the state.
NEK Broadband Executive Director Christa Shute said the group's business plan calls for offering services to all potential customers within five years, but given current supply constraints and the shortage of trained technicians, she's beginning to think that goal isn't achievable.
"I think our build will take seven to 10 years," she said.
Congress has appropriated tens of billions of dollars for a variety of programs to help fill the digital gap exposed by the pandemic when millions of people were locked down in their homes with no way to study, work or get online medical care.
The first of those funds are reaching municipalities, businesses and other groups involved in the effort, but some say supply chain issues, labor shortages and geographic constraints will slow the rollout.
The demand for fiber optic cable goes beyond wired broadband to homes and businesses. The cable will help provide the 5G technology now being rolled out by wireless communications providers.
But there's a bottleneck in the supply. Michael Bell, of Corning Optical Communications based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said the issue lies with supply of the protective jacket that surrounds the hair-thin strands of glass that carry information on beams of light.
Currently, some working to expand broadband say delays in getting the fiber optic cable they need can exceed a year.
"Based on the capacity we're adding, and the capacity we see our competitors adding, wait times will start going down dramatically as the year progresses and into next year," Bell said. "And I think as we get into next year, the lead time for most customers is going to be well under a year."
Meanwhile, there's a labor shortage for installing the cable. Many in the industry are setting up educational programs to train people to work with the fiber, said Jim Hayes, of the Santa Monica, California-based Fiber Optic Association.
"It needs to be done now," Hayes said. "We're going to need to train probably ten techs for every tech that we've got who's competent to lead them."
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill passed last fall, says areas that receive broadband speeds of less than 25 megabit downloads and 3 megabit uploads are considered unserved. To qualify for different federal grants through the infrastructure bill and other programs, most finished projects must offer speeds of at least 100 megabits per second for downloads. Upload speeds differ, but most federal grants have a minimum of 20 megabit uploads.
For comparison, it takes 80 seconds to download a 1 gigabyte video at the speed of 100 megabits per second. It takes four times as long — 320 seconds, or more than 5 minutes — at 25 megabits per second.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration — a part of the Agency of Commerce, which is funding broadband projects across the country through the infrastructure law — is neutral about about how internet service providers reach the speed requirements. Many providers say the key to bringing true high-speed internet service to the entire country is to install fiber optic cable to every nook and cranny.
Deploying high-speed internet in tribal communities and rural areas across the western United States where distances dwarf those of rural northern New England will be even more challenging.
Broadband access on the Navajo Nation — the largest reservation in the U.S. at 27,000 square miles in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah — is a mix of dial-up, satellite service, wireless, fiber and mobile data.
The U.S. Department of the Interior, which has broad oversight of tribal affairs, said federal appraisals, rights-of-way permits, environment reviews and archaeological protection laws can delay progress.
The argument against the wireless options currently being used in some areas is they can't offer speeds needed to qualify for the federal grants.
Mike Wendy of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said wireless technology is getting faster and more reliable, and wireless connections could be the only way to reach some of the most remote locations.
"The challenge of all this money is to make sure that the unserved are served," said Wendy, whose organization represents about 1,000 fixed wireless internet providers. "Our guys are in those markets right now and they're growing."
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said $233 million in state dollars will be used in his state to expand broadband to over 43,000 households. Other internet service providers have agreed to expand broadband to another 51,000 households. Ohio is expected to receive an additional $268 million in federal funding to further broadband expansion in the state.
Husted said Ohio is focused on infrastructure while groups and organizations are needed to provide computers and to help people adapt to the fast-growing digital age.
"We're building the road," Husted said. "Access to broadband is like the highway system. That's where we're focused. It doesn't mean there are people who don't need cars or need driver's licenses."
There are still scattered locations across the country that rely on dialup and some people in remote locations use satellite internet services. Some people have no internet options whatsoever.
Martel, the Victory town clerk, said that when the people from NEK Broadband visited, they told residents it would be five to seven years before fiber optic cable would reach the community.
But Shute said her organization hopes to get a grant to connect the most rural areas, which could move the timeline for Victory up to three years.
