Jobs Seekers Can Nab $1,000 Federal Bonus In New Mexico - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
Federal relief funds will be used to offer back-to-work bonuses of up to $1,000 for New Mexico residents who find a job in the coming weeks and stop receiving unemployment insurance benefits, state labor officials announced Friday.
The program from Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is aimed at encouraging a return to work before federal unemployment supplements expire in early September.
The new support payments decline gradually from $1,000 to $400 by late July, providing a bigger payout the sooner a job is secured. The federal supplement provides an extra $300 a week on top of state unemployment benefits.
"If we can make it even just one degree easier for someone to get back to work, helping offset transition costs, then we've got to do that," the governor said in a news release.
New Mexico isn't the only state that is dangling an incentive to lure the unemployed back to work. Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear last week announced a limited number of $1,500 bonuses to people who qualify and return to work by July 30, setting aside $22.5 million in federal relief funds.
Some businesses have complained that expanded federal aid to the unemployed — especially the $300-a-week supplemental benefit, intended to cushion the economic blow from the pandemic — has discouraged people from looking for a job. But other factors also are believed to have contributed to the shortage of people seeking work again, from difficulty arranging or affording child care to lingering fears of COVID-19.
Responding to the criticism about the duration of expanded jobless benefits, dozens of states began dropping the expanded federal aid in June. Most of those will also cut off unemployment assistance to the self-employed, gig workers and people who have been out of work for more than six months.
More than 70,000 residents of New Mexico are receiving unemployment insurance. On Thursday, state health officials lifted the last restrictions on business occupancy and public gatherings — throwing open the economy as vaccination rates surpass 62%.
The Department of Workforce Solutions says it expects up to 15,000 people will take advantage of the back-to-work program at a total cost of up to $10.1 million.
The program runs through Aug. 28, and people who claim the bonus must keep their new job at least that long.
It's the latest expenditure from New Mexico's $1.7 billion share of federal relief money approved by President Joe Biden in March.
About $600 million in federal relief will be dedicated to replenishing New Mexico's indebted unemployment insurance trust fund to stave off tax increase on businesses.
Separately, New Mexico's judiciary on Friday announced a return to in-person attendance at a broad array of court hearings and trials. Masks and health screening questions continue to be required to enter state courts, along with physical distancing requirements indoors.
The state Supreme Court will begin holding oral arguments in person when all participants are vaccinated.
Presiding judges can still make special arrangements to safeguard people who may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19. About 76% of judges and state court employees have been vaccinated as of the end of June, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.
Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico Ranch Listed For $27.5 Million – Wall Street Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican, Associated Press
A sprawling New Mexico ranch belonging to deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is on the market for $27.5 million.
The 12-square-mile Zorro Ranch was put up for sale by Epstein's estate and includes a 26,700-square-foot mansion and a private airstrip with a hangar and helipad, according to the listing by Neil Lyon Group at Sotheby's International Realty Santa Fe.
Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 at age 66 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking girls in New York and Florida.
The listing was reported Thursday by the Wall Street Journal, which said proceeds from the sale would go toward compensating those who filed claims against Epstein and paying taxes and creditors.
Epstein purchased the property in southern Santa Fe County in 1993. Besides the mansion, the ranch includes several other residences, including an off-the-grid cabin, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
Local real estate professionals have said the highly publicized accusations against Epstein probably won't have much effect on what the ranch and its massive mansion ultimately fetch on the market, the New Mexican reported.
"I think they priced it right," James Congdon of Santa Fe Properties said of the Epstein property. "I think it's appropriate. It could sell tomorrow, or it could take four or five years."
Epstein did not face any charges tied to New Mexico, but news reports have said court documents and civil cases accused him of sexually assaulting teenage girls and women at the property.
Body Of Missing Navajo Army Veteran Found In Nevada – Associated Press
The body of a Navajo woman missing for two years has been found in Nevada, and her boyfriend is facing murder charges.
Authorities in Farmington, New Mexico, say the body was found in Clark County, Nevada, in February. DNA test results this week showed the remains belonged to Cecelia Finona, who was 59 when she was last seen at her Farmington home the evening of May 30, 2019.
Police on Friday filed charges of murder, kidnapping and and tampering with evidence against her boyfriend, Jerry Jay. It was not clear if he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
In court documents from 2019, Finona's mother recalled that Finona and Jay had been arguing the night she disappeared and then someone left the house in the middle of the night.
According to a court document, Jay used Finona's ATM card several times, with the first withdrawal made around 6 a.m. May 31 in Farmington and the next around 9:30 a.m. the same day in Window Rock, Arizona. Window Rock is the capital of the Navajo Nation.
