New Mexico man pleads guilty in drive-by shootings on homes of Democratic lawmakers - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
One of three defendants has pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque after the 2022 election, according to federal court filings made public Tuesday.
Jose Louise Trujillo pleaded guilty at a Monday hearing to charges of conspiracy, election interference, illegal use of a firearm and fentanyl possession with the intent to distribute. Federal and local prosecutors allege that the attacks were orchestrated by former Republican candidate Solomon Peña with the involvement of a third man. Peña maintains his innocence.
The attacks on the homes of four Democratic officials, including the current state House speaker, took place in December 2022 and January 2023 amid a surge of threats and acts of intimidation against elections workers and public officials across the country after former President Donald Trump and his allies spread false claims about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Trujillo's is due to be sentenced in April. His attorney, John Anderson, declined to comment on the plea agreement beyond what is in the court records, and the U.S. attorney's office had no immediate comment.
Alexander Uballez, the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, has said the shootings targeted the homes of two county commissioners shortly after and because of their certification of the 2022 election. No one was injured, but in one case bullets passed through the bedroom of a state senator's 10-year-old daughter.
Peña has been held without bail since his January 2023 arrest.
Demetrio Trujillo, Jose's father, also faces federal charges alleging that he and and his son helped Peña obtain vehicles and firearms and that they also fired on victims' homes.
Jose Trujillo was arrested in January on an outstanding warrant. According to authorities, in his car with him he had more than 800 fentanyl pills and two firearms, leading to a break in the investigation as officers traced at least one gun to bullet casings found at one of the shootings.
Following the shootings, New Mexico state lawmakers enacted legislation that provides felony sanctions for intimidation of election regulators and allows some public officials and political candidates to keep their home address off government websites.
GE business to fill order for turbines to power Western Hemisphere's largest wind project - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
A business to be spun off by General Electric will build hundreds of turbines for what will be the largest wind project in the Western Hemisphere, part of a massive equipment order and long-term service agreement with the global renewable-energy giant Pattern Energy.
GE Vernova officials announced the agreement Tuesday, saying it is the largest onshore wind turbine order received by the company, both in quantity and in the amount of electricity that the 674 turbines will eventually generate when the SunZia Wind Project comes online in 2026.
Construction already is underway on the SunZia wind farm and an associated multibillion-dollar transmission line that will funnel power to populated markets in the western United States. Pattern Energy just weeks ago announced that it had closed on $11 billion in financing for the projects.
Backers see SunZia — described as an energy infrastructure undertaking larger than that of the Hoover Dam — as a pivotal project. The venture has attracted significant financial capital and stands to boost the percentage of the nation's electricity that comes from renewable sources amid escalating state and federal energy mandates.
Still, some Native American tribes and environmentalists worry about the location of a 50-mile (80-kilometer) segment of the transmission line where it will pass through Arizona's San Pedro Valley. The federal government already had approved the siting, but tribal leaders said there should have been more consultation.
In December, the U.S. Energy Department reported that the private sector over the past three years has announced investments of more than $180 billion in new or expanded clean energy manufacturing projects across the nation, including spending on development of larger, higher capacity wind turbines. GE has been among the companies to take advantage of tax credits included in the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
However, after years of record growth, the industry group American Clean Power expects less land-based wind to be added in the U.S. by year's end — about enough to power 2.7 million to 3 million homes.
While companies are taking advantage of government incentives now, it can take years to bring projects online, the industry group said.
The SunZia Wind Project will span three counties in rural New Mexico. Crews already are constructing the concrete platforms that will support the turbines, and developers expect the first turbines to rise this autumn.
Pattern Energy CEO Hunter Armistead said the project will serve as a backbone for a cleaner, more reliable grid for customers across the western U.S. The company already has signed long-term power purchase agreements with Shell Energy North America and the University of California for a portion of the electricity that will be generated.
"Construction is in full swing on SunZia, using American-made turbine components and creating thousands of good-paying new jobs — a big win for the growing clean energy economy," Armistead said in a statement.
GE Vernova will tap its factory in Pensacola, Florida, for the large order, as well as tower manufacturing operations in New Mexico, Colorado and Texas. Overall, 15 suppliers are on board for providing the necessary parts to make each turbine.
Vic Abate, president and CEO of the company's wind business, called the venture historic.
"This project demonstrates GE Vernova's ability to deliver on our workhorse strategy in onshore wind — producing fewer variants in large quantities at scale to drive quality and reliability across the fleet for our customers," he said in a statement.
In all, the company has more than 55,000 turbines installed worldwide.
The company has been working with Pattern Energy for the past 18 months on site layouts that are designed to maximize the performance of the turbines in central New Mexico and to ensure the supply chain can keep up with manufacturing demands.
GE Vernova consultants also have been working on interconnection with the transmission line, and the company's financial arm provided a tax equity loan commitment that helped to solidify financing for the project.
