New Mexico State suspends basketball player after shooting - Associated Press
New Mexico State's athletic director says power forward Mike Peake has been suspended indefinitely from the basketball team in connection with last month's fatal shooting of a student from a rival university.
Mario Moccia also told reporters Monday night that neither he nor the school could comment on Peake's enrollment status as a student. The 21-year-old Peake has not been charged in the Nov. 19 pre-dawn shooting on the University of New Mexico's campus in Albuquerque hours before the host Lobos were to play the Aggies. That game was canceled along with the Dec. 3 rematch in Las Cruces.
"Mike is suspended from our basketball team until the completion of the university's investigation and the investigation of the proper authorities," Moccia said. "When those investigations will be complete, I can't say."
State police investigators said 19-year-old Brandon Travis conspired with two other UNM students and a teenage girl to lure Peake onto campus.
The subsequent shootout left Travis dead at the scene and Peake hospitalized with a leg wound that has required several surgeries.
A brawl at an Oct. 15 UNM-NMSU football game in Las Cruces was a precursor to the shooting, police said.
First-year NMSU men's basketball coach Greg Heiar was not made available to talk to media until 10 days after the shooting.
He expressed his condolences for Travis and his family and said he took full responsibility for the actions of multiple players who sneaked out of the hotel on that morning of the game.
But until Monday, NMSU officials had not spoken publicly about any specific discipline for Peake related to the shooting.
"If there is criticism over this decision, I am in a position to take it on myself," Moccia said. "I've known this player for years and I know what kind of person he is. I didn't feel a need to rush to judgment. I wanted to give the investigation time to play out before making any decisions."
Peake, a 6-foot-7 junior from Chicago, played one season at Georgia before transferring to Austin Peay. He joined New Mexico State in 2021 and averaged 4.1 points and 2.4 rebounds last season, helping the Aggies reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Albuquerque bus fare bill deferred until early 2023 - By Lissa Knudsen, Source New Mexico
City Councilors again revised the proposal to scale back Albuquerque’s Zero Fares Pilot Program on Monday, kicking the final vote down the road until the council meets in January.
The latest proposal would allow anyone to use their government-issued ID to ride city buses for free. People who don’t have an ID will be required to either apply for a free pass or buy a ticket. Councilors will also vote to institute penalties like misdemeanor charges for anyone violating the new ordinance.
If passed, this would replace the existing “hop-on-and-go” system by requiring all riders to show a bus driver an ID, pass or ticket when boarding. It also resurrects the ticketing process, laying the groundwork for future fare collection.
At previous City Council meetings the discussion centered on public safety. On Monday, councilors in support of changing the program shifted their tone, no one referenced safety issues during the meeting, instead discussion focused on if showing an ID, pass, or ticket counted as a ‘zero fare’ program and if paratransit would be included.
Albuquerque’s public transit system is funded by a variety of sources, including federal grants and the transit GRT funds via the Mid-Region Council of Governments.
The Zero Fares Pilot Program received a one-time $3 million appropriation to establish no-cost rides on city buses in 2022. The money comes from the city’s general fund and is offset in part by previous bus fare revenues.
But the pilot project is only funded until June 30, 2023.
At this point, there has been no public discussion by the city council about establishing the Zero Fares policy as a permanent line item and no one has identified a recurring revenue stream to fund it.
Officials with the Transit Department said they are still unable to estimate future costs.
“At this point, a final decision on our future fare structure is yet to be determined. Therefore some details, including cost to implement and maintain any new system, remain unclear,” ABQ Ride spokesperson Megan Holcomb said in an email.
The transit department acknowledged that administering another new system should the measure pass would increase costs but stopped short of saying it would need additional funding because it would be pulling in fares again.
“The potential addition of a fare and/or pass will obviously add costs into the system including the need to produce and sell fare media, operate and maintain fare boxes, along with additional staffing to manage the pass distribution,” Holcomb said.
But she was quick to add that because, “there will also be revenue from those individuals that choose to pay the full fare,” future projections remain unclear.
