Lujan Grisham was in the running for Harris’ VP - Politico, Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was on a shortlist of politicians vetted to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.
After the "veepstakes" ended with Harris selecting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her No. 2, Politico reported Lujan Grisham was among nine candidates who went through the official vetting process.
The Governor’s Office confirmed the report to the Albuquerque Journal.
Lujan Grisham did not make it to a round of at least six, who met with Harris’ team on Zoom last week, according to Politico. That list included Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and Walz.
Lujan Grisham has known Harris since they served in congress at the same time. Harris even officiated the governor’s wedding to husband Manny Cordova in 2022.
In addition to swiftly endorsing Harris’ candidacy after President Biden dropped out of the race last month, Lujan Grisham praised her pick of Walz on social media, calling her fellow governor a “friend,” and describing him as “smart, effective, dedicated” and “kind.”
Solar cell manufacturer announces $942M investment and new Albuquerque facility - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Wednesday that a U.S. solar cell manufacturing company is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in New Mexico as it sets up shop in Albuquerque.
Ebon Solar plans to build a 834,000-square-foot “production complex” in Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol area, according to the announcement, where it will build solar cells from beginning to end.
Lujan Grisham highlighted the state’s “commitment to renewable energy,” along with its workforce, job training and tuition-free college in attracting the new business, describing New Mexico as “a global center for advanced energy manufacturing.”
Ebon Solar CEO Judy Chai cited the state’s workforce as behind the decision, along with the state’s “abundant solar resources” and “favorable renewable energy policies.”
The investment is expected to generate more than 900 new jobs for the area, according to the Governor’s Office.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller praised the deal, saying it “means more high-paying jobs for locals as Albuquerque continues to become a leader in clean energy.”
Parent company of NM Gas Company proposes sale - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
The parent company of New Mexico Gas Company is proposing to sell it to another company. State regulators still must approve the sale before it can go through.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Canadian company Emera has owned a majority stake in the gas company since 2016. This week, it proposed selling the utility to Bernhard Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Louisiana, for $1.25 billion.
The company says its decision to sell is a financially strategic one.
It plans to seek approval from the Public Regulation Commission in the next few months. If the commission OKs the sale, the company says it would expect to close late next year, retaining all existing local employees, and potentially adding 70 more jobs.
At least 95 Indigenous children died in federal boarding schools in New Mexico - Bella Davis, New Mexico In Depth
This story was originally published by New Mexico In Depth
At least 95 Indigenous children died in federal boarding schools that operated in New Mexico for more than a century.
That includes 34 deaths at Santa Fe Indian School, 18 at Charles H. Burke Indian School at Fort Wingate near Gallup, 11 at Crownpoint Boarding School and 10 at Albuquerque Indian School. Children also died in schools in Blackrock, Cuba, Mescalero, Newcomb, Prewitt, Shiprock and Tohatchi.
At least 175 children from tribal nations represented in New Mexico — Navajo, Pueblo, Mescalero Apache and Jicarilla Apache — died in boarding schools, although it’s unclear in what states other than New Mexico those deaths occurred.
Of 74 marked or unmarked burial sites of Indigenous children identified across the country, five were identified at locations in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Newcomb and Fort Wingate.
Those numbers are in a 105-page investigative report the Interior Department issued last week that identified 973 Indigenous children who died in federal boarding schools designed to erase their cultures and dispossess Indigenous peoples of their lands. The true toll is undoubtedly higher, the report’s authors note.
From the early 1800s to the 1970s, the federal government, often in partnership with religious organizations, forced American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children as young as four to attend boarding schools in 37 states or then-territories. Congress appropriated more than $23.3 billion over a century for 417 schools and similar institutions, according to a department estimate.
Children faced physical, sexual and emotional abuse from school officials, along with disease, malnourishment and unsanitary and overcrowded housing.
They were punished for speaking their languages or practicing their traditions and in many cases were made to spend half their days doing manual labor. For instance, in 1903 at the Mescalero Boarding School in southern New Mexico, Mescalero Apache “boys sawed over 70,000 feet of lumber and 40,000 shingles and made upward of 120,000 brick.”
The report identifies 46 boarding school sites in New Mexico, the third most in the nation, behind Oklahoma at 87 and Arizona at 50.
At least 3,500 children from dozens of tribal nations attended New Mexico schools, at least eight of which were run by Catholic and Protestant groups who were supported by the government.
