New Mexico Supreme Court provides guidance on law enforcement authority during traffic stops - Associated Press
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday clarified the authority of law enforcement officers to expand the scope of their investigation during a traffic stop to ask a passenger in a vehicle for identifying information.
The high court said the identifying information could include a name and a date of birth.
The court concluded unanimously that a Clovis police officer had the necessary "reasonable suspicion" of criminal activity to ask about the identity of a front seat passenger in a vehicle stopped because of a broken license plate light.
The court held that the police officer's questioning of Hugo Vasquez-Salas was permissible under federal and state constitutional provisions that protect against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Vasquez-Salas was subsequently arrested and convicted in 2018 of possession of burglary tools. He appealed his conviction.
The state's high court rejected arguments by Vasquez-Salas that the police questioning about his identity lacked a constitutional justification.
He contended a district court should have blocked evidence from the traffic stop introduced at his trial.
Townhalls will focus on passing paid family and medical leave legislation – New Mexico Political Report, KUNM
Advocates are gearing up for another effort to pass a paid family and medical leave bill in the next legislative session.
According to New Mexico Political Report, the Southwest Women’s Law Center will hold the first of 11 townhalls this week in Albuquerque to discuss the bill and gather stories from the public about the need for the law.
The proposal has been introduced nearly every year since 2019. In 2022, lawmakers passed a memorial to create a task force. A bill that would enable employees to take up to 12 weeks of paid time off for a new child or major medical event passed the Senate in this year’s session, but died in a House committee.
The 2024 bill would allow businesses to opt out if they have fewer than five employees. It would also allow self-employed people and employers that already have similar benefits to opt out.
The first townhall will be Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the CNM Workforce Training Center from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Legislative Finance Committee moves forward with public interview for leadership position - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
A longtime staff member of the Legislative Finance Committee and current interim director for the group is now set for a public interview to become LFC director.
Charles Sallee will be interviewed publicly this week on Thursday, August 17 at the State Capitol.
As the Albuquerque Journal reports, Sallee is a budget expert and the sole remaining candidate to lead the staff. That’s after Lawmakers who serve on the Legislative Finance Committee met in a private, closed session last week to interview candidates.
Members of the public are invited to send interview questions to LFC@nmlegis.gov no later than 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Water officials in rural and tribal NM communities unaware of free federal water aid - Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
Communities in New Mexico have an opportunity to get free help from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to figure out what water problems they face, and apply for federal funds to solve them.
Not everyone knows about this program, including officials leading recovery efforts in areas that have seen intense fires and floods over the past years.
The goal of the Water Technical Assistance program is to address drinking water, wastewater and stormwater challenges, EPA officials said at a virtual meeting in late July.
Services in the program include work to expand water systems’ capacity, help putting together applications for federal grants and loans, and identifying contaminants like lead in water pipes.
Local governments, tribes, water utility systems and non-governmental organizations can ask for the help.
HOW TO REQUEST HELP
A full list of programs and services can be found here. More general information can be found on this page.
People interested in getting technical water assistance can fill out this online form to request aid. Questions about eligibility can be emailed to WaterTA@epa.gov.
Three communities in New Mexico so far have requested the water assistance — Ojo Caliente, Taos and Mosquero, said EPA spokesperson Joe Robledo.
Following a massive disaster season last year and dozens of fires active now, Robledo said one of the goals of the 2022 federal infrastructure act — which funded the program and helped boost its presence last year — is to help communities adapt to climate challenges, like those New Mexico is currently facing.
“Technical assistance will help underserved communities improve sustainability and resilience in their infrastructure to adapt to these challenges,” he said.
Some disaster-affected communities were unaware of the program’s existence when Source NM reached out.
Maria Gilvarry is the utilities director for Las Vegas, N.M., a city still struggling with post-wildfire debris and sediment impacting water quality. Work is ongoing with federal funds to revamp the city’s old water treatment system, but that’ll take at least five years to get done.
City officials, including Gilvarry, told lawmakers in July that they need to modernize their technology sooner than that to keep delivering healthy water for residents’ use.
