NM Democratic Party staff unionize - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
The Democratic Party of New Mexico announced Friday that its staff has unionized — a first for the state political party.
In a statement, spokesperson Daniel Garcia, who will serve as the staff union steward, said the move was, “long overdue” for a party with “strong connections to the structure and ideals of the Organized Labor Movement.”
After nearly two years of effort, the employees unionized under the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers — or IAMAW — Local Lodge 794, according to the announcement.
IAMAW representative Ashley Long said they were “proud” to welcome the party staff into the union, calling its collective bargaining agreement “unique.”
In addition to covering salary ranges, benefits, and grievance procedures, the agreement protects staff at the political party from repercussions for expressing personal opinions or participating in political activities on their own time. The agreement also prohibits AI from “replacing human labor,” according to the announcement.
Party Affairs and Organizing Director Isaiah Baca said in a statement that the agreement makes the party a stronger workplace and means it is, “finally fully living up to its pro-Labor values.”
The party said its newly unionized staff “offers their unironic support and nonpartisan willingness to help the Republican Party of New Mexico staff unionize,” as well.
Navajo Nation adopts changes to tribal law regulating the transportation of uranium across its land - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
The Navajo Nation has approved emergency legislation meant to strengthen a tribal law that regulates the transportation of radioactive material across the largest Native American reservation in the U.S.
The move is in response to the revival of a uranium mining operation just south of the Grand Canyon that has drawn much criticism from environmentalists and Native American tribes in the region.
Navajo President Buu Nygren signed the legislation Thursday as talks continue among tribal officials and Energy Fuels Inc. to craft an agreement that would address concerns about any potential risks to the public or the environment.
The updated law calls for more advance notification of plans to ship uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine in northern Arizona to a mill in Utah. The paying of transport fees and the filing of emergency preparedness plans also are among the mandates.
The tribe in 2005 banned uranium mining across the sprawling reservation, pointing to the painful legacy of contamination, illness and death that was left behind by the extraction of nearly 30 millions tons of the ore during World War II and the Cold War.
Despite that ban, tribal lawmakers in 2012 stopped short of prohibiting the transportation of uranium across Navajo lands. Instead, they declared the tribe's general opposition to moving ore across tribal lands and adopted regulations to protect human health and the environment by requiring notification and financial assurance, among other things.
Navajo leaders said it was time to strengthen that law and require earlier notification of shipments by Energy Fuels as the company ramps up operations.
Nygren said notification under the existing law didn't happen when Energy Fuels shipped its first two loads of ore in July and his efforts to have tribal police intercept the semi-trucks were too late.
"The purpose of this legislation is to provide for the protection, health and safety of the Navajo Nation and its people and our precious resources such as our water," he said in a letter thanking lawmakers for prioritizing the issue.
Navajo Attorney General Ethel Branch said ongoing talks with the company are aimed at making sure any transport of the ore is done in a responsible way. She also made references to the legacy of uranium mining in the region and said remediation work has yet to be done in many locations.
"That's part of why the (Navajo) Nation needed to respond so strongly here, to push back and ensure that our community doesn't continue to get disproportionately burdened with radiation and uranium-based waste and contamination," she said in a statement.
Energy Fuels said Thursday it is optimistic about reaching an agreement with the Navajo Nation that will clear the way for shipments to resume. The company also said the discussions have been consistent with the provisions of the amended tribal law.
"At the end of the day, we want Navajo leadership and Navajo citizens to be comfortable with modern uranium ore transport and to understand that it poses no risk to human health or the environment," said Curtis Moore, a company spokesman. "And, we are willing to go above-and-beyond applicable federal and state laws to make that happen."
The Navajo law does make reference to U.S. regulations that govern the transportation of radioactive materials. In general, those rules call for more precautions when enriched uranium, spent nuclear fuel or highly radioactive waste is involved. The mining company has argued that uranium ore is in a different category.
The semi-trucks that will be carrying ore are outfitted with thick plastic covers that are tight-fitting and water proof to limit dust from escaping or rain from seeping in.
