Deb Haaland brings the Turquoise Clan to the DNC stage - Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
Deb Haaland brought Indigeneity front and center at the Democratic National Convention on its final night in a speech that presented an argument for environmental protections.
“Gu’wha’tzi,” Haaland said in the Keres language spoken by tribes in New Mexico, including Laguna Pueblo where she is from.
After the traditional introduction that asked the DNC delegation how it is doing, she introduced herself by her Keres name that she translated in English to “Crushed Turquoise,” and announced her Turquoise Clan, the direct lineage to her family in Laguna.
Then she went to a family story that explained the origin of her passion for the environment.
“My ancestors built lives in the high deserts of New Mexico,” Haaland said. “I am on this stage tonight because of them. While fishing with my dad and running through the desert, I learned that we have a responsibility to take care of our planet.”
Haaland is the first Native American Secretary of the Interior. The federal department is responsible for overseeing the Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Parks system.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs handles federal health care, education and the foundational support for the sovereignty of Native American people under the Indian Trusts Act passed in 1882.
Four years ago, President Joe Biden appointed Haaland, who at the time served as New Mexico’s congressional representative for a district covering Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.
“Let me go back to a lesson I learned in the deserts of the Southwest,” she said Thursday night. “We all have a role in protecting our future generations.”
Haaland said Vice President Kamala Harris “will fight for a future where we all have clean air, clean water and healthy communities.”
Her speech came in the 7 p.m. CST hour during the last night of the convention, where Harris is slated to give her nomination speech to the Democratic delegation in-person and millions of people watching on television.
Housing shortage could put brakes on new short-term rentals — Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
The surge of short-term rentals and the rise of companies such as Airbnb has made it more difficult to find a home to rent or a house to buy in Albuquerque. The issue has spurred city councilors to propose a bill to limit the number of short-term rentals in certain areas, but others say it’s not that simple.
City Councilors Joaquín Baca and Nichole Rogers designed the bill to apply to sectors that host half of the short-term rental properties in the city — namely the Downtown, University of New Mexico (UNM) and Nob Hill areas.
No new short-term rental permits would be issued for properties within 330-feet of an existing one — roughly a residential block. The boundary would make it more difficult to add short-term rentals in the highly concentrated areas — represented in a recent map of the Raynolds neighborhood created by Downtown Area News.
There are exceptions to the 330-foot restriction. It wouldn’t apply to existing short-term rentals or at properties where an owner rents out a room in the house they live in. It also wouldn’t apply to casitas where the owner occupies the primary residence on the property.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the bill at its Sept. 4 meeting.
Patricia Wilson, president of the Victory Hills Neighborhood Association who’s in support of the bill, said private investors buying single family homes has “done more to exacerbate Albuquerque’s housing shortage than anything else.”
“Every short-term rental removes a long-term housing opportunity from our critical shortage of housing, and even a single short-term rental has an often deleterious effect on the community of a block,” she said.
Victory Hills is located just south of UNM and Nob Hill. Wilson said the neighborhood’s proximity to Bandelier Elementary School makes it a desirable spot for families with kids, but as more short-term rentals have come online, options have dwindled.
“People without a stake in the neighborhood are probably the most destructive,” she said.
This view is borne out by data from analytics firm CoreLogic. The firm told City Desk ABQ that its data confirms that investors are buying at higher numbers than usual in Bernalillo County — an almost 35% share so far this year compared with 22.5% in 2019.
‘THE REAL SOLUTION’
Others aren’t as convinced that the restrictions are an answer to the city’s housing woes, and the bill’s passage could face an uphill climb.
A similar bill was sponsored last year by former City Councilor Ike Benton — although it would have applied citywide. Councilors voted against the bill on a 6-3 vote.
Erin Thornton of Strong Towns ABQ said that while the group supports the restrictions as a stop gap measure to prevent the loss of scarce housing supply, the city needs to do more.
“Albuquerque is short by thousands of homes, so we continue to urge City Council to focus on simplifying and speeding up the permitting process for building housing and allow missing middle housing throughout the city where jobs, transit and community resources exist,” she said.
Strong Towns ABQ — a nonprofit, anti-sprawl, advocacy organization — was one of the most vocal supporters of proposed zoning changes to allow single family homes to be converted into duplexes for rent in certain areas located near mass transit. The City Council voted against the measure in a 6-3 vote in June.
While short-term rentals aren’t generally a focus of the Apartment Association of New Mexico, its executive director, Alan LaSeck, said imposing more limits is likely not an answer to high rents and the city’s housing headaches.
“If you crunch the numbers, there are about 260,000 household units in Albuquerque and about 2,200 active Airbnb’s — depending on the time of the year,” he said. “That means Airbnbs roughly account for 0.0085% of Albuquerque’s housing stock.”
