UNM: We will cooperate with feds over Civil Rights complaint - by Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
The University of New Mexico said it would cooperate with the federal investigation into alleged “race-exclusionary practices” announced earlier this month, and is working to put together a response about the university’s relationship with a nonprofit aiming to increase minority participation in PhD programs and faculty positions.
On March 14, the U.S. Department of Education issued a new release informing 45 universities that the Office for Civil Rights had received a complaint that they were allegedly discriminating against graduate students based on race or ethnicity for their past affiliations with the PhD Project.
The New Jersey-based nonprofit PhD Project supports Black, Hispanic and Native American students pursuing business PhD programs, and provides peer support as they become professors, according to its website.
PBS reported that letters sent to other higher education institutions instated a March 31 deadline for universities to submit information about their relationship to the nonprofit.
However, UNM’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Cinnamon Blair told Source NM she had not seen a copy of a letter from federal education officials.
“What I can share is that the University was notified that a complaint was filed with the Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, related to Project PhD,” Blair said in a written statement Wednesday. “UNM prohibits unlawful discrimination and will cooperate with OCR in its review of this matter.”
Blair told Source NM the UNM administration is “still determining the extent of its relationship with the PhD Project,” in a phone call Thursday.
Blair also said she could not make anyone who had read the letter available for an interview as the university would not comment on an open investigation before issuing its formal response.
A spokesperson for the PhD Project did not respond to questions regarding the organization’s relationship with UNM, but issued the following statement on behalf of the nonprofit.
Higher Ed Diversity by the numbers:While college student populations have become increasingly diverse in the past 20 years — especially Hispanic and Latino students, who doubled their share of admissions to approximately 21.2% of the population, according to a 2024 report from the higher-ed think tank American Council on Education. However, enrollment of white students (40.6%) and Asian students (61.6%) remain “far above” other racial and ethnic groups.
Higher education faculty are less diverse than student bodies. The latest federal data from 2022 reports that 72% of all faculty at post-secondary institutions are white; 13% Asian; 7% Black; 6% Hispanic; 1% are more than one race; and the remaining 1% split between American Indian/Alaskan Native and Pacific Islanders.
“For the last 30 years, The PhD Project has worked to expand the pool of workplace talent by developing business school faculty who inspire, mentor, and support tomorrow’s leaders. Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to excellence and to each other, through networking, mentorship, and unique events.”
The statement concluded: “This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision. The PhD Project was founded with the goal of providing more role models in the front of business classrooms, which remains our goal today.”
Source NM has filed public information requests at both the federal and state level for the complaint against UNM, as well as for the letter informing UNM of the complaint.
The complaint comes amid a period of uncertainty for higher education as President Donald Trump and other Republicans move to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education fully, while also threatening to pull universities’ funding for continuing programs to increase diversity, equity and inclusion. The Department of Education touches nearly every level of education in the U.S., from issuing grant funds to lower-income schools, to administering loans, grants and work-study funds for college attendees.
The investigation also follows a “Dear Colleague” letter from federal education officials stating that universities must “cease using race preferences and stereotypes as a factor in their admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, sanctions, discipline, and other programs and activities” or face the loss of federal funding. An FAQ on that letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights includes — as its first FAQ — information on where to file discrimination complaints.
Earlier this month, President Garnett Stokes, in a weekly newsletter to students, said the university will continue to “monitor and review” UNM’s policies and provide updates on the President’s webpage.
“To avoid amplifying uncertainty or disrupting our work unnecessarily, we have established a general response philosophy that we will only respond to specific and actionable federal requirements or actions, says a statement posted to website. “We will avoid making rapid changes to university policies and programs where not clearly warranted.”
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Church-run asylum shelter accused of breaking federal immigration law — Gillian Barkhurst, The Albuquerque Journal
It started with a letter.
“The Department of Homeland Security has significant concerns that (Shelter and Services Program) funding is going to entities engaged in facilitating illegal activities,” it read.
The letter was sent to the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande two weeks ago, according to church leadership, and six other churches, including a ministry in Brownsville, Texas, and the Episcopal Dioceses of West Texas.
