Frijoles Fire expands to more than 4,000 acres in northern NM, leads to evacuations - Dan Boy & John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
Emergency officials ordered some residents of a northern New Mexico village to evacuate late Monday, as the Frijoles Fire expanded to more than 4,000 acres and cast a pall of wildfire smoke that blanketed much of the state’s north-central region.
With the fire growing, Santa Fe County Fire Department officials said that residents of Camino de Cañon, a street in Cundiyó, located east of Española, should “evacuate immediately.”
An emergency shelter will be established at the Pojoaque Valley Middle School gym, at 1797 State Road 502. The remainder of Cundiyó and the nearby village of Cerro Piñon have been moved to “Set” status, meaning residents in these areas should be prepared to evacuate if needed.
Earlier in the day, two state agencies issued a smoke advisory warning residents in northern New Mexico about the possible implications of worsening air quality.
In addition, Santa Fe Public Schools officials alerted parents they were monitoring the Frijoles Fire, which is burning in rough terrain in the Pecos Wilderness Area.
With a wildfire-generated haze covering much of the region, a district spokesman said some families had opted their children out of recess and other outdoor activities due to health concerns.
“We will continue to closely monitor air quality relative to the Frijoles Fire and make decisions regarding outdoor activities based on the current air quality index,” SFPS spokesman Joe Abeyta told the Journal.
More than 100 wilderness firefighters have been deployed to battle the Frijoles Fire, which was at 0% containment as of Monday afternoon, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Three helicopters and large air tankers have also been fighting the blaze by dropping retardant and water from two nearby lakes — Nambé Lake and Santa Cruz Lake.
Before Monday’s evacuation order, Santa Fe County fire officials had placed Cundiyó and Cerro Piñon into “Ready” status on Saturday as erratic wind gusts and unseasonably dry August weather more than doubled the size of the wildfire four days after it was discovered. Ready status means residents in affected areas should prepare emergency supplies in case of an evacuation order.
As for the smoke alert, experts with the state Department of Health and the Department of Environment urged New Mexicans to limit their time outdoors if visibility worsens due to the wildfires.
While the smoke advisory does not impose any restrictions, it instructs local residents to stay inside if visibility drops to less than 1 mile. It also warned that elderly residents, pregnant women and individuals with certain health conditions should exercise caution.
“As smoke from any fire impacts the state, we encourage residents to stay informed and take steps to protect their health,” said Cindy Hollenberg, the Environment Department’s air quality bureau chief.
Several other wildfires have also been reported in recent days, as New Mexico and much of the western United States deals with hot, dry weather.
Amid privacy concerns, New Mexico eases rules for AI reading test - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
After parent backlash over the safety of a state-mandated artificial intelligence reading software, the New Mexico Public Education Department has offered school districts a way to opt out of using the program in favor of other methods.
Meanwhile, the company’s CEO said in an interview with Journal Monday that the program is not collecting data for nefarious purposes and cautioned against restricting its full use.
As of Monday, five districts and one charter school across New Mexico — Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Farmington, Roswell, Clayton and Turquoise Trail Charter School in Santa Fe — have declined to use Amira, the AI-powered reading testing program used for regular assessments and tutoring for elementary school students, opting instead for alternative testing methods, according to PED spokesperson Janelle Taylor García, who added that the exemptions are for this school year only.
District leaders in Santa Fe and Los Alamos cited privacy concerns, particularly about the voice recordings that the program collects to assess students’ reading ability. Some parents worried that Amira was gathering students’ voices and using them to “train” the AI software for commercial purposes.
Amira works by listening to students read aloud and catching their mistakes, though some teachers told the Journal they took issue with the program’s accuracy, especially with students with speech disabilities or foreign accents.
In a letter to PED Secretary Mariana Padilla published last week in the Los Alamos Daily Post, Los Alamos Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Guy said the district would be pausing the use of Amira until parents’ privacy concerns were assuaged.
“A child’s voice is effectively biometric data, and parents are rightly uneasy about it being collected and retained by a third-party system as a condition of a state-mandated assessment,” Guy wrote.
Last week, days before the start of the school year for many districts throughout the state, the PED released an updated set of guidelines on Amira. The memo, signed by Padilla, gives districts and charter schools the option to use the software without the voice recording feature, to use a paper test or to use their own program for assessment instead.
