Child Welfare Workers File Whistleblower Suit In New Mexico - By Cedar Attanasio, Associated Press / Report For America
Two former officials with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department are suing the state under whistleblower protection laws.
Deborah and Cliff Gilmore announced the lawsuit Thursday after filling it with a state district court earlier this week. The couple moved to New Mexico last year to take high-ranking posts; she led the Office of Children's Rights and he was the top press officer.
The couple have said before that they were fired only months later after raising issues. Deborah Gilmore said she raised concerns over a massive software upgrade she consulted on. They both criticized the agency's practice of automatically deleting text messages.
The lawsuit for the first time claims that their firings are covered by whistleblower protection laws set to prevent employees from being sacked for raising legal or concerns. They believe that the use of self-deleting messages violated open records laws.
CYFD Secretary Brian Blalock has disagreed, arguing that the messages count as "transitory" and can be deleted. He has said that the move to the free, encrypted app was a cheap and safe way to switch sensitive communications online when the pandemic hit.
The agency eventually dropped the use of the Signal app altogether citing concerns from the public.
The lawsuit also accuses the highest ranks of Children, Youth and Families Department leadership including Blalock of pressuring Cliff Gilmore to advance a specific job candidate at an intermediary stage of the hiring process.
"While CYFD appreciates the opportunity to clarify misinformation, CYFD cannot discuss personal personnel matters or threatened litigation," said acting spokesman Charlie Moore-Pabst.
NBCUniversal Celebrates Opening Of New Mexico Studio – Associated Press
Executives with NBCUniversal celebrated the opening of a new production facility in New Mexico on Thursday, as state and local officials touted efforts by the film and television industry to find ways to work through the challenges that stemmed from the coronavirus pandemic.
The executives were joined at a ribbon-cutting ceremony by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller.
"Despite the pandemic, we've had one of our best and most productive years — if not our very best year ever — with the film and television industry," the governor said in a statement. "This industry has leapt back to life because they have put safety first — and they will help our state recover economically as we put the pandemic behind us."
NBCUniversal had announced in 2019 that it would build a state-of-the-art television and film studio in a warehouse district just north of downtown Albuquerque as part of a plan to expand its footprint in one of the fastest growing film production hubs in the country. The company also committed to $500 million in direct production spending over 10 years.
The media giant received more than $10 million in state and local economic development funds as incentives for locating the production facility in New Mexico.
This summer, MacGruber, a comedy series for Peacock by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, will begin filming in the facility through August 2021. It will star Will Forte, Kristen Wiig and Ryan Phillippe.
Meanwhile, Netflix is moving ahead with plans to expand its operations on the southern edge of Albuquerque.
Boom In Native American Oil Complicates Biden Climate Push - By Matthew Brown and Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press
On oil well pads carved from the wheat fields around Lake Sakakawea, hundreds of pump jacks slowly bob to extract 100 million barrels of crude annually from a reservation shared by three Native American tribes.
About half their 16,000 members live on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation atop one of the biggest U.S. oil discoveries in decades, North Dakota's Bakken shale formation.
The drilling rush has brought the tribes unimagined wealth -- more than $1.5 billion and counting -- and they hope it will last another 20 to 25 years. The boom also propelled an almost tenfold spike in oil production from Native American lands since 2009, federal data shows, complicating efforts by President Joe Biden to curb carbon emissions.
Burning of oil from tribal lands overseen by the U.S. government now produces greenhouse gases equivalent to about 12 million vehicles a year, according to an Associated Press analysis. But Biden exempted Native American lands from a suspension of new oil and gas leases on government-managed land in deference to tribes' sovereign status.
A judge in Louisiana temporarily blocked the suspension June 15, but the administration continues to develop plans that could extend the ban or make leases more costly.
With tribal lands now producing more than 3% of U.S. oil and huge reserves untapped, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — the first Native American to lead a U.S. cabinet-level agency — faces competing pressures to help a small number of tribes develop their fossil fuels while also addressing climate change that affects all Native communities.
"We're one of the few tribes that have elected to develop our energy resources. That's our right," tribal Chairman Mark Fox told AP at the opening of a Fort Berthold museum and cultural center built with oil revenue. "We can develop those resources and do it responsibly so our children and grandchildren for the next 100 years have somewhere to live."
Smallpox nearly wiped out the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes in the mid-1800s. They lost most of their territory to broken treaties — and a century later, their best remaining lands along the Missouri River were flooded when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created Lake Sakakawea. With dozens of villages uprooted, many people moved to a replacement community above the lake — New Town.
Today, leaders of the three tribes view oil as their salvation and want to keep drilling before it's depleted and the world moves past fossil fuels.