He also used her debit card the following two days in Las Vegas and Kingman, Arizona, according to police. The total withdrawn amounted to more than $1,200.
Police said surveillance footage did not show Finona with him.
A missing persons report was filed for Finona on June 1, 2019, when her mother told others she hadn't been home in two days. Her family has since logged searches in Farmington and the nearby Navajo Nation, her daughter Julietta Finona said shortly after the disappearance.
The daughter said the family found blood at Finona's home and reported it to police. She also said her aunt's dog led them to her mother's eyeglass lens on the property.
Police note in court documents that the blood at the home stretched from the bottom of the porch to Finona's gravel driveway and that someone had tried to cover it with potting soil. A "single eyeglass lens covered in blood" also was found, the officer said.
Julietta Finona said in 2019 that she and her mother were close and the last time they spoke was the morning before she disappeared. Cecelia Finona had been excited about her nephew's recent graduation, her daughter said.
Finona had returned to New Mexico after 31 years in the U.S. Army. Months before her disappearance, she was featured in the Farmington Daily Times in a story about women in the military being honored in Shiprock.
"She was very active and involved in the community," Julietta Finona said.
New Mexico Taking Over Operations Of Another Private Prison – Associated Press
For the second time in two years, the state of New Mexico is taking over operations of a private prison.
The medium security prison in Santa Rosa, currently run by the GEO Group, is expected to be turned over to the state by November.
The state took over operations of the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton in 2019.
The New Mexico Corrections Department reportedly has entered into a lease agreement to transition the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility to a publicly operated facility, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Discussions between the state and GEO over the past few weeks led to the decision about the prison in Santa Rosa.
It comes amid a large decrease in prison population levels across New Mexico following a pandemic-related executive order to decrease inmate numbers by the hundreds.
Four of the 11 prisons in New Mexico, including the Guadalupe County facility, are privately run and hold 42% of the state's inmate population.
New Mexico Gives Most US Funding To Child Care Of Any State - By Cedar Attanasio Associated Press/Report For America
New Mexico is directing the nation's biggest chunk of federal coronavirus relief money to helping middle-class families pay for child care, a vast expansion aimed at getting parents back to work in one of the poorest states in America.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday that the state will subsidize child care at 350% of the federal poverty line, or about $93,000 for a family of four. That's up from about $54,000.
"We're going to double the subsidies for child care," said the Democratic governor, who was flanked by balloons and overlooked a gaggle of young children wearing party hats. She added that the state could one day go even further: "Why don't we have universal access for child care?"
New Mexico's two-year spending commitment will expand eligibility to the highest income levels of any state. It's the largest and latest example of states using pandemic relief aid to subsidize child care. Others include Georgia and Montana, while California is debating a child care funding package.
Some states, like New Jersey, offer subsidies at 350% of the federal poverty line but only when relatives are providing care.
New Mexico also will be the first state to increase payments to child care providers by using a reimbursement formula that focuses on the local cost of running child care businesses, instead of the market rate of what parents can pay.
State Early Childhood Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky called the announcement an "important landmark on our journey towards creating a true cradle-to-career education system that helps all New Mexicans thrive."
Groginsky was pivotal for winning federal approval of the new formula in Washington, D.C., where she served as assistant superintendent of early learning for the District of Columbia before taking the job in New Mexico. While the formulas are not identical, the experience there provides an idea of how much child care providers will benefit.
Child care providers in Washington got a 24% to 57% increase in reimbursement during the transition in 2019, according to officials there. No providers saw a decrease.
Early childhood advocates say the new rules will lead to increased pay for child care workers, who often make just above minimum wage. They also expect improvements in worker-to-child ratios, the main benchmark of child care center quality.
"So for your child what that means is that there's a lower ratio between (staff) and children," said Katherine Freeman, CEO at Growing Up New Mexico. "Why is that the most significant thing? Because children need individual attention."
Parents should see immediate benefits, especially those who earned too much to qualify for past subsidies but too little to pay for child care without spending half their paycheck.
The expansion is paid for in part by $300 million in federal awards that expire in 2024.
Democratic state lawmakers already have a plan in motion to increase child care funding long term by tapping into a unique $20 billion state endowment funded by resource extraction royalties and market investments.
A ballot initiative before voters next year could increase the amount of funding from the endowment to the state's Early Childhood Education and Care Department and possibly replace the federal funding when it expires.
Indigenous Group Questions Removal Of Boarding School Plaque - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
A historical plaque memorializing the dozens of Native American children who died while attending a boarding school in New Mexico more than a century ago has gone missing, sparking concern among Indigenous activists.
