Experts alarmed by GOP secretary of state candidate’s conspiracy theorizing in NM – By Andrew Beale, Source New Mexico
Audrey Trujillo, the Republican candidate for New Mexico Secretary of State, appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast in June to explain why she’s convinced former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
“Somebody asked me, ‘How do you know Trump won New Mexico?’ and I’m like, ‘We didn’t see Biden signs anywhere,’ ” Trujillo told Bannon, podcast host and former Trump adviser, who is awaiting sentencing on a federal conviction for contempt of Congress and separately facing charges of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy in New York State.
“We saw Trump signs,” Trujillo said. “We saw huge convoys. We had so many people that were so excited to see Trump continue in his presidency.”
Trujillo has embraced a wide range of conspiracy theories, including that President Joe Biden has been replaced by a clone and that school shootings are carried out by a shadowy “deep state” in order to push gun control on the American public. Last year, her social media account shared an antisemitic meme insinuating a Jewish conspiracy to push COVID-19 vaccines on the public. She told the Albuquerque Journal her account was hacked before switching gears and claiming she may have shared the image but didn’t have any “racist intent.”
She’s also a regular guest on the conspiracy podcast “Spoken Words in New Mexico,” telling host Jordilynn Ortiz in August that legalized abortion is a plot against Black and Hispanic communities.
“Look at the people who support BLM. They’re the same people that support abortion,” Trujillo said. “And they don’t realize, the whole point of those Planned Parenthoods was to put ‘em in those areas where we had the Black population, where we had, you know, Hispanics. To kill our babies!”
Only 6% of Planned Parenthoods are located in majority-Black areas, and abortion bans disproportionately harm people of color, according to doctors, researchers and advocates.
Despite her numerous false claims, 33% of voters in New Mexico say they would cast their ballots for her, according to recent polling by the Albuquerque Journal. Still, she trails incumbent Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver by a wide margin, with 45% of likely voters favoring Toulouse Oliver. Trujillo is also far behind on fundraising, with only $63,852 in her campaign coffers compared to $466,231 raised by Toulouse Oliver.
Despite the seemingly long election odds, Trujillo has gained a measure of national influence through her prolific use of social media and alliance with major far-right figures like Bannon. She is a member of a national alliance of election-denying candidates vying to become their state’s top elections administrator called the “America First SOS Coalition.” She’s slated to appear at the Ruidoso Convention Center on Oct. 7 along with major national conspiracy figures Mike Lindell, Joe Oltmann and Seth Keshel.
Trujillo ran unopposed in the N.M. primary for the party nomination, but very little of her campaign’s financial support has come from Republican Party PACs, with only $2,700 total PAC contributions to Trujillo over the course of the election cycle.
Mike Curtis, communications director for the Republican Party of New Mexico, declined to answer questions about the party’s support for Trujillo, responding only that Source New Mexico should direct questions to Trujillo’s campaign. A recent email flyer circulated by the party advertised a meet-and-greet with Trujillo in Mesilla, though the flyer noted Trujillo’s own campaign was paying for the event. Audrey Trujillo, the Republican candidate for New Mexico Secretary of State, appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast in June to explain why she’s convinced former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
“Somebody asked me, ‘How do you know Trump won New Mexico?’ and I’m like, ‘We didn’t see Biden signs anywhere,’ ” Trujillo told Bannon, podcast host and former Trump adviser, who is awaiting sentencing on a federal conviction for contempt of Congress and separately facing charges of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy in New York State.
“We saw Trump signs,” Trujillo said. “We saw huge convoys. We had so many people that were so excited to see Trump continue in his presidency.”
Trujillo has embraced a wide range of conspiracy theories, including that President Joe Biden has been replaced by a clone and that school shootings are carried out by a shadowy “deep state” in order to push gun control on the American public. Last year, her social media account shared an antisemitic meme insinuating a Jewish conspiracy to push COVID-19 vaccines on the public. She told the Albuquerque Journal her account was hacked before switching gears and claiming she may have shared the image but didn’t have any “racist intent.”
She’s also a regular guest on the conspiracy podcast “Spoken Words in New Mexico,” telling host Jordilynn Ortiz in August that legalized abortion is a plot against Black and Hispanic communities.
