New Mexico governor names new Indian Affairs secretary - Associated Press
A former governor of a New Mexico pueblo has been chosen to be the state's next secretary of Indian Affairs.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the appointment Friday of James R. Mountain to lead the department.
She highlighted his history as a leader in Pueblo de San Ildefonso and a vast expertise in state and tribal relations.
Mountain said in a statement that it was an honor take on the post and hoped to build "strong government-to-government relationships that truly respect the sovereignty of New Mexico's Nations, Tribes and Pueblos."
He also aims to maintain traditional values of the state's Indigenous people but also work on enhancing everyone's quality of life.
Mountain served as governor 2006-2007 and 2015-2017. He oversaw the completion of the Aamodt Water Settlement, the pueblo's water rights and the Indian Land Claims Settlement in 2006.
He has run his own state-tribal affairs consulting firm since 2018.
Albuquerque police tweets slammed by some as intimidation - Associated Press
The Albuquerque Police Department is making no apologies for official tweets that have been criticized by some, including city officials, as inappropriate.
The department's Twitter account has been questioned over biting responses such as "Calling out your b.s. is public service" and "You only complain and never offer solutions," KOAT-TV reported Thursday.
Most of the tweets were in response to Doug Peterson, whose company is considered the largest landlord in the city. He recently took to Twitter to complain about crime and homelessness in downtown.
Police Chief Harold Medina said the department will "push back" on social media when it comes to people spreading misinformation and cyberbullying.
He told the broadcaster that although some of the tweets might not be in line with the city's policy, others "bluntly point out differences."
"And I'm okay with that," he said.
Two city councilors who also are former police officers want the tweets toned down.
"The department thinks that harassing and intimidating people is community policing; they're on the wrong path," City Councilor Louie Sanchez said.
Peterson, the landlord, says he wasn't trying to attack the police, just the policies of the mayor and police chief.
"I have supported APD, and I still support APD very much," he said.
One tweet that generated controversy came in July after the death of a 15-year-old boy caught in a SWAT standoff in a home that later caught fire. Some used Twitter to blame the police for the boy's "murder." In response, the department account tweeted: "didn't know a fire could murder someone."
In that case, Medina said he told department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos to take a different tone. But Medina continues to stand behind tweets that respond to seeming inaccuracies.
Mayor Tim Keller also echoed that sentiment.
"APD has its own social media policy," his office said in a statement. "We support their efforts to pushback on misinformation on social media."
The embattled department is in the middle of revamping its use-of-force policies under approval of the U.S. Department of Justice. Officers will begin training on the new policies over the next quarter, according to authorities.
The goal of city leaders is to see a decrease in officer-involved shootings. There were 18 shootings by Albuquerque police officers last year and 10 of them were fatal. That number caused Department of Justice attorneys and community stakeholders to raise concerns at a federal court hearing in December.
New Mexico legislators may block local abortion ordinances - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
A standoff over abortion in politically conservative regions of New Mexico escalated Friday as Democratic state legislators advanced a bill that would prohibit local governments from interfering with women's access to reproductive health care.
The initiative from state House Democrats responds to abortion restrictions recently adopted in two counties and three cities in eastern New Mexico where sentiments against the procedure run deep — and amid efforts by states across the nation to restrict abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
A legislative panel endorsed the bill on a party-line, 7-3 vote with opposition from Republican lawmakers who said they were bombarded with emails, phone calls and petitions from constituents in opposition. Additional hearings are planned before the House and Senate potentially votes on the bill, which is supported by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Anti-abortion ordinances, adopted over the past several months by officials in the cities of Hobbs, Clovis, Eunice, and Lea and Roosevelt counties, reference an obscure U.S. anti-obscenity law that prohibits shipping of medication or other materials intended to aid abortions.
State Attorney General Raúl Torrez says local governments have overstepped their authority to regulate health care access, with local laws that violate state constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. Last month, Torrez petitioned the state Supreme Court to intervene. The court has yet to respond.
The new bill, sponsored by Rep. Linda Serrato of Santa Fe and other Democrats, would prohibit local governments from interfering with access to reproductive care — including abortion, birth control, and prevention of or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.
"It's really important ... to make it abundantly clear to everyone that in New Mexico you can access health care and we respect your ability to do so," Serrato said.
The bill would also ban local restrictions on gender-affirming care, which typically can include puberty-blocking medication, hormone therapy or surgeries. That provision is a counterpoint to proposed bans on gender-affirming care for minors or young adults in more than two dozen states.
