New Mexico reports 2 more New World screwworm cases
– Source New Mexico Staff
The New Mexico Department of Agriculture on Thursday reported two more New World screwworm cases in the state, both in Grant County, inflicting a horse and a calf.
“We are working closely with our state and federal partners to investigate these cases, increase surveillance and monitor for additional infestations,” State Veterinarian Dr. Samantha Holeck with the New Mexico Livestock Board said in a statement.
The cases mark the third and fourth for the state, which in September expanded surveillance for the pest following the detection of the second case in a horse, also in Grant County. New Mexico reported its first case in June — in a Lea County dog — just days after the first U.S. incursion of the devastating parasitic fly in a south Texas calf.
Named for the maggot’s behavior of feeding on live tissue, the New World screwworm has advanced rapidly through Mexico after being mainly contained in Central America for several decades. The state launched a one-stop website in mid-May to track cases.
A Thursday news release says state and federal officials continue to expand surveillance and fly-trapping to identify possible additional cases, with a minimum 12.4-mile radius infested zone established around each animal’s location, and the most northern zones combined into one.
“We appreciate the continued cooperation of livestock producers, veterinarians and animal owners as we respond to these additional cases,” New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte said in a statement. “Early detection and prompt reporting are critical to limiting the spread of this pest. We encourage everyone to remain vigilant and work closely with animal health officials.”
Officials encouraged animal owners to monitor them for: un-healing wounds, wounds with maggots and other abnormal signs of injury and to contact the Livestock Board if they suspect the presence of New World screwworm.
New Mexicans to lose private Medicare coverage as three providers pull plans
– Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
By year’s end, tens of thousands of New Mexicans will lose Medicare Advantage coverage as three insurers drop plans from their networks.
Presbyterian Healthcare Services announced in August that it would end all Advantage plans, impacting 30,000 people. Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico and Christus Health have also said they would drop most Advantage plans.
Advantage plans supplement the baseline Medicare that most U.S. residents 65 or older receive through the federal government. These plans are a necessity for many, especially those with chronic illnesses, planholders interviewed by the Journal said.
Between now and the end of the year, tens of thousands of New Mexicans will have to decide whether to re-enroll with other insurers or accept basic Medicare coverage as open enrollment season begins.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Town of Bernalillo victim of cyberattack
– Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
A cyberattack hit the town of Bernalillo last week, making most of its online services inaccessible and forcing the motor vehicle division to close.
Acting town spokesperson Augusta Meyers also said people who normally pay their bills online will have to do so in person or on the phone.
Meyers added, however, that “no data has been compromised to this point.”
The town reported the incident about 5:15 a.m. Oct. 9, Meyers said.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico Office of Housing details affordable housing ‘mismatch’ along with $97M funding request
– Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Leaders of the New Mexico Office of Housing on Wednesday released the results of a new analysis showing how the state’s existing housing supply shortchanges most low- and medium-income residents, along with a breakdown of close to $100 million in funding it plans to request next year.
The Office of Housing has been attached administratively to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, the state’s workforce development agency, since 2025. In that time, lawmakers have already provided it with more than $100 million for a variety of housing and homelessness initiatives.
During an online presentation, Department of Workforce Solutions Secretary Sarita Nair and Lisa Huval, the office’s housing initiatives manager, laid out seven policy priorities they arrived at following a series of interviews and analyses they conducted with the help of an outside consultant.
The office’s priorities include increasing local capacity and updating local zoning codes to ensure faster housing permitting; preserving existing affordable housing units; collecting and analyzing more data; and using state subsidies to fill gaps that prevent developers from building new affordable housing.
At the moment, according to an analysis Huval provided, construction of a single apartment in a multifamily development would cost a developer in Albuquerque $348,000, a number that has steadily risen due to increased construction, regulatory and capital costs. But the only way that unit could be affordable to a tenant who makes 80% or less than the city’s median income is if it cost developers $275,000, Huval said.
“That difference between those two numbers is really what is driving our housing shortage,” Huval said.
Statewide, New Mexico lacks at least 50,000 units affordable to low- and moderate-income households, which refers to those who make between 30% and 150% of the area median income, officials said Wednesday. That includes two-person households statewide earning between $24,100 and $120,500.
Roughly 60% of New Mexico households who make within that income range are “cost-burdened,” which means they spend about one-third or more of their incomes on housing.
Overall, the analysis found that 65% of affordable housing across the state is owned by people who could afford more expensive dwellings based on their incomes.
