Navajo Look To Arizona Utilities To Make Up For Coal Losses - By Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press
The Navajo Nation is looking to Arizona utilities that shared in the power generated on the reservation to help make up for the financial losses from the coal industry.
Navajo leaders have requested nearly $62 million to establish a "just transition" fund to support water infrastructure on the reservation. The tribe also wants a commitment to buy renewable energy from utility-scale projects on its land in an ongoing rate case for Tucson Electric Power.
The appeal could extend to another major state utility and aid other communities that have long-relied on revenue from coal.
Coal-fired power plants and mines have been huge economic drivers in the Four Corners region for decades. The Navajo Generating Station near Page and its feed mine shut down last year. The San Juan Generating Station near Farmington is scheduled to shutter in 2022 and the nearby Four Corners Power Plant in 2031.
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez told tribal lawmakers gathered in Window Rock for their winter session to curb spending because of an expected $30 million to $50 million revenue shortfall from last year's closure of the Navajo Generating Station alone.
The tribe also requested help to extend power and running water to Navajos who have lived in the shadow of power plants, as well as support to acquire water rights in the Colorado River basin, money to build pipelines and a commitment from the utilities to buy power from tribal facilities.
In New Mexico, lawmakers in 2019 approved landmark legislation clearing the way for the state's main investor-owned utility to divest itself from a coal-fired power plant and guide new investments in renewable energy.
The law aims to ease the economic pains of closing the San Juan Generating Station by allowing the power plant owners to sell bonds to recover investments and fund an estimated $40 million in assistance for displaced workers and economic development programs.
Utility customers will pay off the bonds, and the state will manage funds set up to aid job training and other programs in the affected communities.
Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this report.
Santa Fe Chooses Finalists For Midtown Campus Redevelopment – Associated Press
The city of Santa Fe has named three finalists for the redevelopment of a city-owned campus that was left vacant when the Santa Fe University of Art and Design closed.
The city announced Friday that the finalists include Raffles Education Corp., the Singapore-based education company that at one time expressed interest in buying the campus lease from the company that operated the Santa Fe University of Art and Design before closing the school in 2018.
The others are KDC Real Estate Development and Investments/Cienda Partners of Dallas and Central Park Santa Fe, which is headed by Alan Affeldt, who has restored properties elsewhere in New Mexico.
Santa Fe radio station KSFR reports that the finalists will be asked for additional information to clarify the confidential contents of their project submission packages.
Based on community input, the mixed-use development project will include housing, entrepreneurial businesses, and space for higher education, arts and culture offerings on the 60-plus-acre tract.
Before housing the art and design school, the campus belonged to the College of Santa Fe.
Sheriff In New Mexico To Create Intelligence Division – Associated Press
An intelligence division in Las Cruces is expected to consolidate information from federal databases to pursue criminal trends in the county, a county sheriff in New Mexico said.
The in-house intelligence division will be staffed with sheriff's office staff and outside intelligence analysts from federal programs, Las Cruces Sun-News reports.
It is unclear how much the division would cost.
The Doña Ana County sheriff's office is seeking to have access to federal databases meant for law enforcement with high security clearances, but clearances have not yet been provided, Sheriff Kim Stewart said.
The sheriff's office currently shares pertinent information with federal agencies as part of an informal law enforcement relationship, Stewart said. However, the department does not handle a lot of sensitive information, because the office lacks staff with security clearances, she said.
Databases from agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security could aid the department in pursuing leads to bust bigger criminal operations, Stewart said.
The intelligence division could either consolidate and act on information or distribute it to patrol deputies, she said.
Gun Debate Prompts Weapons Ban At New Mexico State Senate - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
New Mexico's state Senate is prohibiting firearms in its public gallery and nearby rooms for the first time on Tuesday as legislators begin deliberations on red-flag legislation that would allow authorities to take guns away from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others.
Statehouse rules ordinarily allow the open carry of legally owned firearms without entranceway screening, along with permitted concealed weapons. Restrictions and screenings for weapons have been implemented in recent years in the state House chamber for the governor's State of the State address when the top elected and appointed officials are clustered in one room.
Senate leaders announced that all weapons will be banned from the Senate gallery for an opening committee hearing on red-flag legislation, with exceptions for credentialed law enforcement officers.
State police and security assistants will ask that visitors do not bring long guns into the building, according to a written advisory from the Senate Democratic majority office.
Democrats including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are pushing for legislation to allow law enforcement officials or family members to seek court orders to seize firearms temporarily from people deemed threatening.
