Medical care at jail still 'unconstitutional' according to latest report - Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
The Metropolitan Detention Center continues to provide unconstitutionally poor medical care, according to a recently released medical audit.
The report details poor staffing, long waits for detox, unreliable responses to medical emergencies and no framework to track patients' chronic conditions, medical history, medications and preventative care, such as vaccinations.
“The Court’s expert found that care is unconstitutional,” said Kate Loewe, an attorney representing those incarcerated at the Bernalillo County jail under a class-action settlement. “What that means in real life terms is that people are suffering.”
And that suffering has a name, Loewe said.
“What that looks like is Mr. (Ernest) Tafoya lying in the floor of his cell telling people he is dying and needs to go to the hospital hours before he died in August,” Loewe said. “What it looks like are hundreds of people every month sick from withdrawal because they are not being treated with Suboxone.”
On Aug. 16, Tafoya was booked into MDC on drug-possession charges; less than 48 hours later and before he could appear before a judge — he was dead.
And Tafoya isn’t the only one — 41 people have died in custody since 2020. Three people have died this year, two of them within one week in early February. The cause of death is yet to be determined in both recent cases, though one man died after attempting suicide.
MDC spokesperson Candace Hopkins said the jail is taking the audit "seriously and remains focused on maintaining a safe and secure environment for both staff and inmates."
Meanwhile, officials with the University of New Mexico Hospital, which took over health care at the jail more than two years ago, said in an email that their providers are meeting “nationally recognized health care standards” and that the settlement agreement “exceeds typical community standards of care used in detention facilities.”
Loewe disagrees and believes that UNMH has had adequate time and guidance to mend the jail’s broken health care system. Their inaction, Loewe said, is not only affecting incarcerated people but the doctors and nurses who treat them.
“I’m grateful for the committed physicians and nurses who show up every day,” Loewe said. “They and the people in the jail deserve a functioning system. The constitution and the court require it.”
The medical report written by Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar describes issues as largely systemic, citing that staff are “clearly motivated and committed” but have “insufficient support.”
Though staffing has improved, Anandkumar wrote, there is not enough permanent staff to cover shifts. The growing inmate population has further strained existing staff, the report details.
UNMH spokesperson Chris Ramirez also said that staffing is a concern, writing in a statement that the hospital “welcomes continued collaboration with Bernalillo County leadership to identify a sustainable path forward.”
Anandkumar wrote that medical providers aren’t receiving proper training for their roles. While visiting the facility in October, Anandkumar said he met with the nurse tasked with wound care who did not have adequate training in wound care.
Anandkumar also described workflow problems that cause prescription and lab orders to be significantly delayed. Without proper technological support, medical staff can't properly track chronic conditions, meaning that sick patients are going without medications they were already prescribed, according to the report.
Additionally, Anandkumar writes that communication between guards and medical staff is “inconsistent and unreliable” leading to “preventable medical emergencies.”
Though Anandkumar described the medical professionals in charge of the detox unit as a “skilled team,” he said that the unit remains understaffed and as a result waitlists are long.
Patients in the unit are not always receiving their doses on time, he wrote. Outside the unit, inmates in active withdrawals are often not flagged by guards for care, according to the report.
The jail is failing to uphold its end of the settlement agreement, Loewe said.
She and other attorneys have since asked a U.S. District Court judge to fine Bernalillo County for violating terms of the settlement agreement in an attempt to spur reform, according to court documents.
“Unfortunately, much of MDC’s population is made up of those individuals who are at greater risk for sudden death, including those struggling with substance abuse and unhoused and/or economically depressed individuals without regular access to medical care,” wrote Bernalillo County attorneys Kelsea Sona and Marcus Rael Jr. in a Jan. 14 response letter.
The court is yet to determine how to get the jail back on track, though a hearing is scheduled for mid-April.
New Mexico launches investigation of forced sterilization of Native American women - By Savannah Peters, Associated Press
In the 1970s, the U.S. agency that provides health care to Native Americans sterilized thousands of women without their full and informed consent, depriving them of the opportunity to start or grow families.
Decades later, the state of New Mexico is set to investigate that troubling history and its lasting harm.
New Mexico legislators approved a measure this week to have the state Indian Affairs Department and the Commission on the Status of Women examine the history, scope and continuing impact of forced and coerced sterilizations of women of color by the Indian Health Service and other providers. The findings are expected to be reported to the governor by the end of 2027.
