Reprieve sought for cattle on eve of US shooting operation - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Ranchers are asking a U.S. district judge to delay what they describe as a potential mass slaughter of as many as 150 "unauthorized" cows on public land in southwestern New Mexico.
Plans by the U.S. Forest Service call for shooting the cattle with high-powered rifles from a helicopter and leaving the carcasses in the Gila Wilderness. Critics say that could result in an estimated 65 tons of dead animals being left in the forest for months until they decompose or are eaten by scavengers.
Officials closed a large swath of the forest Monday and were scheduled to begin the shooting operation Thursday. After hearing hours of arguments Wednesday, Judge James Browning said he would review the case and make a decision before the end of the day.
The New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association, individual ranchers and the Humane Farming Association filed a complaint in federal court Tuesday, alleging that agency officials were violating their own regulations and overstepping their authority.
The complaint states that court intervention is necessary to put an immediate stop to "this unlawful, cruel, and environmentally harmful action, both now and in the future."
The ranchers say the agency's existing regulations call for shooting the animals as a last resort and could set precedent for how federal officials handle unbranded livestock on vacant allotments or deal with other land management conflicts across the West.
"There's a severe danger here, not just in this particular case and the horrific results that it will actually bare if this is allowed to go forward. But it also has long-term ramifications for the power of federal agencies to disregard their regulations that they themselves passed," Daniel McGuire, an attorney for the ranchers, told the judge.
The Gila National Forest issued its final decision to gun down the wayward cattle last week amid pressure from environmental groups to protect the Gila Wilderness. The groups have been raising concerns for years that cattle are compromising water quality and habitat for other species as they trample stream banks in sensitive areas.
Much of the debate during Wednesday's hearing centered on whether the animals were unauthorized livestock or feral cows, as the Forest Service has been referring to them.
Ranchers contend the cattle in question are the descendants of cows that legally grazed the area in the 1970s before the owner went out of business. They pointed to DNA and genetic markers, saying the temperament of the animals doesn't mean they cease to be domesticated livestock.
As defined in Forest Service regulations, unauthorized livestock refers to any cattle, sheep, goats or hogs that are not authorized by permit to be grazing on national forest land. The regulations calls for an impoundment order to be issued and the livestock rounded up, with lethal action being a final step for those that aren't captured.
Despite issuing such an order earlier this month, the agency argues it's not required to follow the removal procedures outlined by the regulations because the cattle don't fit the definition of livestock since they are no longer domesticated or being kept or raised by any individual.
Government attorney Andrew Smith said the cows have no pedigree.
"So it does make a difference what these cows are. They're multigenerations of wildness going on," he told the judge.
Smith also argued that Congress has charged the Forest Service with protecting national forest land and that eradicating the cattle would put an end to decades of damage. He said previous gathering efforts over the decades only put a dent in the population but that an aerial shooting operation in 2022 was able to take out 65 cows in two days.
If the judge delays the project, Smith suggested that the population would rebound and last year's effort would be wasted.
McGuire countered that Congress conferred authority on the Forest Service to make rules and regulations to protect and preserve the forest, not a license for the agency to do anything it wants.
"The Forest Service has a specific regulation that describes how they're supposed to remove these unauthorized cattle," he said. "They simply don't want to follow it because they say it's too hard. ... Well, I'm sorry that's not actually an excuse to not follow the regulations."
House panel kills telework bill in first hearing - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A bill that would have given New Mexico state government workers the right to work from home will not reach a vote in either chamber of the state legislature.
The House Labor, Veterans’ and Military Affairs Committee on Tuesday voted 7-4 to table House Bill 300. Tabled bills rarely return in the same session.
House Bill 300 would have put a telework policy into the state law governing working conditions for state workers by mandating that if a state worker’s duties do not require their physical presence, they would be eligible for telework.
At the time of the hearing, there were 12 lawmakers who had tested positive for COVID, and were “telelegislating,” said Rep. Joy Garratt (D-Albuquerque), a co-sponsor.
“It’s a larger issue that I think we’re all dealing with,” Garratt said.