ZERO VS FREE
Councilor Klarissa Peña inadvertently highlighted the difference between the hop-on-and-go program that exists today and is called “Zero Fares” and the proposal, which would institute “free fares.” Peña is one of the measure’s sponsors and made the motion to strike and replace all references to “free fares” in the proposal with the previous name “Zero Fares” before submitting the substitute bill for approval.
Tom Menicucci, Council analyst, explained that his understanding of the language distinction was that getting on the bus with “zero” requirements was what the Zero Fares project enabled, while getting on the bus without having to pay a fee but still having to show an ID, pass or ticket to the driver was what “free fares” indicated.
“When we scribed the bill, we had used ‘free fare’ because at the time we felt “zero fare” — the concept was you just walk on and off the bus without any any pass required or anything,” Menicucci said. “ But that’s not copyrighted nor is there any formal definition, so if the sponsors would like to use ‘zero fair,’ there’s nothing stopping them.”
Councilor Brook Basaan also reiterated the difference in the two terms.
“I was under the impression that free fares and zero fares are quite different. And that was why we really made a big deal out of passing a Zero Fares program,” Bassan said.
During public comment, Althea May Atherton, a community member and transit rider expressed concerns about the language change from free fares to zero fares.
“I find it extremely misleading to call this ‘zero fare.’ I think it’ll be damaging to our tourism industry to tell people ‘Oh, we have zero fare,’ and then have it work completely differently than it does in every other city in the country,” she said.”I’m just really kind of surprised and shocked that you all just did that substitution.”
TRANSPORTATION EQUITY
Before the Zero Fare program, transit charged people with disabilities $2 per ride and limited the number of rides they could request in a day. Based on the language in the SunVan brochure, Transit had planned to reinstate the fee after the end of the Zero Fares pilot program.
Under the substitute bill that was introduced on Monday, paratransit riders will also be able to ride for free but unlike the ABQRide patrons, they will not be able to show an ID in order to use the bus.
Peña asserted that when theTransit Department was approached about including the SunVan riders with the other riders in the new proposal Transit initially resisted because of the loss of revenue.
“Transit had stated that they would like us to take the paratransit out because they get $2 for every rider and I said, ‘No, if we’re talking zero fares, then we’re talking zero fares.’ I wanted that to include SunVan as well,” Peña said.
By limiting Zero Fares to the bus and neglecting to establish a way for paratransit riders to use the SunVan as often as they wanted — and without having to engage in a lengthy, bureaucratic application and pass process — the program afforded privileges to some riders and ignored those who are the most vulnerable, Peña asserted.
Transit Director Leslie Keener explained to Peña when questioned that the fee waiver made it into the proposal but there were federal requirements for paratransit riders to fill out an application.
“It still would include SunVan — it would be zero fare, but we are just saying that they still have to go through the SunVan application process,” Keener said. “But once they do that, and are qualified to ride SunVan, for ADA requirements, at that point, it would be a zero fare for them.”
Peña responded that she was disappointed that the new version of the bill still included SunVan riders having to engage in the application process and thus not being truly a ‘zero’ fares experience. The new bill does not address if there would still be limits on the numbers of rides paratransit riders could request in a day.
“When people are talking about barriers for people who are using paratransit, those are the same challenges. They’re the most vulnerable,” Peña said.
The final vote on the bill is now scheduled for Jan. 4, 2023.
Christmas tree sellers feel effects of New Mexico wildfire - By Alaina Mencinger Albuquerque Journal
The Monday after Thanksgiving, Deanna Trujillo stood in the bed of her truck, watching Christmas tree after Christmas tree pile up in her trailer.
There were 101 in total — Trujillo, who sells Mora-grown Christmas trees every year, has to keep careful count for her taxes. It took six men to load the trailer, sometimes throwing trees by hand and, at other times, dropping them from a forklift.
Trujillo inspected one of the trees, which had an orange patch among its green needles.
"These ones are just burned," she said. "We might have to turn them into just rama."