Under the Navajo law, the trucks can be inspected, and shipments during tribal fairs along the designated route would be prohibited.
If a company ignored the rules, the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency could issue an order of compliance along with penalties. The Navajo attorney general could also seek a temporary restraining order or injunction through tribal court if the law were violated.
Councilor asks law enforcement board to investigate APD chief for not turning on body camera after crash - Elise Kaplan, Elizabeth McCall, City Desk ABQ
After failing to secure a vote of no-confidence against police Chief Harold Medina last spring, Councilor Louie Sanchez is now asking a state board in charge of suspending or revoking an officer’s law enforcement certification to investigate him.
On Friday, Sanchez submitted a misconduct report — called an “LEA-90” — to the Law Enforcement Certification Board alleging that Medina had failed to comply with state statute on Feb. 17 when “he drove carelessly and crashed into a citizen and deliberately chose not to activate his (on body recording device) video camera.”
According to a news release, he filed the LEA-90 “in the light of Medina’s admission to Albuquerque Police Department Internal Affairs that he intentionally and purposefully did not activate his body-worn camera when involved in police action.”
“Such action by Medina appears to violate Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s 2020 public safety accountability bill which requires police officers to wear the body worn cameras and record encounters with citizens,” the release states.
Todd Perchert was driving east on Central in his gold 1966 Ford Mustang when Medina accelerated through a red light to avoid nearby gunfire. Perchert was seriously injured and his heirloom car was totaled. He filed a lawsuit against the city this week.
Sanchez said it was his first time filing an LEA-90 and he did so because APD — specifically the superintendent of police reform — did not.
“A lot of people say that I have something against him,” Sanchez said. “No, it’s my job as a city councilor, to make sure that the citizens of Albuquerque are protected and to make sure that there are checks and balances put in place in the system. You have to hold the police chief to the highest standards possible.”
Staci Drangmeister, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, said Sanchez has carried a grudge against Medina for years.
“This looks to be a publicity stunt aimed at continuing that vendetta,” she said in a statement. “Chief has repeatedly acknowledged the issue, the crash has been extensively reviewed, and a final decision has been made.”
MISCONDUCT REPORT
It is unusual for an LEA-90 to come from a source other than the law enforcement agency that employs an officer, but it does happen.
Sonya Chavez, the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy director, told City Desk ABQ that police officers are accustomed to reports being submitted by law enforcement agencies, but the board receives them from “a multitude of avenues.”
“Collectively as a community, we all have an obligation to do our best to reinforce ethical, good behavior,” Chavez said. “If someone has credible information about alleged police misconduct, it is incumbent on each of us to report that and to bring them forward.”
Chavez said the board has received Sanchez’s submission but it would be premature for her to comment on it. She could not say whether the allegations could result in a suspension or revocation of law enforcement certification.
“All LEA-90s are treated in the same way,” she said. “They go through the same review process, the same scrutiny, we do the same amount of research and investigation for each case individually, regardless of who submits it.”
INTERNAL AFFAIRS FINDINGS
An Internal Affairs investigation found Medina violated department policies because he did not have his lapel camera on and he did not operate his vehicle in a safe manner. He was given two letters of reprimand.
Sanchez’s referral included the last page of the investigation, which stated that the chief said he chose not to record the “interaction of the crash because he was invoking his 5th Amendment right not to self-incriminate.”
“APD SOP does not allow for officers not to record mandatory recording incidents based on the fact that the evidence captured on that video may be used in a subsequent criminal investigation,” the investigator wrote.
Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesperson, said Medina disagreed with some of the findings, but accepted the discipline.
He stressed that the chief called for APD’s top traffic officers to investigate and sat for an interview with criminal investigators. The findings of those investigations were forwarded to the New Mexico Department of Justice and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office reviewed them.
“As part of an internal investigation to determine whether Chief Medina followed APD policies, he expressed his opinion that he was not required to activate his On-Body Recording Device in the aftermath of the Feb. 17 accident because he was not investigating the crash,” Gallegos said. “The public knows every detail of the crash because those officers who responded to the scene recorded their interactions with Chief Medina and witnesses, as they are required to do during the investigation of an incident.”