"It's important for New Mexico to understand the atrocities that took place within the borders of our state," said state Sen. Linda Lopez, one of the legislation's sponsors.
It's not the first state to confront its past. In 2023, Vermont launched a truth and reconciliation commission to study forced sterilization of marginalized groups including Native Americans. In 2024, California began paying reparations to people who had been sterilized without their consent in state-run prisons and hospitals.
The New Mexico Legislature also laid the groundwork to create a separate healing commission and for a formal acknowledgment of a little known piece of history that haunts Native families
Sarah Deer, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said it's long overdue.
"The women in these communities carry these stories," she said.
Outside of a 1976 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the federal government has never acknowledged what Deer calls a campaign of "systemic" sterilizations in Native American communities.
The Indian Health Service and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, did not respond to multiple emails requesting comment on New Mexico's investigation.
A troubling history
In 1972, Jean Whitehorse was admitted to an Indian Health Service hospital in Gallup, New Mexico, with a ruptured appendix. Just 22 and a new mother, Whitehorse said she remembers experiencing "extreme pain" as providers presented her with a flurry of consent forms before rushing her into emergency surgery.
"The nurse held the pen in my hand. I just signed on the line," said Whitehorse, a Navajo Nation citizen.
A few years later when she was struggling to conceive a second child, Whitehorse said she returned to the hospital and learned she had received a tubal ligation. The news devastated Whitehorse, contributed to the breakdown of her relationship and sent her spiraling into alcoholism, she said.
Advocates already were sounding the alarm about women like Whitehorse who were entering IHS clinics and hospitals to give birth or for other procedures and later finding themselves unable to conceive. The activist group Women of All Red Nations, or WARN — an offshoot of the American Indian Movement — was formed in part to expose the practice.
In 1974, Choctaw and Cherokee physician Connie Redbird Uri reviewed IHS records and alleged that the federal agency had sterilized as many as 25% of its female patients of childbearing age. Some of the women Uri interviewed were unaware they had been sterilized. Others said they were bullied into consenting or misled to believe the procedure was reversible.
Uri's allegations helped prompt the GAO audit, which found that the Indian Health Service sterilized 3,406 women in four of the agency's 12 service areas between 1973 and 1976, including in Albuquerque. The agency found that some patients were under the age of 21 and most had signed forms that didn't comply with federal regulations meant to ensure informed consent.
GAO researchers determined that interviewing women who had undergone sterilizations "would not be productive," citing a single study of cardiac surgical patients in New York who struggled to recall past conversations with doctors. Because of the lack of patient interviews and the narrow purview of the GAO's audit, advocates say the full scope and impact remains unaccounted for.
A venue to tell their stories
Whitehorse didn't share her experience for nearly 40 years, she said. First, she told her daughter. Then, other family.
"Each time I tell my story, it relieves the shame, the guilt," Whitehorse said. "Now I think, why should I be ashamed? It's the government that should be ashamed of what they did to us."
Whitehorse now advocates publicly for victims of forced sterilization. In 2025, she testified about the practice to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and called for the United States to formally apologize.
Whitehorse hopes New Mexico's investigation will offer more victims a venue to tell their stories. But advocates like Rachael Lorenzo, executive director of the Albuquerque-based sexual and reproductive health organization Indigenous Women Rising, say the commission must be careful to avoid re-traumatizing survivors across generations.
"It's such a taboo topic. There's a lot of support that needs to happen when we tell these traumatic stories," said Lorenzo.
In a New Mexico legislative hearing earlier this month, retired Indian Health Service physician Dr. Donald Clark testified that he has seen patients in their 20s and 30s "seeking contraception but not trusting that they will not be irreversibly sterilized" because of stories quietly passed down by their grandmothers, mothers and aunts.
"It's still an issue that is affecting women's choice of birth control today," Clark said.
A pattern of disenfranchisement
A 1927 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Buck v. Bell upheld states' rights to sterilize people it considered "unfit" to reproduce, paving the way for the forced sterilization of immigrants, people of color, disabled people and other disenfranchised groups throughout the 20th century.
