New Mexico US Sen. Heinrich touts bipartisan permitting reform bill amid environmentalist criticism
– Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) on Monday held back-to-back meetings in Albuquerque with labor leaders, manufacturers and renewable energy companies to tout his new, bipartisan permitting reform bill, which has drawn criticism from local and national environmental advocacy groups.
Heinrich, who serves as the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, described the 417-page Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 on Monday as a “very fine balancing act” achieved over months of negotiations with Committee Chair U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and other Republican leaders.
“It was not easy,” Heinrich said Monday before a roundtable discussion of renewable energy company leaders. “It took longer than we would like, but everyone was committed to getting there. And I think we’ve come up with a really defensible product that, if we can get it passed, I think will age very well over time.”
The sweeping permitting reform bill aims to greatly reduce the amount of time energy projects, including solar arrays, wind farms or transmission lines, idle while awaiting federal permits. It imposes additional deadlines on parties that seek to litigate once a project is approved, an effort to stop approved projects from being further delayed in the courts.
Jeremy Turner, the senior director New Mexico development and strategy for the Pattern Energy Group, told Heinrich on Monday that the company’s 500 miles of transmission lines for its wind farms took more than a decade due to lags in the permitting process.
The company’s New Mexico wind turbines generate more than 1,400 megawatts of power across 800,000 acres of land, according to Turner’s comments Monday and the company’s website. The company has leased an additional 1 million acres of land that could produce as many as 5,000 megawatts of power, Turner said, but only if the approval process proceeds quickly and reliably.
“A reasonable timeframe for review by the federal agencies, and then also a timeframe for when people can actually challenge that decision, is absolutely imperative,” Turner said. “Without those, we’re going to continue to stay stagnant.”
Heinrich’s bill, which he announced alongside three co-sponsors at a news conference on Oct. 1, has received praise from labor unions, as well as both the American Petroleum Institute and the American Clean Power Association. Groups touting bipartisan policy have also lauded it as a step forward on a policy matter that has long frustrated advocates for all types of energy production in the United States.
But some environmental advocacy groups have sharply criticized Heinrich, whom they say undermined his long record as an advocate for renewable energy and environmental protection by crafting the compromise bill with Republicans.
And now, because he is a co-sponsor, Heinrich can’t honestly describe the negative impacts of the bill when he goes on a tour “hyping” it, Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, told Source NM.
“We feel betrayed by Sen. Heinrich on this bill,” Schlenker-Goodrich said. “We think he has effectively boxed himself into silence about what the harms of this permitting deal are to New Mexico and the people and places we love in this state.”
Schlenker-Goodrick also said he is “perplexed” by Heinrich announcing the bill just weeks before midterm elections, in which Democrats are projected to gain seats and potentially change the dynamics in both chambers.
Heinrich told Source NM on Monday that he disagrees that waiting for potential Democratic gains once Congress convenes in January would have resulted in a better bill or one with better chances of passing.
“In the next Congress, we’re still going to have the same White House; we’re going to still have the same need to build a bipartisan coalition, and frankly, we probably won’t have the same chairs and ranking members,” he said. “And some of the secret sauce in this was just the fact that we had four people who were genuinely committed to a balanced package that both sides could support.”
Heinrich also called criticisms that the bill weakens environmental protections “unfounded and misguided,” saying the bill simply ensures federal agencies review projects more quickly, not that they approve them.
“We’re going to get to ‘yes’ faster. We’re also going to get to ‘no’ faster when a project is harmful,” he said. “And we’re going to be able to actually solve the climate crisis. It shouldn’t take 18 years to build a project that actually has value cleaning up the grid.”
APS seeks community feedback for upcoming budget
– Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
Members of the public have a chance to tell New Mexico’s largest school district how they’d like to see its multibillion-dollar budget spent.
Albuquerque Public Schools is soliciting feedback for its 2027-28 budget in an online survey open until Oct. 22. This school year, APS is spending a record $2.35 billion — more than one-and-a-half times the budget for the city of Albuquerque.
“Our budget defines our values, which is why your voice matters,” Superintendent Gabriella Durán Blakey said in a statement. “Whether you are a student, parent, staff member or community partner, taking a few minutes to complete this survey will help guide our decisions for the upcoming school year.”
The APS Board of Education is also holding two in-person meetings for the public to provide input on the upcoming budget, which the board typically votes on in the spring.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
RJ Mitte, 'Breaking Bad' actor and disability rights champion, dies at 34
– Andrew Dalton, AP Entertainment Writer
Actor and disability rights advocate RJ Mitte, who brought a lifetime of experience with cerebral palsy to fictional family struggles in an essential role on "Breaking Bad," died Monday at age 34, authorities and his representatives said.