The “illegal activities” in question are “encouraging” immigrants to cross the border, transporting “illegal aliens” and “harboring, concealing, or shielding” them from authorities, according to the letter.
It notified the church, which is based in Albuquerque but runs a migrant shelter in El Paso, that more than $265,000 in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be withheld until all church leaders sign legal documents swearing they had no knowledge of illegal activity, and all asylum seekers’ names and contact information are handed over to the Department of Homeland Security.
The Department of Homeland Security could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The letter arrived as Trump steps up his immigration agenda, with threats of mass deportations, rumors of migrants being housed at military bases and attempts to end birthright citizenship.
Bishop Michael Hunn of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande said they have only sheltered those asylum seekers brought to them directly by Customs and Border Protection agents. And, after policy changes during the Biden administration followed by the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration, the church hasn’t sheltered anyone at all — because nobody is coming across.
Federal authorities say the number of people crossing the border illegally in the El Paso Sector, from southwest Texas to the Arizona line, has plummeted — from a peak of 2,700 a day in 2022 to 50 people a day now. And those who do come across illegally are no longer able to get asylum, instead being deported immediately or, if from a non-neighboring country, detained until they can be returned to where they came from.
For that reason, CBP said, they are no longer utilizing shelters along the border to house migrants seeking asylum.
“I’m insulted by the insinuation that we have been involved in anything illegal or immoral,” Hunn said in a YouTube video responding to the Department of Homeland Security, which has gotten more than 8,400 views. “We in the Dioceses of the Rio Grande have been practicing our constitutionally guaranteed faith.”
Hunn called the demands for the identification of asylum seekers “ironic,” saying the federal government — having brought them to the shelter in the first place — already has the names, contact information, and more, on file as a part of the asylum seeking process, which involves lengthy interviews, applications and court hearings.
“Letters like this will have a chilling effect on the practice of Christianity,” Hunn said. “Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, loving our neighbor— is the practice of our faith. It’s not just what we do on Sunday.”
Hunn told the Journal, “This is not and has never been a political thing for us.”
“We’re just following Jesus’ teachings to love our neighbor and to welcome the stranger and care for those who are in need,” he said. “... We’re supposed to somehow be immigration enforcers who check ID before we give somebody a sandwich or a can of beans.”
The church is in talks with its lawyers, Hunn said, and are uncertain what its next steps will be.
Kansas measles cases double to 23 and new Ohio outbreak sickens 10 — Devi Shastri, AP Health Writer
A measles outbreak in Kansas doubled in less than a week to 23 cases and has "a possible link" to outbreaks here in New Mexico and Texas that have sickened more than 370 total, with 43 in New Mexico alone, the state health department said Wednesday.
And health officials in Ohio say a single case identified in Ashtabula County has spread to nine others. Even before these two growing clusters were reported, the number of measles cases in the U.S. had already surpassed the case count for all of 2024, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment put doctors on high alert on Monday and recommended early vaccination for infants 6 to 11 months old who live in outbreak counties or near them. Usually, children get the measles, mumps and rubella shot after they turn 1. In outbreaks, early vaccination can be an option.
The New Mexico Department of Health is offering vaccine clinics at many of their public health offices and are offering vaccinations on a walk-in basis at locations in and around Eddy and Lea counties.
More information can be found on their measles guidance website.
Kansas’s last count Friday included 10 cases across three southwestern counties: Grant, Morton and Stevens. Now, the outbreak includes Haskell, Gray, and Kiowa counties. All but two of the cases are in people younger than 18, state data shows. The outbreak started with a measles case in Stevens County identified March 13.
In Ohio, 10 cases are in Ashtabula County and a separate visitor in Knox County exposed people there and in several other counties, the state health department said. A measles outbreak in central Ohio sickened 85 in 2022.
"Given the measles activity in Texas, New Mexico, and other states around the country, we're disappointed but not surprised we now have several cases here in Ohio and known exposure in some counties," said Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff. "This disease can be very serious, even deadly, but it is almost entirely avoidable by being properly vaccinated."