The department’s investigation, including an initial report in May 2022, represents the first time the federal government has attempted to thoroughly address the scope and legacy of boarding schools it operated or supported.
The Interior Department was able to identify by name 18,624 children who attended boarding schools. That number doesn’t include children who attended outside the years 1819 to 1969 or those who may be listed as attendees on unavailable records, like those maintained by religious groups that didn’t receive government support. It also doesn’t include children who attended institutions like day schools, sanitariums or orphanages.
The schools “caused enduring trauma for Indigenous communities,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) in a July 30 news release. Haaland has spoken about the schools’ effects on her own family, including her great-grandfather, who was taken to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
One way that trauma has manifested is in poor health outcomes.
Former boarding school attendees are 44% more likely to have chronic physical health conditions as adults, including cancer, diabetes and arthritis, according to studies led by Ursula Running Bear (Sicangu Lakota) and funded by the National Institutes of Health. They’re also at increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Study participants whose fathers went to boarding schools had, on average, a 36% greater count of chronic health problems compared to other participants.
The report calls on the U.S. to formally acknowledge and apologize for its policies and increase funding for language revitalization efforts, among other recommendations aimed at remedying the ongoing impacts of the schools.
“We must bring every resource to bear to strengthen” what federal policies “could not destroy,” said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community).
The recommendations are:
1. Issuing a formal acknowledgment and apology from the U.S. government regarding its role in adopting and implementing national federal Indian boarding school policies.
2. Investing in remedies to the present-day impacts of the federal Indian boarding school system. (The report mentions funding for culturally based, community-driven healing efforts; family preservation and reunification; violence prevention; increasing investments in tribal and public school systems; and revitalization of Indigenous languages.)
3. Establishing a national memorial to acknowledge and commemorate the experiences of Indian tribes, individuals, and families affected by the federal Indian boarding school system.
4. Identifying and repatriating remains of children and funerary objects who never returned from federal Indian boarding schools.
5. Returning former federal Indian boarding school sites to tribes.
6. Telling the story of federal Indian boarding schools to the American people and global community.
7. Investing in further research regarding the present-day health and economic impacts of the federal Indian boarding school system.
8. Advancing international relationships in other countries with similar but unique histories of boarding schools or other assimilationist policies.
Councilor said she never thought colleagues would try to ‘take away pay from workers’ during push to update min. wage law - By Elizabeth McCall, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
When a city councilor who represents some of the most impoverished areas of the city recently tried to update the city’s minimum wage law, she inadvertently created an opportunity for one of her colleagues to lower the city’s minimum wage for tipped employees.
Councilor Nichole Rogers in an interview with City Desk ABQ said she was taken aback when Councilor Renée Grout suggested amending Rogers’ bill, completely changing the bill’s intention.
“I would have never thought that they would use my trying to make sure we have accurate laws on the books, which is my intention, and use it to take away pay from workers,” Rogers said.
At the request of Mayor Tim Keller’s administration, Rogers sponsored a proposal to update the city’s minimum rate of $8.50 to the state’s minimum wage rate of $12.00 — which Albuquerque workers already earn per state law. Early on in the debate, Rogers tried to withdraw her bill after learning language about enforcement needed some work. But before she could pull the bill from consideration, there was a call to make some changes.
Grout proposed amending the proposal to lower Albuquerque’s tipped minimum wage to match that of the state’s. Grout’s amendment would have kept the city’s minimum wage at $12 per hour, but tipped employee wages would have dropped to $3 from the current rate of $7.20 per hour.
Rogers was not on board with Grout’s proposal but local restaurant owners were.
Numerous restaurant owners, along with New Mexico Restaurant Association CEO Carol Wight, told councilors that servers make significantly more than kitchen staff and — in some cases — managers. Wight and others from the restaurant industry argued lowering the tipped rate would allow restaurants to increase pay for other employees.
Grout said at the meeting she understood both sides but the employees “in the back of the house that are scrubbing the floors deserve to be paid better.”
“I think that sometimes we want to mirror what the state is telling us to do and then other times we don’t. I am not understanding why one time it’s okay and then another time it’s not,” Grout said. “We need to be business friendly and we need to be encouraging.”
After a heated discussion, the proposal was deferred on a 5-4 vote until the council’s next meeting on Aug. 19.
