After fishy debate, Senate approves bill modernizing NM Game and Fish department - By Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico’s Department of Game and Fish would get its biggest facelift in decades under a bill that cleared the state Senate on Saturday.
After a lengthy debate that touched on fishing, wolves, prairie dogs and sand dune lizards, the Senate voted 28-12 to approve the legislation.
This year’s bill, Senate Bill 5, would rebrand the agency as the state Department of Wildlife, restructure the state Game Commission and increase license fees for anglers and hunters.
An in-state New Mexico fishing license, for instance, would increase from $25 to $35, while an out-of-state seasonal fishing license would jump from $56 to $90.
Backers of the legislation say the fee increases would help the agency remain functional. Other funding infusions would allow the department to take on a larger role in regulating and protecting New Mexico wildlife.
They also described the bill as a delicate deal crafted after months of negotiations.
“It is a compromise in which we have addressed concerns from all parties,” said Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, one of the sponsors of the legislation.
The bill has support from a broad coalition of conservation groups, including the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and the local chapters of Trout Unlimited and the Audubon Society.
However, Sen. James Townsend, R-Artesia, pointed out groups like the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association still oppose the legislation.
Specifically, Townsend raised concern about whether the legislation would allow game wardens to kill predatory animals and how endangered species would be treated.
“I think we need to be more definitive about what we’re going to protect and what we’re not,” Townsend said.
This year’s bill marks the latest attempt to restructure the seven-member Game Commission, after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s removal of several commissioners and other turnover.
The governor pocket vetoed a 2023 bill that would have changed how Game Commission members are appointed, while other measures have stalled at the Roundhouse.
After several changes in Senate committees, this year’s proposal advancing at the Roundhouse calls for the creation of a nominating committee to help vet new game commissioners, as is currently done for judicial vacancies.
The governor would then be able to select names from among a list of nominees.
Fishing and hunting issues have occasionally turned into political flashpoints at the Roundhouse, such as when lawmakers voted in 2015 to allow private landowners to bar public access to streams and rivers running through their property.
The state Supreme Court in 2022 ruled the state Constitution allows public access to such waterways.
Meanwhile, the Saturday vote came after senators rejected a series of amendments proposed by Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, that sought to expand the scope of the legislation.
“To try to change it at this point would be unfair, I think, to the process that got us to this point,” said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe.
He also said the state might need to provide more funding for the Game and Fish department, which currently relies on license fees to fund its operations.
“Putting it all on the backs of the fishermen and the hunters is an interesting way to do business,” Wirth said.
The bill now advances to the House of Representatives with three weeks left in the 60-day legislative session that ends March 22.
Governor appoints two state district court judges - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday announced appointments of two state district court judges, one in her hometown of Albuquerque and the other in the state’s northwest corner.
Matthew Chavez on March 15 will become a judge in the Second Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, which has a total of 30 judges.
Brenna Clani-Washinawatok on Saturday became a judge in the 11th Judicial District Court in Aztec and Gallup, which has eight judges in total.
Chavez will leave his current post as chief legal counsel for the state Department of Public Safety. He was previously a public defender at the Law Offices of the Public Defender’s Second Judicial District Office in Albuquerque, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
Chavez is taking the seat formerly held by Judge Stan Whitaker, who is retiring after 18 years on the bench.
Clani-Washinawatok is a child support hearing officer and has provided legal counsel to the New Mexico Health Care Authority’s Child Support Division for more than a decade, according to a news release.
An enrolled member of Navajo Nation, she is the first Native American to serve as an 11th Judicial District Court judge, according to a news release the court published in February.
“It is a great honor and humbling experience to serve the people of San Juan and McKinley counties as a judge,” Clani-Washinawatok said in a statement. “I am guided by the rule of law, and look forward to working with the dedicated employees and judges of the court to provide fair and impartial justice for all.”
Clani-Washinawatok replaces Judge Daylene Marsh, who is also retiring after 12 years.
Both Chavez and Clani-Washinawatok graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law. She was admitted to the State Bar of New Mexico in 2005, and he was admitted in 2012.
According to the law school’s Judicial Nominating Commission, one vacancy remains in New Mexico’s district courts: a seat on the bench at the 12th Judicial District Court in Alamogordo.