New Mexico had 43 outbreak-associated cases Tuesday and Texas had 327. The Oklahoma outbreak "associated" with Texas and New Mexico has 9 cases.
Public health experts say the outbreak that started in Texas in late January could last for months. If it hits other unvaccinated communities across the U.S., as may now be the case in Kansas, the outbreak could endure for a year and threaten the nation's status as having eliminated local spread of the vaccine-preventable disease, they said.
Experts consider communities protected from measles outbreaks if they have an MMR vaccination rate of 95% or higher. The two-shot series is required before entering public kindergarten and is 97% effective at protecting against measles.
Several of the Kansas counties seeing measles spread have much lower vaccination rates, including: 82% in Morton County, 83% in Stevens County, 58% in Haskell County, and 66% in Gray County, according to state health department data from the 2023-2024 school year. Statewide, 89% of kindergarteners in Ohio were vaccinated against measles in the 2023-24 school year, CDC data shows.
"Due to the highly contagious nature of measles, additional cases are likely to occur within the current outbreak area and the surrounding counties, especially among those who are unvaccinated," said Jill Bronaugh, the Kansas state health department's spokeswoman.
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'What if we killed them?' Records offer glimpses of accused Las Cruces shooters - By Algernon D'Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
Federal search warrants involving teenagers accused in the fatal Friday shootout in Las Cruces suggest they may face charges for firing guns within a few hundred feet of a school and tampering with evidence.
Gustavo Dominguez, 17, Nathan Rivas, 17, and Josiah Ontiveros, 15, have each been charged with three open counts of murder, along with 20-year-old Tomas Rivas, in the killing of three people at Young Park. The juveniles also face three counts apiece of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
On Tuesday, state District Judge Grace Duran denied them pretrial release, confining them to juvenile detention.
“They will be going to grand jury, where we are seeking to indict them as serious youthful offenders,” a spokesperson for 3rd Judicial District Attorney Fernando Macias told the Journal. “When that indictment happens, they will be treated like adults throughout the rest of the process, including the trial and sentencing.”
Tomas Rivas agreed to pretrial detention pending further court proceedings Wednesday.
The search warrants sought DNA samples used for matching the defendants to guns recovered by law enforcement. They also provide some details into an investigation that saw four defendants, identified by witnesses and videos of the incident, arrested within 36 hours of the shootout.
The day following the shooting, according to an affidavit, FBI agents followed a black Mercedes sedan they said was driven by Tomas Rivas with Nathan Rivas, identified in court filings as his brother, riding in the car.
Agents say they observed the younger Rivas remove a bag from the car that was subsequently found in a dumpster, where a partly loaded .40 caliber Glock handgun was recovered. Inside an apartment, agents recovered two more Glock firearms, 9mm and .45 caliber, each of which had been reported stolen.
Also recovered from the apartment was a jacket matching the description of a jacket shown in cellphone footage of the shooting, worn by someone resembling Nathan Rivas.
Witness accounts alleged Ontiveros, the youngest of the defendants, stood over one of the victims on the ground and shot him execution style. Another witness said that, as they fled the scene, Ontiveros and another shooter were heard saying words to the effect of, “What if we killed them?”
Witnesses said two groups with personal grievances, one described as “the Rivas brothers,” opened fire on each other. The three killed were Dominick Estrada, 19; Andrew “AJ” Madrid, 16; and Jason Gomez, 17. Fifteen more people from the ages of 16 to 36 were wounded by gunfire, according to police.
Delinquency petitions, similar to criminal complaints for juvenile defendants, cited previous complaints for the judge to consider in determining whether the minor defendants were eligible for pretrial release. Those records indicate that the three young men had faced allegations involving fights, assaults on household members and criminal damage to the property of household members. The complaints were variously dismissed, handled informally, or addressed with citations.
An accusation against Nathan Rivas involving a sex crime — an allegation that has gained currency on social media — ended in an acquittal, according to court records.
