Torrez: State to change posture in years-long education reform case — The Albuquerque Journal / KUNM News
The Attorney General’s office is opening up a new division focused on standing up for marginalized children, and students who have been left behind by the education system.
The Albuquerque Journal reports New Mexico AG Raul Torrez announced the new division Wednesday, despite the fact that the Governor recently pocket vetoed a bill that would have established the division earlier this year.
Torrez said members of the newly opened Civil Rights Division will reexamine the extensive filings in the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, in which the sate district court found the state had failed to meet its obligation to certain students.
This time, Torrez said instead of defending the state, they will look at the information from the position of standing up for the plaintiffs, quote “to stand up for the children, and to fight (for) the next generation.”
APS board approves three union contracts just ahead of new school year — The Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Just before the first bell of the year rings out at schools across Albuquerque, the school board approved three new union contracts that give a boost in pay reflecting the new longer school year.
The Albuquerque journal reports the teachers, food service workers, and maintenance and operations employees union contracts didn’t pass without debate on both sides of the negotiating table, but were all ultimately approved after about an hour long closed door meeting yesterday (WED).
APS School Board President Yolanda Cordova said all the parties involved worked hard to find a solution that would provide “a good start” to the school year.
But union officials say the 6% pay raise may not be enough to stop some workers from leaving for the private sector, especially for maintenance and operations employees.
The three unions together represent more than 7,400 employees. The largest of the groups, the teachers union, counts more than 6200 workers on its own.
National coalition calls for state senator’s removal following 2022 sexual misconduct allegations - Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
Dozens of local and national advocacy organizations are once again calling for New Mexico Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto to be removed from office.
People from 29 different organizations signed the letter that was released Tuesday, seeking accountability after multiple women came forward last year with sexual harassment allegations and a formal complaint against the senator.
This isn’t the first time people have asked lawmakers to remove Ivey-Soto from the Legislature.
To date, Ivey-Soto has been removed from a legislative committee, undergone an internal independent investigation and faced public scrutiny. However, he has not faced any disciplinary measures.
Elisa Batista is the campaign director for UltraViolet, a national women’s advocacy organization that’s one of the 29 groups that signed onto the letter. She said someone who acts like Ivey-Soto shouldn’t be in a position of power.
She said UltraViolet is circulating the letter around New Mexico, to other lawmakers and Ivey-Soto’s associations to get them to join in the pressure for his removal. One law firm that’s donated to him in the past is already planning to talk to its board of directors about this, she said.
The immediate consequence should be a leave of absence, Batista said, so people don’t have to speak in front of Ivey-Soto in legislative committees. Currently, he’s on three interim committees and two full-session committees.
“Who wants to testify before someone who groped them?” she said.
Then, she said, legislators need to consider how to create a more independent, transparent review process into harassment claims against lawmakers.
The state’s policymakers revised the Legislature’s anti-harassment policy in December 2022. Lobbyists said it still leaves too much power in the hands of the lawmakers themselves.
Legislators also passed a bill in the 2023 legislative session that lifts a confidentiality clause people who filed complaints used to be bound to. They failed to pass another piece of legislation that would’ve updated a conduct act public employees have to follow, specifically laying out that they can’t ask for sexual acts in exchange for votes or other official favors.
The letter released this week urges New Mexico to adopt a specific set of guidelines on how to fairly investigate sexual misconduct in political workspaces. Batista said the state has very little transparency in its investigation process, and lawmakers need to change that.
When an investigator looked into the formal complaint against Ivey-Soto in 2022, the final report was never publicly released.
A leaked version found that at least two instances of Ivey-Soto’s conduct likely violated the Legislature’s harassment policy, but the senator told Source NM last month that the leaked report didn’t show the full picture.
Batista said the report not being publicly released results in things like this, where Ivey-Soto can use the public’s lack of knowledge in his favor.
“Now the perpetrator of the abuse can manipulate the results that nobody knows about,” she said.
She said advocates raising their voices against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo helped hold him accountable in 2021. National attention can help push action on the issue in New Mexico, too, she said.
“One way we can start eradicating sexual violence in our politics, in our political workplaces and spaces, is to go state by state,” Batista said.
Funding available for tribes to combat climate-related crises - Shondiin Silversmith, AZ Mirror via Source New Mexico
Tribal Nations whose homelands face severe climate-related environmental threats may find some relief as part of the Tribal Climate Resilience Program, which provides annual funding to tribes and tribal organizations working to address climate-related crises within their communities.
“Devastating storms, increased drought and rapid sea-level rise disproportionately impact Indigenous communities,” Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement. “Helping these communities remain on their homelands in the midst of these challenges is one of the most important climate-related investments we could make in Indian Country.”
