Report recommends Albuquerque close public schools, cut jobs - By Cedar Attanasio Associated Press / Report For America
Albuquerque's K-12 schools should cut staff and close schools because of dwindling enrollment and spend more for the education of low-income students who fell further behind their peers during this school year, according to a report from the New Mexico Legislature made public Wednesday.
The report from the powerful Legislative Finance Committee recommended that Albuquerque Public Schools should let go 400 of the district's 12,000 employees, but didn't specify how many of the district's increasingly empty schools it should shutter. The school district has 144 schools and 73,000 students, down from 85,000 six years ago.
Albuquerque Public Schools hasn't recovered from the exodus of students that accelerated during the pandemic, reducing enrollment by about 4%, more than the average of 2.6% for 41 U.S. states.
Thousands of families in New Mexico amid the pandemic tried homeschooling or charter schools for the first time and didn't send their kids back to classrooms this year. Despite getting financing federal pandemic relief funds, most school districts across the U.S. now have fewer students and less funding than before the pandemic, forcing educators to consider cutting spending.
Albuquerque should prioritize filling special education positions and offer bonuses to teachers in high-need positions at schools serving greater numbers of low-income students, the report said. The district currently has more than 600 job openings listed, many for special education instructors.
The district's low-income students are learning, but their advancement in reading and math is much slower than their more privileged peers, the report stated.
Higher rates of absenteeism for the district's students and fewer learning days are part of the problem. This year, 36% of Albuquerque's students missed at least 10 days of school, including excused absences for illness or sports, compared to 30% of students statewide.
The New Mexico Legislature has put aside around $40 million in funding for Albuquerque Public Schools to fund extra learning days. The Legislature does periodic reviews of the state's public schools and the report about the district is the first conducted since 2007.
Earlier this month, the Albuquerque school board decided it would not mandate a proposal to add 10 days to the school year citing a lack of support from parents. Extra days are funded by the Legislature and are viewed as a key way to increase the state's dismal academic performance. Individual schools can still apply for the extra days. Last year, the district used only 9% of extra learning days funding, which pays teachers for the extra time.
According to the report, Albuquerque Public Schools enrollment declined 17% over the past decade, driven by lower birth rates and an increase in the popularity of charter schools. Per-student funding increased by 49% during the same period, while the achievement gaps between low-income and other students in reading and math are wider in Albuquerque than they are in the rest of the state.
In a written response to the committee's report, Albuquerque Superintendant Scott Elder said increased funding is often tied to salary increases and cannot be used to fund services for at-risk youth. He also pointed out that while overall enrollment is down, low-income and other at-risk students represent a larger share of the student population.
Speaking to lawmakers on Wednesday, he said that closing schools was a "charged issue" for parents, and could create additional costs.
"If we shut schools, kids that live close to that school have to be transported to their new school, so we would have significant impacts on transportation," said Elder. "Some of those schools are institutions in their neighborhoods they matter to those communities."
While the district has said since 2019 that it should craft a five-year plan to manage its finances amid projected drops in enrollment and funding, the report said that hasn't happened and that they are common for other large New Mexico districts even though they are not required by law.
District officials have announced that cuts are needed and asked parents and staff to offer ideas to reduce costs in recent months.
The legislative committee that drafted the report credited Albuquerque Public Schools for increased oversight of outside contracts ranging from face masks to learning software, potentially cutting down on fraud and waste.
The extra oversight followed the district's discovery last year that former state Rep. Cheryl Williams Stapleton, then an Albuquerque Public Schools administrator, allegedly directed $5 million in funding to a company that found ways to deliver nearly $1 million to businesses and nonprofit groups that she controlled.
She has been charged with racketeering, money laundering, fraud and ethics violations. Stapleton has said she is innocent and is fighting the charges in court.
Fire crews prepare for dry thunderstorms, erratic winds - By Susan Montoya Bryan And Margery A. Beck Associated Press
From the Southwestern U.S. to the southern High Plains, forecasters are warning that more strong winds and low humidity will challenge fire crews over the coming days.
More strong winds and low humidity levels are on tap for the coming days, prompting firefighters in drought-stricken New Mexico to cut away brush and burn out any extra fuel Wednesday in an effort to keep the flames of what has become the largest wildfire burning in the U.S. from reaching homes that are still in its path.
The perimeter of the fire stretches more than 180 miles. It has moved across meadows and up mountainsides, forcing residents from several villages to flee as the flames consumed family ranches, a community center and other structures.
Authorities said Wednesday they continue to work on damage assessments but haven't been able to access some areas that are still hot.
