Judge overturns multi-million verdict against Presbyterian due to juror's podcast
—KOAT
A judge has overturned a multi-million dollar verdict against Presbyterian Health Services after it was revealed that a juror hosted a podcast expressing distrust in hospitals.
KOAT reports that Albuquerque-based Presbyterian Health Services had lost a case for reportedly failing to diagnose a condition. The error resulted in an infant having brain damage.
Jurors had awarded nearly $25 million to the child and about $1 million to the parents. The award also included $15 million in damages against Presbyterian.
KOAT reports that the juror in question hosted a podcast called "Freedom Speak.” During the podcast, she said doctors were giving medical advice based on the interests of large corporations. The juror also expressed an overall distrust in hospitals.
The podcast led the judge to grant Presbyterian Health Services a motion for a new trial.
Santa Fe historic board reverses course, approves demolition of downtown casitas
Daniel Chacon, Santa Fe New Mexican
The city Historic Districts Review Board reversed course Tuesday on a state government request to demolish four casitas in downtown Santa Fe, paving the way for a large-scale executive office building across the street from the state Capitol.
In an about-face, the board voted 3-2 to approve the demolition of the four casitas in the 400 block of Don Gaspar Avenue after previously rejecting the requests.
“As sweet as the area, the former neighborhood, may have been, the casitas are just remnants of a neighborhood that no longer exists,” board member Jennifer Biedscheid said after a nearly three-hour hearing.
“While Santa Fe is known for its historic identity, it also identifies as the state capital,” she added. “State government exists here. We can’t contradict that fact, and its ability to function needs to be a serious concern.”
Board member Madeleine Aguilar Medrano, who voted in opposition along with Mary Ellen Degnan, said the board had already rendered its decision.
“This board has already spent a lot of time on this case, and I think a decision was already made, and I don’t see a reason to change that this evening,” she said.
A public hearing on the requests drew provocative remarks from residents on opposite sides of the issue.
Marc Bertram, a developer and broker, said he’s generally pro-development.
“However,” he said, “this proposed building is so egregious that I feel a need to share my thoughts.”
Bertram argued the size of the project was “completely out of scale with the existing streetscape and surrounding neighborhoods,” even though it would be across the street from the state Capitol, which is a little over 232,000 square feet. He said it would add significant traffic.
Bertram said the project has been on the drawing boards for years and the state had been working around the casitas in previous iterations. He noted he has been involved in several projects that have required approval from the so-called “H-board.”
“The development of those properties would have been much easier, faster and more profitable if we could have simply ignored the historic district regulation and just torn down the buildings to make for a more developable site; that’s exactly what the state is trying to do,” he said. “We would have never thought of proposing such a deviation from the intent of the historic district because we would be laughed out of the meeting.”
But Jordan Young, who lives and works in the South Capitol neighborhood, blasted the board — and the Old Santa Fe Association — for standing in the way of progress.
“I find it incredibly embarrassing to live in a city that continually blocks daily business from being conducted due to its snobbish valuing of status quo over actual people that can benefit from development,” she said.
“As someone who lives in South Capitol and walks this neighborhood every day, I would like to see the land use update and the existing [board] encourage, incentivize and actually celebrate new and innovative design that challenges and stretches our vernacular instead of scrutinizing every project like a set of vultures around a fresh carcass,” she said.
State Auditor Joseph Maestas was among a handful of state government officials who spoke in favor of the proposed executive office building, which his agency is slated to occupy along with four other state agencies.
Maestas said the State Auditor’s Office currently occupies a leased building in Santa Fe’s south side, which he called inadequate and too far from the Roundhouse.
“Some of the problems that we experience is during the legislative session, we have no working space in the Capitol to work,” he said. “We’re borrowing and stealing, so to speak, during the session. We’re obviously very isolated from the rest of government and so location is an issue.”
Maestas said his office, which audits public entities, works with confidential information as well as handling the intake of anonymous and confidential fraud, waste and abuse complaints.