Back in East Concord, after having the service for several weeks, Gilchrist said he and his daughter Emily, who is 19 and headed to college in a few months, no longer have to go to the local diner to use the internet. He canceled his expensive satellite TV service, his daughter and her friends have been using it to play online video games and in a few months she will be using the connection while doing college studies.
"It's been working great, as far as I'm concerned, all I do is check email," Gilchrist said. "I don't watch TV, but my daughter loves it."
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Gillispie reported from Cleveland. AP Correspondent Felicia Fonseca contributed to this report from Flagstaff, Arizona.
Texas keeping most truck inspections despite border gridlock - By Paul J. Weber And Acacia Coronado Associated Press
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday defied mounting pressure to immediately end truck inspections that have gridlocked the U.S.-Mexico border for days, saying that despite miles-long backups and spoiled produce, he would not rescind his new order at all bridges until he gets more assurances of security.
The two-term Republican said he was only ending inspections at one international bridge after announcing what he described as an agreement for more enhanced security with Nuevo Leon Gov. Samuel García, whose Mexican state is across the border from Laredo.
But that would not bring relief to idling truckers stacked up elsewhere along Texas' 1,200-mile border, including in cities where backups have lasted for more than 12 hours and frustrated truckers have blocked bridges in protest. That includes the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, which has been effectively closed since Monday by trucker protests.
Abbott said he hoped officials in the three other Mexican states that border Texas would follow Nuevo Leon and also promise more security.
"I understand the concerns that businesses have trying to move product across the border," Abbott said in Laredo, where he was joined by García. "But I also know well the frustration of my fellow Texans and my fellow Americans caused by the Biden administration not securing our border."
Pressure on Abbott has come even from allies of the two-term governor.
The Texas Trucking Association, which has endorsed Abbott for reelection, said that the current situation "cannot be sustained" as the delays postponed deliveries and threatened to empty store shelves.
The Mexican governors of Coahuila and Tamaulipas, which both border Texas, also sent Abbott a letter calling the inspections overzealous and said they are "creating havoc and economic pain" on both sides of the border.
Mexico's federal government has said Abbott's order is causing "serious damage" to trade, and that cross-border traffic had plummeted to a third of normal levels. On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called Abbott's order "unnecessary and redundant."
The gridlock is the fallout of an initiative that Abbott says is needed to curb human trafficking and the flow of drugs. Abbott ordered the inspections as part of "unprecedented actions" he promised in response to the Biden administration winding down a public health law that has limited asylum-seekers in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
But critics question how the inspections are meeting Abbott's objective, while business owners and experts complain of financial losses and warn U.S. grocery shoppers could notice shortages as soon as this week.
Frustration is also spreading within members of Abbott's own party: Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican, called the inspections a "catastrophic policy" that is forcing some trucks to reroute hundreds of miles to Arizona.
"I do describe it as a crisis, because this is not the normal way of doing business," said Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, whose county includes the bridge in Pharr. "You're talking about billions of dollars. When you stop that process, I mean, there are many, many, many, many people that are affected."
The shutdowns and slowdowns have set off some of widest backlash to date of Abbott's multibillion-dollar border operation, which the two-term governor has made the cornerstone of his administration. Texas has thousands of state troopers and National Guard members on the border and has converted prisons into jails for migrants arrested on state trespassing charges.
The disruptions at some of the world's busiest international trade ports could pose economic and political threats to Abbott, who is seeking a third term in November. Democrat Beto O'Rourke, the former presidential candidate who is running against Abbott, said during a stop in Pharr on Tuesday that the inspections were doing nothing to halt the flow of migrants and were worsening supply chain issues.
An estimated 3,000 trucks cross the Pharr bridge on a normal day, according to the National Freight Transportation Chamber. The bridge is the largest land port for produce entering the U.S.
Mexico supplies about two-thirds of the produce sold in Texas.
The additional inspections are conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which said that as of Monday, it had inspected more than 3,400 commercial vehicles and placed more than 800 "out of service" for violations that included defective brakes, tires and lighting. It made no mention of whether the inspections turned up migrants or drugs.
Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator and president of the Border Industrial Association, said the protests were costing businesses millions of dollars a day.
"It's going to affect all of us, all of us in the United States. Your car parts are going to be delivered late, your computer — if you ordered a Dell or HP tablet, those are going to be disrupted."
