Head of state children's cabinet named New Mexico's new public education secretary - Associated Press
Mariana Padilla has been named New Mexico's new Public Education Department secretary for K-12 schools, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Tuesday.
Padilla replaces Arsenio Romero, who resigned Aug. 28 after about a year and a half on the job.
New Mexico State University officials announced in August that Romero is one of the finalists in its search for a new president and a decision is expected by the end of this month.
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 department has struggled to turn educational outcomes around as high percentages of students fail to be proficient in math and reading.
Padilla has served as the director of the New Mexico Children's Cabinet since the start of Lujan Grisham's administration and has been the governor's senior education policy advisor, overseeing early childhood, K-12 and higher education.
Lujan Grisham said in a statement that Padilla's work "has been instrumental in shaping our state's education system and I am confident that she will continue to bring positive change for New Mexico's students."
Padilla began her career as an elementary school teacher in her hometown of Albuquerque.
Feds, irrigation district say keep your wheels off of the silvery minnow - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A recent uptick in off-roading by trucks and other vehicles in the Rio Grande near Belen has prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the local irrigation district to issue a warning to the public: stop, or face further consequences.
The Rio Grande is currently drying between Albuquerque and Socorro, trapping fish in shallow waters and pools, including the endangered silvery minnow.
There is a tenuous strip of water in the river running in the Isleta reach south of Albuquerque, buoyed by federal releases of water imported from the San Juan-Chama Project and water leased from farmers in the area.
Further south, in the San Acacia reach between Belen and Socorro, an estimated 18 river miles are dry, with some reconnection along the river from rains.
With low waters, federal officials and local irrigation authority at the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District said they’re concerned that people driving off-road vehicles in the riverbed may be “illegally killing and harassing the silvery minnow,” in an Aug. 29 news release.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in the release that anyone performing an act that would “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect” an animal protected under Endangered Species Act faces a fine up to $50,000, up to a year in prison, or both.
‘WE KNOW THAT THEY’RE THERE’
This area is a crucial stretch of habitat for the endangered fish, which now only lives in the Rio Grande between Cochiti Dam and Elephant Butte Reservoir.
“I can appreciate that it’s probably a really fun activity, but it does not coincide well with our attempts to manage that very critical ribbon of habitat for endangered species,” Casey Ish said about the vehicle activity in the riverbed in Valencia County.
Ish, a Water Resources Specialist for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, said staff have seen anywhere from 40 to 50 vehicles in the riverbed on Friday or Saturday evenings in the summer.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got vehicles driving up and down a river, and that’s just not acceptable,” Ish said.
Rivers and streams are not explicitly mentioned in state laws limiting off-highway vehicle use, but the law prohibits driving in structures used to water livestock and wildlife, or driving “in a manner that has a direct negative effect on or interferes with persons engaged in agricultural practices.”
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish says on its website it is illegal to operate off-road vehicles “in a way that damages environment, plants, animals or creates excessive noise.”
Ish said the hope is that with new signs posted, the matter would not escalate to police involvement, but also said this has been a challenge in recent years.
“Simply put, I think most of them probably know that it’s not allowed, but that that doesn’t really deter them,” Ish said.
With less water in the Rio Grande, silvery minnows have no room to flee from fast-moving vehicles, said Andy Dean, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist.
“We found about 50 silvery minnow and right where tire tracks were going through, so we know that they’re there,” said Dean, the head for the federal government of the New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office.
Another concern, he said, is that off-road drivers are trespassing on irrigation district lands or potentially polluting the remaining riverbed with fluids and oils.
Enforcement like this has not been tried before, Dean said. The first step is installing signs with warnings about the silvery minnow along the Rio Grande near Belen, to hopefully deter off-roaders.
“If it doesn’t work, then we’ll probably ask law enforcement to start doing some regular patrols down there and start issuing citations,” Dean said.
‘THE MINNOW IS THE ONLY REASON WE STILL HAVE WATER’
The Rio Grande silvery minnow is a small fish, about four inches long, often a shimmery green and yellow with a cream underbelly, with small eyes and a small mouth.
The minnow is the remnant of a wilder river, historically populating the Rio Grande from Española to the Gulf of Mexico. However, with loss of habitat from climate change, and human reshaping of the river alongside the minnow’s with a unique spawning technique and short lifespan, the fish remains on the edge of extinction.
WildEarth Guardians, a conservation nonprofit who has sued the federal government on behalf of the minnow, applauded the agency for taking steps to address threats to the endangered species.
“WildEarth Guardians supports the effort to prohibit any habitat destruction, including off-road vehicle use near Belen,” said Daniel Timmons, the Wild Rivers program director for the nonprofit. “That said – off-road vehicles are not the primary threat to the silvery minnow. The more concerning thing is that the river is so dry that you can drive a four-wheeler through it.”