“Security and confidentiality is critical, and right now in the office building that we do occupy, that is not the case,” he said.
Opponents said they understood the need for more office space but not at the price of losing casitas that have been deemed historically contributing buildings.
Attorney Fletcher Catron likened the project to President Donald Trump tearing down the East Wing of the White House to make room for a new ballroom.
“Once those four houses are gone, they’re gone. You can’t put them back,” he said. “It represents a period of Santa Fe history that is simply not going to be there ever again.”
John Penn LaFarge echoed the sentiment.
“This is an area that is indeed quite historic, and I think that this large building, which has been likened to the new ballroom of the president, can be shrunk successfully to accommodate what little is left of the original neighborhood on Don Gaspar,” he said.
Representatives from the Secretary of State’s Office, the State Engineer’s Office and the General Services Department urged approval of the demolition requests. Sharon Pino, deputy secretary of state, said the agency is “out of space” in the North Capitol building.
“There is absolutely no other space downtown that will accommodate our office at this time, and the Legislature wants us out,” she said. “In fact, they added $100,000 to our budget this past fiscal year to move when we have no place to move, so we are in a very desperate situation for space.”
Maestas, a former city councilor, said the proposed design aligns “very well” with not only the historic character of the neighborhood but surrounding structures.
“I understand the need to balance historic preservation, but I truly believe in this case that this proposed building would be an asset to the community and, quite frankly, a benefit not only to the city but to the county as well,” he said.
Newly released data shows sharp decline of inmates at New Mexico ICE facility
-Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees held at an Estancia jail has decreased sharply since its contract with the federal government expired Oct. 31, according to newly released data.
The number of detainees dropped from a peak of up to 700 detainees in May to approximately 340 as of late November, according to data from the Deportation Data Project, run by a team of lawyers and academics who analyze ICE data they receive via public records requests.
According to that data and interviews with people with regular access to the jail, the decline began on or shortly after Oct. 31, when an intergovernmental service agreement between ICE and Torrance County expired without explanation.
The contract’s expiration means ICE no longer pays roughly $2.5 million monthly to private contractor CoreCivic, Torrance County officials said during a County Commission meeting Wednesday in Estancia. Officials told Source New Mexico they are concerned about the potential economic implications for the county, which relies on the jail as a major employer and tax revenue source, if the population continues to decline and no contract extension is reached.
While the expiration and subsequent detainee decline have no immediate financial implications for the county, County Manager Jordan Varela said he is keenly interested in what a new contract might say and what that could mean for the jail’s future.
“The big financial obligation would be if the facility closed, because we lose that guaranteed revenue and, two, now we incur the expenses of having to transport our inmates miles away to other counties,” he said.
Immigrant advocates, however, said they remain concerned that CoreCivic, the private company, no longer has any financial incentive or legal reason to provide adequate care at a facility they say already has a long history of substandard care.
“Conditions there could continue to decline, and it’s alarming that hundreds of people are being held in New Mexico under no apparent authority,” Zoe Bowman, managing attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, which has clients at the jail, told Source New Mexico.
The expiration has renewed calls from advocates and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) that ICE immediately stop housing detainees in Torrance County. Standard operating procedures require that ICE remove all detainees and equipment absent a contract, and Heinrich has pressed ICE’s director to explain what legal authority it has to continue holding detainees.
The decrease in population identified in the Deportation Data Project has continued into December, according to PJ Podesta, a senior program manager for Innovation Law Lab, which conducts weekly jail visits. His best estimate is that 250 ICE detainees are at the jail, based on conversations with detainees in different pods.
The decline is “striking,” Bowman said, given that the number of ICE detainees is increasing or staying level at New Mexico’s other two ICE detention facilities in Milan and Chaparral, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearing House, along with other facilities across the country amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push.
“The Trump administration is doing absolutely everything they can to detain as many people as possible and fill ICE detention beds,” she said.
Podesta and Rogelio Bolufé, a Cuban immigrant detained at the facility who says he’s also witnessed the decline, told Source that they believe the reduction in population is because CoreCivic is not admitting new detainees, while ICE is transferring detainees out at the usual rate.