“Look at the people who support BLM. They’re the same people that support abortion,” Trujillo said. “And they don’t realize, the whole point of those Planned Parenthoods was to put ‘em in those areas where we had the Black population, where we had, you know, Hispanics. To kill our babies!”
Only 6% of Planned Parenthoods are located in majority-Black areas, and abortion bans disproportionately harm people of color, according to doctors, researchers and advocates.
Despite her numerous false claims, 33% of voters in New Mexico say they would cast their ballots for her, according to recent polling by the Albuquerque Journal. Still, she trails incumbent Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver by a wide margin, with 45% of likely voters favoring Toulouse Oliver. Trujillo is also far behind on fundraising, with only $63,852 in her campaign coffers compared to $466,231 raised by Toulouse Oliver.
Despite the seemingly long election odds, Trujillo has gained a measure of national influence through her prolific use of social media and alliance with major far-right figures like Bannon. She is a member of a national alliance of election-denying candidates vying to become their state’s top elections administrator called the “America First SOS Coalition.” She’s slated to appear at the Ruidoso Convention Center on Oct. 7 along with major national conspiracy figures Mike Lindell, Joe Oltmann and Seth Keshel.
Trujillo ran unopposed in the N.M. primary for the party nomination, but very little of her campaign’s financial support has come from Republican Party PACs, with only $2,700 total PAC contributions to Trujillo over the course of the election cycle.
Mike Curtis, communications director for the Republican Party of New Mexico, declined to answer questions about the party’s support for Trujillo, responding only that Source New Mexico should direct questions to Trujillo’s campaign. A recent email flyer circulated by the party advertised a meet-and-greet with Trujillo in Mesilla, though the flyer noted Trujillo’s own campaign was paying for the event.
According to Bret Schafer of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a nonpartisan think tank that works to combat authoritarian attacks on democracies worldwide, Trujillo consistently ranks among the top three most influential Secretary of State candidates on social media nationwide. The group maintains a tool, the Midterm Monitor, for tracking political candidates’ reactions and follows on various social media platforms.
Schafer said it’s impossible to tell whether the reactions to Trujillo’s social media are driven by supporters, opponents or simply by “morbid curiosity.”
“I guess if you’re taking the glass-half-empty approach, it would be that there is significant public interest in the platforms of election deniers,” he said. “If you were taking a more optimistic view, it would be that this is also on the radar of the public in general to push back.”
Schafer said secretary of state positions are among the most critical elected offices, since the winner gains direct influence over the voting process.
“Being an election denier inherently suggests that you are partisan in your leanings and have at least engaged with, on some level, conspiracy theories,” he said. “And this is not just a problem of narrative. You’re seeing in some cases that decisions are being made, laws are being changed.”
Schafer pointed to the example of Nye County, Nevada, where the county commission voted to hand count all ballots, using debunked conspiracy theories about voting machines as a rationale. Republican Nye County Clerk Sandra Merlino warned commissioners that hand counting is less accurate than machine tabulators and risks introducing confusion into the process, before resigning in frustration after the commission ignored her warnings.
David Armiak, of the progressive watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, warned of the dangers of electing conspiracy theorists in even starker terms.
“We’re in deep trouble for democracy, because if this group comes in power, they could potentially be in power continuously” by changing election rules to ensure their own re-election, he said. “So that’s moving us towards authoritarianism or fascism.”
Rachel Orey, associate director of the Elections Project at Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the two major risks of election deniers taking secretary of state positions are that they could potentially disrupt election processes, and that they could undermine public confidence in elections.
“When you have the spokespeople for elections in a state not believing the results of the election… it’s going to further the fracturing of the American public,” she said. “I could absolutely see another Jan. 6 happening at the state level. I hope that does not come to fruition, but it is on the table.”
Trujillo has been endorsed by David and Erin Clements, who have played a major role in sowing discord and disrupting elections in New Mexico, and were named by NPR as some of the most influential election deniers in the country. David Clements claimed to have met with Trujillo in July, and Trujillo has repeatedly shared posts by the Clements on social media.