Cameron County Justice of the Peace Cyndi Hinojosa told The Associated Press she declared Mitte dead at about 1:30 p.m. at what she believed was his home in Brownsville, Texas. She said she was unable to provide a cause, but an autopsy will be performed.
Mitte played Walter White Jr., the son of Bryan Cranston's chemistry teacher-turned-meth dealer Walter White on nearly every episode of the five seasons of the AMC show, which recently ranked as the best of the 21st century in a New York Times poll.
Cranston said he is in "deep despair" for the loss of his "sweet son."
"I met him when he was only 14 years old when he was cast as Walter White Jr., a part he played with such joy and enthusiasm," Cranston said in a Facebook post Monday night. "Born with Cerebral Palsy, he never — ever — allowed that challenge to be an excuse for anything. He met the demanding shooting schedule head on with great determination."
Mitte told the AP in 2014 that his disability and the surrounding struggles with physical therapy, family problems and exorbitant medical bills — all key subjects on the show — made him better at his job.
"You develop a different mentality and you develop a different look at how the world sees you and how you see the world," he said. "You're able to use that. And I think it's an asset instead of something that would hinder."
Mitte was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi.
He landed small guest roles on sitcoms after moving to Los Angeles to act in 2006 before landing the role on "Breaking Bad" in 2007. The show ran from 2008 to 2013.
"That kid was pretty raw when we started shooting the pilot," Cranston said in his post, "but little by little we watched him grow into a really fine actor."
Cranston added, "I loved him, and thoroughly enjoyed being with him throughout the years on the series, and after the spotlight on Breaking Bad dimmed."
In a statement announcing his death, Mitte's representatives said he "brought authenticity to the role and built a platform on disability awareness and inclusion." The statement said he used "his platform to challenge stereotypes and promote greater representation."
Mitte's later credits included the ABC Family series "Switched at Birth" and the superhero satire series "Guardians of Justice."
He was also a producer of several independent films.
As an advocate, he served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children's. He was also president of his own Mitte Foundation supporting philanthropic and community initiatives around disabilities.
US Interior cancels maintenance, programming at national parks, including several New Mexico sites
– Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The U.S. Department of the Interior has canceled contracts to conduct routine maintenance and programming at numerous national parks and downgraded nearly 1,500 more projects across the country to “low priority” status, including several in New Mexico, according to the nonpartisan conservation group Center for Western Priorities.
The conservation group pulled records from an internal National Park Service database and published them in an interactive map that contains details for each of the canceled or downgraded projects. Many of the entries contain notes that park officials wrote about the projects’ importance.
New Mexico’s cuts so far include $8,000 to continue operating eight weather stations in Valles Caldera National Preserve; $169,127 to submit documentation on Petroglyph National Monument’s significance to 29 tribes and pueblos to the National Register; $100,607 to finish taking stock of old museum records at Aztec Ruins National Monument and identify items that could be returned to Indigenous communities; and $30,984 for the National Trails Office to manage national park programs along Route 66 and other culturally significant roads.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department previously told the Washington Post that the department specifically focused on nixing deals that are “actively working against the best interests of the American people and the priorities of this administration.”
In addition to cutting projects, the federal agency also has downgraded nearly 1,500 — including 29 in New Mexico — as lower priority.
Advocates like Center for Western Priorities Creative Content and Policy Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein contend that the federal agency is unfairly targeting “everyday projects that keep parks open and running,” particularly those that the Interior Department recently classified as “low priority.”
“Roof repairs, replacing outdated computers, even buying toilet paper and garbage bags — none of that is low priority. It’s the basic work national parks need to function,” she said in a statement.
Downgraded projects in New Mexico include replacing failing septic tanks at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, which park officials wrote are “past the normal lifecycle of a concrete septic tank.” Not replacing them could lead to sewage leaking into the surrounding area’s groundwater.
At Petroglyph National Monument, park staff labeled a project to replace failing HVAC systems at the visitor’s center an “emergency,” but it is also among the newly designated “low priority projects.”
In Pecos National Historical Park, the Interior Department downgraded funding for a certified medical director who works with on-site law enforcement officers and rangers.
And at White Sands National Park, the Interior Department downgraded several repairs, including fixing visitor center exhibits that have fallen into disrepair; replacing fencing around sewage lagoons; installing new signage and preserving historic signs; and adding a fence to “protect critical infrastructure” at the park’s water tanks.