Members of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women are among those pushing the city of Albuquerque to investigate. The small plaque was in a park near the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the original site of the Albuquerque Indian School.
The plaque noted the site of a burial ground for students who attended the school between 1882 and 1933. They included children from the Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo and Apache tribes.
The removal of the plaque comes as the U.S. government embarks on a nationwide investigation aimed at uncovering the troubling history of boarding schools that sought to assimilate Indigenous youth into white society over many decades. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the massive undertaking last month while addressing tribal leaders from across the nation.
Advocacy groups have praised the effort as a first step toward acknowledging what many have referred to as a "dark history."
Coalition member Jovita Belgarde — who is Isleta, Ohkay Owingeh and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa — said the discovery of the missing plaque added insult to injury. Many Indigenous families have been reeling since hearing about the bodies of hundreds of children being uncovered at the sites of boarding schools in Canada. The launch of the Interior Department's investigation also has stirred unresolved feelings in the U.S.
Belgarde sees the recent taking of the plaque as a continuation of efforts to silence Indigenous voices and perpetuation of violence against Indigenous people.
"These atrocities — people talk about them like they're in the past. These are not the distant past," she told The Associated Press. "These actions left deep scars for many of our elders, our families, our friends ... and many people have not had any support to heal that trauma and have had to live with this pain and silence for generations."
Albuquerque officials said Thursday they are working with tribal leaders, historical experts and others to determine the next steps with regard to the missing plaque. They also noted that a public art piece and a second plaque that references the history of the site are still at the park.
"As we continue to work with the respective leaders on this issue, we urge the public to respect the cultural and spiritual significance of this site," city parks director Dave Simon said in a statement.
With more light being shined on past boarding school policies, tribal governors from around New Mexico have advocated for accountability and justice.
All Pueblo Council of Governors Chairman Wilfred Herrera Jr., who is from Laguna Pueblo, said recounting what Pueblo parents and children experienced has been painful.
"While some of our children endured years of abuse for speaking our languages, practicing our cultures, and maintaining our traditions, the unbearable truth is that many of our young never returned to their Pueblo homelands, ever," he said in a statement.
The Albuquerque Indian School was started in 1881 by the Presbyterian Church. It came under federal control a few years later and was among hundreds of known boarding schools across the country. The school closed in the 1980s, and the property was put into trust for New Mexico's 19 pueblos. The buildings eventually were torn down, and a tribal development corporation is working to make it a commercial hub.
Aside from determining the fate of the missing plaque, Belgarde said advocates want an investigation into the site overall in hopes of turning up more information about exactly how many children might have been buried there. She said the site demands more reverence, and city officials need to be transparent about how they proceed.
New Mexico Court Upholds Legislative's Access Restrictions – Santa Fe New Mexican, Associated Press
The New Mexico Constitution doesn't clearly require that the public be allowed to attend legislative sessions so rule changes made during the pandemic to restrict in-person access were permissible, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
The opinion issued Wednesday explains the court's decision last year on Republican lawmakers' argument that the restrictions deprived citizens of their constitutional right to participate in the legislative process, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
The public was allowed to watch floor debates online and testify at committee hearings via video chat.
"There is simply no clear or explicit constitutional mandate to be found in the public sessions provision that would justify" nullifying the attendance restrictions, then-Justice Judith K. Nakamura wrote in the majority opinion.
Justices C. Shannon Bacon and David K. Thomson dissented, saying the state constitution "limits the Legislature's authority to exclude the public from individually attending the sessions in person."
Yet they also wrote that "based on the facts of this case, online or virtual access exceeds the constitutional minimum required" for hearings to "be public."
Recall Petition Begins Against Cowboys For Trump Founder – Associated Press
A political committee has begun circulating a petition to recall Cowboys For Trump founder Couy Griffin from public office as a commissioner in Otero County.
The Committee to Recall Couy Griffin said Thursday in a news release that it has begun collecting signatures in efforts to scheduled a recall election.
The petition alleges that Griffin neglected and misused his position as a county commissioner while skipping public meetings and promoting a support group for President Donald Trump that Griffin treated as a for-profit business.
Griffin, elected in 2018, says allegations in the petition are frivolous and without merit. Separately, Griffin is confronting federal charges in connection with the U.S. Capitol siege on Jan. 6, where he appeared on an outdoor terrace and attempted to lead a prayer.
The recall committee needs to collect about 1,540 signatures from registered voters in Griffin's district to trigger a vote on whether Griffin stays in office through 2022.
Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes says a successful petition would put the question on the November general election ballot for local, nonpartisan races.
If Griffin is recalled from office, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham would name a replacement. A Democrat last sat on the Otero County Commission in 1994.