"Fire is creeping all over the place," San Miguel Deputy County Manager Jesus Romero said, noting the danger has yet to pass and it's unclear when people will be allowed back into the area.
The Southwest has been bearing the brunt of large fires, with five incident management teams assigned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. One complex incident management team was overseeing a large fire in Nebraska.
More than 200 firefighters in that state were battling a prairie fire that has been burning since last week. About 65 square miles of mostly grasses and farmland have been blackened, several homes have been destroyed and at least one person was killed.
The fire was about three-quarters contained going into Wednesday, and crews were hopeful that a storm system expected to push through the area would bring much-needed moisture. While rain would be welcomed, there were also concerns that any lightning could spark new fires and gusts could spread existing fires.
Meanwhile, crews in New Mexico were most worried about dry thunderstorms. No moisture was predicted, just erratic winds that could fan flames and ground the air tankers and water-dropping helicopters that have been aiding from above.
In Arizona, crews on Wednesday worked to contain two major wildfires, with firefighters gaining ground on containment of a blaze in the Prescott National Forest after winds on Tuesday pushed the fire outward. Near Flagstaff, crews patrolled burned areas of a different large fire and looked for hot spots amid milder weather.
Nationally, large fires have burned more than 1,688 square miles this year, putting the U.S. on track to far outpace the 10-year average.
The pressure on firefighters is not likely to let up anytime soon. Climate outlooks indicate likely below normal precipitation from Texas through the southern Rockies and Great Basin, with above normal temperatures likely across much of the U.S into summer.
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Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writer Paul Davenport in Phoenix contributed to this report.
New Mexico adapts to same-day registration in primary voting - Associated Press
Recent changes in New Mexico election law are making it easier for unaffiliated voters to participate in the June 7 primary election if they chose to affiliate with a major party — even briefly.
Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver on Wednesday highlighted the opportunity for voters who are affiliated with a minor party or decline affiliation to participate in the statewide primary by picking a major party affiliation on site at election-day polling places and county clerks' offices.
She said that registration-update process can take as little as five minutes, starting on May 10, and is reversible after the election. Same-day registration will be available at some additional early voting locations, as determined by county clerks.
People already registered to vote under a major party — Republican, Democratic or Libertarian — cannot switch parties during the election period from May 10 through June 7.
Toulouse Oliver said that new access to primary voting is especially important in competitive primaries that are likely to decide who takes office.
"Where the primary election is the only election, now these folks who previously have not been able to participate in that election do have an opportunity to make their voices heard," said Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat.
New Mexico remains a "closed primary" state that requires affiliation with a major party in order to vote in a primary.
People who decline to state a party preference or belong to a minor political party account for nearly one-fourth of registered voters in New Mexico.
Bob Perls, founder of the voting-access advocacy group New Mexico Open Elections, said the new provisions could influence the outcome of primary races with close margins and compel primary-election candidates to court a broader segment of voters.
Toulouse Oliver is running for reelection as a Democrat without a primary competitor, prior to a three-way general election contest against Republican Audrey Trujillo and Libertarian Mayna Myers.
Videos show aftermath of film-set shooting, Baldwin reaction - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
The New Mexico sheriff investigating the fatal film-set shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin described complacency, disorganization and neglected safety measures in the making of the low-budget movie "Rust."
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Tuesday that he is waiting on a forensic analysis of the weapon, projectile, fingerprints and more from the FBI and state medical examiners before turning the 6-month-old case over to prosecutors to decide whether criminal charges will be filed.
"There is a degree of neglect. Whether that reaches the criminal level, that will be up to the district attorney to determine," the sheriff told "Good Morning America." On Monday, he released virtually the entire case file of the investigation after a live round of ammunition killed Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza during rehearsal on Oct. 21, 2021. Filming for the Western took place at a ranch on the outskirts of the city of Santa Fe.
The vast trove of newly released law enforcement files includes lapel camera video of the mortally wounded Hutchins slipping in and out of consciousness as an evacuation helicopter arrives. Witness interrogations, email threads, text conversations, inventories of ammunition and hundreds of photographs round out the collection of evidence.
In one newly released video, a sheriff's deputy arrives as medics attempt to attend to Hutchins inside a small wooden church where she was shot during a rehearsal in preparation for filming.
"Halyna, deep breath. There you go, good girl," says a medic, urging Hutchins to take in air through an oxygen mask.
Outside, a medical evacuation helicopter lands in the desert. A law enforcement officer keeps watch over Baldwin, still in 19th century costume, as the actor smokes cigarettes from other members of the film cast.
