Doña Ana County declares flood disaster, weighs solutions
– Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
Doña Ana County commissioners declared a state of disaster Tuesday over floods that beset New Mexico’s second-most populous county at the end of September.
Heavy consecutive rainstorms saturated the ground, overwhelmed spillways and sent floodwaters into homes, businesses and farmland in what County Chairman Manny Sanchez likened to “two 100-year storms back-to-back.” Heavy rains and floods inundated southern New Mexico, with extensive damage in Socorro and Sierra counties as well.
Doña Ana County Emergency Manager Amanda Bowen said an early estimate of the damage amounted to at least $17 million, but the assessment was ongoing and subsequent totals were likely to grow. Affected residents were urged to usea portal at the DonaAna.gov website to report their losses or telephone 211 locally.
The city of Las Cruces reported at least $2.2 million in damages to outdoor recreation areas, including parks with flood infrastructure. The popular La Llorona Park and Trail, which sits on the Rio Grande, remains closed for cleanup of debris carried in by the swollen river.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico Corrections head says settlement likely in suit over sending people on probation to ICE
– Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Corrections Department Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero said Tuesday that her department is moving toward settling a lawsuit over state officers’ practice of referring people on probation to federal immigration agents for arrest and deportation.
Movement toward a settlement – with terms that were not immediately clear – with the New Mexico State Ethics Commission marks the potential end of an unusual legal battle waged in state and federal court for more than a year involving a state agency using taxpayer funds to avoid complying with a law the Legislature passed in 2025.
The Nondisclosure of Sensitive Personal Information Act prohibits state employees from disclosing New Mexico residents’ personal information – including immigration status – to federal agencies, except in limited circumstances.
The State Ethics Commission lastSeptember sued Tafoya Lucero, saying the agency had repeatedly violated the privacy law, which went into effect in July 2025.
The lawsuit said New Mexico probation officers lured at least three people with probation appointments to state offices, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were waiting to arrest them.
Subsequently released materials, including emails and other correspondence that Source NM reviewed, showed that the probation department referred at least 20 additional people on probation to ICE between October 2024 and May 2026, and regularly tipped off ICE agents when a probationer was scheduled for a probation appointment. At least five of those referrals came after the state privacy law went into effect.
The Corrections Department, which hired an outside lawyer for this lawsuit, has previously argued that federal law trumps the state privacy act and that the case is more appropriate for federal court than state court.
Tafoya Lucero appeared before the interim legislative Courts and Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday. She said the concerns her department’s lawyers initially had about the state privacy law were “remedied,” and the department is now “definitely working to come to settlement.”
The secretary did not weigh in on the specific allegations in the lawsuit regarding probation officers she oversees, though she said all staff are now trained on how to comply with the law. She also defended the Corrections Department’s choice to fight back against the law in court as a result of confusion over how to implement it.
“We were never in disagreement with what the policy of the law was,” she said. “It was just a matter of, we needed clarification to make sure that how we implemented it was accurate.”
Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-Albuquerque), who sponsored the 2025 privacy law, told Tafoya Lucero she found it “shocking” that the Corrections Department did not immediately comply with the law.
“I’m glad you’re going to settle it,” Sedillo Lopez said. “I lament the thousands and thousands of dollars that have been wasted in fighting this.”
Tafoya Lucero did not specify what the terms might be of a settlement, or how soon it might arrive. The State Ethics Commission’s lawsuit seeks court orders requiring the Corrections Department to implement department-wide training regarding the law, as well as technological changes to prevent probation officers from being able to access a database to learn a probationer’s citizenship status.
City Council removes formal recognition, standing from neighborhood coalitions
– Matthew Reisen, Albuquerque Journal
The Albuquerque City Council on Monday passed three-fourths of a legislative zoning package that most notably took formal recognition and appeal power from neighborhood coalitions in an attempt to cut red tape and spur development.
The “Better Neighborhoods” package, sponsored by Councilor Dan Lewis, also included memorials requesting the state pass laws allowing municipalities to dictate zoning standards and appeal certain cases to district court.
If signed by Mayor Tim Keller, the bills will become law.
“Neighborhood voices need to be heard, but one person shouldn’t be able to stand in the way of something that’s good for the whole neighborhood or our city,” city spokesperson Dan Mayfield said in a statement. “We haven’t received the final bill which had several amendments from last night. Once we do, we’ll review it and the Mayor will make a decision.”
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico AG challenges federal commission’s review of proposed Project Jupiter gas pipeline
– Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is pushing back against the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s review of a proposed gas pipeline intended to power the Project Jupiter data center, calling it “inadequate.”
Texas-based Energy Transfer early this year asked federal regulatory officials to approve construction of a gas pipeline, known as the “Green Chile Project,” to serve the Oracle and OpenAI Project Jupiter data center under construction in Doña Ana County.
