Some Albuquerque-area hospitals dealing with a patient surge - Associated Press
Some hospitals in the Albuquerque area are taking measures to free up more space amid a surge of patients that are pushing some hospitals beyond their licensed capacity.
The University of New Mexico Hospital has opened a tent outside the emergency room to triage adult patients, the Albuquerque Journal reported Tuesday.
Doctors at some local hospitals said they are busier than they were during the past two winters, when the COVID-19 epidemic was driving up hospital admissions.
They also say respiratory syncytial virus, influenza and COVID are all fueling the rise in hospitalizations.
Physicians at Albuquerque-area hospitals held a briefing Monday morning during which they asked the public to wear masks in some settings, stay up-to-date on COVID and influenza vaccines and not to go into public when sick.
"The last couple of years, when we were masking, there was very, very little influenza, very little colds, very little RSV. So we know that masking works," Dr. Jason Mitchell, the chief medical officer at Presbyterian Healthcare Services, told the Journal.
Dr. David Scrase, the acting health secretary, issued a public health emergency order earlier this month which returned New Mexico to the "hub-and-spoke" model of patient care and made it easier for hospitals to transfer patients to different facilities around the state.
Physicians at UNMH said that at any given time, about 100 adults and 20 children are waiting for a hospital bed and they have warned people to expect long wait times in the emergency room.
Study: Medicaid providers mostly can't be reached by phone - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
A "secret shopper" accountability study shows that medical patients can't readily schedule appointments by phone through Medicaid providers in New Mexico, even as the state and federal government spend $8.8 billion annually on the health care program that serves nearly half of state residents.
The budget and accountability office of the Legislature presented its findings Tuesday to a panel of lawmakers as evidence of an inadequate network of health care providers.
The agency surveyed private providers of Medicaid health care services as well as providers of mental health and addiction counseling. About 13% of attempts to make an appointment were successful.
In about half of calls, appointments could not be made because of inaccurate phone listings or voicemails that went unreturned.
When primary health care providers were reached by phone, more than one-quarter were either not accepting new patients or had left the listed medical practice. The study found that patients who were able to connect with Medicaid care providers confronted waiting lists or appointment times that exceeded contractual requirements.
The consumer-protection survey was part of a broader program evaluation indicating that New Mexico resident enrolled in Medicaid are not using more services even as enrollment and spending on the program have surged.
Enrollment in Medicaid has climbed by 16% since 2019. Spending is up 56% over the same period. But per-patient use of certain Medicaid physical care services declined or remained steady. Agency analysts say pandemic-related curtailments in medical services could be partly to blame.
Managed care organizations, which contract with the state to provide medical services to patients with Medicaid insurance, are required to conduct their own secret-shopper surveys. A review of those surveys found there was no standard methodology and that some overbooked medical providers were exempt from participation.
85,000 New Mexicans or more could be kicked off Medicaid this winter - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
After the Biden administration calls the end of the state of emergency for COVID, between 85,000 and 100,000 people in New Mexico would be kicked off Medicaid, according to the state’s Human Services Department.
Those changes could begin on March 1 of next year — that’s the earliest possible date — New Mexico’s top health official told a panel of state lawmakers on Monday.
A requirement for continuous health care coverage during the public health emergency helped stop the periodic “churn” in the Medicaid program, where people get kicked off the rolls but quickly re-apply because they still need health care. The result of such uncertainty is delayed medical care, fewer preventive visits, and periods of uninsurance.
“Do you have a plan for how your department is going to address that once we’re having to recertify and process that paperwork?” Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill (D-Silver City) asked acting Department of Health Secretary David Scrase.
“There is a plan like you would not believe, and meetings like you would not believe, to make sure we’re ready when the time comes for that,” Scrase responded at the Legislative Finance Committee meeting on Monday.
More than one-third of the people in New Mexico are covered either by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the highest proportion of any state in the country.
The federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act protects people enrolled in Medicaid with continuous coverage until the end of the public health emergency, gives states more money to administer Medicaid, and prohibits states from making fewer people eligible or imposing new bureaucratic hurdles to enrollment.
The Biden administration promised to give state governments 60 days’ notice before declaring the public health emergency over. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has said it would be “tough” to give much more notice than that.
The warning is meant to provide “enough time for states to roll out their unwinding plans,” New Mexico HSD spokesperson Marina Piña said in an email.
The federal public health emergency declaration lasts through Jan. 11, and there hasn’t yet been any indication that it will be extended. The federal government did not meet the deadline to notify states, so an end date for expanded Medicaid is unclear.
A request for comment sent to the federal Health and Human Services Department was not returned as of Monday afternoon.
Once the federal public health emergency ends, Piña said, someone who loses Medicaid could complete a renewal application to see whether they still qualify. The Department will mail renewal packets, she added.
“HSD is encouraging all customers to make sure the department has their most up-to-date contact information,” she said. “The easiest way to update is by using the chat at the YESNM Portal.”
Nationwide, the number of people on Medicaid increased between February 2020 and August 2022 by more than 27% nationwide to a total of 90.6 million people, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
That includes 980,931 people in New Mexico as of Monday, Piña wrote. That number is expected to reach more than 1 million by January, the state’s Medicaid director told the Albuquerque Journal.
Federal HHS estimates as many as 15 million people across the country will lose health coverage once states again start recertifying and disenrolling people.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján: Billions for northern NM fire victims still up in the air in DC - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján said negotiations are fluctuating daily on a congressional spending bill that includes almost $3 billion more for victims of the biggest fire in New Mexico history. This funding would come in addition to the $2.5 billion Congress voted to send to the state earlier this year.
Luján, a Democrat, told Source New Mexico that Congress has to agree on two big spending bills before the end of the year, including a catch-all spending bill by Dec. 16 and the National Defense Authorization Act. The catch-all bill is the best way he sees for additional money to reach fire victims here, he said.
There’s back and forth with Senate Republicans about whether to pass an omnibus measure that funds a variety of programs, he said, “and it fluctuates day by day.”
“I believe most members, Democratic and Republican senators, want to see an omnibus. But there must be an effort to coalesce to get it done,” he said Saturday after speaking to a group of acequia stewards in Las Vegas, N.M.
President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve $37 billion to help communities across the country recover from a year of damaging floods and other natural disasters. That request includes $2.9 billion to pay claims to victims of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, which began with two botched prescribed burns by the United States Forest Service and scorched more than 530 square miles north of Las Vegas.
Biden is also asking Congress to include additional money for COVID relief and Ukraine in the spending bill it passes before the year is up. Beginning in January, a new Republican-majority House of Representatives will convene, making it harder for Biden to get his priorities funded.
Congress already approved $2.5 billion in late September for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to spend on victims of the fire in a bill that aimed to fully compensate them for their losses and cover administrative costs.
But a report from Biden’s Office of Management and Budget states that claims for victims could reach $5.4 billion, hence the additional request.
According to the OMB, the $2.9 billion would be spent over the next five years, with $1 billion spent on claims in 2024, $1.3 billion in 2025, $616 million 2026 and $3 million in 2027. The office did not respond to a Source NM question about how it arrived at those figures.
FEMA is gearing up to establish a claims office to spend the money it has so far. It is holding job fairs to hire locals to help run the program and is accepting public comment on the rules for how the program will operate.
Luján said he is cautiously optimistic that his colleagues in the Senate and the House are prepared to come to an agreement before the end of the year. He said he’s seeing them change their travel schedules to stay in Washington, D.C., until Dec. 23.
“That tells me that it’s more likely that something comes together for them to coalesce around,” he said. “But right now, there just has to be agreement from Senate Republicans to say ‘Let’s get this done. Let’s move forward.’”