The evidence was made public in response to media requests for records and as an effort toward transparency in the investigation. Mendoza, a Democrat, is running for reelection this year, with a competitive June primary.
Newly published documents show authorities have scraped cellphone accounts for text messages, images and audio files created by the cast, crew and munitions suppliers for "Rust." Text messages recount two firearms misfires on the set prior to the deadly shooting, though none involved live ammunition.
Other videos show investigators as they debrief Baldwin within hours of the fatal shooting, talking with him inside a compact office — and rehearsal clips that show Baldwin in costume as he practices a quick-draw maneuver with a gun.
An attorney for Baldwin says the newly released files corroborate that the actor and "Rust" co-producer was careful with guns on the set.
"Mr. Baldwin welcomes this investigation," said attorney Luke Nikas in a statement. "The information that has been revealed by the authorities demonstrates, once again, that Mr. Baldwin acted responsibly."
Under questioning by two investigators, Baldwin says that as the gun went off, he was unaware initially that Hutchins would die and shocked to learn that he had been holding a gun loaded with live ammunition. Baldwin said in a December interview with ABC News that he was on set pointing the gun at Hutchins at her instruction when it went off without his pulling the trigger.
Baldwin told the investigators that the gun should have been empty for a rehearsal with no filming.
"There should have been nothing. It should have been a cold gun with no rounds inside or dummy rounds," Baldwin says. "I take the gun out slowly. I turn, I cock the pistol. Bang, it goes off. She (Hutchins) hits the ground."
Baldwin repeatedly says there were no prior problems of any kind with firearms on the set of "Rust."
Those statements conflict with more recent findings by state occupational safety regulators, who last week issued the maximum possible fine of nearly $137,000 against the "Rust" film production company.
New Mexico's Occupational Health and Safety Bureau delivered a scathing narrative of safety failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address the two other misfires.
The bureau also documented gun safety complaints from crew members that went unheeded and said weapons specialists were not allowed to make decisions about additional safety training. Rust Movie Productions has indicated it will dispute the findings and sanction.
At least five lawsuits have been filed over the shooting, including a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Hutchins' family against Baldwin and the movie's other producers. The lawsuit on behalf of widower Matt Hutchins and his 9-year-old son alleges a "callous" disregard in the face of safety complaints on the set.
Added crews making progress on Midwest, Southwest fires - By Margery A. Beck And Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Beefed up fire crews made major progress on a large prairie fire burning near the Nebraska-Kansas line on Tuesday and lighter winds allowed firefighters to keep flames from advancing significantly at big fires in the Southwest where some rural towns remain under evacuation orders.
Stiff winds remained a challenge in the Midwest, but eased in Arizona and New Mexico where they're expected to pick up again in the days ahead after fires destroyed dozens of home and charred a combined 225 square miles last week.
"It was a very good day," said Terry Krasko, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team.
More than 200 firefighters are now battling the blaze in Nebraska that killed a former volunteer fire chief, injured several firefighters and destroyed several homes last week.
"No injuries. No more structures lost," Krasko told The Associated Press Tuesday night from Cambridge, Nebraska. "I think the biggest loss we had today was a few hay bales."
Overall containment grew there from 47% to 74% on Tuesday. That means crews have dug fire lines around about three-fourths of the fire that has burned 65 square miles of mostly grasses and farmland.
"The major footprint of the fire stayed where it was supposed to be despite 30 to 40 mph winds," Krasko said. Critical fire conditions were forecast to return on Wednesday, "but not as windy."
More than 3,000 firefighters and support personnel were assigned to multiple fires Tuesday in the Southwest, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The focus was on efforts to corral blazes in northern New Mexico, where evacuations remain in place and several small villages were threatened. Authorities have started to survey the damage but have yet to tally the number of homes and other buildings that were destroyed.
The largest of the wildfires has blackened more than 94 square miles in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Crews continued to make progress on that fire Tuesday, but they were bracing for the weather to take a turn later this week with more hot, dry and windy conditions forecast for the area.
San Miguel County Deputy Manager Jesus Romero described the situation as touch-and-go as the winds cranked up Tuesday afternoon.
"Everybody is eager to get back home. It's still not really safe right now," he said. "There's plenty of forest still to be burned, plenty of fuels and it's plenty dry and we're dealing with the wind. Some places are a little bit better than others, but right now it's just too risky."
