Big law firms circle burn scar to get some of $2.5 billion NM fire payout — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Now that a huge compensation program is on its way to the burn scar of the biggest fire in state history, private law firms are increasing efforts to convince victims that they need a lawyer to get a piece of the $2.5 billion pie.
But attorneys with New Mexico Legal Aid say Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire victims should think twice about signing any contract with a law firm. Also, New Mexican members of Congress who wrote the legislation say the law’s intent was that fire victims should be able to get money they deserve without the help of a lawyer.
“We are asking (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to provide technical assistance, and something akin to navigators, so that survivors can receive compensation without the need for attorneys,” U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) said. “I will continue to push FEMA to make sure the claims process under my legislation is as straightforward as possible.”
In April, a botched prescribed burn ignited by the United States Forest Service north of Las Vegas, N.M. escaped and, combined with another errant prescribed burn, scorched more than 530 square miles of forest and farmland, destroyed more than 500 homes and ushered in deadly flooding and watershed damage.
Just weeks after the fire started, advertisements appeared on Google and Facebook seeking clients who suffered damages, according to a review of Google and Facebook ad libraries. Several of the firms are from out-of-state but partnered with local firms.
Antonia Roybal-Mack, a lawyer who grew up in Mora and who is also representing fire victims, said she’d never seen anything like the amount of lawyers who swooped in.
In 2000, the last time the federal government botched a prescribed burn in New Mexico and caused billions in damage, there weren’t huge firms like now that specialize in mass tort lawsuits, she said.
“We’ve really never seen this many lawyers come in and capitalize on a disaster like this in New Mexico,” she said. “They do it all over the country all the time, but this is definitely new for New Mexico.”
And what explains it?
“Money,” she said.
In recent weeks, online ad buys have increased. The push for clients comes weeks after Congress passed the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act, which supplies $2.5 billion supposed to fully compensate victims for their losses from the fire, including for burned structures, lost income, flood damage and more.
There is no cap on the amount an individual can receive.
It’s a historic amount of money for a disaster, elected officials have said, and is nearly triple the last time the federal government screwed up a prescribed burn in New Mexico. The $2.5 billion equals about 30% of the entire New Mexico state budget.
Hoping to find clients, law firms have held meet-and-greets in town at restaurants, civic centers and elsewhere. They’ve mailed advertisements to trawl for clients. One law firm pasted a sign on a piece of plywood in Mora’s main drag, calling to “FIRE VICTIMS” in big, red letters and advertising a law clinic and a phone number.
“Your rights to compensation from the federal government will be explained!” it reads.
A 20% cut
Source New Mexico obtained an unsigned contract with a different firm, Singleton & Schreiber from San Diego. It tells would-be clients that they don’t have to pay any money up-front but that the firm would take 25% of any verdict, settlement or damages the client receives at any time.
It also notes that clients who qualify for the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act might also be able to file a lawsuit in district court.
But Leger Fernandez said the act is intended to give FEMA resources necessary to guide fire victims toward compensation without an attorney who takes a cut. The agency now has a little more than a month to set up a system for paying out the money, and that program will include employees whose whole job is to help people file claims.
“We passed this legislation so that survivors would not have to file a lawsuit to receive compensation, but would instead be compensated through an administrative process that a special office in FEMA will administer,” Leger Fernandez said.
She also noted that the act limits the amount of fees attorneys can take from any compensation to 20%, not 25% as those who signed the contract with the San Diego firm.
Gerald Singleton, managing partner at the San Diego firm, told Source New Mexico that the firm will update its contracts – and send letters to those who have already signed contracts – to inform clients that the firm’s fee will be reduced to 20%, now that the act has passed Congress.
Those who file separate lawsuits will still see 25% of their awards go to the law firm, however.
He also defended his firm as highly competent and said that hiring it is necessary to maximize compensation. A person filing by themselves might not know how to document the extent of multiple types of damages, he said. Singleton’s firm will pay for specialized fire and flood experts who can calculate current and even future damages caused by the fire.
“No one has to hire an attorney for this process, just like no one has to hire an attorney to represent them in a court suit,” he said in an email. “However, the vast majority of people will get a great deal more (even after paying a 20% attorney fee) if they hire an attorney than if they attempt to do it on their own.”
He did not respond to a request for comment on how many victims have signed retainers with his firm.