For example, 136,000 occupied housing units exist in New Mexico that are affordable to those who make 50% or less than the area median income. But 36% of those units — comprising roughly 47,000 homes — are owned by those who make more than the area median income.
Nair said the “mismatch” pervades the statewide affordable housing market and occurs naturally. It points to a need for increased housing supply generally, but also of different types of housing across the income spectrum.
“This is not people doing bad things.This is the natural dynamic,” she said. “I myself live in a unit that’s affordable to a lower income than I make. And I own it, and I’m never moving.”
The disparity exists in the affordable rental market as well.
The Office of Housing is seeking roughly $97 million in the upcoming legislative session, most of which would go for “gap financing” for affordable housing construction. That includes $50 million for grants to developers, as well as $30 million in capital outlay.
“Our hope is that over time less and less subsidy is needed for affordable housing for low- and moderate-income folks,” Huval said. “For now, we believe we need to continue to invest in or deploy grants that close that gap between what it takes to build housing and then what a low-moderate income household can afford to pay.”
New Mexico, western conservation groups lodge formal protest over federal drilling plan in Carlsbad
– Matt Mondshein, Source New Mexico
A coalition of New Mexico and western conservation groups this week filed a formal protest against the federal land agency over proposed drilling plans in the Carlsbad area. The plan, the groups contend, violates federal law and disregards the environmental impact it will have on the land, climate and surrounding population.
The Bureau of Land Management’s Carlsbad office oversees more than 2 million surface acres and approximately 2.7 million subsurface acres across Eddy and Lea counties, leasing the land for energy and mineral projects.
The agency’s revised Carlsbad Resource Management Plan, issued in September, proposes making 97% of public lands managed by the field office available for energy and mineral leasing alongside expanded grazing and recreational opportunities, the bureau said in a Sept. 4 news release. The same release highlighted a May oil and gas lease sale of 74 parcels of land in New Mexico and Texas.
The groups argue the plan does not consider increased oil and gas extraction’s impact on the climate.
“This plan is a climate bomb,” Rebecca Sobel, WildEarth Guardians climate and health director, told Source NM.
The coalition of six conservation groups —Western Environmental Law Center, Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens Caring For the Future, Earthworks, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter and WildEarth Guardians — filed a formal protest on Tuesday addressed to BLM Director Stevan Pearce — a former U.S. congressman from New Mexico — alleging the BLM plan violates the federal National Environmental Policy Act’s “hard look” requirement to consider and minimize impacts on people and the environment.
“If this plan were a country, it would be the 20th worst emitter in the world annually for carbon emissions between Italy and Malaysia,” Sobel said. In a report published last Thursday, WildEarth Guardians estimates the plan would facilitate the drilling of an additional 12,096 oil and gas wells in the area over the next two decades and require 230 billion gallons of water.
In their protest, the conservation groups called on BLM to withdraw the proposed plan, write a supplemental environmental impact statement and reopen the process for public participation and Tribal consultation.
In an emailed response to Source NM, BLM spokesperson Allison Sandoval said the agency does not comment on third-party advocacy reports. The BLM’s analysis and conclusions, she added, are reflected in the Final Environmental Impact Statement “which underwent extensive environmental review and public involvement.”
BLM began revising its 1988 Carlsbad plan in 2011 and last invited public comment on a draft environmental impact statement in 2018. The revisions since then have gone without public comment, said Matt Nykiel, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center.
The groups also allege BLM failed to adequately examine effects on public health, water availability, air pollution and ground water contamination of oil and gas extraction. Oil and gas development, Nykiel added, “creates infrastructure that can be detrimental” to vulnerable species such as the lesser prairie chicken and dune sagebrush lizard. The area, he continued, includes fragile desert ecosystems, interconnected cave and groundwater systems and public lands surrounding Carlsbad Caverns National Park that could also be affected.
The revised BLM plan marks the latest in the Trump administration’s policy changes to achieve “energy dominance” goals. Last week in Santa Fe, Lee Zeldin, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, announced rollbacks of Biden-era oil and gas regulations aimed at curbing climate-warming gas emissions in order for the U.S. “to reach its full energy potential.”
Tuesday was the final day to submit a formal protest of the proposal.
Sobel stressed that BLM should not rush to approval.
“The public needs to have a meaningful place to engage” on the issue, she said. Continued drilling in southeast New Mexico doesn’t benefit the population “in terms of their air or water quality, and certainly doesn’t benefit New Mexicans at large. It doesn’t benefit anyone in America. Just those oil executives,” she said.
