UNMH not renewing contract to provide healthcare at MDC - Matthew Reisen, Albuquerque Journal
With less than a year remaining in its contract, the University of New Mexico Hospital is set to become the latest healthcare provider to leave the embattled Metropolitan Detention Center.
Bernalillo County and UNMH announced Wednesday that they “mutually agreed that UNM Hospital will conclude medical, dental and behavioral health services at MDC, at the end of the current agreement.”
That means UNMH will not renew its contract with the jail in July 2027, four years after the provider took over following two for-profit providers leaving amid rising inmate deaths and substandard care — issues that remain.
Since 2020, 49 people have died at the jail or died after falling ill at the jail. Of those, 24 deaths occurred after UNMH took over in July 2023.
Many of the inmates who died were detoxing at the time, and in recent audits, federal monitors found UNMH was not adhering to constitutional healthcare standards outlined in a 2017 settlement agreement.
“Over the coming months, Bernalillo County and UNM Hospital will work together to ensure continuity of care for patients while evaluating options for the next phase of healthcare services at the detention center,” according to a release from the county.
Bernalillo County Manager Cindy Chavez said there “wasn’t really a single pinpoint reason” for the split, which she repeatedly emphasized was mutual. She said discussions on future providers and how to move forward have not occurred.
Chavez said the county was grateful UNMH jumped in to help when the county “was in dire straits and absolutely needed a medical care provider.” She said no discussions ever occurred about renewing UNMH’s contract another four years.
“I think we have learned a lot, and they have learned a lot. And I think it was just a really good time for us to take all that we learned, so that we can improve opportunities in the future,” Chavez said.
She said the entities “formally” agreed to forego further healthcare provisions Friday and UNMH gave them a year “to make this transition in a collaborative fashion.”
UNMH spokesperson Christopher Ramirez also did not elaborate on any reasoning for the move. He said, “Corrections medicine is complex and it has been particularly so over the past three years at MDC, as the patient population has increased.”
Ramirez added there was a mutual agreement “that conclusion of the UNM Hospital professional services agreement at MDC is the best next step.”
The decision came after commissioners approved millions in budget reconciliations to account for UNMH healthcare costs rising — something the county attributed to the outsized use of travel nurses at the jail. Chavez said the choice to move forward without UNMH was not about money, and UNMH has been paid $89 million “to date” for providing healthcare at MDC.
She said, however, “costs are certainly a consideration” when it comes to MDC, as the county spends up to $120 million – out of its half-billion dollar budget – on “incarcerating people.”
Chavez emphasized the challenges with treating the population at MDC, noting that “almost half” of inmates are homeless and, at any given time, they have over 500 people in custody with mental health issues, along with many addicted to fentanyl and other drugs.
More recently, encampment sweeps undertaken by the city of Albuquerque have repeatedly led to the unhoused being cited for code violations, like blocking the sidewalk, and later jailed for missing hearings. Homeless people now make up the largest population cycling through MDC.
“People who come into our care — are very ill — if half of the people that we have in custody, on average, are homeless, that means they don't have good nutrition, they have chronic healthcare issues, potential addiction issues, and mental health issues,” Chavez said. “So, providing good, strong, quality care is absolutely our highest aspiration in terms of providing services. And to be candid with you, we know we have to learn from our mistakes and do better and better for the public every day.”
Ramirez said “staffing to meet those needs is challenging,” particularly amid a healthcare workforce shortage. He added that the “workforce that chooses to work in correction medicine is a relatively small group.” Ramirez said, at the end of the four years, UNMH “will be proud to have advanced healthcare at MDC and provided high quality care in a facility that houses some of New Mexico’s most vulnerable populations.”
Kate Loewe, an attorney representing those incarcerated at the Bernalillo County jail under the class-action settlement, said she is concerned UNMH will leave “without remedying the problems and our community members in jail will continue to suffer.”
“We were so optimistic about this community partnership. And now we have another transition of providers that will, at least in the short term, deepen the crisis at the jail,” Loewe said in a statement. “Transition in medical vendors is historically a period of increased risk to our clients. Medications can be disrupted, needed equipment can be lost, critical patient information difficult to access. I pray they can make good on this promise of a seamless transition and continuity of care.”
In the county’s news release, County Commissioners Barbara Baca and Adriann Barboa lauded the work UNMH had done for the facility, with Baca stating she appreciated UNMH’s commitment “to helping ensure that the next chapter is even stronger.”
