New Mexico jurors watch Zuckerberg deposition in Meta child safety bellwether trial - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
Jurors in a bellwether trial about the impacts of social media on children watched a deposition of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday that explored what the architects of Facebook and Instagram knew from internal research about the negative experiences of young users and how the company responded.
New Mexico's attorney general alleges that Meta violated state consumer protection laws in failing to disclose what it knew about the dangers of addiction to social media as well as child sexual exploitation on the company's platforms. Attorneys for Meta say the company discloses risks and makes efforts to weed out harmful content and experiences — acknowledging that some bad material still gets through its safety net.
In the pretrial deposition recorded last year, prosecutors confronted Zuckerberg with internal company communications and emails from platform users spanning back to the infancy of Facebook in 2008 that discuss "problematic" and addictive use of social media.
"Over the past 15 years, users of your products have repeatedly told your company and you personally that they find the products to be addictive, that's true isn't it?" Previn Warren, a member of the prosecution team, asked Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg took issue with the word "addictive."
"I think people sometimes use that word colloquially," he said "That's not what we're trying to do with the products, and it's not how I think they work."
At the same time, Zuckerberg said he wants to "make sure that we can understand so we can improve the products and make them better for people in ways that they want."
Zuckerberg went on to concede that he initially set goals for employees to increase the amount of time teenagers spent on its platform amid efforts to expand business revenue and the number of platform users.
"Yes, I think we focused on time spent as one of the major engagement goals," Zuckerberg said. "Sometime during 2017 and beyond — for, at this point, most of the last 10 years — we've focused on other metrics."
The deposition also delved into Zuckerberg's decision to lift a temporary Instagram ban on the use of cosmetic filters that changed people's appearance in a way that seemed to promote plastic surgery.
"I care a lot about not cracking down on the ways that people can express themselves and there's, like, always been a lot of pressure to do that and censor our services," Zuckerberg said. "I didn't find any of the anecdotal examples that people used to be convincing that it was actually clear evidence that this was going to be harmful."
The deposition was shown during the fourth week of the civil trial. Meta, which also owns WhatsApp, prohibits children under 13 from using its platforms, but some manage to sign up anyway.
On Tuesday, the New Mexico jury watched a video in which prosecutors peppered Instagram head Adam Mosseri with questions about Meta's approach to safety, corporate profits and social media features. They also asked him about policies for young users that might contribute to unwanted communications with adults.
The New Mexico case and a separate trial against Meta in Los Angeles could set the course for thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies.
Zuckerberg testified last month in Los Angeles about young people's use of Instagram and has answered questions from Congress about youth safety on Meta's platforms.
During his 2024 congressional testimony, he apologized to families whose lives had been upended by tragedies they believed were caused by social media. But while he told parents he was "sorry for everything you have all been through," he stopped short of taking direct responsibility for it.
Pearce’s BLM nomination advances to Senate floor - Justin Horwath, Albuquerque Journal
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved Steve Pearce’s nomination as the director of the Bureau of Land Management.
Senators on the committee voted along party lines 11-9 on Wednesday to send Pearce’s nomination to the Senate floor for a full vote. Pearce, a 78-year-old Republican with a long history in New Mexico politics, faces a Senate floor with a GOP majority, while Democrats have 45 seats.
A spokesperson for Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat and a ranking member of the committee, said the timing of the full Senate vote is now in the hands of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican.
Still, Pearce’s path to the nomination faced no shortage of dissent. Environmental groups have long fought with Pearce over his advocacy for the oil and gas industry.
Camilla Feibelman, director of the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club, released a statement Wednesday that said Pearce “supported expanding oil and gas drilling on federal public lands and led the charge to shrink the size of existing national monuments.”
“Americans deserve a trustworthy leader who would prioritize managing our cherished public lands for the good of all, rather than selling them off to polluting corporations,” Feibelman said.
Heinrich voted against Pearce’s nomination, made in November by President Donald Trump.
“Mr. Chairman, I’ve known Congressman Pearce for a long time,” Heinrich said.
For 14 years, Pearce served as the U.S. House representative of New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District. He ran an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2018 and afterward served as the chair of the New Mexico Republican Party.