Before the 1990s, River drying was rarer on the Rio Grande, but a combination of climate change lessening the snow supply and increased agricultural demand have exposed more sandbed, especially in the San Acacia reach, hurting the minnow’s survival.
Timmons said it’s crucial to understand that the river drying isn’t solely climate change, but is human-driven from irrigation needs.
“In particular it’s being diverted at Isleta by (Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District),” he said. “It’s pretty clear from the gage data that there’s a lot more water in the river above Isleta diversion dam than there is below it.”
A 2023 review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service predicts that river-drying will continue, and be one of the largest threats to the minnow’s survival.
The silvery minnow is misunderstood, Dean said, saying that while it’s been framed as a detriment to farmers and ranchers, it’s the reason the river can be a wildspace in any capacity.
“The minnow is the only reason we still have water in the river. If the minnow didn’t exist in the river, there wouldn’t be any regulatory ability for us to limit the amount of water that is taken out,” Dean said. “It’s helping provide a corridor of recreation and a green portion of the valley.”
Water authority unimpressed by Air Force cleanup plan - Rodd Cayton, City Desk ABQ
The U.S. Air Force has a plan for cleaning up a decades-old jet fuel spill from a base near Albuquerque.
However, the local water authority said last week that the plan is inadequate, in part because it scales back current remediation efforts and doesn’t mention how the Air Force will address sudden issues.
In 1999, officials discovered a fuel leak, assumed to be more than 24 million gallons, in the jet fuel loading facility at Kirtland Air Force. The leak could be twice the size of the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989, according to the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice.
It’s unclear when the leak – the largest underground toxic spill in U.S. history – first occurred, but it had been spilling fuel into the ground for decades by the time it was discovered, according to Kelsey Bicknell, environmental manager at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority.
An Air Force report says existing measures have prevented further migration of the fuel contaminants and that officials are regularly taking groundwater samples to ensure that drinking water remains safe both on and off-base.
Bicknell said there are concerns with the way the Air Force plans to go forward, including a lack of forward-looking analysis and the absence of a “trigger action plan” that identifies possible changes and prescribes a response to those changes.
She told the water authority’s Technical Customer Advisory Committee that the fuel soaked its way through almost 500 feet of soil, and ultimately reached the water table, where rock wouldn’t permit it to drop further. Then, she said, it began to pool underground.
Bicknell said the fuel not only contaminated the groundwater but also released volatile vapor into the nearby atmosphere.
She said the Air Force used a vapor extraction system to clean up more than a half-million gallons of fuel.
“This was a really successful system,” Bicknell said, adding that the program was shuttered after about a decade.
Bicknell said the Air Force is now using a groundwater pump-and-treat system that targets the dissolved fuel components that have moved away from the source of the leak and area. There are also four extraction wells, brought online between 2015 and 2018; they draw out and treat groundwater.
Bicknell said the Air Force has announced plans to turn off two of the wells. But that was done without input from the water authority and without including the agency in decision-making.
Air Force representatives did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment.
Bicknell said the goal now is to try to get the Air Force to reverse its decision before the wells are shut down. State and federal regulators have jurisdiction over the cleanup plan, she said, but the water authority cannot veto what the Air Force wants to do.
“Ultimately, we’re the water carrier, the ones that are impacted,” Bicknell said. “If the Air Force messes up, it is our source water that’s impacted, and it’s us that lose out on access to a supply source, so including us in the room and in project discussions and decision-making is something that is paramount.”
Grief over Gaza and qualms over US election add up to anguish for many Palestinian Americans - By Mariam Fam, Associated Press
Demoralized by the Biden administration's handling of the Israel-Hamas war, Palestinian American Samia Assed found in Vice President Kamala Harris' ascension — and her running mate pick — "a little ray of hope."
That hope, she said, shattered during last month's Democratic National Convention, where a request for a Palestinian American speaker was denied and listening to Harris left her feeling like the Democratic presidential nominee will continue the U.S. policies that have outraged many in the anti-war camp.
"I couldn't breathe because I felt unseen and erased," said Assed, a community organizer in New Mexico.
Under different circumstances, Assed would have reveled in the groundbreaking rise of a woman of color as her party's nominee. Instead, she agonizes over her ballot box options.
For months, many Palestinian Americans have been contending with the double whammy of the rising Palestinian death toll and suffering in Gaza and their own government's support for Israel in the war. Alongside pro-Palestinian allies, they've grieved, organized, lobbied and protested as the killings and destruction unfolded on their screens or touched their own families. Now, they also wrestle with tough, deeply personal voting decisions, including in battleground states.
"It's a very hard time for Palestinian youth and Palestinian Americans," Assed said. "There's a lot of pain."