Gilvarry told Source NM she hadn’t specifically heard of this EPA technical water assistance program, but it could be something to look into.
“Any funding support would be beneficial,” she said.
She said the utility sometimes has capacity issues applying to federal grants, something not uncommon for smaller water systems that often operate with fewer staff members. That’s one of the areas this federal program aims to help with.
Something the grant likely couldn’t fix is the need for more water facility operators, which Gilvarry said the city has issues with. She said there’s also a lack of contractors to do the repairs or upgrades that are needed.
“We always need more work, more repairs,” she said.
Todd Loretto is the public works director for Jemez Pueblo. Like Gilvarry, he said he hasn’t heard of this federal program but would be interested in applying.
In April, wastewater flooded the Jemez River. Loretto said Jemez Pueblo didn’t sustain too much damage from that incident, but it did impact sewage systems. He said wastewater is still a concern, and more federal funds would help.
“The Pueblo is open to explore other funding,” he said
He said Jemez Pueblo could also use additional dollars to solve issues caused by climate change and drought. For example, Loretto said, the Pueblo could build reservoirs or improve well performance.
Phil King is the consultant to the Elephant Butte Irrigation District. He said he’s heard of the program but hasn’t really looked into it.
While serving on the New Mexico Water Task Force, King said the organization talked about how this EPA program could serve as a resource for smaller water systems that need help boosting their planning abilities.
That’s what King said he’s working on in Elephant Butte. He said it’s helpful to take time and figure out what needs to be prioritized, something in this program’s scope.
Like Las Vegas and Jemez Pueblo, Elephant Butte has a relatively small water system. The officials in charge are already at capacity working on several grants, he said.
King said a lot is falling through the cracks.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we’re doing in kind of a mad rush right now because there’s so much funding available,” he said.
King said if Elephant Butte finds the time and decides to ask for the federal water help, officials who are often wearing multiple hats would have to divvy up the work to actually get the request in.
ADDITIONAL OUTREACH
There are ongoing efforts to get more people aware of the water aid.
Robledo said the University of New Mexico Southwest Environmental Finance Center got a water-related grant from the EPA and “just started working” with environmental agencies in New Mexico and other states to figure out what communities need the technical water assistance.
Sheyda Esnaashari, EPA technical assistance specialist, said at the virtual July meeting that the federal agency has been ramping up technical assistance work since 2022, pulling from the $50 billion in water funds made available from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
She said the EPA is working with providers who have expertise in challenges unique to rural and tribal communities.
“Too many communities in the United States are living without the basics, including safe and reliable water services,” she said.
5-year-old shot and killed in West Side shooting - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Officials with the Albuquerque Police Department say a shooting on the city’s West-side has left a 5-year-old girl dead.
As the Albuquerque Journal reports, the shooting happened among a strip of mobile homes near the 2700 block of Paseo del Canto SW early Sunday morning.
APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said shots fired outside a mobile home led to the young child’s death, who was sleeping in a trailer.
Officials said they are still investigating the death and shooting, though they speculate the suspect blindly fired into the trailer home, intending to kill someone else.
St. Louis activists praise Biden's support for compensation over Manhattan Project contamination - By Jim Salter Associated Press
St. Louis-area activists have been fighting for years to get government compensation for people with cancer and other serious illnesses potentially connected to Manhattan Project nuclear contamination. This week marked a major victory, with support coming from the president.
Uranium was processed in St. Louis starting at the onset of World War II as America raced to develop nuclear bombs. In July, reporting as part of an ongoing collaboration between The Missouri Independent, the nonprofit newsroom MuckRock and The Associated Press cited thousands of pages of documents indicating decades of nonchalance and indifference for the risks posed by uranium contamination. The government documents were obtained by outside researchers through the Freedom of Information Act and shared with the news organizations.
Since the news reports, bipartisan support has emerged to compensate those in St. Louis and elsewhere whose illnesses may be tied to nuclear fallout and contamination. On Wednesday, that support extended to President Joe Biden.
