Albuquerque police chief involved in crash while fleeing gunfire on East Central—KUNM News, The Albuquerque Journal
The man injured when Albuquerque’s Chief of Police ran a red light and crashed into his classic mustang is suing the city.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Todd Perchert suffered a broken collarbone, broken shoulder, eight broken ribs, and a collapsed lung among other injuries when Harold Medina struck the driver’s side of Perchert’s 1966 Ford Mustang on February 17.
Perchert was hospitalized for almost a week with an epidural painkiller and chest tube, and underwent a seven-hour surgery as part of his recovery.
Medina said he was fleeing from gunfire that broke out during a scuffle between two men. Medina was on his way to a press conference, but had stopped and called in police to clear a homeless encampment he said was blocking the sidewalk. Medina did not turn on his lapel camera during the incident.
Perchert said the lawsuit is about more than monetary compensation. He said he wants accountability for the Chief’s actions, which were praised by Mayor Tim Keller immediately following the incident.
Perchert and his wife said the city showed “a complete lack of concern” for his wellbeing.
Ex-Trump lawyer Eastman should lose state law license for efforts to overturn election, judge says — Stefanie Dazio, Christopher Weber, Associated Press
A judge has recommended that conservative attorney John Eastman lose his California law license over his efforts to keep former President Donald Trump in power after the 2020 election.
Eastman, a former law school dean, faced 11 disciplinary charges in the state bar court stemming from his development of a legal strategy to have then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of President Joe Biden's victory.
State Bar Court of California Judge Yvette Roland's recommendation, issued Wednesday, now goes to the California Supreme Court for a final ruling on whether he should be disbarred. Eastman can appeal the top court's decision.
"Dr. Eastman maintains that his handling of the legal issues he was asked to assess after the November 2020 election was based on reliable legal precedent, prior presidential elections, research of constitutional text, and extensive scholarly material," Eastman's attorney, Randall Miller, said in a statement after the ruling. "The process undertaken by Dr. Eastman in 2020 is the same process taken by lawyers every day and everywhere – indeed, that is the essence of what lawyers do."
The judge found Eastman liable for 10 of the 11 charges, including misleading courts, moral turpitude, making false statements and plotting with Trump to hinder the transfer of power.
"Eastman conspired with President Trump to obstruct a lawful function of the government of the United States; specifically, by conspiring to disrupt the electoral count on January 6, 2021," Roland wrote in her 128-page decision.
The California State Bar is a regulatory agency and the only court system in the U.S. that is dedicated to attorney discipline.
Eastman separately faces criminal charges in Georgia in the case accusing Trump and 18 allies of conspiring to overturn the Republican's loss in the state. Eastman, who has pleaded not guilty, has argued he was merely doing his job as Trump's attorney when he challenged the results of the 2020 election. He has denounced the case as targeting attorneys "for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients."
He's also one of the unnamed co-conspirators in the separate 2020 election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, but Eastman is not charged in the federal case.
The State Bar of California alleged that Eastman violated the state's business and professions code by making false and misleading statements that constitute acts of "moral turpitude, dishonesty, and corruption." In doing so, the agency says he "violated this duty in furtherance of an attempt to usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land — an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy."
In her decision, Roland wrote: "In view of the circumstances surrounding Eastman's misconduct and balancing the aggravation and mitigation, the court recommends that Eastman be disbarred."
Eastman was a close adviser to Trump in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He wrote a memo laying out a plan for Pence to reject legitimate electoral votes for Biden while presiding over the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 in order to keep Trump in the White House.
Prosecutors seeking to strip Eastman of his law license depicted him as a Trump enabler who fabricated a baseless theory and made false claims of fraud in hopes of overturning the results of the election.
Eastman's attorney countered that his client never intended to steal the election but was considering ways to delay electoral vote counting so states could investigate allegations of voting improprieties. Trump's claims of fraud were roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.
The judge wasn't persuaded by Eastman's claim that his actions amounted to no more than a dedicated representation of Trump.
"It is true that an attorney has a duty to engage in zealous advocacy on behalf of a client," Roland wrote. "However, Eastman's inaccurate assertions were lies that cannot be justified as zealous advocacy. Eastman failed to uphold his primary duty of honesty and breached his ethical obligations by presenting falsehoods to bolster his legal arguments. Finally, the court notes that acts of moral turpitude are a departure from professional norms and are unequivocally outside the realm of protection afforded by the First Amendment and the obligation of vigorous advocacy."
Roland did agree with Eastman's attorney on one of the 11 counts. The judge found Eastman's remarks to a rally in Washington on Jan. 6 did not contribute to the subsequent assault on the Capitol.