He said so far in 2024, the department has seen 174 crashes and 77 cases where officers were found to not have their body cameras running. He said none of those cases have resulted in the submission of an LEA-90.
The IA investigator also found that a commander violated procedural orders by allowing the incident to be reviewed by the Crash Review Board since it is not supposed to handle those that resulted in serious injuries.
Cmdr. Benito Martinez previously told city councilors the crash review board would not normally have handled this case but did so because of its high-profile nature and to make sure “everybody’s doing everything in their due diligence to make sure they do not mess up in this investigation.”
APD’s Fleet Crash Review Board and Fatal Crash Unit concluded that Medina’s crash was not preventable and he should not be charged.
BCSO REVIEW
Sanchez also attached to the LEA-90 a supplemental report from a Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy who conducted a follow-up investigation at the request of the New Mexico Department of Justice. That review was launched weeks after APD reached its findings.
The deputy found “Medina operated his vehicle in a careless or inattentive manner, clearly without due regard for the safety of the motoring public.” The deputy also said as a certified law enforcement officer the chief should be held to a higher standard “despite the dynamics of the situation.”
However, he did not think the infraction amounted to a serious crime.
“I do not feel that his actions rise to the level of recklessness, which is the standard to elevate charges to felony-level great bodily harm by vehicle,” the deputy wrote. “If charges were to be pursued, my recommendation would be careless driving.”
The New Mexico Department of Justice declined to prosecute Medina for the misdemeanor, saying “a prosecution would not be warranted because of substantial evidence showing that Chief Medina’s actions were the result of duress,” according to a letter sent from a deputy attorney general to the sheriff.
A LAWSUIT FILED
After Perchert was struck by Medina’s truck, he was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. According to the lawsuit he filed this week, he broke his collarbone, shoulder blade and eight ribs and had a collapsed lung.
“He underwent seven hours of surgery for his injuries,” the lawsuit states. “Titanium plates had to be placed on all but the two top ribs. Mr. Perchert will have this metal in his chest for the rest of his life, and has been in constant pain since the crash.”
The lawsuit alleges Medina was negligent in operation of the motor vehicle and he spoliated evidence by not activating his body worn camera. It also alleges the city was negligent in its hiring, training and supervision of the chief.
It asks that Perchert and his wife be awarded unspecified damages.
Gallegos said the city will answer the allegations in court.
New Mexicans must again interview to qualify for SNAP food and TANF cash aid - Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
Anyone who qualifies to receive public food or cash aid will need to plan time for an interview if they want to renew benefits.
On Sept. 1, the New Mexico Health Care Authority will require people who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to complete an interview in-person or over the phone to continue getting support from the federal food program.
This will also be the same for cash assistance that comes from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a program cited for helping New Mexicans cover costs for transportation, schools costs and utility payments.
According to a 2022 Legislative Finance Committee report, more than 60 percent of people in the state who qualified for the cash assistance program did not receive it.
Around 25% of the state receives SNAP benefits, the highest rate in the country.
A month later on Oct. 1. anyone who’s looking to start a new application process to get on the cash assistance or food aid programs will also have to complete an interview.
These changes come in part due to a waiver lifted by the federal government, according to the New Mexico Health Care Authority.
People could renew or apply for new aid without having to go through an interview as a means to help under protections when the U.S. government still had a public health emergency for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The Health Care Authority said people who get food or cash aid should get a text message or letter in the mail 45 days before they need to renew and schedule an appointment.
Interviews can be conducted over the phone or at any Income Support Division Office in the state.
Anyone can check the status of their SNAP now by visiting their benefits page online or check in at a local office. The Health Care Authority said people can also call 1-800-283-4465 to set up an interview, check on the status or even apply for new benefits.
The phone line should be open between 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.
The state must provide interpreters for non-English speakers.
CORRECTION: Thursday Aug. 29, 2024. 9:30 a.m.:This article has been corrected to accurately reflect that 60% of those that qualify of TANF did not get the aid.