The detainees Podesta has been able to track from Estancia have mostly ended up at Camp East Montana, an ICE detention facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
Source New Mexico asked ICE and CoreCivic on Tuesday about whether a decrease has occurred and, if so, what the reason might be behind it, including whether the expired contract played a role. Source also asked what a decline in detainees could mean for the future of the facility.
An ICE spokesperson did not respond to Source New Mexico’s request for comment. CoreCivic spokesperson Brian Todd did not address those questions in an emailed response to Source New Mexico, though he noted that the population “may fluctuate week to week” at the jail.
“But there is nothing out of the ordinary and our operations have remained unchanged,” he said.
Telles elected to ABQ City Council; District 3 race too close to call – Olivier Uyttebrouck, Albuquerque Journal
The runoff election in the District 3 City Council contest was too close to call late Tuesday, although incumbent Klarissa Peña had a razor-thin lead over political newcomer Teresa Garcia.
But West Side voters decisively elected the city of Albuquerque’s newest City Council member, giving Stephanie Telles nearly 60% of the vote in the District 1 runoff election, according to unofficial election returns.
Telles’ opponent, Joshua Neal, garnered about 40% of the unofficial vote.
In the District 3 contest, Peña led by just over 1 percentage point late Tuesday. Peña had 50.52% of the vote to Garcia’s 49.49%. Peña was leading by 68 votes as of 10 p.m.
The race was too close to call Tuesday night, said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling. Unknown is whether additional outstanding votes remain to be counted, he said.
Under state law, automatic recounts occur in local elections when the margin between the two candidates is 1% or less.
The District 1 City Council race was a contest between Telles, a Democrat, and Neal, a Republican, who were the two top vote-getters Nov. 4 in a four-way contest in the West Side district.
The winner will succeed Councilor Louie Sanchez, who chose not to seek reelection this year to pursue a bid for mayor.
“I’ve been a lifelong Democrat and I’m proud of that because of the values that the Democratic Party represents,” Telles said Tuesday night. “I think those are the values that reflect our community and so I am just excited to bring those values to City Hall.”
Telles, 41, and Neal, 29, both ran on their professional credentials.
Telles is a forensic accountant and fraud examiner who worked for the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor and is founder and CEO of Otoño Consulting, a fraud risk management firm.
Neal is a land development engineer for Albuquerque-based Bohannan Huston, who has worked on commercial and residential development projects in New Mexico.
In District 3, Peña and Garcia were the two top vote-getters in a three-way contest on Nov. 4.
Both candidates made Peña’s accomplishments a focus of their campaigns. Peña, 58, cited a list of projects completed or in progress during her 12 years in office.
Garcia argued that residents on the Southwest Mesa lack retail and job opportunities, and that the accomplishments cited by Peña too often have provided little benefit for District 3 residents.
In particular, Garcia criticized Peña for her advocacy of the Route 66 Visitors Center, a $13.1 million project located west of Albuquerque at Atrisco Vista and Central built with state, city and county funds. Garcia argued that the visitor center lies outside the city and remains little used.
Garcia also identifies as a survivor of domestic violence. In October she completed a three-year term as chair of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Commission for the city of Albuquerque. Currently, she works remotely as a digital marketing and communications specialist for the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence.
Mayor Keller wins third consecutive term in Albuquerque runoff election – Colleen Heild, Albuquerque Journal
Incumbent Tim Keller scored a historic third consecutive term in Albuquerque’s mayoral runoff election Tuesday, after a bruising contest fought over homelessness, crime and federal immigration enforcement.
Keller, 48, captured nearly 58% of the vote, compared to 42% for challenger Darren White, according to unofficial election results as of 9 p.m. Tuesday.
“Voters granted us something very, very special,” Keller said to a raucous crowd of supporters at The Clyde Hotel in Downtown Albuquerque. “It’s a mandate to push forward and it’s also a challenge to rise to the occasion. That is what our next four years is going to be all about.”