Eastman will be placed on involuntary inactive status within three days of the judge's order, which means he cannot practice law in California while the Supreme Court considers the case, the state bar said.
The States United Democracy Center, which filed an early ethics complaint against Eastman, cheered the judge's decision.
"This is a crucial victory in the effort to hold accountable those who tried to overturn the 2020 election. After hearing from almost two dozen witnesses over a 35-day trial, the court found that John Eastman violated his ethical duties to uphold the constitution," said Christine P. Sun, a senior vice president for the nonprofit. "This decision sends an unmistakable message: No one is above the law — not presidents, and not their lawyers."
Eastman has been a member of the California Bar since 1997, according to its website. He was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute. He ran for California attorney general in 2010, finishing second in the Republican primary.
Eastman was dean of Chapman University law school in Southern California from 2007 to 2010 and was a professor at the school when he retired in 2021 after more than 160 faculty members signed a letter calling for the university to take action against him.
New Mexico State University names Torres interim president — Associated Press
Mónica Torres has been named interim president of New Mexico State University.
Torres currently is the chancellor of the NMSU system of community colleges and previously served as president of Doña Ana Community College.
The NMSU Board of Regents made the announcement Thursday.
On May 1, Torres will succeed Jay Gogue. He has served as interim president since April 2023 after former Chancellor Dan Arvizu stepped down when the regents didn't renew his five-year contract, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Regents said Gogue will stay on the job until May 10 to allow for a brief transition period for Torres.
They said the goal is to select a new NMSU president by the end of this year.
Interior Department rule aims to crack down on methane leaks from oil, gas drilling on public lands - By Matthew Daly, Associated Press
The Biden administration issued a final rule Wednesday aimed at curbing methane leaks from oil and gas drilling on federal and tribal lands, its latest action to crack down on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming.
The rule issued by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management will tighten limits on gas flaring on federal lands and require that energy companies improve methods to detect methane leaks that add to planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution.
The action follows a more comprehensive methane-reduction plan announced by the Environmental Protection Agency in December. The plan, announced at a global climate conference in the United Arab Emirates, targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells, as previous EPA regulations have done. It also regulates smaller wells that are now required to find and plug methane leaks.
Oil and gas production is the nation's largest industrial source of methane, the primary component of natural gas, and is a key target for Biden as his administration seeks to combat climate change. Methane is a climate "super pollutant" that is many times more potent in the short term than carbon dioxide.
The rule issued Wednesday updates regulations that are more than 40 years old and will hold oil and gas companies accountable by imposing stricter limits on flaring and requiring energy companies to find and fix leaks, administration officials said. At the same time, officials said they are moving to ensure that American taxpayers and tribal mineral owners are fairly compensated through higher royalty payments proposed last year.
The final rule will help "prevent waste, protect our environment and ensure a fair return to American taxpayers," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
"By leveraging modern technology and best practices to reduce natural gas waste, we are taking long-overdue steps that will increase accountability for oil and gas operators and benefit energy communities now and for generations to come," she said.
The rule, which takes effect in June, is expected to generate more than $50 million per year in additional royalties while preventing billions of cubic feet of natural gas from being wasted through venting, flaring and leaks, Haaland and other officials said.
Venting and flaring activity from oil and gas production on public lands has significantly increased in recent decades. Between 2010 and 2020, total volumes of natural gas lost to venting and flaring on federal and tribal lands averaged about 44.2 billion cubic feet per year — enough to serve roughly 675,000 homes, the Interior said. The figure represents a sharp increase from an annual average of 11 billion cubic feet lost to venting and flaring in the 1990s.
Environmental groups hailed the rule, calling methane a huge contributor to global warming.
"Strong Interior Department methane waste rules are integral for the United States to protect taxpayers from wasted energy resources," said Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund.
"Eliminating waste from routine venting and flaring of associated gas conserves domestic energy resources ... lessens oil and gas production's negative impact on the climate and protects the health of frontline communities," said Tannis Fox, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center, another environmental group.
The American Petroleum Institute, the top lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, called the new rule an overreach that could hamper U.S. energy production.
"API supports a smart regulatory framework for reducing methane emissions, but overlapping regulations and lack of coordination between policymakers could hinder progress, create unnecessary barriers to development on federal lands and result in regulatory incoherence,'' said Holly Hopkins, an API vice president.
Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called the rule a "much-needed step" to fight climate change and protect the health of communities near drilling sites throughout the West.
"Big Oil and Gas have been getting away with sloppy operations for too long, without an ounce of regard for the destruction it's causing,'' Grijalva said. "I'm grateful the Biden administration is taking the bold action we need to hold fossil fuel facilities to a higher standard.''
