Luján joins Senate Democrats condemning FCC chair over Jimmy Kimmel comments - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and 12 other Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Communications Commission chairman to defend his recent comments about late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, saying his effort to censor the host made the commission effectively a “roving press censor, targeting broadcasters based on their political commentary.”
Disney, ABC’s parent company, announced Wednesday it was indefinitely canceling Kimmel’s show, following comments Kimmel made on air about Republicans’ efforts to distance themselves from the suspect accused of assassinating right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
Disney’s announcement came after owners of ABC affiliates nationwide said they were refusing to air Kimmel’s show, and after FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggested the FCC would go after the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates who continued to air Kimmel’s show, saying the FCC “can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Luján and other Democrats said in a letter Thursday that Carr’s threats were “outrageous and a betrayal of the FCC’s mission,” which is to act in the public interest and not favor one political viewpoint over another.
“We urge you to immediately stop threatening media organizations due to their programming and return to the FCC’s mission of ensuring all Americans have access to affordable, efficient communication services,” the Democrats wrote in the Thursday letter.
In addition to the criticism, the lawmakers called on Carr to answer questions by Sept. 25 about his “easy way” or “hard way” comments, along with how the FCC is defining ideological bias or if it has adopted a new standard for being politically neutral.
The lawmakers also are asking for communications, if they exist, between Carr or any other FCC staff and Disney, ABC or affiliates about Kimmel or his controversial monologue on Monday.
Earlier Thursday, Luján posted a statement on social media that read: “President Trump and FCC Chair Carr made it clear: fall in line or be silenced. And it’s not just late night TV. This administration is silencing free speech, targeting universities and companies, and abusing their power to shut down opposing views and limit Americans’ access to information.”
Albuquerque police launch drone program to help fight crime across city - Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
Albuquerque residents might notice a new form of crime-fighting technology — and this one is taking to the skies.
Albuquerque Police Department officials on Thursday unveiled what they say is one of their latest initiatives to increase public safety: drones.
In a news conference, officials detailed the new program, which began in August. The 10 drones, which cost $17,000 each, are being used to aid officers on the streets.
APD has used drones in the past, specifically to surveil the bosque during a spate of man-made fires in the area, but Chief Harold Medina said these drones will be used solely to tackle crime.
Mayor Tim Keller said the drones will provide additional coverage after years of APD being unable to reach its goal of officer recruits.
“The drones are the last piece in the technology puzzle,” Keller said, adding that ShotSpotter — gunfire detection devices — and license plate readers were the other pieces.
In the future, Medina said ShotSpotter and drones will work hand-in-hand, with every gunshot detection receiving a drone response in 90 seconds. Keller added that, while he is not a “huge fan of drones,” they are a faster response and can read license plates and track suspects from crime scenes. Drones will be operated by certified Federal Aviation Administration pilots from remote locations.
Six “hives” — the drones’ housing locations and launching spots — have been placed throughout the city. APD said almost the entirety of the city will have drone coverage.
APD would not answer any questions relating to the location of the hives or say what parts of Albuquerque will have a gap in drone coverage.
“The more individuals sense and know that there is accountability in the area, and they could be watched by a drone, the more it will make them think twice about committing crime in the city,” Medina said.
The drones are equipped with thermal cameras that can read a license plate from 800 feet away, provide a live video feed so officers can respond to situations in real time and can fly 45 mph up to 8 miles from their hive. Deputy Chief J.J. Griego said the drones will be able to operate for roughly 40 minutes at a time.
Since launching the program, APD has successfully completed 202 drone flights. The drones have contributed to four arrests to date, Griego said.
In a case highlighted Thursday, Medina said “without a doubt” that officers would have lost the suspect’s location if not for the drones.
On Sept. 11, officers were dispatched to Pat Hurley Park after a woman said a man had pointed a rifle at her in a robbery attempt, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. The suspect outran arriving officers and a drone was launched to keep track of him.
Drone footage showed the man — later identified as Cesar Hernandez — leaping through backyards and removing his red sweatshirt. At one point, the drone footage showed the 21-year-old man walking through a neighborhood.
Officers used the drone to track Hernandez until they arrested him. He was charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and fleeing from police.
“The real-time updates the drone is able to give us were key,” Medina said.
Gubernatorial race heats up: Bregman challenges Haaland to policy showdown - Alex Ross, New Mexico Political Report
Democratic candidate for governor Sam Bregman unveiled a sweeping set of policy plans Thursday and challenged his chief rival for the party’s nomination, Deb Haaland, to engage him in a policy debate on the campaign trail.
“She can bring her plans, or if she doesn’t have them, she can debate mine. I am sure we will have our differences,” Bregman said about former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and the 189-page blueprint for New Mexico, which he made public during a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Albuquerque.
Bregman, the Bernalillo County district attorney, argued that voters need the chance to contrast the positions and policies of Haaland and himself. He did not mention his other competitor for the Democratic nomination, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima.
“Voters deserve a debate from the candidates and the records about who has the vision, ability, the detailed workable plan to stand up to Trump and articulate and defend that vision to the voters,” Bregman said.
The Haaland campaign responded by criticizing the plan. Dylan McArthur, campaign manager for the Haaland campaign, said the plans are riddled with typos, have repeated paragraphs and sentences, which he described as “absolute gibberish.”
