Protesters swamp APS board meeting over LGBTQ books - KOAT-TV, KUNM News
The Albuquerque Public Schools board meeting Wednesday night was swamped with protesters and counter protesters over banning books that contain LGTBQ topics, which the district is neither doing nor considering.
KOAT-TV reports hundreds of people, both in support and against banning the books, gathered outside district headquarters. They were there in response to the attendance of traveling North Carolina-based Pastor John Amanchukwu, who Legacy Church had invited to the city.
The school board capped the number of community members allowed inside. Around 40 people addressed the board, including Amanchukwu, though most in support of LGBTQ books in schools.
In his short statement to the board, Amanchukwu called APS the, "P. Diddy of the American education system,” referring to the hip-hop mogul who was charged this year with sex trafficking and other offenses.
He told the board, “Boys are going to school wearing thongs and crop tops,” which he called “unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, another pastor, Sarah TevisTownes of Good Shepherd Church, also spoke. She told KOAT that she attended the meeting in support of LGBTQ representation in school books as a means of reducing suicide risk.
APS Board President Danielle Gonzales said in a statement Thursday that, “The APS Board is not banning books, is not repealing protections for LGBTQIA+ youth, and is not allowing out-of-state political extremists to drive our agenda.”
Environmental group, feds and irrigation district reach settlement in silvery minnow suit - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A big fight over a small, endangered fish that lives in the Rio Grande has come to a resolution, as a federal judge in New Mexico OK’d a settlement Tuesday proposed by the parties.
U.S. District of New Mexico Magistrate Judge Gregory Fouratt approved an agreement between WildEarth Guardians, an environmental and conservation nonprofit based in Santa Fe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a middle Rio Grande irrigation district.
The deal ends a 2022 lawsuit brought by WildEarth Guardians alleging the federal government mismanaged the Rio Grande and promoted unsustainable water uses, which violated provisions of the Endangered Species Act to restore habitats for the silvery minnow and two other species.
The dual strains of climate change and human diversions for irrigation are contributing to the Rio Grande drying more frequently, especially the crucial stretch of river between Cochiti Dam and Elephant Butte, where silvery minnow live.
The 4-inch long minnow, is unlike most freshwater fish. Silvery minnow directly spawn into the water in the spring, and the fertilized eggs slip downstream, a method more common to marine fish. When the river was slower and shallower, the minnow was prolific along Rio Grande from Española to Gulf of Mexico. Federal and local irrigation projects straightened the river, making it deeper and faster, and built dams that prevented fish from moving freely in the river. Now, the short-lived fish is limited to one reach,which dries almost completely each year. After years of population decline, the fish was named an endangered species in 1994.
The minnow holds an important role as an indicator of the Rio Grande’s health, said Daniel Timmons, the wild rivers program director for Wild Earth Guardians.
“The Rio Grande through Albuquerque used to support sturgeon and catfish that were 200 pounds. And today, the river is barely able to support a 4-inch minnow,” he said. “If it’s not able to support a minnow, it’s not able to support the entire web of life.”
The settlement makes some immediate changes, such as outlining specific provisions of the the Middle Rio Grande Water Conservancy District to fallow 2,500-3,500 acres farmland for the next four years or offer imported Colorado River water to keep in the riverbed.
Other provisions, such as the agreement to start the process for new federal conservation measures – called a Biological Opinion – will take four years.
While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be “driving the bus” to produce a new Biological Opinion; there will be more opportunities for public comment as part of the agreement.
That’s unusual, he said, adding that Biological Opinions are often made behind closed doors.
“I’m hopeful the agencies will be more transparent throughout the process and will be engaging the public to make sure it’s more of a participatory process than it has been in the past,” Timmons said.
The federal government also agreed to pay $41,000 for WildEarth Guardian’s legal fees.
Currently, federal wildlife officials are going to continue using conservation measures from the 2016 Biological Opinion in the interim, said Debra Hill, a supervisory biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Rio Grande Basin.
One of the goals is to make the 87 conservation measures from the 2016 opinion less vague and more focused, she said.
The settlement shows that government agencies will have to work together to address creative solutions as the Rio Grande is expected to shrink further from climate change, she said.
“We are really going to have to figure out how to work with what is limited, and so it’s going to take working together as much as we can,” Hill said.
