NM legislators want ‘truth commission’ to investigate late sex offender Epstein — Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Two New Mexico state Democratic lawmakers said Monday they will work during next year’s legislative session to establish a “truth commission” to investigate the activities of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at his Zorro ranch near Stanley in Santa Fe County.
It’s been six years since the financier’s death in a Manhattan jail, but his activities in New Mexico require further exploration, according to state Reps. Andrea Romero (Santa Fe) and Marianna Anaya (Albuquerque), who previewed the process of establishing the commission on a Zoom call with local journalists.
Romero said the commission would “put the story together for the public,” while working around issues of statutes of limitations for certain crimes and the privacy of victims.
“We envision very much like a 9/11 or J-6 commission,” Romero said. “As we start releasing information to the public, it has been vetted. There’s essentially a check and balance on the information that we’re providing: information that needs to be redacted or victims or witnesses that need to be protected.”
Previous House commissions established by the New Mexico Legislature over the decades produced investigative reports on corruption, abuses at schools and prisons.
Establishing this type of commission does not require the approval of both legislative chambers, but instead would be a House parliamentary process, which could be launched during the upcoming session, Romero said.
“We’re unsure if we need sponsors, there’s still a lot of parliamentary history we’re going through,” she told Source NM in a call.
The tentative makeup of the commission would be two Democratic and two Republican House members, with subpoena power. It’s unclear exactly how fast the commission would be able to meet after the session wraps in March, but Romero said it needed to move quickly, and work to “prevent this from ever happening again.”
Romero noted that “we’ve heard from many, many different sources that New Mexico…is a great place to do [trafficking]. That’s just horrifying to me; that there was a choice here to make this a sort of a no man’s land for these activities,” she said.
Epstein purchased the 7,500-acre Zorro Ranch from former New Mexico Gov. Bruce King in 1993. According to court documents, the ranch, which has its own airstrip and helipad, was the site of sex trafficking, including by Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 as Epstein’s co-conspirator.
Two New Mexican attorneys general have opened previous investigations into Epstein’s activities in the state: Hector Balderas’ criminal investigation in 2019 closed within the year without filing any charges. In 2023, current Attorney General Raúl Torrez investigated the role financial services companies played in failing to identify the abuses at the ranch.
Anaya said that while the state pursued a criminal investigation under Balderas, the overlapping jurisdiction with federal investigators hampered it.
“I think the investigation that actually could have happened here, the full-fledged investigation, was maybe unnecessarily put on hold,” Anaya said. “We do have some documents from that, but it’s definitely not comprehensive.”
At the federal level, New Mexico Democratic U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury serves on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has been releasing documents from the 2019 federal sex trafficking case against Epstein. Recent documents included an alleged lewd image and inscription from President Donald Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday.
Romero said the commission will likely be discussed during an upcoming interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee meeting in November.
Blood tests show highest levels of forever chemicals in those living near New Mexico plume — Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
It's a name many people have trouble pronouncing, but these synthetic chemicals have been used in everything from fast-food packaging to nonstick cookware, clothing, household cleaning products and even firefighting foam.
PFAS — or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — resist breaking down and as a result have found their way into drinking water, soil, air and the bloodstreams of 99% of Americans.
This is certainly true for people who live or work near a plume of contamination that has seeped beyond the boundaries of Cannon Air Force Base, where PFAS-laden firefighting foam was used for years.
New Mexico health and environmental officials conducted a $1.2 million testing project, drawing blood from nearly 630 people. They shared the results Thursday night during a public meeting.
WHAT DID THEY FIND?
The research shows 99.7% of participants had one or more PFAS in their blood, with the most common being associated with firefighting foams.
While the percentage isn't surprising given the overall prevalence of so-called forever chemicals in the environment, officials said some residents living in the plume area showed dramatically higher concentrations than the broader testing group. About one-quarter of them had levels reaching the highest concentration tier used in national guidelines.
The findings suggest a correlation with groundwater contamination migrating from the base, state officials said.
New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney said during the meeting that his agency will help the community in any way that it can but that the state is still locked in litigation with the U.S. Defense Department over the damage caused by the contamination.
At Cannon Air Force Base, state officials have reported that PFAS has been detected in groundwater at concentrations of 26,200 parts per trillion, exceeding state and federal drinking water standards by over 650,000%.
Cannon reported earlier this year that it has spent more than $73 million so far on investigating the problem and installing pilot projects to treat contaminated groundwater.
Kenney said it's time for the federal government to move ahead with cleanup outside the base.