Tribes Say Voting Access Hurt By US Supreme Court Ruling - By Felicia Fonseca Associated Press
The largest Native American reservation in the U.S. includes parts of three Arizona counties, all of which had different approaches to precinct voting in the 2020 general election.
Voters in Apache County had to cast ballots at the polling location they were assigned. People registered in Navajo County could vote anywhere in the county. Coconino County used a hybrid model.
The Navajo Nation has long argued the approach is inconsistent and confusing, leading to ballots being rejected and tribal members being denied the same opportunity to vote as others in Arizona.
The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed on Thursday in a broader case over Arizona voting regulations, upholding a prohibition on counting ballots cast in the wrong precinct and returning early ballots for another person.
The ruling will reach broadly into tribal communities, particularly those where Indigenous people don't have residential mail service or must drive long distances to polling sites and the post office.
Native American voting rights advocates viewed it as another notch in a long history of voting discrimination but say they'll continue pushing for access and changes in laws.
"I feel like it's in our blood to be ready to counter and fight and stand strong," said Jaynie Parrish, who is Navajo and executive director of the Navajo County Democrats. "Our organizers say all the time, 'If your vote didn't matter, why are they trying so hard to take it away.'"
The high court's conservative majority wrote that Arizona's interest in the integrity of elections justified the measures and said voters faced "modest burdens" at most. A lower court had found them discriminatory under the federal Voting Rights Act.
"The court seemed to note the number of ways that people can vote without recognizing how those ways are limited in Indian Country," said Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, director of the Indian Legal Clinic at Arizona State University's law school and a citizen of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe in Louisiana. "They are not a reality for reservation voters."
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said Thursday's decision does nothing to protect voting access for minorities, including Navajos.
The decision ignores the number of voters who didn't cast a ballot because they were told they weren't in the right precinct, as well as socioeconomic barriers such as poverty and the reservation's remoteness, said Ferguson-Bohnee.
Hardly anyone has a street address on the vast Navajo Nation. Tribal members are among rural residents who must draw a map in a small space on voter registration cards showing where they live, and it's up to county officials to place them in the right precinct.
In the 2020 election, more than 2,000 voters in Apache County were placed on a list because of questions surrounding their residency, the Navajo Nation noted in court documents. Neither the state nor the county had online options for voters to determine their polling location without a street address, tribal attorneys wrote.
There's no public transportation on the 27,000-square-mile Navajo Nation that's bigger than 10 U.S. states. It stretches into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Many people rely on friends, family or strangers for rides.
Poor roads increase the difficulties of voting, the tribe said. More than four-fifths of the reservation's roads are unpaved. During elections, many Navajos tell politicians they want better roads.
"Even just gravel, we'd be very grateful," said Tovina Yazzie, manager of the Sweetwater Chapter on the Navajo Nation.
Yazzie tries to impress upon tribal members that voting could result in more funding to the small community near the Arizona-Utah border. She also recognizes the obstacles.
"We run into some people or community members who don't have vehicles, so it is a hindrance for our community to come in and vote," she said. "And also, the weather has a role in it, if it's snowing or rainy or muddy."
Jennifer Begay, who works at the Red Mesa Chapter nearby, spent three hours in the 2016 election driving family and friends to polling locations, mindful of the toll the dirt roads would take on her car that doesn't have much ground clearance.
"I was just really wanting people to vote," she said. "They didn't have transportation."
Native Americans weren't granted U.S. citizenship until 1924, and even then some states prohibited them from voting for decades if they lived on reservations or couldn't pass an English literacy test.
Native Americans and advocacy groups have won or settled much of the election-related lawsuits they've filed over the years, according to a report by the Native American Rights Fund.
Montana's legislature passed a bill earlier this year to prohibit the paid collection of absentee ballots and another to end Election Day voter registration. Tribes have brought state constitutional challenges to both laws, arguing they prevent Native Americans living on reservations from fully and equally participating in elections.
In Nevada, state lawmakers last year lifted limits on who could collect and return mail ballots on behalf of others. Teresa Melendez of the Nevada Native Vote Project said it's been incredibly helpful, especially for tribal members who must drive three hours roundtrip to the nearest polling place.
Arizona passed laws this year that Native Americans said will make voting more complicated but that Republicans defended in the name of election integrity. One bill codifies a practice of giving voters who didn't sign ballots until polls close on Election Day. Another could result in a purge of voters from the rolls who automatically get ballots by mail.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, said the state's ballot collection law ensures fairness in elections. The challenge that ended up before the Supreme Court was a desperate tactic by Democrats, he said.