A similar bill won House approval last year before stalling in the Senate. Advocates for so-called extreme risk protection orders have redoubled their efforts in response to the August 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart store in nearby El Paso, Texas, that killed 22 people.
New Mexico Considers Cannabis Subsidies, Crime Expungement - Associated Press
A bill backed by Democrats to legalize recreational marijuana businesses in all towns and counties across New Mexico is getting its first public vetting by lawmakers.
A legislative committee will convene Tuesday on the Senate floor to accommodate crowds amid intense interest in a bill that subsidizes medical marijuana and automatically expunges many past pot convictions.
An initial draft of the bill from Democratic Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque would subsidize medical marijuana for low-income patients, automatically expunge many past pot convictions and override local governments that don't welcome the industry in an effort to stamp out black markets.
Every recreational dispensary would be required to offer medical marijuana to patients who qualify under a long list of medical conditions such as cancer, post-traumatic stress, and chronic pain.
New Mexico founded its medical cannabis program in 2007.
The legislation responds to evidence of escalating prices and scarce offerings for medical marijuana in states including Oregon that have authorized recreational marijuana. No state yet mandates medical cannabis sales at marijuana shops, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
A bipartisan legalization bill last year that involved state-run cannabis stores won House approval by a two-vote margin before stalling without another floor vote in the Senate, where several moderate Democrats have openly opposed legalization.
Deliberations begin this year in the Senate, where a handful of Republicans have backed past legalization efforts and some Democrats are firmly against it.
New Mexico May Extend Tax Credit To Non-Citizens – Associated Press
Activists for immigrant communities are pushing for legislation that allows New Mexico residents without Social Security numbers to qualify for state tax credits aimed at working families.
Immigrants and allied advocacy groups thronged the state Capitol building Monday to lobby for stronger enforcement of laws that ensure low-wage workers are fully paid and reforms that would shield state records from access by federal immigration authorities.
The group Somos Un Pueblo Unido says the initiatives are designed to provide fair and equitable treatment of working families that are vital to the state economy. The group also supports greater state spending to encourage participation in the U.S. Census.
A bill sponsored state Democratic Rep. Javier Martinez of Albuquerque would ensure eligibility for the working family tax credit among residents who file taxes under an alternative tax-identification number provided by the IRS.
The Democrat-led Legislature has until Feb. 20 to approve legislation for consideration by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Governor: New Mexico Needs Realistic, Sustainable Water Plan - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has long talked about the importance of water to the arid state, even campaigning on the idea of creating a 50-year plan to guide management of the finite resource.
Her administration is now asking lawmakers for more money and manpower to start what some experts say will be a multiyear endeavor.
Legislative budget analysts have recommended less money than requested be spent on the effort, but the governor and other supporters say its critical the state starts charting a course that will allow for more flexibility in managing water supplies and infrastructure in the face of weather extremes brought on by a changing climate.
A matter of "absolute importance" is how Lujan Grisham describes her call for a long-term plan to safeguard New Mexico's water resources.
Among this year's special legislative requests are an additional five full-time employees and $750,000 that would help with the water planning effort. State Engineer John D'Antonio, New Mexico's top water official, has said requests for expanding his agency's budget and staffing all dovetail with getting the 50-year water plan off the ground.
State water managers in the first week of the legislative session testified on behalf of filling existing vacancies and adding new workers to help with data collection and planning. They say they're trying to rebuild their ranks after several austere years.
New Mexico's most recent water plan was rolled out in 2018 and includes details about policies, historical legal cases and regional water plans. While it offers an inventory of the state's needs, critics have said it fell short of laying out a concrete path for how to solve New Mexico's water problems.
New Mexico Seeks New Tools To Intervene In Opioid Addiction - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
New Mexico is considering new funding for research into treating addiction with injectable opioids to help address long-term dependency on heroin and other opioids.
A bill from Democratic state Rep. Miguel Garcia would provide $150,000 to the University of New Mexico for a demonstration project focused on injectable opioids including pharmaceutical grade heroin or the drug hydromorphone that is routinely prescribed for pain.
Opioid and heroin use has plagued some New Mexico communities for generations. The state has pioneered a series of policies aimed at combating opioid addiction, including becoming the first state to require law enforcement agencies to provide officers with overdose antidote kits. The state has a prescription monitoring database to prevent overlapping drug sales and has expanded access to naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdoses.