"We need the whole of New Mexico to stand up and say we've had it," he said.
HEALTH CONCERNS
Exposure to PFAS has been linked to increased cholesterol levels, small decreases in birth weight, kidney and testicular cancer and changes in liver enzymes.
State officials in a report published in August said some of the chemicals can linger in the blood for several years after exposure. Research by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also found it can take weeks to years for levels of many PFAS to decrease by half in human blood, assuming exposure isn't ongoing.
It's not easy to draw a bright line between exposure and health effects, said Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist with the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group.
"There are so many different factors that affect individual health outcomes and also affect what levels you will see in your blood," she said, explaining that a person's age, where they live, what they eat and drink and where they work can all play a role.
According to slides shared with the audience, the tests in Curry County showed PFAS levels tend to increase with age, that males had higher levels, and those who had military or aviation careers had higher concentrations — all things consistent with national data.
The state on Friday announced a $12 million effort to connect about 100 private well users in rural Curry County to a drinking water system that meets state and federal standards.
AN EXPANDING PROBLEM
Watchdog groups that track PFAS nationwide say contamination is more widespread than previously thought. They're using data released by the EPA and states to compile maps showing spots across the country where drinking water systems report levels above what's recommended. Contamination has also been confirmed at hundreds of military bases around the country.
That includes a base in southern New Mexico, where state officials are embarking on another health survey to gauge exposure at a nearby lake where scientists documented some of the highest PFAS levels in wildlife and plants worldwide.
In Clovis, Thursday's audience was sparse but outspoken. They voiced frustrations that properties have been devalued and rural livelihoods threatened due to the contamination.
New Mexico is among hundreds of plaintiffs that are part of multi-district litigation in a South Carolina federal court that aims to hold producers and users of PFAS-laden firefighting foam accountable for contamination at sites across the country.
Separate from the legal front, some states have adopted their own PFAS rules while the focus of federal regulations has been narrowed. New Mexico just this week held a webinar on a new state law that calls for phasing out and ultimately prohibiting the sale of products containing intentionally added PFAS.
New Mexico legislator unveils tool to track state’s ICE arrests — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A New Mexico lawmaker this week launched a new website her office created that aims to compile and verify reports of federal immigration arrests across the state.
Rep. Marianna Anaya (D-Albuquerque) told Source New Mexico that a volunteer in her office spent the last several months creating AGUAS-NM.com in response to widespread—but hard-to-verify—reports of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting people across the state.
“Our community is held to the rule of law, so why shouldn’t law enforcement…be documented in hopes that they will follow the law as well?” she told Source on Thursday in a phone interview. “It was born of frustration and hope that when we shine a little bit of light that hopefully transparency wins.”
The website greets visitors with a disclaimer about the potential inaccuracy of individual arrest reports, and it warns that the website should not be used to interfere with law enforcement operations, which Anaya also stressed in the interview.
Users can anonymously submit photos, videos or summaries of potential ICE arrests to the website, which will then appear on the map as “unverified” until representatives of community groups visit the site in person and talk to witnesses, Anaya said.
Adding a layer of verification should help instill trust in the website while also aiming to stop the spread of misinformation, she said.
“Often people will think that a private security guard is ICE when really they may not be,” she said. “And I think that’s why we’re focusing so heavily on making sure that we have validated and unvalidated check marks.”
Spokespersons for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center and El Centro de Igualdad and Derechos, two immigrant advocacy organizations, declined to comment Friday on the new website.
Data about how many ICE arrests have occurred in New Mexico amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push is hard to come by, though national data suggests arrests are increasing. The number of people ICE has detained in the state’s three detention centers has steadily increased, as well.
Some statewide elected officials are trying to collect information about ICE arrests to distribute to the public, including in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. That’s another potential source of “verified” reports for the AGUAS-NM website, Anaya said.
“When it comes to other areas of the state, clearly, that’ll work a little bit differently,” she said. “But for us, it’s more about transparency. I think the video and photo option also just really helps the community to be able to make up their own mind about whether or not it is a valid documentation or not.”
Voting turnout sluggish in Bernalillo County as Election Day approaches — Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
With just over one week until Election Day, early voting turnout rates in Albuquerque and other parts of New Mexico suggest many voters might be feeling less than enthusiastic about heading to the polls.
Only about 9.3% of Albuquerque’s more than 362,000 registered voters had cast ballots as of late Monday, according to the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office. That figure includes both absentee and early voting.