The Singleton-Schreiber contract also states that the firm will place a lien on clients who leave without good cause. The lien would be for any damages the victim receives and for costs the firm had incurred in filing a claim, plus interest.
‘Makes me want to vomit’
Even if victims decide they need a lawyer, there are other options than an out-of-state, for-profit firm, said Edna Sprague, litigation director for New Mexico Legal Aid. For example, Legal Aid will do much or all of the same work as private firms for free, she said, as long as a victim’s household income is less than 200% of the federal poverty line.
For a family of four, that’s $55,500. The median household income for Mora County and San Miguel County are both about $29,000, according to Census figures. So Sprague says the “vast majority” of fire victims will qualify, and the agency is working on finding money to fund legal services for those who earn above the limit.
In addition to being free, she said, New Mexico Legal Aid has local expertise and connections to the community affected.
Private injury firms like the one in San Diego “can really conserve a great function for people,” she said.
“But they can also be predatory. And the idea of having a law firm out of San Diego representing a northern New Mexican who doesn’t have Internet, frankly, makes me want to vomit,” she said.
She recommends anyone affected by the fire call NM Legal Aid for advice, which she said is more trustworthy than a private law firm seeking to earn a profit.
But Legal Aid is having difficulty recruiting clients, said spokesperson Paxton Patrick. Sprague said the organization hasn’t had the same ability to advertise as monied private firms.
And she said a lot of folks might have signed agreements with private law firms early in their first wave of advertisements, when the fire was still burning and FEMA was facing widespread criticism for denying claims and providing minimal financial compensation to those who lost everything.
“There was some real disconnect between what FEMA was trying to do with New Mexico’s disaster legal services program,” Sprague said. “I think that a lot of it had to do with the lack of cultural competence about the landscape of northern New Mexico and what those communities are. And people didn’t want to, or seemingly didn’t want to, put their feet on the ground.”
The amount of time it took for the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act to pass Congress might also have meant more people sought an attorney, Roybal-Mack said.
It took about five months since the fire started for Congress to pass the $2.5 billion fund legislation, which was modeled after the one passed in 2000 in response to the Cerro Grande Fire in Los Alamos.
With that fire, passage took a little more than a month. The Cerro Grande Fire Assistance Act was intended to stave off mass lawsuits and the need for private lawyers. Roybal-Mack, a fire attorney in New Mexico for decades, said it had the desired effect.
But it was different this time around, Roybal-Mack said.
“Until the Act was passed, the only recourse was for people to hire a lawyer and prove liability,” she said.
Is FEMA up to it?
Roybal-Mack said a lot of residents are skeptical about FEMA now and that a law firm like hers is necessary to ensure FEMA pays up, even if members of Congress intend victims to be able to navigate the system themselves.
“People are sick of FEMA, and FEMA is sick of us,” she said. “So we might be in a good place to say, we need some independent investigators, evaluators to help look at this stuff.”
The bill allows for the appointment of an independent manager to evaluate claims, someone like a judge who would be independent from FEMA. The Cerro Grande Fire Assistance Act also had the same provision allowing for an independent manager, though none was appointed. Many of the victims in that fire lived in a subdivision, were wealthy federal employees and were fully insured, which made for a smoother process.
But with the different demographics and complications that presents this time around, Roybal-Mack hopes an independent manager is appointed.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), did not respond to a request for comment about the influx of private law firms into the burn scar.
But he has said he thinks Congress can hold FEMA’s feet to the fire as it builds the compensation program to make sure it is designed to fit New Mexico’s particular needs, including the lack of deeds on many properties and the destroyed acequia system.
“FEMA doesn’t have a challenge spending resources,” he said after the bill passed Congress. “They have a cultural challenge … And they still have a long way to go to prove that they can do that as well as we want them to, but they are also the only game in town.”
Governor voids territorial orders targeting Native Americans - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
New Mexico's governor on Monday voided four pre-statehood proclamations that targeted Native Americans during what was a tumultuous time across the western frontier as federal soldiers tried to defeat Navajos, Apaches and others.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham described the 19th century proclamations by former territorial governors as offensive, saying rescinding the proclamations would help to heal old wounds and strengthen bonds with Native American communities.
"The government of New Mexico has not always respected the importance and sovereignty of our Native American citizens, and our history is sadly stained with cruel mistreatment of Native Americans," Lujan Grisham wrote in an executive order issued on Indigenous Peoples Day.
Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who is running for reelection, pointed to counties within the territory that once offered bounties for scalps of Apache men and women.
Marches, protests and celebrations were held around the U.S. to mark Indigenous Peoples Day. In New Mexico's capital of Santa Fe, people walked with banners aimed at raising awareness about missing and slain Native Americans. Demonstrators left paint splattered on a monument of Kit Carson, who had a role in the death of hundreds of Native Americans during the colonization of the West.
A celebration in Flagstaff, Arizona, focused on youth who talked about how Indigenous people have contributed to the community. A group of Hopi children performed a Corn Dance in front of City Hall.
In New Mexico, the unwinding of the past proclamations was spurred by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' move in 2021 to rescind an 1864 order by one of that state's territorial governors that eventually led to the Sand Creek Massacre, when U.S. troops killed more than 200 Native Americans in one of Colorado's darkest and most fraught historic moments.
A search for similar documents led Valerie Rangel, the city of Santa Fe's appointed historian, to a book of newspaper clippings in the archives of the Huntington Library in California. It represented the most complete collection of New Mexico's territorial proclamations.
Two of the proclamations voided by Lujan Grisham were issued in 1851 by James S. Calhoun, New Mexico's first territorial governor. They directed Native Americans to be excluded from official census counts and authorized militias to "pursue and attack any hostile tribe" that was said to be entering settlements for the purpose of plundering.
Proclamations issued nearly two decades later by Governors Robert B. Mitchell and William A. Pile declared certain tribes as outlaws and authorized New Mexico residents to commit violence against them.
"I started looking at the history surrounding the proclamations — was there an impact, did it really fuel hate?" said Rangel, whose roots include Apache and Navajo.
Through her research, she found several bounties for scalping, with some counties going so far as to pay for newspaper advertisements in states beyond New Mexico to solicit people for the efforts. New Mexico became a U.S. state in January 1912.
Rangel shared her findings with tribal and state officials. She's among those pushing for this part of New Mexico's history to be included in school curriculums.
"I'd like to see more communication with tribes and have them be the source of the history that's being learned," she said.
New Mexico is home to nearly two dozen tribal nations and pueblos, with Native Americans making up more than 12% of the population.
Study shows sharp decline in teacher vacancies in New Mexico — Associated Press
A New Mexico State University study has found that teacher vacancies in the state have dropped significantly over the last year.
NMSU released a report Monday from its Southwest Outreach Academic Research Evaluation & Policy Center showing that the number of empty positions are closer to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
Researchers looked at the number of job openings in every school district in New Mexico and data provided by colleges and universities.
They found 690 teacher vacancies compared to 1,048 last year, a 34% decline.
Rachel Boren, the center's director, says the findings don't diminish the fact that there is still an urgent need for teachers and other support staff. The void is especially felt with teaching special education and elementary education. By subject, the biggest needs are in math, science and English language arts.
The study also counted 1,886 students enrolled in an education preparation program during the 2021-22 academic year. That is an increase compared to 1,596 students enrolled the year prior. The report found 1,027 students finished a program this year.
Officials at NMSU's own teacher education program say having secure, collaborative partnerships helps with ensuring prospective teachers obtain their license.
As pilots age, Albuquerque's ballooning future at crossroads - By Matt Dahlseid Santa Fe New Mexican
Bryce Risley is putting everything he has into documenting and preserving the world-famous culture of Albuquerque ballooning that captivated him as a child.
Risley holds a double master's degree in marine science, but since returning to his home state after graduate school, he's switched his obsession from creatures that live in the water to humans who feel at home in the air.
The 34-year-old balloonist, photographer and social scientist is several months and 60-plus interviews into compiling what he says will be the most comprehensive ethnography of the local ballooning scene ever produced. His goal is to speak to and photograph more than 250 people who make up the fabric of the ballooning community for a book called The Albuquerque Balloonist.
Initial work on what he expects to be a multi-year project has opened Risley's eyes to an aging community facing challenges on multiple fronts that have him concerned for the future of ballooning in the city.
"We're losing ballooning very quickly — quicker than pretty much anybody has ever articulated in the media or on a large public platform," said Risley, who joined his first crew while attending the University of New Mexico.
"There's presently a large cohort, a very large cohort, of balloonists who are going to retire after the 50th Fiesta."