Trujillo uses the rama, or boughs, to make wreaths and leafy crosses. Her family in Mora has been in the Christmas tree business for decades — but, reeling from the damage of the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, Trujillo wasn't sure they'd be able to open her Albuquerque lot this year.
"The fire killed us," Trujillo told the Albuquerque Journal. "It hurt us really bad."
The largest recorded fire in the state's history, the blaze burned across more than 140,000 acres of public land and almost 200,000 acres of private property in northern New Mexico.
Between Trujillo, her cousin Raúl Arellano and uncle Orlando Roybal, the family owns about 2,800 acres of land in Mora. Of that, 1,500 acres were burned.
"This used to be … how we give back. The trees were plentiful," Trujillo said. "We could bring Christmas to Albuquerque."
'DEAD HALT'
Trujillo and Arellano are part of the Roybal Christmas tree dynasty. Their grandfather, Alfredo Roybal, started selling Mora Christmas trees more than 60 years ago in Texas and California. He gained acclaim when he sold three trees to the "I Love Lucy" show.
Trujillo describes the seasonal business as the "annual family fight," although she said they always make up by the end.
"We do this for fun," Trujillo said.
The whole family is involved. Arellano cuts trees, which Trujillo hauls to Albuquerque. Her three sons operate the Mora Christmas Tree lot in Los Ranchos.
"When you go to the lot and see the excitement, it's unreal," Arellano said.
They sell a variety of tree species, including blue spruce, white fir, Engelmann spruce and piñon.
Arellano, who started working the tree lot at age 10, estimates the family lost between 20,000 and 30,000 Christmas trees during the fire in a once-plentiful forest. The damage left them with just one-tenth of their original supply. And some of the remaining trees were damaged by the heat, making them unfit to sell as whole trees.
"You couldn't see through this forest (before the fire)," Arellano said, pointing through a grove of thin, blackened trunks near his land. Located in the mountains near Holman, his property still had a cover of snow that had since melted in Mora Valley down below.
When she first returned to Mora after evacuating to Albuquerque, Trujillo said even the ground was burned, including seeds.
"The first time I was back in the county, it (the ground) was black," Trujillo said.
A three-part soil burn severity analysis by the Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response team found that, of the 341,735 acres burned in the fire, 54% of the soil was moderately or severely burned.
John Bartley, who owns Gascon Ranch north of Las Vegas, said his property was transformed by the fire.
"It's night and day," Bartley said. "We live in one of the most beautiful canyons in northern New Mexico. … You know, it's an eyesore now."
Bartley has been farming trees for timber and as Christmas trees since 1979 at his 4,000-acre ranch.
In the past, he could harvest between 700 and 1,000 Christmas tree per year from several plots. Every year, he sent hundreds of trees to Albuquerque.
The fire reduced his half-dozen Christmas tree plots to just one. Seventy-five percent of his property burned.
"There was one little spot to the north of our place that didn't burn," Bartley said. "I was able to scrounge 100 trees, and that's it. I'm done."
He said the fire almost put him out of business.
"It's heartbreaking," Bartley said. "I don't know if we'll ever get it back. I'm hoping we will, but I don't know."
David Velasquez, who got into selling trees "over a few beers" in high school 51 years ago, is originally from Mora. He sells trees out of Dave's Evergreens in Albuquerque. He doesn't get his trees out of Mora, however — he cuts them from a private ranch in Chama, Colorado.
"I think there might be a shortage of native New Mexican trees this year," Velasquez said.
Arellano said he used to be able to cut 100 trees in half a day on his own property. Now, it takes three days to cut that many and he has to pay to cut trees owned by other Mora residents.
In the early afternoon, Arellano drove a bumpy path through the woods, crossing a rocky spring and crunching over a thin layer of snow to pick up a single 14-foot tree.
By Thanksgiving last year, Arellano said they had already cut about 500 trees. He's only cut 250 so far this year.
"We've come to almost a dead halt compared to what they used to do," Arellano said.