The program has $120 million in funding available to support Indigenous communities dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis. This is the largest amount of annual funding made available for tribes and tribal organizations in the history of the Tribal Climate Resilience Program, according to the Department of Interior.
“This funding provides Tribes with the resources they need to develop and implement proactive strategies for their communities to become more resilient and effective at things like protecting homes and infrastructure, and if necessary, to relocate to safer ground,” Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland said in a statement.
Tribes and tribal organizations that receive funding from the program could use the funds to proactively plan to adapt to these threats and safely relocate critical community infrastructure.
Funding is made available through President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda. It is part of a nearly $440 million investment for tribal climate resilience programs achieved through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and annual appropriations.
“Through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we are making transformational commitments to assist Tribal communities to plan for and implement climate resilience measures, upholding our trust and treaty responsibilities, and safeguarding these places for generations to come,” Haaland said.
According to the Department of Interior, the $120 million in funding breakdown includes $23 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, $72 million from the Inflation Reduction Act, and $25 million from the fiscal year 2023 annual appropriation.
“This investment is historic and reflects the Administration’s commitment to fulfilling the trust responsibility to protect the ability of Tribes to exist in their homelands in the face of a changing climate,” Newland said.
Since 2011, the program has distributed over 900 awards totaling more than $110 million.
In 2022, Arizona’s tribes saw some funding when one tribe and two tribal organizations were awarded funds ranging from $50,000 to nearly $400,000.
One of the projects awarded came from the White Mountain Apache Tribe, which received over $143,000 to help implement Tribal Climate Resilience training and workshops within their community.
Their project plan included improving their capacity to enhance climate change monitoring and to devise climate change adaptation strategies developed with input from the tribal community and stakeholders.
Federally-recognized Tribal Nations and authorized tribal organizations can apply for funding through the Tribal Climate Resilience Program, which supports planning and implementation projects.
The projects can include climate adaptation planning, drought measures, wildland fire mitigation, community-driven relocation, managed retreat, protect-in-place efforts, and ocean and coastal management.
For more information about the application process, visit the BIA website on the Tribal Climate Resilience Program.
A 13-year-old boy is charged with murder in the shooting of an Albuquerque woman - Associated Press
A middle school student has been charged with murder and other counts in the shooting of a woman who allegedly confronted him and other teens who were riding around in her vehicle, which had been stolen days earlier.
The boy, who recently turned 13, was booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said they would seek to keep him in custody pending trial and that authorities were trying to determine how the 8th grader got the gun. The Associated Press does not generally identify juvenile crime suspects.
District Attorney Sam Bregman said the woman was killed because she asked the teens what they were doing in her stolen car.
"You bet we're going to try and keep this teen in custody," Bregman said in a statement.
A public defender was planning to talk with the teen after learning that he had turned himself in. The boy also was charged with tampering with evidence and unlawful possession of a handgun.
The shooting happened Monday night at a gas station on the city's west side. Witnesses told police that the victim, identified as 23-year-old Sydney Wilson, had been trying to locate her stolen vehicle with the GPS on her phone.
Police said several teens were in the car and told police they stole several bottles of alcohol from a store.
According to a criminal complaint, the driver of the stolen car hit another vehicle and then crashed into a curb while trying to flee. The teens were starting to walk away when Wilson approached and asked why they were in her car. The complaint states that the 13-year-old boy, who had been in the rear passenger seat, pulled a gun and fired, hitting Wilson at least once.
Police found two shell casings at the scene and detained three teens, including one who was taken to a hospital due to intoxication.
New Mexico monsoon outlook in August looks ‘bleak’ — Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
The respite from intense, deadly heat waves won’t last long. And it looks like the monsoon will suffer for it, according to New Mexico forecasters.
Danielle Prokop with Source New Mexico reports, globally, July has been the hottest month in recorded history, a preliminary analysis from international science organizations found. The data will be fully published in August, but the analysis shows it’s the hottest July on record – and that these heat waves in the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico would have been nearly impossible without the effects of burning fossil fuels.
A drop in pressure allowed for scattered storms and short bursts of rain across the state, however, August is predicted to be hotter and drier than normal, according to the National Climate Prediction Center outlook released Monday.
New Mexico State University climatologist Dave DuBois said he’s hearing from climate science colleagues around the world that are also struggling with record-breaking heat in India and China.
He said the current trends globally and in New Mexico are worrying, not just for crops, but for wild plants and animals.