All voice recordings on the program are deleted monthly, according to the report, though districts can request to have data deleted daily, weekly or at the end of the school year.
Though the memo provides districts with the means to opt out, Padilla said in the report that it was important for all public and charter schools in the state to use the same reading test to measure student progress.
“While districts may use additional local assessments to inform instruction, a common statewide assessment provides a shared measure that supports consistency, transparency, accountability and equitable decision making,” she wrote.
‘We never sell student data’
Amira’s founder and CEO Mark Angel told the Journal the company uses student data “purely for educational purposes.”
“We never sell student data,” Angel said. “It’s perfectly legitimate for people to be concerned about what data we collect and how we use it. But we really take more than offense — we consider it actionable — for us to be accused of being in the business of profiting or commercializing that data.”
Amira collects what Angel calls a minimal amount of personal data from students, such as first names, teacher names and grade levels.
“The things we need to collect,” he said.
All information is stored in the company’s U.S. data center and is sent, in the form of reports, to state governments for progress monitoring, he said. Data is deleted in accordance with whatever policy the contract has established — some require deletion after 30 or 60 days, or at the end of the school year, Angel added.
To make Amira a better listener, the program needs to listen to student voices, Angel said, so the software does use recordings to “train” the program, but only to improve its own performance.
“If they don’t want us to use the data we have to improve the software to help kids become better readers, they have a perfect right to say, ‘Don’t do that.’” Our response is that our mission is to help these kids learn to read,” Angel said. “If policymakers want to put us in handcuffs and create a situation where we can’t help more of these kids, they have a perfect right to do that. I would say that’s an enormously horrible price to pay.”
How it started
As of the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, all public and charter schools are required to administer the Amira reading assessment for students in kindergarten through second grade at the beginning, middle and end of each school year, and to use Amira for tutoring for a minimum of 30 minutes a week.
The PED began using Amira after the software provider schools had been using for testing, Istation, was acquired by the San Francisco-based company Amira Learning.
New Mexico spends $2.7 million on Amira yearly for software use, professional development, data analysis and other additional tutoring and support programs, Angel said. The cost of the statewide assessment alone is $1.4 million.
Amira is required for assessments in two states — New Mexico and Idaho — and is authorized for state use in Oklahoma, Georgia, California, Texas, Michigan and Massachusetts.
APS response
The state’s largest district, Albuquerque Public Schools, is still using Amira in keeping with state requirements, despite mounting concerns from parents.
At a board meeting last week, several dozen people said they were troubled by the district’s use of the program.
Sally DeRadke, the mother of a second grade student at APS, told the Journal she found out her son was using the program when he came home from school talking about someone named Amira. DeRadke said she thought it was a new teacher.
“The truth is that they need our students to use their AI, and they need our teachers to correct those errors so that their model can improve and they can make more money selling it to other districts,” she said. “They’re using our children as free labor to train their tool for corporate profit.”
An online petition to get APS to reconsider using the program had reached 725 signatures as of Monday afternoon.
APS spokesperson Martin Salazar said the district is encouraging parents with questions about Amira to meet with their students’ principal, who will address concerns together with teachers.
Families can follow a “refusal process supported by the principal and their test coordinator,” Salazar said.
Despite the backlash, officials at APS contend that the district has had success using the program.
Last school year, APS first and second graders logged their highest reading scores since at least 2021 using Amira — 34% of first graders and 38.6% of second graders were proficient in reading at the end of May.
The PED picks up the tab for most of the cost of the statewide assessment on Amira, so APS pays around $38,000 for the testing component, Salazar said, though district officials could not say Monday how much APS spends on the tutoring portion of Amira.
APS Board President Ronalda Tome-Warito said at last week’s meeting she’d heard the concerns, but would not make a hasty decision on whether or not to use the program.
“Our responsibility as a board is neither to dismiss concerns nor to make decisions out of fear or public pressure,” Tome-Warito said. “This is not a question of choosing between innovation and safety. We must have both.”
Anti-uranium advocates wrest control of public hearing on proposed mine near Navajo Nation - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A recent hearing meant to inform the public about a new uranium mine proposal near Church Rock instead exposed wounds around the legacy of mining’s impacts on Navajo communities, as well as fresh concerns about whether technology that promises to safely extract the mineral is as clean as the industry claims.
Laramide Resources, a Canadian mining company, and its subsidiary NuFuels, Inc., held a public hearing Thursday at a casino near Gallup as it seeks a permit from the New Mexico Environment Department to discharge.