State legislators approve changes to anti-harassment policy - Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
New Mexico lawmakers from both political parties had a heated debate Monday before approving changes to the Roundhouse anti-harassment policy in the wake of an investigation into allegations against a prominent state senator this year.
Outgoing Rep. Daymon Ely (D-Albuquerque) took a third swing at changing the policy to open up a secretive process, add independent members to the committee that investigates these claims, and create a way to break a tie vote on whether an inquiry should move forward.
The Legislative Council, a subcommittee composed of legislators from both parties in the House and Senate, voted 9-7 to adopt the changes. Rep. Patty Lundstrum from Gallup was the lone Democrat to vote against the policy changes, which she did without comment.
The changes to the anti-harassment policy take effect immediately. They include a requirement that the four-person committee hire an outside attorney with experience in harassment law to be a potentially tie-breaking vote. But Ely pointed out the committee can still deadlock if it doesn’t approve the independent fifth member.
The policy also requires a 45-day deadline for an investigative report to be filed and that the parties involved are notified if there is a delay.
If a case is complete and dismissed, the committee must have the independent report on the investigation released to the public within 10-days.
The call for this reform came as Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Albuquerque) was investigated after harassment complaints were filed by a lobbyist in late February.
The independent investigator found probable cause that Ivey-Soto violated the anti-harassment policy twice, according to a leaked report.
During Monday’s council meeting a lawmaker on the panel confirmed the investigation was halted on a 2-2 tie vote back in September.
Two Republicans voted to stop the investigation and two Democrats voted to keep it going, according to Sen. Mark Moores (R-Albuquerque).
“This was an internal Democratic caucus fight,” Moores said during Monday’s committee hearing. “What’s ironic is that Democrats couldn’t get a Republican to vote against a Democrat.”
Moores sat on the board, and with his statement confirmed he voted to end the investigation despite the investigator finding grounds to suspect that Ivey-Soto violated the anti-harassment policy at least twice.
After his statements Monday, Moores also voted against changing the anti-harassment policy.
No Republican voted for the policy changes and instead directed their frustration to the lack of investigation into how the report was leaked to the press.
Without the leak, the public would have no idea about the process or the investigator’s findings — or that Ivey-Soto was allowed to move on without penalty.
“We should’ve voted to hire an investigator to find the leak,” Sen. Craig Brandt (R-Rio Rancho) said. “There are only four on the committee. It shouldn’t be hard. Yet, we’ve decided as a group to do nothing about that and instead try to change the policy.”
The Legislative Council affirmed there is no intention to launch a leak investigation.
The next step in reforming the harassment complaint process will come in January when the Legislature meets for a 60-day session in Santa Fe.
While these policy issues could be addressed by the committee, another problem exposed by this case would require a change to state statute and so must be handled by the full Legislature.
When a harassment or misconduct complaint in the Roundhouse is being investigated, the people involved are subject to strict confidentiality requirements and barred from talking about the case. Lobbyist Marianna Anaya said she’d been silenced ever since she embarked on the formal process of bringing allegations against Ivey-Soto.
She released a letter outlining the accusations as the complaint was filed in March but hasn’t spoken about the case since.
Her lawyer filed a lawsuit in a Santa Fe District Court arguing the confidentiality requirement violates Anaya’s First Amendment rights.
The case was set for a hearing on Dec. 15, but Anaya’s lawyer asked to cancel it. The court granted the request, so arguments will not be heard in court in the near future.
Ely said lawmakers must take on the confidentiality issue.
“Today is the first step. It’s just a step, but it’s starting,” Ely said. “The Legislature in the 60-day session has to finish the job.”
Roswell to host another festival for UFO-philes next spring - Associated Press
Roswell, known for its association with extraterrestrial matters, will have two big UFO-themed events next year.
The Roswell Daily Record reported Tuesday that the city has negotiated to host the second annual UFOXPO in the spring.
The three-day event was previously held in Florida. The extraterrestrial extravaganza includes a film festival, cosplay, panels on UFOs and live music.
It will be held March 10-12.