It's difficult to gauge the number of balloonists who will call it quits when this year's Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta ends Sunday, but Risley said he's learned dozens plan to make the milestone event their last hurrah.
Many others likely won't be far behind, he said.
The same people who entered into the novel sport during the early days of Albuquerque ballooning in the 1970s and 1980s remain a dominant fixture today. Risley said their departure will leave a hole he believes will soon become more noticeable.
"It's not a secret that it's a very old community," Risley said, "but it's significant because they're running out of time to replenish their community and grow it up to numbers that we are historically used to."
As local pilots and officials look beyond the 50th anniversary of the iconic event, there's a wide spectrum in the level of concern about the challenges facing the Albuquerque ballooning community.
Preserving existing landing spots for Balloon Fiesta participants and preparing or acquiring new landing sites amid urban development remains an agreed-upon priority, and recruiting new balloonists to replace those that are departing is something most acknowledge as important. But the degree to which such issues may have an impact on Balloon Fiesta and the ballooning community overall is up for debate.
Some people anticipate an upcoming drop in participation in the Fiesta — even saying it could leave the city's title of ballooning capital of the world up for grabs. Others claim calls for alarm are premature and that taking manageable steps will help the city maintain its reign.
"It's not anything to take for granted, obviously, but I don't think it's in danger," said Paul Smith, executive director of the Balloon Fiesta since 1997. "Albuquerque is the balloon capital of the world. … I have not heard of anyone trying to claim our title or even approach our numbers."
Husband and wife pilots Robert and Sally Lupton began their balloon journey in Shawnee, Okla., where they'd known each other since they were 5.
Robert says they "had to be silly and went off to marry other people" but returned to their hometown, got reacquainted, and Sally took Robert for a balloon ride.
Sally had already caught the ballooning bug and mortgaged her car to buy a $10,000 balloon system. "I've always been a little crazy," she said.
Robert then purchased his own balloon, and the two spent years traveling to events and flying together as their love for each other and ballooning grew.
They spent so much time at New Mexico festivals that they decided to move to Albuquerque in 1993. They got married that year in their crew chief's backyard, with Sally holding a bouquet of balloons.
Now both 74, Sally is participating in her 41st fiesta while Robert is in his 35th. It will be their last as pilots.
"We decided it was just time. Everything has gotten so much heavier," Robert said. "The time to prepare is just more difficult for us.
"We're not worried about the flying, but you've still got to pick it up and put it away. If we can't do our share, that's not fair to the crew and everybody else."
They plan on selling their Lady Jester balloon following the Balloon Fiesta. Risley said he knows many other retiring pilots will do the same.
For the Luptons, it's an emotional end to a high-flying chapter of their lives. But the relationships they've built will remain.
"They're the main core of our social life," Sally said of their crew members, many of whom have been with her for 40 years. "They're who we do birthdays with. We've been taking New Year's trips to spend sunrise with some of these people at various locations throughout the world. "Pretty much everything about our life and the jobs that we had and the people we've spent time with has started with ballooning."
Ron Curry, 74, is another balloonist who is planning to make his exit after this year's Fiesta. Since 1980, he's been piloting for KKOB-AM Radio on a handshake agreement.
He's never been paid, but in return, he gets to have the KKOB Radio balloon in his possession at all times. He pays for fuel, the station pays for insurance, and every year he gets about 20 cases of Gruet sparkling wine to entertain riders.
"It's been a very positive, unusual relationship," Curry said.
Curry's successor on the KKOB balloon will be a friend who's in his late 50s.
He said it's easy to see the demographic of the ballooning community getting older and that more young pilots will be needed to fill the void, but he thinks it's an issue that can be overcome with a focused effort.
"The Balloon Federation of America has a young balloonist school that they put on across the nation, and they're always encouraging young pilots to get involved," Curry said. "But it is a concern that has to be addressed, and it has to be promoted."
Robert Lupton said when he attends morning pilot briefings, the majority of pilots he's rubbing shoulders with are over 60.
"That's not just a function of age but a function of cost," he said.
While his wife purchased her first balloon for $10,000, new balloon setups today can cost $40,000 or more. With many already struggling to find affordable housing, he said ballooning is not financially realistic for most young people.