The county release states that the transition process “will evaluate operational lessons learned under the current agreement, identify priorities for the County’s future healthcare delivery model and develop recommendations to support high-quality, sustainable healthcare services at MDC.”
Over the next several months, local and national experts will work alongside the county, UNMH and the state Legislature “to develop a roadmap for the future of healthcare at MDC,” according to the release.
Chavez said the task ahead “is a serious one.”
“I'm very very optimistic that we're going to continue to dramatically improve care. Not just because we know it's a moral obligation, but because we have the talent in our community to do it,” she said.
US House passes bipartisan bill to make daylight saving time permanent - Amelia Twyman, States Newsroom Washington bureau
The U.S. House voted Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent nationwide in a bipartisan move that pushes the country one step closer to ending the long-contested ritual of semiannual clock changes.
The House passed the measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, 308-117. Its future in the Senate is uncertain.
Introduced by Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida, the Sunshine Protection Act passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee 48-1 in May and carries strong support from President Donald Trump.
“This bipartisan legislation represents a popular, common-sense reform and would benefit Americans by protecting precious daylight during the evening, when people are most likely to be awake and active,” the White House said in a statement Tuesday. “If (the bill) were presented to the President in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign it into law.”
Year-round daylight saving time
Permanent daylight saving time would mean keeping the clocks shifted forward one hour all year, eliminating the need to “spring forward” every March and “fall back” each November. The adjustment would extend more daylight into the evening, creating later sunrises and sunsets compared to standard time.
“Establishing permanent daylight saving time would provide families with more usable daylight hours in the evening, giving people additional opportunities to spend time outdoors,” Republican Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis of Florida said during House debates Tuesday.
Many other representatives from Florida voiced their support for the bill Tuesday, saying later daylight hours would help boost the Sunshine State’s economy.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat, agreed.
In his remarks supporting the permanent daylight saving time, he also pointed to the harmful effects that switching the clocks twice a year can have on people’s health, as well as young children and pets’ quality of sleep.
Under the bill, states that do not observe daylight saving time before enactment would have the choice to remain on permanent standard time.
The provision would only affect two states, Hawaii and Arizona outside Navajo Nation, that already do not observe daylight saving time. Those states instead go by standard time, the hours the rest of the country follows from November to March, year-round. Other states wishing to opt out would have to enact a law one day before the federal bill becomes law.
Is standard time better?
Many health experts say standard time is better for humans because it increases the amount of daylight received in the morning, which is beneficial for body rhythms and helps improve sleep, The Hill reports.
Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, the only representative to speak in opposition to the bill during Tuesday’s floor debate, cited the benefits tied to standard time as one of her main reasons for going against the bill.
Though she too expressed frustration with the practice of changing clocks, she said dozens of medical associations show “if we stop the clock, permanent standard time is a healthier choice.”
Dean also pointed to events that occurred the last time the U.S. briefly attempted to follow permanent daylight saving time in 1974. Some children lost their lives while walking to school in the dark, she said.
“We aren’t voting on bills right now that would reduce the sky-high costs of food, fuel, healthcare or addressing the president’s war in Iran,” Dean said. “Instead we’re considering a bill that was deadly and dangerous in the past.”
Daylight saving time’s past and future
Daylight saving time was first introduced in the early 20th century as an energy-conserving wartime measure, according to the academic journal Science. The U.S. has observed short periods of permanent daylight saving over the years, but the federal government has each time reverted to the practice of changing clocks.
Lawmakers have also made attempts in recent years to enact permanent daylight saving time. In 2022, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved an earlier version of the bill, sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, and Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, only for the measure to stall in the House.
In a statement Tuesday, Murray called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to bring the House-passed bill for a vote in the Senate.
“My state, where it is often dark earlier than 4pm in the winter, has made it abundantly clear we want permanent Daylight Saving Time,” Murray wrote. “Americans from Seattle to Miami believe it’s way past time to lock the clock—I am calling on Leader Thune to bring this bill to a vote as soon as possible.”
If the Senate considers the bill this year, some opposition is likely to come up, including from Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican.
New Mexico Forward Party sues Secretary of State over disqualifying candidates from November ballot - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico’s nascent minor political party sued Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver on Tuesday and alleged that her office has enforced “severe and unequal” barriers for its candidates to make the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
The New Mexico Forward Party filed the lawsuit, which claims its candidates’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights have been violated, in U.S. District Court. Like another ballot access case recently filed by independent gubernatorial candidate Ken Miyagishima, party officials allege that they have to gather excessive numbers of signatures compared to candidates running with either of the major political parties.