High-level managers, either cabinet secretaries or human resources officials, from 19 of the 27 New Mexico executive branch agencies spoke in opposition to the bill, noted Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque), a co-sponsor of the bill.
Co-sponsor Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos) pointed out not all department heads came to the hearing on Tuesday. She said some department heads have privately told her that telework is a very helpful and important policy that helped them retain workers, and that they were disappointed when the governor revoked it at the end of 2022.
“It was disappointing to see a parade of state agency heads speaking in opposition, not because their staff were not serving New Mexicans while teleworking, but because they believed it was appropriate to defer to the Governor,” said Megan Green, vice president of CWA Local 7076. “It was also telling that the only opposition to the bill came from agency heads, seemingly at the direction of the governor.”
AGENCY HEADS SAY BILL WOULD STEP ON MANAGEMENT’S TOES
Some of the agency heads argued that enacting the bill would take away the management power of the executive branch.
Public Safety Secretary Jason Bowie said he could not support the bill because it would create a right for state workers to telework.
“You’re, in a sense, creating a guarantee for employees, that they have this administrative right where, at the end of the day, we, as leadership in New Mexico, should be able to determine what is essentially necessary to properly run state government,” Bowie said. “That right should strictly remain with the executive in this particular case.”
State Personnel Office Director Theresa Padilla said the issue of telework is “better served as a policy, not as part of the State Personnel Board Act.”
Padilla said keeping telework a matter of policy and not state law allows for her agency “to collaborate with the union partnerships,” but a law and the rules that would be created to follow it would not.
Chandler countered that by saying there are already many things in state law telling the executive branch what they have to execute, and requiring them to make rules, like for an employee’s probationary period, for example.
Children Youth and Families Department Secretary Barbara Vigil said it’s important for the executive branch to be able to negotiate telework rather than be required to provide it under law.
“I really urge you to be very mindful of allowing the executive, as the primary policy head of the state of New Mexico, to take this matter, to consider it, all the ramifications of it, and to move forward with what she believes is in the best interests of the state of New Mexico,” Vigil said.
RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
Twenty percent of all positions in state government are empty, the State Personnel Office told legislative analysts. Some agencies are approaching 30% vacancy rates, Chandler said.
Chandler said if the state government wants to compete with other sectors of government and private companies, “they are going to have to adjust their attitude in terms of telework.”
“It is something that is gonna happen, and this policy will help, I think, create a work environment that workers are now looking for,” Chandler said.
Green said the executive managers who opposed the bill “acknowledged the issues with recruitment and retention and talked about how hard it is to fill their vacancies, but don’t seem to believe that better working conditions will attract better employees.”
WEAPONIZING ‘EQUITY’ AGAINST THE BILL
Some agency bosses drew a distinction between “essential” or “frontline” workers and “telework-eligible workers.” They used that distinction to argue House Bill 300 would not be equitable for state workers whose job duties prevent them from teleworking and who make smaller wages.
Transportation Secretary Ricky Serna, who himself negotiated the telework policy in 2021 when he was acting director of the State Personnel Office, said Tuesday that state maintenance workers, mechanics, and construction workers make less on average than “what a telework-eligible worker will probably make.”
“We really gotta be mindful of the positions that aren’t gonna benefit,” Serna said.
None of the executive branch bosses mentioned equity as it relates to disabled or immunocompromised state workers.
All three of the bill’s sponsors agreed that the lowest-paid state workers need raises.
Contrary to the opponents’ use of “equity,” Green said real equity is allowing the best working conditions possible for every employee.
“What the agency heads are asking for is that all state employees be treated the same, regardless of job duties,” she said. “This is not equity.”
Storm brings high winds, snow to Arizona and New Mexico - Associated Press
Winds howled overnight in northern Arizona, knocking out power to thousands of homes and the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff.
Data from the weather service showed the highest wind gusts at 85 mph off Interstate 17, about halfway between Flagstaff and Phoenix, early Wednesday morning.
The Arizona Department of Transportation said it took a rare step and preemptively closed major roadways across the state as winds sent snow blowing.