Hill called the minnow a “canary in a coal mine,” for life on the river.
“If we’re starting to see that a fish doesn’t have what it needs to survive in the Middle Rio Grande, we need to, as a society, realize that water is the same water that we rely on,” Hill said.
New Mexico Attorney General calls on Congress to pass KOSA - By Nicole Maxwell, New Mexico Political Report
More than 30 attorneys general from across the country, including New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, sent a letter to Congress urging them to pass the Kids Online Safety Act.
KOSA seeks to protect children from harm online.
“We are acutely aware of the threats minors face on social media,” the letter states. “Many social media platforms target minors, resulting in a national youth mental health catastrophe. These platforms make their products addictive to minor users, and then profit from selling minor user data to advertisers. These platforms fail to disclose the addicting nature of their products, nor the harms associated with increased social media use. Instead, minor users receive endless tailored and toxic content.”
Related: NM Attorney General Torrez speaks about social media harms at town hall
KOSA seeks to require social media platforms to utilize mandatory default safety settings for child users, addiction prevention measures such as allowing young users and their parents or guardians the option to disable features that promote endless scrolling and enable parents and guardians to use tools that can identify harmful actions and better ways to report dangerous content.
“Every day that Congress delays is another day children are exposed to harmful content that threatens their mental health and wellbeing,” Torrez said in a press release. “We cannot allow profits to come before the safety of our kids. It’s time for Congress to act and give families the tools they need to protect their children online.”
Torrez and the New Mexico Department of Justice filed suit against Meta in 2023. The case is expected to go to trial in 2025.
University of New Mexico graduate workers demand administration to stop using deadnames - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A union representing graduate student workers at the University of New Mexico is demanding that the institution stop forcing transgender students to use their deadnames in internal systems, including email and course registration.
The group, known as United Graduate Workers at UNM, started distributing a petition calling on the school administration to recognize trans people’s chosen names and gender markers this week.
“It’s so painful for a lot of trans people to be referred to as their previous name that people call it ‘deadnaming,’” teaching assistant and union leader Max Pagano said Wednesday, the end of Transgender Awareness Week. “It’s such a denial of basic personhood to not be called the name that you want to be called.”
Pagano said the system students, faculty and graduate teaching assistants use to register for classes allows them to change the displayed name but it resets every semester.
“It’s not easy to figure out how to change it, so most people don’t even know how,” they said.
Other graduate workers told Pagano they set up their official university email addresses with their chosen names this year, but about a month into the semester, without any warning or consent, the names associated with those email addresses were all reverted to their legal ones.
The union said in a news release that this contradicts UNM policy that prohibits gender-based discrimination and commits the school to respecting people’s preferred form of self-identification, “including a name other than a legal first name and the pronoun that aligns with their gender identity.”
The union also suggested that the university is violating a 2019 state law which allowed New Mexicans to designate an “X” gender marker on state documents for those who are nonbinary or prefer not to disclose their gender.
However, the union said in the five years since the law was passed, the University of New Mexico has not updated their internal systems to allow for an “X” gender marker for students and employees.
Cinnamon Blair, a spokesperson for UNM, said Wednesday that while every UNM system may not have the technical capability of supporting affirmed names and pronouns, the school has “made strides in enabling this functionality wherever possible.”
“While we have made progress in supporting preferred names and pronouns, we acknowledge that there may be areas where our implementation can be improved,” Blair said. “Like many institutions, UNM faces complex challenges in fully integrating these functions across all our systems and processes.”
Blair said the school’s information technology workers are “actively engaged in this process and working to identify and address these limitations.”
“We remain committed to creating an inclusive environment where all individuals feel respected and valued, and we will continue to work diligently toward fully implementing our policies and improving our systems to support this goal,” she said.
This doesn’t just affect trans people, Pagano said, it also affects anyone who gets married and changes their name or international students who choose an English name as opposed to the one they’re given in their native language.
UNM grad students are taking action as transgender rights come under attack at the U.S. Capitol. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday banned transgender women from using women’s restrooms in parts of the federal Capitol complex. Johnson’s order followed the election this month of Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, a Delaware Democrat who will become the first openly trans member of Congress.
The advocacy group LGBTQ+ Victory Institute called the Republican Johnson’s order “bigoted and transphobic” and noted Wednesday was Transgender Day of Remembrance.
