NM distributing hundreds of dollars for food to students in need - Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
If your child received free or reduced lunch as of June 2022, break out that card again, because you may have some money on it from the state to cover food costs.
This week the New Mexico Human Services Department will add $391 to families who received pandemic EBT cards to cover meals for public school students.
More than 227,700 families should be getting their P-EBT card reloaded with more money intended to cover food costs from the summer. In total, New Mexico is sending $89 million to families across the state.
Students do not need to live in households that already receive SNAP benefits in order to qualify for this one-time payment.
The money going to this card is also different from the traditional SNAP card used by thousands of people in the state.
Lost your card? Want to see if you qualify?
ONLINE: P-EBT Information section of the YESNM portal
PHONE: 1-833-415-0569, 1-800-283-4465
P-EBT cards were already issued, but anyone who lost their card or wants to see if they qualify can visit the HSD website anytime before Sept. 26. Specifically, people are asked to visit the P-EBT Information section of the YESNM portal to see whether they qualify, register and request a card. The portal went live Tuesday.
Money started getting added to cards yesterday and will go until Sept. 26.
People without internet access can also call the state hotline at 1-833-415-0569 or the HSD Customer Consolidated Customer Service Center at 1-800-283-4465.
It’s hard to learn in school when you’re hungry. According to the Legislative Finance Committee, students with food insecurity at Albuquerque Public Schools showed lower achievements in math and reading.
More than 72% of APS students, the state’s largest school district, receive free or reduced lunch. The state defines low-income students based on their eligibility for food assistance.
Since last year, food prices have increased by more than 10% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In rural communities, inflation could be 130% higher than in the city, a report by the Congressional Budget Office estimates.
More than 330,000 students are enrolled in New Mexico public schools, so it is very likely someone you know qualifies for this food assistance program.
Register to vote in the midterms online now or at the polls through Election Day — Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Today is National Voter Registration Day, a civic holiday meant to celebrate U.S. democracy and endorsed by election administrators.
“National Voter Registration Day is a non-partisan celebration of the right to vote and of having a voice in our democracy,” New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said in a news release.
Source New Mexico’s Austin Fisher reports eligible voters can register or update their registration online anytime before early voting begins on Oct. 11.
And this year, for the first time, when eligible New Mexican voters show up to the polls both during early voting or on Election Day itself, they can register to vote or update their voter registration right before they cast their ballot, according to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.
Same-day registration was an option for early voters last year, but it was not available on Election Day proper. Lawmakers in 2018 rewrote the state’s election code in an effort to increase voter participation, including allowing same-day registration.
Same-day registration will be available at any polling location on Election Day and at participating early voting locations, according to the Secretary of State’s Office which recommends checking with your local county clerk.
At the end of August, 1,353,869 New Mexicans were registered to vote, out of about 1,498,000 eligible voters in the state. About 44% of registered voters in the state were Democrats, while 31% were Republicans.
Over 10,000 New Mexico voters used same-day voter registration this summer during New Mexico’s primary.
Cowboys for Trump cofounder appeals ban from public office — Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A New Mexico politician and Trump supporter who was removed and barred from elected office for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, is attempting to appeal that decision to the state Supreme Court.
Cowboys for Trump cofounder and former county commissioner Couy Griffin on Tuesday notified the high court of his intent to appeal.
The ruling against Griffin this month from a Santa Fe-based District Court was the first to remove or bar an elected official from office in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol building that disrupted Congress as it was trying to certify President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.
Griffin was previously convicted in federal court of a misdemeanor for entering the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, without going inside the building. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served.
Griffin has invoked free speech guarantees in his defense and says his banishment from public office disenfranchises his political constituents in Otero County.
He was barred from office under provisions of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which holds that anyone who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution can be barred from office for engaging in insurrection or rebellion. The provisions were put in place shortly after the Civil War.
A flurry of similar lawsuits around the country are seeking to use the provision to punish politicians who took part in Jan. 6.
Griffin says he continues to act as his own legal counsel in the case.
"Honestly I have felt very abandoned by many," Griffin said.
Conservative activists aligned with Griffin have urged supporters to file disciplinary complaints against the judge who barred Griffin from office.
Griffin, a 48-year-old former rodeo rider and former pastor, helped found Cowboys for Trump in 2019. The promotional group staged horseback parades to spread President Donald Trump's conservative message about gun rights, immigration controls and abortion restrictions.