Pearce and Heinrich, who together served in the U.S. House from 2009 to 2013, clashed over bills to designate the Organ Mountains in Doña Ana County’s Mesilla Valley as a national monument. Former President Barack Obama eventually made the designation in December 2014.
When Pearce testified to the committee last week, “he promised that he would not recommend rolling back national monument designations, something which is extremely important to me,” Heinrich said. Pearce also acknowledged that the agency he wants to lead “cannot conduct large-scale selloffs of public lands under existing law, which is correct.”
Last week, Heinrich, while questioning Pearce, called the fight over the Organ Mountains “water under the bridge” but asked Pearce to reflect on the episode.
In reply, Pearce insisted he would not revisit the issue as BLM director.
“At the end of the day, that’s a presidential decision anyway,” Pearce said of monument designation. “But I don’t view myself as going and making a recommendation. There is too much ahead of us to get done to focus on things that have happened in the past. It’s been recognized, and it’s operating.”
“I intend to hold him to these statements,” Heinrich said during Wednesday’s hearing. “But I also know that commitments to follow the law by previous Trump administration nominees have proven unreliable at times.”
Nonetheless, politics ruled the day.
“These nominees are qualified, capable and ready to serve,” Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Republican chairman of the committee, said of Pearce and other nominees.
Longtime infrastructure engineer appointed acting NMDOT secretary - John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday appointed David Quintana, a veteran engineer and division director at the New Mexico Department of Transportation, to be the agency’s acting secretary.
Quintana succeeds Ricky Serna, whom state Treasurer Laura Montoya hired as deputy state treasurer this month after Serna stepped down from the top NMDOT post in February.
Most recently a senior executive engineer, Quintana has worked for NMDOT for over two decades, ascending the ranks from an engineer trainee to his most recent role as Programs and Infrastructure Division director, according to a news release from the Governor’s Office.
“David Quintana has spent his career delivering transportation projects that connect our communities and move New Mexico forward,” Gov. Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “He is well prepared to lead the Department of Transportation."
Quintana’s qualifications to lead the department, the governor said, include overseeing over 220 employees and managing an annual budget of roughly $500 million in his prior position with NMDOT.
Quintana spent time directing the agency’s statewide design and construction program, according to the release. He managed six district offices in that capacity and oversaw the development, bridge design, environmental review, right-of-way acquisition and the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan — a four-year program designed to execute several federally funded transportation projects in New Mexico.
He holds a bachelor’s in civil engineering from New Mexico State University and will assume the new role as acting secretary immediately, according to the Governor’s Office.
NMDOH announces another measles case found in a detention center, the first with a public exposure — Daniel Montaño, KUNM News
A federal inmate at the Doña Ana Detention Center has tested positive for measles, the sixth such case in the week since the first case this year was detected at the Hidalgo County Detention Center.
The New Mexico Department of Health announced the positive result Wednesday saying the public may have been exposed in this most recent case at the U.S. District Court in Las Cruces between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on February 24th.
NMDOH recommends any individuals who were at the courthouse during that time to double check their vaccination status to ensure they are up to date on the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine.
NMDOH Deputy State Epidemiologist Dr. Chad Smelser said the vaccine is the best way to protect from measles, with a 97% success rate with two doses.
If symptoms develop, such as a cough, fever, and runny nose followed by a rash on the head, stay home to prevent spread and contact your health care provider, or the NMDOH helpline for guidance.
New Mexicans can find vaccine resources at all NMDOH Public Health Offices and can find more information on their measles guidance webpage.
Navajo Nation commission issues report on Gallup schools’ disparate discipline for Native students - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission is calling on leadership of Gallup-McKinley County Schools to develop an alternative, culturally appropriate disciplinary system following findings that the district imposes disproportionately harsh punishments, including expulsion, on Native American students.
The commission last fall convened four public hearings at Navajo Nation chapter houses following a 2022 New Mexico InDepth and ProPublica investigation that found disparities in how the Gallup-McKinley County School District disciplines Native American students.
The commission included recommendations based on those findings in a report it released Tuesday.