The Human Rights Campaign reported Tuesday that 36 transgender people have died violently in the past year.
“It’s been really disturbing to see the way that attacks on trans people has become one of the hot button issues or talking points among conservatives right now,” Pagano said. “In light of this, it’s especially important for UNM to step up and affirm their commitment to their marginalized students.”
New study shows voting for Native Americans is harder than ever - By Graham Lee Brewer Associated Press
A new study has found that systemic barriers to voting on tribal lands contribute to substantial disparities in Native American turnout, particularly for presidential elections.
The study, released Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice, looked at 21 states with federally recognized tribal lands that have a population of at least 5,000 and where more than 20% of residents identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. Researchers found that between 2012 and 2022, voter participation in federal elections was 7 percentage points lower in midterms and 15 percentage points lower in presidential elections than among those living off tribal lands in the same states.
Earlier studies show voter turnout for communities of color is higher in areas where their ethnic group is the majority, but the latest research found that turnout was the lowest on tribal lands that have a high concentration of Native Americans, the Brennan Center said.
"There's something more intensely happening in Native American communities on tribal land," said Chelsea Jones, a researcher on the study.
Jones said the study suggests some barriers may be insurmountable in predominately Native communities due to a lack of adequate polling places or access to early and mail-in ballots. Many residents on tribal lands have nontraditional addresses, meaning they don't have street names or house numbers, making mail-in voting even more difficult. As a result, many Native American voters rely on P.O. boxes, but the study notes that several jurisdictions will not mail ballots to P.O. boxes.
Long distances to the polls that do exist on tribal lands and little to no public transportation creates additional hurdles for Native American voters. In far-flung Alaska Native villages, polling places sometimes simply don't open if there's no one available to run an election, and severe weather can make absentee voting unreliable, The Associated Press reported last month.
"When you think about people who live on tribal lands having to go 30, 60, 100 miles to cast a ballot, that is an extremely limiting predicament to be in," Jones said. "These are really, truly severe barriers."
Additionally, Jones said they found Native American voters were denied the ability to vote using their tribal IDs in several places, including in states where that is legally allowed. All of these roadblocks to the ballot can create a sense of distrust in the system, which could contribute to lower turnout, Jones said.
The Brennan Center study also highlights on ongoing issue when it comes to understanding how or why Native Americans vote: a lack of good data.
"There are immense data inequities when it comes to studying Native American communities, especially as it pertains to politics," Jones said.
Native American communities are often overlooked when it comes to polling data and sometimes when they are included those studies do not reflect broader trends for Indigenous voters, said Stephanie Fryberg, the director of the Research for Indigenous Social Action & Equity Center, which studies systemic inequalities faced by Indigenous people.
"Generally speaking, polling is not well positioned to do a good job for Indian Country," said Fryberg, who is also a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. "There are ideas that are held up as the gold standard about how polling works that don't work for Indian Country because of where we live, because of how difficult it is to connect to people in our community."
Fryberg, a member of the Tulalip Tribe in Washington State, was one of several Indigenous researchers who denounced a recent exit poll conducted by Edison Research that found 65% of Native American voters who participated said they voted for Donald Trump. The poll only surveyed 229 self-identified Native Americans, a sample size that she said is too small for an accurate reading, and none of the jurisdictions in the poll were on tribal lands.
"Right there, you're already eliminating a powerful perspective," Fryberg said.
The Indigenous Journalists Association labelled that polling data as "highly misleading and irresponsible," saying it has led "to widespread misinformation."
In a statement to the Associated Press, Edison Research acknowledged that the polling size is small, but said the "goal of the survey is to represent the national electorate and to have enough data to also examine large demographic and geographic subgroups." The survey has a potential sampling margin of error of plus or minus 9%, according to the statement.
"Based on all of these factors, this data point from our survey should not be taken as a definitive word on the American Indian vote," the statement reads.
Native Americans are not just part of an ethnic group, they also have political identities that come with being citizens of sovereign nations. Fryberg said allowing those surveyed to self-identify as Native Americans, without follow-up questions about tribal membership and specific Indigenous populations, means that data cannot accurately capture voting trends for those communities.