The nominating commission for the court will meet on March 19 to screen the three people who have applied: Jane Elizabeth Granier, Albert Richard Greene III and Lori Lee Gibson Willard.
District court judges serve six-year terms and handle most of the state court system’s trials, in which they rule on criminal prosecutions and resolve disputes in civil cases.
Their rulings can be appealed to the New Mexico Court of Appeals and, depending on the case, the New Mexico Supreme Court. District courts can also hear appeals of rulings by magistrate courts.
Mother, health providers, lawmakers sound alarm over proposed Medicaid cuts - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Vanessa Herrera saw the first sign of a problem with her son Alex when he was one years old. She was changing him and noticed a large bump and bruise on his chest.
Alex’s grandmother had been watching him and, when Herrera asked what had happened, she said he hadn’t fallen or gotten hurt. They took Alex to the hospital near their home in Arroyo Seco, a small town in Taos County in Northern New Mexico.
When medical workers tried to draw blood from his arm, it swelled. The next day, they went to the Taos Clinic For Children & Youth, where the doctor, who has hemophilia herself, recognized Alex’s condition.
She sent them to the University of New Mexico Hospital two-and-a-half hours south in Albuquerque, where they were able to test Alex’s blood and confirm the rare bleeding disorder that prevents the blood from clotting and can be life-threatening.
Herrera, a single working mother of three, shared how Medicaid cuts would affect her son and other families at a Friday news conference hosted at another clinic in Northern New Mexico and organized by U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a Democrat for the largely Northern New Mexico 3rd Congressional District where Herrera resides.
Medicaid is the jointly run state-federal health insurance program for the very poor. Approximately 47% of El Centro’s patients receive their health insurance through Medicaid, Leger Fernández said.
New Mexico overall has the highest proportion of residents on Medicaid of any state in the U.S., with 34.3% of its citizens enrolled in the program, according to the non-partisan health policy research organization KFF.
The U.S. House GOP’s budget resolution, which President Donald Trump has endorsed, calls for the federal House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the Medicaid and Medicare health programs, to find at least $880 billion in cost savings to aid Republicans in paying for other parts of the bill.
“What Republicans are doing is they’re gutting these programs, they’re taking programs away from people, all so that they can give tax breaks to the most wealthy in the country,” U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said at the news conference. “This is going to be the tax scam from President Trump 2.0.”
Leger Fernández said she wants Donald Trump and her Republican colleagues in Congress to see the pain they would cause if they go through with their proposed cuts.
“This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue,” Leger Fernández said. “It is an issue of keeping our population safe and doing it in an incredibly cost effective manner.”
Herrera noted that losing Medicaid would also affect millions of other disabled children in the U.S. She said she hopes sharing her story will prevent the cuts, “to help our children and our seniors.”
Earlier on Friday, Leger Fernández toured El Centro Family Health, which would be devastated by any Medicaid cuts, according to its Clinical Director Dr. Leslie Hayes.
The health center has been running for half a century and is located in a Rio Arriba County building overlooking the city of Española. Hayes, who has worked at the clinic for 30 years, introduced Leger Fernández to the physicians, nurses and staff who care for patients and coordinate their care elsewhere.
Hayes said without Medicaid, New Mexico’s working poor would not get health insurance, and when people don’t get the treatment they need, they die of preventable causes. Her clinic provides treatment for people who would otherwise not be seen for diabetes, opioid use disorder and prenatal care.
“We are the last resort for a lot of our communities,” Hayes said. “When I hear about them wanting to cut some of this stuff — you’re not going to save money doing this.”
For example, insurance companies decided they would cover opioid use disorder because patients who go untreated will cost more in emergency room visits for overdoses, abcesses and other complications, she said.
El Centro runs 24 clinics across 22,000 square miles in Northern New Mexico, including medical and dental clinics and school-based health centers, said El Centro CEO Darren DeYapp.
If Medicaid cuts become reality, some of those clinics may have to reduce their working hours, or even close, “then there’s no going back,” DeYapp said.
“Medicaid covers the most vulnerable population so the chances of people seeking care are pretty much null and void,” he said.
Lovelace Health System Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vesta Sandoval said cuts to Medicaid would have “devastating” effects on New Mexico’s entire health care system, including routine primary care and vaccinations.
