State certifies local election results, orders recounts – By Nash Jones, KUNM News
The results of this month’s local elections are official. New Mexico’s State Canvass Board unanimously certified them Tuesday.
In addition to signing the certificate of canvass, the board ordered automatic recounts for races in 24 counties. State law requires them when a race is exceedingly close. How narrow the margin must be varies depending on the type of office, but ranges from 1 percent to as small as 1/4 of a percent.
In all, 44 races for offices including school board members, councilors and trustees, soil and water supervisors, as well as one mayoral race in the Village of Grady will head to a recount.
This year’s local election saw an overall turnout of about 20%, with just over 250,000 voters across the state casting a ballot.
Canvass board members include Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court Shannon Bacon.
Meow Wolf Foundation awards its first grants to community organizations — By Nash Jones, KUNM News
Meow Wolf, the arts company behind Santa Fe’s immersive House of Eternal Return exhibit, launched a foundation this year, which has now awarded its first grants.
They’re all arts and culture organizations in the states where the company has a footprint, including New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Texas. Each of the more than 60 organizations will get a share of $600,000 in funding.
Chief Impact Officer Julie Heinrich wrote in a statement that the foundation wants to invest in “community-based organizations that are serving those who typically don’t have access, using art and creativity in innovative ways.”
Acknowledging the company’s roots and headquarters in New Mexico, the announcement said the Meow Wolf Foundation “recognizes the importance of investing in the community where it all started.”
Twenty four of the grantees in this inaugural group are based in New Mexico.
New Mexico vets on lookout for mysterious respiratory illness among dogs - Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
Veterinarians across the country are warning dog owners about a mysterious respiratory illness that is making its way through many states as they continue to explore what type of virus it is and how to address it.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports vets are urging folks to keep their dogs away from dog parks and boarding kennels as this new disease is very contagious. Dr. Brent Parker at the Santa Fe Animal Hospital says people shouldn’t panic and simply keeping dogs at home is protecting them.
Dog owners should stay vigilant about the signs of possible respiratory problems, like kennel cough, eye and nasal discharge, sneezing, changes in behavior, and if it progresses to pneumonia, difficulty breathing. Dogs may become lethargic and have blue or purple gums.
There are no reported cases in New Mexico according to Dr. John Ragsdale with the Veterinary Diagnostic Services Division of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. But there have been cases in Colorado, including some canine fatalities.
‘Milagro Beanfield War’ author John Nichols dies at 83 – Santa Fe New Mexican, New Mexico PBS, KUNM News
John Nichols, the acclaimed New Mexico author of “The Milagro Beanfield War,” has died. He was 83.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Nichols died after battling a lengthy illness, according to family members.
The book for which he is most well-known was made into a film by Robert Redford in 1988. It features a rural landowner battling corporate and government interests over land and water rights.
Nichols told New Mexico PBS in 2016 that he wanted the book to address the many forms of injustice that were destroying the planet. But he also wanted to make it humorous.
“The Milagro Beanfield War” has since developed a cult following, and is the first of a New Mexico trilogy that also includes “The Magic Journey” and “The Nirvana Blues.” Nichols has written about two dozen books in all.
Director of the University of New Mexico Press Stephen Hull told the New Mexican Nichols is one of the important voices of New Mexico literature along with Rudolfo Anaya, Stanley Crawford and Tony Hillerman.
Nichols was born in Berkeley, Calif., and first visited New Mexico in 1957. He moved to Taos in the late 1960s and lived there until his death.
Most New Mexico county jails are understaffed; some are overfull - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Staff vacancy rates are 20% or greater at more than half of New Mexico’s county-run jails, even as some facilities report having more inmates than beds.
Katherine Crociata, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Association of Counties, told lawmakers last week that the situation required the legislature’s help to hire more staff.
“Our main concern is safety, first and foremost, of our detention officers,” Crociata said. “Right now, we have a number of facilities that are quite honestly very unsafe due to vacancy rates.”