Without a meaningful change, voting for Harris would feel for her "like a jab in the heart," she said. At the same time, Assed, a lifelong Democrat and feminist, would like to help block another Donald Trump presidency and remain engaged with the Democrats "to hold them liable," she said.
"It's really a difficult place to be in."
She's not alone.
In Georgia, the Gaza bloodshed has been haunting Ghada Elnajjar. She said the war claimed the lives of more than 100 members of her extended family in Gaza, where her parents were born.
She saw missed opportunities at the DNC to connect with voters like her. Besides the rejection of the request for a Palestinian speaker, Elnajjar found a disconnect between U.S. policies and Harris' assertion that she and President Joe Biden were working to accomplish a cease-fire and hostage deal.
"Without stopping U.S. financial support and military support to Israel, this will not stop," said Elnajjar who in 2020 campaigned for Biden. "I'm a U.S. citizen. I'm a taxpayer ... and I feel betrayed and neglected."
She'll keep looking for policy changes, but, if necessary, remain "uncommitted," potentially leaving the top of the ticket blank. Harris must earn her vote, she said.
Harris, in her DNC speech, said she and Biden were working to end the war such that "Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination."
She said she "will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself," while describing the suffering in Gaza as "heartbreaking."
While her recent rhetoric on Palestinian suffering has been viewed as empathetic by some who had soured on Biden over the war, the lack of a concrete policy shift appears to have increasingly frustrated many of those who want the war to end. Activists demanding a permanent cease-fire have urged an embargo on U.S. weapons to Israel, whose military campaign in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
The war was sparked by an Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
Layla Elabed, a Palestinian American and co-director of the Uncommitted National Movement, said the demand for a policy shift remains. Nationally, "uncommitted" has garnered hundreds of thousands of votes in Democratic primaries.
Elabed said Harris and her team have been invited to meet before Sept. 15 with "uncommitted" movement leaders from key swing states and with Palestinian families with relatives killed in Gaza. After that date, she said, "we will need to make the decision if we can actually mobilize our base" to vote for Harris.
Without a policy change, "we can't do an endorsement," and will, instead, continue talking about the "dangers" of a Trump presidency, leaving voters to vote their conscience, she added.
Some other anti-war activists are taking it further, advocating for withholding votes from Harris in the absence of a change.
"There's pressure to punish the Democratic Party," Elabed said. "Our position is continue taking up space within the Democratic Party," and push for change from the inside.
Some of the tensions surfaced at an August rally in Michigan when anti-war protesters interrupted Harris. Initially, Harris said everybody's voice matters. As the shouting continued, with demonstrators chanting that they "won't vote for genocide," she took a sharper tone.
"If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that," she said.
Nada Al-Hanooti, national deputy organizing director with the Muslim American advocacy group Emgage Action, rejects as unfair the argument by some that traditionally Democratic voters who withhold votes from Harris are in effect helping Trump. She said the burden should be on Harris and her party.
"Right now, it's a struggle being a Palestinian American," she said. "I don't want a Trump presidency, but, at the same time, the Democratic Party needs to win our vote."
Though dismayed that no Palestinian speaker was allowed on the DNC stage, Al-Hanooti said she felt inspired by how "uncommitted" activists made Palestinians part of the conversation at the convention. Activists were given space there to hold a forum discussing the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
"We in the community still need to continue to push Harris on conditioning aid, on a cease-fire," she said. "The fight is not over."
She said she's never known grief like that she has experienced over the past year. In the girls of Gaza, she sees her late grandmother who, at 10, was displaced from her home during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation and lived in a Syrian refugee camp, dreaming of returning home.
"It just completely tears me apart," Al-Hanooti said.
She tries to channel her pain into putting pressure on elected officials and encouraging community members to vote, despite encountering what she said was increased apathy, with many feeling that their vote won't matter. "Our job at Emgage is simply right now to get our Muslim community to vote because our power is in the collective."
In 2020, Emgage — whose political action committee then endorsed Biden — and other groups worked to maximize Muslim American turnout, especially in battleground states. Muslims make up a small percentage of Americans overall, but activists hope that in states with notable Muslim populations, such as Michigan, energizing more of them makes a difference in close races — and demonstrates the community's political power.
Some voters want to send a message.
"Our community has given our votes away cheaply," argued Omar Abuattieh, a pharmacy major at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "Once we can start to understand our votes as a bargaining tool, we'll have more power."
For Abuattieh, whose mother was born in Gaza, that means planning to vote third party "to demonstrate the power in numbers of a newly activated community that deserves future consultation."
A Pew Research Center survey in February found that U.S. Muslims are more sympathetic to the Palestinian people than many other Americans are and that only 6% of Muslim American adults believe the U.S. is striking the right balance between the Israelis and Palestinians. Nearly two-thirds of Muslim registered voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, according to the survey.