In Arizona, crews are working to encircle and mop up a 33-square-mile wildfire on the outskirts of Flagstaff that burned 30 homes and additional structures last week. Aircraft helped firefighters battling a different major fire that continued to grow, burning 10 square miles in the Prescott National Forest in north-central Arizona.
Four new fires were reported Monday, two in Colorado and one in Oklahoma and Virginia, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Nationally, 11 large fires have burned about 342 square miles in six states, the agency reported Tuesday.
Protections sought for Western bird linked to piñon forests - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Collecting piñon nuts has been tradition for Native American and Hispanic families in the Southwestern U.S. for generations.
But environmentalists are concerned that without the pinyon jay — a very social bird that essentially plants the next generation of trees by stashing away the seeds — it's possible the piñon forests of New Mexico, Nevada and other Western states could face another reproductive hurdle in the face of climate change, persistent drought and more severe wildfires.
The Washington, D.C.-based group Defenders of Wildlife filed a petition Monday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the bird under the Endangered Species Act, saying the once common species plays an integral role in the high desert ecosystem.
The group points to research that shows pinyon jay numbers have declined by an estimated 80% over the last five decades, a rate even faster than the greater sage grouse.
Patricia Estrella, who represents the group in New Mexico, said that while population declines are well documented, the exact cause remains unclear as multiple threats are at play.
"Not only is it difficult to tease apart the effects of interacting factors, together they create even greater threats through positive feedbacks," Estrella wrote in the petition. "Successful conservation of the pinyon jay requires addressing and ameliorating multiple threats simultaneously."
Piñon-juniper forests cover more than 75,000 square miles in the United States, and wildlife managers in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and New Mexico already have classified the bird as a species of greatest conservation need.
Nearly 60% of the jay's remaining population can be found in New Mexico and Nevada, but its range also includes central Oregon and parts of California, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Mexico's northern Baja California.
Pale blue with a white bib, the pinyon jay typically mates for life. When food is abundant, they can nest more than once a year.
Their home range can be large, with the birds fanning out over hundreds of miles when food is scarce.
Research highlighted in the petition notes that more piñon and juniper woodlands are being cleared around the West for housing developments, agriculture, and solar and wind energy projects, and as land managers look to reduce the threat of wildfire.
The Biden administration's infrastructure push includes $500 million over five years for prescribed burns, $500 million for mechanical tree harvesting and another $500 million for clearing fuel breaks. Defenders of Wildlife and others are concerned that managers will be able to move ahead with many projects without public input or more detailed environmental reviews.
The petition states that studies documenting the effects of woodland reduction on pinyon jay populations are few, but some scientists are recommending that land managers avoid nesting and foraging sites.
When the piñon crop is good, jays start the morning by eating seeds. Then they collect seeds, congregate in the tree tops and depart together to caching areas that are usually open spaces where less snow accumulates in the winter.
Research has shown they have excellent memory and recover more cached seeds than other types of jays or nutcrackers, but the seeds that go uncollected are left to germinate.
According to the petition, the loss of piñon trees would disproportionately affect Native American and Hispanic communities in the Southwest. Each fall, families make the trek to the forest to harvest the seeds.
The nuts are usually roasted and salted, but their popularity now extends beyond Southwest cuisine, including pancakes, brownies, pizza and salad toppings.
It will be up to the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether there's enough information in the petition to warrant further review. That could take months.
Mayor nominates APD superintendent of police reform - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller has announced his nomination for the city’s superintendent of police reform.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the mayor announced the nomination of LaTesha Watson Monday.
If confirmed by the City Council, Watson would co-lead the Albuquerque Police Department alongside Chief Harold Medina.
The superintendent position, established last year, oversees internal affairs and reform initiatives – including APD’s settlement agreement with the Department of Justice – along with officer discipline and police academy training.
Watson would fill the position left vacant by the December retirement of interim superintendent Sylvester Stanley.
Watson would bring 25 years of experience to APD. She previously worked in Sacramento, C.A., as the director of the Office of Public Safety Accountability. Before that, she was a police chief in Nevada and deputy chief in Texas, according to her resume obtained by the Journal.
Native American leaders push for Chaco area protections - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Native American leaders said Tuesday they were excited about a series of meetings this week with land managers as the Biden administration considers prohibiting new oil and gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land in northwestern New Mexico that several tribes consider sacred.
Top officials with the All-Pueblo Council of Governors said during a virtual briefing that they will reiterate their support for the proposal during tribal consultations. The meetings are part of the public outreach being done by the U.S. Interior Department as it considers the withdrawal from nearly 550 square miles around Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is from Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, cited the cultural significance of the area surrounding the national park when she first proposed the 20-year withdrawal during a visit in November. She has said many tribes in the Southwest, including her own, have a connection to the area.