Based on LaSeck’s figures Airbnbs are actually .85% of Albuquerque’s housing stock.
LaSeck noted that there are also positives associated with short-term rentals.
“I, a family of five with a dog, prefer to stay in Airbnb — it just makes more sense,” he said. “If I was traveling here for the Balloon Fiesta, Airbnb would be my preferred choice.”
LaSeck said short-term rentals also contribute to city coffers through lodgers’ and gross receipts taxes.
“Both are good things. The real solution to more housing is to build more housing,” he said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the correct percentage of short term rentals based on LaSeck’s figures.
Early childhood home visiting program challenged by some NM legislators during LFC meeting - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
Lawmakers questioned the effectiveness of an early childhood home visiting program Wednesday during a Legislative Finance Committee meeting in Mescalero.
The program, run through the Early Childhood Education & Care Department, is meant to better outcomes for young children and families in New Mexico. Home visits can start prenatally, and eventually, providers assist with lactation, postpartum depression, and other mother and child health concerns. Visitors observe children’s developmental benchmarks, while also screening for abuse or neglect.
A Legislative Finance Committee report noted that home visiting, combined with other “child welfare interventions” could help reduce child maltreatment in the state. New Mexico ranked 50th in child welfare in the 2024 KIDS Count Data Book, released earlier this year. Neighboring states Arizona and Texas ranked similarly low at 42nd and 43rd respectively.
The Legislature allocated $28.3 million for the home visiting program from the general fund for fiscal year 2025.
Rep. Alan Martinez (R-Rio Rancho) questioned whether the increasing amount of state funds provided to the department was actually benefiting New Mexico children.
“What are we getting for our investment? Whether it be state dollars or federal dollars, we’re still ranked last in the country and we’re investing a lot more money than other states are. What I’m trying to understand is, why?” Martinez said.
ECECD Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky pointed out that her department is building an early childhood model that did not previously exist in the state.
“We don’t move the needle in two years and three years,” she said.
LFC Analyst Kelly Klundt said there are about 21,000 babies born in New Mexico each year, and only 5,000 to 7,000 families are being served through the home visiting program.
“You can’t see population change until you’re serving at a population level,” Klundt said.
Retention is also a problem, according to the LFC report, and many families drop out. “Enrollment has not kept pace with growing appropriations,” the report states.
Making better use of Medicaid matching funds could also help the program serve more families without requiring more money from the state budget, analysts write.
The department has contracted to serve over 5,000 families this current fiscal year, the report states, but only 400 are enrolled in the Medicaid-matched program. The target is 1,500 families.
So far, the department has failed to meet its goals of expanding the use of Medicaid dollars, and the services as a whole, Klundt told the committee.
According to Groginsky, all 33 counties in the state have a home visiting program to support families. But not all providers are credentialed to receive Medicaid reimbursements, and the credentialing process can take months to complete.
Rep. William Sharer (R-Farmington) voiced his concern that because of the often burdensome process of Medicaid credentialing, smaller providers may not be given a fair chance to qualify.
“A small business in Shiprock, New Mexico that wants to do this doesn’t have a herd of attorneys to figure this out,” Sharer said. “What I’m afraid of is that we simply push small businesses out of the picture.”
The program will need more targeted investments to reach more children and families, Groginsky said, as well as support for providers navigating the process of Medicaid credentialing.
NM receives millions from DOJ for public safety and survivor services - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
New Mexico’s congressional delegation announced Thursday that it helped secure nearly $5.5 million from the U.S. Department of Justice for public safety initiatives.
The money will go towards efforts to, “Solve crime, support prosecutors and courts, survivor services, violence prevention, and keep communities safe,” according to the announcement.
The New Mexico Department of Justice will receive the largest chunk of the federal investment. Sen. Martin Heinrich requested the more than $1 million for the agency’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center.
The state DOJ will spend the money on technology called BRASSTRAX, which helps collect evidence from gun casings, according to the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The workstations will be located in Farmington, Gallup, Las Cruces and Roswell.
Heinrich said in a statement that, “A safer New Mexico depends on ensuring that crimes are solved and survivors are supported.”
The Chaves County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) will also receive a large infusion. The agency will spend its nearly $1 million award on a “Victim Trauma Intervention Project.”
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, who requested those funds, said in a statement that the project will help “protect the most vulnerable and change lives.”
Other recipients include Santa Fe and Sandoval counties, the Albuquerque and Edgewood police departments, the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, The City of Santa Fe, New Mexico Child Advocacy Networks (NMCAN), Families and Youth Innovations Plus (FYI+), Las Cumbres Community Services, and La Pinon Sexual Assault Recovery Services.
