June was wetter than usual, but drought is likely to persist - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
June in New Mexico was significantly wetter than usual, according to a federal drought status update released Tuesday. While the extra moisture provided some short-term drought relief, the National Integrated Drought Information System predicts a drier end to the monsoon season.
New Mexico saw double the amount of precipitation it normally does in June, according to the update. Federal drought officials say that’s thanks to this year’s North American Monsoon getting a boost from Tropical Storm Alberto in the Gulf of Mexico.
New Mexico wasn’t alone. Parts of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Nevada also had a wet month, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program reports “will improve, but likely will not eliminate drought in the region.”
That’s because forecasters are predicting a “mediocre end to the monsoon season,” according to the update. While July may stay at – or even above average for all but eastern New Mexico, NOAA’s three-month forecast shows drier and hotter conditions through September, especially in the Four Corners and areas south of there. That will likely increase drought again where it had been dampened.
With a 70% chance of La Niña emerging from August to October, NOAA officials say drought could build up even more throughout the fall and winter.
Top NM officials and Federal administrators meet to celebrate new venture funded by CHIPS act — Daniel Montaño, KUNM News
Some of New Mexico’s top politicians met Monday with representatives from Washington to highlight a $24 million investment from the Chips and Science act that will progress the state’s position as an advanced manufacturing hub and create more than 100 high paying jobs.
U.S. Senators Ben Ray Lujan and Martin Heinrich, Representative Melanie Stansbury, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller met with Don Graves, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and Ryan Harper, the White House CHIPS Coordinator at SolAero by Rocket Lab to discuss the multi-million dollar investment.
The company will use the funding to expand production of semiconductors used by satellites and spacecraft. Specifically, the semiconductors are used in space-grade solar cells to convert light into energy that powers the devices.
In addition to the money from the CHIPS act, the state will provide more than $25 million dollars in financial assistance and tax incentives.
This is the second of ten awards from the CHIPS Act to come to New Mexico.
The first was an $8.5 billion dollar investment in Intel, which will use some of its award to upgrade two semiconductor production facilities into advanced packaging facilities at its Rio Rancho plant.
Vouchers prevent homelessness, but rentals remain elusive - Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ
It can take up to 200 days for recipients of a city housing voucher to find an available apartment to use it. In the meantime, people often end up couch surfing, living in cars and on the streets. One of the main reasons for the long wait, city officials say, is landlords who are reluctant to accept a tenant with a voucher.
The use of a permanent supportive housing (PSH) voucher allows people to exit unstable living situations, whether they’re precariously housed or experiencing homelessness. The program helps to secure a safe place without the recipient spending more than 30% of income on rent and utilities. Case management and other support services are included, too.
To bridge the gap between those who have vouchers and landlords who are hesitant to accept them, the city plans to launch a landlord engagement program this summer.
“I’ve talked to many, many landlords. This is essentially a program where we offer several services to those taking the city’s housing vouchers,” Abigail Stiles said.
Stiles is a senior policy analyst for the city’s Council Services Department. She spent a year designing the program with the City Council and the Health, Housing & Homelessness Department (HHH). HHH administered about $13.4 million in PSH contracts through 11 agencies in fiscal year 2024.
Under the program, landlords would be eligible for up to $2,500 in reimbursements for damages that exceed a security deposit, and up to $1,000 for upgrades that bring a property up to inspection standards required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In addition, landlords could qualify for up to $500 in flexible funds to cover an inspection delay, pet deposit, utility hook up cost, an application fee or past due fees. They’d also be eligible for the cost of one month’s rent from a vacancy caused by tenant damage.
“To accept a voucher you have to do an inspection,” Stiles said. “A lot of times landlords won’t, because there’s a broken window or screen door. This offers some funding upfront for people agreeing to accept a voucher — money to upgrade their unit so they can pass an inspection.”
Stiles said the program not only reduces a property owner’s risk but can prevent a tenant eviction.
“If somebody’s kid flushes a toy down the toilet and there’s water damage, or if there’s a wild party and something gets broken, we don’t want the landlord to evict, we want to try and keep people in the unit,” she said.
LIASIONS AT THE HELM
A key piece of the program is the deployment of three landlord liaisons focused on the needs of landlords and property owners. The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness was awarded a $232,000 city contract to hire the positions, which is in the final stages.