Both Fryberg and Jones said that in order to create better data on and opportunities for Native Americans to vote, researchers and lawmakers would have to meet the specific needs of Indigenous communities. Jones said passage of the Native American Voting Rights Act, a bill that has stalled in Congress, would ensure equitable in-person voting options in every precinct on tribal lands.
"This is not an issue that we see across the country," Jones said. "It's very specific to tribal lands. So we need provisions that address that uniquely."
Number of women who are state lawmakers inches up to a record high - By Isabella Volmert Associated Press
Women will for the first time make up a majority of state legislators in Colorado and New Mexico next year, but at least 13 states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics.
While women will fill a record number of state legislative seats in 2025, the overall uptick will be slight, filling about a third of legislative seats. Races in some states are still being called.
"We certainly would like to see a faster rate of change and more significant increases in each election cycle to get us to a place where parity in state legislatures is less novel and more normal," said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the CAWP, which is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
As of Wednesday, at least 2,450 women will serve in state legislatures, representing 33.2% of the seats nationwide. The previous record was set in 2024 with 2,431 women, according to the CAWP.
The number of Republican women, at least 851, will break the previous record of 815 state lawmakers set in 2024.
"But still, Republican women are very underrepresented compared to Democratic women," Debbie Walsh, director of the CAWP, said.
States that gained women in legislatures
By the most recent count, 19 states will have increased the number of women in their state legislatures, according to the CAWP. The most notable increases were in New Mexico and Colorado where women will for the first time make up a majority of lawmakers.
In New Mexico, voters sent an 11 additional women to the chambers. Colorado had previously attained gender parity in 2023 and is set to tip over to a slight female majority in the upcoming year.
The states follow Nevada, which was the first in the country to see a female majority in the legislature following elections in 2018. Next year, women will make up almost 62% of state lawmakers in Nevada, far exceeding parity.
Women in California's Senate will make up the chamber's majority for the first time in 2025 as well. Women also made notable gains in South Dakota, increasing its total number by at least nine.
States that lost women in legislatures
At least thirteen states emerged from the election with fewer female lawmakers than before, with the most significant loss occurring in South Carolina.
Earlier this year, the only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate lost their primaries after they stopped a total abortion ban from passing. Next year, only two women, who are Democrats, will be in the 46-member Senate.
No other state in the country will have fewer women in its upper chamber, according to the CAWP. Women make up 55% of the state's registered voters.
Half the members in the GOP dominated state were elected in 2012 or before, so it will likely be the 2040s before any Republican woman elected in the future can rise to leadership or a committee chairmanship in the chamber, which doles out leadership positions based on seniority.
A net loss of five women in the legislature means they will make up only about 13% of South Carolina's lawmakers, making the state the second lowest in the country for female representation. Only West Virginia has a smaller proportion of women in the legislature.
West Virginia stands to lose one more women from its legislative ranks, furthering its representation problem in the legislature where women will make up just 11% of lawmakers.
Why it matters
Many women, lawmakers and experts say that women's voices are needed in discussions on policy especially at a time when state government is at its most powerful in decades.
Walsh, director of the CAWP, said the new changes expected from the Trump administration will turn even more policy and regulation to the states. The experiences and perspectives women offer will be increasingly needed, she said, especially on topics related to reproductive rights, healthcare, education and childcare.
"The states may have to pick up where the federal government may, in fact, be walking away," Walsh said. "And so who serves in those institutions is more important now than ever."
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This version corrects the approximate total of women in state legislatures nationwide to be about a third.
Feds outline 'necessary steps' for Colorado River agreement by 2026 but no recommendation yet - By Ken Ritter, Associated Press
Federal water officials made public on Wednesday what they called "necessary steps" for seven states and multiple tribes that use Colorado River water and hydropower to meet an August 2026 deadline for deciding how to manage the waterway in the future.
"Today we show our collective work," Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said as she outlined four proposals for action and one "no action" alternative that she and Biden's government will leave for the incoming Trump Administration — with formal environmental assessments still to come and just 20 months to act.
The announcement offered no recommendation or decision about how to divvy up water from the river, which provides electricity to millions of homes and businesses, irrigates vast stretches of desert farmland and reaches kitchen faucets in cities including Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Instead it provided a bullet-point sample of elements from competing proposals submitted last March by three key river stakeholders: Upper Basin states Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming, where most of the water originates; Lower Basin states California, Arizona and Nevada, which rely most on water captured by dams at lakes Powell and Mead; and more than two dozen Native American tribes with rights to river water.
