Retired federal judge named hearing examiner for Project Jupiter permit
—Algernon d’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico Environment Department Secretary James Kenney appointed retired federal judge James Browning on Friday as the new hearing officer to preside over the crucial air quality permit application for the data center known as Project Jupiter.
Browning succeeds Max Shepherd, who recused himself from the matter in August. Shepherd made the move after controversies over decisions he made about the hearing schedule and pre-hearing filings.
The state Supreme Court temporarily paused the proceedings while it reviewed petitions filed by opponents of the project, but lifted its stay last month, allowing the hearing to proceed. An opening date has not been announced.
Browning will preside over permits sought by Yucca Growth Infrastructure for emissions from planned microgrid power generating facilities at the Santa Teresa data center under construction for tenants Oracle Corp. and OpenAI.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Volcano Vista English teacher earns New Mexico 2027 Teacher of the Year honor
—Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
When Kristin Garletts was called to the principal’s office Friday morning, she thought she was in trouble.
Instead, Garletts was led inside the gym at Volcano Vista High School, in which the whole school, plus her husband, two daughters, elected officials from the school board and the state legislature waited to crown her Teacher of the Year.
“I started to piece it together,” Garletts said. “I noticed my students were sitting in the middle, and a kid spilled the beans and said, ‘Congratulations.’” So I put it all together. I’m pretty smart — I figured it out eventually.”
Garletts is in her seventh year at Albuquerque Public Schools and her third at Volcano Vista, where she teaches freshman English, sponsors the LGBTQ student club and feminist student union and resurrected the school newspaper, Hawkwatch.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico open government group sues state Livestock Board official
—Matt Mondschein, Source New Mexico
A public records watchdog sued a New Mexico Livestock Board official on Friday alleging that the board violated state public records law by illegally redacting investigative reports about former board employees.
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government on Aug. 3 requested records under the state Inspection of Public Records Act regarding a private investigation that was conducted on former Livestock Board employees April Riggs, Ray Baca and Priscilla Peña over alleged misconduct.
The lawsuit does not specify what misconduct the trio are alleged to have committed or what the investigation found.
Livestock Board record custodian Julie Gauman, according to the complaint filed in the First Judicial District Court, then provided fully redacted documents of the investigation’s findings on Aug. 18.
Gauman, according to the lawsuit, said redacting the document is legal due to IPRA’s “catchall” exemption, which allows records to be redacted if their release violates other state laws, and a provision in IPRA that prohibits release of records in personnel files expressing a “matter of opinion.”
However, NMFOG contends the Livestock Board’s justification is wrong and outdated. First, they argue that the “catchall” provision does not apply because no other state laws regarding employee confidentiality apply.
The organization also cites a recent New Mexico Supreme Court ruling in a case between the Albuquerque Journal newspaper and the Albuquerque school board. The court ruled in late May, after a 12-year legal battle, that an investigation into former Superintendent Winston Brooks could not be withheld in its entirety even though portions of it expressed “matters of opinion.”
“Instead of following the New Mexico Supreme Court’s mandate, the Livestock Board is doubling down on their efforts to keep the investigations secret, in violation of the public’s right to know,” NMFOG said in a news release.
Livestock Board officials told Source NM on Friday that they do not comment on pending litigation. Gauman also declined comment.
NMFOG asked the court to issue an order directing Gauman to satisfy IPRA requests and award damages and attorney fee costs to Henry, the prior litigant.
Levin added that NMFOG doesn’t necessarily have an interest in the records themselves, but that their legal complaint is over upholding IPRA.
“A landmark decision comes out saying you have to produce these records,” Amanda Lavin, NMFOG legal director, told Source NM. “So we have a public agency flagrantly disregarding that. We want to make sure that public bodies are following the law.”
Texas lawmakers discuss annexing oil-rich southeastern New Mexico
– Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
It’s looking unlikely that southeastern New Mexico will become part of the Lone Star State any time soon.
Texas lawmakers announced they intended to explore absorbing New Mexico’s oil-rich southeastern counties this spring, drawing predictable ire from elected officials in the Land of Enchantment.