"We've seen so many, to be frank, politically motivated attacks on these two types of health care," Serrato told The Associated Press. "We wanted to make sure that people were not scared of accessing their health care."
On Friday, Serrato told a House panel that providing gender-affirming health care can save lives by lowering suicide rates and addressing depression as youths come of age and grapple with questions of gender. Republican state Rep. Harlan Vincent, of Ruidoso Downs, countered that a portion of youths have regrets after seeking gender-affirming health care.
Jodi Hendricks, executive director of the conservative group New Mexico Family Action Movement, described abortion and gender-affirming care as "elective procedures" and urged legislators to leave room for conscience decisions and support the autonomy of local government.
"We do not believe that local governments and bodies should lose the right to determine what's best with their communities," she said.
In 2021, New Mexico's Democrat-led Legislature passed a measure to repeal a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures, ensuring access to abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case.
But that ruling last June also energized local government efforts to restrict abortion.
Hobbs Mayor Sam Cobb has said constituents in his community overwhelmingly support the city's abortion-restricting ordinance, citing hours of public testimony to the city council.
The ordinances adopted in New Mexico bear hallmarks of a national effort to ban abortion one city at a time led by Mark Lee Dickson, founder of the Texas-based Sanctuary Cities of the Unborn organization. He has traveled extensively in New Mexico to talk to local government boards and faith-based groups.
"The approach in New Mexico ended up being compliance with these federal statutes," Dickson told the AP. "They're not explicit abortion bans ... but they have the same result. We call them de facto abortion bans."
Dickson said he envisions the ordinances in New Mexico holding up to scrutiny in federal court and helping cities such as Hobbs keep at bay abortion providers and pharmacy chain distributors of abortion pills, amid legal battles over state restrictions on abortion medications.
"I almost want to show up and say (to state legislators), 'I double dog dare you to pass it,'" said Dickson, who believes local abortion ordinances are reinforced by federal law and can't be overturned by the Legislature.
Roosevelt County's ordinance gives private citizens the power to sue anyone suspected of violations of local regulation of abortion, allowing damages of up to $100,000 per infraction.
Under the state bill, interference with reproductive and gender-affirming health care could result in civil penalties of up to $5,000, damage awards and compensation for legal expenses.
Minnesota on Tuesday became the first state Legislature this year to codify abortion rights into law, ensuring that the state's existing protections remain in place no matter who sits on future courts.
No bills for southern New Mexico Black Fire victims yet - By Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
Hundreds of people and families in northern New Mexico are trying to recover after the state’s largest wildfire wrecked their homes and livelihoods, and much of the region. Lawmakers are coming together to try and allocate $100 million in loans from the General Fund to help them out, in addition to the billions of federal dollars to come. The measure is headed for a vote in the N.M. Senate.
But for the much less populated communities trying to recover in southern New Mexico from the second-biggest fire, it’s been a fight for many nearly every day to get the state to send recovery dollars, or even pay attention to the destruction they face.
And about two weeks into the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers have not yet introduced measures to set aside state money just for communities affected by the Black Fire as of Wednesday. There are two more weeks for lawmakers to introduce bills. The deadline is Thursday, Feb. 16.
In some of these more rural areas in southern N.M., ranchers’ closest neighbors are many miles of forest land away. Or a family’s one road into town was destroyed.
Damage remains from the Black Fire and from the flooding — roads and waterways impassable, rivers flowing in new paths, irrigation systems broken, livestock fences washed away. Public officials and private landowners in the region have been having a difficult time finding money to repair it all.
Sen. Crystal Diamond (R-Elephant Butte) represents two of the affected counties down south, Hidalgo and Sierra. She said a lot more attention is focused on the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire in the Roundhouse right now.
“There’s a lot of conversation about how we need to respond to the northern fires,” she said. “I don’t disagree with that, but there’s not as much conversation here about how we’re going to respond to the Black Fire.”
Diamond, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said no money has been budgeted specifically for Black Fire recovery yet, though she noted it’s still early on in the session.
She said if funding isn’t simply allocated, she’d sponsor a measure to put aside that money, taken from the state’s $3.6 billion budget surplus. However, a bill isn’t the route she wants to go this session.
“I would hope that it would be unnecessary to have legislation,” Diamond said. “I would hope that because of being part of the budgeting process, we would simply do the right thing by budgeting some of this new money to make these people whole immediately.”
A BILL TO HELP RURAL AREAS AFTER DISASTERS
Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill (D-Silver City) represents Catron and Grant Counties, both of which are also still coping with Black Fire damage. She’s sponsoring a bill that could help fast-track repairs in any rural communities after disasters.