This year, Griffin voted twice as a county commissioner against certifying New Mexico's June 7 primary election, in a standoff over election integrity fueled by conspiracy theories about the security of voting equipment in the Republican-dominated county.
Deputies shoot kill suspect in shooting in SW Albuquerque — KUNM News
Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputies shot and killed a man this afternoon in southwest Albuquerque.
In a press release, BCSO said deputies were flagged down about a suspicious person inside a vehicle.
When approached, BCSO says, the suspect rammed three deputies' vehicles before leading officers on a chase that concluded when the suspect hit two civilian vehicles and became disabled.
After the suspect exited the vehicle "an unknown confrontation ensued" leading to "at least one deputy" firing an unknown number of times on the suspect, the press release says.
The suspect's name has not been released.
Pandemic aid payments heading to utility companies for low-income households - Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
People enrolled in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program will soon see another bill covered.
Today, the state Human Services Department said 57,422 low-income households were issued one more payment to cover heating and cooling costs. The money was sent directly to the utility companies offering services.
The program typically issues one yearly payment. This year, there will be at least two for households that were approved between October and August.
In total, New Mexico will pay more than $10.9 million in utility assistance.
The money is from American Rescue Plan funds to help cover costs during the pandemic. New Mexico received a $22 million infusion, according to HSD.
People who qualified for the program but changed addresses or phone numbers can update their information with the state by visiting, www.yes.state.nm.us, or calling the HSD Consolidated Customer Service Center at 1-800-283-4465, Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–5 p.m.
New Mexico Supreme Court upholds habitual offender ruling - Associated Press
Defendants must be informed about the possibility of facing additional prison time if their plea agreement involves multiple offenses and they violate probation, the New Mexico Supreme Court said.
The split ruling issued Monday came in the case of a woman who admitted to having prior felony convictions.
The court's majority affirmed a district judge's decision to lengthen the sentence of Christina Banghart-Portillo because of probation violations after her release from prison in 2016. She was a little over halfway through a three-year probationary period and had argued that the enhancement for being a habitual offender amounted to double jeopardy.
The Supreme Court's majority found that the district court had structured the defendant's probation as a cumulative amount of time for her two felony convictions rather than individual back-to-back segments of 18 months of probation for each conviction.
The court suggested that language outlining the terms of how a sentence is to be carried out should be specified in plea agreements or risk creating ambiguity.
The court's majority wrote that Banghart-Portillo's written plea agreement was silent about the possibility of enhancement of either count if she violated probation. However, the majority concluded that the district court during the defendant's sentencing hearing had resolved any ambiguities by informing her of the potential consequences if she violated probation.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice David K. Thomson wrote that allowing the district court to enhance the sentence on the first count violated concepts of double jeopardy. Justice Briana H. Zamora joined in the dissent.
Banghart-Portillo had pleaded no contest to counts of evidence tampering and conspiracy to commit evidence tampering. She and another man were arrested in 2014 on outstanding warrants. After being booked, a dispatcher saw her attempt to swallow a plastic bag of heroin handed to her by the man.
After multiple probation violations, the district court revoked Banghart-Portillo's probation and imposed six years of habitual offender time on her sentence.
New Mexico man, cousin arrested in Kansas in a homicide case - Associated Press
A New Mexico man and his cousin have been arrested in Kansas in connection with the shooting death of a woman that is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said Monday.
Valencia County Sheriff's officials said 37-year-old Karla Aguilera of Tome was reported missing by family members on Sept. 6.
A body was found Wednesday in Torrance County and an autopsy confirmed it was Aguilera, authorities said.
According to a criminal complaint, the victim was shot four times.
An arrest warrant was issued for 50-year-old Rosalio Aguilera-Gamboa and authorities said he was arrested Saturday in Garden City, Kansas along with his cousin Maria Guadalupe Nevarez Aguilera.
Valencia County officials said Aguilera-Gamboa is facing multiple charges including an open count of murder and tampering with evidence.
Sheriff's officials didn't not disclose any information about Nevarez Aguilera's arrest or what charges she could be facing during Monday's news conference.
But they said Aguilera-Gamboa and his cousin would be extradited to New Mexico as soon as possible.
It was unclear Monday if the two suspects had lawyers yet who could speak on their behalf.
Police: 4 randomly stabbed in Albuquerque, suspect arrested - Associated Press
Police on Monday released the name of a suspect who has been arrested after allegedly stabbing and wounding four people in Albuquerque in apparent random acts.