"They're not going to take the any of the proposals," said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. "The federal government put the components together in a different way ... and modeled them to provide near-maximum flexibility for negotiations to continue."
One alternative would have the government act to "protect critical infrastructure" including dams and oversee how much river water is delivered, relying on existing agreements during periods when demand outstrips supply. "But there would be no new delivery and storage mechanisms," the announcement said.
A second option would add delivery and storage for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, along with "federal and non-federal storage" to boost system sustainability and flexibility "through a new approach to distributing" water during shortages.
The third, dubbed "cooperative conservation," cited a proposal from advocates aimed at managing and gauging water releases from Lake Powell amid "shared contributions to sustain system integrity."
And a fourth, hybrid proposal includes parts of Upper and Lower Basin and Tribal Nations plans, the announcement said. It would add delivery and storage for Powell and Mead, encourage conservation and agreements for water use among customers and "afford the Tribal and non-Tribal entities the same ability to use these mechanisms."
The "no action" option does not meet the purpose of study but was included because it is required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the announcement said.
In 2026, legal agreements that apportion the river will expire. That means that amid the effects of climate change and more than 20 years of drought, river stakeholders and the federal government have just months to agree what to do.
"We still have a pretty wide gap between us," Tom Buschatzke, Arizona's main negotiator on the Colorado River, said in a conference call with reporters. He referred to positions of Upper Basin and Lower Basin states. Tribes including the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona have also been flexing their long-held water rights.
Buschatzke said he saw "some really positive elements" in the alternatives but needed time to review them in detail. "I think anything that could be done to move things forward on a faster track is a good thing," he said.
Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado said in a statement the alternatives "underscore how serious a situation we're facing on the Colorado River."
"The only path forward is a collaborative, seven-state plan to solve the Colorado River crisis without taking this to court," he said. "Otherwise, we'll watch the river run dry while we sue each other."
Wednesday's announcement came two weeks after Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election to Republican former President Donald Trump, and two weeks ahead of a key meeting of the involved parties at Colorado River Water Users Association meetings in Las Vegas.
Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network advocacy group, said "snapshots" offered in the announcement "underscore the uncertainty that is swirling around future river management as a new administration prepares to take office."
"The river needs basin-wide curtailments, agreements to make tribes whole, a moratorium on new dams and diversions, commitments for endangered species and new thinking about outdated infrastructure," he said.
Buschatzke declined to speculate about whether Trump administration officials will pick up where Biden's leaves off. But Porter, at the Kyl Center, said the announcement "shows an expectation of continuity."
"The leadership is going to change, but there are a lot of people who have been working on this for a long time who will still be involved in the negotiations and modeling," she said.
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Associated Press writer Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, contributed.
Top health official in New Mexico leaves after less than 2 years on the job - Associated Press
New Mexico Department of Health Secretary Patrick Allen is leaving after less than two years on the job.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham made the announcement Wednesday, saying Allen would be stepping down at the end of the day. She did not give a reason for his departure, but she said she appreciated his contributions to the state Health Department.
Allen is the latest in a long line of cabinet secretaries to leave the administration. Lujan Grisham is midway through her second term and just in recent months, there has been turnover at key agencies including the Public Education Department and the Children, Youth and Families Department.
Lujan Grisham appointed Allen to the top post in the Health Department in January 2023, citing his policy experience. He had previously served as director of the Oregon Health Authority.
Lujan Grisham's health policy advisor, Gina DeBlassie, will serve as interim cabinet secretary.
The governor's office said DeBlassie has more than 30 years of health care expertise and formerly served as chief operating officer for a company that provides home care services for seniors. She also stepped in last year as the interim head of the state's Aging and Long-Term Services Department when that secretary retired.
Heinrich questions FEMA chief over delays for those who lost everything in northern NM wildfire - By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
U.S. Sen Martin Heinrich continued the New Mexico congressional delegation’s push to compensate victims of the state’s biggest-ever wildfire Wednesday, questioning the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator about why people who lost everything are still waiting two years later.
The Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Claims Office, which FEMA oversees, is in charge of paying out about $4 billion to compensate victims of the 534-square-mile wildfire that was the federal government’s fault – caused by two botched prescribed burns on federal land. The agency has paid out about $1.5 billion so far.
But Heinrich (D-NM), speaking at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, challenged FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about whether that money is going to families whose homes or livelihoods were destroyed by the fire. The delegation has repeatedly called on FEMA to make payments more quickly and make the program fairer.
“What can FEMA do differently so that the folks who literally lost everything in the fire are not the last to get their compensation?” he asked.
Criswell responded that the office has increased its staffing throughout the year and that payments have increased as a result.
“But we know we have more work to do. We continue to bring in our staffing and ensure that we have the right amount of people, the right amount of resources,” Criswell said.
Claims from people who lost their homes tend to be more complicated and individualized, which means they take more work from more staff to process, Criswell said. That’s where the increased staffing has helped, she said.
It’s not clear how many people who lost their primary residences are still waiting for compensation from the fund. Several hundred homes were lost in the fire. About 145 households qualified for FEMA housing assistance in the fire’s aftermath, which meant their primary residences were destroyed or unliveable.
The office has not provided that figure to Source New Mexico despite multiple requests. And, according to a Heinrich spokesperson, it also has not given it to members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation.
The delegation sent a letter Nov. 1 asking for that figure and for answers to 12 other questions about the status of the claims process, citing some progress but saying “improvements to the Claims Office’s processes and best practices are still sorely needed.”
The letter also asked the claims office how it was handling fair compensation for “culturally and structurally unique” losses, including adobe homes, and how it was ensuring food loss payments are made equitably. A recent Source New Mexico story revealed the office pays men more than women for food lost in the fire.
The food-payment issue and perceived lack of payments to those who lost their homes were among the reasons a small group of protesters gathered in late October in front of the FEMA headquarters. They called on the agency to prioritize total losses before paying out other types of damage.
As of late September, the office had paid out around $400 million in claims to about 4,200 people and businesses for smoke damage, a process the claims office designed to be quick and simple and one that applies to a roughly 2,200-square-mile area around the burn scar.
The rest of the $1.5 billion spent so far has gone to local governments, including $100 million to the City of Las Vegas, N.M., to replace its drinking water system, as well as for reforestation on private land and to businesses, nonprofits and tribal governments.
A FEMA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
$1.5 BILLION MORE PENDING
Criswell’s appearance comes as President Joe Biden is seeking Congress’ approval on a package of disaster-related funding, including $40 billion to FEMA, as his presidency comes to an end.
Included in that $40 billion request is $1.5 billion for the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire victims. If approved, that would mean the victims were awarded $5.45 billion in compensation for the 340,000-acre wildfire, minus administrative costs.
Heinrich asked Criswell what the additional money would be needed for.
Criswell said she’d seen an “independent actuarial report” that showed the total losses to the fire exceeded $5 billion. So, while she said her office can pay the claims that have been submitted to date, the claims office needs the extra money to pay what it expects future claims will cost.
Without the additional funding, “I will not be able to meet the claims down the road based on what I believe is an accurate report from this independent actuary,” she said.
A claims office spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for the independent report. Heinrich’s office deferred comment to FEMA.
State offers emergency relief to Roswell-area flood victims on food assistance – By Nash Jones, KUNM News
New Mexico is offering emergency relief to residents on food assistance impacted by recent historic flooding in the southern part of the state. The Health Care Authority announced today/yesterday [WED] it will replace food benefits used on food that was lost in the floods and offer temporary coverage of prepared meals.
The department said in a statement that the benefit replacement offer is reserved for Chaves County residents in certain zip codes who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or “SNAP” benefits, also known as food stamps.
Those who qualify must report their loss to the Authority by Monday, Nov. 25. That can be done at the department’s Roswell office or by phone at (800)283-4465. The department can also replace customers’ EBT cards as needed.
Additionally, the agency is expanding SNAP benefits to include hot meals in Chaves County and the wider flood-affected area, including De Baca, Eddy, Lea, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Otero counties.
Until Dec. 17, those residents can use their EBT cards to buy usually-prohibited prepared meals at grocery stores and other authorized stores. Restaurants remain excluded. The federal government approved the temporary hot-food benefits in President Biden’s disaster declaration earlier this month.
