New lawsuits accuse FEMA of blowing deadlines for northern New Mexico wildfire victims - Patrick Lohmann,Source New Mexico
The officials disbursing a nearly $4 billion fund allocated to victims of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire failed to make compensation offers within deadlines required by law, according to two new lawsuits filed last week.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is in charge of the Claims Office, which Congress established late last year to “fully compensate” victims of the 534-square-mile wildfire started accidentally by the United States Forest Service in 2022.
The law requires FEMA to make offers of payment 180 days after receiving claims from victims whose homes were destroyed, whose businesses failed or who lost trees and fencing to post-fire flooding, among other losses. As of Dec. 21, FEMA had paid out $276 million, or about 7% of the $3.95 billion fund.
Two lawsuits filed on Thursday and Friday of last week say FEMA has missed that deadline for 24 fire victims, who waited more than 180 days to get an offer after their claims were acknowledged. Singleton Schreiber, a San Diego-based law firm representing more than 1,000 fire victims, filed the lawsuits on behalf of its clients.
Under the law, fifteen of the 24 plaintiffs were supposed to get a payment offer on Dec. 22, according to the lawsuit. The other nine people were supposed to get theirs on Dec. 11 or Dec. 18.
FEMA did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. A spokesperson told Source NM in November that the office had not missed any payment offer deadlines at that point.
The allegations of missed deadlines come as some fire victims have grown increasingly frustrated at delays in payments. The delays leave some people stranded far from home as they await funds to rebuild, and some fear they may die before being able to return. The lawsuit also notes that FEMA has, in some cases, taken 300 days or more to make offers of payment because of the way it has interpreted the federal law.
FEMA first began accepting claims, known as notices of loss, in November 2022, but it took six more months for the office to staff up and open field offices. The agency determined back then it would start the 180-day clock for payment offers from the day it formally “acknowledged” them, rather than the day they were submitted.
That practice, which the agency in August codified into its final regulations, allows FEMA to “arbitrarily” and “indefinitely” delay compensation offers, according to the lawsuits. The lawsuits also say the way FEMA has implemented the law means it is not treating every claim equally.
“Rather than proceed with the required unbiased manner of processing claims as they are received, FEMA’s policy allows it to unilaterally determine which claims to process and which claims languish,” according to the lawsuit. “FEMA’s interpretation has allowed FEMA to impose significant delays, allowing months to pass in some cases before it acknowledges a claim.”
The lawsuits ask a judge to require that FEMA process notices of loss 180 days from when a victim submits one, not from when the agency acknowledges it.
“FEMA has moved the goal posts so to speak, and New Mexicans are suffering because of it,” said Brian Colón, a local lawyer for Singleton Schreiber and former New Mexico state auditor.
The agency first acknowledged a notice of loss in April, a year after the fire began. FEMA recently told Source NM and ProPublica that it tries to acknowledge losses within 30 days of receiving them, but that doesn’t always happen. The agency also said its office had at times received a lot of notices at once, which delayed the process.
The two lawsuits are among at least six filed against FEMA since the opening of the Claims Office. Others accuse FEMA of violating the Freedom of Information Act, pushing victims to fire their lawyers and illegally withholding payments for non-economic damages. FEMA has not yet responded in court to the lawsuits, apart from denying violations of the federal public records law.
It also asks a judge to require FEMA to immediately make payment offers to those who have waited 180 days or longer from the date they submitted notices of loss. It seeks interest on delayed claims and attorney’s fees, as well.
Three youths sent to hospital after riot at Juvenile Detention Center — KUNM news, The Albuquerque Journal
Authorities responded to a riot that occurred at the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center in Albuquerque on Christmas.
The Albuquerque Journal reports three youths were transported to the hospital for minor injuries after order was restored after about five hours on Monday evening.
Officials with the law Office of the Public Defender said both understaffing and overcrowding play a role in contributing to a stressful living environment, and said the governor’s public health order on guns is worsening the situation.
The governor’s office released a statement denying the claims of overcrowding being caused by the order itself, saying the facilities won’t accept more individuals once full, and that although there is a , quote “need to balance rehabilitation with accountability, the fact is that a gun is no less dangerous in the hands of a juvenile.”