"I'm prepared to help in terms of making sure that those folks are taken care of," Biden said during a visit to New Mexico.
Dawn Chapman and Karen Nickel, who lead the activist group Just Moms STL, said they're optimistic but not letting up.
"It's a great day," Chapman said. "We feel incredible. But we don't take the time to celebrate it. For us, it's like we have a strong wind at our back. Now who do we push? We don't let up for a moment."
The push for compensation has united politicians with virtually nothing else in common. Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, is an ardent supporter. So is U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat.
Hawley introduced legislation last month to expand an existing compensation program for exposure victims. The Senate endorsed the amendment, but the proposed changes to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act are not yet included in a House-approved defense bill amid negotiations toward final legislation.
St. Louis is far from alone in suffering the effects of the geographically scattered national nuclear program. Advocates have been trying for years to bring awareness to the lingering effects of radiation exposure on the Navajo Nation, where millions of tons of uranium ore were extracted over decades to support U.S. nuclear activities.
Months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. in St. Louis began processing uranium into a concentrated form that could be further refined elsewhere into the material that made it into weapons.
By the late-1940s, the government was trucking nuclear waste from the Mallinckrodt plant to a site near Lambert Airport. It was there that the waste was dumped into Coldwater Creek, contaminating a waterway that was a popular place for kids to play. Just last year, Jana Elementary School, which sits near the creek, was shut down over possible contamination, even though studies conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers found none.
In 1966, the Atomic Energy Commission demolished and buried buildings near the airport and moved the waste to another site, contaminating it, too. Documents cited by AP and the other news organizations showed that storage was haphazard and waste was spilled on roads but that mistakes were often ignored.
Uranium waste also was illegally dumped in West Lake Landfill, near the airport, in 1973. It's still there.
Cleanup in St. Louis County has topped $1 billion, and it's far from over.
Meanwhile, uranium was processed in neighboring St. Charles County starting in the 1950s, creating more contamination. The government built a 75-footmound, covered in rock, to serve as a permanent disposal cell, and the area is considered remediated.
Some experts are skeptical about the connection between diseases and the contamination. Tim Jorgensen, a professor of radiation medicine at Georgetown University, told the AP in July that the biggest risk factor for cancer is age and that local radiation's contribution would be so low as to be hard to detect.
Still, in 2019, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry issued a report that found people who regularly played in Coldwater Creek as children from the 1960s to the 1990s may have a slight increased risk of bone cancer, lung cancer and leukemia. The agency determined that those exposed daily to the creek starting in the 2000s, when cleanup began, could have a small increased risk of lung cancer.
Many of those with direct connections to illnesses are far more convinced. Kyle Hedgpeth's young daughter and niece both were diagnosed with cancer in 2020, within a month of each other. Both have since recovered.
Hedgpeth's wife and her brother grew up near a creek that flows from the St. Charles County site. He believes they picked up something from exposure to the creek and passed it down to their girls.
"It seems all too coincidental," Hedgpeth said. "I just think there's too many red flags literally putting it in their backyard to ignore it."
Barrels of drinking water for migrants walking through Texas have disappeared - By Valerie Gonzalez Associated Press
As one of the worst heat waves on record set in across much of the southern United States this summer, authorities and activists in South Texas found themselves embroiled in a mystery in this arid region near the border with Mexico.
Barrels of life-saving water that a human rights group had strategically placed for wayward migrants traveling on foot had vanished.
Usually, they are hard to miss. Labeled with the word "AGUA" painted in white, capital letters and standing about waist-high, the 55-gallon (208-liter), blue drums stand out against the scrub and grass, turned from green to a sundried brown.
The stakes of solving this mystery are high.
Summer temperatures can climb to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) in Texas' sparsely populated Jim Hogg County, with its vast, inhospitable ranchlands. Migrants — and sometimes human smugglers — take a route through this county to try to circumvent a Border Patrol checkpoint on a busier highway about 30 miles (48 kilometers) to the east. More than 60 miles (96 kilometers) from the U.S.-Mexico border, it can take several days to walk there for migrants who may have already spent weeks crossing mountains and desert and avoiding cartel violence.