Ed Anderson, a professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, compared the disruptions to those caused by February's trucker blockade in Canada that forced auto plants on both sides of the border to shut down or scale back production.
Anderson said consumers would likely begin noticing the effects before the end of this week.
"Either prices are going to spike or shelves are going to be low," he said.
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Associated Press reporters Acacia Coronado. Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
New Mexico boosts its free college program, at least for now - By Cedar Attanasio Associated Press / Report For America
Even after failing a test that set her back a semester, Maribel Rodriguez will be heading back to nursing school next spring with a generous new state scholarship that abandons eligibility criteria to help more working adults get a college degree.
New Mexico is expanding its "Opportunity Scholarship," which has already paid for Rodriguez's tuition and allowed her to apply federal grants toward living expenses like gas and groceries. She's reapplying to the nursing program and hopes to finish her degree without racking up debt that could hurt her husband and three children.
"I didn't think a whole lot of opportunities were really out there for me at my age," said Rodriguez, 37, of Lovington, New Mexico, who left college at 19 in part because she couldn't afford rent. "Even though if we missed it whenever we were younger there's still hope for us."
Many states — including New Mexico — have for years offered free tuition programs for four-year degrees to residents, but the programs had restrictions, limiting participation to recent high school graduates and requiring that they attend school full-time.
Supporters of those restrictions say they incentivize students to finish their degree and narrow the number of students who participate, reducing costs. But critics argue they create too many hurdles for students to succeed, especially those who are low-income and struggling to work, pay rent and raise a family.
New Mexico's revamped program provides students with more flexibility, including attending college part-time and allowing them to use federal grants for personal expenses. There's no requirement to finish in a set number of years.
"It opens the door for a lot of people, especially people who started a degree and had to leave for some reason," said Kathy Levine, financial aid director at Northern New Mexico College in Española.
Still, Levine and other college counselors hesitate to promise students future funding.
Most of the $75 million expansion of the program relied on one-time federal pandemic relief and is authorized for only one year. If funding is cut, students could find themselves without support midway into their degree or certificate program.
As recently as 2017, New Mexico cut its other college scholarship program to just 60% of tuition because of an unexpected drop in state revenue. State officials now say that program, the Lottery Scholarship, is now solvent at 100% for at least the next four years.
New Mexico's governor and Legislature hope the expanded Opportunity Scholarship program will be enough to reverse the state's dismal education outcomes. Only Mississippi has a lower percentage of four-year-degree holders, at 23%, according to Census estimates.
Since 2020, the program has been used by 10,000 state residents pursuing associate's degree programs, including nursing.
"It checks all those boxes, very robust, certainly stands out as a national model," Jessica Thompson, vice president of the left-leaning think tank The Institute for College Access and Success, said of the revised program.
But Thompson warns that states are often ill-equipped to promise generous programs to students long-term because their revenues are so closely tied to the whims of the economy.
Thompson says other states like Oregon have authorized generous programs for undergrads, only to cut them when budgets were lean.
In 2020, Oregon had to cut its budget and tell 1,070 low-income students they wouldn't be receiving the aid previously promised to them. This month, Oregon announced it's doubling its cost-of-living grant for low-income students.
New Mexico officials had estimated that roughly 35,000 students could participate in the expanded program. But that number will likely shrink because universities across the state already have raised tuition, disappointing state higher education officials.
New Mexico Tech raised tuition by 9%, citing increased costs and the availability of the new scholarships. Others raised tuition by around 4%.
Starting in July, universities will have to negotiate with the state on tuition increase limits if they want to participate in the free tuition program. But the law didn't prevent them from increasing tuition before that date.
At least for next year, the expanded program also will make existing support for recent high school graduates even more generous by allowing them to use federal funding for personal expenses, in addition to the existing "Lottery Scholarship" that pays their tuition.
That's welcome news at an arts school in Santa Fe where students discussed their plans with a New Mexico State University recruiter on a lunch break.
"Some of our parents are still paying back their loans from college," said junior Zoë McDonald, 17, an aspiring cinematographer.