“Even if we do get a really wet September, it’s unclear how much that is going to help, when most of the season has already passed for greening up forage for natural species,” DuBois said.
The loss of key moisture means much of the state is sliding back into drought. Dry plants and hotter, drier temperatures raise the risks of wildfires outside of their typical season.
“Usually we have the monsoon bringing in higher relative humidities,” he said. “It takes a lot more energy to make a fire when the humidity is higher.”
Monsoon missing in action
July was defined by a “non-soon” period, where the storms that build up in the late afternoons and evenings have been missing in action for much of the state.
While the dome of high pressure abated over the weekend, allowing storms to temporarily build up over mountains across the state, that pattern is predicted to end Thursday, as hot winds blowing back bring less chance for rain, forecasters with National Weather Service offices in Albuquerque and Santa Teresa said.
Instead of a monsoon season with any “strength or duration,” meteorologists said it looks like there may be long periods of hot dry weather, broken up with short periods of storms.
“It’s bleak because we’re not seeing the pattern setup that brings the moisture in and keeps it here,” said Tom Bird, a National Weather Service forecaster out of the Santa Teresa office.
July and August rains often account for about half of the state’s yearly rainfall for the southern portions of the state, and provide about a third of the rainfall totals for the rest of New Mexico.
Some long-range predictions show that September’s rain patterns could be closer to normal, but it isn’t easy to catch up.
“If we don’t get it now, during this period of time, it’s hard to catch up for the year,” Bird said. “We’re already well below normal on precipitation.”
Las Cruces has received just under an inch of rainfall since Jan. 1, instead of the more than 4 inches of rain it normally receives.
While rivers saw strong runoff from a wet winter, the lack of monsoon may soon hit them hard, said Andrew Mangham, a hydrologist in the National Weather Service Albuquerque office.
“I think that almost every river and every reservoir in the state is going to see some level of drying because we’re not getting consistent moisture almost anywhere,” Mangham said.
The only exception has been the Pecos River, he said. That’s in part due to the snowpack, but also the water flooding into the riverbed due to the burn scars of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon wildfires.
From rushing water to sandbed
Despite a good snowpack and high runoff, the Rio Grande is already slipping into sandbed. The San Acacia reach – which runs between Socorro and Elephant Butte Reservoir – dried more than 26 miles over eight days last week, said Carolyn Donnelly, who supervises water operations in Albuquerque for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The Rio Grande has been running high in other places, such as Española, where it meets the Chama River, or below Elephant Butte Dam, since its release in early June. However, New Mexico’s largest river could dry again through the state’s largest city, for the second time in about forty years, if the monsoons continue to be weak.
“We could see drying in Albuquerque as early as mid-August,” she said.
Donnelly said the drying is partially due to the fact that El Vado reservoir remains under construction for repairs, noting that water would usually be captured and stored there, to release throughout the summer.
Other rivers which ran strong during the record runoff, are also dwindling. The Santa Fe River, an ephemeral stream which provides some of the city’s water and feeds two acequias, has dwindled recently, said Alan Hook, who coordinates water resources with the the city of Santa Fe.
Without the rains to help keep the channel wet, or offer boosts to the amount of water flowing out of the mountains, it means the city has to limit how much water it provides to acequias.
“We conserve water and deliver water every other week, and wait out until the monsoons can get the river channel wetted again,” Hook said.
DuBois, the state climatologist, said the drought outlook is challenging on many levels.
“Oh boy, no, things are not looking good this year,” he said.
Hispanic ranchers in northern NM turn to GOP amid Democratic conservation policies that limit land use — Axios Latino, KUNM News
Democratic support among rural Hispanic communities in northern New Mexico is waning amid frustrations over federal restrictions to land rights.
Axios Latino reports support for GOP presidential candidates in Rio Arriba County grew to 34% in 2020 — up from just 22% in the 90s. While a majority continue to vote Democrat, the shift is significant.
Area farmers and ranchers told Axios that it’s related to Democratic environmental policies like endangered species protection and forest regulation, which limit how they can use their land without consideration for centuries-old Hispanic traditions.
Carlos Salazar, a rancher in Medanales, told Axios they had “four peaceful years in the allotments” under former President Trump thanks to less interference and regulation.
Axios also reports the ranchers say the U.S. government’s conservation efforts have amounted to ignoring and even violating the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which promised to respect land grants following the U.S.-Mexico war.
Despite the treaty, Hispanic-owned land has dwindled over the years due to the federal government seizing land and establishing national forests. The Hispanic landowners’ main concern today, however, are its restrictions to their water and grazing rights.
The Department of Agriculture told Axios that it’s aware of the long-held concerns among area residents and is working to “foster dialogue, repair relationships and build trust” to become a better partner.