Since the party only gained official minor party status earlier this year and still has a small registered voter base, its candidates were required to gather more than 14,000 signatures for statewide offices, the lawsuit alleges. By contrast, Democratic and Republican candidates seeking statewide office must gather approximately 2,500 and 2,350, respectively.
New Mexico Forward Party Chair Bob Perls in a news release said he had previously spent a decade working to address “discriminatory and unfair ballot access laws” in the Legislature when he was president of New Mexico Open Elections. He noted that he plans to work with state lawmakers, regardless of party affiliation, in the 2027 legislative session to reduce and equalize signature-gathering requirements.
Perls, who unsuccessfully filed to run for U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), told Source NM that he and the state Forward Party’s candidates intentionally targeted races that would otherwise go uncontested.
“We do not have crowded ballots. In fact, we have the emptiest ballots in the nation,” Perls said. “All we’re trying to do is give people choices.”
He said the signature requirements make it “impossible” for anyone who isn’t a Democrat or Republican to get on the ballot.
His party’s lawsuit asks a judge to put several of the disqualified Forward Party candidates on the ballot.
A spokesperson for the New Mexico Secretary of State on Wednesday said the office had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit.
Perls’ party in June filed signatures to place five candidates on the November ballot: Perls for U.S. Senate; former Albuquerque Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Michael Vigil for Office of the State Auditor; and candidates for the Public Education Commission and county magistrate judgeships.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang visited Santa Fe in April to announce that the Forward Party would seek minor party status. Tenets for the party, which has fielded candidates across the nation regardless of whether they were previously Democrats or Republicans, include treating “everyone with dignity and respect” and acting “with ethics, integrity and compassion.” The New Mexico Forward Party gained that status with the state in May.
Roswell Daily Record sold to group led by former ABQ city councilor - Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
Roswell residents will continue to receive coverage from their local newspaper.
On Wednesday, Roswell Daily Record Publisher and co-owner Barbara Beck announced she was selling the paper to the New Mexico News Group and Ctrl+P Publishing, which also publishes The Santa Fe Reporter, The Paper, Corrales Comment and Route 66 Independent with support from the nonprofit Citizen Media Group.
“The thing is that community newspapers are vitally important,” Beck said in a phone interview. “And we are fighting for our existence more and more. I don’t think the public realizes what they’re losing when they lose a newspaper. … I’m just really happy that we were able to work something out to keep the newspaper going.”
The Daily Record announced Monday it was ceasing operations after serving southeast New Mexico for over 120 years. The newspaper had been in the Beck family since 1933.
The company stated it was “actively pursuing a solution that could allow the Roswell Daily Record to continue serving the community under new ownership or another sustainable arrangement.”
Terms of Wednesday’s sale were not disclosed, but Pat Davis, former Albuquerque city councilor and founder and publisher of the New Mexico News Group, said in a phone interview his company will take over Aug. 1.
“The business has some debt and we’re going to have some debt to sort of put this plan in place,” he said.
Davis did not disclose what that debt was, but said “we’re going to give this paper a fresh start and we’re going to look for some folks to help us pay off some of the investment that Barbara and her team have made over the last few years.”
“My big emphasis is community newspapers, we can’t lose them,” Beck said. “We just can’t. And what’s been so hard for us is fighting and fighting finances and it just comes to the point where you can’t do it anymore, you know? That was unfortunately where we were.”
Davis said the Daily Record will continue to print once a week — on Thursdays — and that customers will get access to all the company’s publications “without having to pay (for) multiple subscriptions.”
While he did not state how many people will be employed, he said he wants to keep as many staff members as possible.
“I think we could probably have this conversation in August and know better what we think that proper staffing model looks like,” Davis said. “But this week was about being sure that we could preserve this paper and save it from going out of business because once it goes out of business, (it) never comes back, or, at least, (is) never the same. So, we’ve been able to accomplish that and it’s going to take us a few weeks to figure out what the future looks like.”
The Daily Record, which has a circulation of fewer than 12,000, dates back to 1891. It is famous for breaking the news of an alleged UFO crash in July 1947.