“The landlord liaisons will engage landlords who are on the cusp [of accepting vouchers] and entice them,” Stiles said.
The liaisons will compile a list of property owners across the city who don’t accept the vouchers and let them know about the program’s benefits. They’ll help landlords navigate the voucher system and the reimbursement claims process. Those who already accept vouchers will be informed of the program as well.
The liaisons are also tasked to conduct site visits assessing renter behavior and identifying any issues or damages early on.
Officials said the city program is modeled on the statewide Landlord Collaboration Program for young adults, funded by the Children, Youth & Families Department. Bernalillo County also launched its own program earlier this year for landlords who rent to Section 8 tenants through county vouchers.
That program provides much higher reimbursements for damages — $7,500 per housing unit.
Governor, Legislature feud over crime as special session just days away – By Austin Fisher, Patrick Lohmann and Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Closed-door disagreements about the special legislative session on crime spilled into public view Monday, with the governor and top legislative leaders hosting dueling press conferences blaming each other for an impasse just days before lawmakers are set to convene.
At a Roundhouse conference room, lawmakers accused the governor of presenting half-baked half-measures to the state’s long-standing problems at the intersection of mental health care, drugs and crime.
“We do not believe these concerns can be effectively remedied in a very condensed special legislative session,” said House Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque).
Meanwhile, about 60 miles south of the Roundhouse, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham used a homeless encampment in Albuquerque as a backdrop for an impromptu news conference. She urged residents to call lawmakers and tell them to introduce her legislation at the special session.
“They were never serious about supporting any of these issues in the first place, and my message for them on behalf of the business owners and the people living here is: shame on you,” the governor said.
Martínez said legislative leaders are serious, but they have deep concerns about the proposals’ potential to harm people facing mental health crises.
“We are not afraid of hard work,” he said. “We’re also not afraid of standing up for what is right, right now, and potentially rushing these bills is not right for New Mexico.”
The governor’s agenda would make it easier for police to involuntarily commit people with psychiatric diagnoses or for courts to hold them in jail. It would also ban loitering on certain medians across the state and raise penalties for having a gun if someone has a prior felony conviction.
Standing near First Street and Arvada Avenue near Albuquerque’s downtown, the governor said leaders at the Legislature told her Friday they wouldn’t work on any bills and that their members hadn’t read her proposals. She said lawmakers also canceled both a meeting with the governor at her residence. And lawmakers canceled hearings on proposed legislation at an interim committee meeting set for Monday morning.
“We ought to be coming together as a state,” Lujan Grisham said. “We can be compassionate. We can provide tough love. We can solve affordability issues, but we have to do that collectively as a state. We have to get off this merry-go-round.”
Amid the legislative gridlock, a spokesperson for the governor said Lujan Grisham is seeking a Republican sponsor for one bill cracking down on organized crime.
In a statement to Source New Mexico, spokesperson Jodi McGinnis Porter said the governor’s team had “conversations with Republican leaders about potentially strengthening the state’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) laws during the special session.”
Spokespersons for House and Senate Republicans did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday afternoon. New Mexico Republicans have also been critical of Lujan Grisham’s plans for the special session.
GOV WOULD ENTERTAIN ‘MODEST CHANGES’ TO HER BILLS
High-ranking lawmakers from both chambers said Monday they have not been able to reach a consensus on Lujan Grisham’s legislative agenda.
The New Mexico Constitution requires special sessions only address what the governor lays out in a proclamation. The proclamation isn’t set for release until Thursday morning before the session’s noon start, according to members of the governor’s office.
But there’s little control after the proclamation is issued. The rules committees in each chamber decide whether a bill is “germane,” and there’s no means to appeal those decisions.
Still, Lujan Grisham could veto any bill introduced and passed at the session that isn’t one she endorsed. McGinnis Porter said that the governor is “open to good ideas about how we can make New Mexico safer.”
She also said Lujan Grisham would be “willing to listen to lawmakers who may propose modest changes to bills she has already proposed.”
But lawmakers don’t like the bills the governor has already proposed, Martínez said at the news conference.
“Unfortunately, what several weeks of meetings and conversations have also shown us is that the proposed policies are not the kind of meaningful solutions we need right now,” Martínez said.
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) said special sessions “only work when the bills are cooked.”
“We’re not saying we disagree with making changes; we need more time,” Wirth said.
Wirth said there was initial support when Lujan Grisham first announced the session, but that soured.
