New Mexico seeks child safety restrictions on Meta apps and algorithms in trial's 2nd phase - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
New Mexico state prosecutors are seeking fundamental changes to Meta's social media apps and algorithms to safeguard children in the second phase of a landmark trial on allegations that platforms such as Instagram have created a public safety hazard.
Opening statements are scheduled Monday in the three-week bench trial to decide whether the platforms of Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, pose a public nuisance under state law.
In the first phase, jurors ordered $375 million in civil penalties against Meta, determining that it knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
Prosecutors are now asking a judge to impose fundamental changes aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.
Meta has vowed to appeal the jury verdict and warned that it could eliminate Instagram and Facebook service in New Mexico if forced to comply with impractical mandates.
"The fact that we're having a trial on nuisance is itself a remarkable outcome," said Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law in California. "That theory is not well accepted as applied to the internet, and that theory doesn't really fit the internet."
Trial could alter algorithms that define social media
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the jury verdict punctured the aura of invincibility protecting tech companies from liability for material on their platforms under Section 230, a 30-year-old provision of the U.S. Communications Decency Act.
A Los Angeles jury separately found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children, validating long-standing concerns about dangers of social media.
New Mexico prosecutors are demanding that Meta help remedy a mental health crisis among children through a series of safeguards and changes, including a redesign of algorithms that make content recommendations so they no longer prioritize constant engagement.
Prosecutors are also targeting other features linked to compulsive use such as "infinite scroll," which continuously loads content; push notifications; and default settings that show tallies for "likes" and sharing. Their lawsuit also seeks improvements to age verification and other steps aimed at curbing child sexual exploitation.
And New Mexico wants child accounts on Meta platforms to have an associated parent or guardian, as well as a court-supervised child safety monitor to track improvements over time.
Meta asserts free speech protections
Executives have said the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive use and that many demands from prosecutors are redundant.
Meta plans to call an array of technical experts as witnesses in arguing that the demands are impractical if not impossible and would force it to "disregard the realities of the internet."
The company also argues that its platforms are being singled out among hundreds of apps that teens use, leaving children vulnerable on platforms with less robust protections.
The company is invoking free speech protections that have shielded social media for decades.
"The state's proposed mandates infringe on parental rights and stifle free expression for all New Mexicans," Meta said last week in a statement.
Influence could be far-reaching
The case is the first to reach trial among lawsuits filed by more than 40 state attorneys general on allegations that Meta contributes to a youth mental health crisis. Most are pursuing remedies in U.S. federal court.
Torrez, the state attorney general, said that puts the case in a unique position not only "to try and change the paradigm of how this company does business, but also how Big Tech generally is expected to do business going forward."
Goldman said prosecutors may be venturing into uncertain legal waters just in seeking age verification mandates.
"In practice a court order saying that Facebook had to impose age authentication would have no Supreme Court textual support," he said. "The Supreme Court might bless it. We don't know."
The first phase of the trial saw six weeks of testimony from witnesses including teachers, psychiatric experts, state investigators, top Meta officials and whistleblowers who left the company.
Journal Poll: Hull leads in three-way GOP primary race for governor, but many voters still undecided - Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
As next month’s primary election approaches, many New Mexico Republicans still haven’t decided who to support in the state’s open race for governor.
A new Journal Poll found former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull leading his two GOP rivals — Doug Turner and Duke Rodriguez — with 30% support among Republican and independent voters who plan to cast a ballot in the June 2 election.
But 40% of the voters surveyed in the poll said they were still undecided about which candidate to vote for, leaving the race far from decided with early voting set to begin Tuesday.
“Republican voters are still getting to know their three candidates for governor, so the race is up for grabs,” said Brian Sanderoff, the president of Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc., which conducted the poll.
None of the three Republican candidates vying for their party’s nomination have held statewide or congressional office before, which could contribute to their limited name recognition around New Mexico, Sanderoff said.