Risley has made his own remote control balloon with a 20-foot envelope to cut down on costs. He flew it during Balloon Fiesta and said more people are getting into the lower-stakes version of the activity.
The future of ballooning is a big deal for Albuquerque, in part because it's big business.
Especially during Balloon Fiesta.
The market research firm Forward Analytics estimated the economic impact of the pre-pandemic 2019 Balloon Fiesta to be $186.82 million.
Scott Appelman is the face of one big balloon business. The longtime pilot is the founder and president of Rainbow Ryders — the largest balloon ride company in the U.S. It's been the official ride provider for Balloon Fiesta since 1999 and has operations in Albuquerque, Phoenix and Colorado Springs.
Appelman said he was 12 when he attended the first Balloon Fiesta. This year marks the 40th time he has flown in the Fiesta.
Following the 50th anniversary event, Appelman expects future Fiestas to decrease in size due to multiple factors, including many pilots aging out and some balloonists shying away from participating due to decreasing landing sites as a result of urban development.
"The majority of pilots out here, they're here on vacation, they're here for fun," Appelman said. "They do feel very welcomed, the community is great and they have a good time with the camaraderie, but you also want to feel comfortable flying.
"It is becoming more and more challenging because of a lack of landing sites across the board in the Albuquerque area."
Rainbow Ryders requires its pilots to have a minimum of 500 hours of flight time. Still, the company's balloons sport huge gondolas that hold 12 to 14 people, which can be more challenging to set down, even for experienced balloonists.
The issue has been so prominent that the city of Albuquerque created a Balloon Fiesta Balloon Landing Task Force in 2018 to generate potential solutions to address the critical need.
Possibly looking to capitalize on the situation, Appelman said representatives from Phoenix have approached him and his company to feel out if their city could put together an event on a Balloon Fiesta scale while offering more open area.
"I'm not saying that that's happening, but those conversations have happened, and they're getting more real by the day," Appelman said. "And we are involved in them."
Appelman said it's been increasingly difficult to hire pilots for his Rainbow Ryders, and fewer are being found among local pilots.
"In Albuquerque, Phoenix and Colorado Springs, to me, I've tapped out all the best pilots I can find," said Appelman, who has 25 pilots at this year's Fiesta.
In addition to the 500 hours of flight time, Rainbow Riders requires its pilots to have second-class medical certification. This isn't a Federal Aviation Administration requirement for commercial balloonists yet, but Appelman and other officials said the organization's proposal could potentially be enacted before next year's Fiesta.
Appelman said the hassle of extra health requirements, forms and medical examinations could convince other aging pilots that it might be time to step away.
While the shrinking number of landing spots in the city is a concern during Balloon Fiesta, vanishing launch sites has been a challenge local pilots have had to face the rest of the year.
The Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association, or Quad A, is the city's ballooning club and is the largest such club in the world at about 600 members. The club is dedicated to providing social and educational opportunities for ballooning in the community.
Peter Cuneo, 71, is vice president of Quad A and has been piloting balloons along with his wife, Barbara Fricke, since the 1980s.
He and Appelman mentioned multiple popular launch sites that have been lost in the last month, including one near Presbyterian Rust Medical Center on Unser Boulevard.
Cuneo said Quad A is in discussions with Rio Rancho Public Schools to possibly use some of its land as launch sites for club activities.
"In the years that I've been ballooning, we have moved farther west and farther north to have our launch sites, and that's just a process that's going to keep happening as Albuquerque continues to develop," Cuneo said.
Risley said the constant moves are having an impact on social groups that are foundational to the ballooning community.
"I've spoken to over 60 balloonists, and I've asked them 'What do you enjoy the most about it?' and the flying is secondary. It's the socialization, the camaraderie of being around each other," Risley said. "This fractioning up and parceling of land and relocating, you can't fit as many balloons into the next site that we might find to go to. So cliques of balloonists or friend groups get split up."
Amid the concerns some balloonists and officials have for the future, this year's Balloon Fiesta still brought in huge crowds and supported about 650 balloons.
The event has had a handful of previous locations prior to landing at its current site at Balloon Fiesta Park in 1996. The multi-use space, with its 86-acre launch field, is one in which the city has heavily invested. Moving again is something most people don't see as viable.
Balloon Fiesta executive director Smith said there has to be a continued commitment from the city and state to making the site work.