And they want the Biden administration to speed up drilling permits and fend off efforts to shut down a pipeline carrying most reservation oil to refineries.
PIPELINE FIGHT
Yet tribes left out of the drilling boom have become outspoken against fossil fuels as climate change worsens. One is the Standing Rock Sioux about 100 miles to the south.
Home to the Dakota and Lakota nations, Standing Rock gained prominence during a months-long standoff between law enforcement and protesters, including tribal officials, who tried to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline that carries Fort Berthold crude.
A judge revoked the pipeline's government permit because of inadequate environmental analysis and allowed crude to flow during a new review. But Standing Rock wants the administration to halt the oil for good, fearing a pipeline break could contaminate its drinking water.
Meantime, attention surrounding the skirmish provided the Sioux with foundation backing to develop a wind farm in Porcupine Hills, an area of scrub oak and buffalo grass with cattle ranches.
The pipeline fight stirs bitter memories in Fawn Wasin Zi, a teacher who chairs the Standing Rock renewable power authority. She grew up hearing her father and grandmother tell about a government dam that created Lake Oahe — how they had to leave their home then watch government agents burn it, only to be denied housing, electricity and other promised compensation.
Wasin Zi, whose ancestors followed legendary Lakota leader Sitting Bull, wants to ensure the tribe doesn't fall victim yet again to a changing world, where fossil fuels warm the planet and bring drought and wildfire.
"We have to find a way to use the technology that's available right now, whether it's geothermal or solar or wind," she said.
Only a dozen of the 326 tribal reservations produce significant oil, according to a drilling analysis provided to AP by S&P Global Platts.
Biden's nominee to oversee them as assistant secretary for Indian affairs, Bryan Newland, recently told a U.S. Senate committee the administration recognizes the importance of oil and gas to some reservations and pledged to let tribes determine resource development.
Interior officials denied interview requests about tribal energy plans, but said tribes were consulted in April after Biden ordered the department to "engage with tribal authorities" on developing renewables and fossil fuels.
Joseph McNeill Jr, manager of Standing Rock's energy authority, said a conference call with Interior yielded no pledges to further the tribe's wind project. Fort Berthold officials said they've had no offers of discussions with the administration.
ONE TRIBE'S BUILDING BOOM
Fort Berthold still reels from ills oil brought — worse crime and drugs, tanker truck traffic, road fatalities, spills of oil and wastewater. Tribal members lament that stars are lost in the glare of flaring waste gas from wells.
Yet oil brought positive changes, too. As the tribes' coffers fattened, dozens of projects got underway. The reservation now boasts new schools, senior centers, parks, civic centers, health and drug rehab facilities. Oil money is building a $26 million greenhouse complex heated by electricity from gas otherwise wasted.
The $30 million cultural center in New Town pieces together the tribes' fractured past through displays and artifacts. A sound studio captures stories from elders who lived through dam construction and flooding along the Missouri. And one exhibit traces the oil boom after fracking allowed companies to tap reserves once too difficult to drill.
"Our little town, New Town, changed overnight," said MHA Nation Interpretive Center Director Delphine Baker. "We never had traffic lights growing up. It's like I moved to a different town."
HOPING FOR "MORNING LIGHT"
Lower on the Missouri, Standing Rock grapples with high energy costs. There's no oil worth extracting, no gas or coal. The biggest employer beside tribal government is a casino, where revenue plummeted during the pandemic.
"There's nothing here. No jobs. Nothing," said Donald Whitelightning, Jr., who lives in Cannon Ball, near the Dakota Access Pipeline protest.
Whitelightning, who cares for his mother in a modest home, said he pays up to $500 a month for electricity in winter. Utility costs, among North Dakota's highest, severely strain a reservation officials say has 40% poverty and 75% unemployment.
The tribe hopes its wind project, Anpetu Wi, meaning "morning light," will help. Officials predict its 235 megawatts — enough for roughly 94,000 homes — would double their annual revenue and fund benefits like those Fort Berthold derives from oil — housing, health care, more jobs.
Standing Rock's power authority can directly negotiate aspects of the project. Yet it needs Interior approval because the U.S. holds tribal lands in trust.
"AN OIL FIELD TO PROTECT"
Outside North Dakota, tribes with oil — the Osage in Oklahoma, the Navajo in the Southwest and Native corporations in Alaska — also are pushing the Biden administration to cede power over energy development, including letting tribes conduct environmental reviews.
A Navajo company's operations in the Aneth field in southern Utah bring about $28 million to $35 million annually. Active since the 1950s, the field likely has another 30 years of life, said James McClure, chief executive of the Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Co..