Advocacy group says BLM has favored oil and gas over an endangered bird species - Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
Nearly every time that oil and gas operators have applied for exemptions measures aimed at protecting the endangered lesser prairie chicken, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Carlsbad Field Office has granted those requests, according to information gathered by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
The lesser prairie chicken faces a variety of threats, including habitat fragmentation. The advocacy group says that the BLM’s actions are contributing to that habitat loss. This includes granting exemptions to timing stipulations, buffer requirements and other measures.
The data PEER gathered stretches from January 2020 to April 2023, which is primarily before the lesser prairie chicken was listed as endangered. Opponents of the listing argued that industry groups were being good stewards and had reached a compromise to keep the bird off of the endangered species list.
The lesser prairie chicken has two population groups. The northern segment is listed as threatened but the southern group, which is found in New Mexico, is considered endangered.
Once an abundant prairie bird known for its mating rituals, the lesser prairie chicken has lost 90 percent of its habitat.
“These protections are entirely ineffective and will not help the Lesser Prairie Chicken’s recovery if they are simply waived,” Rocky Mountain PEER Director Chandra Rosenthal said in the press release.
She further suggested that waivers should be posted publicly and not require public records requests to obtain.
“BLM had to compile these records for PEER because the agency is not monitoring the cumulative impacts of its own enforcement of these wildlife protections,” she said.
PEER documented nearly 80 incidents where the BLM granted waivers.
The lesser prairie chicken is not the only species that has faced similar actions by the BLM, according to PEER. The advocacy group says that in Wyoming the BLM field offices approved 85 percent of the 146 industry applications for waivers to requirements aimed at protecting the sage grouse, which is not currently listed as endangered but may be added to the list in the future.
PEER and other conservation groups have called on the BLM to issue a moratorium on future waivers.
The lesser prairie chicken has found itself in a national spotlight this year as Republicans attempted to strip the endangered species protections from the bird.
New Mexico native will oversee the state's $49B savings portfolio amid windfall from petroleum - Associated Press
A state cabinet secretary and former economist to the Legislature was selected Wednesday to oversee New Mexico's $49 billion nest egg of savings and trust accounts at the State Investment Council.
As state investment officer, Albuquerque native Jon Clark will oversee financial assets including the New Mexico land grant permanent fund — built largely from petroleum production on state trust lands since the 1970s to benefit schools, hospitals and other public institutions.
The 11-member investment council — a board of elected and appointed officials with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham serving as chair — conducted a nationwide search that generated more than 80 applications.
Clark in 2019 joined the Economic Development Department and rose this year to acting cabinet secretary at an agency that administers annual incentives worth hundreds of millions of dollars aimed at creating private employment opportunities, from job-training grants to film production "rebates" that can offset nearly one-third of local spending.
Prior to that, he worked as an analyst and chief economist to the budget and accountability office of the Legislature.
Steve Moises retired on Oct. 1 after a 13-year stint as state investment officer. Clark starts work at an annual salary of $285,000.
Management of New Mexico's state investments has taken on increasing significance amid an unprecedented surge in state government income from oil and natural gas production in the Permian Basin that overlaps southeastern New Mexico and portions of western Texas.
Voters last year approved an increase in annual distributions from the land grant fund to public schools and early childhood education programs. At the same time, state lawmakers have been setting aside billions of dollars in surplus state income each year in a variety of trust accounts for the future, in case the world's thirst for oil falters.
The State Investment Council oversees New Mexico's early childhood education trust, created in 2020 to generate investment earnings and underwrite an ambitious expansion of public preschool, no-cost child care and home nurse visits for infants. The fund already holds roughly $6 billion.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling for the first name of Jon Clark, rather than John.
Virgin Galactic set to take more customers to space from NM in January - KUNM News, Source New Mexico
Virgin Galactic has announced its next window for a commercial space flight will open January 26. The mission dubbed “Galactic 06” will take four paying customers into suborbit from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.
While the company didn’t name the customers, it said in a statement that they are from the U.S., Ukraine and Austria. The U.S. astronauts are from California and Texas. There will also be four Virgin Galactic crew members aboard.
Next month’s launch will mark the eleventh space flight for the company and its sixth commercial flight, according to the announcement.
Source New Mexico reported last month that the company had said it would pause space tourism flights for 2024 as it laid off around 185 employees, around 40% of whom worked in New Mexico. Company officials had said it would instead direct funds to designing a new generation of spaceships.