WAITING FOR AID
In September, President Joe Biden signed the Hermit's Peak Fire Assistance Act, which provides $2.5 billion to victims of the fire. The funds, which New Mexico and tribal nation residents can apply for with a notice of loss form, are intended to cover eligible personal injury, property, business and financial losses.
In draft regulations from the Federal Emergency Management Agency published Nov. 14, the agency stated that it would be limiting compensation for lost trees to 25% of its pre-fire value unless the trees were associated with a business. The regulations are currently up for public comment until Jan. 13, and could change.
But even determining the value of burned trees could be difficult, Arellano said.
"It's hard to put a dollar amount on trees," Arellano said. "A tree could be worth a million dollars."
Neither Arellano nor Trujillo has received federal compensation for their trees yet.
"This is gonna be chaos," Arellano said. "This is our livelihood."
Trujillo added that the Christmas tree business brings essential income to the family.
"It gets us through the winter," Trujillo said. "This is our winter money."
NM OR NOTHING
Trujillo doesn't want to sell out-of-state trees. New Mexico-grown trees, she said, are cut closer to Christmas than imported trees from the Pacific Northwest, and stay fresher longer. And, Trujillo said, many of her repeat customers look specifically for Mora trees.
"We just can't do out-of-state trees," Trujillo said. "There's no way we can sell them a tree that won't last 'till Christmas."
In the winter of 2020, Trujillo put up a Mora Christmas tree. It lasted so long, she said, that she decorated it for Valentine's Day, Easter and St. Patrick's Day until her sons finally made her throw it out.
Operating the tree business is more costly now. Rather than cutting trees from their own property, Arellano and Trujillo have to buy trees from other property owners who had less fire damage.
"They're kind of holding us hostage right now," Trujillo said.
A neighboring property owner, Willie Olivas, has helped Trujillo and Arellano find trees and transport them.
"We just all pull together and make it happen," Trujillo said.
Arellano said he's had to increase prices by $10 per tree to make up for the increased labor to find trees — as well as higher gas prices.
SLOW GROWTH
Bartley has already requested 1,000 seedlings from the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center to try and regrow the trees at his ranch. But, averaging a foot of growth per year, it could be almost 10 years before Bartley's seedlings are ready to harvest.
Arellano said that he's planning to plant new seedlings this year. The family has never had to plant before — the forest replenished by itself.
Trujillo said that the forest service has been busy reseeding the forest. It could take many years for some slower growing trees to return.
"I don't think we're gonna see a white fir for about 10 years," Trujillo said. "But they do grow."
Arellano, 57, doesn't think his property will recover for decades.
"I'll never see it," Arellano said.
'PEOPLE NEED THEIR CHRISTMAS'
Arellano hefted a 16-foot tree to top off the trailer. It was one of several 10-foot-plus tall trees in the trailer, including a 13-foot special order.
The tall trees can be pricey.
"(It costs) an arm and a leg," Trujillo said. "That's what people in Albuquerque want."
Despite the decreased supply, demand has not gone down at Mora Christmas Trees. "I got people coming to the lot like crazy," Trujillo said.
She also said that running the tree lot is their time to catch up with annual customers.
They have a customer they nicknamed "Piñon Paul" because he buys the Southwestern pine every year. This year, they set aside two piñons for him.
"After years and years and years, you create those friendships," Trujillo said.
When she was considering not opening the lot this year, Trujillo said that she received several Facebook messages from customers that convinced her to open.
"The people need their Christmas," Arellano said.
EXPLAINER: How Supreme Court case could alter US House seats - By David A. Lieb Associated Press
Partisan gerrymandering is back before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case stemming from the latest attempt by North Carolina's Republican-led legislature to draw U.S. House districts favoring GOP candidates.
The question justices will consider Wednesday is whether state courts can rely on their state constitutions — as the North Carolina Supreme Court did — to strike down politically rigged voting districts for congressional elections.
North Carolina's top Republican lawmakers contend they can't. Rather, they assert that the U.S. Constitution gives power over federal elections only to state legislatures and Congress — an argument known as the "independent state legislature" theory. A broad embrace of the theory by the high court could upend hundreds of election laws across the U.S.