Randall Vicente, the governor of Acoma Pueblo, said tribes were ready to band together to ensure more permanent protections are adopted for lands outside park boundaries.
He said the remnants of stone dwellings, ceremonial kivas, pottery sherds, petroglyphs, shrines and the other cultural resources that dot the high desert around Chaco Canyon were left there by the ancestors of today's pueblo people.
"Together, this area is one irreplaceable, sacred, interconnected landscape unlike any other. We remain tied to those resources," he said, describing them as "the footprints and fingerprints of our ancestors."
A World Heritage site, Chaco Park is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization.
The Navajo Nation is among the Native American tribes that support increased protections, but top tribal officials have called for a smaller area around Chaco to be set aside as a way to limit the economic impact on families who rely on revenues from oil and gas leasing.
In a nod to the Navajo concerns, the pueblo leaders said the withdrawal would not affect development on land overseen by the Navajo Nation or individual Navajo allottee owners. However, allottees have argued that taking federal parcels off the board would leave them landlocked and curb the interest of oil companies in leasing their land.
Pueblo leaders said Tuesday their tribes continue to work on an ethnographic study that they hope will provide more insight for federal managers on cultural resources in northwestern New Mexico.
Ben Chavarria, historic preservation officer for Santa Clara Pueblo, said Chaco's influence can still be seen today in the pueblos' governance systems, dances, songs, prayers and other customs.
Describing its essence as independent and alive, he said the greater Chaco region is "an area of such immense cultural and traditional importance to the pueblo that it cannot be conveyed in words."
Canada lynx protections deal sealed by US, environmentalists - By Matthew Brown Associated Press
U.S. wildlife officials have agreed to craft a new habitat plan for the snow-loving Canada lynx that could include more land in Colorado and other western states where the rare animals would be protected, according to a legal agreement made public Tuesday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service faces a 2024 deadline to draft the new plan for the wild cats after settling a legal challenge from two environmental groups — Wild Earth Guardians and Wilderness Workshop. U.S. District Judge Donald Christensen issued an order late Monday approving the settlement.
The groups sued to enforce a prior court ruling from Christensen that said federal officials wrongly excluded areas of Colorado, Montana and Idaho when they designated almost 40,000 square miles (104,000 square kilometers) in 2014 as critical for the lynx's long-term survival.
On land designated as critical, federal agencies are required to consult with wildlife officials before taking or allowing any activities that could destroy or alter the habitats of a protected species. Those consultations can potentially lead to restrictions of logging in federal forests or limitations on dirt roads used for recreation.
Christensen cited the presence of a reproducing lynx population in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Agency officials had earlier concluded that Colorado and adjacent areas of Wyoming and New Mexico were "not essential" for the recovery of the species, pointing in part to low population densities of snowshoe hares that lynx eat.
To comply with the judge's order, the Fish and Wildlife Service will evaluate which parts of the Southern Rockies and elsewhere are critical for lynx and propose them for potential protections by Nov. 21, 2024, according to a statement provided by agency spokesperson Joe Szuszwalak.
Lynx are elusive, forest-dwelling animals. There is no reliable population estimate, but several hundred are believed to roam parts of the U.S. Rocky Mountains.
The animals also are found in Minnesota, Maine, Washington state and occasionally Michigan.
They were reintroduced to Colorado beginning in the late 1990s and listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act across the contiguous U.S. in 2000.
During Donald Trump's presidency, officials said the lynx had recovered and no longer needed protection after their numbers rebounded in some areas. President Joe Biden's administration reversed course in November and agreed to keep the lynx's threatened species protections. That did not resolve the dispute over what areas they would need to survive.
"There's a lot of really good habitat in Colorado — wilderness and really remote areas," said attorney John Mellgren, who represented the environmental groups that reached the settlement.
But he added that those areas face increased pressure as trees in forested areas are killed by beetles, wildfires and other problems that are being worsened by climate change.
Some scientists warn climate change could undo progress in lynx recovery, by melting away their snowy habitat and decreasing the availability of snowshoe hares.
U.S. government biologists in 2016 predicted some lynx populations would disappear by 2100. That was based on models predicting widespread and substantial habitat losses because of climate change.
Under Trump, officials shortened their time span for considering climate change threats, from 2100 to 2050, because of what they said were uncertainties in long-term climate models. A government assessment based on that shortened time span concluded lynx populations had increased versus historical levels in parts of Colorado and Maine.