Texas sues to stop a rule that shields the medical records of patients who seek abortions elsewhere - By Jim Vertuno Associated Press
Texas has sued the Biden administration to try to block a federal rule that shields the medical records of patients from criminal investigations if they cross state lines to seek abortion where it is legal.
The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks to overturn a regulation that was finalized in April. In the suit filed Wednesday in Lubbock, Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the federal government of attempting to "undermine" the state's law enforcement capabilities. It appears to be the first legal challenge from a state with an abortion ban that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the nationwide right to abortion.
The rule essentially prohibits state or local officials from gathering medical records related to reproductive health care for a civil, criminal or administrative investigation from providers or health insurers in a state where abortion remains legal. It is intended to protect people who live in states where abortion is illegal.
In a statement, HHS declined comment on the lawsuit but said the rule "stands on its own."
"The Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to protecting reproductive health privacy and ensuring that no woman's medical records are used against her, her doctor, or her loved one simply because she got the lawful reproductive care she needed," the agency said.
Texas' abortion ban, like those in other states, exempts patients who seek abortions from criminal charges. The ban provides for enforcement either through a private civil action, or under the state's criminal statutes, punishable by up to life in prison, for anyone held responsible for helping a woman obtain one.
It's not clear whether public officials have sought patient medical records related to abortion. But the state has sought records related to gender-affirming care, demanding them from at least two out-of-state health centers last year. Like many Republican-controlled states, Texas bans gender-affirming care for minors.
At least 22 Democratic-controlled states have laws or executive orders that seek to protect medical providers or patients who participate in abortion from investigations by law enforcement in states with bans.
The federal regulation in question is an update to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which prohibits medical providers and health insurers from divulging medical information about patients. Typically, however, law enforcement can access those records for investigations.
A group of Republican attorneys general, all from states with strict abortion laws, had urged Health and Human Services to ditch the rule when a draft was released last year. In a 2023 letter to HHS, the group said the regulation would unlawfully interfere with states' authority to enforce laws.
"With this rule, the Biden Administration makes a backdoor attempt at weakening Texas's laws by undermining state law enforcement investigations that implicate medical procedures," Paxton said in a news release.
Liz McCaman Taylor, senior federal policy counselor at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said federal law has long provided enhanced protection for sensitive health information.
"But Texas is suing now, not because of its concern with state sovereignty, but because of its hostility to reproductive health," she said.
Boeing's beleaguered space capsule is heading back to Earth without two NASA astronauts - By Marcia Dunn AP Aerospace Writer
WATCH LIVE, 8:35 p.m. MT: NASA’s livestream of the capsule’s return to earth and landing in New Mexico
Boeing's beleaguered astronaut capsule is set to depart the International Space Station on Friday without its crew. NASA's two test pilots will stay behind as the Starliner capsule prepares to undock and aims for a touchdown in New Mexico. Its exit follows months of turmoil over its safety. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams should have returned to Earth aboard Starliner in June after a weeklong mission. But their trip to the space station was marred by thruster failures and helium leaks. NASA ultimately decided it was too risky so the astronauts will return next year aboard SpaceX.
After months of turmoil over its safety, Boeing's new astronaut capsule is set to depart the International Space Station on Friday without its crew.
NASA's two test pilots will stay behind at the space station — their home until next year — as the Starliner capsule prepares to undock and aims for a touchdown six hours later in the New Mexico desert.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams should have flown Starliner back to Earth in June, a week after launching in it. But thruster failures and helium leaks marred their ride to the space station.
NASA ultimately decided it was too risky to return Wilmore and Williams on Starliner. So the capsule contains their empty seats and blue spacesuits along with some old station equipment. SpaceX will bring the duo back in late February, stretching their original eight-day mission to more than eight months.
Boeing's first astronaut flight caps a journey filled with delays and setbacks. After the space shuttles retired more than a decade ago, NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX for orbital taxi service. Boeing ran into so many problems on its first test flight with no one aboard in 2019 that it had to repeat it. The 2022 do-over uncovered even more flaws and the repair bill topped $1 billion.
SpaceX's crew ferry flight later this month will be its 10th for NASA since 2020. The Dragon capsule will launch on the half-year expedition with only two astronauts since two seats are reserved for Wilmore and Williams for the return leg.
Normal wildfire risk expected through fall in NM, forecast says - By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A new wildfire risk forecast says New Mexico and most of the Southwest will not have above-average wildfire risk through December, though global weather patterns still add some uncertainty.
The September outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center no longer predicts that northwest and central New Mexico will see above-normal wildfire risk through October, which would have meant a much later end to the wildfire season than is typical here. The wildfire season in New Mexico typically ends when monsoons arrive.
Early monsoon rains fell across much of the state in mid-June, which aided firefighters’ efforts to contain the most destructive wildfires in New Mexico this year. The South Fork and Salt fires in the Ruidoso area burned about 25,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,100 homes.