A ruling for North Carolina's legislature also could affect redistricting lawsuits in states ranging from Republican-led Ohio to Democratic-led New Mexico. It also could call into question new congressional maps enacted by other state courts after the 2020 census, including in Democratic-dominated New York.
The stakes are high because Republicans won only a slim House majority in the November elections, giving them just enough power to challenge President Joe Biden's agenda. Any ruling that causes some districts to be redrawn likely would kick in for the 2024 elections.
WHAT IS GERRYMANDERING?
Gerrymandering is when a political party in power manipulates voting district boundaries to make it harder for the opposing party to win. That typically is done by packing opponents' voters into a few districts and spreading out others among multiple districts to dilute their voting strength.
Throughout U.S. history, both Republicans and Democrats have gerrymandered after the once-a-decade census, when districts are redrawn to account for population changes.
Republicans controlled more state capitols after the 2010 census and used redistricting to their advantage, prompting a flurry of lawsuits from Democrats. Those suits culminated in 2019, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in another North Carolina case that federal courts have no role in deciding partisan gerrymandering disputes. Even so, the majority opinion suggested that state courts still could hear such claims.
Freed from federal constraints, partisan gerrymandering surged after the 2020 census. So did the number of lawsuits in state courts alleging that partisan gerrymandering violated state constitutions.
FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS
A 2018 decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court provided a template for voting-rights advocates to pursue gerrymandering claims in state courts. Although the Pennsylvania Constitution contains no specific mention of partisan gerrymandering, the state's high court said it was prohibited under a state constitutional provision requiring "free and equal" elections.
The Pennsylvania court struck down U.S. House districts enacted by the Republican-led Legislature and governor after the 2010 census and imposed new districts. The first election under that court-imposed map shifted the state's congressional delegation from a 13-5 Republican majority after the 2016 election to a 9-9 split between Republicans and Democrats after the 2018 election, better reflecting the battleground state's overall partisan composition.
In 2019, a panel of North Carolina judges used similar reasoning to block U.S. House districts passed by the Republican-led General Assembly. They said the districts likely ran afoul of state constitutional provisions guaranteeing "free" elections, "equal protection of the laws" and the right to free speech and assembly. The legislature subsequently passed revised districts for the 2020 election, and the GOP's congressional majority over Democrats shrunk from 10-3 to 8-5.
Voting rights groups raised a similar court challenge when North Carolina's congressional districts were redrawn again by Republican lawmakers after the 2020 census, which gave the state an additional House district. The state Supreme Court struck down the districts on similar grounds and allowed a temporary new map approved by a three-judge panel to be used for the 2022 election, a map that resulted in Democrats and Republicans equally splitting the state's 14 congressional districts. It's that case that's now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
PENDING LAWSUITS
A decision in the North Carolina case could affect ongoing court battles involving Kentucky, New Mexico and Utah. Lawsuits in each of those states make similar claims that U.S. House districts enacted by state legislatures after the 2020 census violated their state constitutions.
The New Mexico Supreme Court is to hear arguments in January in a lawsuit brought by Republicans against the U.S. House districts enacted by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and governor. The suit contends the districts diluted the conservative vote and violated the state constitution's "equal protection" guarantee.
In Kentucky, Democrats have asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that partisan gerrymandering is not prohibited by the state constitution. The lawsuit against the U.S. House districts enacted by the Republican-led Legislature cites the state constitution's guarantee of "free and equal" elections.
In Utah, the Republican-led Legislature and governor ignored the recommendations of an independent commission and enacted their own U.S. House districts after the census. A lawsuit pending in state court claims the map violates the state constitution's guarantee of "free" elections, "equal protection" as well as the freedoms of speech and assembly. Attorneys for the Legislature have asked the state Supreme Court to halt the case.
OTHER COURT CASES
The outcome of the North Carolina case also could have implications for Ohio and New York, where state courts ruled that U.S. House maps enacted after the 2020 census violated specific state constitutional prohibitions against partisan gerrymandering.