In 2023, Dominguez was accused of pointing a gun at a pedestrian who confronted a red Mustang Dominguez was riding in, which had allegedly been “speeding up and down” Karen Drive. Dominguez was 15 years old at the time. The case was dismissed.
Amid rising temperatures, NM officials propose workplace protections - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
New Mexico environment officials are seeking approval for new heat protections for workers — both indoor and outdoor — which, if adopted, could go into effect as early as this summer.
Earlier this month, the New Mexico Environment Department submitted a draft rule to the Environmental Improvement Board for new standards for employers to prevent heat illnesses and related injuries, kicking off a public rule-making process.
The rule, for instance, would require employers to incorporate precautions such as rest periods, good shade or cooling areas and adequate drinking water in high-heat conditions, implement plans and training to prevent injuries and require tracking of injuries and the conditions under which they occur.
“New Mexico’s desert climate and naturally hot summer months, including the region’s rapidly warming climate, present a unique need for employee protection from heat illness and related injuries,” the department said in the petition for the hearing.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded a nationwide average of 3,389 injuries and illnesses per year between 2011 and 2020, and averaged 40 deaths annually in the same time period. These figures, however, are likely an undercount. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in a 2023 report called the figures “a vast underestimate” caused by a variety of factors: inconsistent reporting from health professionals; lack of recognition of heat as a factor; underreporting from employers and workers.
Public health advocates told Source NM New Mexico urgently needs the rule, which they say will benefit workers in numerous industries, including restaurants, construction and agriculture. Six states — Maryland, California, Nevada, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington — have adopted statewide regulations to reduce heat stress in the workplace.
In its application, the New Mexico Environment Department cited research that New Mexico’s temperatures are expected to rise in the coming years, driven by human-caused climate change.
They may also be hotter in the shorter term: The three-month outlook by the Climate Prediction Center shows hotter than average temperatures expected for New Mexico in the next three months.
New Mexico’s position as one of the fastest-warming in the U.S. is already harming workers, said Nathaniel Matthews-Trigg, a founding board member of Healthy Climate New Mexico, a nonprofit that advocates around climate and health issues, and will host an Extreme Heat Summit in April.
Matthews-Trigg, who has a masters in public health and is a certified emergency manager who researches climate change and public health, said heat impacts are directly impacting New Mexico.
“When we look at the data, especially the New Mexico specific data, the overwhelming number of people that experienced heat-related illness are people of working age, which we know really points to the risk people face and their jobs,” he said.
In its petition, the New Mexico Environment Department notes the most recent data shows heat stress visits are increasing in New Mexico among people ages 18 to 44. The New Mexico Department of Health’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Program documented over 900 emergency room visits due to heat in 2023 and more than 830 heat related emergency room visits since April 1, 2024
The federal Occupational Health and Safety Bureau started the process of making federal heat safety standards for workplaces in 2021, but the Trump administration has indefinitely paused the process.
Without a federal rule, state protections are crucial, Matthews-Trigg said.
“We are kind of setting ourselves up to be on the cutting edge, to learn from many of the lessons of other states and then also incorporating what’s really unique in New Mexico, both in how people work and our climate,” he said.
The draft rule would establish mandatory rests starting at 95 degrees depending on the intensity of work. The rule also would require employers to create heat prevention and safety plans; provide training; give access to emergency care; and to collect data when heat illness and injuries do happen. The rule would use the heat index created by the National Weather Service, which applies measures of both temperature and humidity, as well as direct sunlight and clothing, to better estimate the dangers of heat stress.
The rule would cover both indoor workers and outdoor workers, where the heat index at the workplace exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit. It would exclude workplaces that keep all working areas below 80 degrees on the heat index, people who telework and emergency personnel.
Physical work in high heat can result in heat exhaustion and heat stroke as well as long term impacts such as heart and kidney damage, neurological dysfunction, and death.
NMED requested two days June 24 and June 25 for the hearing. The next step is for the Occupational Health and Safety Bureau to open comment for 60 days in April.