Auditor cites improper use of public funds at Western New Mexico University - Associated Press
Top officials and regents at Western New Mexico University failed to uphold their fiduciary responsibilities by consistently running afoul of travel and purchasing policies, according to investigators with the New Mexico state auditor's office.
The agency made public its findings Tuesday, saying a review of spending between July 2018 and June 2023 identified numerous instances of wasteful spending and improper use of public funds. The review cited more than $363,000 in spending that didn't comply with university rules.
State lawmakers started raising questions last year about international trips by university President Joseph Shepard, his wife's use of a university purchasing card and spending on high-end furniture. At the time, Shepard said that regents vetted his spending requests and that he was familiar with policies and procedures that govern the spending of public money.
Despite the scrutiny, regents threw their support behind Shepard. They declined to stop international travel despite a recommendation by the state Higher Education Department that a cost-benefit analysis be done before trips resumed.
State Auditor Joseph Maestas sent a letter Monday to the university Board of Regents President Mary Hotvedt. In it, he noted that the review found "a concerning lack of compliance" with established university policies.
"Without strong and committed leadership to reinforce the internal control system, the university remains at significant risk for fraud, waste, and abuse," Maestas wrote. "Effective governance is crucial in setting the tone at the top, embracing accountability and transparency, and ensuring that all employees understand the importance of these controls and adhere to them diligently."
When asked if Shepard would comment on the findings, the university provided a statement from Hotvedt that indicated the concerns have been addressed by university leadership and that an independent audit was pending.
Hotvedt said university policies have been updated and travel and procurement procedures have been revised. Staff also is being trained to ensure compliance, and an independent analysis is being done to determine any benefits from the university's international initiatives.
The university declined to say whether there would be any sanctions for the policy violations.
The state auditor's investigation looked at more than 400 instances of domestic and international travel and lodging that didn't comply with university policies and rules. That included trips that Shepard took that appeared unrelated to official university business, such as conferences and events where his wife was a guest speaker.
Shepard's wife, Valerie Plame, is a former CIA operations officer who ran unsuccessfully for New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District in the 2020 Democratic primary.
New Mexico Broadband Office wants $70M for satellite, high-speed internet - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
As people wait for new high-speed internet to get installed along power lines or beneath the ground, New Mexico’s broadband agency wants to use public funds to cover some of the cost of getting high-speed internet from space.
The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion on Tuesday asked the Legislative Finance Committee for $70 million to help cover the cost of connecting to satellite high-speed internet. The committee makes budgetary recommendations to the full Legislature.
About 95,000 households in New Mexico are either too remote to receive high-speed internet or do not have the money to pay for it, said Drew Lovelace, the broadband office’s acting director.
Those include parts of Albuquerque but also more mountainous or remote areas in the eastern and western parts of the state, Lovelace said.
Over a five-year period while high-speed internet lines are built, the money would pay for a $600 satellite receiver to get connected, along with $30 toward the $120 total monthly bill. The program is called Accelerate Connect New Mexico.
The only satellite internet provider in the market right now with satellites close enough to the planet’s surface to do high-speed internet is Starlink, Lovelace said. There are other companies with satellites farther away into space, but as far as he’s aware, none of those provide a fast enough connection speed.
Starlink is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead a not-yet-defined commission to evaluate government spending.
Sen. Benny Shendo (D-Jemez) asked Lovelace about what he thinks could change with the new presidential administration, especially since Starlink “used to have the inside track on these conversations.”
Lovelace responded in part by saying federal money for high-speed internet is already obligated to the state of New Mexico, and it would take an act of Congress to change that.
“There’s a lot we can think about and prepare for — what’s nice to think about with infrastructure is that whether you have an R or a D behind your name, if you do not have connectivity, you want connectivity,” Lovelace said.
Lovelace said according to data Starlink has shared with his office, there are only about 200 places in New Mexico that couldn’t get satellite coverage. As an example, he said, those places might be too deep within a valley for the signal to reach.
If the Legislative Finance Committee includes the requested money in the state budget for Fiscal Year 2026, and lawmakers vote to pass the budget, the money would become available to the agency in July 2025.
Lovelace said it would take another six months to hire a satellite high-speed internet provider and actually start the program.