Turner is a small business owner from Albuquerque who got the support of 21% of voters surveyed in the poll, while Rodriguez, a cannabis entrepreneur and former state Cabinet secretary, received the backing of 9% of voters surveyed.
In addition, the Republican gubernatorial candidates have lagged behind their Democratic counterparts when it comes to campaign fundraising. The three GOP candidates combined had raised roughly $1.5 million as of last month — or just a fraction of the nearly $11 million raised by Democratic frontrunner Deb Haaland.
While the tone of the race could change in the run-up to Election Day, the three Republicans have so far refrained from attacking one another. They largely agreed on key issues during a televised debate last week, though they did diverge on the future of the state fairgrounds.
New Mexicans have elected two Republicans to the Governor’s Office in the last 30 years — Gary Johnson and Susana Martinez — but the state has trended increasingly Democratic in recent election cycles. The last Republican to win a statewide race was former Supreme Court Justice Judy Nakamura, who did so in 2016.
The winner of the GOP primary will face off against either Haaland or her fellow Democrat Sam Bregman in the November general election. Independent Ken Miyagishima is also running in the open race, as current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.
Differences in regional views
Unlike in the Democratic primary contest, the Journal Poll did not find big swings in voters’ preferences in the GOP primary based on their self-described political ideology or education levels.
However, there were significant differences based on region, as Hull had a commanding lead over his Republican rivals in both the Albuquerque metro area and in the state’s north-central region.
That advantage is likely due to Hull having served as Rio Rancho’s mayor for 12 years before stepping down last week, Sanderoff said.
But Hull trailed Turner among voters who live in eastern New Mexico, a traditionally conservative part of the state where the agriculture and oil industries play outsized roles.
Roughly 27% of eastern New Mexico voters surveyed said they planned to vote for Turner, compared to 19% for Hull. Meanwhile, in the Las Cruces/southwestern New Mexico region, more than half the voters were still undecided.
As for gender differences, both male and female voters were more likely to support Hull than either Turner or Rodriguez, but women were more narrowly split than were men.
This year’s primary election marks New Mexico’s first-ever semi-open primary, under a law approved last year that allows independent voters to cast a ballot in either the Democratic or Republican primary without having to change their party affiliation.
While independent voters, or those who decline to affiliate with a political party, have seen their numbers grow in recent months and now make up roughly 26% of New Mexico’s total voting population, it’s unclear how many of them will ultimately vote in the June primary election.
For that reason, Republicans made up 90% of the Journal Poll’s sample size, with independents who said they planned to cast a ballot in the GOP primary making up the remaining 10% of the sample.
Rodriguez posted a stronger showing among those independent voters than he did among registered Republicans, as 14% of such voters surveyed said they planned to vote for the political outsider who has eschewed the GOP establishment and already reported giving $500,000 of his own money to his campaign.
In contrast, support levels did not vary for Hull and Turner based on party affiliation.
Methodology
The Journal Poll was conducted from April 24 to May 1. It is based on a statewide random sample of 477 registered Republicans who cast ballots in the 2020, 2022, and/or 2024 Republican primary elections, and a sample of Republicans who registered to vote since January 2025, who said they are very likely to vote in the upcoming election.
The poll also included 51 independent (or unaffiliated) voters with proven voter history, who said they are very likely to vote in the upcoming Republican primary election.
The total sample is 528, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. The margin of error grows for subsamples.
The sample was stratified by race/ethnicity, county and age, based on traditional voting patterns to ensure a more representative sample.
All interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers, based in Albuquerque, with multiple callbacks to those who did not initially answer the phone.
Both cellphone numbers (96%) and landlines (4%) of likely primary election voters were used.
Hundreds gather for May Day in Albuquerque - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Amid a breezy and overcast day, several hundred people gathered Friday afternoon in Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza for May Day — International Workers Day — with signs and slogans espousing worker solidarity and opposition to the Trump administration.
Organizers — which included labor, immigration and community groups — said the protests are meant to send a message that all New Mexicans deserve better access to living wages and immigrant communities should live without fear.