This is on top of the city's UFO Festival every summer.
Roswell officials hope the UFOXPO can be another flagship event that draws visitors during spring break season. Ideally, the festivals will complement each other.
Roswell's annual UFO Festival is a significant revenue source. In October, an analysis by the city found this year's event had a $2 million direct economic impact.
More than 40,000 people came.
SD prosecutors drop all charges against Indigenous activist - Associated Press
South Dakota prosecutors have dropped all charges against the head of an Indigenous-led advocacy organization stemming from a protest during then-President Donald Trump's visit to Mount Rushmore, the group announced Tuesday.
NDN Collective President Nick Tilsen was among those arrested July 3, 2020, when the protest seeking return of the Black Hills to Lakota control escalated into a scuffle with law enforcement. The charges included robbery and assault of a law enforcement officer.
Tilsen agreed to participate in a diversion program rather than face prison time, but claimed prosecutors backed out of the agreement last year after he spoke to the media about it. In his motion for dismissal, Tilsen said his remarks were protected by the First Amendment.
Deputy State's Attorney Colleen Moran filed the dismissal Nov. 18, court documents show.
"My case held a mirror up to the so-called legal system, where prosecutors — fueled by white fragility and fear of Indigenous power — wasted years of state resources to intimidate, criminalize, and violate me," Tilsen said in a statement Tuesday. "The fact that I've gone from facing 17 years in prison to all charges dismissed is not a coincidence or an act of justice — it's evidence that the charges were bogus from the start."
The case was transferred earlier from Pennington County in Rapid City to Minnehaha County in Sioux Falls. The original prosecutor, Pennington County State's Attorney Mark Vargo, who is temporarily serving as South Dakota's interim attorney general, said he had a conflict of interest because he was called to testify.
Minnehaha County States Attorney Daniel Haggar did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the decision to dismiss the charges.
Colorado River water users convening amid crisis concerns - By Ken Ritter Associated Press
Living with less water in the U.S. Southwest is the focus this week for state and federal water administrators, tribal officials, farmers, academics and business representatives meeting about the drought-stricken and overpromised Colorado River.
The Colorado River Water Users Association conference, normally a largely academic three-day affair, comes at a time of growing concern about the river's future after more than two decades of record drought attributed to climate change.
"The Colorado River system is in a very dire condition," Dan Bunk, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water manager, declared during internet presentations streamed Nov. 29 and Dec. 2 that invited public comment about possible actions.
"Flows during the past 23-year period … are the lowest in the past 120 years and (among) the lowest in more than 1,200 years," Bunk told the webinar audience. The deadline for public submissions is Dec. 20 for a process expected to yield a final report by summer.
Bunk said the two largest reservoirs on the river — Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona state line and Lake Powell formed by the Glen Canyon Dam on the Arizona-Utah line — are at unprecedented low levels. Lake Mead was at 100% capacity in mid-1999. Today it is 28% full. Lake Powell, last full in June 1980, is at 25%.
Scientists attribute extended drought to warmer and drier weather in the West to long-term, human-caused climate change. The effect has been dramatic on a vast river basin where the math never added up: The amount of water it receives doesn't meet the amount that is promised.
Lake Powell's drop last March to historically low water levels raised worries about losing the ability — perhaps within the next few months — to produce hydropower that today serves about 5 million customers in seven states. If power production ceases at Glen Canyon Dam, rural electric cooperatives, cities and tribal utilities would be forced to seek more expensive options.
Reclamation water managers responded with plans to hold back more water in Lake Powell but warned that Lake Mead water levels would drop.
Meanwhile, bodies have surfaced as Lake Mead's shoreline recedes, including the corpse of a man who authorities say was shot, maybe in the 1970s, and stuffed in a barrel. He remains unidentified. The gruesome discoveries renewed interest in the lore of organized crime and the early days of the Las Vegas Strip, just a 30-minute drive from the lake.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June told the seven states that are part of the Colorado River Basin — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — to determine how to use at least 15% less water next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. Despite deadlines, discussions have not resulted in agreements.