Afghan refugee accused in a case that shocked Albuquerque's Muslim community reaches plea agreement - Associated Press
An Afghan refugee who was convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder in one of three fatal shootings that shook Albuquerque's Muslim community has reached a plea agreement that could resolve criminal charges stemming from the other two killings.
Muhammad Syed's attorneys confirmed Thursday that the agreement will be considered by a state district judge during a hearing Tuesday. Details of the agreement have not been made public.
Syed already faces life in prison for killing 41-year-old Aftab Hussein in July 2022. He was set to stand trial in the second case beginning Tuesday, but those proceedings were canceled amid the discussion about changing his plea.
The three ambush-style killings happened over the course of several days, leaving authorities scrambling to determine if race or religion might have been behind the crimes. It was not long before the investigation shifted away from possible hate crimes to what prosecutors described to jurors during the first trial as the "willful and very deliberate" actions of another member of the Muslim community.
Prosecutors described Syed as having a violent history. His public defenders had argued that previous allegations of domestic violence never resulted in convictions.
The first trial uncovered little about motive, leaving victims' families hoping that the subsequent trials might shed more light on why the men were targeted.
The other victims included Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who was gunned down Aug. 1, 2022, while taking his evening walk, and Naeem Hussain, who was shot four days later as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency on the city's south side.
With the conviction in the case of Aftab Hussein, Syed must serve at least 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.
AG files to hold landowner in contempt after he misses deadline to remove obstructions in public waterways — KUNM News, Santa Fe New Mexican
The state aims to hold a Pecos River landowner in contempt of court after he failed to remove obstructions and misleading and false signage in the river.
In October of last year, Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced the state filed a complaint against landowners who tried to restrict public access to parts of the river that flowed through their private land.
In March, Erik Briones entered into a consent decree to remove any and all fencing, obstructions and signs, which still hasn’t happened months later.
Briones told the Santa Fe New Mexican he plans to do so when the water level is low enough. He says heavy spring runoff and monsoon rains have kept the levels high.
Briones said he disagrees with a 2022 New Mexico Supreme Court decision that launched the initial complaint, which affirmed the public has the right to walk or wade on the stream bed, even if it's technically private land.
That, Briones said, leaves owners liable in the case of injuries or worse, and he and other landowners have filed a federal complaint seeking to overturn the court’s ruling.
Patchwork of new Title IX rules are in effect with no end in sight - By Susan Dunlap, New Mexico Political ReportThanks to court challenges by conservative groups and Republican-led states, six schools in New Mexico – three colleges and three K-12 – cannot implement Biden’s Title IX rules to expand protections against sex discrimination. And that number will likely grow.
The Biden administration announced new Title IX rules in April designed to expand protections against sex discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation, sex characteristics, sex stereotypes and parenting and pregnant students.
The new rules also change how schools respond to allegations of sexual assault. This is a change advocates welcome because they said the 2020 rules, established by the Trump administration, made the process more difficult for victims.
Enacted in 1972 under former President Richard Nixon, Title IX is considered a landmark in federal civil rights law. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all educational programs and activities that receive federal funding.
The new rules went into effect on August 1. But 26 Republican-led states, clustered into nine lawsuits, sued and sought injunctions on implementation of the rule. The focus of all nine lawsuits is aimed at preventing the portions of the rule that expand protections for transgender and nonbinary students that allow them to use the bathroom of their gender and expect their pronouns and names to be respected within the educational environment.
The lawsuit before U.S. District Judge John Broomes in Kansas included three conservative organizations, including Moms for Liberty. The organizations sought an expansion to an injunction to include all schools across the nation with enrolled members as students. The court agreed in July.
Moms for Liberty cofounder Tiffany Justice told NM Political Report that her group is submitting a new list every few weeks to the court to add more schools to the list as they recruit more members at schools around the country. The court agreed with Moms for Liberty that the list should be dynamic. Justice said Moms for Liberty intends to get members at every school so that all schools and colleges will have to return to the 2020 Title IX rules.
The groups’ argument is that their children’s right to free speech is being infringed upon, Justice said.
“The ruling out of the Tenth Circuit is important. It reaches into blue states and we’re really thankful for that,” Justice said.