“Today is about honoring working people, honoring immigrant communities and recognizing that young people are part of the working class,” New Mexico Dream Team Executive Director Fernanda Banda said during the rally. “…This is a reminder that we are not only fighting against harm, because we’re doing it every day, under this administration, but we are also fighting for something bigger, a future that we all build together.”
Attendees during the early portion of the rally told Source NM they felt it was important to show support for better working conditions and oppose the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“Being in community helps you to feel less alone in the ideas that you have, because even if your government isn’t supporting you, you still have people who will,” said Bella Sánchez, 19, a speech therapy student at the University of New Mexico. “We all deserve access to a plethora of things in this life, better immigration, healthcare and food security.”
The demonstration is one of more than 3,000 coordinated across the country for May Day Strong, which builds upon the mass protests in January following the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota. At least five New Mexico locales, including Albuquerque, were scheduled to participate.
Jerry Godbout, an associate professor of chemistry at UNM-Valencia, said his reason for participating was simple, “I just like Burque over billionaires.”
What to know about hantavirus, the illness suspected in a cruise ship outbreak - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
A rodent-borne illness is suspected of causing an outbreak aboard a cruise ship that has killed three people and sickened others.
Studies indicate hantaviruses have been around for centuries, with outbreaks documented in Asia and Europe. In the Eastern Hemisphere, it has been linked with hemorrhagic fever and kidney failure. It wasn't until the early 1990s that a previously unknown group of hantaviruses emerged in the southwestern United States as the cause of an acute respiratory disease now known hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
The disease gained attention last year after late actor Gene Hackman 's wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico.
The World Health Organization said in a statement Sunday that detailed investigations of the cruise ship outbreak are ongoing, including further laboratory testing and epidemiological investigations. Sequencing of the virus also is ongoing.
The virus is spread by rodents and more rarely, people
Hantavirus is mainly spread by contact with rodents or their urine, saliva or droppings, particularly when the material is disturbed and becomes airborne, posing risk of inhalation. People are typically exposed to hantavirus around their homes, cabins or sheds, especially when cleaning out enclosed spaces with little ventilation or exploring areas where there are mouse droppings.
The WHO says that while it rarely happens, hantaviruses can also spread directly between people.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began tracking the virus after a 1993 outbreak in the Four Corners region — the area where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet.
It was an astute physician with the Indian Health Service who first noticed a pattern of deaths among young patients, said Michelle Harkins, a pulmonologist with the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center who for years has been studying the disease and helping patients.
Most U.S. cases are in Western states. New Mexico and Arizona are hotspots, Harkins said, likely because the odds are greater for mouse-human encounters in rural areas.
The illness starts with flu-like symptoms
An infection can rapidly progress and become life-threatening. Experts say it can start with symptoms that include a fever, chills, muscle aches and maybe a headache.
"Early in the illness, you really may not be able to tell the difference between hantavirus and having the flu," said Dr. Sonja Bartolome of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome usually show between one to eight weeks after contact with an infected rodent. As the infection progresses, patients might experience tightness in the chest, as the lungs fill with fluid.
The other syndrome caused by hantavirus — hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome — usually develops within a week or two after exposure.
Death rates vary by which hantavirus causes the illness. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is fatal in about 35% of people infected, while the death rate for hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome varies from 1% to 15% of patients, according to the CDC.
A lot of unknowns about the illness and treatment
There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
Despite years of research, Harkins said many questions have yet to be answered, including why it can be mild for some people and very severe for others and how antibodies are developed. She and other researchers have been following patients over long periods of time in hopes of finding a treatment.
"A lot of mysteries," she said, noting that what researchers do know is that rodent exposure is a key.
The best way to avoid the germ is to minimize contact with rodents and their droppings. Use protective gloves and a bleach solution for cleaning up rodent droppings. Public health experts caution against sweeping or vacuuming which can cause viruses to get into the air.
Luna Community College Board of Trustees Extends President Linder’s Contract - Las Vegas Optic
In Las Vegas, Luna Community College is extending the contract of its president.