Ohio's Supreme Court twice ruled that Republicans who control the redistricting process violated a voter-approved constitutional provision against unduly favoring political parties. But the 2022 election went forward anyway using the stricken districts as Republicans appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It's unclear whether the nation's high court will take up the Ohio case. But a decision in favor of North Carolina's GOP lawmakers could pave the way for Ohio's Republican officials to ignore their own court's directives.
Earlier this year, New York's highest court struck down congressional districts enacted by the Democratic-led Legislature after an independent commission failed to agree on a plan. The court said lawmakers violated a voter-approved state constitutional prohibition against favoring particular political parties. A judge then imposed new U.S. House districts for the 2022 election that were not as skewed toward Democrats.
A ruling for North Carolina's Republican lawmakers could create an avenue for New York Democrats to argue that state judges had no authority to throw out the map they originally passed and impose a new one.
Some conservative lawyers have urged the high court to issue a comparatively narrow ruling that would still allow state courts to overturn maps in states such as New York, where voters have explicitly approved anti-gerrymandering initiatives.
A Maryland court this year also ruled that the U.S. House map passed by the Democratic-led Legislature was an "extreme gerrymander" that violated state constitutional requirements for compact districts and "free" elections. But the court never imposed a new map. Instead, lawmakers worked with the outgoing Republican governor to enact a new map. Democrats will have full control of state government when the new governor is sworn in next month.
New Mexico's largest electric provider seeks rate hike — Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
New Mexico's largest electric provider is seeking its first rate hike in years as it looks to recoup $2.6 billion in investments that executives say are needed to modernize the grid and meet state mandates for transitioning away from coal and natural gas.
Public Service Co. of New Mexico filed its request with state regulators Monday, telling reporters that much of the proposed 9.7% increase in base rates for average residential customers will be offset by savings from the recent closure of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station.
Other factors include the upcoming expiration of lease agreements for electricity from the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona and the refinancing of utility debt to take advantage of lower interest rates.
Utility executives say that when factoring in the savings, the increase will amount to about 75 cents more per month for average residential customers starting in 2024 if the proposal is approved by the Public Regulation Commission.
Ron Darnell, senior vice president for public policy, likened it to checking out at the grocery store and getting the total before swiping a frequent shopper card or presenting coupons.
"That final total of what you actually pay is much lower, just as the final total for the average residential customer is much lower than 9.7%," he said.
Darnell also acknowledged that rising costs have been a concern for PNM and that the utility is sensitive to the fact that customers also have been feeling the pinch amid economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, persistent supply chain issues and inflation.
Darnell said the cost of goods has risen by about 19% in recent years and yet the proposed rate increase will result in residential customers paying less than 1% more.
The filing triggers a lengthy process of public hearings that will carry through next year.
Aside from dealing with inflation and rising costs, PNM is looking to recoup $2.6 billion in investments aimed at modernizing the grid and meeting state mandates for more renewable energy. Under New Mexico's Energy Transition Act, investor-owned utilities are on the hook for being carbon-free by 2045.
Solar and battery projects that were meant to replace the lost capacity with the closure of the San Juan Power Plant have been delayed and costs have been rising.
There also was a legal battle over when the utility would pass along the savings of the San Juan closure to ratepayers. The attorney general and consumer advocates recently asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to reconsider a decision that allowed the utility to delay the credits and work them in as part of the rate request filed Monday.
PNM, which serves more than 530,000 customers in communities statewide, has argued that issuing the credits now would leave ratepayers on the hook for a bigger increase down the road.
The utility said Monday that it tried to balance many factors in proposing what the executives described as "a modest increase."
PNM's proposal also includes increases for small business customers, commercial and industrial users, universities, water and sewer utility operations and for the electricity that municipalities use to power street lights.
Consumer advocacy groups are expected to weigh in on PNM's request. In past rate cases, debates over whether the utility's investments were prudent resulted in some reductions of the rates approved by the regulatory commission.