But Navajo anti-mining advocates, as well as those who still remember the cascading consequences from the 1979 Church Rock mine spill, shouted out repeatedly during the company’s presentation. They expressed frustration that NuFuels would pursue a uranium mine in an area still contending with the biggest uranium spill in the nation’s history, as well as numerous other public health and environmental harms from decades of uranium mining.
About half way through company Vice President Josh Leftwich’s presentation, advocate Jenn Nez slowly got to her feet and walked toward Leftwich, ultimately convincing him to hand her his microphone.
Through tears, Nez described cancer and other health issues she said uranium contamination caused in her family. Leftwich did not get the microphone back for most of the rest of the 90-minute meeting, as a line of fellow opponents gathered alongside Nez and waited for their chance to speak.
“Thank you for giving us this opportunity, because we took it from you,” Teracita Keyanna, vice president of the Red Water Pond Road Community Association Executive Committee, told Leftwich. “This is my community. This is my family. That’s my home you’re talking about.”
Leftwich’s presentation centered on a proposed uranium project called Church Rock Section 8, which the company hopes to build on a 175-acre site of private land surrounded by the Navajo Nation, which bans uranium mining. Before Leftwich was interrupted, he detailed how the company sought to use a mining method known as in situ recovery to access roughly 10 million pounds of uranium contained in sandstone formations in the underground aquifer.
In situ recovery entails the injection of lixiviant — a chemical solution composed of water, oxygen and either carbon dioxide or sodium bicarbonate — to dissolve the uranium underground. From there, pumps extract the uranium liquid into recovery wells, where the uranium is separated. The leftover water is then discharged back into the aquifer.
“It’s a closed-loop system,” Leftwich said. “There won’t be any other discharges. The water just circulates through the formation to extract the uranium.”
Bertha Nez, a Navajo elder who grew up in the Red Water Pond community, listens Aug. 6, 2026, as presenters from NuFuels, Inc. describe their proposal to extract uranium from the Church Rock area. (Patrick Lohmann/Source NM)
The company’s permit application notes that, when fully operational, it will seek to discharge roughly 4,000 gallons of leftover water a minute back into the aquifer, which provides drinking water to the Crownpoint community. That would be the equivalent of about nine Olympic-size swimming pools’ worth of water a day.
The company cannot begin mining until the NMED rules on the permit application, which officials said will take at least a year.
Still, Leftwich’s presentation extolled the virtues of in situ recovery as a low-emissions means of extracting uranium without risking the lives of workers underground.
The company would also employ monitoring wells to ensure the water quality meets federal and state standards, and the company is in preliminary stages of a research project with Los Alamos National Laboratories that aims to restore the groundwater supply with “approaches tailored to the geology of the Churchrock deposit.”
However, state officials are dubious about the company’s promises to restore the groundwater to its pre-mining condition. Earlier Thursday, the New Mexico Department of Justice weighed in on the company’s pending license renewal application to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission with a 39-page rebuttal of numerous claims the company has made regarding its operation and in situ recovery more broadly.
The NMDOJ’s “petition to intervene” argues that in situ recovery has never been proven to restore groundwater supplies to their pre-mining states and that no technology yet exists to do so. It cites NuFuels’ own statements in an unrelated filing before the NRC in 2023, in which the company states that, “to date, no ISR site has restored all groundwater constituents of concern to pre-operational concentrations” and that uranium levels “tend to gradually rebound” in aquifers after the treatment.
Therefore, the NMDOJ wrote, the company has acknowledged “that the technology needed to ensure compliance with the governing restoration standard does not yet exist and that developing it is the object of ongoing research.”
Advocates who wrested the microphone from Leftwich on Thursday also raised concerns about what they said is untested technology, with one woman shouting that the NuFuels was making “Guinea pigs” out of the communities downstream of the mine site.
Leftwich told Source NM after the hearing that he was surprised the New Mexico Department of Justice would weigh in on what he sees as a “pretty small issue” regarding a single mine in the Church Rock area, “compared to big issues, like across the state.”
As for the hearing itself, he said he was content to let people “speak their minds” about the issue, but also that legacy uranium issues and “misinformation” are preventing a productive community debate. The hearing also marked the beginning of a 60-day public comment period.
“This is the first of hopefully multiple meetings that we can get more in-depth,” he said. “I really wish we could have good meetings.”