Rogers said if the councilors want to align the city’s rate for tipped workers with the state’s rate, they would “instantly remove almost $8,000 per year from working families’ pockets.”
“With rising costs of everything and homelessness has doubled, this would only make that worse,” Rogers said. “We don’t have time to play games and we shouldn’t play games because these are people’s lives. I am not interested in having my name on something that removes pay from workers, period.”
While Albuquerque is the biggest city in New Mexico and has higher living costs than some other cities, Rogers said she would advocate for the same thing in Española or Las Vegas.
“I think the bottom line is that would be catastrophic for our community…There’s no right time to take pay away from people,” Rogers said. “People in this role in the previous city councils made this that way for a reason, and that I think should stand.”
The debate is expected to pick back up on Aug. 19 when the council convenes for its next meeting.
Some Lincoln County residents still under drinking water advisory - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
Drinking water is safe once again for thousands of people in Ruidoso impacted by severe fires and floods.
Monday, the New Mexico Environment Department’s Drinking Water Bureau lifted an advisory for the Ruidoso Water System, which supplies water to 19,195 people in the Village of Ruidoso.
Recovery for water services for everyone harmed by the full damage from the South Fork and Salt fires isn’t complete. About 900 people in Lincoln County are still advised to not drink the water in their home taps, according to the state.
A drinking water advisory was issued for the areas impacted by the fires on June 18 because flooding in burn scars can lead to water system contamination. The water from taps in bathrooms, kitchens and other faucets for nearly 25,000 people were impacted by the state’s warning.
Under a drinking water advisory, the state recommends people seek drinking water from alternative sources.
Four precautionary advisories are still in place, all located in Lincoln County, environment department spokesperson Drew Goretzka said. These advisories impact at least 929 people.
“At this time, we are not sure when the remaining advisories will be lifted. These water systems were heavily impacted by the fires and floods. These systems may need significant repairs to become fully operational,” Goretzka said.
He explained that “post fire recovery efforts” are different in each situation, but generally involves repairing or replacing infrastructure to make sure the system is stable and maintains water pressure.
“In addition, we would collect and analyze water samples to ensure drinking water delivered to consumers is safe,” he said.
People affected by the advisories can still use water for washing clothes, dishes and other “non drinking” uses. However, the state environment department recommends young children and infants do not bathe from the tap water. Immunocompromised people and anyone with an open wound is advised to do the same.
Guv advertises state’s safe haven abortion status to lure providers from Texas - By Susan Dunlap, New Mexico Political Report
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is advertising the state’s safe haven status for legal and safe reproductive healthcare to try to lure medical providers from Texas.
Like most states, New Mexico suffers a shortage of medical providers across the state. As part of its effort to address the shortage, the state has deployed a campaign in Texas, advertising the state’s status as a safe-haven state for abortion to encourage providers of all kinds in Texas to consider relocating.
The Free to Provide campaign is not limited to job advertisements for OB-GYN specialists in New Mexico. It contains a job listing that includes hundreds of jobs, from nurse practitioners to paramedics to specialists in other fields of medicine. The jobs are in private practices, hospitals and various clinics.
This comes at a time when providers and former patients in states such as Idaho and Texas have begun to speak out about the difficulties of receiving and delivering care in hospital emergency rooms due to those states’ abortion bans. Many such bans put medical providers into a legal quandary while trying to protect a pregnant patient’s health. A recent congressional report published by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives Energy Committee found that laws in restrictive states have led to a negative impact on patient-provider relationships in states where abortion is restricted or banned. In states such as Texas, state law prohibits providers from counseling patients on abortion as part of the full range of medical options.
The newspaper advertisement, which contains a letter signed by Lujan Grisham, says that providers took a medical oath “with patients—not politicians—in mind.”
“When you pledged to dedicate your lives to medicine, you did so with the understanding that the health and well-being of your patients would always be your priority,” the letter says.
It also enumerates other reasons to move to New Mexico, such as a temperate climate and a state filled with natural beauty. The Free to Provide website boasts additional reasons to live in New Mexico, including its diverse cuisine, lower cost of living, and “rich cultural tapestry.”
The Free to Provide campaign advertised in five major Texas newspapers on Sunday. The state took out a full-page ad in each one. It also paid for six billboards placed around the Houston Medical Center.