She said in the state’s more rural areas, 50% of children are on Medicaid. New Mexico’s maternal mortality rate is already too high and cutting Medicaid would make it even worse.
“If they start making these cuts you can expect people are going to be unable to get into hospitals, unable to see primary care physicians, unable to have OB physicians taking care of them, and we’re going to see increased damage to New Mexico patients, because Medicaid protects our system, it stabilizes our system, and it protects our patients,” Sandoval said.
New Mexico’s urban hospitals are already over capacity, Sandoval added, and cuts to Medicaid could mean that smaller clinics would have to reduce services or working hours, and hospitals in rural areas would have to close.
As for Herrera’s son, Alex is now 6 years old, and the medication he takes has changed his life and his mother’s, she said. Medicaid has also helped cover the cost of traveling to and from Albuquerque, she said.
Every week for the past five years, Herrera has administered a clotting factor called Idelvion through a port in Alex’s upper chest. Each dose costs more than $13,000, translating to an annual cost of more than $753,000, according to the nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.
“Without Medicaid, we would not have been able to afford it,” she said. “We are scared to lose it, because I don’t want to lose my son. I couldn’t imagine losing him.”
Could New Mexico go back to a state education board? - Nicole Maxwell, New Mexico Political Report
A resolution working its way through the state Senate would ask New Mexican voters if they want to change the way public and charter schools are governed. The Senate Finance Committee approved it on a 7-3 vote.
SJR 3 would amend the New Mexico Constitution to replace the Public Education Commission with an elected and appointed state school board.
“This is to move us back to a state school board instead of a state secretary of education,” bill sponsor Sen. Willian Soules, D-Las Cruces, said during the resolution’s hearing. “I presented and carried this with Senator [Steven] Neville [R-Farmington] the last couple of years. It’s died for lack of time and various other things, and so we’re back again.”
In 2003, the state school board’s responsibilities were shifted from a state superintendent of public instruction to a cabinet-level education secretary selected by the governor.
“In recent years, PED has seen turnover in the position, with eight secretaries and five interim secretaries since 2003. Secretary tenures range from six months to seven years,” the resolution’s Fiscal Impact Report states. “According to [the Legislative Education Study Committee, between 1963 and 2002, New Mexico had only three state superintendents of instruction, with tenures ranging from five years to 22 years.”
The resolution seeks to bring stability back to the state-level education departments, Soules said.
“We need change, because what we’re doing is not working,” Sen. Steve Lanier, R-Aztec, said. “If we can take away a little of the politics, smooth it out a little bit, start working towards what’s actually going on in the classroom without just two people telling us what to do. I think it is a big move.”
The two people Lanier was referencing were the governor and the Public Education Department secretary.
If approved, the ballot question will appear on the 2026 general election ballot.
If voters approve the ballot question, then they would choose their representatives on the state school board during the 2028 general election.
NM Gov fire-insurance proposal ‘won’t happen this session’ - By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Citing the wildfires in Los Angeles and ones here in New Mexico, the governor dedicated part of her speech to announce the creation of a state-run fire insurance program separate from the private market.
“Fires spurred by climate change have also ravaged communities in our state, testing our patience and resilience as we struggle under the weight of natural disasters in our backyards,” Lujan Grisham said in her speech. “As if the fires themselves aren’t difficult enough, getting insurance protection is becoming impossible, either because it’s simply no longer available or exorbitantly expensive.”
The program would also be separate from the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, governor’s spokesperson Michael Coleman said after the speech, which was created by the Legislature in 1969 to serve as an insurer of last resort primarily in fire-prone areas.
The governor’s program would be structured similar to the state’s workers’ compensation fund, requiring initial state funding and “limited liability” to the state, with the ultimate goal of providing coverage to anyone who needs it, Coleman said.
But the governor’s office could not find a sponsor for the legislation, Coleman told Source New Mexico on Thursday afternoon. Instead, the governor will commission a study on the issue, a spokesperson said.
“The governor will keep pursuing this idea, but it won’t happen this session,” Coleman said in an email.