How the Trump fake electors scheme became a 'corrupt plan,' according to the indictment - By Farnoush Amiri Associated Press
The role that fake slates of electors played in Donald Trump's desperate effort to cling to power after his defeat in the 2020 election is at the center of a four-count indictment released against the former president Tuesday.
The third criminal case into Trump details, among other charges, what prosecutors say was a massive and monthslong effort to "impair, obstruct, and defeat" the federal process for certifying the results of a presidential election, culminating in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The 45-page indictment states that when Trump could not persuade state officials to illegally swing the election in his favor, he and his Republican allies began recruiting a slate of fake electors in seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to sign certificates falsely stating that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, had won their states.
While those certificates were ultimately ignored by lawmakers, federal prosecutors say it was all part of "a corrupt plan to subvert the federal government function by stopping Biden electors' votes from being counted and certified."
Here's a deeper look at how the scheme unfolded, according to the indictment:
FROM 'LEGAL STRATEGY' TO 'CORRUPT PLAN'
The fake electors plan began in Wisconsin, prosecutors allege, with a memorandum from Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who was assisting the Trump campaign at the time with legal challenges.
Cheseboro wrote the memo in mid-November 2020 that advocated for Trump supporters in Wisconsin to meet and cast their votes for him, in case the campaign's litigation in the state succeeded.
But less than a month later, "in a sharp departure," a new memo was issued that called for expanding the strategy to other key states, creating slates of "fraudulent electors" for Trump.
The end goal, according to prosecutors, was "to prevent Biden from receiving the 270 electoral votes necessary to secure the presidency on January 6."
RECRUITING AND RETAINING FAKE ELECTORS
After the plan was expanded to include six states, Trump and attorney John Eastman asked Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, to help the Trump campaign recruit the electors in the targeted states.
The two men, according to prosecutors, "falsely represented" to McDaniel that the electors would only be used if Trump's lawsuits against the election succeeded. McDaniel agreed to help.
As the Trump electors prepared for a Dec. 14 gathering, when state electors met at respective capitols to certify the electoral results, some had concerns. The fake electors in Pennsylvania told Giuliani and other Trump advisers on a conference call that they had reservations about signing a certificate that would present them as legitimate electors for the state.
Giuliani, according to the indictment, "falsely assured" them that their certificate would only be used if Trump's litigation succeeded.
But winning in court was never the plan, according to prosecutors.
Chesebro wrote in a Dec. 13 email that the strategy "was not to use the fraudulent electors only in the circumstance that the Defendant's litigation was successful in one of the targeted states." Instead, he wrote, "the plan was to falsely present the fraudulent slates as an alternative to the legitimate slates at Congress's certification proceeding."
'CRAZY PLAY'
On the eve of the state certifications, those close to the Trump campaign, including a senior adviser, raised concerns in a group chat about the fake electors plan, prosecutors say. Informed of what was going on, Trump's deputy campaign manager said the scheme had "morphed into a crazy play."
A senior adviser to the president, who is not identified, texted, "Certifying illegal votes." The campaign officials in the chat refused to sign a statement about the plan, because none of them could "stand by it," the prosecutors allege.
LAST-MINUTE ADDITION
New Mexico, which was not among the key states in the election, was nonetheless tossed into the mix the night before the Dec. 14 gather of electors. Cheseboro, at the request of a Trump campaign staffer, drafted and sent fake certificates to the state for Trump.
The decision came despite there being no pending litigation on Trump's behalf in New Mexico and the fact that he lost the state by nearly 100,000 votes.
The next day, the Trump campaign filed an election challenge suit in New Mexico, six minutes before the deadline for the electors' votes, "as a pretext so that there was pending litigation there at the time the fraudulent electors voted," prosecutors allege.
'SHAM PROCEEDINGS'
On Dec. 14, 2020, as Democratic electors for Biden in key swing states met at their seat of state government to cast their votes, Republican electors for Trump gathered as well. They signed and submitted false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the winner of the presidential election in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Those fraudulent certificates were mailed to Congress and the National Archives. Ultimately, only the legitimate election certificates were counted, despite Trump's effort to create what prosecutors called a "fake controversy."
JANUARY 6
Trump's allies in the days before Jan. 6 exerted intense pressure on Vice President Mike Pence, urging to use the fake certificates to justify delaying the certification of the election during the joint session of Congress. One of Trump's lawyers even suggested that Pence could simply toss out electors and declare Trump the winner.
Time and again, Pence refused, prompting Trump to complain that he was "too honest," according to the indictment.