Bureau officials use the image of pouring tea from one cup to another to describe how water from Rocky Mountain snowmelt is captured in Lake Powell, then released downriver through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead. About 70% is allocated for irrigation, sustaining a $15 billion-a-year agricultural industry that supplies 90% of U.S. winter vegetables.
The two lakes, combined, were at 92% capacity in 1999, Bunk noted. Today, they are at 26%.
"Due to critically low current reservoir conditions, and the potential for worsening drought which threatens critical infrastructure and public health and safety … operational strategies must be revisited," Bunk said.
This year's meeting of water recipients begins Wednesday at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. The event theme, "A New Century for the Colorado River Compact," marks 100 years since a 1922 interstate agreement divvied water shares among interests in the seven states now home to 40 million people and millions of farmed acres.
Agricultural interests got the biggest share. Native American tribes weren't included and were referenced in one sentence: "Nothing in this compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the United States of America to Indian tribes."
It wasn't until 1944 that a separate agreement promised a share of water to Mexico.
Today, tribes are at the table and a Mexico delegation is due to attend the conference. U.S. cities that receive river water include Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Many call conservation crucial. Among conference topic titles are "Messaging in a More Water-Challenged world" and "The Next 100 Years Begins Now."
"The ongoing drought is a stark reminder that water conservation is not just smart planning but an absolute necessity to save the life of the Colorado River," Amelia Flores, chairwoman of Colorado River Indian Tribes, said ahead of the event. The tribal reservation in western Arizona includes more than 110 miles of Colorado River shoreline.
"Whether it's fallowing fields, upgrading irrigation canals, or modernizing farming methods," Flores said, "decisions made now will have lasting consequences."
Throughout the river basin, warnings have increased and measures have tightened markedly in 2022.
In April, water administrators in Southern California imposed a one-day-a-week outdoor watering limit on more than 6 million people.
Last month, 30 agencies that supply water to homes and businesses throughout the region joined the Las Vegas area in restricting the planting of decorative lawns that no one walks on.
Adel Hagekhalil, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California general manager, warned this month in a statement that another dry winter could force officials to make voluntary measures mandatory.
The four states at the headwaters of the river — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — also recently announced they plan to ask Congress to let them use federal money through 2026 for a program dubbed "strategic conservation." It would resurrect a 2015 to 2018 pilot program that paid farmers to fallow land to cut water use.
Camille Touton, bureau commissioner, tempered a warning during the water webinars about federal intervention — she called it "moving forward on the initiation of administrative actions" — with a vow to "find a collective solution to the challenges that we face today."
Touton and two top Interior Department officials are scheduled to address the conference on Friday.
New Mexico state government reaps budget windfall from oil - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
The state of New Mexico is likely to inherit a new, multibillion-dollar financial windfall largely from surging oil production and robust energy prices in the era of war between Ukraine and Russia, economists told a panel of leading legislators on Monday.
Economists from four state agencies revised upward estimates of government income that are the basis for budget negotiations by lawmakers when the legislature convenes in January 2023.
They estimate state government income of nearly $12 billion for the fiscal year running from July 2023 to June 2024. That revenue would exceed current annual general fund spending obligations by $3.6 billion — or 43%.
The forecast enhances the potential spending authority of newly reelected Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of the Democratic-led Legislature.
Democratic state Sen. George Muñoz of Gallup said the state has a unique opportunity to make investments that expand economic opportunity and rein in dependence on petroleum production in the future.
"No one in this state's history has ever had this opportunity," said Muñoz, vice chairman of the legislature's lead budget writing committee. "We can really set this state up to not be dependent on oil and gas."
He also highlighted efforts to improve public education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and aggressive health restrictions that shut down classroom teaching for roughly a year.