"We'll be talking to the Legislature and the governor in the coming months about how to preserve the spot so that Balloon Fiesta can stay in Albuquerque at our current location," Smith said. "There's a huge investment in Balloon Fiesta Park, and we don't want it to have a shelf life; we want it to be able to go on for as long as it can."
The Balloon Landing Task Force last year released a report outlining steps to preserve landing spaces from development and to acquire or transform other sites to facilitate the needs of some 500 to 600 balloons.
"Providing adequate landing sites must involve many tools," said Dave Simon, Albuquerque's parks and recreation director who provides leadership for managing Balloon Fiesta Park and has served on the task force.
The report identified certain locations of various sizes that could be acquired for landing sites. Working with private landowners, such as big-box stores, to retrofit parking areas or open spaces by limiting obstructions like trees or light poles is another option, possibly with the aid of tax credit incentives. Having early dialogue with developers so they can offer more balloon-friendly spaces is another suggestion.
The city added Vista del Norte Park about 4 miles south of Balloon Fiesta Park in 2014 to provide landing space for balloonists, and it's become a popular landing zone that can accommodate about 50 balloons.
At this point, Simon said there isn't a dedicated pot of money the city can draw from to acquire additional land. Most of the recommendations from the task force's report remain in their early stages and are yet to be implemented, he said.
Some balloonists think the city's efforts may be coming too late.
Appelman and Risley said the city should have been doing things like burying power lines and preserving landing spaces many years ago when it realized the importance of ballooning and Balloon Fiesta to the community.
"The response to the lack of landing sites is 15 to 20 years too late, period," Appelman said.
"Just as other cities have placed limitations on their development practices to preserve their cultural assets, Albuquerque has not," Risley added. "I think it will be recognized at some point that this lack of preservation for the cultural asset that is ballooning in Albuquerque will go down as one of the greatest squanderings in the city's history."
In terms of attracting new balloonists, it is pilots and crew members who are often the best ambassadors.
In earlier years, Risley said many pilots have told him that balloonists flying over the city throughout the year would land in residential areas and be able to interact with children and adults, offering rides to draw interest.
Risley said those connections are occurring much less frequently these days with pilots typically sticking to safer routes in less developed areas.
He said the balloon community needs to take itself to the people again, having a presence at public events.
In addition to tackling The Albuquerque Balloonist project full-time, Risley has been networking with other communities to try to get them excited about ballooning. He said having a balloon event associated with Pride Fest is among the early initiatives he's pursuing.
Receiving no pay for his project, Risley said he's been working odd jobs to keep gas in his car while traveling between Santa Fe and Albuquerque to conduct many of his interviews. His plan is to eventually work abroad in his field of study, but for now, he knows his purpose.
"I've convinced myself this is the most important thing I could be doing with my life at this moment," Risley said. "I'm giving back to a community that I cherish and love and am a part of because I have a special skill set based on my education and where I was born. I take that seriously. It's a big responsibility."
Flashlight mistaken for gun in Bernalillo County shooting - Associated Press
Bernalillo County Sheriff's officials say six deputies who fatally fired on a suspect last month mistook his flashlight for a gun.
Chief Deputy Nicholas Huffmyer shared video from the shooting of 45-year-old Colby Atkins during a news conference Monday.
Deputies responded shortly before 1:30 p.m. Sept. 20 to a crash when someone informed them a man was passed out in a car parked at a gas station.
The officers say they surrounded the car and tried to wake Atkins up. He drove away two minutes after being roused, according to police dash camera video.
Authorities say Atkins then ran a red light, hit two cars and drove up on the sidewalk at one point. Huffmyer says the suspect was endangering the public at this point.
According to deputies, Atkins crashed and was stuck. The video shows he got in and out of the car for 10 minutes but ignored commands from law enforcement. Attempts to break the car windows by shooting bean bags failed.
Atkins then appears to point a weapon. In the video one deputy can be heard yelling "he's got a gun." That is when all the deputies shot at him.
Atkins was pronounced dead at the scene. It was also revealed the car was stolen.
It's the third fatal shooting involving Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputies this year.
Meanwhile, a toxicology report on Atkins is pending.
Las Vegas Jewish community buys back synagogue from diocese - Associated Press
A Las Vegas synagogue that is believed to be the first Jewish place of worship in the New Mexico Territory is back in the hands of the Jewish community.