A more than 200-mile stretch of Interstate 40 was shut down in both directions from western Arizona to the New Mexico state line.
The National Weather Service said a wind gust of 51 mph Wednesday at Tucson International Airport was the strongest February wind gust in the last 50 years.
Authorities said wind gusts of up to 50 mph resulted in 66 flights being canceled and 45 others delayed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport by 9 a.m. Wednesday.
More than 5,700 homes were without power Wednesday morning in the Phoenix metro area with 10,000 homes affected in the Flagstaff area, where snowfall and wind gusts of 68 mph was causing white-out conditions.
The National Weather Service said up to a foot of snow was expected by Thursday morning in elevations above 5,000 feet in northern Arizona.
Some schools in Flagstaff announced closures Tuesday ahead of the storm.
The weather service said a high wind warning was in effect for most of New Mexico through Thursday morning, with gusts of up to 70 mph possible.
The storm system swept through southern Nevada on Tuesday, causing power outages and flight delays at Las Vegas airports.
Democratic governors form alliance on abortion rights — Bill Barrow, Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press
Democratic governors in 20 states are launching a network intended to strengthen abortion access in the wake of theU.S. Supreme Court decision nixing a woman's constitutional right to end a pregnancy and instead shifting regulatory powers over the procedure to state governments.
Organizers, led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, described the Reproductive Freedom Alliance as a way for governors and their staffs to share best practices and affirm abortion rights for the approximately 170 million Americans who live in the consortium's footprint — and even ensuring services for the remainder of U.S. residents who live in states with more restrictive laws.
"We can all coalesce," New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in an interview ahead of a Tuesday announcement. She added that the court's Dobbs decision that ended a national right to abortion "horrified" and put pressure on governors to act. "This is leveraging our strengths ... to have more of a national voice."
That includes, organizers said, sharing model statutory language and executive orders protecting abortion access, ways to protect abortion providers from prosecution, strategies to maximize federal financing for reproductive health care such as birth control, and support for manufacturers of abortion medication and contraceptives that face potential new restrictions from conservatives.
Lujan Grisham noted the launch comes as a federal court in Texas considers a challenge to the nationwide availability of medication abortion, which now accounts for the majority of abortions in the U.S.
In a statement, Newsom called the effort, which he and his aides spent months organizing, "a moral obligation" and a "firewall" to protect "fundamental rights."
The group includes executives of heavily Democratic states like California, where voters overwhelmingly approve of abortion rights, but also involves every presidential battleground state led by a Democrat, including Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tony Evers of Wisconsin.
The alliance has secured its initial funding from the California Wellness Foundation and the Rosenberg Foundation, not-for-profits that often steer money to public health efforts focused on disadvantaged communities.
While the organization is billed as national and nonpartisan, the makeup underscores that abortion access since Dobbs has settled essentially into two Americas that broadly track the platforms of the nation's two major parties. That means greater access in states controlled by Democrats, tighter restrictions or practically outright bans in those controlled by Republicans.
For example, 22 Democratic-run states have weighed in on the Texas challenge to medical abortions that was filed by many of the same litigant states that worked together to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. A similar contingent of Republican-led states has filed briefs in the Texas case urging a judge to reverse a decades-old approval by the Food and Drug Administration of medical abortions.
Still, Newsom aides said the group would welcome Republicans, though they declined to name any GOP executives that Newsom or other Democratic governors might be recruiting to the consortium. Indeed, a handful of Republican governors support abortion rights broadly.
Lujan Grisham mentioned New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who has sent mixed messages on the issue. Sununu signed a state budget in 2021 that included a ban on abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy but also said after the Dobbs decision that abortion would remain legal in his state. He endorsed candidates in the November elections who favored further restrictions but also supports adding exemptions to the current law for victims of rape and incest.
Lujan Grisham acknowledged that the alliance cannot make national policy or even impose policy across state lines. But she said there's practical value in having executives and their staffs have a formal framework to communicate.