Painter Cruz Davis-Martinez, 18, knows he wants a four-year degree and is comparing the University of New Mexico and two schools in other states.
"A lot of my high school career, unfortunately, was spent taking dual credit," Davis-Martinez said, "because I had that financial insecurity."
At age 15, he started traveling 40 minutes so he could take advantage of free college classes paid for by his high school. The idea was to earn college credits so he could save money in college.
Now he's realizing he can attend all the classes he needs without going into debt and without having to work so much that it cripples his academic performance.
Under New Mexico's new plan, he'll get more support than expected, though the exact cost of college is unclear. State officials are still writing the final rules for the program, including what fees will be covered and how much universities can raise tuition.
Thompson said it's important for students to be able to pursue their education without the threat of debt hanging over them. Still, she thinks the state is one economic downturn away from cutting benefits and that the federal government needs to fund more of these programs.
"I'll be surprised if New Mexico can sustain this without, you know, continued federal engagement and involvement in funding," she said. "And I don't think other states can follow them."
New Mexico challenges effort to post voter rolls online - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
New Mexico election regulators are resisting efforts by a conservative-backed foundation to post statewide voter registration information on a public website where it can be searched by names or addresses to view whether people voted in past elections and sometimes their party affiliations. The website does not list details of how people voted regarding candidates or initiatives.
The Voter Reference Foundation, created by Republican former Senate candidate Doug Truax of Illinois, announced in December that it would add registered New Mexico voters to its website database VoteRef.com that was established in the wake of the 2020 election and now includes voter rolls from at least 20 states.
That move has prompted calls for a state investigation into possible misuse of election records and a pre-emptive lawsuit by Voter Reference Foundation to ensure its plans to publish the details about New Mexico voters.
The foundation has said its goal is to usher in a "new era of American election transparency."
But New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said in an interview Monday that the foundation's efforts violate state law in New Mexico that restricts the use of voter registration data to political campaigning or noncommercial government purposes.
"This is an overtly political purpose and not necessarily towards a particular campaign and in the government interest," Toulouse Oliver said. "Their purpose is to intimidate voters and make folks become concerned about the security of their information, to potentially cause voters to de-register and not participate in our process."
Toulose Oliver in December referred the group's effort for possible prosecution to the state attorney general. Her office traced voter registration data used by Voter Reference Foundation to a person who paid about $5,400 for access on the condition that the information would be used only for governmental, election, research and campaign purposes.
In its March lawsuit, Voter Reference Foundation argued that New Mexico's restrictions on voter registration data violate free-speech guarantees of the U.S. Constitution.
The foundation said its "election purposes are to increase voter participation and provide transparency regarding New Mexico elections, both of which strengthen election integrity." A preliminary hearing in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque had been scheduled for Tuesday, but was delayed at the request of state officials.
The foundation's website highlights discrepancies in various states between the number of people listed as having voted on registration rolls and the number of ballots cast according to certified election results.
Election officials have described the methodology as flawed, noting that discrepancies likely surface for legitimate reasons when an election result is compared to state voting registration rolls that are continually updated as people change their addresses, enter and leave the state or die.
VoteRef.com on Tuesday added voter registration data from the District of Columbia.
Open Secrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks political spending, has linked the Voter Reference Foundation to political groups supported by Republican political financing megadonor Richard Uihlein.
Toulouse Oliver and Attorney General Hector Balderas have warned residents of Otero County in southern New Mexico to be wary of intrusive questions and potential intimidation by door-to-door canvassers linked to a review of the 2020 election that was authorized by the Republican-led county commission through a private company.
Toulouse Oliver said that authorities are probing whether the contractor improperly obtained bulk voter records through a third party that she did not identify.
Frustration grows over truck backlogs at Texas-Mexico border - By Paul J. Weber Associated Press
One of the busiest trade ports on the U.S.-Mexico border remained closed Tuesday as frustration and traffic snarls mounted over new orders by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requiring extra inspections of commercial trucks as part of the Republican's sprawling border security operation.
Since Monday, Mexican truckers have blocked the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in protest after Abbott last week directed state troopers to stop and inspect trucks coming into Texas. Unusually long backups — some lasting 12 hours or longer — have stacked up elsewhere along Texas' roughly 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border.