New Mexico colleges and K-12 schools implemented the rule on August 1 and all schools were expecting to do so uniformly because New Mexico was not a party to any of the lawsuits.
But because of the expanded injunction, New Mexico State University, Eastern New Mexico University’s Roswell campus and Central New Mexico Community College cannot implement the new rules. Each of these three schools are on the organized groups’ list of college campuses that have enrolled members.
The New Mexico Higher Education Department said through spokesperson Tripp Stelnicki that the department hopes “these legal challenges can be resolved expeditiously so that all students and faculty of all higher education institutions in New Mexico are operating on the same playing field with respect to updated federal Title IX regulations.”
“These federal guidelines are intended to protect students, and the department would want to avoid a long-term situation where one set of rules applies to one set of students, and another to another,” Stelnicki said through email.
John Houser, associate vice president for public relations and advancement at ENMU, told NM Political Report that since the injunction only applies to the Roswell campus, only the Roswell campus would abide by the 2020 set of Title IX rules. The Portales and Ruidoso campuses would enforce the 2024 rules, which include the expanded protections.
Houser said ENMU doesn’t believe that this will be confusing for students because there are administrators on the campuses who are experts at understanding the regulations and at applying them.
Brad Moore, director of communications and media relations for Central New Mexico Community College, told NM Political Report in an email that because of the injunction, CNM “will continue to address Title IX claims under the 2020 Title IX rules unless or until the injunction is lifted.” He said the college will “closely monitor the legal proceedings and be prepared to implement any regulatory changes.”
William Nutt, executive director of the Office of Institutional Equity for NMSU, told NM Political Report that because NMSU and Doña Ana Community College, plus NMSU’s satellite campuses in Grants and Alamogordo, operate as one system, the entire system will enforce the Trump 2020 Title IX regulations.
He said, however, that he welcomes students reaching out to his office if they have concerns or questions.
“I will talk to anybody,” Nutt said.
He also said the 2020 regulations are “the floor” and the school itself has implemented policies on its own that protect students.
Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, staff attorney with American Civil Liberties Union in New York, told NM Political Report that schools that are on the list can still implement the Biden-era rules. But the schools can only enforce the new rules as part of their own policies and procedures, not as a student’s right under federal law. The federal DOE cannot enforce the rules at these schools.
Nutt said that NMSU can work with a student if they have faced sexual harassment, violence or discrimination. He said NMSU already accommodates parenting students by providing lactation rooms on campus, which is a requirement under the Biden rules, but not the 2020 rules.
One important change to the Biden rules, advocates say, is that it allows a college to respond to a student who needs help on campus if a sexual assault occurred off-campus. Nutt said that through NMSU’s own policies, it can do something similar. He said, for instance, the school can change a victim’s grade or wipe away the fact that a victim of sexual assault ever attended a class to help them recover.
But, Gwen Stacy, a third-year student at NMSU, told NM Political Report that she is concerned that NMSU is not able to implement the 2024 Title IX regulations. She repeatedly referred to the scandal NMSU faced a few years ago because a few students on the basketball team sexually assaulted other team players during a hazing incident. The coach did not respond, initially, to a complaint about the incident. But the university later fired the coach and settled an $8 million lawsuit with the student’s family.
Stacy said that given NMSU’s history, she does not trust the university will live up to its goal of protecting students.
“They already have a pretty poor track record,” she said.
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY
Adrien Lawyer, co-founder and director of education of the Transgender Resource Center, said that under President Barack Obama, transgender and nonbinary individuals were headed on the “conveyor belt” of acceptance.
Obama issued a Dear Colleague Letter in 2016 which outlined that under Title IX, transgender students’ rights are protected.
Lawyer said that sometimes even the most well-meaning teachers discriminate against students who don’t fall within heteronormative stereotypes. But when Obama issued the letter, “it changed everything,” he said.
Lawyer said the move enabled transgender students to push back when teachers or administrators did not allow students bathroom access or refused to use the students’ names or pronouns.