Jorge Estrada, a spokesperson for NMED, told Source NM in an email Tuesday the comment period has not yet been scheduled. If the Environmental Improvement Board approves the rule, it could go into effect in July 2025, according to a NMED news release.
Trump order seeks to upend elections - By New Mexico Political Report
As part of his wide-ranging use of executive orders, President Donald Trump turned his attention to state election administration, a move that quickly prompted voting rights groups and others to promise lawsuits.
The order seeks to compel states to require proof of citizenship to vote and takes aim at mail-in balloting in states that allow ballots to arrive after Election Day to be counted.
Critics say a provision requiring documentary proof of citizenship would disenfranchise millions of legal voters, including the majority of married women who adopted their spouse’s surname, as the name on the identification would not match the birth certificate.
Since 2016, Trump has pushed unfounded conspiracy theories about elections, which only increased after he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 elections.
Voter fraud is extremely rare, and, even when it does happen, is often caught before the votes are tabulated.
The executive order said the federal government would withhold federal funds for states that do not comply.
A spokesman for the New Mexico Secretary of State told NM Political Report Tuesday that the office was still digging into the executive order.
“It is important to emphasize, though, that elections are the constitutional purview of the states, except for narrowly focused congressional actions,” Secretary of State spokesman Alex Curtas said. “The public should anticipate legal efforts to oppose this executive order.”
Curtas said the SOS’ office is “working closely with the New Mexico Department of Justice to analyze the impact of this executive order on New Mexico’s voters and election administrators.”
Wednesday, the League of Women Voters of the United States slammed the executive order, with the group’s CEO Celina Stewart calling it “an assault on our republic and a dangerous attempt to silence American voters.”
The group’s chief counsel, Marcia Johnson, said the order is “plainly unlawful.”
“The League is committed to working with our partners and legal advocates to pursue all avenues in fighting back against this dangerous order, and we will use every tool at our disposal to defend voters from unjust restrictions on their freedom to vote,” Johnson said.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the executive order “a significant overreach of executive power” that “poses a direct threat to the fundamental right to vote.”
“We will do everything in our power to stop this unconstitutional attack on the right to vote to ensure that every eligible American can participate in our democracy,” ACLU Voting Rights Project Director Sophia Lin Lakin said. “We will see President Trump in court.”
Federal judge struggles with scope of relief for fired workers - By Brian Witte, Associated Press
A federal judge in Maryland said Wednesday he will at least briefly extend a temporary order requiring the Trump administration to bring back federal workers who were fired as part of a dramatic downsizing of the federal workforce, but the judge said he was struggling with the scope of a broad order.
U.S. District Judge James Bredar said he had "great reluctance" to issue a sweeping national preliminary injunction in the case, where 19 states and the District of Columbia contend they have been harmed by a large-scale reduction in the federal workforce without warning as required by law.
Bredar asked attorneys for plaintiff states and the federal government to submit supplemental documents by 10 a.m. Thursday on the question of the ramifications for the 19 states seeking relief and the 31 states that are not parties to the case.
During a federal court hearing in Baltimore, Bredar said "there's a lot of things wrong with national injunctions, just on a jurisprudential level, and courts and commentators are all over the issue."
"That doesn't mean the court won't enter one, if the circumstances and law on this case compel it, but I'm going to resist doing it," Bredar said. "You're going to have to show me that it's essential to remedying any harms that your clients are specifically experiencing."
The case is complicated by the fact that some federal employees may work a job in a state that is a party to the lawsuit, while they may live in a state that isn't. An example is in the Washington area, where an affected federal worker might live in Virginia, which isn't one of the states in the complaint, but work at a federal job in Maryland or the District of Columbia, which are parties in the lawsuit.
In the meantime, the judge said he planned to extend a temporary restraining order he issued last week that required the federal government to reinstate more than 24,000 federal workers. The order expires Thursday night, but the judge said he would extend it "at least briefly, because I think it's doubtful that given the work that still has to be accomplished that I could complete my opinion and any orders related to this before that TRO runs out."
The government is appealing the case to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeals court last week denied the administration's request for a stay of the temporary restraining order, since the district court held the Wednesday hearing. At the time, Judge Allison Jones Rushing took issue with the scope of district court rulings. She noted she was writing to "echo the growing concerns over district courts issuing nationwide injunctions to order redress for those who have not sought it."
The administration is already appealing to the Supreme Court a similar order to reinstate probationary workers from a judge in California. The Justice Department argues that federal judges can't force the executive branch to reverse its decisions on hiring and firing. Still, the government has been taking steps to rehire fired workers under those orders.
Both judges have found that the president can terminate probationary workers but determined the administration violated the law in the way they carried out the layoffs.
Bredar previously found that firings amount to a large-scale reduction in force that's subject to specific rules, including giving advance notice to states affected by the layoffs.
His ruling came in a lawsuit filed by 19 states that contend the Trump administration blindsided them with the layoffs, which could have devastating consequences for their state finances.
The Trump administration, on the other hand, argues that the states have no right to try and influence the federal government's relationship with its own workers. Republican President Donald Trump claims the cuts target fraud, waste and abuse in a bloated federal government.
Probationary workers have been targeted for layoffs across the federal government because they're usually new to the job and lack full civil service protection. Multiple lawsuits have been filed over the mass firings.
The states suing the Trump administration include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia also is a plaintiff.
Proposed changes to NM reading instruction await governor’s signature - By Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
While efforts to pass a proposed overhaul to how New Mexico educators teach reading fell short during the legislative session, several elements were added to other successful bills, which the sponsor described as a “solid win.”
President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) sponsored Senate Bill 242, the Science of Reading Act, this session, which proposed amending the Public School Code to require new and established teachers be trained in what’s called “structured literacy,” and would have prohibited “balanced literacy techniques.” Structured literacy, a science-backed method of teaching students the foundations of reading through phonics, vocabulary and comprehension, is particularly used to teach children with dyslexia. Balanced literacy, contrastingly, uses context and visual clues.
“Forty-two other states have either already put this in their statute or they are working towards doing it now,” Stewart told Source NM of the push to require structured literacy. She also pointed to Mexico and Finland as examples of countries where using structured literacy has been successful.
New Mexico has provided a structured literacy course for elementary teachers called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) since 2019. Stewart said “we are now seeing the results of this work in pockets around the state,” including in Gadsden and Roswell, where English language learners and children living in poverty — categories identified in the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit as at-risk in the state — are showing improved reading proficiency.
SB242 would have also required school districts to notify parents of their children’s reading performance twice a year for K-3 students, and to notify parents if their first grade child showed reading difficulty following a dyslexia screening.
The bill found support on the Senate side, but was held up in the House Education Committee due to concerns over biliteracy needs and what lawmakers saw as a lack of attention to English language learners. Stewart presented amendments to the bill, but the committee eventually voted to table it indefinitely.
The Senate later added provisions of the original bill as amendments to several other bills. These included House Bill 167, which would require the Public Education Department to cover the cost of high school equivalency tests for some students, and House Bill 156, which would increase each of the three minimum teacher salary tiers by $5,000. Both bills included provisions to establish structured literacy as the primary approach to teaching the foundations of reading and require colleges of education in New Mexico to teach the approach.
The bills were sent to the House floor for a concurrence vote, but representatives took issue with the amendments, particularly with HB167, saying the Senate was attempting to pass a bill despite it failing in committee. The House voted not to concur on SB167, sending it back to the Senate, whose members voted to rescind the amendments in the final hours of the session. HB167 as it originally stood awaits the signature of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
However, the House did vote to concur with the science of reading additions to HB156, which also now awaits the governor’s signature.
Stewart told Source NM that her original bill was 22 pages long, but she condensed it into three to four pages for the amendments, leaving out parental notification requirements, among other points. Nonetheless, she still said lawmakers made progress on this issue.
“Absolutely a first step, a good, solid win,” she said.
Stewart, a retired educator, said she has been working to address New Mexico’s approach to literacy education for 30 years, ever since the National Council on Teacher Quality gave all universities in the state a failing grade. This prompted her to introduce House Joint Memorial 16 in 2010, directing university deans and members of the Legislative Education Study Committee to study reading curriculum in teacher education programs.