According to Lorenzo and Deer, the sterilization of Native American women fits into a pattern of federal policies meant to disrupt Native people's reproductive autonomy, from the systemic removal of Indigenous children into government boarding schools and non-Native foster homes to the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which prevents tribal clinics and hospitals that receive federal funding from performing abortions in almost all cases.
In Canada, doctors have been sanctioned as recently as 2023 for sterilizing Indigenous women without their consent.
Deer said New Mexico's investigation could pave the way for accountability. But without cooperation from the federal government, Deer said the commission's fact-finding abilities would be limited.
Luján, Merkley want to ban digital price stickers at grocery stores - Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., wants to ban price gouging and digital price tags on grocery store shelves.
“Anything that is contributing to the increased cost or price gouging with food should be addressed and needs to be addressed,” Luján said.
Luján and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act earlier this month, and a large grocery store workers union is backing the bill.
Concern over potential surveillance pricing at grocery stores has been brewing in Congress for the last several years, with a particular focus on Kroger and Microsoft's partnership on electronic shelf labels. The companies announced a pilot program using electronic shelf labels and a smart technology system to hyper-personalize the in-person shopping experience in 2019.
However, a working paper published last year found minimal effect on grocery store prices from electronic shelf label use, and the researchers behind it doubt grocery stores have a real motive to surge prices for individual consumers.
Along with banning electronic shelf labels in grocery stores that are 10,000 square feet or larger and requiring disclosure of facial recognition technology, the new bill would prohibit surveillance pricing at in-person grocery stores. Surveillance pricing is when personal consumer data is used to offer a customer the highest price they’d be willing to pay and typically is used by online retailers. The bill also establishes ways to enforce those restrictions.
“There needs to be transparency in these spaces so that we don't see additional price gouging on top of the tariffs that are coming from (President) Donald Trump,” Luján said.
Walmart, Whole Foods Market and Kroger — the company that owns Smith’s — all use electronic shelf labels in some of their stores. Walmart and Kroger did not respond to Journal requests for comment, and Whole Foods did not make someone available to speak about the legislation or provide comment.
A Whole Foods official confirmed the grocery chain is piloting electronic price signs in select stores, but said the retailer does not use surge or dynamic pricing or facial recognition technology.
In 2024, Walmart announced it planned to roll out electronic shelf labels to 2,300 stores by 2026, touting the technology for increasing productivity by making it easier to update shelf prices. The digital price tags can be changed much more rapidly than physical price stickers.
One of the bill’s prominent backers is the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents more than a million workers, including roughly 4,000 Smith’s and Albertsons employees in New Mexico. The union supports the bill because grocery price changes also affect its members when they shop for their own families, said UFCW International Vice President Ademola Oyefeso, and automation of grocery store work could cause union members to lose work.
He also thinks electronic shelf labels could cause confusion over prices and make the customer experience more negative, bringing more complaints to grocery store workers.
“This legislation is attacking the affordability crisis. Without legislation like this, grocery prices will go up,” Oyefeso said.
Ioannis Stamatopoulos, an associate professor of operations at the University of Texas at Austin, has looked for evidence that grocery stores are using electronic shelf labels to raise prices and hasn’t found it. Banning the technology could put the U.S. behind on reducing grocery store waste, according to Stamatopoulos. The shelf labels can be used to more quickly offer discounts on food close to its expiration, something he’s seen happen in European grocery chains he’s worked with.
Stamatopoulos, along with Robert Sanders of the University of California, San Diego, and Robert Bray of Northwestern University, authored a working paper that examined product prices at a large U.S. grocery retailer that’s been mentioned in regulator communications — the researchers won’t share the retailer’s name. They found virtually no surge pricing before or after electronic shelf labels were used. Temporary price increases affected roughly 0.005% of products on average before the electronic labels. That rate changed by 0.0006 percentage points after the electronic labels were in use.
They’re still updating the study with another year of data, but found the electronic labels have “no effect on temporary price increases and only limited effects on temporary price decreases."
Stamatopoulos thinks that’s because grocery stores value acquiring and retaining customers over the long term, and grocery shoppers are very sensitive to price increases.
“Where they really make money is if week after week you go there and you fill your entire basket,” he said. “Even if there's a small chance that they'll piss you off with a surge price, they won't take that chance.”