“We are happy to be running on Deb Haaland’s long record of accomplishment for New Mexico instead of half-baked plans that no one even took the time to proofread. We look forward to continuing this conversation over the coming months,” McArthur said in a text message to New Mexico Political Report.
The news conference comes as Bregman is working to blunt Haaland’s momentum. A poll conducted by the Haaland campaign of likely Democratic primary voters conducted in mid-August showed Haaland with a 36-point lead over Bregman. Another 16% in the survey said they were unsure of who they would back, while 9% said they favored Miyagishima.
Haaland has led in fundraising and garnered endorsements from New Mexico Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan and Reps. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M-01, Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M-02 and Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-NM-03, as well as multiple progressive-leaning organizations and tribes. On Thursday, the Haaland campaign also posted a video on its Facebook page of former New Mexico Democratic Sen. Tom Udall voicing his support for Haaland.
The release by Bregman of the blueprint stands in contrast to the Haaland campaign, which, despite highlighting issues like the affordability crisis on the campaign trail, has not yet released a detailed policy agenda.
However, the campaign insists that the blueprint is not about Haaland but a roadmap for what Bregman wants to do if elected, proposals that range from building 1,000 miles of new energy transmission lines to expanding nutrition programs to revising the state’s children’s code and a program to build starter homes.
On the campaign trail, Bregman has portrayed himself as a pugnacious moderate who is willing to take on the Trump administration. At Thursday’s event, he did that, referring to the reconciliation bill President Donald Trump signed as an assault on New Mexico for its cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, and accused the administration of violating due process rights. However, he also called out what he described as intolerant factions in his own party that have alienated large swaths of the electorate, and committed himself to achieving results if elected.
“Again, that may mean taking on some of the sacred cows of some of the activists in my own party, but know this, I will never abandon the values we as Democrats share while I pursue policies to move New Mexico forward,” he said.
Bregman cited the environment as an example, saying that while he is in favor of clean energy and holding polluters accountable, he denounced what he referred to as extreme proposals to shut down the oil and gas industry, which would be devastating to schools and other institutions in New Mexico that rely on those dollars.
Housing summit speaker: NM home shortage could be as high as 90,000 units - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico lacks more than 90,000 housing units across the state — a much larger shortage than previous estimates — according to a keynote presentation Thursday at the ongoing New Mexico Housing Summit in Albuquerque.
Previous estimates in statewide needs assessments have been less than half that. A 2022 Mortgage Finance Authority analysis said the state lacked 32,000 affordable housing units.
Todd Clarke, an apartment investment broker in New Mexico for more than 30 years and self-described “data geek and policy wonk,” asserted the higher figure during a breakfast presentation at the summit..
After walking through what he sees as four previous statewide housing shortages — those caused by tuberculosis patient arrivals or post World War II expansion, for example — he said the state is in its fifth-ever housing shortage, one that presents a multi-billion-dollar challenge for housing policymakers and developers.
“We hear numbers about this much demand for affordable housing; this much demand for Northern New Mexico; this much demand for Southern New Mexico, but all in, personally, I believe that number is closer to about 91,000 units,” he said.
He based that number on research he’s doing with the help of a database of all apartment complexes across New Mexico that have at least two units, along with estimates of job and population growth in certain areas across the state, including in counties experiencing oil and gas development booms, he said.
Couple that with jobs from tech expansion from Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and others in the Albuquerque area, and the shortage is huge, he said. Clarke expects Albuquerque’s housing shortage to be as high as 25,000 units in the near future, he said.
“Certainly there are some counties that are not growing or actually shrinking, but for every one or two of those, there’s five or six other ones that are absolutely growing gangbusters, particularly those related to oil and extraction of minerals from our state,” Clarke said.
Assuming a $300,000 per unit cost, that means the state faces a $27 billion problem, he said.
Clarke’s presentation tracks with other signals that seem to point to an acute housing crisis in New Mexico: Median rents are increasing at rates much higher than the national average, and so is homelessness.
Housing officials tasked with responding to the crisis seemed to accept Clark’s estimate and incorporated it into their descriptions of the state’s challenges and opportunities related to housing.
“That’s a huge number,” said Isidoro “Izzy” Hernandez, director of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, during a “State of Housing” presentation Thursday morning. “And if you look at the number of permits that we’re issuing annually here in the state, we’ve got a long road ahead.”
The housing shortage was one of many indicators that Hernandez said “are all over the map” in New Mexico, when it comes to inventory, prices and trends.
“I don’t envision that at the end of the session, we’re going to solve all the problems,” Hernandez said. “But I can tell you that there is a lot of progress being made in a lot of effort to solve the problem, and to do more for the housing needs across the state.”
Department of Workforce Solutions Secretary Sarita Nair, whose agency contains the newly created state Office of Housing, touted recent spending of more than $80 million across the state with funds the Legislature approved earlier this year, part of record housing-related spending by the Legislature in recent years.
The funding went primarily to Albuquerque, including for homelessness services, converting an old hotel into affordable apartments and helping new developments break ground.
Unlike other states, Nair noted, the state does have one advantage in tackling the growing problem, which is that the state has “a lot of money” to spend to both build more housing and make it affordable to people who need it.
“That makes us very unique in the United States. I mean, when I talk to my peers from the other states, they’re cutting. Colorado is cutting budgets. California is cutting budgets. All over the country, they’re cutting budgets,” she said. “We’re not.”