Google agreed to pay millions for California news. Journalists call it a bad deal - By Trân Nguyễn, Associated Press
Google will soon give California millions of dollars to help pay for local journalism jobs in a first-in-the-nation deal, but journalists and other media industry experts are calling it a disappointing agreement that mostly benefits the tech giant.
The agreement, which was hashed out behind closed doors and announced this week, will direct tens of millions of public and private dollars to keep local news organizations afloat. Critics say it's a textbook political maneuver by tech giants to avoid a fee under what could have been groundbreaking legislation. California lawmakers agreed to kill a bill requiring tech to support news outlets they profit from in exchange for Google's financial commitment.
By shelving the bill, the state effectively gave up on an avenue that could have required Google and social media platforms to make ongoing payments to publishers for linking news content, said Victor Pickard, professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania. California also left behind a much bigger amount of funding that could have been secured under the legislation, he said.
"Google got off easy," Pickard said.
Google said the deal will help both journalism and the artificial intelligence sector in California.
"This public-private partnership builds on our long history of working with journalism and the local news ecosystem in our home state, while developing a national center of excellence on AI policy," Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer for Google's parent company Alphabet, said in a statement.
State governments across the U.S. have been working to help boost struggling news organizations. The U.S. newspaper industry has been in a long decline, with traditional business models collapsing and advertising revenues drying up in the digital era.
As news organizations move from primarily print to mostly digital, they have increasingly relied on Google and Facebook to distribute its content. While publishers saw their advertising revenues nosedive significantly in the last few decades, Google's search engine has become the hub of a digital advertisement empire that generates more than $200 billion annually.
The Los Angeles Times was losing up to $40 million a year, the newspaper's owner said in justifying a layoff of more than 100 people earlier this year.
More than 2,500 newspapers have closed since 2005, and about 200 counties across the U.S. do not have any local news outlets, according to a report from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
California and New Mexico are funding local news fellowship programs. New York this year became the first state to offer a tax credit program for news outlets to hire and retain journalists. Illinois is considering a bill similar to the one that died in California.
Here's a closer look into the deal California made with Google this week:
What does the deal entail?
The deal, totaling $250 million, will provide money to two efforts: funding for journalism initiatives and a new AI research program. The agreement only guarantees funding for a period of five years.
Roughly $110 million will come from Google and $70 million from the state budget to boost journalism jobs. The fund will be managed by UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Google will also kick in $70 million to fund the AI research program, which would build tools to help solve "real world problems," said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who brokered the deal.
The deal is not a tax, which is a stark departure from a bill Wicks authored that would have imposed a "link tax" requiring companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to pay a certain percentage of advertising revenue to media companies for linking to their content. The bill was modelled after a policy passed in Canada that requires Google to pay roughly $74 million per year to fund journalism.
Why are tech companies agreeing to this now?
Tech companies spent the last two years fighting Wicks' bill, launching expensive opposition campaigns and running ads attacking the legislation. Google threatened in April to temporarily block news websites from some California users' search results. The bill had continued to advance with bipartisan support — until this week.
Wicks told The Associated Press on Thursday that she saw no path forward for her bill and that the funding secured through the deal "is better than zero."
"This represents politics is the art of the possible," she said.
Industry experts see the deal as a playbook move Google has used across the world to avoid regulations.
"Google cannot exit from news because they need it," said Anya Schiffrin, a Columbia University professor who studies global media and co-authors a working paper on how much Google and Meta owes to news publishers. "So what they are doing is using a whole lot of different tactics to kill bills that will require them to compensate publishers fairly."
She estimates that Google owes $1.4 billion per year to California publishers.
Why do journalists and labor unions oppose the agreement?
The Media Guild of the West, a union representing journalists in Southern California, Arizona and Texas, said journalists were locked out of the conversation. The union was a champion of Wicks' bill but wasn't included in the negotiations with Google.
"The future of journalism should not be decided in backroom deals," a letter by the union sent to lawmakers reads. "The Legislature embarked on an effort to regulate monopolies and failed terribly. Now we question whether the state has done more harm than good."
The agreement results in a much smaller amount of funding compared to what Google gives to newsrooms in Canada and goes against the goal to rebalance Google's dominance over local news organizations, according to a letter from the union to Wicks earlier this week.
Others also questioned why the deal included funding to build new AI tools. They see it as another way for tech companies to eventual replace them. Wicks' original bill doesn't include AI provisions.
The deal has the support of some journalism groups, including California News Publishers Association, Local Independent Online News Publishers and California Black Media.
What's next?
The agreement is scheduled to take effect next year, starting with $100 million to kickstart the efforts.
Wicks said details of the agreement are still being ironed out. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised to include the journalism funding in his January budget, Wicks said, but concerns from other Democratic leaders could throw a wrench in the plan.
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This story has been updated to correct that, as well as Southern California and Texas, the Media Guild of the West represents journalists in Arizona, not Nevada.