But under former President Donald Trump, the Department of Education revoked Obama’s guidelines and then issued its own Title IX regulations in 2020. Lawyer said the Trump rules emboldened people at the local level and “we had to fight for things already established,” in New Mexico.
TITLE IX AND NEW MEXICO PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Although the legal battle around Title IX tends to focus on college campuses, Title IX affects all public educational institutions that receive some kind of federal funding, including K-12 schools. The New Mexico public schools currently affected by the Tenth Circuit injunction are Siembra Leadership High school, Estancia Valley Classical Academy and Rehoboth Christian School.
The three schools did not respond to a request for comment.
Janelle Taylor Garcia, communications director for New Mexico Public Education Department, said that “since a federal court has blocked the rule for some schools in the state, the PED will now look into how it can update its guidelines to follow the court’s decision and other related orders.”
Taylor Garcia also said that if a student in a public school experiences harassment or discrimination, the student or family can file a complaint with their local school or the school district.
“It should be noted that students and families alleging sex-based discrimination under Title IX at school may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights at any time,” she said by email.
THE EFFORT TO RESTORE SOME PARTS OF BIDEN’S TITLE IX RULE
Over the summer, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider an emergency petition to allow the rest of Biden’s new Title IX rules to be applicable.
The DOJ asked in its petition that, since all nine lawsuits were focused on the section about discrimination against transgender and nonbinary students, that the high court could narrow the injunction to only that part of the rule and allow the rest of the 1,500-page rule go into effect.
If the high court had agreed, it would have allowed the new rules regarding how college campuses respond to reports of sexual violence to go into effect. But last week, the Supreme Court said, in an unsigned response, that it would not narrow the injunction. The federal government is barred from enforcing the 2024 Title IX rules while the lower courts consider the nine lawsuits. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Under the Trump Title IX rules, when a student reported sexual assault, the victim and alleged perpetrator had to undergo a live hearing, similar to a court process. Elena Rubinfeld, legal director for New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, called this a “huge barrier” for victims.
“Survivors don’t feel comfortable doing that,” Rubinfeld said. “We know that when survivors have more control of the process that follows their sexual assault, they have better outcomes and healing and survivors are able to move forward.”
The 2024 rules also lower the bar for what counts as sexual harassment, from both “severe” and “pervasive” to “severe or pervasive,” which makes it easier to report.
Calvo-Friedman said the Biden Title IX rules are a “really important step forward in terms of clarifying the obligation to schools.”
She said the Biden Title IX rules also impact pregnant and parenting students’ rights. She said pregnant and parenting students’ rights have always been covered under Title IX, but schools “don’t always know Title IX prohibits discrimination against pregnant and parenting students.”
“Instead of having to bring a federal case, a student can say, ‘I need clean lactation rooms and not providing it violates my Title IX rights.’ The rules say it explicitly,” Calvo-Friedman said.
Rubinfeld said that from a sexual assault perspective, if individuals or certain groups feel unsafe and violence is tolerated in a community, it “increases risk factors for sexual assault on campus.” In addition, LGBTQ individuals face a higher risk for sexual assault.
“We think about our entire culture as a community. People want to think trans rights are distinct from survivor rights. I see the two interconnected in a lot of ways. To create a community actively preventing sexual assault harm, we need to protect the rights of everyone in that community,” Rubenfeld said.
Kel O’Hara, senior attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, said this is a “really scary” time for transgender individuals and that anti-trans legislation has increased exponentially across the nation.
O’Hara, who uses they/them pronouns, also said anti-trans policies don’t just harm transgender students.
“It leads to the increased scrutiny of bodies, women of color in particular. Bans don’t do anything to address inequities in women’s sports,” they said.
O’Hara said under funding and under resourcing in girls’ sports and unaddressed sexual harassment in girls’ sports are the real barriers.
“We tend to lose sight of that in this conversation,” they said.
Judge orders dark money group to publicly disclose where its money comes from - By Tripp Jennings, New Mexico In Depth
A state judge is ordering a dark money group that paid for political advertising in support of legislative candidates earlier this year to disclose the sources of its funding and its spending by September 9.