Lujan Grisham last week outlined new goals for combatting childhood poverty by expanding daycare subsidies and providing meals at schools free of charge. Her administration also is proposing an expansion of minimum instructional time at schools and increases in school salaries and benefits.
Public schools in New Mexico operate primarily on money from the state general fund and investment income from New Mexico's $26 billion land grant permanent fund.
Voters in November approved an increase in annual withdrawals from the land grant trust to boost spending on K-12 schools and early childhood education, though congressional approval is still required and pending.
If Monday's state income forecast comes to fruition, billions of dollars will automatically flow to a new investment fund designed to underwrite early childhood education initiatives. The balance could reach $8 billion as soon at 2024.
Money is pouring into government accounts from a variety taxes and fees. Much of it can be traced to oil and natural gas development in New Mexico's portion of the Permian Basin that stretches across the southeast corner of the state and western Texas.
New Mexico in 2021 became the No. 2 oil producer in the nation behind Texas and continued to set local production records as recently as September.
The Legislature's budget and accountability office said state government is relying increasingly on income from the fossil fuel industry that could falter suddenly with an economic downturn. Oil production has expanded far beyond pre-pandemic levels and shifted toward public lands overseen by the U.S. government, providing New Mexico with a boost in royalty payments to its state general fund.
"It's really staggering," said Ismael Torres, chief economist at the budget and accountability office. "You can see that New Mexico is really powering the U.S. oil production growth."
Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Deborah Romero, who retires later this month without a named replacement, encouraged legislators to consider one-time investments in infrastructure for water and communications and cautioned against expanding permanent programs too much.
New Mexicans voted for more public education money. But Congress has to allow it first. - By Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
New Mexico voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment in November that would allocate more funding for public schools.
But that money is waiting for federal lawmakers to pass a bill that will guarantee voters’ demands for greater school funding are met, prompting state lawmakers to wonder if they’ll have this money to budget during the 60-day legislative session beginning Jan. 17.
With 70% in support, New Mexicans overwhelmingly voted yes on Constitutional Amendment 1 during the General Election in November. This means the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund, made up of revenue from state land usage, will raise its annual contribution to public education by 1.25%. That could amount to about $250 million in the next fiscal year for early childhood and K-12 education — but only if Congress acts.
Since the federal government created the Land Grant Permanent Fund, meeting the will of New Mexico’s voters and moving more money out of it requires federal approval. Although many state and federal officials have said the bill is likely to pass, there’s a sense of urgency to get it done before 2023.
Sen. Martin Heinrich and Rep. Melanie Stansbury are trying to meet that requirement by driving the N.M. Education Enhancement Act in the House and Senate. Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández are also original cosponsors of the legislation.
Staffers from both Heinrich and Stansbury’s offices said the lawmakers’ top priorities are getting this federal bill passed before the end of the year. It got through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously in July and is currently waiting for consideration in the Senate.
“There’s no greater investment that we can make in the future of our state than in our children,” Heinrich said in a written statement. “When we improve our education and childcare system, we also make our state a better place to raise a family, to start or expand a business, to find a good-paying job, and to hire the best and brightest employees.”
CAN IT PASS BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR?
One of the reasons to get this done quickly is that a government shutdown is looming, although there’s work to prevent that from happening before Dec. 17. If the bill doesn’t pass this year, it’ll have to be reintroduced to a new Congress in 2023, this time with Republicans in control of the House.
Stansbury’s spokesperson Julia Friedmanm said the New Mexico’s federal delegation would reintroduce it in Congress if it doesn’t pass before adjournment. Friedmann said they are “exploring every avenue to pass this legislation before the end of the year.”
“New Mexicans have spoken, and they have decided to invest in our kids,” Stansbury said in a written statement. “I am working hard to ensure that every single member of Congress hears the voices of New Mexicans so we can invest in our children, our education system, and our future.”
At a state Public School Capital Outlay Oversight Task Force meeting on Friday, Dec. 9, Rep. Tara Lujan (D-Santa Fe) said passage in the new makeup of Congress could be a challenge.