The company has considered expanding into federal land in New Mexico and Colorado. Biden's attempts to suspend new leases could slow those plans, and it's considering helium production as an option.
In northern Oklahoma, the Osage have been drilling oil for more than a century.
Cognizant of global warming and shifting energy markets, they are pondering renewables, too. For now, they want the Biden administration to speed up drilling permits.
"We are looking at what is going to be best for us," said Everett Waller, chairman of the tribe's energy regulator. "I wasn't given a wind turbine. I was given an oil field to protect."
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
New Mexico Man Acquitted On Murder Charge In Girl's Killing – Albuquerque Journal, Associated Press
Jurors found a New Mexico man not guilty of a murder charge and deadlocked on two other felony charges in the 2018 rape and strangulation death of a 6-year-old girl.
The Albuquerque Journal reported that jurors at Leland Hust's trial deadlocked on the charges of child abuse resulting in death and criminal sexual penetration of a child. Prosecutors plan to seek a new trial on those charges.
Hust cried and appeared relieved after the verdict was read.
The verdict came nearly three years after Ariana "Jade" Romeo was found dead and bloodied Oct. 11, 2018, in a bedroom of the Rio Rancho house she and her mother shared with Hust and seven others.
A forensic examination found evidence that she had been raped and strangled or smothered to death.
Prosecutor Jessica Martinez said she was disappointed with the verdict and planned to seek a new trial on the two charges on which the jury deadlocked.
"We'll review our evidence and do a better job next time," Martinez said. "All the evidence we have points only to (Hust)."
Hust's attorneys said they were pleased by the single not-guilty verdict for first-degree murder. "This is the case of a diligent jury that took their time," attorney Michael Rosenfield said.
Navajo Nation Reports 2 More COVID-19 Cases And 1 More Death – Associated Press
The Navajo Nation on Thursday reported two new cases of COVID-19 and one more death.
Tribal health officials say the sprawling reservation that stretches into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah now has seen 30,976 known cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
The known death toll is at 1,348.
Last week, the Navajo Department of Health lifted the tribe's stay-at-home order, easing restrictions to allow in-person meetings and ceremonies of 25 people or fewer and drive-thru gatherings of up to 100 vehicles.
Face masks are required by everyone on the Navajo Nation, whether or not they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
New Mexico Officials Seek Hazardous Designation For PFAS - Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is among those calling on the U.S. government to list so-called “forever chemicals” as hazardous waste under federal law, saying the move would provide a regulatory path for states across the nation that are dealing with contamination at military bases and other locations
The governor filed her brief petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday.
It follows recent congressional testimony given by New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney and others in which they made the same request to list as hazardous perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are known collectively as PFAS. The class of highly toxic chemicals is used in products like nonstick cookware, carpets, firefighting foam and fast-food wrappers.
“In the absence of a federal framework, states continue to create a patchwork of regulatory standards for PFAS across the U.S. to address these hazardous chemicals,” the governor said in a statement. “This leads to inequity in public health and environmental protections.”
She said having a federal framework to deal with the chemicals would provide equal protection for all communities.
Aside from the push for a hazardous waste designation, public health advocates and others have said that setting a national drinking water standard for the chemicals would be an important step in addressing the contamination.
New Mexico sued the federal government in 2019 over PFAS contamination at two U.S. Air Force bases in the state.
Air Force contractors and state environment officials both have been working to determine the extent of toxic plumes left behind by past firefighting activities at Cannon and Holloman air bases.
If the chemicals were to be classified as hazardous, New Mexico officials said that would allow state officials rather than the U.S. Department of Defense to manage cleanup of PFAS under existing state programs that are authorized by the Environmental Protection Agency.
There have been numerous cases around the country in which the chemicals have contaminated drinking water sources. When ingested over time, PFAS can lead to increased risk of kidney and testicular cancers, low infant birth weights and other health problems.
New Mexico Receives $1.7B Deposit In Federal Pandemic Relief - Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A $1.7 billion wave of federal pandemic relief money has arrived at New Mexico's state treasury amid a power struggle between a Democratic governor running for reelection and leading Democratic lawmakers who draft the state budget.
State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg confirmed the deposit of $1,751,542,835 from the federal government. The money is linked to the American Rescue Plan Act that comes with broad discretion on shoring up state finances and the local economy.
In early April, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed the Legislature's suggestions on relief spending worth $1.1 billion that included tourism marketing, infrastructure projects and $600 million to replenish a depleted unemployment insurance account.
The governor has wagered an initial $5 million in relief money on a sweepstakes drawing of cash prizes for people who get vaccinated to stem the spread of COVID-19.