The Albuquerque Journal reported Monday the Las Vegas Jewish Community crowd-sourced enough funds to buy Temple Montfiore last month from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
One of the oldest Catholic dioceses in the United States, it has been forced to sell properties to help pay a settlement agreement that resulted from a clergy sex abuse scandal.
The synagogue was sold to the diocese in the 1950s because there were very few Jewish people in the region. In recent years, the building has been a place of worship for Catholic college students.
When the Las Vegas Jewish Community became aware it was up for sale and that the deadline was in September, they turned to GoFundMe.
The group raised over $300,000 in just a few weeks—more money than they actually needed.
Diana Presser, a board member of the Las Vegas Jewish Community, says it was fitting the sale closed during Rosh Hashana last week.
"I led the services for the first Sabbath of the new year in a building we now own," Presser said.
Mexico files 2nd lawsuit against arms dealers in US - Associated Press
The Mexican government filed another U.S. gun lawsuit Monday, this time against five U.S. gun shops and distributors it claims are responsible for the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico.
Mexico's first lawsuit, which was recently dismissed, targeted U.S. gun manufacturers. The second, which Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said was filed in Arizona's federal district court Monday, targets gun dealers.
"We are suing them because clearly there is a pattern, we contend that it is obvious that there is weapons trafficking and that it is known that these guns are going to our country," Ebrard said.
Ebrard promised last week the new lawsuit would target gun shops or dealers in U.S. border states who sell guns to "straw" purchasers who pass them on to smugglers, who then take the weapons into Mexico.
Mexico is suing for unspecified monetary damages and to demand the gun stores hire independent monitors to ensure that U.S. federal laws are followed in gun purchases.
Alejandro Celorio Alcántara, the legal adviser to Mexico's Foreign Relations Department, said Mexico had chosen "the five worst stores" to name in the lawsuit, including three gun outlets in Tucson, one in Phoenix and one in Yuma, Arizona.
"They are not careful when they sell products, so they allow straw purchasers to buy guns," said Celorio Alcántara, adding they sold multiple guns, multiple times to some purchasers. "We are saying they are negligent and facilitate straw purchasers, to the point of being accomplices."
He claimed that U.S. criminal investigations had traced weapons purchases back to the stores, and said there was evidence that the shops had not filed required information on some purchases.
"The main argument of our lawsuit is that these businesses are an organized part of a criminal enterprise, a mechanism, to facilitate criminals and cartels in Mexico being able to use their weapons," said Celorio Alcántara.
He said the first hearing on the suit might not come until the summer.
Ebrard said about 60% of the weapons seized in Mexico in recent years were believed to have been sold in 10 U.S. counties, mostly along the border. Mexico has very strict restrictions on weapon possession, but drug cartel violence has cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the country in recent years.
"We are going to show that many of these outlets where they sell these products in these counties I mentioned, are dealing with straw purchasers, and criminal charges have to be brought," Ebrard said last week in an appearance before the Mexican Senate.
A recently enacted U.S. law defines straw purchasing as a crime, and sets out sentences of as much as 15 to 25 years if the offense is related to drug trafficking.
Celorio Alcántara said that was a key difference between this and Mexico's earlier lawsuit: in the Arizona suit, Mexico is arguing a violation of U.S. laws.
The announcement comes several days after a U.S. federal judge dismissed Mexico's first lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers; Mexico has said it will appeal that decision.
The judge ruled Mexico's claims against the gun makers did not overcome the broad protection provided to firearms manufacturers by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act passed in 2005.
The law shields gun manufacturers from damages "resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse" of a firearm.
Mexico was seeking at least $10 billion in compensation, but legal experts had viewed the lawsuit as a long shot.
The Mexican government estimates 70% of the weapons trafficked into Mexico come from the U.S., according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. It said that in 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides in Mexico were linked to trafficked weapons.
GOP makes push to weaken Democrats' grip on Texas border - By Paul J. Weber And Will Weissert Associated Press
Just weeks before Election Day in Texas, once again there is big money, new signs of shifting voters and bold predictions of an upset that will turn heads across the U.S.
But this time, it's coming from Republicans.
"We are going to turn the Rio Grande Valley red," said Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, kicking off a rally in the Texas border city of Harlingen.
As Democrats embark on another October blitz in pursuit of flipping America's biggest red state, Republicans are taking a swing of their own: making a play for the mostly Hispanic southern border on Nov. 8 after years of writing off the region that is overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats.