Western New Mexico University narrows president search to five finalists - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
Western New Mexico University is moving closer to choosing a new president, after the previous university leader resigned in December 2024 following allegations he misused state funds.
The university announced this week that five finalists have been chosen in the search for a president, with visits and interviews scheduled between Feb. 25 and March 4 at the university’s main campus in Silver City. The WNMU Board of Regents is expected to announce the new leader on March 17.
Carlos Rey Romero is the only finalist out of the five that comes from New Mexico. He currently serves as the associate vice president at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. The other four finalists are: Jose E. Coll, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Western Oregon University; Cameron Braxton Wesson, provost and vice president of academic affairs at La Salle University in Pennsylvania; Sharon A. Jones, vice chancellor for academic affairs and professor of engineering at the University of Washington Bothell; and Mario Martinez, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Fort Lewis College in Colorado.
Their past experiences range from economic development and research to engineering and the military.
“Each candidate brings a unique perspective that aligns with our mission as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and our commitment to the applied liberal arts,” WNMU Interim President Chris Maples said in a written statement. “I encourage everyone to partake in the selection process where possible, either in person or remotely.”
WNMU Board of Regents Chair Steve Neville told Source New Mexico that the search committee had more than 20 applicants for the president position and narrowed it down to a strong pool of finalists. He said he has spoken with all five candidates and believes it will be tough to make a final decision.
“We’re going to have to talk about it and make some decisions and just decide which one probably fits the culture, the need and the leadership,” Neville said, adding that the university’s “biggest hit” in recent years was a cyberattack in April 2025 that left systems unavailable. “We lost quite a bit of enrollment this last round and we want to recover that and it’s going to take somebody that has good leadership, as far as recruiting students…and retention.”
WNMU also remains involved in the fallout from previous university President Joseph Shepard’s misuse of funds and the board of regents’ decision at the time to award him a $1.9 million severance package. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and the New Mexico State Ethics Commission brought civil cases against Shepard due to the misconduct found by an ethics commission investigation. Parties will return to court Feb. 20 to consider a motion filed by Shepard to dismiss the case involving the state ethics commission.
Shepard filed his own civil suit against WNMU and New Mexico State Auditor Joseph Maestas for damages due to retaliation in violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act. A hearing is scheduled for March 2 to consider a motion to dismiss filed by the defendants.
“We’re assuming that the new president won’t have that much to do with [the lawsuits],” Neville said. “We can either hope to settle those or they will run their course, but either way, the new president’s primary goal is to get the university back on track.”
Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp. board fires executive director - Santa Fe New Mexican
The Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp. board fired its Executive Director Christine Robertson.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Robertson had served in the position for five years.
Robertson’s attorney, John Day, told the New Mexican the dismissal came after Robertson refused to approve financial documents she believed contained what Day described as “material inaccuracies.”
Day said the decision could violate the state’s whistleblower protections. Day says Robertson was dismissed on Feb. 11 and is currently on 60 days of paid administrative leave.
The action came several months after former Santa Fe city councilor Rosemary Romero, was elected board president. The nonprofit Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp. manages the city-owned Railyard District.
Romero told the New Mexican she could not discuss personnel matters but described the change as a positive.
Current board member Robert Siqueiros has been named the organization’s interim director.
Santa Fe City Council to discuss Soldiers' Monument at Tuesday meeting - Santa Fe New Mexican
Santa Fe Mayor Michael Garcia has scheduled a special City Council meeting on the matter of the Soldiers’ Monument.
On Indigenous Peoples Day in 2020, the monument, which once stood in the city plaza, was toppled by protesters.
Several months prior, then-Mayor Alan Webber had called for the monument’s removal amid local and nationwide protests over racial injustice.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that the monument was commissioned by the Territorial Legislature in the 1860s in honor of fallen Civil War Union soldiers.
The monument has long been controversial due to a plaque also honoring those who died in battle against what the text on the plaque described “savage Indians.” The word “savage” was chiseled off in 1974.
The Santa Fe City Council will meet at 4 p.m. on Tuesday for presentations about the obelisk, a status update from the mayor and city manager, public comment and a discussion on possible next steps.
Garcia told the New Mexican he learned after becoming mayor the city had filed an insurance claim for the obelisk’s destruction and had received a payout.
Garcia said he is working with staff to determine the payout amount and whether the city has done anything with the money.