Republican opts not to seek reelection to the New Mexico Senate - Associated Press
One of just two Albuquerque Republicans left in the New Mexico Legislature will not be seeking reelection next year, setting up what could be a free-for-all in a Republican-leaning district that covers the city's northeast heights.
The decision by state Sen. Mark Moores brings the list of incumbent senators headed for the door to at least three.
Moores, who was first elected in 2012, told the Albuquerque Journal in an interview Wednesday that family considerations led to his decision to forego a reelection campaign. He and his wife recently had a child.
Moores has served three terms in the Senate. He sponsored or jointly sponsored bills allowing college athletes to get paid for endorsements, prohibiting coyote-killing contests and creating a redistricting commission that proposed political boundary lines.
The New Mexico Senate has been dominated by Democrats throughout his tenure, making it difficult for Republicans to secure passage of their bills.
"I'm pretty proud, especially being in the minority, that I've been able to fight for conservative values but also reach across party lines to get things done," he said.
Moores, who served as chairman of the Senate minority caucus, said he pushed the Legislature to be more receptive to open primaries and ethics legislation. He hopes to continue that work in the future.
NM Law Enforcement Academy Board holds final meeting - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
The board that has overseen New Mexico’s police training and certification agency since 1969 held its last meeting ever on Wednesday, and will split in two as a result of a new state law going into effect this summer.
The seven-member New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board will be bifurcated into the Law Enforcement Standards and Training Council, and the Law Enforcement Certification Board. Both the Council and the Board will have 11 members.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on April 4 signed the split into law after state lawmakers, nearly unanimously, passed legislation requiring it. The law goes into effect July 1.
The new law also establishes a statewide use of force standard for all police and sheriff’s deputies in New Mexico. It also requires new training, policies and procedures for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, a division that oversees the New Mexico State Police.
The legislation was spurred in part by New Mexico’s extremely high rate of police killings. Research has shown the rate of police killings in New Mexico has more than doubled between the 1980s and the 2010s, with a big jump in the most recent decade.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, chair of the outgoing board, on Wednesday commended Academy interim director Benjamin Baker for his work on preparing for the transition to the two new boards.
“He has done a lot, the staff here has done a lot, to really restore public confidence in this board,” Torrez said. “I look forward to seeing how the new framework evolves over time.”
Baker said Academy officials will be “facilitating the onboarding and the once-in-a-generation legislative and structural change that this place is undergoing as we speak.”
“We will be undertaking that the moment that it is permissible to do so,” Baker said.
At the end of the meeting, there was no timeline given for when the two new boards will be created or when they will first meet.
“I want to thank the Board for their commitment to an absolutely necessary public service, to a process that helps restore in some cases — or maintain — the public’s trust, in our licensed professionals who maintain a significant amount of influence and power within their communities,” Baker said.
MISCONDUCT DATABASE
Under the new law, the Certification Board will be required to create a searchable, public database showing outcomes of investigations into allegations of misconduct against police and emergency dispatchers.
The Certification Board will investigate police misconduct and deny, suspend or revoke police licenses. Police shootings will still be investigated by the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.
The New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy has five hearing officers who conduct the formal hearings in police misconduct cases, said Baker, who is also deputy cabinet secretary for the public safety department.
The board must create the database by July 1, 2024, and the public must be able to search it for any investigations that lead to police or dispatchers being fired or having their license suspended or revoked.
The new law does not require the database to include ongoing investigations, nor does it require police departments to check the database before hiring an officer or dispatcher.
POLICE VIOLENCE REFORM
The new law requires every police department in New Mexico to adopt policies on police violence called “use of force.”
The law requires police to use de-escalation when reasonable and available, and clarifies the definition of a chokehold.
Police department’s and sheriff’s offices are mandated to require their officers who see another officer using force, which they believe to be excessive, to report the incident to their supervisor.
However, the bill does not specify any penalties if local departments refuse to adopt these policies, nor does it say what happens when a department refuses to discipline an officer for unlawful violence.
Doña Ana County puts forth hearing on potential cuts to Spaceport tax - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Doña Ana County is considering a cut to the tax used to first construct Spaceport America more than 16 years ago.
The Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday to publish an ordinance proposing to amend the County Regional Spaceport Gross Receipts Tax. The ordinance calls for a July 11 public hearing at 9 a.m. to further discuss the measure. Commission chair Susana Chaparro was the sole dissenting vote.
The board of commissioners won’t make a final decision on any actual tax cuts until after the public hearing, where officials from Gadsden and Las Cruces school districts and the New Mexico Spaceport Authority are expected to speak on the proposed change.
In 2007, commissioners imposed a 0.25% tax across sales on goods and services without an end date – also called a “sunset.” The new ordinance would reduce that tax to 0.1875% and would end June 30, 2029, when the original bonds for the Spaceport are projected to be paid off in full.
That would mean a $250,000 per month reduction in taxes, according to the county.
Doña Ana commissioners said in the future, that the money could be returned to taxpayers, or reallocated to other programs within the county.“We’re generating more than double than what it takes to cover the bonds we’re on the hook for,” said commissioner Shannon Reynolds.
Three-quarters of that money generated by the tax went to the bonds to finance, design and construct the spaceport outside of Truth or Consequences. The construction used $220 million between 2006 and 2012.
Doña Ana County is required to pay down its bonds by $412,527 per month. The tax is currently generating more than double that, approximately $1 million per month.
The bonds were refinanced in 2021 at a lower interest rate.
The remaining 25% of the tax goes to schools for science and math programs at Las Cruces Public Schools and Gadsden Independent School District.In 2020, the schools received $1.8 million, which more than doubled in 2021 to $3.8 million. After the reduction, the county estimates the schools would lose $800,000 a year, ending up with over $2.8 million.
Reynolds told the board members that the schools would have more than six months to adapt to the budget change.
“It should not impact the programs they currently have that we’ve been funding for the 10, 12 years, based on my discussions [with the schools],” he told commissioners. In February, the spaceport opened up a bid to develop a new reception center. Officials told Source NM that the bid was awarded to Buffalo Design Architects, but have not yet fulfilled a public-records request outlining the contract and cost.
Experts question prosecutors' strategy against weapons expert in Alec Baldwin case - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
More than a year and a half after Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer while rehearsing a scene on set in New Mexico, prosecutors have yet to solve the biggest mystery in the tragic case: How did live rounds get on the set?
Prosecutors said in their latest court filing that they have some evidence to support the theory that weapons expert Hannah Gutierrez-Reed may be responsible for the introduction of the rounds. But they have offered no details, and barring more evidence, they're now basing part of their case against her on the idea that a night of drinking and marijuana use left her incapable of the judgment necessary to ensure the set was safe.
Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys argue that prosecutors are resorting to character assassination, and some legal experts are doubtful it will make for a winning strategy for prosecutors.
Several lawyers who are not involved with the case but have been watching it closely said Wednesday that prosecution statements in response to a defense motion last month seeking to dismiss her involuntary manslaughter charge are vague and would be difficult to prove.
"When you think about how they've conducted this investigation since the beginning, it's almost in step with what they had done before. They need to have more specificity when it comes to that allegation, because it's kind of serious. To be throwing it out there doesn't look that good," said Miguel Custodio, a Los Angeles personal injury attorney.
Prosecutors said they have witnesses who will testify that Gutierrez-Reed drank and smoked marijuana in the evenings during the filming of "Rust." However, the weapons expert was never tested, and it's unclear what evidence prosecutors could present to make the case that she could have been hungover when she loaded a live bullet into the revolver that the actor used.
John Day, a Santa Fe-based criminal defense attorney, noted that prosecutors did not say in the filing that Gutierrez-Reed was impaired but rather used the colloquial term "hungover," which could mean many things.
"It's one more strange development, but it still doesn't address — and they've said they don't know — how live rounds got onto the set," Day said. "And they haven't said specifically anything more about her involvement except that she was the armorer."
A preliminary hearing for Gutierrez-Reed is scheduled in August. A judge is expected to decide then if there's probable cause for the charge to move forward.
In their filing, the prosecutors said they expected to decide within the next 60 days whether to recharge Baldwin, depending on the results of an analysis of the gun.
The involuntary manslaughter charge faced by Baldwin, who also was a producer on the film, was dismissed in April, with prosecutors citing new evidence and the need for more time to investigate.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on the set in October 2021 when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.