In a 14-page ruling filed Wednesday in state court, Judge Joshua Allison agreed with the State Ethics Commission that the New Mexico Project meets the definition of “political committee” and imposed a timeline for the group to meet the demands of the state’s campaign reporting act.
“The material evidence is undisputed,” Allison wrote in the ruling. By not disclosing its donors and its spending, the New Mexico Project “frustrates the purpose of the Campaign Reporting Act: to shine light on those who seek to influence our elections by paying for advertisements that support candidates for public office.”
The New Mexico Project, founded by one-time gubernatorial candidate, Jeff Apodaca, has argued in court filings that it does not meet the definition of a political committee and therefore isn’t subject to the law’s demands. The State Ethics Commission sued the New Mexico Project in May to force the disclosure of the information, a position Allison sided with in Wednesday’s ruling.
Blair Dunn, the organization’s attorney, declined to say in an email Thursday morning whether the New Mexico Project will comply with Allison’s order or appeal the ruling.
In a Wednesday afternoon press release, Jeremy Farris, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, said the judge’s ruling “underscores the importance of New Mexico’s campaign finance laws. New Mexicans have a right to know who is spending money to influence their votes. The Commission will continue to work so that the public’s right is realized.”
The New Mexico Project made a splash in the months ahead of this year’s June primary election by spending thousands of dollars on radio ads to support certain Democratic candidates but never disclosed who was paying for the advertising.
UNM president replaces Health Sciences CEO – KUNM News, Albuquerque Journal
University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes has replaced the head of the UNM Health System.
In a campus-wide announcement, Stokes wrote that Dr. Douglas Ziedonis will be replaced by Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs Dr. Mike Richards, who will now be Interim Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and CEO of the UNM Health System.
Ziedonis has been in the position since December 2020. The Albuquerque Journal reports Stokes told the Albuquerque Economic Forum on Wednesday that the hospital is expecting a large increase in hospital admissions in the future, and UNM Health System needs to add staff and expand the UNM School of Medicine.
Stokes said UNM Hospital’s critical care tower will open next year and they will need to hire 2,100 hospital staff. She thanked Ziedonis for his leadership and said this was a strategic decision.
Much of Ziedonis’ career was on the clinical side in addiction psychiatry. Richards has experience as an administrator and physician. Ziedonis will be on professional leave until the end of his appointment on Dec. 10.
A UNM spokesperson said no decision had been made on a national search.
New Mexico looking for a new state Public Education Department secretary for K-12 schools - Associated Press
New Mexico is looking for a new state Public Education Department secretary for K-12 schools. Again.
Arsenio Romero resigned Wednesday, effective immediately, after about a year and a half on the job.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement that she and her staff will begin interviewing candidates to replace Romero immediately.
Earlier this month, New Mexico State University officials announced that Romero is one of five finalists in its search for a new president, and a decision is expected by the end of September.
Michael Coleman, a spokesperson for the governor, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that Lujan Grisham gave Romero "a choice to either resign and continue pursuing the NMSU position or stay on the job and withdraw his candidacy at NMSU."
Coleman added that "the Secretary of Public Education is critically important in New Mexico and the governor believes it's imperative that the person serving in this role be fully committed to the job."
The state's Public Education Department has struggled to turn educational outcomes around as high percentages of students fail to be proficient in math and reading.
The department also has struggled to retain a Cabinet secretary throughout Lujan Grisham's tenure. Romero was the fourth person to hold the job since 2019.
"Not only is this a continuation of failed leadership and high turnover from our governor's executive staff, but also, I find it hypocritical that while the governor positions herself for higher office, those on her staff are given ultimatums if their ambitions do not fit the vision of the administration," Republican state Sen. David Gallegos, of Eunice, said in a statement Thursday. "Again, our children are the ones who pay the price."
Leaders of the state's top teacher unions echoed those concerns, saying "the persistent churn" of leadership at the state agency results in instability that hampers achievement and that educators can't be fully effective when state mandates and leadership are constantly shifting.
American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Whitney Holland and National Education Association-New Mexico President Mary Parr-Sanchez said in a statement that legislators should research and refine efforts to return public education governance to an elected, statewide board of education.