The New Mexico Association of Counties is a nonprofit organization that lobbies for all 33 county governments and manages their insurance polices.
Even though New Mexico’s jailed population is smaller than its historic highs, three facilities reported the number of inmates exceeded their capacities in June this year, said Grace Philips, general counsel for the association.
During that period, Quay and Valencia County jails reported being at 102% of capacity, while Otero County was at 101%.
“I would say 80% is as full as you want to be, to safely operate,” Phillips said, noting jails need empty beds to move people to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, or for the safety of guards and other people inside.
A compounding issue is the continued high rates of understaffing at county jails, she said.
According to a survey of counties in late October, 15 county jails had staff vacancy rates higher than 20%. Quay and McKinley jails have some of the largest gaps, with only half of their available staff positions filled.
Philips told lawmakers that vacancy rates are often not decreasing, but shifting from one entity to another since county jails compete with state and private prisons to hire corrections officers.
“We need to grow the pool,” she said. “We’re grabbing them from each other, whether it’s county from county, or county to the state, that’s an issue.”
Crociata requested lawmakers make an appropriation of $10 million for Detention and Corrections Workforce Capacity Building Fund in 2024. The fund, established in the 2023 session, will give grants to counties and state prisons to increase pay, and recruit and retain corrections staff.
Another ask for 2024 is a “narrowly tailored” return-to-work bill, but only for corrections officers who had been retired for at least three months, Crociata said.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Elmer Chavez, the president of Local 3422, which covers New Mexico State Corrections officers, deferred comment for another time, and said “this was the first he was hearing of this.”
Three return-to-work bills failed in the 2023 session.
One was House Bill 64, which would create a “return-to-work” program for “public safety retirees,” such as police officers, firefighters, corrections workers and others. Lawmakers tabled the bill in the Labor, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.
The other was House Bill 65, which would allow retired public employees to return to work, without suspending retirement benefits. The proposal never made it to a committee. A third was House Bill 344, which was limited to retired correction officers, and did not make it before its second assigned committee.
Rep. Alan Martinez (R-Rio Rancho) said he supported a return-to-work bill for corrections officers, saying it may be the “perfect solution.”
Crociata said the New Mexico Association of Counties worked with union leaders before the 2023 session, saying the bill tried to address concerns about double-dipping in early retirement, requiring retirees to return to entry-level positions and ensuring the bill had an expiration date.
“We hope to continue the conversation with them,” she said.
Martinez encouraged the New Mexico Association of Counties to get union support for any correction officer return-to-work bill in the upcoming session.
Sen. Moe Maestas (D-Albuquerque) said lawmakers need to consider raising starting pay for corrections officers, noting that in 2019, a $18-an-hour salary was more than double the past minimum wage. And while minimum wage was raised statewide, he said, corrections officers’ pay rose more slowly.
“It’s very, very difficult to hire corrections officers, incredibly difficult, so we have to get creative in how we incentivize people to work in the county jails,” Maestas said.
Ransomware attack prompts multistate hospital chain to divert some emergency room patients elsewhere - By Jonathan Mattise And Jake Bleiberg Associated Press
A ransomware attack has prompted a health care chain that operates 30 hospitals in six states to divert patients from some of its emergency rooms to other hospitals while putting certain elective procedures on pause.
Ardent Health Services said it took its network offline after the Nov. 23 cyberattack, adding in a statement that it suspended user access to its information technology applications such as software used to document patient care.
By Tuesday afternoon, more than half of Ardent's 25 emergency rooms had resumed accepting some patients by ambulance or by fully lifting their "divert" status, Ardent spokesperson Will Roberts said. Divert status means hospitals have asked ambulances to take those needing emergency care to other facilities nearby. Roberts said hospitals nationwide have at times used divert status during flu season, COVID-19 surges, natural disasters or large trauma events.
The company said it could not yet confirm the extent of any compromised patient health or financial information. It reported the issue to law enforcement and retained third-party forensic and threat intelligence advisers, while working with cybersecurity specialists to restore IT functions as quickly as possible. There was no timeline yet to resolve the problems.