David and Erin Clements were the masterminds behind a statewide push for county commissions to refuse certification of the June 7 primary elections. Commissioners in at least three counties acting on the Clements’ advice voted against certification, though all counties eventually certified the results. Trujillo posted a message to Facebook days after the election urging county commissioners to vote against certification. In Otero County, the New Mexico Supreme Court had to step in and order the commission to certify the elections.
Trujillo did not respond to emailed requests for comment for this story. David and Erin Clements declined to comment.
Alex Curtas, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office in New Mexico, said he thinks it’s unlikely that election deniers could cause a total breakdown in the state’s electoral system.
“I think our laws, the institutions we have, are really good. And I think they would still hold up, and the way they’re structured would resist even an election denier being in the Secretary of State’s Office,” he said.
Still, he said, a conspiracy theorist taking the reins could cause a lot of damage. He pointed to the example of the Otero County commission’s refusal to certify the primary election results.
“We mobilized very quickly to give as much information as we could to the Otero County clerk, the Otero County attorney… and we had to then take them to court to make sure the Otero County Commission acting as the election board didn’t disenfranchise something like 8,000 voters,” he said. “That scenario… with someone like Audrey Trujillo as Secretary of State would have played out quite different.”
Officers charged in 2019 death of MDC inmate Villela found not guilty - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
The prison guards charged in the 2019 death of Vicente Villela, an inmate at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, have been found not guilty.
The Albuquerque Journal reports 35-year-old Jonathan Sandoval and his supervisor, 46-year-old Lt. Keith Brandon, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Villela died after Sandoval and other MDC corrections officers held him down in a cell. The incident was caught on tape, which played throughout the trial.
Prosecutors told the jury that Brandon ordered Sandoval to press his knee into Villela’s back, causing his death, and that the officers ignored Villela’s pleas of not being able to breath.
The defense argued that the evidence presented to the jury did not show that the guards’ actions directly resulted in Villela’s death.
Rep. Herrell on why she voted against the measure that contained billions for northern NM fire victims - Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
President Joe Biden signed a stopgap spending bill that includes $2.5 billion for disaster relief in the New Mexico communities affected by the Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon Fire.
Friday brought a moment of celebration for New Mexico’s congressional delegation. Significant federal funding will start making its way to New Mexico to remedy damage done by the nation’s largest wildfire that burned for months after being lit by the U.S. Forest Service.
Rep. Yvette Herrell stood alone in the state delegation, opposing the bill and siding with her Republican colleagues. The congressional representative from southern New Mexico cast a “nay” vote against the measure meant to keep the U.S. government functioning for a few weeks. Despite her vote, she celebrated the funding for New Mexico fire victims in a statement sent to Source NM.
“I am proud to have worked across the aisle with my colleagues to compensate people hurt by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire caused by the Forest Service, and I am glad that this compensation is included in the continuing resolution today,” she said.
Herrell did publicly support the disaster relief but has not explicitly stated what she did to help negotiate the funding.
Herrell took the party line arguing against the very premise of the measure, saying Democratic leadership — Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) — made the bill, “another government spending spree during a time of record inflation.”
According to the Consumer Price Index, inflation has increased more than 7% since 2013. The 8.3% inflation rate is the highest since 1981 when Ronald Regan became president but still substantially lower than the record 19.5% inflation rate set in 1920.
She said she didn’t like that the bill was fast-tracked, pointing out that it will only fund the government until the next budget vote happens after the General Election in November.
Herrell did not respond to questions about safeguards for how the money is distributed or whether she would support future additional aid for northern New Mexico down the line.
New Mexico AG wants state's anti-corruption law strengthened - Associated Press
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas is calling on lawmakers to strengthen the state's anti-corruption law.
A recent ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of criminal charges against four defendants, and Balderas told the Albuquerque Journal that the court "took away from citizens a very necessary tool to prosecute public officials who use their public office for their own personal gain."
The case dealt with the dismissal of ethics charges against a series of former public officials, including a former Doña Ana County treasurer, an ex-district attorney and a former taxation and revenue official.