She noted that New Mexico lawmakers now are considering how to affirm abortion access with a statute, even though she and others believe the state's constitution already establishes the right.
"The problem is everyone keeps challenging those constitutional interpretations," she said. "We're going to codify equality on abortion rights, reproductive rights and care in as narrow as possible way." New Mexico's process, she said, could become a model for other similarly situated states.
Governors' offices in the alliance also have started working with advocacy groups that back abortion access.
Jeanné Lewis, the interim CEO of Faith in Public Life, a progressive multistate faith-based organization, said having states work together to ensure abortion access is essential as states and federal lawmakers continue to consider bans and deeper restrictions.
"It is important for governors to be in conversations now about shared solutions across state lines," she said.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Foundation of America, said states should be working together to protect abortion access, especially given the pending Texas case.
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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press reporter Holly Ramer contributed from Concord, New Hampshire.
Storm to bring high winds to Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada — Associated Press
A winter storm making its way through the western U.S. is expected to carry winds capable of downing power lines and trees in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, while dropping rain and snow.
Gusts could hit 55 mph (89 kph) in metropolitan Phoenix on Wednesday and even higher in Prescott and Flagstaff to the north, at 70 mph (113 kph), the National Weather Service said.
Up to a foot of snow is expected by Thursday morning in elevations above 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) in Arizona, forecasters said.
Some schools in Flagstaff announced closures ahead of the storm that's expected to hit Arizona on Tuesday night. Weather forecasters and local and state officials encouraged drivers to stay off the roads.
"Damaging winds and treacherous to impossible driving conditions are expected due to blowing dust and snow," the weather service in Flagstaff said.
The storm system will carry over into New Mexico with high winds, rain and possibly snow across the state Wednesday, including in the Albuquerque area. A high wind warning is in effect for most of New Mexico through Thursday morning, with wind gusts of up to 70 mph (113 kph), the weather service there said.
Those winds speeds also could materialize in Nevada, where forecasters have issued a dust advisory for Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
Challenges await new education secretary in New Mexico — Morgan Lee, Associated Press
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tapped a Hispanic school superintendent from southern New Mexico on Tuesday to oversee the state's K-12 education system as secretary of the Public Education Department.
Arsenio Romero, a native of Belen and veteran superintendent of school districts stretching from the Mexico border to Los Lunas near Albuquerque, takes up the position March 6.
The Public Education Department is grappling with surging absenteeism among students and below-average high school graduation rates. Student proficiency is lagging in subjects from math and science to reading and writing, even as the state has ramped up K-12 spending in recent years including for teacher salaries and programs aimed at expanding classroom instructional time.
According to the results of student assessments announced in September 2022, only 25% of those tested were proficient or better in math, and about a third were proficient or better in science and reading and writing.
In a statement, Lujan Grisham highlighted Romero's "vision and experience" as a former teacher and principal. Romero will become the fourth education secretary since Lujan Grisham took office in January 2019.
The appointment was applauded by Fed Nathan, director of the nonpartisan policy group Think New Mexico, which is advocating for increased instructional time, improved teacher training, more relevant curriculum and more.
"We regard Dr. Romero as a reformer who has a student-centric view," Nathan said. "His openness to rethinking the public school system and his track record of successful leadership in New Mexico are critically needed."
Romero previously served as superintendent of Los Lunas Schools as well as Deming Public Schools, where some students cross the border from Mexico each day to attend classes.
Romero also oversaw school curricula as an assistant superintendent in the Roswell Independent School District, located in a conservative, oil-producing region.
New Mexico has begun investing heavily in early childhood education in hopes of making lasting academic gains, partly through an expansion of pre-K at public schools overseen by the Public Education Department, as well as with private providers.
Voters last year approved increased withdrawals from a multibillion-dollar trust to bolster K-12 spending and additional programs overseen by a recently formed agency, the Early Childhood Education and Care Department.
At the same time, lawmakers are responding to litigation from school districts and parents that highlights deficiencies in public educational opportunities for vulnerable children from minority communities, non-English-speaking households, impoverished families and students with disabilities.