Based in the Nashville, Tennessee, suburb of Brentwood, Ardent owns and operates 30 hospitals and more than 200 care sites with upwards of 1,400 aligned providers in Oklahoma, Texas, New Jersey, New Mexico, Idaho and Kansas.
Each hospital is still providing medical screenings and stabilizing care to patients arriving at emergency rooms, Ardent said.
In Amarillo, Texas, William Spell said he and his mother have had flu-like symptoms for days but were unable to make a doctor's appointment through an online patient portal due to the cyberattack.
"We are trying to figure out other options as to what to do next," said Spell, 34.
BSA Health System – the Ardent umbrella provider for Spell's clinic and other facilities in the city – said in a Facebook post that it was working to restore its patient portal and system for video doctors' visits. Spell said his doctor's office could not tell him how long the outage might last and recommended they try an urgent care clinic.
"That's just something we cannot do because urgent cares charge a lot of money just to walk through the door and be seen by a doctor," Spell said. "There's no way we can afford that."
Several hospitals in Albuquerque, New Mexico, within Ardent's Lovelace Health System have continued to divert some patients needing emergency care to other city hospitals, Lovelace spokesperson Whitney Marquez said. They also rescheduled elective and other non-urgent surgeries.
In Topeka, Kansas, a hospital spokesperson confirmed the attack put the University of Kansas Health System-St. Francis on divert status. Meanwhile, the city's other hospital, Stormont Vail, increased weekend staffing after patient volume began growing Friday, said Stormont Vail Health spokesperson MollyPatt Eyestone.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Ransomware criminals do not usually admit to an attack unless the victim refuses to pay.
"The attack against Ardent Health is both egregious and quickly becoming the norm," said analyst Allan Liska at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. "Stories like patients being turned away from emergency rooms, hospitals being forced to resort to pen and paper for patient care, or hospital personnel unable to access medical records are increasingly common."
While some groups won't attack hospitals, "they are greatly outnumbered by those who will and with the number of ransomware groups growing every day, the percentage who won't attack hospitals is constantly decreasing," Liska said. "Health care, in general, is an attractive target for these groups because there is a perception that they are more likely to pay, even though the evidence suggests otherwise."
Even when health care providers don't pay, ransomware groups can sell patient data, Liska added.
A recent global study by the cybersecurity firm Sophos found nearly two-thirds of health care organizations were hit by ransomware attacks in the year ending in March, double the rate from two years earlier but dipping slightly from 2022. Education was the sector most likely to be targeted, with attack saturation at 80%.
Increasingly, ransomware gangs steal data before activating data-scrambling malware that paralyzes networks. The threat of making stolen data public is used to extort payments. That data can also be sold online. Sophos found data theft occurred in one in three ransomware attacks on health care organizations.
Analyst Brett Callow at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft said 25 U.S. health care systems with 290 hospitals were hit last year while this year the number is 36 with 128 hospitals. Not all hospitals within the systems may have been impacted, and not all may have been impacted equally, he said.
"We desperately need to find ways to better protect our hospitals. These incidents put patients lives at risk — especially when ambulances need to be diverted — and the fact that nobody appears to have yet died is partly due to luck," Callow added.
Most ransomware syndicates are run by Russian speakers based in former Soviet states, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement, though some "affiliates" who do the grunt work of infecting targets and negotiating ransoms live in the West, using the syndicates' software infrastructure and tools.
US agency to end use of 'cyanide bomb' to kill coyotes and other predators, citing safety concerns - By Scott Sonner Associated Press
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has halted the use of spring-loaded traps that disperse cyanide powder to kill coyotes and other livestock predators, a practice wildlife advocates have tried to outlaw for decades due to safety concerns.
The M-44 ejector-devices that critics call "cyanide bombs" have unintentionally killed thousands of pets and non-predator wildlife, including endangered species, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services. They have a scented bait and emit a poisonous cloud when triggered by a physical disturbance.