"We don't have the luxury of losing time in what we do," said Ruben Garza's, an investigator with the Jim Hogg Sheriff's Office. Tears streamed down his face as he recalled helping locate a missing migrant man who became overheated in the brush, called for help but died just moments after his rescue.
Exact counts of those who die are difficult to determine because deaths often go unreported. The U.N. International Organization for Migration estimates almost 3,000 migrants have died crossing from Mexico to the U.S. by drowning in Rio Grande, or because of lack of shelter, food or water.
Humanitarian groups started placing water for migrants in spots on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico in the 1990s after authorities began finding bodies of those who succumbed to the harsh conditions.
John Meza volunteers with the South Texas Human Rights Center in Jim Hogg County, where the population of about 5,000 people is spread over 1,100 square miles (2,850 square kilometers) — larger than the state of Rhode Island. He restocks the stations with gallon jugs of water, trims away overgrown grass, and ensures the GPS coordinates are still visible on the underside of the barrel lids.
On one of his rounds in July, Meza said, 12 of the 21 stations he maintains were no longer there.
The Associated Press compared images captured by Google Maps over the last two years and confirmed that some barrels that were once there were gone.
But to where?
Wildfires are common in this part of Texas, where dry grass quickly becomes fuel. Road construction crews frequently push or move aside obstructions for their work. But as Garza, the sheriff's investigator, walked along a path designated by GPS coordinates for the barrels, there were no signs of melted, blue plastic. And nothing indicated the heavy barrels had been moved. Though volunteers fill them only partway, they can weigh up to about 85 pounds (38 kilograms).
The investigator drove up and down the main highway where many of the water stations were installed near private property fence lines making note of the circumstances of each missing barrel.
Empty water bottles sat on the ground near the round impression left behind by the heavy barrel in one site. At another, the grass was trimmed, and fresh earth was laid bare to create buffers against fire.
Garza suspected state road crews moved three barrels that had been along an unpaved road, but the Texas Department of Transportation denied it. The investigator also noted a "tremendous amount" of wildfires could be to blame. He's also speaking with area ranchers in hopes of showing the disappearances may be a simple misunderstanding, not a crime.
"They probably have a logical explanation," he said, with no apparent lead.
But in other states along the southern border, missing water stations have been ascribed to spiteful intentions.
The group No More Deaths in 2018 released video of Border Patrol agents kicking over and pouring water out of gallon jugs left for people in the desert.
No More Deaths said that from 2012 to 2015, it found more than 3,586 gallon jugs of water that had been destroyed in an 800-square-mile (2,072-square-kilometer) desert area in southern Arizona.
Laura Hunter and her husband, John, started putting out water along popular smuggling routes in Southern California in the 1990s. They note their effort is not affiliated with political or religious groups, but that their work is often attacked.
"Every single year, we have vandalism, of course, you know, people that don't agree with what we do," Laura Hunter said.
The Hunters met with Eddie Canales, the executive director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, about 15 years ago and provided the design for the low-cost water stations. In light of the news, they offered some advice.
"I would replace them all with some used barrels, just replace them all," John Hunter said. "And then I would put a couple of cameras on those and get the guy's license plates and his face."
Canales said he plans to work with volunteers to replace the missing stations in the coming days.
The number of migrants crossing through South Texas and subsequent deaths decreased this year after President Joe Biden's administration instituted new border polices. A medical examiner's office who covers eleven counties including Jim Hogg has received the bodies of 85 migrants who died this year. It represents less than half the number sent to that office in 2022. Most of the migrants who died this year suffered fatal heat strokes.
But that could change, especially if legal challenges to the Biden administration's policies are successful.
For now, the mystery about the barrels' disappearance remains unsolved. But Meza, the volunteer who restocks the barrels in Jim Hogg County, plans to continue his work
"If that was intentional, that's a pretty malicious thing. You know what I mean?" Meza asked. "You're saying, 'Let these people die because I don't want to give them access to water.'"
