Construction on UNM Hospital’s $842M critical care tower complete, officials say - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
Construction is complete on the University of New Mexico Hospital’s new critical care tower, which officials say will boost the crowded hospital’s capacity to care for its sickest patients when it opens this fall.
The expansion will add, in part, 24 intensive care beds, a new adult emergency department, two operating rooms and more MRI and CT scanners, UNM Health Sciences Chief Operating Officer Michael Chicarelli said.
“It’s been a long process, and so we’re really excited to be able to offer it so we can continue to deliver care for New Mexicans,” Chicarelli said.
The new facility, set to open in October, will also add 400 new staff positions to the hospital. Despite the shortage of health care workers across the state, Chicarelli said UNM is “on a pretty good trajectory” to fill all the open positions.
Over budget and delayed, the expansion is much needed. New Mexico is facing a significant doctor shortage, with projections indicating a deficit of 2,118 physicians, exacerbated by a physician-to-patient ratio that is 16% worse than the national average, according to the Cicero Institute.
New Mexico also has the oldest physician workforce in the nation, with nearly 40% of the state’s doctors aged 60 or older and expected to retire by 2030, according to Think New Mexico.
“We know that the tower is going to open,” Chicarelli said. “We know that the care is going to be needed, and we’re going to have to have the people there to do it.”
UNMH is the only Level 1 trauma center in New Mexico, which means it is the only place in the state equipped to provide 24-hour in-house treatment and comprehensive care for the most severely injured patients.
It also means patients often face long wait times, because the hospital consistently operates at anywhere from 105% to 120% capacity, according to UNM Health Sciences spokesperson Brianna Mortensen.
The new tower, along with an expansion in class size at the UNM School of Medicine, is part of UNMH’s efforts to both increase patient care and train more doctors, said UNM Executive Vice President of Health Sciences Dr. Mike Richards during a state Legislative Finance Committee meeting in Albuquerque last month.
The developments are projected to boost the hospital’s inpatient care volume by about 70% in the next 10 years, Richards said.
Construction on the nine-story critical care tower began in 2021, though the project has been in planning stages since 2019. The tower comes with a price tag of $842 million, Chicarelli said, funded by $492 million from UNMH, a government-backed mortgage of $320 million and $30 million in state municipal bonds.
The opening comes about a year later than expected — Chicarelli told the Journal in 2021 that the tower would be ready to serve patients in October 2024. It also comes at a higher price than the $700 million it was expected to cost, which officials ascribe partly to global supply chain issues and higher material costs.
Hospital staff will spend the coming weeks moving operations to the new building before the tower opens to its first patients on Oct. 5, Chicarelli said.
Feds list Albuquerque as NM’s sole “sanctuary” jurisdiction - Julia Goldberg, Source New Mexico
The United States Department of Justice on Tuesday published a list of so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions,” which it defined in a news release as “states, cities, and counties identified as having policies, laws, or regulations that impede enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
Albuquerque appeared as the only New Mexico locale on the list.
The USDOJ list follows a U.S. Department of Homeland Security list published last May of sanctuary jurisdictions that included 23 of New Mexico’s 33 counties, along with the City of Albuquerque and the City of Santa Fe. That list followed President Donald Trump’s executive order in April requiring such a list.
The DHS list prompted confusion from some jurisdictions and outcry from local sheriffs, and was subsequently taken off line within a few days.
The Department of Justice also published a list of “sanctuary jurisdiction characteristics,” which include public declarations of sanctuary status; local laws or rules limiting cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and restrictions on information about “immigration status of detainees with federal authorities” to name a few. The DOJ notes the jurisdictions included in Tuesday’s list “were made after a thorough review of documented laws, ordinances, and executive directives by the listed jurisdictions. This initial list of designated Sanctuary Jurisdictions will be reviewed regularly, to include additional jurisdictions and remove jurisdictions that have remediated their policies, practices, and laws. Each state, county, and city will have an opportunity to respond to its placement on the list.”
As of the beginning of July, 34 cities and counties, including Chicago and Los Angeles, had asked to join a California lawsuit seeking to stop the Trump administration from cutting federal funding based on sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with the administration’s mass deportation agenda, including Albuquerque (Santa Fe is already part of the suit).
Filings for that suit note that Albuquerque “has been a welcoming city” since 2000, when the city council passed “its first immigrant-friendly city resolution,” which states that “municipal resources cannot be used to apprehend individuals solely on the basis of their immigration status, unless required by law.”
On July 21, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller signed an executive order reaffirming the city’s position as an “immigrant-friendly city,” as some members of the City Council said they would push further protections in city ordinances later this year.
“In the face of federal actions and proposals that undermine human rights and respect, sow fear and destabilization among our families, and damage our economy and threaten our public safety, the City of Albuquerque reaffirms its moral, legal and policy duty to uphold civil rights, public safety and serve all residents with dignity,” Keller said during a signing event for the order.
In a news release announcing the new USDOJ list of “sanctuary jurisdictions,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement that “sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design. The Department of Justice will continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.”
A statement provided to Source NM by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Director of Communications Michael Coleman said the Trump administration’s “designation of Albuquerque as a sanctuary city invites the same kind of federal overreach we’ve seen play out disastrously in cities like Los Angeles. Gov. Lujan Grisham fundamentally opposes this administration’s approach to indiscriminate detention and deportation. It’s cruel, inhumane, and unconstitutional.”
The question remains, Coleman’s statement continued, as to “how the City of Albuquerque plans to manage this situation. Those questions should be directed to the mayor’s office. The Lujan Grisham administration will continue fighting unconstitutional federal overreach in court. But right now, what Albuquerque needs most is for [the Albuquerque Police Department] to focus on real crime in real neighborhoods across the city—not to get pulled into immigration enforcement battles that distract from public safety.”