The Bureau of Land Management quietly posted a notice on its website last week that it no longer will use the devices across the 390,625 square miles (1,011,714 square kilometers) it manages nationally — an area twice the size of California — much of it where ranchers graze cattle and sheep.
Other federal agencies — including the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service — already prohibit the devices. But the Forest Service and 10 states still use them in some form.
Eight unsuccessful bills have been introduced in Congress since 2008 to ban the the traps on federal and/or state lands. Sponsors of legislation pending in the U.S. House and Senate that would ban them on both say they're optimistic the bureau's new position will help pave the way for broader support.
Brooks Fahy, executive director of the Oregon-based watchdog group Predator Defense, has been working for 40 years to ban the use of sodium cyanide in the traps. He emphasized that it's registered under the Environmental Protection Agency as a Category 1 toxicant, the highest level of toxicity.
"I can't believe they're still being put on the landscape and they continue to harm people," Fahy said. "I've seen M-44s set right on the edge of a trail."
M-44s consist of a stake driven into the ground with a spring and canister loaded with the chemical. Marked inconsistently and sometimes not at all, humans have mistaken them for sprinkler heads or survey markers.
Federal agencies rely on Wildlife Services to deal with problem animals — whether in remote areas or airports across the country — using lethal and non-lethal forces. The change on Bureau of Land Management land came under a recent revision of a memorandum of understanding with Wildlife Services obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.
It's effective immediately but can be canceled by either side with 60 days' notice.
Wildlife Services has used M-44s to control predators, mostly in the West, since the 1930s. The American Sheep Industry Association and National Cattlemen's Beef Association were among 100 industry groups that wrote to Congress this year, stressing the importance of the program. They said predators cause more than $232 million in livestock losses annually.
About a dozen people have been seriously harmed over the past 25 years by M-44s on federal lands, according to Predator Defense.
Between 2000-16, Wildlife Services reported 246,985 animals killed by M-44s, including at least 1,182 dogs. From 2014-22, the agency said M-44s intentionally killed 88,000 animals and unintentionally killed more than 2,000 animals .
Public outcry over the devices grew after a family dog was killed in 2017 in Pocatello, Idaho, and Canyon Mansfield, then 14, was injured after accidentally triggering a device placed on public land about 400 feet from their home. In 2020, the federal government admitted negligence and agreed to pay the family $38,500 to resolve a lawsuit.
"We are so happy to finally see one federal government department banning another's reckless and indiscriminate actions," Canyon Mansfield's father, Mark Mansfield, said last week.
Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman, of California, who is the lead sponsor of the bill that would outlaw use of M-44s on all state and federal lands, has named the current version "Canyon's Law," after Mansfield.
"Cyanide bombs are a cruel and indiscriminate device that have proven to be deadly for pets, humans, and wildlife – and they have no business being on our public lands," Huffman said last week in praising the bureau's move.
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, who is the lead sponsor of companion legislation in the Senate, said he's encouraged the Biden administration is "taking a positive step forward to keep cyanide bombs off of our public lands."
Fahy acknowledged efforts in Congress to ban the use of M-44s have gained little traction over the past 15 years.
But he said publicity over the Mansfield case has changed the political landscape more than anything he's seen since 1982 when President Ronald Reagan revoked an executive order issued by President Richard Nixon in 1972 that had banned use of all poisons by federal agents on federal lands.
Several weeks after Canyon Mansfield was poisoned, Fahy said Wildlife Services agreed to stop using M-44s in Idaho. Two years later, Oregon banned them statewide and a partial ban soon followed in New Mexico where some state agencies can still use them.
Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming also still allow M-44s.
Fahy said the new policy at the Bureau of Land Management — which specifically referenced the Mansfield case last week — "is a big deal" that should help build on the momentum for a nationwide ban.
"This is the most that the needle on the use of federal poisons has moved in over 40 years," he said. "I think M-44s' days are numbered."