Governor settles with ethics commission over Medicaid contract cancellations — Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
The administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has reached a settlement agreement with the State Ethics Commission, reversing its decision earlier this year to cancel its procurement of Medicaid providers.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the state in January abruptly halted contracting with four companies it had selected to act as the state’s Medicaid managed care organizations. The cancellation came after the governor and staffers expressed concern about the process, which prompted the Ethics Commission to investigate.
The investigation found the cancellation broke state law. The Journal reports that before the settlement was reached, the Ethics Commission was prepared to sue over the violation.
The settlement requires the Human Services Department, which does not admit any wrongdoing, to award contracts to the original four companies next fiscal year as initially planned. Those include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico, Presbyterian Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare and Molina Healthcare of New Mexico.
The state did not select the current managed care organization Western Sky Community Care for a contract.
BernCo selects replacement for District 25 Rep. Christine Trujillo - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Following the retirement of longtime state representative Christine Trujillo, the Bernalillo County Commission has appointed a state official with a background in public health and social services to replace her.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Cristina Parajón, the director of strategy for the New Mexico Human Services Department, will fill the Albuquerque District 25 seat in the state House of Representatives.
Trujillo, a retired teacher, announced that she would be retiring from the Legislature in early June, citing her age and health. She had served in the Roundhouse for 11 years.
When she left, shetold the Journal she felt like her voice helped change the culture for women at the Legislature.
Her replacement, Parajón, worked as a deputy incident commander for one of the state’s COVID-19 isolation hotels and the project lead for the planned shelter and health care complex, the Gateway Center. She will serve in the Legislature until the election at the end of 2024.
Skull found at Arizona preserve identified as belonging to missing Native American man - Associated Press
Authorities have identified a skull found by a hiker at an Arizona preserve as that of Jerole Tsinnijinnie, a Native American man who had been missing for more than three years, but the case remains under investigation as police and family members search for answers as to how he died.
His family did not know his whereabouts until last month after DNA testing matched him to the skull, which was discovered in January at the South Mountain Park and Preserve in Phoenix, The Arizona Republic reported Saturday. Police are investigating the case as a homicide.
Although the 28-year-old was an avid hiker, his family wonders whether he was killed there or elsewhere. His sister, Kaylene Tsinnijinnie, wonders whether he would still be alive if police had given his case more attention from the beginning.
She said the family had to mount an independent search that included homeless shelters and encampments.
"We had to do everything on our own," she told The Republic. "Nobody had this ability to think, to believe us that he was a great person. But he was worth looking for. He was worth finding. He was worth asking questions for."
"There's just a lot of possibilities and a lot of ways that you can get answers and I just didn't like that (investigators) didn't."
Phoenix police spokesperson Sgt. Robert Scherer said the investigation is ongoing but declined to answer specific questions about the case.
And after authorities made a composite sketch based on the skull, it was Tsinnijinnie's sister who phoned investigators inquiring whether the illustration was of her brother.
Authorities initially said the victim was believed to be a white or Hispanic male in his 20s and provided a description of his clothing. Tsinnijinnie was Diné — the Navajo word used by tribal members to refer to themselves.
Kaylene Tsinnijinnie said her younger brother loved Batman and online gaming and was committed to helping his family. He went missing only months before his youngest child was born, she said.
"He was a great dad. He loved all of his kids. He gave them all of his time. He took very good care of them," she said.
According to data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, the counties in Arizona that appear to have the highest cases of missing Native Americans are Maricopa and Navajo counties, The Republic reported last year.
Phillip Francisco, a former Navajo Nation police chief, has said it's more common for tribal agencies to work closely with family members of missing people, while federal agencies have been reluctant in the past to provide families with information on investigations.
The U.S. government has pledged more resources for investigations and prosecutions. A special commission recently wrapped up a series of field hearings in several states on the alarming rate of disappearances and killings among Native Americans. The group is charged with coming up with recommendations on how to improve coordination across jurisdictions.
There were 9,575 missing Native American persons, according to the 2020 National Crime Information Center's Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics report.