In a Monday filing with the commission, Torrez argued that federal regulatory officials have not adequately assessed the proposed pipeline’s environmental impact because their assessment did not include the environmental impacts of Project Jupiter itself. Source NM previously reported that the data center’s power system could emit more greenhouse gases annually than New Mexico’s largest cities combined.
“The commission is asking us essentially to consider the fuel line from a car’s gas tank to its engine wholly separate from the rest of the vehicle and to completely ignore the emissions coming out of the tailpipe,” Torrez wrote. “Project Jupiter in its current form cannot function without the pipeline, and this pipeline has no reason to exist other than to provide fuel for Project Jupiter.”
Torrez also wrote that regulatory officials aren’t meeting their responsibilities as described in the National Environmental Policy Act, which says that officials can only conduct an environmental assessment of a proposal like this — rather than a more exhaustive environmental impact statement — if the proposal does not have “a reasonably foreseeable significant effect” on the environment.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Plans for the pipeline initially described it as a $60 million project that would carry gas from El Paso to Project Jupiter. It fits into Energy Transfer’s broader Desert Southwest Pipeline Expansion Project, though, which aims to build a data center-serving pipeline that stretches from Texas to Phoenix.
The plan has hit several roadblocks in the months since then. New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard, who is running as the Democratic nominee to be lieutenant governor, twice rejected Energy Transfer’s requests to build a portion of the pipeline on state trust land. In August, Energy Transfer’s federal regulatory filings showed that company officials expected the pipeline to be delayed to 2027.
Dennis Franchione, football coach at TCU, Alabama and Texas A&M, dies at 75
– The Associated Press
Dennis Franchione, the longtime college football coach who turned around TCU before stops at Alabama and Texas A&M, has died. He was 75.
"TCU mourns alongside the Franchione family at the passing of 'Coach Fran,'" TCU athletic director Mike Buddie said in a statement Tuesday.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which first reported the news, said Franchione's family confirmed his death, adding that he battled cancer for a decade. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2016 and 2021, but it had been in remission. Family friends said the cancer returned earlier this year and Franchione recently went into hospice, the newspaper reported.
"Remembering Coach Dennis Franchione and the memories he gave Alabama Football," the Southeastern Conference school posted on social media. "Rest in peace, Coach Fran. Forever part of the Crimson Tide story."
Franchione worked his way up the college football coaching ranks during a career that spanned more than 30 years. He was first an assistant at Kansas State from 1978-80, then worked at four lower-level schools before 20 seasons as a Football Bowl Subdivision head coach, at New Mexico (1992-97), TCU (1998-2000), Alabama (2001-02), Texas A&M (2003-07) and Texas State (2012-15).
He was one of nine FBS coaches who in June were announced as nominees for the 2027 College Football Hall of Fame class that will be revealed in January. The Kansas native compiled a 213-135-2 record before stepping down from Texas State in 2015 and retiring from coaching. Franchione led his teams to nine conference championships, nine bowl games, four NAIA playoff games and one NCAA Division II playoff appearance.
"Our fortunes as a department would not be what they are today without the efforts of Coach Franchione, his staff, and players," said Buddie, the TCU AD. "Beyond his talent as a football coach, he was a beloved father, mentor, and friend to so many. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Kim, and the entire Franchione family."
TCU was coming off a 1-10 season when Franchione left New Mexico after six years to take over the Horned Frogs, who in his debut season in 1999 had a 7-5 record capped by a Sun Bowl win over Southern California. With future Pro Football Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson, TCU finished tied atop the Western Athletic Conference standings each of the next two seasons, going 8-4 with another bowl win in 1999 before a 10-1 regular season in 2000 that led to him being hired by Alabama.
Franchione was replaced at TCU by his defensive coordinator, Gary Patterson, who had winning records in 15 of his 21 seasons as head coach after first taking over for the 2000 bowl game, and six times was top 10 in the final AP Top 25 poll. That included an undefeated 13-0 season in 2010 when the Frogs finished second after a win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.
"Good man, good friend!," Patterson wrote in a text to The Associated Press.
Patterson, now in his first season as defensive coordinator for No. 19 USC, added that "Coach Fran" gave him his first Division I coordinator job at New Mexico and that "a lot of my foundation to run a program" started with him.
Franchione was 17-8 in two seasons with Alabama and had five years remaining on his contract when he left to return to Texas and replace the fired R.C. Slocum at Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide had just had a 10-3 regular season in 2002 but weren't bowl eligible because of NCAA sanctions handed down earlier that year for infractions that happened before Franchione's arrival.
Texas A&M was 32-28 and made three bowls games during his tenure. The school said in a social media post that it was "Honoring the life and legacy of Coach Dennis Franchione."
Franchione spent some time as a broadcaster after that before returning to Texas State as head coach in 2011, the school's last season in the Football Championship Subdivision before becoming an FBS team the following season. He had previously coached the Bobcats at the lower level from 1990-91 before going to New Mexico.