"This decision is a clear repudiation of those tactics," he said in a statement.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the law was most likely to affect Native Americans who travel long distances to mail ballots.
"However you can get your ballot to the ballot box, that should be primary," said Steve Begay, the vice chairman of the Apache County Democrats. "If there are laws restricting that, that's probably not democratic."
President Joe Biden's administration favored a narrower ruling of the Supreme Court's decision that overturned the 9th Circuit. The decision came while the administration is seeking input from tribes across the country on barriers to voting.
A surge in voter turnout among tribal members helped lead Biden to victory in Arizona, a state that hadn't supported a Democrat in a White House contest since 1996.
Jacqueline De Leon, a staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund and a member of Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico, said tribes have pushed for more voter registration opportunities with federal agencies and for a liaison in the U.S. Postal Service to increase residential mail delivery on tribal land, among other things.
Despite the obstacles for tribal members, she urged Native Americans and other minority communities to vote so their choices can help shape new laws.
"There wouldn't be so much effort to disenfranchise voters if there wasn't power at stake," she said.
Richard Branson Announces Trip To Space, Ahead Of Jeff Bezos - By Marcia Dunn AP Aerospace Writer
Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson is aiming to beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos into space by nine days.
Branson's company announced Thursday evening that its next test flight will be July 11 and that its founder will be among the six people on board. The winged rocket ship will soar from New Mexico — the first carrying a full crew of company employees. It will be only the fourth trip to space for Virgin Galactic.
The news came just hours after Bezos' Blue Origin said Bezos would be accompanied into space on July 20 by a female aerospace pioneer who's waited 60 years to rocket away.
Bezos chose July 20 as his West Texas launch date — the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. He assigned himself to the flight just a month ago, the final stretch in a yearslong race to space between the two rich rocketeers.
Amazon's founder will be on Blue Origin's debut launch with people on board, accompanied by his brother, the winner of a $28 million charity auction and Wally Funk, one of the last surviving members of the Mercury 13 who was chosen as his "honored guest." The 13 female pilots passed the same tests as NASA's original Mercury 7 astronauts back in the early 1960s, but were barred from the corps — and spaceflight — because they were women.
As late as Wednesday, Branson declined to say when he would ride into space because of restrictions placed on him by his publicly traded company. But he stressed he was "fit and healthy" to fly as soon as his engineers give him the go.
"I've always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. On July 11, it's time to turn that dream into a reality aboard the next @VirginGalactic," he said via Twitter.
Virgin Galactic launches its rocket ship from an aircraft, reaching an altitude of roughly 55 miles. Blue Origin launches its New Shepard rocket from the ground, with its capsule soaring to about 66 miles (106 kilometers). Both those heights are considered the edge of space. By comparison, Elon Musk's SpaceX launches its capsules — both crew and cargo — into orbit around Earth.
All three private space companies plan to take paying customers into space. SpaceX will be the first with a private flight coming up in September.
Flights by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin last about 10 minutes, with three or so minutes of weightlessness. But the returns are quite different: Virgin Galactic's rocket plane glides to a landing on a runway, like NASA's old space shuttles did, with a pair of pilots in charge. Blue Origin's automated capsules parachute to the desert floor, similar to how NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules made ocean splashdowns. Their spaceports are just 200 miles apart.
Funk, at age 82, will become the oldest person to launch into space when Blue Origin takes its turn.
"I'll love every second of it. Whoooo! Ha-ha. I can hardly wait," Funk said in an Instagram video posted by Bezos.
"Nothing has ever gotten in my way," she added. "They said, 'Well, you're a girl, you can't do that.' I said, 'Guess what, doesn't matter what you are. You can still do it if you want to do it and I like to do things that nobody has ever done."
She'll beat the late John Glenn, who set a record at age 77 when flying aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1998. Glenn pooh-poohed the idea of women flying in space, shortly after he became the first American to orbit the world in 1962.
"No one has waited longer," Bezos said via Instagram. "It's time. Welcome to the crew, Wally."
Bezos is stepping down as Amazon's CEO on Monday.
Blue Origin has yet to announce ticket prices or when the public might strap into the spacious six-seat capsule. Its New Shepard rocket is named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
Virgin Galactic has more than 600 reservations in the pipeline. These original tickets went for $250,000. The company will start accepting more following the upcoming flight with Branson. Keen to get to space, Funk reserved a seat years ago.
Virgin Galactic plans three more test flights before taking up customers, Branson was initially supposed to be on the second demo coming up, but moved it up in an apparent bid to outdo Bezos. He said Wednesday, after his other company Virgin Orbit launched a batch of satellites, that it's important for his customers to see him ride his rocket ship first, before they climb on board.