But U.S. Muslims, who are racially and ethnically diverse, are not monolithic in their political behavior; some have publicly supported Harris in this election cycle. In 2020, among Muslim voters, 64% supported Biden and 35% supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast.
The Harris campaign said it has appointed two people for Muslim and Arab outreach.
Harris "will continue to meet with leaders from Palestinian, Muslim, Israeli and Jewish communities, as she has throughout her vice presidency," the campaign said in response to questions, without specifically commenting on the uncommitted movement's request for a meeting before Sept. 15.
Harris is being scrutinized by those who say the Biden-Harris administration hasn't done enough to pressure Israel to end the war and by Republicans looking to brand her as insufficient in her support for Israel.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, said Trump "will once again deliver peace through strength to rebuild and expand the peace coalition he built in his first term to create long-term safety and security for both the Israeli and Palestinian people."
Many Arab and Muslim Americans were angered by Trump's ban, while in office, that affected travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, which Biden rescinded.
In Michigan, Ali Ramlawi, who owns a restaurant in Ann Arbor, said Harris' nomination initially gave him relief on various domestic issues, but the DNC left him disappointed on the Palestinian question.
Before the convention, he expected to vote Democratic, but now says he's considering backing the Green Party for the top of the ticket or leaving that blank.
"Our vote shouldn't be taken for granted," he said. "I won't vote for the lesser of two evils."
Will your trash pick-up get more expensive? - Rodd Cayton, City Desk ABQ
Residents of unincorporated areas of Bernalillo County may see the cost of trash pickup increase.
County commissioners on Tuesday will consider a slate of increases to reflect inflation in the last year.
In the meeting agenda, county staff wrote that costs for the service provider — Waste Management of New Mexico — have risen, which is reflected in the company’s new contract with the county. The fees are meant to offset that increase.
Basic trash service — which includes one trash receptacle and one cart for recyclables — would increase from $18.72 a month to $19.94, according to the proposed rate structure. Additional trash receptacles are now $5.29 a month and recycling carts $5.21; those rates would be raised to $5.63 and $5.55, respectively. Bulky item pickup will remain free.
According to the agenda, the fee hikes are expected to increase revenue by $420,000.
Also on the agenda is the possible issuance of $186 million in industrial revenue bonds in connection with a proposed Mesa Film Studios LLC construction project.
The bonds would provide some tax exemptions to defray part of the cost of the project. The county would not make a loan or lend its credit to the company.
Mesa Film Studios is planning to build a media production campus in Albuquerque, consisting of six sound stages, office space, a post-production studio and other features.
The City of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico are contributing a total of $7 million in economic development money to the project.
Commissioners may also accept a pair of grants totaling $5,648,750 to hire additional guards at the county jail and Youth Services Center. The grants are from the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.
The larger of the two is just over $3 million for the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is intended to help the county cover the cost of hiring 23 new officers. The county will get the money over three years, including $1.725 million the first year.
The Youth Services Center grant is $2,625,000 over three years, with the county receiving $1.5 million the first year.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
WHEN: 5 p.m. Sept. 10.
WHERE: Ken Sanchez Commission Chambers in Bernalillo County @ Alvarado Square, 415 Silver Ave SW.
VIRTUAL: GOV-TV, on the county’s website or on Bernalillo County’s YouTube channel
A reckless driver leads to an officer-involved shooting in Santa Fe and a parade is canceled - Associated Press
A reckless driver has been arrested after a police-involved shooting Sunday in Santa Fe that canceled the Desfile de la Gente parade, authorities said.
Santa Fe police reported the incident occurred near downtown Santa Fe Plaza around 10:30 a.m., hours ahead of the popular parade that had been scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
The name and age of the suspect weren't immediately available Sunday.
"We had one individual crashing into cars recklessly, confronting the police, leading the police on a chase," Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber told the Santa Fe New Mexican. "There were shots fired from the police. He was apprehended and he's in custody. Unfortunately, he successfully ruined the day for everybody else."
New Mexico State Police said in a statement that the shooting involved both Santa Fe police and the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office.
State Police said the police officers escaped injury but that the suspect was wounded.
Dan Shipp told The Associated Press that he was a half block away from the plaza make when he saw a white pickup truck make several hard turns before going through a barricade.
Shipp said he then heard "six or seven shots" fired but didn't know if it was police or the suspect who was doing the shooting.
Hundreds of people were at the plaza setting up tents along the parade route to sell trinkets, rugs and other things, according to Shipp.
"Everything is shut down now," he said, adding that all other scheduled events at the plaza were also cancelled.
The purpose of the parade, according to the event's website, "is to provide fun, relaxation and cultural enjoyment for the citizens and visitors of Santa Fe." The site also refers to the parade as the Santa Fe Fiesta Historical/Hysterical Parade.