New Mexico lawmaker avoids ethics hearing over committee job — Associated Press
Outgoing New Mexico House Speaker Brian Egolf, who appointed himself to the Public Regulation Commission nominating committee, has avoided an ethics hearing by resigning.
The State Ethics Commission was scheduled to hold a public hearing last Friday after a lawmaker complained about Egolf's self-appointment. The meeting was cancelled after the Democrat resigned from the nominating panel, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
The move became public after Egolf and other members of the nominating committee voted Friday to send Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham a list of nine candidates to choose from as she looks to appoint members to the Public Regulation Commission.
A constitutional amendment approved in 2020 changes the PRC from a five-member elected body representing districts around the state to a three-person panel appointed by the governor and confirmed by the New Mexico Senate.
Democratic Rep. Miguel Garcia of Albuquerque filed a complaint in August, saying Egolf had violated the law and the state Constitution with his self-appointment.
Garcia in a statement issued over the weekend called Egolf's action a dereliction of his duties as speaker to appoint himself.
A letter from the ethics commission stated the allegations that Egolf violated the state Governmental Conduct Act were supported by probable cause and that a hearing would determine whether a preponderance of the evidence established such a violation.
The letter also explained that Egolf had 10 days to correct the alleged violation, with his resignation being one way to settle the matter.
Egolf wrote in his resignation letter that "it has been my plan for some time to step aside after the committee completed its first round of work and to leave the position that I currently hold on the committee open to be filled by the next speaker of the House."
Albuquerque City Council approves pilot noise camera program – KUNM News
While Albuquerque already has speed cameras monitoring its streets, the city council approved Monday a pilot project to install special noise cameras to detect loud vehicles.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Issac Benton, who co-sponsored the bill, said he thinks the city can test the new cameras with minimal expense, while giving law enforcement another tool to combat problem drivers.He also said this would free up officers to deal with more urgent issues, rather than having them spend time on noise pollution.The bill passed 8-1 with only Klarissa Pena voting against it. She gave no reason for her vote.
KRQE news reports a similar device called NoiseVu has already been tested for over a year in Albuquerque. The device can sense events like burglaries, accidents and even fights, and alert law enforcement.
Now that it has passed, the city will test different technologies before furthering the program. Warnings will be sent out to drivers during the testing period instead of fines.
New Mexico may overhaul high school graduation requirements — Associated Press
Legislation to overhaul New Mexico's high school graduation requirements and reduce the minimum number of class-unit credits was being drafted by state lawmakers Monday.
High school teacher and state Rep. Andrés Romero of Albuquerque said he hopes to support a bill that would eliminate algebra II as a graduation requirement, among other changes. That could open up space in high school curriculums for subjects such as statistics and probabilities, which are seen as increasingly relevant to college and career preparation.
New Mexico has gone about 20 years since the last comprehensive overhaul of high school graduation requirements, according to the legislature's oversight agency for public education.
Further discussion of the draft legislation was scheduled for Tuesday at a committee hearing in Santa Fe. Lawmakers are also contemplating a possible increase in the minimum number of instructional hours per academic year.
Legislators will convene in January for a 60-day session, and changes to high school graduation requirements could take effect as soon as the 2024-25 school year.
The nonpartisan advocacy group Think New Mexico is urging the state to expand high school requirements for financial literacy as well as civics and foreign-language instruction.
Romero said lessons on personal finances are already taught more widely than many people may realize under current standards for economics instruction.
The state Council of University Presidents has cautioned in recent years that a reduction in high school class requirements, including algebra, could adversely affect college readiness and increase the need for remedial studies.
New Mexico is relaxing requirements for some high school students by eliminating the need to pass standardized tests as a way to demonstrate they're ready to graduate, the state Public Education Department announced last week.
Those changes apply to students on track to graduate in 2024. While the students still must take the tests, their scores won't serve as a measure of whether they're eligible to graduate.
New Mexico's statewide graduation rate of nearly 77% in 2021 was among the lowest in the nation.