With early voting set to end Saturday in advance of next week’s Election Day, the current trend suggests final turnout levels might fall short of the 32% mark from Albuquerque’s last mayoral election in 2021.
“Voting participation levels have been sluggish,” said Brian Sanderoff, a longtime New Mexico political observer who is the president of Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc.
While Albuquerque’s mayoral election is technically a nonpartisan race, registered Democrats have been voting at a slightly higher clip than Republicans since early voting began on Oct. 7.
Roughly 9.5% of registered Democrats in Bernalillo County had cast ballots entering Monday, compared to 8.4% of Republicans, according to state voting data analyzed by Research & Polling Inc. A smaller percentage of independent voters, or those declining to state a political affiliation, had cast a ballot.
Viewed another way, more than 55% of the Bernalillo County voters who had cast a ballot entering Monday were registered Democrats, even though Democrats make up only about 45% of all registered voters in the county.
Sanderoff said it’s relatively common for Democrats to vote at a higher rate than Republicans during the initial stages of an election. He also said more voters have voted before Election Day than on it during recent election cycles.
The turnout trends come after a Journal Poll last month found 37% of likely voters in Albuquerque voters were undecided about who they planned to vote for in the Nov. 4 local election.
Two-term incumbent Tim Keller was leading a field of six candidates in that poll, but Keller’s approval rating has steadily declined since he was first elected mayor in 2017.
The low turnout rates so far in this year’s local election are likely connected to the large number of undecided voters, Sanderoff said.
But he also said mayoral candidates Keller and Alex Uballez, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, will fare better than their rivals among Democratic voters due to their more progressive views.
With Democrats so far voting at a higher clip than Republicans in a city in which Democrats far outnumber GOP voters, the trend could make it difficult for a Republican candidate to post an upset victory even if this year’s Election Day turnout ends up narrowing — or eliminating — the current gap.
“We’re not seeing the Democratic vote depress” despite the large number of undecided voters, Sanderoff said.
Meanwhile, early voting turnout rates have also been sluggish in other parts of New Mexico for this year’s local election.
About 6.2% of registered voters in Santa Fe County had cast a ballot entering Monday, and roughly 4.8% of voters in Taos County. Voters in both Santa Fe and Taos are also choosing a new mayor and other local leaders during this year’s election cycle.
In Chaves County, where incumbent Roswell Mayor Tim Jennings is seeking to fend off two challengers to win reelection, roughly 4.7% of registered voters had cast a ballot, according to Secretary of State’s Office data.
Appeals Court rules Santa Fe can proceed with 'mansion tax,' overturning lower court decision-Santa Fe New Mexican
A state court has given the green light for the City of Santa Fe to impose what some have called a “mansion tax.”
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the New Mexico Court of Appeals sided with the City of Santa Fe today/Monday in an appeal of a district judge’s decision last year that declared the tax unlawful. The tax is an excise tax on the sale of homes valued greater than one million dollars.
Last year’s district court rejection of the tax came after two individual plaintiffs and the Santa Fe Association of Realtors filed a suit claiming the tax was illegal. The lawsuit cited a state law prohibiting municipalities from taxing real property.
The city appealed the decision, and today, Judge Megan Duffy sided with the city. The New Mexican reports more than 70 percent of Santa Fe voters approved of the tax in a 2023 election. A ballot initiative authorized a 3 percent tax on the price of a home sale over $1 million within the city limits. The money would go toward the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Supporters of the tax included the Chainbreaker Collective and Homewise, Incorporated. The measure was opposed by some realtors and builders.
Navajo nation will spend $3 million for test of new tech for cleaning uranium mine waste-Albuquerque Journal
The Navajo Nation is investing about $3 million in the purchase a new technology to clean up waste from uranium mining.
The Albuquerque Journal’s Cathy Cook reports that Wyoming-based Disa Technologies has a process called high-pressure slurry ablation that can extract uranium. Although expensive, it could be a more affordable alternative to the physical transport of contaminated rock to a faraway repository, which the Journal reports is the usual method for dealing with waste from uranium mining.
In September, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted Disa Technologies a license for working on federal sites. The technology has been tested on a limited scale at three sites in the Navajo Nation. The system was given a trial run in New Mexico at Old Church Rock Mine and Quivira Church Rock Mine, and in Arizona at Cove Transfer Station.
The 1979 Church Rock uranium spill was the largest release of radioactivity in U.S. history and contaminated the Rio Puerco. The federal government considers the nearby Churchrock Quivira Mines one of the largest and most high-risk uranium mine sites on the Navajo Nation.