The Journal reported that the state Supreme Court's unanimous opinion centered on the enforcement of three provisions in the Governmental Conduct Act — subsections that direct officials to treat their positions as a public trust, conduct themselves in a way that justifies the confidence placed in them by the people and disclose conflicts of interest.
The high court ruled the sections were never intended by legislators to be enforced as criminal statutes and the language doesn't "spell out what act or omission is required for its violation and does not establish criminal elements that could inform clear jury instructions."
The state Legislature is set to open a 60-day session in January when lawmakers may take up legislation revising ethics laws and other statutes, according to the Journal.
Balderas, a Democrat whose term ends this year, told the newspaper that he's urging lawmakers to work with the ethics agency to "strengthen these laws in order to build public trust with our community which has grown skeptical and tired of corruption."
Tribal tourism grants aim to help businesses hurt during the pandemic - Shondiin Silversmith, Az Mirror
Tribal nations looking to improve or develop tribal tourism businesses within their communities have a chance to get some support through the Tribal Tourism Grant Program.
The grant is funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Economic Development Program, and it supports the development of new tribal tourism businesses as well as helping existing tourism businesses recover from the pandemic.
“Tourism is a vital part of many Tribal economies, providing jobs and bringing resources to Tribal communities,” Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland said in a press release.
The Tribal Tourism Grant Program strives to help tribal economic development and fulfill the mission of the NATIVE Act. The program works toward this goal by supplying funding for tribes to complete feasibility studies that will help them with possible tourism projects.
The NATIVE Act was signed into law in 2016 in order “to enhance and integrate Native American tourism, empower Native American communities, increase coordination and collaboration between Federal tourism assets, and expand heritage and cultural tourism opportunities in the United States.”
“The Tribal Tourism Grant Program is one way we are investing in Indian Country to promote economic opportunities in and near Tribal communities to make sure that people have the opportunity to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives in their Tribal communities,” Newland said.
The Tribal Tourism Grant Program also supplies funding for tribal nations to develop a business plan for tourism feasibility studies that are already completed. Tribal tourism businesses that are recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic can apply for the grant, and the program may fund their business plans.
The Office of the Indian Economic Development is looking to award between 20 and 35 grants through the Tribal Tourism Grant Program. In 2021, the program awarded 18 grants.
The grants range in value from $25,000 to $150,000, and are intended to allow tribes and tribal organizations to hire consultants, perform feasibility studies and develop business plans of proposed tourism projects.
Tribes and tribal organizations can only submit one application, and each application will go through a competitive evaluation process.
The Office of the Indian Economic Development review committee will evaluate the grant applications against five criterias: The Project’s Economic Benefits; Project Deliverables; Feasibility Process and Analysis; Costs of Proposal; and Specificity.
Applications for the grant will be accepted until Oct. 24, and for more information about the Tribal Tourism Grant Program visit the Office of Indian Economic Development website.
Growth in licensed products gives NMSU athletics an assist - By Algernon D'ammassa Las Cruces Sun-News
Pete's Most Wanted Salsa, a new product bearing the image of New Mexico State University mascot Pistol Pete, celebrated its launch Wednesday with a party at La Posta de Mesilla; and the university says more branded products will soon be joining a growing family of licensed NMSU merchandise.
"There's a realm of possibilities out there, and as long as it's a good quality product, I don't see why this thing won't keep expanding," NMSU athletics director Mario Moccia said in an interview.
Sales of NMSU-licensed beer, wine and whiskey are reportedly robust.
Precise data was unavailable, but non-apparel licensed products — including the alcoholic products but also its other consumable and non-consumable items such as lawn chairs and tents — totaled approximately $116,700 in the last fiscal year.
And the university's licensing company stated in a recent report that NMSU ranked second among college institutions with licensed alcoholic products, including the first collegiate-branded spirit, Pistol Pete's Six Shooter Rye Whiskey. Moreover, NMSU ranked fifth in sales of consumable licensed products among colleges and universities.
Those rankings were reported by the Collegiate Licensing Company/Learfield Licensing Partners, which licenses university-branded products, but the company declined to state which schools were top ranked in either category, NMSU spokesperson Justin Bannister said.