CORRECTION: The story has been updated to correct that GE Vernova is set to be spun off by General Electric, not that it is a GE spinoff.
Oil and gas executive Dan Lewis elected as ABQ City Council President - KUNM News, Albuquerque Journal
The Albuquerque City Council voted Monday night to elect oil and gas executive Dan Lewis to replace former District 6 Councilor Pat Davis as council president.
Councilor Renee Grout of District 9 was reelected as council vice president.
As the Albuquerque Journal reports, other changes were made to the council’s leadership too – with District 3 Councilor Klarissa Peña appointed as the chairwoman of a committee tasked with discussing budgets and capital improvements proposed by the mayor.
Dan Lewis has been the center of some controversy after he successfully passed legislation to abolish a powerful air regulatory board and, at the same time, establish a moratorium on its powers until February.
That was met with a veto from Mayor Tim Keller, which the city council overturned late last year.
It then passed related legislation to create a working group to improve board operations, which Keller again vetoed. The new council sustained that veto Monday. Lewis told the Journal it was “not worth” overriding it.
City Councilor Dan Lewis represents District 5 in the Northwestern part of Albuquerque. He was elected in November 2021 and is currently the director of operations for Davidson Oil.
Bill proposal would support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs at UNM Health Sciences - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A New Mexico lawmaker introduced one time funding to support programs to grow diversity across the state’s health care workforces.
Rep. Pamelya Herndon (D-Albuquerque), prefiled House Bill 35, that seeks a one-time appropriation of $1.1 million to support the Communities to Careers programs at the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center.
“It’s all about looking at trying to increase the number of people of color who are going into medical fields,” Herndon said.
The UNM Health Sciences Center’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office supports a range of programs offered to people in kindergarten and up to college graduates.
The programs offer networking, mentorship and training for students underrepresented in the medical field.
That includes students with disabilities, first-generation students, LGBTQ+ students, Black, Indigenous and other people of color, according to its website.
The programs address the gaps in care for the state, said Dr. Valerie Romero-Leggott, a vice president and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion executive officer at UNM Health Sciences.
“With New Mexico short thousands of health care workers, it is encouraging to see the NM Legislature consider funding long-standing, dedicated programs that help close that gap and improve the health and well-being of our communities,” Romero-Leggott said in a written statement.
The Communities to Careers programs are 12 programs that are offered at no cost to participants and provide stipends or scholarships.
Dr. Erika Garcia, a family medical doctor in Clovis, said her experiences using the programs were crucial to her career path. She made that clear in a video produced by UNM Health Sciences to introduce the Communities to Careers program.
Garcia has also participated as a mentor, and said these programs “work a hundred percent.” To her, the programs allow for health care providers to reflect their patients in their communities, and address disparities in the medical field.
“When people see my name, Dr. Garcia, they see that I’m a female, that I’m Hispanic, they feel more comfortable coming to see me,” Garcia said. “They feel like their health care needs are going to be met.”
Data from a study examining New Mexico’s health care workforce presented to the interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee in 2021, shows that the state has a shortage of health care providers, including nurses and primary care physicians, especially in rural portions of the state.
From a 2020 survey, three-quarters of primary care physicians in the state were not Hispanic, and more than 75% of those in the position identified as white or Caucasian.
Racism in health care and health disparities from poverty and environmental health have real-life consequences for people’s well-being, according to years of research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Communities and Careers programs aim to build a pipeline of bilingual, first-generation and younger providers from rural and urban areas, according to an October memo describing the program.
The program has the goals of addressing shortages of care, and offering deeper patient-provider relationships and improving health outcomes.
In 2023, Republican officials nationally moved to strip funding from Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in higher education, the federal government and state agencies across the country.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (often shortened to DEI) is a catchall term, often referring to equitable education programs to address disparity between white and non-white people.
Herndon said she is waiting to see if there’s any message from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to ensure there is funding for HB 35 in the upcoming budget legislative session.
“Fortunately, so far [I] haven’t gotten any pushback in New Mexico on the title,” Herndon said.
Report: Another jaguar sighting in southern Arizona, 8th different one in southwestern US since 1996
There's been another jaguar sighting in southern Arizona and it's the eighth different jaguar documented in the southwestern U.S. since 1996, according to wildlife officials.
A hobbyist wildlife videographer who posts trail camera footage online captured the image of a roaming jaguar late last month in the Huachuca Mountains near Tucson, the Arizona Republic reported.
A spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the agency has authenticated Jason Miller's footage and has confirmed this is a new jaguar to the United States.
The animals were placed on the endangered species list in 1997 after being removed in 1980.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated about 750,000 acres of critical protected habitat for the jaguars along the border in southern Arizona and New Mexico.