The Las Vegas Optic reports that Dr. Carol Linder’s agreement with the college has been extended through April 25, 2027.
Linder was first named interim president of Luna Community College in June 2024 and was named president in January 2025.
In March of this year, Luna Community College was removed from monitoring status by its accreditation agency, the Higher Learning Commission.
The move indicates the college has addressed prior concerns related to assessment, planning, and financial oversight.
The college has now overcome accreditation problems that began in 2017, when the school was placed on probation by the Higher Learning Commission.
The probationary status was upgraded into monitoring status in 2020, before it was removed this year.
Candidate lawsuit seeks to unseat state NM Republican party chair, prohibit endorsements - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Three Republican candidates filed a lawsuit Thursday against Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Amy Barela and other party officials, urging an Otero County judge to remove her from her post and prohibit the party from endorsing candidates during the ongoing primary election.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez, lieutenant governor candidate Aubrey Blair Dunn and Otero County Commission candidate Jonathan Emery allege that party rules prohibit Barela from serving as chairwoman while also running for re-election as an Otero County commissioner.
Party rules say that when the state’s party chair “files as a candidate for public office and there is another Republican who has filed for the same office, the state officer shall immediately vacate the party office.”
In addition to violating the rule, Barela’s role as chairwoman disadvantages Emery, her opponent, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs, with the help of Ruidoso attorney Gary Mitchell, filed the lawsuit in the 12th Judicial District, which includes Otero County.
The Republican Party’s leadership “has failed in its duties to ensure that [Emery] has a fair opportunity as a Republican Candidate to compete in the upcoming election,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit represents an escalation of controversy brewing for months around Barela’s leadership at RPNM. In March, Bernalillo County Republicans called for her to step down due to what they said amounted to a “cut and dry” violation of party rules.
In response, the state Republican party commissioned an outside review of the matter, which determined that Barela did not violate the rules because she filed for candidacy two minutes before Emery did.
The review focused on the party rule’s requirement that says the chair must resign if another Republican “has filed” for the same race. Because Barela filed before there was a confirmed challenger, the report says, she is “fully compliant” with the rule.
Rodriguez and Dunn also allege party officials have violated party rules by endorsing candidates.
At issue is a social media post the party published April 21 amplifying a Lea County candidate “meet and greet” featured Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Turner and lieutenant governor candidate NM Sen. David Gallegos (R-Eunice).
Rodriguez and Dunn say in the lawsuit they were not invited to the event and noted that party officials ended the post about the event with, “You don’t want to miss this!”
Dunn contended in an interview with Source NM this week that the party amplifying and encouraging attendance to an event from which he and Rodriguez were excluded amounted to an endorsement. Party rules prohibit officers from endorsing one “Republican candidate over another Republican candidate in a primary.”
“The party comes in on certain of these meet and greets and says, ‘You don’t want to miss this,’ with just those candidates in it,” Dunn said. “Maybe it’s not the clearest endorsement, but it’s more endorsement than they should be giving.”
Barela and the Republican Party of New Mexico did not immediately respond Friday afternoon to requests for comment from Source NM.
Dunn said the lawsuit is necessary because Barela and the rest of the party are ignoring “unambiguous” party rules and, in doing so, depriving Republican voters of a fair and open primary election.
Dunn said a lawsuit that seeks a judge’s intervention regarding alleged political party rulebreaking has occurred in cases across the country.
“It’s not unusual,” he said. “It is unusual that something this clear needs to have a court weigh in on it.”
In addition to Barela, the lawsuit names as defendants the Republican Party of New Mexico, Sen. James Townsend (R-Artesia), who is national committeeman for the state Republican party, and Treasurer Kimberly Skaggs.
It also contains two unnamed plaintiffs of the party’s State Central Committee, which is responsible for setting party rules and electing leaders. They were also “harmed by the actions” of party leaders who allegedly violated the party rules, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgement that removes Barela from her position as chair and prohibits defendants from further undermining party rules.