“It looks like it could be really difficult if it doesn’t get through by the end of the year, and we’re already having difficulties meeting what Congress needs to get done by this fiscal year,” she said.
Democrats have already asked outgoing Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell to talk to her party’s colleagues about pushing the bill through, but there hasn’t been confirmation on whether she’ll do it or not.
Herrell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We’ll update this article if she responds.
Even if it does pass, the president would need to sign it before any new money is taken from the permanent fund.
The bill doesn’t have to stand alone, and could potentially be part of a broader legislative package for an easier route to the president’s desk. Friedmann said the New Mexico delegation members are trying to get this legislation included in a “must-pass end-of-year spending bill.”
The state legislature begins Jan. 17, and state lawmakers have questioned during multiple legislative education meetings if public education will get the Land Grant money during the 60-day session. They can’t plan details of where it could go until it’s approved at a federal level.
“We think that’s going to happen before the end of the year, according to Sen. Heinrich, but that could delay it if it gets bound up at the federal level as to when we actually see it,” Sen. William Soules (D-Las Cruces) said.
Some lawmakers disagreed about having to get federal approval at all in the first place, according to the Albuquerque Journal, but that’s the phrasing that made it into the final version of the amendment approved by voters.
Environmentalists want jaguars reintroduced to US Southwest - By Anita Snow Associated Press
An environmental group on Monday petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help reintroduce the jaguar to the Southwest, where it roamed for hundreds of thousands of years before being whittled down to just one of the big cats known to survive in the region.
The male jaguar, named Sombra — shadow in Spanish — has been seen in southern Arizona several times since first captured on a wildlife camera in the Dos Cabezas Mountains in 2016, including a 2017 video by the Center for Biological Diversity. There are a handful of jaguars known to be living across the border in the Mexican state of Sonora.
The center wants the federal agency to help expand critical habitat for jaguars in remote areas and launch an experimental population in New Mexico's Gila National Forest along the border with Arizona.
"Over 50 years since the jaguar was placed on the endangered species list, we should not be facing the realistic prospect that this sole jaguar in Arizona will be the last," Michael J. Robinson, senior conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote to Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
"This could be an amazing opportunity for us to restore a native species that was here for hundreds of thousands of years and deserves to come back," Robinson said in an interview.
Jaguars ranged throughout North America before they were killed to the point of extinction for their stunning spotted pelts and to protect livestock.
Robinson said failure to do something could also affect efforts to save the dwindling jaguar population in Mexico that needs the kind of genetic diversity possible through mating with a new group of big cats to the north.
Jaguar populations in many places from Mexico to South America are shrinking as well. They are being reintroduced to their historic range in Argentina through a program in which they are bred in captivity and released.
The center was among environmental groups involved in successful efforts to launch the recovery of the gray wolf population that dropped to near extinction a half century ago.
Like jaguars, gray wolves once ranged most of the U.S. but were wiped out in most places by the 1930s under government-sponsored poisoning and trapping campaigns.
A remnant population in the western Great Lakes region has since expanded to some 4,400 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. And more than 2,000 wolves occupy six states in the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest.
The rarest subspecies of gray wolf in North America, the Mexican wolf, was listed as endangered in the 1970s and a U.S.-Mexico captive breeding program was started with the seven wolves then in existence.
The results of the latest annual survey of the Mexican gray wolves released in March showed at least 196 in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona — the sixth straight year that the wolf population has increased.
Robinson said efforts to protect the jaguar never enjoyed the momentum of the gray wolf campaign.
"People forget or don't know that the jaguar actually evolved in North America, ranging from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and then spread to the south," he said.
Concerns about the jaguar's future were mentioned in a letter the center sent Oct. 19 to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, giving his administration a 60-day notice of its intent to file a lawsuit to halt the ongoing placement of shipping containers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The letter says the San Rafael Valley in southeastern Arizona is among the last established corridors for jaguars and ocelots between the two countries.