Interior had previously announced a rule to restrict methane emissions under former President Barack Obama. The plan was challenged in court and later weakened under former President Donald Trump. Competing court rulings blocked enforcement of the Trump and Obama-era rules, leading the agency to revert to rules developed more than 40 years ago.
Besides the EPA rule, a 2022 climate law approved by Congress is set to impose a fee on energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane emissions. The fee, initially set at $900 per metric ton of methane, will mark the first time the federal government has directly imposed a tax on greenhouse gas emissions.
Solomon Peña faces new federal charges in shootings at officials’ homes – KUNM News, Associated Press
A federal grand jury has returned asuperseding indictment against Solomon Peña alleging he solicited others to kill or attempt to kill a witness.
U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez announced the new charges also include being a felon in position of a firearm and ammunition. The original charges against Peña stem from shootings at thehomes of four elected officials in December 2022 and January 2023.
Officials say Peña organized the shootings at the homes of two Bernalillo County Commissioners and two New Mexico state legislators, all Democrats. He ran unsuccessfully for the New Mexico House as a Republican and posted on social media that the November election was “rigged” and he would not concede his loss.
One of the shootings included a machine gun. They were carried out with the assistance of co-defendants Demetrio Trujillo and his son, Jose Trujillo. Both have pled guilty to charges that include conspiracy and interference with federal protected activities.
If convicted on the new charges, Peña faces up to life in prison.
Federal charges filed against Sheryl Williams Stapleton — KUNM News,The Santa Fe New Mexican
A former high ranking state lawmaker and Albuquerque Public Schools administrator is facing dozens of new federal charges related to fraud and money laundering.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Sheryl Williams Stapleton was already facing 26 felonies and two misdemeanors at the state level, including racketeering and money laundering, having been accused of routing public funds into businesses and charities with which she was involved.
She now faces 35 federal charges as well, including money laundering, mail fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.
Federal prosecutors now allege Stapleton funneled more than $3 million — including $2.5 million of federal funds — into Robotics Management Learning Systems, a Washington D.C. based company she helped run.
The federal indictment states a paper trail shows money then made its way from that company to her charity organization and her Albuquerque restaurant, A Taste of the Caribbean, netting her more than $1 million in the alleged scheme.
Stapleton represented District 19 in Albuquerque from 1995 until she resigned in 2021 as House Majority Leader. She also worked at APS since 1984, eventually becoming director of Career and Technical Education, before being fired in August of 2021 amid the original allegations.
Rio Grande High School holds memorials for baseball player - Rodd Cayton, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ
Baseball players from Rio Grande High School, Eldorado High School and Manzano High School gathered Wednesday afternoon to honor a student athlete who died Tuesday morning after collapsing on the Rio Grande campus over the weekend. The stands were full as athletes from Rio Grande and Eldorado prepared to face off and teammates from Manzano came out in support.
Isaac Venzor Prado, 17, was working out on the campus track Sunday when he collapsed, Antoinette Valenzuela, the Rio Grande High School principal, told CityDesk ABQ Tuesday night.
Two other students were with Prado at the time, she said. They tried to help him and called 911. Paramedics took him to a hospital, where he died Tuesday morning. His cause of death has not been released.
Valenzuela said Prado enrolled in the school in January and had already made an impression.
“Isaac was a student that every high school principal would want in their school,” she said, adding that Prado had also bonded with his peers on the Ravens baseball team, which she described as a tight-knit family.
The team canceled its game Monday. Prado will also be honored at a Saturday doubleheader and Valenzuela said team officials are still working on what form that remembrance will take.
She said the loss is devastating to Prado’s family and that the school community has extended its condolences.
“We appreciate the outpouring of love and support from the community,” Valenzuela said.
Venezuelans are increasingly stuck in Mexico, explaining drop in illegal crossings to US - By Christopher Sherman, Elliot Spagat and Valerie Gonzalez Associated Press
Venezuelan migrants often have a quick answer when asked to name the most difficult stretch of their eight-country journey to the U.S. border, and it's not the dayslong jungle trek through Colombia and Panama with its venomous vipers, giant spiders and scorpions. It's Mexico.
"In the jungle, you have to prepare for animals. In Mexico, you have to prepare for humans," Daniel Ventura, 37, said after three days walking through the Darien Gap and four months waiting in Mexico to enter the U.S. legally using the government's online appointment system, called CBP One. He and his family of six were headed to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, where he has a relative.