Not even a week into the inspections, the Mexican government said Tuesday that Abbott's order was causing "serious damage" to trade, and that cross-border traffic had plummeted to a third of normal levels.
The gridlock is the fallout of an initiative that Abbott says is needed to curb human trafficking and the flow of drugs. But critics question how the inspections are meeting that objective, while business owners and experts complain of financial losses and warn U.S. grocery shoppers could notice shortages as soon as this week.
Frustration is also spreading within members of Abbott's own party: Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican, called the inspections a "catastrophic policy" that is forcing some trucks to reroute hundreds of miles to Arizona.
"I do describe it as a crisis, because this is not the normal way of doing business," said Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, whose county includes the bridge in Pharr. "You're talking about billions of dollars. When you stop that process, I mean, there are many, many, many, many people that are affected."
The shutdowns and slowdowns have set off some of widest backlash to date of Abbott's multibillion-dollar border operation, which the two-term governor has made the cornerstone of his administration. Texas already has thousands of state troopers and National Guard members on the border and has converted prisons into jails for migrants arrested on state trespassing charges.
Abbott warned last week that inspections would "dramatically slow" border traffic, but he hasn't addressed the backups or port shutdowns since then. His office didn't reply to a message seeking comment left Tuesday.
The disruptions at some of the world's busiest international trade ports could pose economic and political threats to Abbott, who is seeking a third term in November. Democrat Beto O'Rourke, the former presidential candidate who is running against Abbott for governor, said during a stop in Pharr on Tuesday that the inspections were doing nothing to halt the flow of migrants and were worsening supply chain issues.
He was joined by Joe Arevalo, owner of Keystone Cold, a cold-storage warehouse on the border. He said that although Texas state troopers have always inspected some trucks crossing the border "they've never, ever, ever held up a complete system or a complete supply chain."
An estimated 3,000 trucks cross the Pharr bridge on a normal day, according to the National Freight Transportation Chamber. The Pharr bridge is the largest land port for produce, such as leafy green vegetables, entering the U.S.
Mexico supplies about two-thirds of the produce sold in Texas.
"We're living through a nightmare, and we're already suffering through a very delicate supply chain from the pandemic and to try to regrow the business," Arevalo said.
The additional inspections are conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which said that as of Monday, it had inspected more than 3,400 commercial vehicles and placed more than 800 "out of service" for violations that included defective brakes, tires and lighting. It made no mention of whether the truck inspections had turned up migrants or drugs.
The order's impact quickly spread beyond Texas: U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials confirmed Tuesday that there was another blockade at the Mexican customs facility at the Santa Teresa port of entry in southern New Mexico, not far from El Paso. Those protests are misguided since New Mexico has nothing to do with Texas' inspection policies, said Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator and president of the Border Industrial Association.
He said the protests were costing businesses millions of dollars a day.
"Everybody down here is on a just-in-time inventory system," Pancheo said. "It's going to affect all of us, all of us in the United States. Your car parts are going to be delivered late, your computer — if you ordered a Dell or HP tablet, those are going to be disrupted."
Ed Anderson, a professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, compared the disruptions to those caused by February's trucker blockade in Canada that forced auto plants on both sides of the border to shut down or scale back production. During that protest, trucks looking for other entries to cross into the U.S. wound up causing congestion at other bridges, a scenario that Anderson said might now be repeated on the southern border.
Anderson said consumers would likely begin noticing the effects by the end of this week, if not sooner.
"Either prices are going to spike or shelves are going to be low," he said.
Blame Trump? Jury hears that defense at Capitol riot trial - By Michael Kunzelman Associated Press
Mentions of Donald Trump have been rare at the first few trials for people charged with storming the U.S. Capitol, but that has changed: The latest Capitol riot defendant to go on trial is blaming his actions on the former president and his false claims about a stolen election.
Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man charged with stealing a coat rack from the Capitol, doesn't deny that he joined the mob on Jan. 6, 2021. But his lawyer vowed Tuesday to show that Trump abused his power to "authorize" the attack.
Describing Trump as a man without scruples or integrity, defense attorney Samuel Shamansky said the former president engaged in a "sinister" plot to encourage Thompson and other supporters to "do his dirty work."
"It's Donald Trump himself spewing the lies and using his position to authorize this assault," Shamansky told jurors Tuesday during the trial's opening statements.
Justice Department prosecutor Jennifer Rozzoni said Thompson knew he was breaking the law that day.
"He chose to be a part of the mayhem and chaos," she said.
Thompson's lawyer sought subpoenas to call Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as witnesses at his trial this week. A judge rejected that request but ruled that jurors can hear recordings of speeches that Trump and Giuliani delivered at a rally before the riot.
Thompson's jury trial is the third among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions. The first two ended with jurors convicting both defendants on all counts with which they were charged.
In a February court filing, Shamansky said he wanted to argue at trial that Thompson was acting at the direction of Trump and "his various conspirators." The lawyer asked to subpoena others from Trump's inner circle, including former White House strategist Steve Bannon, former White House senior adviser Stephen Miller and former Trump lawyers John Eastman and Sidney Powell.
Prosecutors said Thompson can't show that Trump or Giuliani had the authority to "empower" him to break the law. They also noted that video of the rally speeches "perfectly captures" the tone, delivery and context of the statements to the extent they are "marginally relevant" to proof of Thompson's intent on Jan. 6.
Thompson's lawyer argued that Trump would testify that he and others " orchestrated a carefully crafted plot to call into question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election." Shamansky claimed that Giuliani incited rioters by encouraging them to engage in "trial by combat" and that Trump provoked the mob by saying that "if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
Shamansky said Thompson, who lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, became an avid consumer of the conspiracy theories and lies about a stolen election.
"This is the garbage that Dustin Thompson is listening to day after day after day," Shamansky said. "He goes down this rabbit hole. He listens to this echo chamber. And he acts accordingly."
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ruled in March that any in-person testimony by Trump or Giuliani could confuse and mislead jurors.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes arising from Jan. 6. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Thompson is the fifth person to be tried on riot-related charges.
On Monday, a jury convicted a former Virginia police officer, Thomas Robertson, of storming the Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory. Last month, a jury convicted a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun.
A judge hearing testimony without a jury decided cases against two other Capitol riot defendants at separate bench trials. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden acquitted one of them of all charges and partially acquitted the other.
Thompson has a co-defendant, Robert Lyon, who pleaded guilty to riot-related charges in March.
Thompson, then 36, and Lyon, then 27, drove from Columbus, Ohio, to Silver Spring, Maryland, stayed overnight at a hotel and then took an Uber ride into Washington, D.C., on the morning of Jan. 6. After then-President Donald Trump's speech, Thompson and Lyon headed over to the Capitol.
Thompson was wearing a "Trump 2020" winter hat and a bulletproof vest when he entered the Capitol and went to the Senate Parliamentarian's Office, where he stole two bottles of liquor and a coat rack worth up to $500, according to prosecutors.
Thompson and Lyon traded text messages during the riot.
"Some girl died already," Lyon said in one text, an apparent reference to a law enforcement officer's fatal shooting of a rioter, Ashli Babbitt
"Was it Pelosi?" Thompson replied.
"I'm taking our country back," Thompson later texted Lyon.
Around 6 p.m. on Jan. 6, Thompson and Lyon were sitting on a sidewalk and waiting for an Uber driver to pick them up when Capitol police officers approached and warned them that they were in a restricted area. As they started to leave, Thompson picked up a coat rack that appeared to be from the Capitol, the FBI said. Thompson ran away when the officers told him to put down the rack, dropping it as he fled. Lyon stayed behind and identified himself and Thompson to police.
That night, Thompson received a text from his wife that said, "I will not post bail."
The FBI said agents later searched Lyon's cellphone and found a video that showed a ransacked office and Thompson yelling: "Wooooo! 'Merica Hey! This is our house!" A surveillance video also captured Thompson leaving a Capitol office with a bottle of bourbon, the FBI said.
Thompson is charged with six counts: obstructing Congress' joint session to certify the Electoral College vote, theft of government property, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Lyon pleaded guilty to theft of government property and disorderly conduct. Both counts are misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of 1 year imprisonment. Walton is scheduled to sentence Lyon on June 3.