The legislation would create a pot of state dollars for rural or tribal officials to pull from when a disaster strikes and they can’t afford recovery on their own. Correa Hemphill said now’s the time for this kind of fund since the state has a historic budget surplus.
“With climate change, we’re only going to see an increase of these kinds of weather events, and so we really want to be proactive and problem solve now that we have the revenue and we can create these funds,” she said. “It’s really important to me that we protect our rural communities.”
Correa Hemphill’s measure doesn’t target only communities down south struggling after 2022’s wildfire, she said, because it’s meant to address the future needs of any rural or tribal community across the state.
Still, she said if passed and signed, her measure could quickly deliver financial solutions to the southern counties still reeling from the Black Fire. Some of these counties have been waiting over half a year to get repair funding promised by the state.
The governor signed emergency declarations allocating that state financial aid last year, but it only works on a reimbursement basis, something Correa Hemphill said can be difficult for smaller, rural governments. And not even all the southern counties had enough damage to qualify for funds, even though in one such county, Catron, interim county manager Stanley Brown said in December it’ll take years to come back from the disasters.
With Correa Hemphill’s proposed legislation, the recovery dollars would come straight from a state infrastructure fund created by the bill. The state could allocate up to $1 million within a county for disaster recovery projects per year.
Grant County Emergency Manager Justin Gojkovich said he’s talked with Correa Hemphill about her proposed legislation, and though he hasn’t reviewed the draft yet, he supports it.
In general, he said, when Grant County officials have brought up difficult recovery issues with lawmakers during interim legislative sessions, he’s been happy with how they’ve handled the requests for aid.
“They’ve done a great job of getting the wheels actually moving,” he said.
BROADER BURN LEGISLATION
Lawmakers have put forth a few wildfire-related bills this session.
The Wildfire Recovery Act is one such piece of legislation, introduced by Sens. Michael Padilla (D-Albuquerque) and Pete Campos (D-Las Vegas). Under this bill, people who successfully sue for lost or damaged property, as well as income or personal losses, wouldn’t have to pay taxes on any of those damages.
Campos said there are also plenty of bills being put forth that may not seem directly connected to fires but would factor in things like climate change or water resources that make a difference in handling disaster prevention and recovery efforts.
Another proposal from Sen. Ron Griggs (R-Alamogordo) would prohibit government entities from starting prescribed burns during spring.
For the Black Fire specifically, Campos said the state will try to allocate more resources and leverage federal dollars for victims when more damage assessments roll in, which he said will take a while. “It’ll be happening for several years to come in all these areas,” he said.
Bronson Corn is the president-elect for the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, an organization that has been involved in sending relief and supplies, such as hay, to affected ranchers in the Gila. He said he’s not satisfied with these broad legislative measures and delays in getting southern communities help.
He said there needs to be a bill specifically for the Black Fire so it gets prioritized and passed. These general disaster bills, he said, won’t help nearly as much as the lawmakers think “because it’s going to be put on the back burner.”
LITTLE HELP FOR PRIVATE LANDOWNERS
Corn said there also needs to be more help focused on private landowners, many of whom are producers living in the Gila with heavy land damage. Some of those ranchers have said they haven’t had much luck getting state or federal financial help.
Since the feds started the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, people up north are applying for funds straight from Congress.
For the Black Fire, the U.S. Forest Service is still investigating how it started, though the agency said it was human-caused.
The state’s anti-donation clause previously blocked the state from giving money directly to people impacted by wildfires, but voters approved changing it in November so that New Mexico can send money for essential services like infrastructure or water directly to communities.
Regardless, questions remain about whether that funding would be allowed to go directly to a private landowner rather than an entire community.
And still, there aren’t any bills proposed to help fire victims down south specifically, despite the amended clause.
Corn said helping producers who are struggling to recover should be at the forefront of lawmakers’ minds considering how much those New Mexicans lost. But, he acknowledged, the Black Fire affected fewer people than the northern blaze.
“It’s a very remote area. It’s not up around a large metropolitan area,” Corn said. “There’s not a whole lot of population down there screaming out.”
Correa Hemphill said the rural location does contribute to there being less attention on the issue in the Roundhouse. It’s also a longer drive to the capital from the southern burn scar than from the one up north.
“It’s very challenging for my constituents to come up and advocate for what my community needs,” she said.
Diamond said she and Correa Hemphill are trying to make sure their counties aren’t being left out of conversations in Santa Fe.