She also has voiced support for replenishing the unemployment insurance trust to stave off future tax increases on businesses. The governor has not yet disclosed publicly other priorities for the new relief funds.
Democratic Senate finance committee Chairman George Muñoz of Gallup said Wednesday that time is of the essence as the state attempts to avoid missteps that led to a painstakingly slow recovery from the Great Recession.
“New Mexico always lags behind other states in recovery,” he said. “If we can end that cycle and speed that process and get it out the door ... then we become efficient.”
He said legislators are attuned to the challenges of spending one-time federal relief without expanding programs that can't be supported financially later.
Eichenberg said that the state treasurer's office has asked the Lujan Grisham administration for a rough timetable on relief spending. A $65 million portion of the federal deposit will be forwarded to municipal and county governments.
Muñoz said legislators could resort to litigation to assert their authority over federal relief and state spending decisions.
Economists Detail Recovery Of New Mexico Oil Production - Associated Press
Legislative analysts say New Mexico is the only top oil-producing state to have recovered to pre-pandemic levels of production, but they warned Wednesday that the market remains volatile.
Staff members with the Legislative Finance Committee suggested that the panel of lawmakers take care not to grow the state’s budget based on current forecasts that suggest more favorable revenues from the oil and gas industry over the short term.
In a briefing, they reported that both oil and natural gas production hit new records in March. The state produced more than 36 million barrels of oil and 188 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that month.
The panel also heard from an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a Texas-based consulting company about the effects of the Biden administration’s actions related to permitting and leasing. The consultants said only a fraction of the inventory of federal land in New Mexico’s share of the Permian Basin would be at risk since most of the area already is in production.
The experts said permitting has rebounded, partly because New Mexico has some of the best economics for oil and gas production. According a federal survey published this spring, producers reported an average break-even oil price of $26 per barrel to cover operating expenses for existing wells in the most active region of the basin in New Mexico. That marked the second lowest in the country.
New Mexico Struggles With Funding Drinking Water Projects - Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Legislative analysts say many New Mexico communities are behind the curve when it comes to investing in drinking water infrastructure as drought threatens supplies across the arid state.
New Mexico provided roughly $876 million for water projects over a five-year period. But the analysts told members of the powerful Legislative Finance Committee during a meeting that communities aren’t doing enough to leverage federal and local dollars.
A review of the state's numerous financing mechanisms for water projects found that New Mexico over the last decade made proportionally more grant and loan funding available for water projects than any other state in the U.S. But inconsistent vetting and piecemeal funding put projects at greater risk of being delayed or derailed, according to the review.
About one-third of the state-funded local water projects that were examined did not meet their intended purpose — even several years after the initial funding was issued.
In the village of Maxwell, for example, $1 million was spent to drill and equip a new drinking water well that could be used in times of drought. A $30,000 shortfall resulted in the well not being hooked up to electricity, leaving the project unfinished and unable to yield any public benefits. Similar issues were found with projects in Lovington and Pecos.
Republican Rep. Larry Scott of Hobbs described the process as a “train wreck."
“The way we’re doing it now — from a business person’s perspective — there’s no comprehensive effort toward a sustainable goal. That’s what we need to be looking for here,” said Scott, who is an engineer.
The concerns raised in the report also prompted lawmakers to question whether New Mexico will be able to efficiently spend its share of federal pandemic relief aid and infrastructure funds to address communities' water needs.
If improvements aren't made, analysts warned lawmakers that future federal funding could be compromised.
The problems with the state's water project funding system stretch back at least two decades. Analysts expressed some frustration during Wednesday's meeting, noting recommendations have been made in the past and previous attempts to change the system have fizzled.
Study Finds Third Of Un-Vaxxed New Mexicans Don't Want Doses - Associated Press
The University of New Mexico has helped lead a national study of hesitancy surrounding COVID-19 vaccines, which found it prevalent in its own state.
The school announced Wednesday researchers with the UNM Center for Social Policy joined a coalition of groups to conduct the American COVID-19 Vaccine Poll.
The poll encompassed 13,000 people from across various racial and ethnic communities. Among them were more than 2,000 New Mexico residents from underserved Latino, Native American, African immigrant and Black communities.
According to the survey, roughly a third or 32% of New Mexico residents who haven't been vaccinated don't intend to do so. Furthermore, 15% of New Mexicans who got a first shot don't plan on getting the second one. Roughly 44% said they would get the vaccine if it was employer-mandated.
The survey also found some evidence the state’s $100 incentive program increased vaccination rates, especially among young adults in urban areas.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation helped fund expanding the survey in New Mexico.
Since the pandemic, New Mexico has reported 205,058 COVID-19 cases and 4,330 deaths.