The task — like Democrat Beto O'Rourke 's underdog campaign to unseat Abbott — is an uphill climb. But it is another way Republicans are putting plenty at stake on the Texas border, given that they are already refocusing the final sprint of the 2022 midterms on portraying the 1,200-mile boundary as rife with escalating danger and disorder as record number of migrants enter from Mexico.
Border Democrats say dramatic moves to bus and fly migrants across the country will backfire with voters, but also acknowledge they can no longer coast into office.
Still, the rare sight of contested races on the Texas border has widened cracks in an important Democratic stronghold two years after former President Donald Trump's significant gains with Hispanic voters during the 2020 election caused both parties to scramble in unexpected ways.
"This is the first time we've ever had this many competitive races where the Democrats are like, 'What are we going to do?'" said Republican Carlos Cascos, a onetime border Democrat who switched parties and later served as Abbott's first secretary of state.
He's doesn't see Republicans sweeping races in the Rio Grande Valley, home to roughly 1.5 million people. But, he says, "I think this area has been taken for granted a lot. In the Valley, you're born two things: a Catholic and a Democrat. Things are changing."
Democrats still hold advantages in South Texas — decades of incumbency, a culture of residents voting Democratic, and more moderate candidates who are less vulnerable to GOP attacks on the left and more critical of President Joe Biden when his approval ratings remain low and inflation is still high.
But Republican Rep. Mayra Flores' victory in a special election this year, becoming the first Texas Latina in the U.S. House, reflected the shifting ground. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a South Texas Democrat, switched districts to more favorable territory and is hoping to unseat her for a full term in November.
Democrats have dismissed dramatic moves by Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, two potential 2024 presidential contenders, to send migrants to places like Washington, New York and Martha's Vineyard. But Republicans counter that more liberal voters in big cities far from the border are ignoring problems that are hitting largely working-class South Texans.
Running for what's arguably Texas' most competitive House seat, which stretches from east of San Antonio to border communities including McAllen, Republican Monica De La Cruz blamed "an elite class that just does not get it because illegal immigration has virtually no impact on their lives."
"Wall Street bankers don't have to worry about a poor Central American migrant undercutting their wages," De La Cruz told reporters recently. She is running against Democrat Michelle Vallejo in the district that Gonzalez is vacating.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is set to campaign with Flores and de la Cruz on the border Monday — an unusual display of national GOP political force for South Texas.
Those efforts to control the political narrative coincides with the Republican Party opening 38 minority outreach community centers around the country, including in McAllen and another border city, Laredo, as well as in heavily Hispanic Houston and San Antonio.
Some offer services like tutoring for U.S. citizen classes and tax advice. They've also hosted movie nights, pot-luck dinners and business roundtables, as well as courses on topics like crypto currency. Some have been open for more than a year.
The GOP says it has spent millions on Hispanic outreach nationwide, including 30-plus ad buys in Spanish-language media encompassing digital, TV, radio and print. It also has a record 32 Hispanic Republican nominees on House ballots around the country, although many are underdogs.
Democrats, for their part, opened a national field office in McAllen in April and have three staffers working on the area's congressional race, the party's first such investment in recent memory.
Richard Gonzales, Democratic Party chair of Hidalgo County, which includes McAllen, said party officials hold weekly Zoom calls with O'Rourke's campaign to coordinate efforts that have focused on boosting turnout, especially among non-active voters. He said gains in 2020 by Trump and the Republicans were real but "very candidate specific" and unlikely to "translate to future races."
O'Rourke, who in the past ran unsuccessfully for Senate and president, also heads a nonprofit called Powered By People. In 2020, he organized phone banking that saw volunteers contact voters in Webb County — which includes Laredo, where less than 40% of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2018 Senate race — hoping to boost turnout for Biden.
The group registered thousands of Webb County voters, and eventually saw turnout climb to 50% of eligible voters in the 2020 election. But Trump sharply increased his support in Webb County, taking nearly 26,000 votes, about double his 2016 raw vote total — and captured about 38% overall support there, compared with about 23% in 2016.
"People want to say that the Democrats are done down here, that the Republicans are taking over. That is not true," Gonzales said. "What this has done is it has woken up the Democrats down here and made us realize, 'Hey, we can't take this for granted anymore.'"