Several bills making progress this session aim to spur mitigation of fire-prone communities and homes, and revamp the FAIR plan. Senate Bill 81, which the state Office of the Superintendent of Insurance endorses, would increase coverage limits from $350,000 to $1 million for homes and also change the makeup of the FAIR plan board, which is now made up of insurance industry leaders, to include a climate scientist, a consumer advocate, a catastrophic risk management expert and others.
Since 2022, average premiums have increased 60% across the state, the OSI chief actuary recently testified, and insurers are increasingly canceling policies or refusing to renew them. The increases come as wildfires in New Mexico are occurring with more frequency and ferocity, including the state’s biggest-ever wildfire in 2022 and the most destructive, in terms of structures destroyed, last summer.
Gene Hackman and his wife tested negative for carbon monoxide, sheriff says - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Jacques Billeaud and John Seewer, Associated Press
Preliminary autopsy results didn't determine how Oscar-winner Gene Hackman and his wife died at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but did rule out that they were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, the sheriff leading the investigation said Friday.
The condition of the bodies found Wednesday indicated the deaths occurred at least several days earlier and there was no sign of foul play.
At a news conference, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the initial examination by the medical examiner showed no sign of carbon monoxide, a colorless and odorless gas produced from kitchen appliances and other fuel-burning items. When it collects in poorly ventilated homes, it can be fatal.
Mendoza also said an examination of the 95-year-old Hackman's pacemaker showed it stopped working on Feb. 17, which means he may have died nine days earlier.
Hackman was found in an entryway. His wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, was found in a bathroom on her side. A space heater was near her head, and pills were scattered next to an open prescription bottle on the counter. Investigators said the heater likely was pulled down when she fell.
Whether the pills or other drugs were a factor won't be known until toxicology tests are completed in the coming weeks.
Carbon monoxide can be ruled out since it can dissipate from the environment but not from a body, renowned medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden said.
Examiners will look to test blood and urine, if available, but also could turn to an oily fluid that typically accumulates in lung and abdominal cavities, and samples of muscle and brain, to help determine the causes of death.
Dr. Philip Keen, the retired chief medical examiner in Maricopa County, Arizona, said the moment when a pacemaker stops working could mark the point when a person dies, but not always.
"If your heart required a pacemaker, there would certainly be an interruption at that point — and it might be the hallmark of when the death occurred," Keen said. "But it's not necessarily because some people get a pacemaker to augment things, not necessarily replace things."
The initial autopsy also found no external trauma to either body. Dr. Victor Weedn, forensic pathologist, said there are plenty of reasons a body could be found on the ground without any sort of bumps or bruises, including if they simply lay down due to feeling unwell.
Investigators planned to comb through the couple's phones and monthly planners and reach out to family members, neighbors and workers from the gated community to figure out the last time anyone saw or spoke to Hackman or Arakawa.
The couple was a "very private family," Mendoza said, making it challenging to piece together a timeline.
Authorities do not believe the home had any surveillance cameras, he said.
Investigators who searched the home retrieved medication that treats high blood pressure and chest pain, thyroid medication, Tylenol, and records from medical diagnostics testing, court records filed Friday showed.
Detectives wrote in a search warrant affidavit that investigators thought the deaths were "suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation."
No gas leaks were discovered in or around the home.
A maintenance worker who showed up to do routine work at the house could not get inside and called a security worker who spotted two people on the ground, Mendoza said.
The worker called 911 and told an operator he did not know if they were breathing.
He and another worker later told authorities that they rarely saw the homeowners and that their last contact with them had been about two weeks ago.
Hackman was among the most accomplished actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
He was a five-time Oscar nominee who won best actor in a leading role for "The French Connection" in 1972 and best actor in a supporting role for "Unforgiven" two decades later. He also won praise for his role as a coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite "Hoosiers."
He met Arakawa, a classically trained pianist, at a California gym in the mid-1980s. They moved to Santa Fe by the end of the decade. Their Pueblo revival home sits on a hill with views of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
In his first couple of decades in New Mexico, Hackman was often seen around the state capital and served on the board of trustees for the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum from 1997 to 2004.
Aside from appearances at awards shows, Hackman was rarely seen in the Hollywood social circuit in recent years.
Hackman had three children from a previous marriage. He and Arakawa had no children but were known for having German shepherds.
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio and Billeaud reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Hallie Golden in Seattle and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.