White conceded the mayoral race around 7:45 p.m. to a crowd of roughly 60 people gathered at the Courtyard by Marriott. The 62-year-old told supporters he had called Keller to congratulate him.
White said as a Republican he was fighting an uphill battle — as New Mexico remains a Democratic-leaning state — and lacked the public financing to win. He urged fellow Republicans to continue to speak their minds and fight for their beliefs, and encouraged supporters to back City Council candidates who share the same mindset.
“Don’t you think for a minute that your voice can’t be heard,” White said.
He added, “Maybe, just maybe, what we went through in those debates and all those forums, maybe the mayor will understand that we want him to fight for our families and we want him to fight for our businesses.”
Keller, whose campaign was publicly financed, collected more than $1.14 million in contributions for both the regular local and runoff elections, compared to White’s reported total of $642,429 in private contributions. White didn’t qualify for the public financing.
The two men entered the runoff election after neither candidate received 50% of the vote in the city’s Nov. 4 regular local election amidst a crowded field of six candidates.
Keller fended off weeks of White attack ads and, more recently, an anonymous campaign to induce homeless individuals living along Central Avenue to don bright yellow “I Tim Keller” sweatshirts. The tactic — which White said he had nothing to do with — led to Keller’s campaign filing an ethics complaint with the city.
An Albuquerque native first elected mayor in 2017, Keller campaigned on his eight-year record of fighting crime and expanding housing for the 5,000 or more unhoused people in the city. That included opening a multifaceted Gateway system of care and creating a city community safety department to respond to behavioral health and crisis situations in the city.
Keller touted a decrease in both violent and property crime in 2025 over the prior year and promised to continue efforts to equip the Albuquerque Police Department with advanced technology and civilian support to back up the 950 or so sworn officers.
The campaign marked White’s return to the political arena after a 14-year absence. He said he entered the race after lamenting about the “state” of the city, and finding no other Republican was running. White promised he would only serve for four years.
A former New Mexico public safety director, Bernalillo County sheriff, and city public safety officer, White campaigned on his law enforcement background, promising a change of direction, emphasizing aggressive encampment sweeps of homeless individuals, and full cooperation with federal immigration agents seeking access to data on suspects arrested by APD.
Keller called that approach to addressing homelessness “dangerous” and “ineffective.” And last summer, he issued an executive order reaffirming that city resources may not be used to assist in federal civil immigration enforcement, except where legally required.
Keller has said he will continue to add affordable housing units in the city, and work on a new 7-mile urban Rail Trail among his administration’s transportation priorities. The trail will link the Downtown area to Old Town and the Sawmill District.
Keller, in an energetic speech, told a room filled with supporters that he will continue to defend Albuquerque from both President Donald Trump and any other adversaries.
“Tonight, we stood up for Albuquerque,” Keller said. “Our families are the most important things in our lives and we will defend our families.”
Prescribed burn set in the Sandia Mountains of Bernalillo County – Vincent Rodriguez, KOAT
The Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands are planning prescribed fire pile burns in the Sandia Ranger District.
Fire managers are conducting burns following recent precipitation, snow covered ground and cooler temperatures. Conditions are suitable for burning piled slash and woody debris from forest restoration work.
There are two burns planned:
Sulphur Unit Prescribed Pile Burn: 18 acres of piles are expected to be burned within the Sulphur Unit of the prescribed burn plan. The burn will take place in the Sandia Mountains, north of Interstate 40 and west of Highway 14.
Smoke from the Sulphur Unit Prescribed Pile Burn could be visible from Albuquerque, Tijeras, Edgewood, and Moriarty.
Cedro Unit Prescribed Pile Burn: 15 acres of piles are expected to be burned in the Cedro unit of the prescribed burn plan. The pile burn will take place in the mountains along Forest Road 462 and Highway 337.
Smoke from the Cedro Unit could be visible from Albuquerque, Tijeras, Edgewood, and Moriarty.
Burning could last for several days during burn operations.