Albuquerque police said 33-year-old Leroy Lopez is facing several counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
It wasn't immediately clear Monday if Lopez has a lawyer yet who can speak on his behalf.
His initial court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Police said Lopez was taken into custody Sunday and was identified by his distinctive pork pie hat.
They said the suspect also was in possession of a kitchen knife with a serrated blade that apparently was used in the four stabbings.
One of the wounded was a 16-year-old boy, but police said all four victims were being treated at hospitals and expected to survive.
Police said three of the stabbings occurred in downtown Albuquerque and it appears the suspect took a city bus to get to the scene of the fourth stabbing.
Investigators were reviewing footage from video cameras inside city buses as they gather more evidence in the case.
US officials: Border crossings soar among Venezuelans - By Elliot Spagat Associated Press
The number of Venezuelans taken into custody at the U.S. border with Mexico soared in August, while fewer migrants from Mexico and some Central American countries were stopped, officials said Monday.
Venezuelans surpassed Guatemalans and Hondurans to become the second-largest nationality after Mexicans among migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally. U.S. authorities stopped Venezuelans 25,349 times in August, up 43% from 17,652 times in July and four times the 6,301 stops recorded in August 2021.
At the same time, it was the third straight month that fewer immigrants from Mexico and Central America's Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Those nationalities have dominated the mix for decades.
Overall, U.S. authorities stopped migrants 203,598 times in August, up 1.8% from 199,976 times in July but down 4.7% from 213,593 times in August 2021.
Authorities stopped migrants 2.15 million times from October through August, the first time that measure topped 2 million during the government's fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. It was a 39% increase from 1.54 million stops the same period a year earlier.
Border crossings have been fueled partly by repeat crossers because there are no legal consequences for getting expelled under a pandemic-era rule that denies a right to seek asylum. Even so, the numbers are extraordinarily high.
Migration from Cuba and Nicaragua remained high, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Cubans were stopped 19,057 times in August, down from 20,096 times in July but up from 4,496 in August 2021. Nicaraguans were stopped 11,742 times, down from 12,075 in July but up from 9,979 in August 2021.
It's the latest sign of rapidly changing migration flows as U.S. authorities wrestle with unusually large influxes overall.
While no single reason can be pinpointed, it is extremely challenging for the U.S. to expel migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba under the pandemic rule known as Title 42, which U.S. officials invoke to deny people a chance at seeking asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. U.S. relations with all three countries are strained, making it difficult to send them home.
"Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest U.S. border," said Chris Magnus, commissioner of CBP, which oversees the Border Patrol.
Mexico accepts migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, in addition to Mexico. While the pandemic rule applies to all nationalities in theory, people from those four countries are most affected.
The Biden administration is leaning on other countries in the Americas to absorb more people fleeing their homes.
About 6.8 million Venezuelans have left their homeland since an economic crisis took hold in earnest in 2014 for the country of 28 million people. Most have gone to nearby nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, including more than 2.4 million who are in neighboring Colombia.
Venezuelan migration to the U.S. plummeted early this year after Mexico introduced restrictions on air travel but has increased in recent months as more come over land through the notoriously dangerous Darien Gap in Panama.
Nearly 7 of every 10 stops of Venezuelans crossing illegally during August occurred in the Border Patrol's Del Rio, Texas, sector, making it the busiest of the agency's nine sectors on the Mexican border. Migrants were stopped more than 52,000 times in the Del Rio sector, many of them around the city of Eagle Pass, with El Paso, Texas, a distant second with about 29,000 stops.
The trend of more Venezuelans is reflected in daily headlines. Roughly 50 migrants that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard were all Venezuelan, as were five of the six people whom U.S. authorities found drowned in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass in early September. The sixth was from Nicaragua.
Title 42 encourages repeat attempts because there are no legal consequences for getting caught. In August, 157,921 migrants crossed at least once, with 55,333 from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua and 56,979 from Mexico or the Northern Triangle countries.
Dwindling Colorado River Basin key to New Mexico agriculture - By Scott Wyland Santa Fe New Mexican
Glen Duggins, who grows chile, alfalfa and vegetables, found himself praying for rain in June and feeling grateful to receive some water from the Colorado River Basin.
A La Nina weather pattern had caused an exceptionally dry winter and spring, depleting the Rio Grande, the main water source for farmers to irrigate about 60,000 acres in this area of New Mexico.