Mexico's crackdown on immigration in recent months — at the urging of the Biden administration — has hit Venezuelans especially hard. The development highlights how much the U.S. depends on Mexico to control migration, which has reached unprecedented levels and is a top issue for voters as President Joe Biden seeks reelection.
Arrests of migrants for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped so this year after a record high in December. The biggest decline was among Venezuelans, whose arrests plummeted to 3,184 in February and 4,422 in January from 49,717 in December.
While two months do not make a trend and illegal crossings remain high by historical standards, Mexico's strategy to keep migrants closer to its border with Guatemala than the U.S. is at least temporary relief for the Biden administration.
Large numbers of Venezuelans began reaching the U.S. in 2021, first by flying to Mexico and then on foot and by bus after Mexico imposed visa restrictions. In September, Venezuelans briefly replaced Mexicans as the largest nationality crossing the border.
Mexico's efforts have included forcing migrants from trains, flying and busing them to the southern part of the country, and flying some home to Venezuela.
Last week, Mexico said it would give about $110 a month for six months to each Venezuelan it deports, hoping they won't come back. Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador extended the offer Tuesday to Ecuadorians and Colombians.
"If you support people in their places of origin, the migratory flow reduces considerably, but that requires resources and that is what the United States government has not wanted to do," said López Obrador, who is barred by term limits from running in June elections.
Migrants say they must pay corrupt officials at Mexico's frequent government checkpoints to avoid being sent back to southern cities. Each setback is costly and frustrating.
"In the end, it is a business because wherever you get to, they want to take the last of what you have," said Yessica Gutierrez, 30, who left Venezuela in January in a group of 15 family members that includes young children. They avoided some checkpoints by hiking through brush.
The group is now waiting in Mexico City to get an appointment so they can legally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. To use the CBP One app, applicants must be in central or northern Mexico. So Gutierrez's group sleeps in two donated tents across the street from a migrant shelter and check the app daily.
More than 500,000 migrants have used the app to enter the U.S. at land crossings with Mexico since its introduction in January 2023. They can stay in the U.S. for two years under a presidential authority called parole, which entitles them to work.
"I would rather cross the jungle 10 times than pass through Mexico once," said Jose Alberto Uzcategui, who left a construction job in the Venezuelan city of Trujillo with his wife and sons, ages 5 and 7, in a family group of 11. They are biding time in Mexico City until they have enough money for a phone so they can use CBP One.
Venezuelans account for the vast majority of 73,166 migrants who crossed the Darien Gap in January and February, which is on pace to pass last year's record of more than 500,000, according to the Panamanian government, suggesting Venezuelans are still fleeing a country that has lost more than 7 million people amid political turmoil and economic decline. Mexican authorities stopped Venezuelan migrants more than 56,000 times in February, about twice as much as the previous two months, according to government figures.
"The underlying question here is: Where are the Venezuelans? They're in Mexico, but where are they?" said Stephanie Brewer, who covers Mexico for the Washington Office on Latin America, a group that monitors human rights abuses.
Mexico deported only about 429 Venezuelans during the first two months of 2024, meaning nearly all are waiting in Mexico.
Many fear that venturing north of Mexico City will get them fleeced or returned to southern Mexico. The U.S. admits 1,450 people a day through CBP One with appointments that are granted two weeks out.
Even if they evade Mexican authorities, migrants feel threatened by gangs who kidnap, extort and commit other violent crimes.
"You have to go town by town because the cartels need to put food on their plates," said Maria Victoria Colmenares, 27, who waited seven months in Mexico City for a CBP One appointment, supporting her family by working as a waitress while her husband worked at a car wash.
"It's worth the wait because it brings a reward," said Colmenares, who took a taxi from the Tijuana airport to the border crossing with San Diego, hours before her Tuesday appointment.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has touted his own efforts to explain the recent reduction in illegal crossings in his state, where at least 95% of Border Patrol arrests of Venezuelans occur. Those have included installing razor wire, putting a floating barrier in the Rio Grande and making plans to build a new base for members of the National Guard.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has mostly credited Mexico for the drop in border arrests.
Some Venezuelans still come north despite the perils.
Marbelis Torrealba, 35, arrived in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, with her sister and niece this week, carrying ashes of her daughter who drowned in a boat that capsized in Nicaragua. She said they were robbed by Mexican officials and gangs and returned several times to southern Mexico.
A shelter arranged for them to enter the U.S. legally on emergency humanitarian grounds, but she was prepared to cross illegally.
"I already experienced the worst: Seeing your child die in front of you and not being able to do anything."
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Spagat reported from Tijuana, Mexico, and Gonzalez reported from Matamoros. Associated Press reporter Rebecca Santana in Washington, D.C., also contributed.