Judge's ruling puts restrictions on New Mexico Civil Guard - Associated Press
The New Mexico Civil Guard has been barred from publicly acting as a military unit without authorization or assuming the role of law enforcement by using organized force at public protests or gathering, according to a newspaper.
The Albuquerque Journal reported Tuesday that District Court Judge Elaine Lujan also has banned such activity by the group's directors, officers, agents, employees, members and any of their successor organizations and members.
Lujan granting a motion by Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez, who told the Journal that the decision, "fundamentally represents a victory for the rule of law….We're trying to prevent violent extremism."
A lawsuit alleged members of the New Mexico Civil Guard violated state law by exercising or attempting to exercise the functions of a peace officer without authority and have organized and operated as a military unit without having been called to military service by the governor, according to the Journal.
The newspaper said the governor has exclusive authority under the state Constitution to call on the militia to keep the public peace.
Voter turnout for midterm elections in NM already strong - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
With Election Day fast approaching on Nov. 8, and expanded early voting set to begin Saturday, voter turnout for the 2022 midterm elections in New Mexico is already strong.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that 23% more voters have cast their ballots than at this time four years ago. As of Monday, 19,700 ballots had been cast. That includes in-person voting at county clerks’ offices and absentee ballots that voters mailed or dropped off.
Republicans have seen the highest uptick in early voting turnout, with over 40% more votes cast compared to a similar point in the 2018 midterm elections. That said, Democrats still account for the majority of voters who’ve had their voices heard so far.
The Journal reports that it’s unknown whether this higher-than-usual turnout will persist through early voting or on Election Day itself.
PRC: Utilities trying to overcharge in a solar program meant to help low-income communities - Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
New Mexico’s community solar program is supposed to help people with low incomes and organizations get clean energy for cheaper. But regulators are calling out utility companies for trying to charge consumers too much before the program has even launched.
People and organizations will soon have the option to use solar energy from a community clean energy pool and receive credits to their monthly electricity bill for doing so. After years of advocates trying to create a community solar option, the governor signed an act into law last year establishing the program in New Mexico.
WHAT IS COMMUNITY SOLAR?
Community solar allows multiple homeowners, renters or businesses to get some or all of their energy from one local solar facility and to get credit for that energy on their regular electricity bills.
The local solar facilities will be able to transmit electricity through grids of investor-owned utilities in New Mexico — the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), El Paso Electric and Southwestern Public Service — who will oversee the program.
The program is mainly for buildings that house multiple residents or renters, people unable to afford solar for their houses, and rural and tribal areas. At least 30% of the clean energy the solar facilities produce must be set aside for people with low incomes and organizations to use.
Mariel Nanasi is the executive director of New Energy Economy. She said the program is beneficial for the state, even if it’s not for the utilities, because solar businesses will create jobs and boost the economy. Plus, she added, it will help people who don’t have a lot of money become more financially secure.
There have already been thousands of applications from organizations that want to be part of an interconnected solar energy grid, according to documentation the utility companies submitted to the Public Regulation Commission. And a community solar website is supposed to launch next month.
But before the program starts up, the utilities have to show the PRC what subscribers — people or organizations using community solar energy — would have to pay. The companies submitted their proposals in September and October.
The commission’s staff found issues with every single utility’s billing plan and said last week that the utilities are intending to charge or limit customers in ways they shouldn’t be.
So the Public Regulation Commission last week ordered the utilities to fix the violations and resubmit corrections by Thursday, Oct. 20, this time with help from the commission’s staff. But there are public and official frustrations about the process, with both saying the utilities just keep trying to delay the program.
New Energy Economy was one of multiple organizations that protested the utilities’ billing conditions. Nanasi said the utilities have financial incentive to block this program or make it more expensive, since community solar will generate energy in the regions the companies serve, creating an “incursion into their monopoly status.”
“They’re trying to make community solar non-competitive, because they are so afraid of the competition,” she said.
Southwestern Public Service fights back
One of the significant issues the PRC immediately rejected was a condition Southwestern Public Service proposed about who pays for what. The utility’s plan would have the subscriber covering transmission costs, despite a PRC rule directly prohibiting that.
The PRC required that the company submit a corrected version by the end of last week.
Instead, Southwestern Public Service’s attorney Zoe Lees filed a notice under protest with the PRC to say that the regulatory body was violating the company’s constitutional rights.
NO COMMENT
El Paso Electric and Southwestern Public Service did not immediately respond to a request for an interview by publication time. We will update this story if we hear back.
At the PRC meeting on Wednesday, the commission voted to forgo a public hearing on the billing issues after an attorney with the commission, Russell Fisk, said they could be resolved without one. A hearing, he said, would just delay the community solar program further.
But Lees argued that not having a public hearing violates the utility’s right to due process. She said a full hearing must be conducted in order to determine the billing charges. And, she said, there should be a temporary hold on the PRC-ordered changes until a hearing decision is made, otherwise Southwestern Public Service won’t be able to financially recover from paying for transmission costs themselves.
The Public Regulation Commission has not yet responded to this.
Nanasi said she doesn’t believe the constitutional allegations Southwestern Public Service is putting forth, and has seen similar “legal games” from Xcel Energy, the utility’s parent company, when regulators fined Xcel $1 million for stalling in Minnesota and a Public Utilities Commission put a stop to similar delays in Colorado, as well.
“These are legal games — waste of time, waste of money,” she said.
PRC Vice Chair Joseph Maestas voiced similar concerns at the meeting and said the utilities are creating “unnecessary roadblocks and dragging their feet” on the program implementation.
A HISTORY OF LEGAL BATTLES
These aren’t the first roadblocks to getting the community solar program rolling.
In June 2022, the Southwestern Public Service’s attorneys filed an appeal with the N.M. Supreme Court against the rules the PRC set in place in March, saying the regulations are vague and lack customer protection. A decision hasn’t yet been made.
The company’s attorneys also requested the PRC temporarily halt the program while the court comes to a decision, which the commission denied.
PNM spokesperson Ray Sandoval said his utility also raised concerns with the PRC in April about solar providers truthfully disclosing costs, benefits and risks to customers, as well as the high transmission costs. He said he hopes the commission will continue to look into the transparency issues, though no formal action has been taken on it.
“There’s got to be some way to really vet this,” Sandoval said.
Nanasi said there were other hindrances, too, as legislators worked for nearly a decade to get a solar act passed in the state, and utilities fought it continuously.
These delays are why the entire country, not just New Mexico, hasn’t yet made the transition to solar and wind energy, she said.
“Community solar is a solution, and utilities don’t want to have anything to do with it,” she said. “And they want to crush it.”
This program will allow individuals and businesses to be more energy independent amid a climate crisis and rising energy prices, Nanasi said.
“Imagine the economic activity that would be generated in New Mexico for cleaner energy (that’s) less costly — and more protections for the most vulnerable people,” she said.
Even if it’s a rocky start, most commissioners said the utilities won’t stop the program from launching.
“Community solar is here,” Maestas said, “and community solar is here to stay.”
The student debt relief application is live: Here’s what you need to know - Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom
President Joe Biden announced Monday that student loan borrowers can begin to apply for debt relief through a new online application.
Biden said the application is easy and fast. It will allow every borrower with an income of $125,000 or less ($250,000 for married couples) to have up to $10,000 in debt forgiven, or $20,000 forgiven for those with Pell Grants. Those income levels have to have been during 2020 or 2021.
No documents need to be uploaded with the application, Biden said.
Late Friday, a beta version of the student loan forgiveness application was released by the Department of Education. Biden said 8 million borrowers were able to fill out the application “without a glitch.”
The White House estimated that 43 million borrowers would qualify for some relief.
Those who qualify have until December 31, 2023, to fill out the application.
GOP LAWSUIT
The president called out Republicans for attacking the debt relief program, as well as Republican-led states that filed a lawsuit to prevent borrowers from applying for financial relief. The suit argues Congress did not approve the debt cancellation and the Department of Education is misusing its emergency authority.
“Their outrage is wrong and hypocritical,” Biden said. “I don’t want to hear from Republican officials who had hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, in pandemic relief loans—PPP loans—who now attack working class Americans for getting relief.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona also joined the president for the announcement. Cardona said the department is working to also include borrowers with private loans to qualify for debt relief.
“We are working on pathways there to support those,” Cardona said. “But we’re moving as quickly as possible to provide relief to as many people as possible.”
The administration quietly dropped a section of borrowers — nearly 800,000 — from qualifying for the student loan forgiveness plan if they have loans administered through the now-defunct Federal Family Education Loan program, or Perkins loans, following a lawsuit from half-a-dozen Republican-led states.
A Missouri judge will issue a decision on the lawsuit filed by attorneys general from Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas and South Carolina and on behalf of Iowa’s governor.
Another lawsuit, filed in Texas, seeks to block the program, arguing that the Biden administration did not ask for public comment before moving forward with its action
More than 43 million Americans have student loan debt, and the Federal Reserve estimates that the total U.S. student loan debt is more than $1.75 trillion.
Watch out for scams
Biden also warned of a scam in which callers will pretend to be from the federal government, asking about assisting a borrower with student loan debt.
“Let’s be clear,” Biden said. “Hang up. You never have to pay for any federal help from the student loan program.”
He said student loan repayment, which has been paused since early 2020, will resume in January.
Those borrowers who continued to pay off their loans during the student loan freeze in the early stages of the pandemic are allowed to get reimbursed for payments made beginning of March 13, 2020, by contacting their loan servicers to request a refund.
List of known missing Indigenous people in NM and Navajo Nation reaches 192 - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
The list of Indigenous people in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation who are missing has now grown to 192.
Albuquerque’s division of the FBI released the updated list Friday. The department says the update includes 27 new people. The names of 18 have been removed since last month.
Special Agent in Charge Raul Bujanda said in a statement that since the FBI launched the program with a list of 177 individuals in July, they’ve been able to figure out the location of “many” of them. A specific number, or how many of those people were discovered alive, wasn’t released.
The list is updated every month. Bujanda asked the public to review the list and contact local or tribal law enforcement with any information on those who are missing.
The families of Indigenous people who are missing but are not included on the list are also encouraged to reach out. A law enforcement agency must submit a missing person report with the National Crime Information Center.
The state Attorney General’s Office is partnering on the project, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services, and New Mexico’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force.
Albuquerque man accused of assault, dousing bedroom with gas - Associated Press
An Albuquerque man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend and then dousing the couple's bedroom in gasoline and bleach, according to authorities.
Albuquerque police said 35-year-old Gideon Michael Robles was on probation and wearing an ankle monitor at the time of the alleged assault.
They said Robles was arrested Sunday and booked into jail on suspicion of aggravated battery against a household member by strangulation and other charges.
It was unclear Monday if Robles has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf.
Police said officers were called to an northeast Albuquerque apartment after a woman said Robles allegedly hit her and choked her until she twice lost consciousness.
Responding officers reported seeing blood and smelling gasoline in the apartment, police said.
According to the Albuquerque Journal, court records show Robles was sentenced to serve four years in prison and five years probation beginning January 2018 as part of a plea agreement in a case where he was accused of selling methamphetamine in McKinley County.
Clock is ticking on burn scar agriculture as waterways remain clogged - By Patrick Lohmann,Source New Mexico
If the vital irrigation infrastructure winding through the 500-square-mile burn scar in northern New Mexico isn’t repaired in the next few weeks, advocates warn that the charred and flooded region could lose at least a year’s worth of agriculture and ranching. And funding that could help won’t likely come in time.
Historic irrigation channels known as acequias have fallen through the cracks, advocates say, of a federal and state response to the biggest fire in history. The blaze was accidentally started by the federal government in April and destroyed about 1,000 structures.
Ensuing floods damaged the roughly 80 acequias covering more than 100 miles in the burn scar, and it left the vast majority clogged with silt or debris.
Advocates and mayordomos have gone back and forth with state and federal agencies for months seeking help in the form of backhoes or hand crews. But only recently did the Federal Emergency Management Agency finally begin accepting applications from acequias for its Public Assistance Program, and none have been approved so far.
Advocates are also pushing to make sure acequias can get some of the newly enacted $2.5 billion compensation program for fire victims, but it will likely be months before the first check reaches victims. Rules are still being established about how individuals and potentially groups of acequia users can bundle their applications for some of the historic windfall.
Frustrated, United States Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, whose district is marred by the burn scar, sent a letter to FEMA Secretary Deanne Criswell late last month. She wrote that FEMA had agreed all the way back in June that acequias are political entities and should therefore qualify for the program.
“Every time my office has communicated with FEMA, we are assured that acequias are eligible for public assistance under the disaster declaration. Yet every time we have spoken with the acequias, they are having applications held up for a new reason,” she wrote in the letter sent Sept. 24. “FEMA’s failure to convey the correct information to its field staff or those processing applications has exacerbated an already difficult disaster.
FEMA, in a statement to Source New Mexico on Wednesday, said the agency is now approving applications as it receives them from the state. The agency did not address why it’s taken so long to accept applications or whether it agreed in June that acequias qualified.
The state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has so far submitted seven applications on the acequias’ behalf. FEMA expects the state to submit 35, according to spokesperson Angela Byrd.
Of the seven applications, six were approved as of Wednesday, and one is pending as the agency awaits additional documentation, Byrd said.
The letter from Leger Fernandez goes on to say that time is running out.
“Repair work on acequias needs to start immediately so work can be completed before the winter freeze and so that the acequias are operational when irrigation begins in the Spring,” she said. “These communities already lost so much. We must not force them to forgo another year without the ability to plant their crops.”
Leger Fernandez asks, in closing, for the number of pending acequia applications, an estimate of how long they’ll take to be resolved and for FEMA to hold a workshop with the state to iron out any issues.
Advocates like Paula Garcia, director of the New Mexico Acequia Association, have said getting the acequias flowing again will mitigate flooding, and also allow ranchers and farmers a foothold back in the landscape. Acequias flowing means hay can be irrigated, which means farmers can feed their cattle without having to pay for hay elsewhere.
Antonia Roybal-Mack, a Mora resident and attorney seeking clients in the burn scar, held a meeting Oct. 1 at a middle school lecture hall with mayordomos to hear about their concerns. She said the confluence of land grants, water rights, lack of documentation and acequias’ quasi-governmental status make the 200-year-old structures the “most complicated” of any rebuilding effort in the burn scar.
And they’re crucial for life to return, she said.
“I really look at this is one of the most critical crisis needs in front of us, because the sooner we get our agriculture back up and operating, the sooner that communities can recover as a whole,” she said.
There are about 2,000 farms in San Miguel and Mora Counties, according to the 2019 Census of Agriculture conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture.
The farms attach their fates to the acequias that trickle through their properties. These days, many acequias are so full of silt, they resemble hiking trails through drying farmland.
It’s not just FEMA that’s dropped the ball, either, according to Roybal-Mack and Garcia. DHSEM could do better as well, they said.
Roybal-Mack said she doesn’t know why the state can’t simply pay for a backhoe, fuel and hourly wages for workers, and then seek reimbursement from FEMA later.
“That’s a question I’ve been asking since the start of this thing,” she said.
The state has asked the federal government to reimburse nearly $10 million in costs related to the fire, a spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said recently.
DHSEM did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
ACT test scores drop to lowest in 30 years in pandemic slide - By Cheyanne Mumphrey AP Education Writer
Scores on the ACT college admissions test by this year's high school graduates hit their lowest point in more than 30 years — the latest evidence of the enormity of learning disruption during the pandemic.
The class of 2022's average ACT composite score was 19.8 out of 36, marking the first time since 1991 that the average score was below 20. What's more, an increasing number of high school students failed to meet any of the subject-area benchmarks set by the ACT — showing a decline in preparedness for college-level coursework.
The test scores, made public in a report Wednesday, show 42% of ACT-tested graduates in the class of 2022 met none of the subject benchmarks in English, reading, science and math, which are indicators of how well students are expected to perform in corresponding college courses.
In comparison, 38% of test takers in 2021 failed to meet any of the benchmarks.
"Academic preparedness is where we are seeing the decline," said Rose Babington, senior director for state partnerships for the ACT. "Every time we see ACT test scores, we are talking about skills and standards, and the prediction of students to be successful and to know the really important information to succeed and persist through their first year of college courses."
ACT scores have declined steadily in recent years. Still, "the magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming," ACT CEO Janet Godwin said in a statement. "We see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting college-readiness benchmarks in any of the subjects we measure."
The results offer a lens into systemic inequities in education, in place well before the pandemic shuttered schools and colleges temporarily waived testing requirements. For example, students without access to rigorous high school curriculum suffered more setbacks during pandemic disruptions, Babington said. Those students are from rural areas, come from low-income families and are often students of color.
The number of students taking the ACT has declined 30% since 2018, as graduates increasingly forgo college and some universities no longer require admissions tests. But participation plunged 37% among Black students, with 154,000 taking the test this year.
Standardized tests such as the ACT have faced growing concerns that they're unfair to minority and low-income students, as students with access to expensive test prep or advanced courses often perform better.
Babington defended the test as a measure of college readiness. "Now more than ever, the last few years have shown us the importance of having high-quality data to help inform how we support students," Babington said.
Test scores now are optional for first-year student admission at many institutions. Some colleges, such as the University of California system, even opt for a test-blind policy, where scores are not considered even if submitted.
But many students still take the tests, hoping to get an edge in admissions by submitting their scores. Tyrone Jordan, a freshman at test-optional Arizona State University, said he took the ACT and the SAT to get ahead of other students and help him receive scholarships.
Jordan, who wants to pursue mechanical engineering, said he thinks his rigorous schedule at Tempe Preparatory Academy prepared him for college, and the standardized tests helped support him and his family financially.
"All the test did for me was give me extra financial money," Jordan said.
While Jordan was always planning to take the test, many students struggle with access or choose not to take the test since their universities of choice no longer require it. In Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Wyoming, everyone is tested.