“It is illuminating to see which repairs and purchases were pushed aside so Secretary (Doug) Burgum could pay for President Trump’s vanity projects in Washington,” Bock-Brownstein said in a statement. “The National Park Service is supposed to protect every park. Instead, parks across the country are being neglected while money flows to the president’s pet projects.”
Neither the Department of the Interior nor the National Park Service immediately responded to Source NM’s requests for comment.
Shiyazh Pete, first Navajo NFL player, recognized on Indigenous Peoples Day
– By Savannah Peters and Mead Gruver, Associated Press
The first member of the Navajo Nation to play in the NFL received a hero's welcome Monday in New Mexico, where he signed footballs and jerseys and posed with fans for photos on Indigenous Peoples Day.
Hundreds of people dressed in ribbon skirts, turquoise jewelry and Cowboys gear gathered in a park in Albuquerque to honor Shiyazh Pete, who played briefly with the Dallas Cowboys.
Cowboys fan Norman Smith said he traveled more than two hours from the Navajo community of Pueblo Pintado to shake hands with the young man he described as a celebrity in his family.
"We're just proud that somebody from the reservation had a chance like that," Smith said.
Dominic Riley, a 16-year-old citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna and starting center on his high school team, was starstruck after Pete signed his baseball cap.
"He's my inspiration," Riley said. "Hopefully someday I'll be there."
Pete played two preseason NFL games as an offensive tackle. Against the Arizona Cardinals in August, he was greeted by thousands of Navajo Nation fans who cheered, waved tribal flags and yelled "yéego," an affirmation that translates roughly to "with great effort, do it." Then he returned to the sideline to a standing ovation after six snaps.
Now a free agent after being waived by the Cowboys, Pete has returned home to the Navajo Nation where fans say they hope he will return to the NFL before long.
Pete joins a long list of Native athletes who have broken barriers in sports, inspired pride in their communities and become role models for Native children. From Olympic champions to professional basketball players, these athletes have helped shape sports history while opening doors for those who follow.
Still widely considered the greatest athlete of all time, Jim Thorpe, of the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma, won the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics. He also played six seasons in Major League Baseball and 12 in professional football, including in the American Professional Football Association, the precursor to the National Football League.
A track and field teammate of Thorpe's at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, Louis Tewanima carried on the Hopi spiritual practice of running to gain recognition at the repressive institution. He finished ninth in the marathon at the 1908 Olympics in London and second in the 10,000 meters at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, setting an American record in the event.
Modern surfing traces its history to Native Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku. His international demonstrations between winning gold and silver swimming medals at the 1912, 1920 and 1924 Olympics made surfing widely known. Kahanamoku helped establish surfboards as standard ocean lifeguarding equipment. He acted in movies and served from 1935 to 1961 as sheriff of Honolulu.
Marathoner Ellison Myers "Tarzan" Brown, of the Narragansett Tribe in Rhode Island, won the Boston Marathon in 1936 and 1939 and competed for the U.S. in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Brown was to run the marathon in the 1940 Olympics, but the games were canceled due to World War II.
Oglala Lakota runner Billy Mills was the first non-European to win Olympic gold in the 10-kilometer run with his upset, Olympic-record race at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. The run was the best U.S. medal finish in that Olympic event since Tewanima's silver more than half a century earlier — and Mills' 10K gold has yet to be equaled by a U.S. Olympian.
The first American woman to finish a marathon under 2 hours, 30 minutes, Patti Catalano Dillon, is of Mi'kmaw descent and grew up in Massachusetts. Dillon was runner-up in the 1980 New York Marathon and in the 1979, 1980 and 1981 Boston marathons. Dillon held world records in the half marathon and 30-kilometer and 20-kilometer runs.
Ryneldi Becenti was the first Native American WNBA athlete, playing for the Phoenix Mercury in the 1997 season. Becenti grew up playing fast-paced "rez ball" on the Navajo Nation and was a top player for Scottsdale Community College and Arizona State University before going pro as a player in Europe.
Los Angeles Sparks player Aaliyah Nye is a citizen of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi in Michigan. A top scorer in high school, then for Alabama, Nye joined the WNBA in 2025 as a Las Vegas Aces draft pick. In 2026, she was drafted and waived by the Toronto Tempo and Atlanta Dream before being claimed by the Sparks.
Golfer Notah Begay III notched four PGA Tour wins in 1999 and 2000. A Native American with Navajo, San Felipe and Isleta heritage, Begay established a foundation to promote Native American health and wellness through soccer and golf programs. He is a TV golf analyst. ___
Gruver reported from Fort Collins, Colorado.
___
This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.