In a statement to NM Political Report, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said “People and businesses vote with their feet, and continually they are choosing to move to Texas more than any other state in the country. Governor Lujan Grisham should focus on her state’s rapidly declining population instead of political stunts.”
WQCC commissioner will abstain from final produced water rule vote - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A New Mexico water board member with ties to the oil and gas industry announced Monday she will abstain from a final vote on statewide rules developing additional uses of oil and gas wastewater.
The Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC), an oft-overlooked body of 13 members tasked with shaping and enforcing state water policy, is reviewing proposed rules to expand uses for oil and gas wastewater.
Currently, there are 12 members, with one vacant seat.
Rulemaking on the issue has been a monthslong process. The commission resumed hearing testimony and cross examination of witnesses supporting or challenging proposed rules on Monday, after a week of testimony in May.
In the opening minutes of the meeting Monday, Commissioner Krista McWilliams stopped short of recusing herself, saying there is no basis for allegations of personal or corporate gain from her position on the WQCC. She said she would listen to hearings and offer her opinions, but she’ll abstain from voting.
“If the commission would allow, I intend to remain a participant in the hearing and remain committed to serve New Mexico,” she said. “However, I do not want to stand in the way of due process. In order to allow science to have its day in court, I will abstain from the final vote.”
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
McWilliams’ statement follows months of questions about unclear disclosure rules for commission members, and a motion for McWilliams to recuse herself filed by an environmental group opposing the rules’ adoption.
In June, Navajo Nation citizens Daniel Tso and Samuel Sage and New Energy Economy, a nonprofit organization opposing the rules, filed a motion requesting McWilliams recuse herself, alleging conflicts of interest with oil and gas interests.
The issue escalated as additional motions were filed in July.
McWilliams called the allegations “baseless” on Monday, further saying that neither she, her husband, nor their Farmington-based oil and gas company LOGOS Energy receive any gain from her sitting on the rulemaking body.
She said she would not receive a financial benefit from the rulemaking, and said that LOGOS Energy or her husband Jay Paul McWilliams had not participated with the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association since 2022.
“Despite my industry background, I remain committed to the Water Quality Act objective of protecting public health and enhancing water quality,” she said. “My obligation is to serve the public interests, not personal or corporate gain.”
She further said a six-year-old video “aimed to inform the public about fracking,” a process of injecting liquid at high pressures for oil and gas instruction, was done on a voluntary basis and had no relation to the rule-making process.
In the video, which is no longer on the website, McWilliams said she supports the controversial drilling practice, saying at one point: “Fracking, it’s a sensitive subject. I get it. But I feel good about fracking.”
Missi Currier, the president and CEO of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, which lobbies on behalf of the industry, filed testimony saying that McWilliams did not know the video was still on the nonprofit’s website.
Mariel Nanasi, the executive director for New Energy Economy, told Source NM that McWilliam’s abstention doesn’t go far enough.
“She’s only abstaining from the vote, she’s not abstaining from the deliberation,” Nanasi said, adding that she feels that could taint the commission’s ultimate decision, and could be brought up in an appeal.
Tso echoed those concerns in a call after the hearing, saying he’s concerned her participation will still “slant the final rules.”
No statements from party members or the public were allowed in the hearing, according to the Hearing Officer Felicia Orth, who’s acting as the judge in the matter.
Orth said in the hearing, that she was deferring any ruling on the recusal issue to the commission, and said the issue may be explored by other state agencies. But it appears the issue is closed before the WQCC.
A mirror complaint that New Energy Economy submitted to the State Ethics Commission is part of a separate proceeding, which is not open to the public at this time.
In a copy of McWilliams’ response to the ethics complaint obtained by Source NM, she requested that a hearing be postponed until after the Aug. 5 WQCC proceedings.
WHAT IS PRODUCED WATER?
Oil and gas wastewater, often called produced water, is at the center of the rulemaking.
As New Mexico water sources are expected to become increasingly strained by more demand and shrinking supplies from a hotter, drier climate – the relationship between oil and gas and its wastewater is drawing more public attention to the deliberations.
The state generates billions of gallonsof toxic wastewater from oil and gas production. The wastewater is often extremely salty and includes hazardous chemicals used in fracking such as PFAs, arsenic, benzene and more.
Much of the water is currently disposed of by injecting it underground, which has been linked to earthquakes. Some of the wastewater is recycled for further oil drilling.
Currently, there is no approved use for produced water off of the oilfields.