The areas of law the governor wants to change are “extraordinarily complex,” said Wirth, who is an attorney in his private life.
Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) said special sessions are only effective when proposals are vetted in advance, so lawmakers can walk into the chambers with confidence that the laws they’re about to pass would be good for New Mexicans.
“It would be irresponsible of us, as legislators, to ignore this very real fact,” she said.
Critical voices still need to be consulted, Stewart said, pointing to last week’s letter to the governor by mental health care providers and advocates which asked her to call off the special session.
“We respect their expertise in these matters, and agree that more thoughtful and rigorous work needs to happen before we enact any new laws,” Stewart said.
‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’
The governor’s staff found two business owners nearby who spoke at the street corner news conference about their daily challenges and fears for their safety near the encampment.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller also spoke and said the stretch of Arvada Avenue where he stood had been swept twice a week for months, only to see criminal activity and the encampments return each time. He said he urgently needed the state’s help to end that cycle.
The governor said there simply isn’t enough time to wait.
“If these individuals will not seek care, and break laws and come right back to the streets, there is nothing we can do to interrupt this chaos,” Lujan Grisham said. “Shame on us if we’re not going to come together and find solutions to make our businesses safer and, more importantly, our families safer.”
Speaking in front of press and television cameras, a member of her staff read out the office phone numbers of House and Senate Democratic leadership, urging the public to call on them to move forward with her agenda.
“I apologize for the amount of time this has taken all of us to get right here on the ground and say ‘enough is enough,’” Lujan Grisham said.
The issues Lujan Grisham has raised are urgent and important, Martínez said. He said people in Ruidoso and in Northern New Mexico, who are dealing with the aftermath of wildfires, have “other urgent and pressing needs as well.”
“Our caucuses are ready to step up and help,” Martínez said.
One piece of legislation that could be introduced at the session would provide aid to those affected by the South Fork and Salt fires, according to the governor’s office, potentially in the form of zero-interest loans to local governments who are dealing with the ongoing disaster.
PUBLIC MEETING CANCELED
The Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee was scheduled to meet with the governor’s staff on Monday morning, but the meeting was canceled because “we were at a place where we didn’t feel it would be a productive exchange,” said Chair Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos).
“We’ve seen the draft bills, we’ve given feedback on the draft bills, and I think it’s fair to say there will not be consensus in the committee to move forward on the bills,” she said.
On July 11, Chandler told Source New Mexico that language in the bills around civil commitment and criminal competency was “not tight enough” to prevent being overly broad and punitive.
“We’re talking about liberty interests, right? And that means they have to be very tightly drafted and clear,” she said. “Because we do not want any unintended consequences where people who should not be committed are being committed. That’s a big deal.”
Chandler is also concerned the median safety bill, which would make it a crime for pedestrians to loiter on medians fewer than 36 inches wide on fast-moving streets across the state, is too blunt a tool to reduce pedestrian deaths.
She said the governor’s office needs to present data showing that the bill would survive a First Amendment lawsuit by being narrowly-tailored enough to reduce deaths without unnecessarily limiting speech.
Her panel will reconvene on Tuesday and Wednesday to hear the rest of their pending agenda, she said at the news conference in Santa Fe. But there is one major change, according to the agenda: The governor’s office is no longer scheduled for a “potential follow-up” presentation Tuesday afternoon.
Committee Vice Chair Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) crashed another legislative meeting on Monday morning in Socorro on his way up to Santa Fe.
Chandler and Cervantes both chair the judiciary committees in their respective chambers, meaning any legislation amending criminal statutes would likely have to clear their committees to have any chance of becoming law.
Cervantes questioned whether the governor’s initiatives make sense at a statewide level. He also pointed to the governor’s median safety bill, widely seen as an effort to reduce panhandling, as an example of where a state law would make little sense in small towns such as Lordsburg.
“Is it a statewide problem, or a Bernalillo County problem?” Cervantes said.
Cervantes also noted that one of the governor’s requests is to increase prison time for people convicted of possessing a gun after having previously been convicted of a felony, saying that effort is ineffective in deterring crime.
“The people that’ll be advocating for that – increasing it again – will be the first ones to tell you it has not made one bit of difference,” he said.
The governor, at her news conference in Albuquerque, defended the panhandling bill as one way to make a dent in the state’s rate of pedestrian fatalities – the nation’s highest.