The department made its first venture beyond NMSU-branded sweatshirts and other apparel and gift items into consumables in 2017, with the introduction of Pistol Pete's 1888 Ale by Bosque Brewery. At the time, NMSU was an early entrant into the marketplace of college-branded beer.
Since then, Aggie Athletics has introduced the Crimson Legacy Wine, a cabernet from the Lescombes Family Vineyards, followed by the rye whiskey produced by Dry Point Distillers.
That's music to Moccia's ears. As long as the licensed products deliver a consistent stream of revenue, he said it will support higher budgets for sports and benefit student athletes.
"It doesn't go to coaches' salaries, it doesn't go into one specific sport," he said. "It doesn't go to build buildings or fix air conditioners or whatever. It just goes to sports budgets."
Other consumables bearing NMSU's brand include the "A" Mountain Roast Coffee (a product of Estas Manos Coffee Roasters) and Pistol Pete's "Smell of Victory" candle by Kreative Candle Co. There is also a line of bottled "Wobble on Water."
The new salsa, manufactured by Young Guns Chile in Hatch, uses Hatch green chiles in its recipe and was selected by the department following a taste-test competition.
"This isn't making millions," he said, "but six figures, to me, is significant."
Besides supporting athletics, Moccia said the products help connect the university with alumni through online sales and collaborations with local businesses, some of which are owned or led by graduates. The bottled water features a label designed by an alumna as well.
"The linchpin is that it has to be a good product," he continued. "That's why it's been sustainable. We're not just slapping our logo on anything. We want to make sure it's good quality so people will want to buy it, and not just for the novelty."
The partnerships also seem to work well for the companies that produce and package the products for market.
Lescombes Family Vineyards reported that since the Crimson Legacy wine launched in the fall of 2020, nearly 10,700 bottles have sold.
Dry Point Distillers is planning a celebration marking 10,000 sales of the bottled 6-Shooter Rye Whiskey. Founder Chris Schaefer said the whiskey is a "top moving product in my line," sold in more than 170 locations statewide.
"This has been a big player in the pandemic/post-pandemic success of my business," he continued, "and overall has increased the consumer visibility of my whole product line, not to mention over $35,000 in profit-sharing that has gone directly to Aggie Athletics."
US shift away from coal hits tribal community in New Mexico - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
The clamor of second graders breaking away from lessons to form lunch lines has gotten quieter in a rural New Mexico community, where families losing coal jobs have been forced to pack up and leave in search of work.
At Judy Nelson Elementary, 1 in 4 students have left in an exodus spurred by decisions made five years ago to shutter a coal-fired power plant and mine that sit just up the road from the school in a largely Navajo community. The plant and mine had provided electricity to millions of people across the southwestern U.S. for nearly a half-century.
The San Juan Generating Station burned its last bit of coal Thursday. The remaining workers will spend the coming weeks draining water from the plant, removing chemicals and preparing to tear down what has long been fixture on the high-desert horizon.
It's part of the latest wave of coal-burning units to be retired as New Mexico and other states try to fight climate change by requiring more carbon-free sources of electricity. President Joe Biden also has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
Just weeks ago, Hawaii's last coal-fired power plant closed after 30 years, and more retirements are scheduled around the U.S. over the next decade.
Realities of shuttering the San Juan plant are setting in for surrounding communities, including the Navajo Nation, where poverty and joblessness already are exponentially higher than national averages. Hundreds of jobs are evaporating along with tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue used to fund schools and a community college.
"A lot of the Native American families have multi-generations living in the home so it doesn't just affect the husband and wife. It affects their children and their grandchildren," said Arleen Franklin, who teaches second grade at Judy Nelson. Her husband purchases equipment for a coal mine that feeds another power plant scheduled to close in 2031.
Denise Pierro, a reading teacher at Judy Nelson, said it's stressful for parents to see a steady income erased. Pierro's husband, who served as the general manager of the mine for the San Juan plant, is among those forced into early retirement.
"They've taken the rug out from underneath our feet," she said.
Area power plants, mines and associated businesses represent 80% of property tax revenues that fund the Central Consolidated School District, which spans an area the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Almost 93% of the students are Navajo.
It's rural and remote. Some students ride a school bus for three hours round trip, arriving home well after sunset. Internet service is spotty or nonexistent, and many homes don't have electricity or indoor plumbing. The poverty rate within the district is four times the national level. The median annual household income is about $20,000, and the unemployment rate hovers around 70%.
New Mexico's Democratic leaders have celebrated the plant's closure while touting a landmark 2019 law that pushes for a renewable energy economy. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is running for reelection, has said the law represented a promise to future generations for a cleaner environment and new job opportunities.
Environmentalists have said the closure will reduce air and water pollution in a region that some have described as an industrial sacrifice zone. They argue that power plant emissions and methane from the oilfields have caused health problems for residents.
Joe Ramone, a 69-year-old pipe welder who worked at San Juan, lives in a Navajo community not far from the Four Corners plant. When the wind blows just right, he said his community is hit with ash and coal dust.
Still, he said his priority is making sure Navajos have work.
"I don't want to see anybody unemployed and I am in no way in favor of these companies being shut down. But there's room for improvement," he said, suggesting more investments could have been made.
The loss of the San Juan plant and the mine ripple through every facet of life, from fewer lunch orders at Kirtland's café to a dwindling ash supply for concrete manufacturers. Meanwhile, prices have skyrocketed for everything from the Navajo staple of mutton to the woven baskets and other materials needed for healing ceremonies.
Public Service Co. of New Mexico, which runs the plant, is providing $11 million in severance packages to help about 200 displaced workers. About 240 mine workers are getting severance payments worth $9 million. Another $3 million went to job training.
A state fund established by the energy law also includes $12 million for affected workers.
Solar and battery storage projects are meant to eventually replace the capacity lost with San Juan's shutdown and provide jobs during construction. But some of those projects have been delayed due to supply chain problems, and others are on hold indefinitely amid historic inflation and other economic constraints.
Fresh off a night shift as an electrician at the mine for the neighboring Four Corners Power Plant, Christine Aspaas, a Central Consolidated School Board member, said even if those "green" jobs existed now, they would be temporary. And to make up for lost property tax revenue, she said, some families will have to pay up to seven times more.
It's been heartbreaking for so many Navajos to consider leaving home, Aspaas said.
"That's what others don't understand," she said. "There's culture, there's traditions, and so it's not easy."
Sharon Clahchischilliage, once a teacher and a former New Mexico lawmaker, said people in her Navajo community near Shiprock are angry.
"One of them told me, 'I don't know who to be angry at for us having to do this. We don't have a family anymore,'" she said, referring to bonds broken as Navajos search for jobs elsewhere.
In the final days, the plant's spinning turbine sent vibrations through layers of concrete and passing work boots. Heat emanated from the boilers below.
In the dim control room, workers monitored screens displaying temperatures, pressure, turbine speeds and pollution control systems. Allen Palmer, 70, spent over half his life working his way up the ranks.
"I hate to see it close," he said.
Workers knew for years that the plant would be shuttered. It became more real as coal piles shrank each day — until there was nothing left. As the finish line approached, the company served workers green chile cheeseburgers as a morale booster alongside a big projection screen that read: "Thank you to all employees at San Juan for your years of dedicated service!"
The last few dozen employees will be laid off over the coming weeks. Some were ready to retire; in June, there were voluntary layoffs when the first of the last two generating units closed.
"There's lots of us who have worked 20-plus years and we all know each other and it's our family," said plant director Rodney Warner, who will oversee the decommissioning. "It's who we are."
December would have marked 10 years at the plant for Steven Sorrow, 32. He and his coworkers know there's a good chance they will have to uproot and possibly enter other fields. Some will head to Wyoming, Colorado or Utah, where there are other plants and mines.
"It's going to be an adjustment for sure," he said. "I feel like I've tried to prepare over the five years when they told us what we had left. Hopefully I've prepared well enough."
Aspaas said officials need to find ways to keep the workforce in New Mexico. She said the foundation of economic development is education but without economic development, education suffers.
"This whole transition, everything that's happening, the closures, that's what is threatening our ability to keep funding education," she said. "When you go down to what it impacts, it is the education of our people, of the Navajo people, our students."