The news organizations analyzed state Education Department disciplinary data and found that the district expelled Native American students at 10 times the rate as the rest of the state. The report also found that district employees called law enforcement to address alleged misbehavior by Native students at four times the rate as the rest of New Mexico.
Half of the district’s 32 schools lie within the Navajo Nation boundaries, and about 70% of the district’s roughly 13,000 students are Native American, most of them Navajo, according to district data.
Creating an “alternative restorative justice action plan” in collaboration with the tribe emerged as one of four main recommendations by the commission following the hearings. The commission described the disciplinary system it prefers as one that creates “culturally appropriate and effective interventions that address student behavior while promoting positive outcomes.”
Other Navajo school districts, as a disciplinary alternative to expulsion, have pursued restorative justice circles, which seek to rebuild relationships instead of punishing offending students.
The commission said the hearings aimed to give parents, students and educators a platform to share experiences and make recommendations to address discrimination at the district. Across four hearings, 39 Navajo citizens, including parents, grandparents, leaders and district employees spoke up, according to the report.
Most of the speakers described insufficient cultural awareness and training among district employees, according to the report.
“Speakers argued that this deficiency has direct negative effects on student academic outcomes, as teachers who are not educated about or sensitive to Navajo culture may be ill-equipped to address cultural differences or to manage student discipline issues effectively,” commissioners wrote.
One unnamed speaker the report highlighted, a woman caring for her three grandchildren following their mother’s death, testified that she didn’t feel heard when district employees disciplined her youngest granddaughter and that employees imposed punishment that was “harsh and insensitive to their circumstances,” according to the report.
In an emailed statement to Source NM on Wednesday, Interim Superintendent Jvanna Hanks, through a spokesperson, called the commission’s work “important” and noted that district employees participated in each of the four hearings. She said the district is making a “constant effort to improve the services we provide to our many communities, including the Navajo Nation and to improve the quality of education for all of our students.”
“Today, GMCS has new leadership and a new school board, and we are working to continue and to further address the kinds of concerns addressed in the Commission’s report,” she said.
The commission also heard concerns from Navajo parents who said they felt the district invested more in schools off the reservation and that they had no access to administrators or principals.
“Community members consistently expressed feelings of being excluded and segregated from the district administration,” the authors wrote. “The physical and perceived distance contributed to their sense of marginalization.”
In addition to a restorative justice approach to discipline, the commission called on the New Mexico Public Education Department to more proactively examine disciplinary action data to identify disparities.
It also called for the state to conduct a “comprehensive financial audit” of whether the district provides more funding to schools off the reservation than the ones within its boundaries.
Janelle Taylor Garcia, a spokesperson for the state education department, told Source NM in a statement Wednesday that the department currently “collects and monitors discipline data to identify disproportionality in student discipline” and provides assistance to school districts to address disparate treatment. The department also reports that data to the U.S. Department of Education, Taylor Garcia said.
The report also urged New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez to complete his office’s investigation into the district that he announced in 2023 following the ProPublica and NM InDepth article.
New Mexico Department of Justice Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez told Source NM in a statement Wednesday that the department is “finalizing” its investigation into a report that will highlight “the need for continued oversight of the district, enforcement of data reporting requirements, and meaningful review to better track and baseline student discipline across the state.”
This story has been updated to include comment from the New Mexico Public Education Department.
Texas energy company seeks federal approval for pipeline through New Mexico to power data center - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A Texas energy company has applied to build a 17-mile pipeline in Doña Ana County in order to help power a controversial data center in Southern New Mexico.
Several southern New Mexico Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups plan to lodge objections to Houston-headquartered Energy Transfer’s proposal for the $60 million pipeline, which it filed in February with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The project would pipe 400,000 dekatherms of gas daily to power plants for Project Jupiter, according to the nearly 900-page application for the $60 million pipeline, dubbed the “Green Chile Project.” As a point of comparison, that amount of gas used daily would power Española for one year, according to Lu Liu, an assistant civil engineering professor at Iowa State University.