Ted Spaulding, an Atlanta attorney who also is not involved in the case, said that while it would be easier to argue that active impairment leads to negligence, prosecutors can still argue that alcohol and drug use — and being hungover — likely lead to negligence.
"This will come down to whether or not they have credible evidence that an impairment in judgment caused the injury and that the impairment is linked to drug and alcohol use," Spaulding said. "We see cases all the time where someone has marijuana particulates in their system and argue that it contributed to a wreck or injury, but because Gutierrez-Reed wasn't tested immediately after the shooting, they have no proof that marijuana was in her system, outside of witness testimony."
Custodio said the prosecution's insinuation that Gutierrez-Reed was hungover might work in the defense's favor.
"It's pretty reasonable for the defense to say 'you're just bringing this up now, which continues to show this pattern of sloppiness,'" he said. "Prosecutors saying she was 'probably hungover' sounds like a very tenuous assumption."
Democrats in Congress renew push to protect access to birth control - Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom via Source New Mexico
Democrats in Congress reintroduced a bill Wednesday that would guarantee access to birth control regardless of any future Supreme Court rulings.
The measure would ensure people have the right to use contraception and that health care providers have a right to share information about contraception as well as provide it.
The legislation would insulate access to birth control in the event the U.S. Supreme Court decides to overturn any of the cases that have provided Americans with the privacy rights that guaranteed a right to contraception.
The bill is necessary, proponents argued, because the Supreme Court just last year overturned the constitutional right to abortion that stood for nearly 50 years.
“Millions of people use contraception and they have for decades, and the vast majority of Americans support the right to birth control,” said Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
While Republicans blocked the bill from passing last Congress, Murray said, the reintroduction was a chance to show whether they do support access to birth control.
“My message to Republicans who claim to support the right to just get birth control: Now is your chance to prove it,” Murray said. “Stand with us, don’t stand against us.”
DOBBS CASE
The bill was originally introduced last Congress by a coalition of Democratic lawmakers who were concerned about a section of Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case.
Thomas wrote the high court should reconsider many of the precedent-setting cases that used the same logic applied in Roe v. Wade, specifically that justices “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”
Those cases are the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling that recognized married couples’ right to use contraception, the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling that invalidated laws criminalizing adult private consensual sexual relationships and the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriages.
The U.S. House voted to approve the contraception legislation last July, but Democrats couldn’t get the 60 votes needed in the Senate to move past that chamber’s legislative filibuster.
North Carolina Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning sought to remind people that before 1965, several states had laws banning or restricting who could get contraceptives.
“My bill establishes a federal statutory right for individuals to access and use birth control and for health care providers to provide it,” Manning said. “It protects the full range of FDA-approved contraceptive methods, including birth control pills, IUDs and emergency contraception, like Plan B.”
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said Thomas’ opinion in the Dobbs case gave lawmakers “a window into just how far he could go to dismantle Americans’ freedoms.”
“He outlined a long-held Republican belief that Americans have too many privacy rights under the Constitution and the Supreme Court had erred in recognizing those privacy rights and that the court should take them away, just as it did the right to abortion,” Markey said.
Rep. Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat, noted during the press conference that patients use birth control for an array of reasons, including acne and endometriosis.
She also said that ensuring access to contraception is central to the government recognizing that women have bodily autonomy.
“This is about the government seeing me as someone with human agency and recognizing my right and power to make decisions about my own body that could change the trajectory of my life,” Jacobs said. “This is about the freedom to control if, when and how to grow a family, without government interference.”
STATE LAWMAKERS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
The White House on Wednesday and Thursday was hosting dozens of local and state officials from both red and blue states to discuss reproductive rights.
A White House spokesperson said that during the meetings, Biden administration officials would talk about “defending reproductive rights, key actions the Administration has taken to protect access to reproductive health care, and the importance of state partners in this fight.”
On Wednesday, the state and local officials from states that have restricted access to abortion will discuss those actions as well as “strategies to oppose these efforts, and the policy agenda ahead,” according to the spokesperson.
The Thursday talks, the spokesperson said, will include state and local officials from regions of the country that have protected access to abortion to talk about ways “to further safeguard and support access to reproductive health care.”