The water that carried them through the last arid weeks before the rains came was diverted from the Colorado River Basin through a federal system of tunnels and dams known as the San Juan-Chama Project. This water merges with the Rio Grande to augment regional supply.
"It got us through the hump and got us into monsoon season," said Duggins, who owns a 400-acre farm in Lemitar, a hamlet in the Middle Rio Grande Valley.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a collaborative series on the Colorado River as the 100th anniversary of the historic Colorado River Compact approaches. The Associated Press, The Colorado Sun, The Albuquerque Journal, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Arizona Daily Star, The Nevada Independent and The Santa Fe New Mexican are working together to explore the pressures on the river in 2022.
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San Juan-Chama accounts for the bulk of the water New Mexico gets from the Colorado River Basin. There are some historic users such as Navajo Nation farmers diverting water separately from the federal system.
Although the basin provides only about 10% of New Mexico's total water supplies, how this water is used is essential, causing concerns about how climate change and increased demand are diminishing the Colorado River and prompting calls for the seven states within the basin to further reduce consumption.
New Mexico taps 4 million acre feet of water yearly, half from various rivers and half from the ground — with about 400,000-acre feet of surface water coming from the basin, said Rolf Schmidt-Peterson, Interstate Stream Commission director.
An acre foot is about 326,000 gallons, enough to supply two or three households in a year.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation allocates San Juan-Chama water every year to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, middle valley irrigators and three Native users — Jicarilla Apache Nation, Taos Pueblo and Ohkay Owingeh.
New Mexico is one of four states in the upper basin and is allotted 11.25 percent of the available water per year within this group under a 1948 agreement.
New Mexico is required to send a certain amount of water downstream mostly in the San Juan River, which flows to the Navajo Reservoir and eventually into Lake Powell. The Reclamation Bureau diverts the leftover water upstream to cover New Mexico's allotment.
The state's share is unchanging despite increasing demand.
A pipeline is now being installed called the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project. Slated to be completed in three years, it will divert about 37,000 acre feet from the San Juan to provide drinking water to parts of the Navajo and Jicarilla nations as well as Gallup.
At the same, the Pojoaque regional water system is being built that will supply 4,000 acre feet of San Juan-Chama water to four Native pueblos by the end of the decade.
As of August, New Mexico users have received little more than half of their maximum allocation. Reductions are evenly shared, so one user doesn't receive a higher percentage than another.
In the past decade, as the drought has dragged on, the bureau has only made a full allocation in the relatively wet years of 2013, 2017 and 2019. The trend is likely to continue as the climate grows warmer and drier, reducing snowpacks, increasing evaporation and parching soils that absorb runoff.
"Aridification will likely reduce inflow to the San Juan-Chama Project," said Carolyn Donnelly, the bureau's water operations supervisor. "This year we saw much higher rain inflow to the project, but it did not make up for lower than average snowpack."
The head of the regional irrigation district said although this water is a small part of what middle valley farmers use, it's crucial in dry periods during the growing season such as earlier this summer.
"We used every bit of that San Juan-Chama water before the rains happened," said Jason Casuga, CEO and chief engineer for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.
Receiving increasingly less of the water is a troublesome trend, Casuga said. Being shorted on the water can cause problems later in the season if the rains dissipate because there's no reserve to draw from, Casuga said.
Schmidt-Petersen said as haggling over Colorado River water continues, especially between states in the upper and lower basins, the priority is to be civil in finding strategies for ensuring future water supply for everyone.
"We recognize that there are differences within the basin, and as the strain on the supply increases, tensions rise and cooperation becomes even more challenging," Schmidt-Petersen said. "We are committed to protecting New Mexico's water supply while fulfilling compliance with interstate compacts and the law of the river generally."
Both Santa Fe and Albuquerque built treatment plants more than a decade ago to divert San Juan-Chama water from the Rio Grande and ease the strain on their wells — and now the cities have both river and groundwater to draw from, said Reed Benson, water law professor at University of New Mexico.
Both cities have made efforts to conserve water, with per-capita use decreasing as their populations have grown, Benson said. Albuquerque has established programs such as paying residents to remove their grass lawns, he said.
Schmidt-Petersen sees a similar trend among irrigators: the overall water use has gone down even as the number of farmers has risen.
The upper basin states have submitted a five-point water-saving plan to the bureau to help meet officials' demand for reduced consumption. It's not clear how much more water the upper basin states, including New Mexico, can give up, he said.
"A lot more? Probably not," he said. "But we'll try to do our part."