Authorities said Arizona jaguars are part of the species' northern population, including Sonora, Mexico's breeding population.
"I'm certain this is a new jaguar, previously unknown to the United States," said Russ McSpadden, a southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. "After being nearly wiped out, these majestic felines continue to reestablish previously occupied territory despite border wall construction, new mines, and other threats to their habitat."
Officials said the rosette pattern on each jaguar is unique — just like a human fingerprint — and helps identify specific animals.
The new video shows that the cat is not Sombra or El Jefe, two jaguars known to have roamed Arizona in recent years.
The gender of the newly spotted jaguar is unclear.
"Whether male or female, this new jaguar is going to need a mate. Now is the time for us to have a serious conversation and take action to bring jaguars back," Megan Southern, jaguar recovery coordinator with The Rewilding Institute, told Phoenix TV station KPNX.
The US sees a drop in illegal border crossings after Mexico increases enforcement - By Valerie Gonzalez and Elliot Spagat Associated Press
Daniel Bermudez's family had fled Venezuela and was headed to the U.S. to seek asylum when the freight train they were riding through Mexico was stopped by immigration officials.
His wife tried to explain that her family had permission to go to the U.S. Instead, they flew her to Mexico's southern border as part of a surge of enforcement actions that U.S. officials say have contributed to a sharp drop in illegal border crossings.
In addition to forcing migrants from trains, Mexico also resumed flying and busing them to the southern part of the country and started flying some home to Venezuela.
Even if temporary, the decrease in illegal crossings is welcome news for the White House. President Joe Biden's administration is locked in talks with Senate negotiators over restricting asylum and $110 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel hangs in the balance.
Bermudez said his wife became separated from her family when she talked to authorities as he gathered his stepchild and their belongings. He wanted to run, but his wife said they shouldn't because they had followed procedure by making an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities.
"I told her, `Don't trust them. Let's go into the brush,'" Bermudez said, adding that other migrants had fled. He recalled her telling him, "Why are they sending us back if we have an appointment?"
Last week, Bermudez, his stepchild and two other relatives were waiting for her at a shelter in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras as she took a bus back in hopes of still making the date.
Mexico's immigration agency sent at least 22 flights from its border region with the U.S. to southern cities during the last 10 days of December, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data. Most were from Piedras Negras, which is across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.
Mexico also ran two removal flights to Venezuela with 329 migrants. The stretch was punctuated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Mexico City on Dec. 28 to confront unprecedented crossings to the United States.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said a financial shortfall that had led the immigration agency to suspend deportations and other operations was resolved. He did not offer details.
Arrests for illegal crossings into the U.S. from Mexico fell to about 2,500 on Monday, down from more than 10,000 on several days in December, according to U.S. authorities. In the Border Patrol's busiest area, arrests totaled 13,800 during the seven-day period ending Friday, down 29% from 19,400 two weeks earlier, according to Tucson, Arizona, sector chief John Modlin.
The drop led U.S. Customs and Border Protection to reopen the port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona, on Thursday after a monthlong closure on the most direct route from Phoenix to its nearest beaches. The U.S. also restored operations at Eagle Pass and three other locations.
Merchants in Eagle Pass, a city of about 30,000 people, saw sales take "a major hit" while a bridge was closed to vehicle traffic so border agents could be reassigned to help process migrants, Maverick County Judge Ramsey English Cantu said.
"We survive pretty much from everything that comes from the Mexican side," he said.
Last month, CBP resumed freight crossings in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, after a five-day shutdown that U.S. officials said was a response to as many as 1,000 migrants riding atop a single train through Mexico before trying to walk across the border.
In Piedras Negras on Thursday, Casa del Migrante housed about 200 migrants, down from as high as 1,500 recently.
Among them was Manuel Rodriguez, 40, who said his family will miss their appointment to seek asylum that was made through the U.S. government's CBP One app. He said the appointment was registered with his in-laws, who were deported to Venezuela after authorities boarded the bus they were riding.
"It was all under her name and she lost everything," Rodriguez said.
Proposals being discussed by the White House and Senate negotiators include a new expulsion authority that would deny rights to seek asylum if illegal border crossings reach a certain threshold. Any such authority would almost certainly depend on Mexico's willingness to take back non-Mexicans who enter the U.S illegally, something it does now on a limited scale.
Mexico's support was critical to defunct Trump-era policies that forced 70,000 asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court and to deny rights to seek asylum during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., cautioned against overstating Mexico's role in the recent drop in traffic. Panama reported that less than 25,000 migrants walked through the Darién jungle in December, about half of October's level and a sign that fewer people are leaving South America for the U.S. Migration usually drops in December amid holidays and cold weather.
"The U.S. is able to lean on Mexico for a short-term enforcement effect on migration at the border, but the long-term effects are not always clear," Selee said.
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Spagat reported from San Diego. Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed.