New Mexico governor hosts Texas Democratic lawmakers amid redistricting fight - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham hosted seven Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives in the state capitol on Tuesday to discuss their Republican counterparts’ plans to redraw Texas’ congressional map during an overtime special legislative session.
The meeting on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse in Santa Fe lasted more than an hour and came during heightened national attention on New Mexico’s eastern neighbor. President Donald Trump earlier this month said he wants the Texas map redone in order to gain five Republican seats in Congress.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott added redistricting to the Texas Legislature’s special session agenda, citing “constitutional concerns” raised by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Texas Tribune reports. In Santa Fe on Tuesday, Democratic State Rep. John Rosenthal told reporters in a news conference after the meeting with Lujan Grisham that Abbot did so “at the behest of the president” rather than listening to his constituents.
“We have had pretty close to 2,000 Texans show up at field hearings around the state,” said Rosenthal, who represents northwest Houston and is vice chair of the Texas House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting. “It’s not an overwhelming majority — it’s basically all but one person is against letting somebody from Washington D.C. dictate when Texas draws its boundaries.”
In the meeting with the governor, which was closed to the press, Texas House Speaker Pro Tempore Joe Moody said Lujan Grisham voiced support for the Texas lawmakers and committed to using her connections to other governors to “encourage everybody who is willing to stand in this fight with us to join with us.”
“It’s not just about five seats in Texas,” Moody said. “This is a national problem and we’re here to sound the alarm: It may start in Texas, but it’s not going to end there, and we need our friends across the country to stand with us.”
Lujan Grisham did not join the lawmakers for the news conference. Spokesperson Michael Coleman told Source NM on Tuesday she is not not currently considering placing redistricting reform on the call for a special session.
“It would not shock me if the minority party in New Mexico attempted something similar, but I don’t see any real possibility that our Legislature would take it up,” Lujan Grisham told Source in an emailed statement. “I certainly I would not support that.”
Other Texas Democratic lawmakers recently visited with governors in California and Illinois for the same purpose, Moody said. They’re enlisting help from “strong governors around the country that govern like adults and put the needs of the people ahead of the political expediency of the party,” Rosenthal said.
First among those needs right now, the visiting lawmakers said, is responding to the deadly flash flooding in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend.
Rep. Josey Garcia of San Antonio said she and about 15 friends and fellow military veterans volunteered to form search, rescue and recovery teams who returned victims’ bodies to their families.
Garcia said when Abbott called the Texas Legislature into a 30-day special session, she was excited to share her first-hand account as part of a coordinated disaster response and an attempt to prevent future ones. Instead, she said, she had to sit through redistricting hearings while recovery efforts continue.
“People are still missing in the Hill Country,” Garcia said. “As we’re sitting in those hearings, I’m fielding questions from the Hill Country community, asking me where I’m at, why am I not there, they need to see me right now.”
Moody, of El Paso, said there is a close relationship between his community and Southern New Mexico, and the lawmakers asked Lujan Grisham about New Mexico’s response to flooding in the Ruidoso area.
“They’re putting those issues of emergency up front, that’s really the big difference,” Moody said. “That’s where our focus should be.”
Instead, Texas lawmakers who are opposed to redistricting right now are ensuring “our districts and our state [aren’t] stripped of the freedoms we have for representation,” said Garcia, secretary of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, whip of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and secretary of the LGBTQ House Caucus.
Policy advocates from the Texas and California chapters of the nonpartisan election integrity group Common Cause said Tuesday state governments led by Democrats should not try to do their own mid-decade redistricting to counter Republicans, States Newsroom reports. They instead suggested that more states create nonpartisan redistricting commissions.
While New Mexico has had to adjust its political maps between census counts because of lawsuits and federal DOJ rules, the state has never undertaken mid-decade redistricting, Fair Districts for New Mexico Project Manager Dick Mason told Source NM in an emailed statement on Tuesday. As Source recently reported, Fair Districts and other advocates plan to resume efforts to create an independent redistricting commission here.
Rep. John Bucy, an Austin lawmaker and vice chair of the Texas Committee on Elections, characterized the mid-decade redistricting effort as an attempt by Trump to steal the 2026 elections. He said he and the other visiting lawmakers asked Lujan Grisham to tell other governors the situation in Texas will reach every state.
“They are attempting to steal five seats from primarily Black and Brown communities throughout the state of Texas,” Bucy said. “This is the warning for everyone listening: We are just the beginning.”
Family and friends hold vigil for Rio Rancho teen killed at UNM - Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
Family and friends gathered at Haynes Park on Tuesday night to celebrate the life of Michael LaMotte, a 14-year-old fatally shot inside a dorm at the University of New Mexico.
Over 100 people bowed their heads in prayer with candles in hand for the boy, who was about to start his sophomore year at Rio Rancho High School. Those who knew LaMotte best spoke of his passion for the church, his sense of humor, kindness and love for music.
Lamotte was with a group of young men playing video games in a UNM dorm on July 25 when John Fuentes, 18, shot Lamotte in the head, according to New Mexico State Police. Fuentes was arrested the following day and has been charged with an open count of murder.
"He made such an impact on so many people's lives," Kolby Barka, a friend of Lamotte's, said at the vigil Tuesday. "I feel like he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was just trying to play video games."
Barka said Lamotte was always positive, smiling and spreading joy wherever he went. Barka said the two played football together in eighth grade and had been friends ever since.
"He would call me, and we would sing karaoke on the phone before he took a shower," Barka said.
LaMotte was the type of boy who always came to the defense of his friends, Barka said. LaMotte would protect them from bullies and was always there whenever someone needed him.
To Jocelynn Sinclair, LaMotte was like a brother. The two had met in class, and Sinclair said he was always a joy to be around. She said it doesn't feel real that he's gone.
"He didn't deserve to die this young," Sinclair said. "It shouldn't have been him. If it was a natural death, I think my heart would be OK, but because of what happened, my heart really, really hurts."
Sinclair said though she will miss everything about LaMotte, his smile is what she will miss the most.
"He had the most beautiful smile ever," she said.
Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull joined the crowd, expressing his condolences and sorrow to the family.
"We're devastated about the loss of Michael," he said. "His life was taken too soon. We will mourn his life, and we grieve with you."
As the vigil came to a close, the crowd blew out their candles, holding each other tightly while expressing words of support and love. Above, the cotton candy skies slowly turned to dusk.
Key tribe shuns Deb Haaland in New Mexico governor race - Russell Contreras, Axios
Sandia Pueblo has endorsed prosecutor Sam Bregman in the Democratic primary for governor, rather than Deb Haaland from Laguna Pueblo, who has served in Congress and was the U.S. Interior Secretary.
Russell Contreras reports for Axios that Sandia Pueblo Gov. Felix Chaves wrote that the tribe was confident Bregman would respect tribal sovereignty and support critical water and irrigation policies. Sandia only has about 500 members, but it operates a major casino and hosts numerous live entertainment events.
Chaves wrote that Bregman is a proven fighter and is the only candidate who has “consistently shown up and delivered.”
Haaland campaign spokesperson Felicia Salazar said Haaland has shown she’s a champion for tribes by securing billions of dollars during the pandemic and shining a light on the Federal Indian Boarding School era.
Salazar told Axios that Haaland will “continue standing up communities that have been left behind by the rich and powerful, and fighting to make life more affordable for New Mexicans.”
Bregman told Axios the endorsement was a “huge honor.” He will face Haaland in the state’s Democratic primary next June. The election is in November 2026.
If Haaland wins, she would be the nation’s first Native American woman governor.
Watchdog group reports NM ‘spike’ of oil and gas pollution - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
New Mexico oil and gas operators polluted more heavily from oil and gas spills in the past three months compared with the prior quarter, according to a recent report released by a local environmental group.
Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians compiled spill data reported between April and June 2025 by oil and gas operators to the state’s Oil Conservation Division, following an inaugural report on spill activity earlier this year.
Melissa Troutman, the organization’s climate and health advocate, highlighted the amount of liquid byproducts “lost” during these spills as the largest concern during the most recent assessment. Oil and gas operators “lost” approximately one-third of spilled material, translating into an estimated 422,000 gallons of unrecoverable waste polluting soil and water.
In total, oil and gas producers reported 302 liquid oil and gas spills to state regulators, five fewer than the first three months of 2025. Producers spilled just over 1.3 million gallons, just under half the 3.2 million gallons spilled in the first quarter. More than half the spills occurred on federal public lands. Eddy County had the most spills at 147, followed by Lea County with 128 spills.
“Although it’s really nice to see the overall volume of total material going down, it isn’t the most important number. The most important number is how much of this spill is actually being absorbed by the environment in some way,” Troutman told Source NM.
EOG Resources had the largest spill during the quarter: nearly 160,000 gallons of produced water on state trust land in Lea County, which the report said damaged about 20 acres of area surrounding a produced water reuse pit.
An emailed request for comment to EOG Resources on Tuesday had not received a response by publication. Sidney Hill, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, told Source NM on Tuesday that he had not seen the report and would issue a comment at a later date.
Joey Keefe, a spokesperson for the New Mexico State Land Office, which oversees leasing of state land for oil and gas, told Source NM in an email that WildEarth Guardians notified the state about the spill, prompting further action, writing that “making messes on state lands should never be tolerated.”
“We have been in communication with EOG regarding this spill and the company is actively working to clean it up. The State Land Office will ensure that our lands are returned to their previous state,” Keefe said in a statement. “Commissioner [Stephanie] Garcia Richard has also launched an Environmental Compliance Office staffed with environmental experts to review incidents and provide recommendations to the Commissioner on the best remediation approaches when incidents like this occur.”
Keefe added that the State Land Office plans to meet with EOG officials to discuss the spill and install further precautions, and highlighted the office’s program to plug abandoned oil and gas wells and perform cleanup.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Interior announced the leasing of 7,501 acres of federal lands for oil and gas leasing in New Mexico, generating more than $58 million in revenues.
Troutman said the majority of spills continue to happen on federal public lands.
“We should be having a lot more accountability and enforcement on public land because the federal government is also the regulator, but that’s just not the case here,” Troutman said. “These are public resources that are being sold off, sacrificed and polluted without accountability, more than any other type of oil and gas lease, and we really need to figure out a way to turn that around.”
More about the April to June 2025 spills
Equipment failure continued to be the primary cause of oil and gas spills, followed by corrosion, the same as the previous report.
Most spills — 218 — were of oil and gas wastewater, often called produced water by the industry, accounting for 1.2 million gallons. Produced water which can contain leftovers from oil and gas production, radioactive materials, cancer-causing or toxic chemicals or heavy metals. Produced water also contains chemicals that are not disclosed to the public or regulators under trade secrets protections.
In addition, operators reported 101 spills of crude oil, which can contain cancer-causing materials such as benzene and 25 condensate spills, a byproduct of oil and gas production which contains cancer-causing benzene and other emissions with health impacts.
Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by Alec Baldwin for malicious prosecution in fatal 'Rust' set shooting
- Associated Press, Albuquerque Journal
A New Mexico judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by actor Alec Baldwin for malicious prosecution and civil rights violations in the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the Western movie "Rust."
In a ruling made public Wednesday, 1st Judicial District Judge Casey B. Fitch dismissed the case without prejudice for lack of any significant action with the claim, which was filed in state district court earlier this year. Baldwin's attorneys will have 30 days to file a motion seeking reinstatement.
Luke Nikas, Baldwin's lead attorney, told The Associated Press in an email that the dismissal amounted to a nonevent since his team has been waiting to prosecute the case.
"We have been in good-faith settlement discussions with the parties to the lawsuit and will be refiling promptly if those discussions are not promptly and favorably resolved," he said.
Defendants include special prosecutor Kari Morrissey and Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, along with three investigators from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office and the county board of commissioners.
A charge of involuntary manslaughter against Baldwin was dismissed at trial last year on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense. The trial was upended by revelations that ammunition was brought into the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office months earlier by a man who said it could be related to the killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The allegations in Baldwin's tort claim include defamation, with his attorneys saying that prosecutors and investigators targeted the actor and coproducer for professional or political gain.
Hutchins died shortly after being wounded during a rehearsal for the movie "Rust" in October 2021 at a film-set ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe.
Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when it discharged, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The actor recently spoke to The Associated Press at San Diego's Comic-Con International, saying he couldn't believe what happened that day in court as the trial came to an abrupt end and that his life over the last year has been far better than the few years that preceded it.
Still, Baldwin and other producers of "Rust" are being sued in New Mexico state court by the parents and younger sister of Hutchins. Court records show a deposition for Baldwin in that case was put off in May and has yet to be rescheduled.
NM AG, activists issue alert about RECA scams
— Source New Mexico
New Mexico’s nuclear victims waited 80 years for recognition and the right for compensation under the federal Radiation and Exposure Compensation Act.
It took less than a month for scams to develop targeting those victims.
RECA — created in 1990 to provide restitution to people sickened by exposure to radiation and uranium — excluded New Mexico’s downwinders and post-1971 uranium miners, expired last year after years of lobbying for expansion by victims and New Mexico’s elected leaders.
But President Donald Trump signed a two-year expansion and extension into law earlier this month as part of Republicans so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”
On Tuesday, both the New Mexico Department of Justice and the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium issued a warning that RECA scams have already developed. According to an NMDOJ news release, “organizations and attorneys are soliciting people to file claims with them for a fee, despite the fact that New Mexico will have a legitimate claim submission process and guidance forthcoming.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has not yet announced an official claims process for qualifying New Mexicans. Both U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) last week recently sent letters to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer urging them to issue guidance quickly for RECA given the short two-year timeline for compensation.
“We are grateful to our Congressional Delegation who tirelessly advocated for the expansion of these critical compensation efforts,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement. “New Mexicans who have been affected by these exposures deserve compensation — and they deserve to get that compensation free from bad actors attempting to take advantage of them. We encourage New Mexicans to file claims through legitimate entities to ensure they receive the maximum compensation they are entitled to through RECA, and also to file any reports of suspected fraudulent activity with our office.”
The news release notes that any entity that files a RECA claim on behalf of residents will charge a fee, which is capped at 2% by law, but can increase to 10% if that claim is rejected. Moreover, the state will have official RECA clinics to assist people.
The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium said it will have official updates online.
“The people of New Mexico have waited 80 years for acknowledgement of the harm they suffered as a result of being overexposed to radiation from the Trinity bomb,” TBDC co-founder Tina Cordova said in a statement. “We hope everyone will be patient a little longer as details of the claim process are developed. Please don’t allow someone to take part of your claim out of fear or some sense of urgency. We will do all we can to assist with the claims process once the guidelines are released.”
Governor plans to add ICE-related legislation to NM special session agenda
- Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham intends to add legislation dealing with privately run immigration detention facilities to the agenda of a New Mexico special session that's likely to be called within the next two months, her top attorney told lawmakers Wednesday.
But legislative debate on a slew of bills dealing with juvenile crime and firearm restrictions is expected to be delayed until the 30-day session that starts in January.
"Those are going to be bills we want to make sure we have plenty of time and consensus on," Holly Agajanian, the governor's chief general counsel, told members of the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee during a meeting in Mescalero.
The Governor's Office has not yet set a specific date for a special session this year, though Lujan Grisham has signaled on several occasions she was considering calling lawmakers back to Santa Fe this year.
During Wednesday's meeting, Agajanian said the governor is eyeing late August or early September for the special session, but said no final decision has been made.
She also said a state-level response to a federal budget bill that's projected to lead to more than 90,000 New Mexico residents losing their health care coverage would be a primary focus of the special session. Such a response could also include steps to reinforce a food assistance program that provides benefits to roughly 460,000 New Mexicans.
But Lujan Grisham is also planning to add other issues to the special session agenda for lawmakers' consideration, including bills dealing with felons in possession of guns and the state's definition of danger to one's self and others.
In addition, legislation banning New Mexico local governments from entering into contracts with federal agencies to detain immigrants for civil violations could also be in the special session mix.
"This is not necessarily an exhaustive list for a special session call, but it reflects the governor’s current concerns," Lujan Grisham spokesman Michael Coleman said Wednesday.
Legislation targeting private immigration detention centers passed the state House on a 35-25 vote during this year's 60-day session, but stalled in a Senate committee.
New Mexico currently has three private detention centers — in Torrance, Cibola and Otero counties — that operate via intergovernmental service agreements between local counties and the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.