“I will continue to work with the secretary of education and the governor,” Stewart said. “As we move forward, I will continue to work with them on ensuring that our teachers are well trained.”
New Mexico to allow cyclists to roll through stop signs - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Starting on July 1, people riding bicycles in New Mexico will be able to ride through stop signs without coming to a full stop, and stop at red traffic lights and continue even if the light hasn’t turned green — as long as it’s safe to do so.
That’s according to a new state law Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed on Friday.
Senate Bill 73 changes New Mexico’s traffic law to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, and to treat red traffic lights as stop signs and proceed if there are no other cars, cyclists or pedestrians.
While it may seem counterintuitive to people who don’t use bicycles, this is already common practice among bicycle riders in New Mexico because a cyclist wants to carry their momentum on the bike, said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, who carried the bill, during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Doing this gets the cyclist out of the blind spot of motorists who have stopped at an intersection, Sedillo Lopez told the committee.
Eric Biedermann, a board member at-large of nonprofit advocacy organization BikeABQ, told the committee being able to treat a stop sign as a yield sign and a traffic light as a stop sign enhances cyclist safety because it reduces their exposure to cars, increases their visibility to cars and reduces the risk of being “right hooked” if a car doesn’t see them or a “left cross” from oncoming traffic.
“There are a number of ways in which being able to proceed through an intersection with a head start before the cars move really enhances cyclist safety,” Biedermann told the committee. He was also speaking on behalf of Bike Santa Fe and Velo Cruces.
The so-called “Idaho stop” — taking its name from the first U.S. state to ease traffic laws for cyclists — resulted in a 14.5% reduction in cyclist injuries a year after the state of Idaho enacted a similar law in 1982, according to a review of Idaho Office of Highway Safety data.
In New Mexico, between 2019 and 2023, 1,457 cyclists had crashes, according to the University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies Center. Of those, 39 were killed, 115 were seriously injured and 694 were able to walk away.
Lynn Pickard, a retired New Mexico Court of Appeals judge and member of Santa Fe Seniors on Bikes, told the committee data show that as many as half of collisions between cars and bikes happen within intersections.
“So anything we can do to get cyclists into and out of the intersections quickly — leaving of course, for us, to determine our own safety if there are other cars there or pedestrians there — would be really helpful for us,” she said.
Bernalillo County won’t collect on Trump campaign debt - By Matthew Reichbach, City Desk ABQ
After four years, Bernalillo County can no longer collect unpaid debts. This week, the Bernalillo County Commission voted to remove certain uncollectible debts from the books, including nearly $140,000 owed to the county by the campaign of Donald Trump.
The debt dated back to a 2019 campaign stop in Albuquerque for costs incurred by overtime and other costs from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. The county also had to shut down operations in downtown Albuquerque for security for the event.
The county sent an invoice to the Trump campaign as recently as March 3 of this year, but did not receive a response.
County commissioner Eric Olivas criticized the lack of payment from the presidential campaign.
“Despite raising billions of dollars for his multiple campaigns, we’re now writing off that debt. He hasn’t paid his bills,” Olivas said. “This isn’t surprising based on what we know about other past business practices and the various things that have been associated with this person.”
Olivas also floated an idea to make sure the situation doesn’t happen again.
“If they are using county services or in any way impacting county services for campaign-related activities, they should have to pay either up front or put down some sort of deposit,” he said.
The practice of removing uncollectible debt from the county’s books is in accordance with state law and legal opinions find it does not violate the New Mexico Constitution’s anti-donation clause.
The Trump campaign’s debt was part of $571,188.94 in delinquent accounts. Most of that money was owed to the Solid Waste Fund, including billed services and late fees.
Antonio E. Jaramillo, Operations & Maintenance Department Director noted that “solid waste is a mandatory service” and that the county cannot stop operations for lack of payment.
Jaramillo said that the county has other options and has put liens on properties.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said last year that Trump still owed the city more than $200,000.