Source requested comment from Keller on Albuquerque’s inclusion on the list and received a statement from him that said: “Albuquerque is a welcoming city and where crime is now actually going down in every category this year. So we are proving that we are safer and stronger when residents trust law enforcement enough to report crimes, send their kids to school, and seek services without fear. Our recent executive order supports both our immigrant community, while ensuring APD can focus on public safety, not federal immigration enforcement.”
4 people die in crash of medical transport plane on Navajo Nation in northern Arizona - By Jacques Billeaud and Lisa Baumann, Associated Press
A small medical transport plane crashed and caught fire Tuesday on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, killing four people, the tribe said in a statement.
A Beechcraft King Air 300 from the CSI Aviation company left Albuquerque, New Mexico, with two pilots and two health care providers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and CSI Aviation. It crashed in the early afternoon near the airport in Chinle, about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northeast of Phoenix.
“They were trying to land there and unfortunately something went wrong,” district Police Commander Emmett Yazzie said.
The crew was planning pick up a patient who needed critical care from the federal Indian Health Service hospital in Chinle, said Sharen Sandoval, director of the Navajo Department of Emergency Management. She said the plan was to return to Albuquerque. The patient's location and condition were not known Tuesday evening.
Tribal authorities began receiving reports at 12:44 p.m. of black smoke at the airport, Sandoval said. The cause of the crash wasn't known, the tribe said. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating.
CSI Aviation officials “with great sadness” confirmed the deaths in an emailed statement and extended condolences to the families, friends and loved ones of the people killed. Their names haven't been released.
The company is cooperating with the investigation, according to the statement.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in a social media post that he was heartbroken to learn of the crash.
“These were people who dedicated their lives to saving others, and their loss is felt deeply across the Navajo Nation,” he said.
Medical transports by air from the Navajo Nation are common because most hospitals are small and do not offer advanced or trauma care. The Chinle airport is one of a handful of airports that the tribe owns and operates on the vast 27,000-square-mile (70,000-square-kilometer) reservation that stretches into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah — the largest land base of any Native American tribe.
In January, a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia, killing eight people. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, has said the voice recorder on that plane was not working.
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Associated Press journalists Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
New Mexico State Police suspend sexual assault inquiry into Española mayor with no charges - John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
A New Mexico State Police investigation into claims that Española Mayor John Ramon Vigil sexually assaulted a city department director at a Santa Fe bar last fall has closed without criminal findings, the agency said this week.
“The case is now considered inactive, and charges have not been filed at this time,” State Police Public Information Officer Amanda Richards told the Journal in an email. “If new information arises, the investigation could be reopened, and charges could be reconsidered.”
Vigil has denied the allegations. He told the Journal this week they stemmed from a “politically motivated effort, led by the Mayor Pro Tem (Peggy Sue Martinez) and a cohort of City Council members, to seize control of our municipal government in hopes of pressuring me to resign from my position.”
Vigil sent the Journal copies of ethics complaints he filed last month with City Attorney Frank Coppler against Martinez and Councilors Denise Benavidez and Samuel LeDoux.
State Police opened the investigation after the department director told police Vigil had grabbed her legs and genital area last October at Del Charro, a popular late-night bar in Santa Fe. Vigil’s accuser also relayed the allegations to the Española human resources department and the New Mexico Department of Justice.
She said the assault occurred while she and the mayor were sitting at a table with Española City Manager Eric Lujan, who told investigators he witnessed Vigil “repeatedly grabbing” the city employee, according to reports released last month by State Police. Lujan also told police that Vigil later emailed him asking him to fire the city employee.
Lujan left his position as city manager in May and took on a new temporary role as special projects coordinator after reaching a settlement with the city.
Vigil’s accuser claimed the incident was part of a pattern of harassment by the mayor. Last month, she filed a petition for a temporary protection order against Vigil, whom 1st Judicial District Judge Denise Thomas ordered to stay at least 25 yards away from the city worker at all times.
A hearing for a permanent order is scheduled for this Thursday in Rio Arriba Magistrate Court in Española, according to court records.
This is the third time the mayor has been accused of sexual- or gender-based misconduct by a city employee since 2023.
Employee Danielle Bustos also filed a protection order against Vigil for sexual harassment and workplace harassment that year. In 2024, Vigil’s former administrative assistant, Laura Rendon, filed a lawsuit against him in state district court, claiming gender discrimination.
Rendon’s case is currently pending trial.
Opponents of tree felling find Santa Fe police, tree cutters at Fort Marcy early Tuesday - Santa Fe New Mexican
In Santa Fe, work crews began cutting down 12 Siberian elm trees at Fort Marcy Park Wednesday morning.
The trees were cut down in advance of the annual Burning of Zozobra at the park later this month.
The fate of the trees has been a contentious issue.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports some opponents of the trees’ removal arrived at Fort Marcy Park early in the morning in response to word that the 12 Siberian elms would be cut down.
They arrived to find crews already at work, with the area around the trees secured by about 20 police officers.
Organizers of the annual event say the trees posed a safety risk.
The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe’s Ray Sandoval is the event chairman. The New Mexican reports Sandoval told attendees at a public meeting last week that the trees block the view of Zozobra and prompts attendees to crowd onto a small bridge crossing an arroyo.
Sandoval also said that the event’s insurance company insisted on the trees’ removal.
The bridge in question is a concrete structure built in 2017. A previous wooden bridge over the arroyo collapsed at a Zozobra burning in 2015.
The 101st Burning of Zozobra is scheduled for Friday, August 29, at Fort Marcy Park.