New Mexico health officials warn of smoke impacts as Frijoles Fire grows to more than 3,000 acres - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Monday warned that smoke from the Frijoles Fire and other wildfires burning in the state poses health risks, particularly to the elderly and those with respiratory illnesses.
Smoke from the Frijoles Fire, which is burning in the Pecos Wilderness and has grown to more than 3,000 acres, is currently visible from Santa Fe, Cundiyó, Nambe, Chimayó, Pojoaque and Española, according to Santa Fe National Forest officials.
The Frijoles Fire was among eight, presumably lightning-caused wildfires that ignited last week in the Santa Fe National Forest, along with several others burning across the state as a heat wave collides with the expected onset of the monsoon season.
State health and environment department officials said in a news release that people should use the “5-3-1” visibility rule in assessing their smoke risk.
Those who are experiencing visibility limited to five miles due to smoke should limit their time outdoors if they are over age 65, pregnant or have a heart issue or respiratory illness.
People otherwise “more likely to be affected by smoke” should stay inside if visibility is less than three miles.
And everyone should stay inside if visibility is less than one mile due to smoke, the health department notice says, unless an evacuation notice is issued.
“As smoke from any fire impacts the state, we encourage residents to stay informed and take steps to protect their health,” said Cindy Hollenberg, air quality bureau chief for the New Mexico Environment Department, in a statement.
The Frijoles Fire grew to roughly 3,300 acres Monday, marking a huge increase in acreage from the 500-acre footprint it reached Saturday. The fire remained 0% contained as of Monday morning, though crews were at work throughout the day building containment lines and dropping retardant and water on the blaze.
No evacuation orders are currently in place, though Santa Fe County officials have alerted residents of Cundiyo and Cerro Piñon to be on “ready” status, which means they should work on creating a wildfire buffer around their home and also keep an eye on official announcements.
Former WNMU president asks judge to reinstate state auditor, lawmakers as lawsuit defendants - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
An attorney for former Western New Mexico University President Joseph Shepard on Monday asked a judge to undo a prior ruling that shielded the state auditor and several state lawmakers from his lawsuit that alleges they colluded to force him out of the job.
Shepardresigned as university president in late 2024 afternews reports and State Auditor Joseph Maestasrevealed how he and other university leaders used taxpayer and university foundation money to pay for international trips and exotic home furnishings. His resignation came with a $1.9 million severance payout and a tenured teaching job in the university’s business school.
A newly appointed Board of Regents last summervoted to undo the payout and teaching contract. Shepardsued the university over the decision last October and named Maestas and several state lawmakers as defendants, alleging that they colluded to force him out of the job after he previously raised questions about some of the Legislature’s education spending.
Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Jarod Hofacket previously ruled that Maestas and the lawmakers areprotected by legislative immunity — meaning they were acting within the normal course of their jobs as public officials — and granted their requests to be removed as defendants.
Attorneys representing the government officials argued during the Monday morning hearing that Shepard’s motion to reconsider was more a “motion to reargue issues that the court has already considered and decided.”
“The motion to reconsider points to no intervening change in law, no newly discovered evidence and no issue that the court overlooked,” Taylor Lueras, an attorney representing the lawmakers, said.
Hofacket did not rule from the bench and told attorneys on both sides of the dispute that he would issue a written ruling, but did not specify when.
Shepard’s time as university president is the subject of several other ongoing lawsuits.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrezsued him in early 2025 in a bid to claw back his severance payment andthe State Ethics Commission sued him last summer over allegations that he built a patio near his on-campus house to host events related to his daughter’s wedding with money intended for Americans with Disabilities Act-compliance projects.
Both cases are set to go to trial in 2027.
Founder of Taos off-grid community says he plans to appeal civil verdict - Olivia Lewis, Taos News
A civil jury decided that the founder of an earthship community in Taos is financially responsible for road and common property maintenance after residents had been paying for the services.
The Taos News reports Greater World Community founder Michael Reynolds must pay plaintiffs over $30,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
This comes after residents argued in court that the subdivision had not achieved the 90% buildout threshold required to transition ownership to the Home Owners Association there.
Reynolds said he created an HOA ahead of time saying it would take time for an earthship community to reach 90% buildout.
Reynolds says he plans to appeal the verdict and has called the punitive damages “illegal” and “inappropriate.”