Late Wednesday night, the Texas House of Representatives did end up discussing the subject at a meeting of its Governmental Oversight Committee in Austin. Lawmakers admitted the issue was a bit of a joke, but acknowledged the issue could be a way to broach some concerns on both sides of the state line.
New Mexico state Rep. Randall Pettigrew, R-Lovington, first brought secession to the table in January, when he co-sponsored an unsuccessful resolution that would have allowed New Mexico counties to vote to leave the state.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
‘Particularly rough year for bears’; New Mexico sees record-setting year for bear killings
– Matt Mondschein, Source New Mexico
New Mexico wildlife managers have killed more black bears this year than any full year on record, wildlife officials told state lawmakers on Wednesday, as hot temperatures and drought conditions force bears into human-populated areas in search of food.
Since April, game officers or citizens reported killing 307 black bears that posed threats to public safety. An additional 51 bears were listed as “roadkill” or “other kills.”
“It has been a particularly rough year for bears,” Michael Sloan, director of the New Mexico Department of Wildlife, told legislators on the interim Legislative Water and Resources Committee on Wednesday. Most bears were killed in a state wildlife zone that spans through Santa Fe, Taos, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties. In Crystal, a community in Navajo Nation, a black bear attacked and killed a man on Aug. 20. The Navajo Police Department responded to the incident and killed the bear.
Black bears’ natural habitat and food sources have degraded, Sloan explained, due to severe drought conditions, which has led the animals to search for food over longer distances and to enter human-populated areas.
“Bears don’t want to come into these neighborhoods. They don’t want to have this conflict,” Jesse Deubel, executive director of the nonprofit New Mexico Wildlife Federation, told lawmakers. “But when a population of an animal, particularly a large alpha predator like a black bear, exceeds the carrying capacity of the habitat — it doesn’t really have a choice.”
NMDOW aims to leave black bears alone, Sloan explained, and the agency only chooses euthanasia when bears become a hazard to public safety. NMDOW’s goals also include educating the public on bear awareness and how to dispose of potential bear food sources so the animal moves on.
State Rep. Kristina Ortez (D-Taos) said during the discussion the issue is “frightening a lot of folks” and many of her constituents, after seeing bear sightings on social media, asked what they should do if they encounter a bear.
Sloan explained the best course of action in bear encounters is to leave them alone. If food attracts the bear to stay there, he added, a person should call the agency so a game warden can haze, relocate, or euthanize the bear if the animal causes a threat.
Sen. Roberto Gonzales (D-Taos) expressed concern about how the food shortage affects the bear hibernation process.
“If a bear goes into hibernation with not enough fat stores, unfortunately, they may not make it out the following spring,” Sloan said.
New Mexico lawmakers urge utility group to shield ratepayers from data center costs
– Justin Horwath, Albuquerque Journal
Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation called on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners this week to protect ratepayers from the costs of serving large data centers
The Wednesday letter, signed by U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, both Democrats, said data centers are the largest and fastest-growing electric load in the country.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has said U.S. electricity consumption will rise 2% annually by 2027, with data center development driving that growth.
“A single campus can require as much power as a mid-sized city, and utilities are proposing billions of dollars in new plants and lines to serve them,” the letter said.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico attorney general and state lawmaker announce push to rein in rogue AI models
– Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and state Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) on Thursday announced that they will push a bill this legislative session that aims to rein in advanced artificial intelligence systems, an effort they describe as nation-leading and necessary amid federal inaction.
Torrez and Serrato, in a news conference at the Roundhouse, said the “Frontier Artificial Intelligence Safety and Accountability Act” is especially necessary after an OpenAI system went rogue and tried to breach the University of New Mexico’s digital library in May. Additional high-profile escapes by advanced AI models have raised alarm elsewhere.
The bill will create a new Office of Online Safety Monitor within the New Mexico Department of Justice tasked with enforcing new requirements imposed on large AI companies.
The new law would require large AI companies to submit their own risk assessments to that office 30 days before launching a training exercise of a “frontier” model, which is defined as the most cutting-edge version of the technology . The law would also require companies to report within 24 hours a loss-of-control incident like the one that targeted UNM.