“This is a way to start to manage these high-traffic areas, keep more New Mexicans safe, keep the person on the median safe,” she told reporters. “If I wait for everything to be … perfect, we won’t do anything.”
More federal assistance heads to southern New Mexico for fire and flooding recovery - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
President Joe Biden on Friday amended the major disaster declaration for southern New Mexico in response to last month’s South Fork and Salt Fires and ongoing flooding. The amendment sends additional federal recovery funds to the state for infrastructure and individuals.
The amendment adds funds to last month’s declaration for permanent infrastructure work, according to the office of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. That includes roads and bridges, water control and other public utilities, as well as other public buildings and facilities.
Flood victims in Rio Arriba and San Juan counties will also benefit from the amended declaration. The funds can now help individuals, households and businesses in those counties with “emergency-related work,” like repairing damaged facilities.
Overall, residents of Lincoln, Otero, San Juan, and Rio Arriba counties, along with members of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, are eligible to apply for federal assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Jon Jones due in court to face 2 charges stemming from alleged hostility during drug testing - Associated Press
UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones is due in court to face a pair of misdemeanor charges that stem from a drug test at his New Mexico home in March in which he was accused of being hostile.
A bond hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in an Albuquerque court on charges that include assault and interference with communication.
Jones has denied the allegations, initially posting on social media in April that they were baseless. He said at the time that he was caught off guard by what he called the unprofessionalism of one of the testers and that he cursed after getting frustrated.
"However, I want to emphasize that at no point did I threaten, get in anyone's face, raise my voice to anyone or engage in any form of assault," Jones said in his post.
A woman who worked for Drug Free Sport International, which conducts tests for professional athletes, initially filed a report with police in April. She accused Jones of threatening her, taking her phone and cursing at her while she and a colleague were at Jones' home for a drug test.
According to court documents, the woman described Jones as cooperative at first but that he became agitated. She accused him of picking up her phone and recording her and her colleague, saying he was going to sue them, and later putting her phone in his pocket.
The woman told police that Jones was less than a foot away from her and that she was afraid.
Jones told police that he put the phone back on the counter after realizing that it wasn't his and that he apologized for swearing at the woman and her coworker at the end of the test. He posted video from what appears to be a home camera system showing the woman giving him a high five before leaving. He said neither appeared scared during the interaction.
On the short list of top MMA fighters, Jones took the heavyweight title more than a year ago with a first-round submission over Ciryl Gane. It was Jones' first fight in three years and his first in the heavyweight division.
Jones, who tore a tendon during training last fall, already was the best light heavyweight by winning a record 14 title fights.
Jones was suspended for a year in 2016 for a failed drug test and had his 2017 victory over Daniel Cormier turned into a no-contest after another drug test came up positive. Jones had argued that he would have passed under standards that were revised in 2019 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which changed the criteria for what constituted a positive test.
Border arrests plunge 29% in June to the lowest of Biden's presidency as asylum halt takes hold - Associated Press
Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico plunged 29% in June, the lowest month of Joe Biden's presidency, according to figures released Monday that provide another window on the impact of a new rule to temporarily suspend asylum.
Arrests totaled 83,536 in June, down from 117,901 in May to mark the lowest tally since January 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
A seven-day average of daily arrests fell more than half by the end of June from Biden's announcement on June 4 that asylum processing would be halted when daily arrests reach 2,500, which they did immediately, said Troy Miller, acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner.
"Recent border security measures have made a meaningful impact on our ability to impose consequences for those crossing unlawfully," Miller said.
Arrests had already fallen by more than half from a record high of 250,000 in December, largely a result of increased enforcement by Mexican authorities, according to U.S. officials.
Sharp declines registered across nationalities, including Mexicans, who have been most affected by the suspension of asylum, and Chinese people, who generally fly to Ecuador and travel to the U.S. border over land.
San Diego was the busiest of the Border Patrol's nine sectors bordering Mexico by number of arrests, followed by Tucson, Arizona.
More than 41,000 people entered legally through an online appointment app called CBP One in June. The agency said 680,500 people have successfully scheduled appointments since the app was introduced in January 2023.
Nearly 500,000 people from four countries entered on a policy to allow two-year stays on condition they have financial sponsors and arrive at an airport. They include 104,130 Cubans, 194,027 Haitians, 86,101 Nicaraguans and 110,541 Venezuelans, according to CBP.