Bernalillo County’s Tiny Home Village is accepting applications — By Nash Jones, KUNM News
Bernalillo County’s Tiny Home Village in Albuquerque’s International District is accepting applications this week. The transitional housing program is open to people 18 years and up who are unhoused or “precariously housed” and able to live on their own.
The program offers temporary housing for 18-24 months along with mandatory case management intended to support residents in securing long-term housing. Case managers also offer addiction recovery and harm reduction treatment to those who need it, according to the county.
The property includes 30 tiny homes and a larger “Village house,” which is where the bathrooms, kitchen and living area are. The 120-square-foot homes include a bed, desk, shelves and a small refrigerator.
Residents aren’t allowed to use alcohol, cannabis and any illegal drugs on the property. Guns, along with harassment, threats and physical violence are also prohibited. Guests over 18 years old must be pre-approved, and cannot stay overnight. Underage guests are only allowed if pre-approved to attend an event.
Online applications opened Monday and close Sunday. Those who need help filling the form out can contact the Tiny Home Village for assistance.
If all available spaces become filled, some eligible applicants may be placed on a waiting list.
Albuquerque legalizes raw milk - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Raw milk will now be available in Albuquerque grocery stores that opt to carry the previously-controlled substance.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the City Council last week legalized the sale of the dairy product on a 7-2 vote.
Raw milk is unpasteurized, meaning it hasn’t gone through a process that helps kill harmful bacteria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls it “unfortunate” that people are choosing to drink raw milk, warning that it “can make you and your loved ones sick.”
However, a representative of the Raw Milk Institute told the City Council that raw milk sold in New Mexico is “low-risk,” because of state guidelines, including at least quarterly inspections for producers, according to the Journal.
Albuquerque grocery stores that choose to sell it will be required to hold a sushi-grade permit and undergo the additional inspections that come with that.
Government Affairs Manager for the City of Albuquerque Diane Dolan told the Journal that it would cost around $15,000 annually to inspect and permit all the grocery stores in the city to carry raw milk. However, she said the city does not expect all of them will.
Cities crack down on homeless encampments. Advocates say that's not the answer - By Claire Rush, Janie Har and Michael Casey Associated Press
Tossing tent poles, blankets and a duffel bag into a shopping cart and three wagons, Will Taylor spent a summer morning helping friends tear down what had been their home and that of about a dozen others. It wasn't the first time and wouldn't be the last.
Contractors from the city of Portland had arrived to break down tents and tarps on a side street behind a busy intersection and people had an hour to vacate. Whatever they couldn't take with them was placed in plastic bags, tagged with the date and location, and sent for storage in an 11,000-square-foot (1,020 square meter) warehouse.
"It can get hard," said Taylor, 32, who has been moved at least three times in the four years he's been homeless. "It is what it is. … I just let it go."
Tent encampments have long been a fixture of West Coast cities, but are now spreading visibly across the U.S. The federal count of homeless people reached 580,000 last year, driven by lack of affordable housing and a pandemic that economically wrecked households. Encampments are also generating more controversy because of homeless people with severe mental illness and drug addictions who refuse treatment or don't have access to programs.
Records obtained by The Associated Press show attempts to clear encampments increased in cities from Los Angeles to New York as public pressure grew to address what are dangerous and unsanitary living conditions. But despite tens of millions of dollars spent in recent years, there appears to be little reduction in the number of tents propped up on sidewalks, in parks and by freeway off-ramps.
Homeless people and their advocates say the sweeps are cruel and a waste of taxpayer money. They say the answer is more housing, not crackdowns.
The AP submitted data requests to 30 U.S. cities regarding encampment sweeps and received at least partial responses from about half.
In Phoenix, the number of encampments swept soared to more than 3,000 last year from 1,200 in 2019. Las Vegas removed about 2,500 camps through September, up from 1,600 in 2021.
The city of Los Angeles said its sanitation department responded to more than 4,000 requests a month from the public to address homeless encampments at the end of 2022, double the amount the previous year.
But it would not explain whether that meant the encampments were dismantled or simply cleaned around or even how large the encampments were.