Lands commissioner nixes Project Jupiter pipeline for second time - Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
For a second time, New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard denied a request to grant rights-of-way and a lease to build a natural gas pipeline through state trust land to service Project Jupiter.
Project Jupiter, a hyperscale data center under development for use by Oracle and OpenAI to train artificial intelligence models, has been under construction in Santa Teresa since September.
In March, Garcia Richard rejected an application from Texas-based natural gas company Energy Transfer to build a 17-mile, 24-inch pipeline extension from El Paso to fuel a microgrid that would power the data center.
Dubbed the “Green Chili lateral,” an apparent reference to green chile, the pipeline would cross federal and private lands as well as a stretch of state trust land in Doña Ana County. The company had requested a five-year lease.
On Tuesday, Garcia Richard rejected a request by the company to reconsider her earlier decision, saying it had properly filed applications and required fees for the project. Garcia Richard’s letter explained that approvals are subject to her discretion.
“The Commissioner … is under no obligation to issue any lease, right-of-way, or permit to any party, and properly does so only upon determining that a given lease, right-of-way, or other authorization is in the best interests of the state land trust which the Commissioner serves as a fiduciary,” Garcia Richard wrote in her letter.
The State Land Office manages over 13 million acres of state land for lease revenue benefiting New Mexico schools, higher education institutions, hospitals and other institutions.
The commissioner is an elected position, with Garcia Richard, a Democrat, nearing the end of her second four-year term. She is currently in the running to replace fellow Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver as the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor, after Toulouse Oliver withdrew her candidacy. The Democratic Party State Central Committee is scheduled to choose the nominee later this month. Garcia Richard was endorsed by Deb Haaland, the Democratic candidate for governor in November’s election.
Garcia Richard argued that the pipeline would generate “minimal revenue” for the state: nearly $32,000 in one-time payments for the rights-of-way plus approximately $217,000 over five years earned from the business lease.
Continuing, the letter argued that while Project Jupiter “undoubtedly will enrich” the project’s backers, the benefits to the land trust were unclear.
Since Energy Transfer’s initial application, Oracle announced a revised plan for its microgrid, moving from natural gas turbines to fuel cell technology.
According to a revised air quality permit application, however, greenhouse gas emissions were still estimated at 10.1 million tons annually — lapping yearly emissions from the Albuquerque metropolitan area. Critics, including some local state lawmakers, have called for massive solar energy deployment instead.
“The burden that the project will impose on New Mexico’s water and other natural resources, and on the surrounding community, is extreme,” Garcia Richard’s letter stated. “This includes the negative impact that greenhouse gas emissions play in driving climate change, which effects (sic) the health and productivity of state trust lands throughout New Mexico.”
Energy Transfer has an administrative right to contest the decision. A spokesperson for the company told the Journal, “We continue to work through the permitting requirements as we move the project forward.”
Oracle issued a statement Wednesday evening highlighting the project’s promises for construction and operational jobs and touting investments committed to by the developers for local water infrastructure.
"Our new power strategy significantly reduces emissions compared to our prior power plan,” the statement continued. “Oracle is aiming to cover 100% of the electricity used by our AI Data Centers with carbon-free energy by 2035 — 10 years ahead of the 2045 net-zero goals set forth in New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act. The project remains on-schedule, and we continue to work closely with our partners and New Mexico's public officials to move Project Jupiter forward.”
Spaceport data center proposal
The decision came as residents of Sierra County have raised questions about a potential data center development, unrelated to Project Jupiter, on state trust land occupied by Spaceport America outside Truth or Consequences.
The spaceport confirmed that it has been in talks with developers of the proposed Green Data Center project, which recently pursued a partnership with New Mexico Tech to build in Socorro. Public controversy put a halt to the project earlier this summer and prompted Socorro County commissioners to enact a one-year moratorium on local data center development.
Talks between Green Data Center’s developers and the spaceport preceded the Socorro proposal, a spokesperson for the spaceport said. In 2025, the spaceport — built on state trust land under a long-term lease — requested permission to sublease a total of 19 acres in its horizontal launch area to Aetherion Inc., the Green Data Center developer.
State Land Office spokesperson Joey Keefe said the sublease request remained under review and has not been approved.
“Commissioner Garcia Richard has serious concerns about the tremendous strain that some data centers put on water systems and other natural resources,” Keefe added. “Any data center projects that proceed must have robust environmental guardrails in place and need to provide a clear, net benefit to the local community.”