Still, how hot and dry New Mexico will be this season hinges on sea temperatures near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, according to the outlook.
Forecasters expect El Niño to transition to La Niña in the fall.This typically means drier conditions for New Mexico, but that shift has happened slowly.
According to the outlook, the longer the climate pattern stays “neutral,” not falling into either El Niño or La Niña, the weather will be more unpredictable.
“The possible emergence of a La Niña will be monitored as that could strongly impact the fall weather and climate for the Southwest Area,” the outlook says.
So far in New Mexico this year, 712 wildfires have been detected. In total, those fires have burned more than 87,000 acres. Of them, 315 were human-caused, 319 were lightning-caused, and 78 more are “unknown,” according to the Southwest Coordination Center.
According to the center, two wildfires are currently burning in the state, both in the Gila National Forest. The Cooper Fire burned about 160 acres and was first reported Aug. 27; the Ridge Fire has burned about 4,300 acres and was first reported July 2. Both are 95% contained.
After pushback, city reduces food truck permit fees - By Elizabeth McCall, City Desk ABQ
Albuquerque food truck owners can breathe a sigh of relief now that they will not have to pay hundreds more in permit fees.
After receiving pushback from multiple food truck operators about the sudden increase in annual permit fees from around $150 to $900, city officials are dropping the fees back down and issuing refunds.
During the City Council meeting Wednesday, Mark DiMenna — a deputy director for the Environmental Health Department — told councilors that the 12 food truck owners who paid the $900 fee are being refunded. The new fee will be a quarter of the recently increased fee.
“If you were looking at paying $900 a few weeks ago, you would be looking at $225 now for your annual permit fee,” DiMenna said.
The fees were included in the Food Service and Retail Ordinance which was passed by councilors in May and went into effect in August.
DiMenna said the fees were set to be equivalent to a restaurant and are applied based on what the food trucks are serving. For instance, those who serve raw produce or meat may have higher fees than snow cone vendors.
He said the original fees were established in the 1980s when mobile food establishments were “probably a hot dog cart outside of a nightclub.”
“We hear loud and clear that there are concerns about the fees and we’re certainly open to doing whatever is in everyone’s best interest to move that forward,” DiMenna said.
At the last council meeting, food truck owners told councilors and city officials that the fee increase may cause small businesses to shut down — which caused Councilor Klarissa Peña to try to stop the fee increase when the council convened Wednesday night.
Peña said that the Food Service and Retail Ordinance did not specifically say “food truck” which is why she was unaware of the fee increase. She proposed a moratorium that would temporarily suspend the legislation for further consideration but quickly called to withdraw the proposal after hearing that the administration is taking action to fix the issue.
Councilors voted unanimously in favor of the withdrawal.
New Mexico attorney general sues company behind Snapchat alleging child sexual extortion on the site — Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press
New Mexico's attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the company behind Snapchat, alleging that site's design and policies foster the sharing of child sexual abuse material and facilitate child sexual exploitation.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the lawsuit against Snap Inc. Thursday in state court in Santa Fe. In addition to sexual abuse, the lawsuit claims the company also openly promotes child trafficking, drugs and guns.
Last December, Torrez filed a similar lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, saying it allows predators to trade child sexual abuse material and solicit minors for sex on its platforms. That suit is pending.
Snap's "harmful design features create an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse," Torrez said in a statement. Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors.
"Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely," Torres said.
In a statement, Snap said it shares Torrez's and the public's concerns about the online safety of young people.
"We understand that online threats continue to evolve and we will continue to work diligently to address these critical issues," the company based in Santa Monica, California, said. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past several years, and designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family."
According to the complaint, minors report having more online sexual interactions on Snapchat than any other platform, and more sex trafficking victims are recruited on Snapchat than on any other platform.
Prior to the lawsuit, New Mexico conducted a monthslong undercover investigation into child sexual abuse images on Snapchat. According to Torrez's statement, the investigation revealed a "vast network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images from Snap," finding more than 10,000 records related to Snap and child sexual abuse material in the last year. This included information related to minors younger than 13 being sexually assaulted.
As part of the undercover investigation, the New Mexico department of justice set up a decoy Snapchat account for a 14-year-old named Heather, who found and exchanged messages with accounts with names like "child.rape" and "pedo_lover10."
Snapchat, the lawsuit alleges, "was by far the largest source of images and videos among the dark web sites investigated." Investigators also found Snapchat accounts that openly circulated and sold child abuse images directly on the platform.
New Mexico starts building an abortion clinic to serve neighboring states, train medical students — Morgan Lee, Associated Press
Construction is getting underway on a state-funded reproductive health and abortion clinic in southern New Mexico that will cater to local residents and people who travel from neighboring states such as Texas and Oklahoma with major restrictions on abortion, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday.