State health officials and researchers continue to search for new strategies to help heroin and other opioid users who haven't responded to treatments with drugs, including buprenorphine that blocks cravings and withdrawal symptoms, and methadone, that can block the euphoric effects of various opioids.
University of New Mexico professor of internal medicine Kimberley Page says a new state-funded demonstration study would likely focus on administering hydromorphone and not pharmaceutical grade heroin to avoid regulatory and other hurdles.
She said the goal is not necessarily to end a patient's dependency on opioids but to provide stability that allows patients to receive a variety of behavior health services and avoid the chaos of homelessness or collisions with the criminal justice system.
Overall overdose deaths in New Mexico increased by 9% to 537 in 2018, an increase largely because of methamphetamine use.
GOP House Hopeful's Email Questions Early Trump Support - By Russell Contreras, Associated Press
A Republican congressional hopeful in a critical New Mexico race who has made her "100% support for Donald Trump" part of her campaign once sought backing for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for president.
A March 2016 email from former New Mexico lawmaker Yvette Herrell asked fellow Republican state legislators if they were interested in supporting Cruz in the Republican presidential primary. Her GOP primary opponents say the email counters the story Herrell told voters in the 2018 race and recently that she supported Trump from "day one."
Mike Berg, the campaign manager for Claire Chase, another Herrell opponent, said the 2016 email showed that Herrell is not being truthful about her previous support of Trump.
Herrell's campaign manager Dakotah Parshall dismissed the email and said Herrell was just being helpful to her fellow state legislators.
Democrat Xochitl Torres Small defeated Herrell in 2018 by fewer than 3,000 votes to flip a traditionally Republican-leaning district on the U.S. border.
Councilor's Removal Case Over Text Messages Dropped – Hobbs News-Sun, Associated Press
A city manager of a southeastern New Mexico town who wanted a councilor removed over attendance and for "being rude" is dropping his case.
The Hobbs News-Sun reports the city council of Eunice, New Mexico, will not seek to remove Councilor Terry Bettis from office.
City Manager Jordan Yutzy told the newspaper the decision came after he had a telephone conversation with New Mexico Assistant Attorney General Zack Jones.
Previously, Yutzy sent a letter to the state Attorney General's office seeking guidance on how to remove Bettis from his seat. Yutzy wrote that the 15-year veteran councilor kept sending critical text messages and social media posts.
Yutzy, in a previous email to the Hobbs News-Sun, sought clarification of statements in an earlier news article, insisting the previous effort to remove Bettis from office was misconstrued as his own.
Bettis most recently won an at-large re-election bid in March 2018, receiving 343 votes. His current term will expire in November 2021.
Rocky Long Returns To New Mexico To Lead Lobos' Defense – Associated Press
Rocky Long is returning to the University of New Mexico as defensive coordinator after recently retiring from San Diego State, where he coached the Aztecs to nine straight bowl games.
New Mexico head coach Danny Gonzales praised Long, saying he didn't think there is a better defensive coach in the country and that the Lobos are lucky to have him back.
Long is the winningest coach in the program's history. Gonzales and Long also have a long history, as Gonzales played his senior season at New Mexico under Long and later served as a defensive coordinator during Long's tenure at San Diego State.
Long was a quarterback at New Mexico from 1969-71, earning player of the year honors for the Western Athletic Conference in 1971. He then played professionally in both Canada and with the Detroit Wheels of the short-lived World Football League.
He worked as a graduate assistant coach at New Mexico from 1972-73 and the offensive back field coach and then defensive backs coach from 1978-80 before becoming defensive coordinator at Wyoming, Oregon State and later UCLA. He was named New Mexico's head coach in 1998 and went on to win a record 65 games over the next decade.
Under Long, the Lobos were bowl eligible for a school-record seven straight seasons. Long led New Mexico to a 23-0 win over Nevada in the 2007 New Mexico Bowl, ending a 46-year bowl victory drought for the school.
Emu Back In Las Cruces Home After Being Gone 3 Months – Las Cruces Sun-News, Associated Press
A former state lawmaker's emu that has been missing since Thanksgiving is safely back at its home near Las Cruces.
Former state Rep. Brad Cates learned his emu had resurfaced last week thanks to a barrage of images people shared on social media, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported Sunday.
Pictures of the emu around a subdivision near Cates' home prompted inquiries from a state livestock inspector and a game warden. Later that day, Cates with some help corralled the 150-pound emu named "Hey You!"
Cates was also the Republican nominee for Doña Ana County district attorney in 2016. He lost to Mark D'Antonio.