Inside Climate detailed the week’s worth of debate from the hearings in May. Across hours of testimony, New Mexico Environment Department experts proposed using produced water in industrial processes, such as power plant cooling, manufacturing or hydrogen production and developing smaller demonstration projects to study treatments.
Oil and gas industry representatives argued too-restrictive rules, including the proposed rules, will drive companies from New Mexico to other states and environmental groups oppose using the wastewater for industry, citing health and safety concerns.
WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK?
The Water Quality Control Commission is scheduled to hold rulemaking hearings through the end of the week.
The meetings are held in Committee Room 322 in the Roundhouse. Links to a livestream are available online by visiting the Calendar for New Mexico Environment Department, and using the link to attend the webinar. Public comment can be made in person or online.
Local LGBTQ community eyes restrictions in other states, prepares for upcoming election - By Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ. It's republished here with permission.
It had been 20 years since New Mexico’s LGBTQ+ community met for a statewide summit to discuss political strategy, advocacy work and to forge relationships. That changed this past weekend.
About 150 people attended a sold-out summit Aug. 1 to Aug. 3 at the Ramada Plaza, which was organized by Equality New Mexico (EQNM), Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. On the agenda for organizers: Reinvigorate the community and strategize for what they see as a series of political and social fights on the horizon.
“This is a critical time in the LGBTQ movement for equality and justice,” Marshall Martinez said. “For five years in a row, there has been a new record set for the most anti-LGBTQ bills introduced across the country.”
Martinez, the executive director of EQNM, said the queer and transgender community “face unprecedented attacks that are being felt emotionally and physically.” States have restricted gender-affirming care protections and access to reproductive health care, especially abortion, he said.
“Bodily autonomy is an LGBTQ issue, and queer and trans people need access to birth control and abortion care just as much as everybody else,” Martinez said.
In addition to reproductive rights, Martinez said attacks on the LGBTQ+ community include libraries banning books with LGBTQ+ characters or themes and attempts to restrict or ban drag queen performances.
“Let’s be really clear, those proposals are attacking our trans and non-binary siblings across the country,” Martinez said. “Queer and trans people see our right to merely exist under attack daily in the news.”
Amid the backdrop of an upcoming presidential election, summit organizers raised the alarm on states removing people from voter rolls, restricting the hours polls are open and other barriers.
“We have seen consistent attacks on our democracy, especially in the last four years,” Martinez said. “But queer and trans people have always organized to get people to the polls in order to elect the government that will protect us.”
Happily, Martinez said, New Mexico’s legal protections for its citizens at large and the LGBTQ+ community in particular are stronger than in many other states.
“That is because our community is organized,” he said.
New Mexico’s Human Rights Act contains protections for LGBTQ+ people and reproductive and gender-affirming health care. Conversion therapy for minors is prohibited and marriage equality is protected at the state level.
Martinez is concerned, however, about what he said is an effort among some New Mexico politicians to criminalize those experiencing homelessness.
“They want to criminalize people who need access to mental and behavioral health care, and they want to criminalize people who are experiencing addiction. Many are queer and trans people,” he said.
Martinez, who is from Alamogordo, said his career as a community organizer was sparked after a high school suspension for handing out condoms. As a peer educator for safer sex practices, he would carry around a brown paper bag full of condoms in his backpack.
“One day in class, I was giving some to one of my classmates and the teacher saw me and sent me to the principal’s office,” he said. “I was suspended for three days for possession of contraceptives with the intent to distribute.”
Martinez said his mother motivated him to take action, so later in the school year he led students to the superintendent’s office to voice their frustrations.
“There were a number of things we talked about — one of them was that students will have sex and they should have access to condoms,” he said. “I’m very proud to say that students no longer get suspended from school in Alamogordo for having condoms on campus.”
‘MAKE SURE THAT YOU’RE PREPARED’
Over the weekend, participants learned strategies for how to effectively engage with state legislators and city and county officials.
“Make sure that you’re prepared for what lies ahead,” Martinez told attendees. “It’s going to get really hard, but we have always come out of it on the other side — stronger, more powerful and more successful.”
The statewide summit was an annual fixture in the 1990s, led by the Coalition of Equality in NM, now EQNM, and was key to the passage of the state’s original LGBTQ+ non-discrimination law in 2003. Martinez said a lack of funding was the main reason the summit ended until now.