“I can assure you,” she said, “that we will be fighting to make sure that constituents in both of those Senate districts get the resources they need to respond to consequences from the Black Fire.”
Court: US needs to consider effects of drilling near Chaco — Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
A federal appeals court has sided with environmentalists, ruling that the U.S. government failed to consider the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the approval of nearly 200 drilling permits in an area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Home to numerous sites significant to Native American tribes, the region has been a focal point of conflict over energy development that has spanned multiple presidential administrations. Now, environmentalists and some tribal leaders have accused the Biden administration of "rubber-stamping" more drilling.
In a ruling issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that federal land managers violated the law by not accounting for the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of air pollution from oil and gas drilling.
The court also put on hold the approval of additional drilling permits pending a decision from a lower court.
Kyle Tisdel, a senior attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, accused the Bureau of Land Management of prioritizing oil and gas extraction at the expense of those who live in northwestern New Mexico, including many Navajo communities.
"Frontline Diné communities and their allies were vindicated today in a step toward environmental justice. We will continue to demand justice, and that their water, health and the climate stop being sacrificed to big oil profits," Tisdel said in a statement.
Environmentalists have long complained about pollution from increased drilling, but the fight took on new urgency when Native American tribes began raising concerns that a spider web of drill pads, roads, processing stations and other infrastructure was compromising culturally significant sites beyond Chaco park's boundaries.
The Bureau of Land Management had an informal process of not leasing land within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of Chaco park to address those concerns.
During the Obama administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the first time joined federal land managers in planning how to manage resources. Following a visit by then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt during the Trump administration, oil and gas leasing within a certain distance of the park was put on hold.
Now, the U.S. Interior Department is considering formalizing the 10-mile buffer around the park, putting off limits to future development of more than 507 square miles (1,310 square kilometers) of federal mineral holdings.
As part of the effort, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — a member of Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to lead a U.S. Cabinet agency — wants to create a system for including tribal perspectives and values when land management decisions are made.
She first detailed the steps her agency would be taking during a visit to Chaco park in November 2021. That process is ongoing.
Much of the land surrounding the park belongs to the Navajo Nation or is owned by individual Navajos. While the federal government's planned 20-year withdrawal would not affect tribal lands, the Navajo Nation and allottees have expressed concerns about being landlocked and losing out on leasing revenue and royalties.
There are about 23,000 active oil and gas wells in the San Juan Basin in northwestern New Mexico. The BLM is required to approve an application for permit to drill before a developer can begin work. As part of that process, the agency typically prepares a site-specific environmental assessment to determine whether the project will have significant environmental effects.
The judges noted their review was limited to only those applications for permits to drill that had already been approved by the Bureau of Land Management, not pending applications.
While the Bureau of Land Management's analysis of potential impacts to water resources was sufficient, the court noted that the agency was unreasonable in using one year of direct emissions to represent total emissions over the 20-year lifespan of a well.
It will be up to a lower court to decide how the agency can fix deficiencies in the environmental assessments that sparked the legal challenge.
Interior: $580M headed to 15 tribes to fulfill water rights — Suman Naishadham, Associated Press
Fifteen Native American tribes will get a total of $580 million in federal money this year for water rights settlements, the Biden administration announced Thursday.
The money will help carry out the agreements that define the tribes' rights to water from rivers and other sources and pay for pipelines, pumping stations, and canals that deliver it to reservations.
"Water rights are crucial to ensuring the health, safety and empowerment of Tribal communities," U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement Thursday that acknowledged the decades many tribes have waited for the funding.
Access to reliable, clean water and basic sanitation facilities on tribal lands remains a challenge across many Native American reservations.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1908 that tribes have rights to as much water as they need to establish a permanent homeland, and those rights stretch back at least as long as any given reservation has existed. As a result, tribal water rights often are senior to others' in the West, where competition over the dwindling resource is often fierce.
But in many cases, details about those water rights were not specified and have had to be determined in the modern era.
Many tribes opted for settlements because litigation over water can be expensive and drawn out, with negotiations involving states, cities, private water users, local water districts and others that can take years, if not decades.
Of the funding announced Thursday, $460 million comes from the $2.5 billion set aside for Native American water rights settlements in the Biden administration's infrastructure bill. A federal fund created by Congress in 2009 to pay for water rights settlements will contribute the other $120 million.
About $157 million will go to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana. The federal government signed the tribes' water rights compact in 2021 and promised over the following decade to fund the rebuilding of an irrigation project on the Flathead Indian Reservation constructed in the 1900s.
Interior said Thursday's funding was part of the $1.9 billion trust created when Haaland signed the tribes' compact.