In the UNM case in May, the university and NMDOJ did not learn about the incident until a September New York Times article four months later, officials said Thursday. Serrato said companies must be required to report those incidents to prevent any further damage as quickly as possible.
“The ability to require these companies to report these issues as soon as they find them, and (impose) penalties for waiting are incredibly important,” said Serrato, who convenes an annual AI summit to discuss the technology and regulatory legislation.
Torrez also sent OpenAI CEO Sam Altmana letter Thursday requesting documents from the company with more details about the UNM incident. He noted that the letter seeks “voluntary cooperation,” though he said he reserves the right to sue the company under the state’s Unfair Practices Act.
In addition to new regulations for AI companies, the bill would impose requirements on data centers, which power AI models. Owners of those centers operating in New Mexico will be required, under threat of financial penalties, to alert the state if they detect “anomalous” data center usage by their AI company customers.
The NMDOJ would be empowered under the new law to impose civil penalties on the companies that violate the new provisions, as well as recover any costs that the state incurred responding to a “critical safety incident” an AI company caused.
“It’s time for the State of New Mexico to lead the way in establishing new strict and strongly enforced guidelines for frontier artificial intelligence labs,” Torrez said Thursday. “We have simply seen too many public revelations in the last several weeks and months.”
Torrez and Serrato said their bill proposal is similar to other measures in California and New York and also draws on expertise from subject-matter experts they’ve consulted at the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University.
In the most recent legislation session, Torrez and Serrato backed legislation, which failed to pass, aimed at reining in deepfakes and other AI content.
Torrez said the framework they’ve developed for the Legislature’s consideration at next year’ session starting in January will likely be subject to change as the technology continues to advance.
But he said New Mexico lawmakers have enough information now regarding AI’s potential harms to craft regulations that keep New Mexicans safe. And they can’t wait on the federal government or other states to act, he said.
Torrez also joined a coalition of state attorneys general in urging top congressional leaders in a Sept. 23 letter for immediate regulation of the artificial intelligence industry.
“I would love to see a federal government and a president take this seriously,” Torrez said Thursday. “That isn’t happening, so New Mexico finds itself in an unusual position, which is leading on the outer edge of a regulatory framework on a rapidly developing and evolving technology, and doing something that historically, quite frankly, we don’t typically do.”
New Mexico attorneys request judge fine Facebook up to $40B for violating state law
– Matt Mondschein, Source New Mexico
Attorneys representing the State of New Mexico requested a district court judge on Thursday fine Facebook between $35 to $40 billion after a Santa Fe jury last week found that the social media giant willfully violated state law regarding unfair and deceptive trade practices.
First Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew heard from attorneys representing both parties in advance of ruling on the penalties for Facebook. In its decision, the jury found that Facebook committed close to 44 million violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act through its statements regarding user data, misinformation and hate speech on the platform, among other issues.
In a news conference last week following the verdict, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the total cost of violations could reach as much as $219 billion. On Thursday, Randi McGinn, the attorney representing the state, requested Mathew fine Facebook between $35 billion to $40 billion, and said the state is requesting that amount in order to hold Facebook accountable while also respecting its due process rights in case of appeal.
“Not only is that a fair amount,” McGinn said, “it would serve the purpose of deterrence — not just for Meta — but for any big company that would like to lie to the people of New Mexico.”
Matt Nicholson, attorney representing Meta, told the judge that the state’s price tag is unprecedented and violates the company’s Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The state, Nicholson said, is “trying to take advantage” of the jury’s ruling and “run up the score on penalties.
Nicholson said that the state’s request is double the amount that was paid by British Petroleum following the Deep Horizon oil spill, and that while harm was clearly proven in that case, New Mexico did not prove that Facebook caused any harm to New Mexicans in this case to warrant the requested penalty.
He noted that the Supreme Court has “long held that the due process clause prohibits states from imposing statutory penalties that are wholly disproportionate to the offense.”
Mathew told both parties he will render a decision on penalties within two to three weeks.