Energy Transfer requested FERC allow the construction to start on April 15, just days after the public comment period closes on April 13, in order for the pipeline to be operational by Aug.15. However, the application notes that the project would require additional state and federal permits to move forward. Energy Transfer did not respond to phone and emailed requests for comment.
The construction would mostly take place on federal Bureau of Land Management and private lands, but would require approval from the New Mexico State Land Office for a small portion of just over half a mile.
Joey Keefe, assistant commissioner of communications for the state land office said his agency is still reviewing the application and that the portion on state land can’t be built without that approval.
Energy Transfer’s application also notes that the pipeline depends on the state environment department approving Project Jupiter’s air permit applications for twin natural gas generating stations. Public comment for those applications ended on March 2.
The state has until April 22 to make a decision, the agency’s Communications Director Drew Goretzka told Source NM, he said otherwise the state had no authority on the pipeline.
Several state officials and advocates said they were unaware of the proposed pipeline until contacted by Source NM.
“We continue to learn things daily about the scale, the breadth, and in this case, the speed of which they’re just dead set on moving their plan forward in a way that puts at risk the air quality and public health of southern New Mexico,” State Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces) said.
In the 2026 session, Steinborn introduced legislation that would have added requirements for private power plants to follow state laws requiring electricity generation from renewable resources. It failed to clear both chambers.
“New Mexico remains incredibly vulnerable to climate vultures coming in and setting up big polluting sites in the name of economic development, and our law does not protect us, our law does not create those guardrails,” he said.
Rep. Angelica Rubio (D-Las Cruces) said she was concerned federal regulators would rubber-stamp the proposal, despite community concerns.
“I’m flabbergasted — it is the only word that comes to mind,” she said in a call with Source NM. “It’s a threat to our democracy in the sense that people genuinely do not want this project here and it’s still moving forward as if it’s being supported.”
Last September, county officials approved $165 billion in bonds for the data center, even as the project estimates it could emit as much greenhouse gases as New Mexico’s two largest cities combined. Local environmental groups have accused local officials of violating state transparency laws and of an improper process in the bond vote.
Camilla Feibelman, director for the Rio Grande Sierra Club, said the organization would make formal objections to Energy Transfer’s proposal during the public comment period.
“If this company thinks that there won’t be any protests to turning New Mexico into a methane gas sacrifice zone, they have another thing coming,” she said.
US issues first commercial construction permit for a nuclear reactor in years to a Wyoming project - By Mead Gruver, Associated Press
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved its first construction permit for a commercial nuclear reactor in eight years, one that will allow a Bill Gates-backed company to build a sodium-cooled reactor in western Wyoming.
TerraPower filed for the permit in 2024 and construction is now set to begin within weeks. Completion of the up to $4 billion plant is targeted for 2030, according to TerraPower. Microsoft co-founder Gates, who is eyeing nuclear generation as a power source for the electricity-hungry data centers behind artificial intelligence, is a founder of TerraPower and its primary investor.
"We have spent thousands of manpower hours working to achieve this momentous accomplishment," TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque said in a statement.
The TerraPower plant is set to be built near a coal-fired power plant that is being converted to burn natural gas outside Kemmerer, a town of about 2,500 people some 130 miles (210 kilometers) northeast of Salt Lake City.
Gates and his energy company are seeking to develop a next-generation nuclear plant that would "revolutionize" how power is generated. The 345-megawatt reactor is expected to produce up to 500 megawatts at its peak, enough energy for up to 400,000 homes.
Construction at the TerraPower plant site — though not on the reactor itself — began in 2024.
The reactor construction permit for a TerraPower subsidiary is the NRC's first approval for a non-light-water commercial reactor in more than 40 years, the NRC said in a statement.
Virtually all of the world's commercial nuclear reactors use water to control reactions and transfer heat to drive turbines and produce electricity.
The NRC last issued a construction permit for a conventional light-water reactor to Florida Power & Light Company for a power plant south of Miami in 2018. That project has yet to be built.
The TerraPower reactor would use molten sodium, not water, as a coolant.
The last commercial non-light-water reactor in operation in the U.S. was the Fort St. Vrain nuclear plant in northern Colorado. The problem-plagued, helium-cooled plant produced electricity from the mid-1970s until it was shut down in 1989.
In October, Gates told reporters he thinks nuclear power will be a "gigantic contributor" to powering data centers. He had recently met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and various members of Congress and said the government was "very involved" in the TerraPower reactor.
"I wish I could deliver nuclear fission like three years earlier than I can, because then we'd have a perfect match to the current demand pattern of these data center guys," he said.
The plant would use a highly enriched form of uranium that in recent years has been obtainable only from Russia. TerraPower has been lining up other sources to produce the fuel domestically and in South Africa, according to the company.
While the Trump administration pushes toward nuclear power, the federal government has yet to address the thousands of tons of spent fuel that have been piling up for decades at nuclear plants nationwide. New Mexico and Texas have dug in their heels to keep from becoming dumping grounds in the absence of a permanent solution.
In January, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it was taking what it called a first step toward possible partnerships with states to modernize the fuel cycle, including reprocessing spent fuel and disposing of waste. The agency gave states until April 1 to step forward if they're interested in participating.
The TerraPower reactor would produce relatively less nuclear waste than conventional reactors, according to the company.
___
Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
US issues first commercial construction permit for a nuclear reactor in years to a Wyoming project - By Mead Gruver, Associated Press
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved its first construction permit for a commercial nuclear reactor in eight years, one that will allow a Bill Gates-backed company to build a sodium-cooled reactor in western Wyoming.
TerraPower filed for the permit in 2024 and construction is now set to begin within weeks. Completion of the up to $4 billion plant is targeted for 2030, according to TerraPower. Microsoft co-founder Gates, who is eyeing nuclear generation as a power source for the electricity-hungry data centers behind artificial intelligence, is a founder of TerraPower and its primary investor.
"We have spent thousands of manpower hours working to achieve this momentous accomplishment," TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque said in a statement.
The TerraPower plant is set to be built near a coal-fired power plant that is being converted to burn natural gas outside Kemmerer, a town of about 2,500 people some 130 miles (210 kilometers) northeast of Salt Lake City.
Gates and his energy company are seeking to develop a next-generation nuclear plant that would "revolutionize" how power is generated. The 345-megawatt reactor is expected to produce up to 500 megawatts at its peak, enough energy for up to 400,000 homes.
Construction at the TerraPower plant site — though not on the reactor itself — began in 2024.
The reactor construction permit for a TerraPower subsidiary is the NRC's first approval for a non-light-water commercial reactor in more than 40 years, the NRC said in a statement.
Virtually all of the world's commercial nuclear reactors use water to control reactions and transfer heat to drive turbines and produce electricity.
The NRC last issued a construction permit for a conventional light-water reactor to Florida Power & Light Company for a power plant south of Miami in 2018. That project has yet to be built.
The TerraPower reactor would use molten sodium, not water, as a coolant.
The last commercial non-light-water reactor in operation in the U.S. was the Fort St. Vrain nuclear plant in northern Colorado. The problem-plagued, helium-cooled plant produced electricity from the mid-1970s until it was shut down in 1989.
In October, Gates told reporters he thinks nuclear power will be a "gigantic contributor" to powering data centers. He had recently met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and various members of Congress and said the government was "very involved" in the TerraPower reactor.
"I wish I could deliver nuclear fission like three years earlier than I can, because then we'd have a perfect match to the current demand pattern of these data center guys," he said.
The plant would use a highly enriched form of uranium that in recent years has been obtainable only from Russia. TerraPower has been lining up other sources to produce the fuel domestically and in South Africa, according to the company.
While the Trump administration pushes toward nuclear power, the federal government has yet to address the thousands of tons of spent fuel that have been piling up for decades at nuclear plants nationwide. New Mexico and Texas have dug in their heels to keep from becoming dumping grounds in the absence of a permanent solution.
In January, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it was taking what it called a first step toward possible partnerships with states to modernize the fuel cycle, including reprocessing spent fuel and disposing of waste. The agency gave states until April 1 to step forward if they're interested in participating.
The TerraPower reactor would produce relatively less nuclear waste than conventional reactors, according to the company.
___
Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.