Construction of the clinic will draw upon $10 million in state funding that was set aside by the governor under a 2022 executive order. New Mexico has one of the country's most liberal abortion-access laws.
Lujan Grisham, a second-term Democrat who can't run again in 2026, reiterated her commitment to shoring up abortion access in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and revoked universal access to abortion.
"Access to reproductive healthcare should be a fundamental human right," Lujan Grisham said in a statement. "Once completed, this clinic will stand as a testament to our state's commitment to reproductive freedom for residents of New Mexico, and also those who travel here from out-of-state in need of this care."
New Mexico accompanies Democratic-led states from California to New Jersey that are underwriting efforts to bolster abortion services and protections.
New Jersey last year awarded $15 million in zero-interest loans and grants to health care facilities that provide abortion services for facility improvements and increased security. In 2022, California legislators approved $200 million in new spending to bolster the state's already robust abortion protections.
The governor's announcement in New Mexico thrusts public policy on abortion back in the spotlight in the runup to the November general election, with the entire state Legislature up for reelection as Democrats defend their state House and Senate majorities.
Republican contenders for a U.S. Senate seat and a congressional swing district in southern New Mexico have said they won't support a federal abortion ban, amid Democratic-backed political ads that highlight the potential for further federal restrictions.
The Republican Party of New Mexico on Thursday condemned public spending on an abortion clinic that caters to out-of-state visitors as an example of misplaced priorities among Democrats.
In 2021, New Mexico state lawmakers repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, ensuring access. But opposition to abortion runs deep in New Mexico communities along the border with Texas, which has one of the most restrictive bans in the U.S.
Several New Mexico cities and counties have approved abortion-ban ordinances that are on hold while the state Supreme Court weighs whether local governments have the right to back federal abortion restrictions under a 19th century U.S. law that prohibits the shipping of abortion medication and supplies.
The new clinic is scheduled for completion within 18 months to provide services ranging from medical and procedural abortions to contraception, cervical cancer screenings and education about adoptions.
The health branch of the University of New Mexico says it broke ground on the clinic in a partnership with groups including Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
The project was designed to improve health care access and create new training and residency opportunities beyond Albuquerque for University of New Mexico School of Medicine students, the University of New Mexico said in a statement.
The public university's board of regents approved the acquisition of land for the project in May.
NMED, DOE reach agreement in efforts to clean up LANL waste - By Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
The New Mexico Environment Department has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to clean up areas around Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Hannah Grover reports for New Mexico Political report the new order supersedes a 2016 agreement that New Mexico says failed to lead to meaningful clean-up of legacy radioactive waste around the lab.
This new agreement follows a 2021 suit that the state filed against the Department of Energy alleging failure to clean-up the waste. In that suit, the state Environment Department sought to overturn the 2016 agreement and obtain court-supervised negotiations for a new one.
The Environment Department says it will conduct public stakeholder and Tribal meetings to “explore the terms of the settlement and opportunities for engagement.” Those meetings have not yet been scheduled.
Citing costs, technical problems, jail ditches health monitoring bracelets - Elise Kaplan, City Desk ABQ
Last year, after a notable spike in deaths at the state’s largest jail, the former warden reached out to a company that promised a solution — bio-sensor wristbands that monitor an at-risk inmate’s vital signs and alert authorities if anything’s wrong.
City Desk ABQ’s Elise Kaplan reports hours after City Desk asked questions about the contract this week, Metropolitan Detention Center spokesperson Daniel Trujillo sent out a news release announcing the county had canceled it in April, more than two years early.
He said vendors had assured the jail the technology would work with its current IT infrastructure, but it “was unable to integrate with MDC’s inmate management system.”
MDC says the bracelets relied on Bluetooth and could not maintain a reliable connection with the sensors. Battery life was two hours and made charging impractical during jail operations. Inmates complained about the wristbands being uncomfortable. Some inmates exercised their right not to participate in the bracelet program during intake.
A representative for the company that makes them, 4Sight Labs, says it offered to replace the bracelets with a second generation and were rebuffed.
Of the 32 people who died in MDC custody over the past four and a half years, 17 were in the detox unit.
MLG announces $125 million housing program for workers - By Nicole Maxwell, New Mexico Political Report
The governor has announced a new workforce housing development program.
New Mexico Political Report’s Nicole Maxwell reports Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the Opportunity Enterprise Housing Development Program yesterday. It seeks to help families that don’t usually qualify for affordable housing options.
The $125 million-dollar program will be administered through the New Mexico Finance Authority.
According to the announcement, the program will prioritize communities where local governments are seeking to reduce new housing barriers. That could include streamlining permitting and inspections, or updating land use and zoning rules.
The first round of funding will make $30 million dollars available.
Applications are now open and are set to close on Oct. 16th.
Find more information from New Mexico Political report, including a link to apply, at KUNM.org.