But even cities without data confirmed camping is consuming more time, and they are starting to track numbers, budget for removals, and beef up or launch programs to connect people to housing.
State and local laws criminalizing homelessness are on the rise, said Scout Katovich, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of sweeps and property seizures in a dozen cities, including Miami, Anchorage and Boulder, Colorado.
"These laws and these practices of enforcement do nothing to actually alleviate the crisis and instead they keep people in this vicious cycle of poverty," she said.
But California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose state is home to nearly one-third of the country's homeless population, says leaving hazardous makeshift camps to fester is neither compassionate nor an option.
He is among officials urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a 9th Circuit appellate court ruling that prohibits local governments from clearing encampments without first assuring everyone is offered a bed indoors. San Francisco is under a court order to enforce the ruling.
"I hope this goes to the Supreme Court," said Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco, in a September interview with news outlet Politico. "And that's a hell of a statement coming from a progressive Democrat."
Earlier this month, crews in Denver erected metal fencing as police officers called to residents to leave a sprawling downtown encampment. A bonfire blazed against temperatures in the teens and snow covered the ground.
"The word 'sweep' that they use ... that's kind of how it feels, like being swept like trash," said David Sjoberg, 35. "I mean we're not trash, we're people."
Removing encampments is costly — an expense more cities, counties and states have to budget for. Several cities queried by the AP provided some costs, but others said comprehensive figures were difficult to get given the multiple departments involved, including police, sanitation and public health.
Still, Denver reported spending nearly $600,000 on labor and waste disposal in 2021 and 2022 to clean 230 large encampments, some more than once. Phoenix said it spent nearly $1 million last year to clear encampments.
Despite all that spending, said San Francisco real estate broker Masood Samereie, businesses keep losing customers because of people camped on sidewalks, some clearly in mental distress. "It's throwing money at it without any tangible or any real results," he said.
For homeless people, sweeps can be traumatizing. They often lose identification documents, as well as cellphones, laptops and personal items.
Roxanne Simonson, 60, said she had a panic attack during one sweep in Portland and started yelling for an ambulance. "And then I changed my mind, because if I go, then I would lose all my stuff," she said.
But, cities can't stand by and do nothing, said Sam Dodge, who oversees a San Francisco city department that coordinates multiple agencies to place people into housing so crews can clear tents.
"Saying, 'This is not working, this is dangerous, you can do better than this, you have a brighter future than this,' I think that's caring for people," Dodge said.
One August morning, his crew surveyed about a dozen structures and tents, some inches away from vehicles zipping by. Outreach workers fanned out, asking people if they had a case manager or wanted a room indoors.
City officials are particularly frustrated by people who have housing, but won't stay in it.
Michael Johnson, 40, was assigned a coveted one-room pre-fabricated structure with a bed, desk and chair, a window and locking door. But his friends aren't there and to him, it feels like jail, so he's sleeping in a tent.
Many cities say they link camp residents to housing, but track records are mixed. For example, a June New York City comptroller's report said more than 2,300 people were forcibly removed from encampments from March to November 2022. Only 119 accepted temporary shelter, and just three eventually got permanent housing.
Advocates for homeless people say there are not enough temporary beds, permanent housing or social services and there are many reasons why someone might reject shelter. Some have been assaulted in one, or say there are too many rules to follow.
But sometimes, they don't want to pare down their belongings, or follow rules that prohibit drugs and drinking, officials say.
Encampments were not a serious issue in Minneapolis until the pandemic, when they became more commonplace and much larger, drawing thousands of complaints. In response, the city closed down more than two dozen sites where 383 people were camped from March 2022 until February.
At the same time, Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, launched a program last year aimed at finding short- and long-term housing for homeless people, including some living in encampments.
"We are hyper-focused on housing," said Danielle Werder, manager of the county's Office to End Homelessness. "We're not walking around with socks and water bottles. We're walking around saying, 'What do you need?'"
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Har reported from San Francisco, Casey reported from Boston. Thomas Peipert in Denver, and Angeliki Kastanis and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.