Tribal Council Chairman Tom McDonald said passage of the compact came "after work that stretches back 40 years."
The Navajo Nation, which spans parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, will receive $137 million for an ongoing project to bring drinking water to members in northwestern New Mexico and the city of Gallup. The project, expected to be completed in 2027, is a network of pipelines and pumping stations that will deliver treated water from the San Juan River, which flows through the deserts of northwestern New Mexico.
About $39 million is headed to the Navajo Nation for a separate settlement that will fund drinking water infrastructure in San Juan County, a part of the 27,000-square-mile (71,000-square kilometer) reservation that is in Utah.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, in a statement, called water the tribe's "most critical resource" and said it was "time to move forward" with both infrastructure projects.
The Gila River Indian Community in Arizona will get $79 million this year, which the tribe's Gov. Stephen Lewis said would help its water conservation efforts amid stubborn drought in the West. The funding will help finish construction of an irrigation system on the reservation.
Lewis said the funding was also a nod to the "role that tribal governments ... play in being good stewards for our water and other natural resources."
Elsewhere, the Blackfeet Nation in Montana will receive $45 million for a settlement that was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2016 and called for improvements to irrigation systems and the development of a community water system.
The Crow Nation, San Carlos Apache Nation, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ak-Chin Indian Community and Pueblos of San Ildefonso, Nambe, Pojoaque, and Tesuque are among other tribes sharing in the money announced Thursday.
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Man convicted of killing stranger on an Albuquerque freeway — Associated Press
An Albuquerque man has been convicted of fatally shooting a stranger as the two men were driving separate vehicles on Interstate 40 nearly four years ago.
A 2nd Judicial District Court jury on Wednesday found 54-year-old Donald Duquette guilty of second-degree murder.
He was accused of firing multiple shots from his pickup truck and one of the shots fatally struck 45-year-old Jose Ruben Diaz in July 2019.
Prosecutors say Diaz was unarmed and Duquette faces up to 16 years in prison.
His sentencing hearing hasn't been scheduled yet.
Duquette's attorney told jurors that his client fired the gunshots in self defense after Diaz attempted to ram his car into Duquette's vehicle.
But the Albuquerque Journal reported that according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Duquette told police he became paranoid after smoking methamphetamine before the shooting.
Northern wildfire recovery legislation heads to N.M. Senate - By Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
Local counties that can’t afford to rebuild after New Mexico’s largest blaze are a step closer to getting help to do so.
Source New Mexico’s Megan Gleason reports legislation that would provide financial aid to affected counties unanimously passed through Senate Finance — its second committee. It now heads for a vote by the full Senate.
The Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Recovery Funds bill would dedicate $100 million dollars from the state’s General Fund to northern local governments thru zero-interest loans.
Connected to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance Program, counties would pay for repairs upfront, then FEMA’s reimbursements would go back to the state.
Ali Rye, deputy secretary of the state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, says the bill would allow northern communities to start rebuilding public infrastructure like roads, bridges and culverts.
She says it could also be used for acequias, whose stewards have been struggling to get recovery funds.
Democratic Sen. George Muñoz says the state is stepping up to get this money out because of the delay in getting federal money to northern New Mexico.
Rye says it could take up to a year for applicants to start to get the billions the U.S. Congress allocated last year.
N.M. prison officials seek funding for hundreds of vacant guard positions - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A panel of House lawmakers have honored a request by the head of the state prison system and the governor to keep paying for hundreds of guard positions that have sat empty for years, against the recommendation of their own analysts.
Source New Mexico’s Austin Fisher reports that - in its proposed budget - the Legislative Finance Committee recommended cutting 309 empty jobs from the New Mexico Corrections Department’s budget.
Analysts say reducing the number of CO jobs authorized for state prisons could redistribute $23 million dollars elsewhere in the budget.
About 28% of the agency’s total guard positions were empty over the course of this fiscal year, according to the LFC, with an even higher vacancy rate among private prison guards at 32%.
The LFC’s proposed cut would still leave-in-place about 100 vacant guard jobs, which Fiscal Analyst Brendon Gray said would average out to between 10 and 12 per prison.
However, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration recommended keeping the empty spots funded, and Corrections Sec. Alisha Tafoya Lucero said she needs those positions for what she anticipates will be an increase in criminal prosecutions in the coming years.
Ultimately, Committee Vice Chair Democratic Rep. Meredith Dixon moved to adopt the executive branch’s budget recommendation. Minority Whip Rep. Rod Montoya was the only opposing vote.