MON: Work requirement grace period nears its end for certain New Mexico SNAP recipients, + More
By KUNM News
March 10, 2025 at 5:54 AM MDT
Work requirement grace period nears its end for certain New Mexico SNAP recipients - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
The New Mexico Health Care Authority Monday began sending reminders out to SNAP recipients who are not meeting their work requirement for the food stamp benefits. The federal requirement went into effect for nearly 12,000 New Mexicans at the beginning of the year. With a grace period of three months, people out of compliance risk losing their benefits as soon as the beginning of next month.
The new requirement applies to adults under 54 who don’t have dependents, are physically able to work, and live in Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Eddy, or Los Alamos counties or the pueblos of San Ildefonso, Pojoaque, Santa Clara, or Laguna. According to the department, that’s because those areas did not qualify for a waiver due to their “steadily improving unemployment rates.”
The kind of work that meets the requirement varies, but must be done at least part time for an average of 80 hours a month. It can include paid or unpaid work, attending school, or participating in a work program like the SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) Program.
Exemptions exist for people who are veterans, pregnant, former foster kids under 24, experiencing homelessness, receiving unemployment benefits, or in treatment for substance use.
Either work or an exemption can be reported online through the YES New Mexico website, or by calling or going in person to an Income Support Division office.
SNAP recipients who must work can only miss a total of three months between January of this year and May of next year before losing their benefits. To get them back, a person must meet the work requirements for 30 days or become exempt.
Cleanup money for uranium mines and other contaminated sites in budget, for now - By Bella Davis, New Mexico In Depth
New Mexico could soon be cleaning up some of the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines and other contaminated sites around the state and paving the way for continued efforts — if $50 million for that purpose remains in the state budget.
There are at least 302 “orphan sites” in New Mexico, where “known or suspected contamination is causing a threat to human health or the environment,” according to the New Mexico Environment Department. These sites, in addition to about 50 old uranium mines, aren’t eligible for cleanup under any existing programs, and the state can’t identify any responsible parties.
The state would use the funding to begin cleaning up those roughly 350 sites.
In addition to those orphan sites and the 50 or so old uranium mines the state would be targeting, there are another 200 some odd former uranium mines in New Mexico, some in various stages of cleanup. Many of the old mines in the state are on or near tribal lands, and Indigenous communities have advocated for remediation for decades, citing ongoing health and environmental impacts.
Rep. Joseph Hernandez, D-Shiprock, and his family, along with many others in the state, have “gone through numerous doctors appointments, numerous times taking care of our elders who either worked in the industry or are family members of someone” who did, he said last month during a committee hearing. Hernandez recounted stories his mother would tell about his grandfather getting home after long shifts in a nearby mill with uranium dust coating his clothes.
“And this dust today continues to get blown through our communities, not just on Navajo,” Hernandez (Diné) told the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee. “This is communities throughout New Mexico. Many families feel left behind.”
Hernandez and Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, both sponsored bills this year to add in the state budget $50 million for cleaning up contaminated sites, including old uranium mines. That money is now in the $10.8 billion proposed budget the House passed last week.
The funding would be a “drop in the bucket,” Steinborn said in an interview on Friday. The state environment department already has plans for two sites to be remediated, one of which is a uranium mine estimated to cost between $4 and $8 million. The other is a site with chemically contaminated soil and groundwater estimated to cost $5 million to clean up, the agency reported in a bill analysis.
The money would allow the state to “begin to characterize more of the sites, do some cleanup work, and then lay the groundwork for a plan to do much broader efforts,” Steinborn said.
He wants more specifically for uranium cleanup. He’s sponsoring Senate Bill 276, a proposal to put $75 million in the uranium mine reclamation revolving fund.
Since Steinborn was first elected to the Legislature nearly two decades ago, lawmakers have been talking about the need, he said, but weren’t making progress — until 2022. During that session, lawmakers mandated the state develop a strategic plan for cleanup and created the revolving fund.
But the fund has sat empty in the three years since then.
Money deposited in the fund would be used for “site assessments, safeguarding, closure designs, surface reclamation, groundwater remediation, and monitoring, where appropriate,” reads a November presentation state environment department staff gave lawmakers on the interim Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee.
For some of the abandoned mines, there are owners that the state, including the attorney general, could go after legally, Steinborn said. But some of the companies don’t exist anymore, and some of the mines aren’t eligible for cleanup under any federal programs.
That’s where the state should step in, he said.
With just a few weeks left in the session, Steinborn said he continues to advocate for $75 million for the revolving fund, but “we’re going to have to fight to ensure” $50 million for cleanup of contaminated sites more broadly — which would include abandoned uranium mines but wouldn’t be exclusive to cleanup of those sites — stays in the budget.
The Senate is “having to make budget adjustments and fill some budgetary holes, as it’s been explained, that weren’t addressed in the House,” said Steinborn, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, tasked with reviewing the budget.
“If they’re having to come up with money to fill some holes, a $50 million pot of money sitting there, it could be attractive to some to say, ‘Hey, let’s make that number a little smaller and help fill a hole somewhere else.’ So it’s going to require continued advocacy and education to preserve that, which I will be doing and others should as well,” he said.
Medical malpractice bill yet to be heard in Senate committee. Major campaign donors connected to issue - Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
Five Democrats on the committee where a medical malpractice bill is waiting to be heard received some of their largest campaign contributions from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association.
There are six bills related to medical malpractice filed in the Legislature, but only one appears to have a slim path to passage: Senate Bill 176, which would curb medical malpractice liability without limiting caps in an effort to make the state more appealing to doctors. The bill has amassed 23 cosponsors, but seems unlikely to pass this session, as it’s been assigned to three committees, none have heard it yet, and the session is due to end in just two weeks. The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee teased scheduling the bill over the last week, but has not yet done so.
Supporters of Senate Bill 176 argue that New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws have made the state a magnet for out-of-state attorneys and discourage doctors from practicing in New Mexico, contributing to the state’s provider shortage. Critics, like the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, say the bill will make it more difficult for injured patients to sue health care providers.
In 2022, New Mexico had the highest medical malpractice insurance loss ratio in the country, according to a recent Think New Mexico report, meaning insurers paid out 183% of the premiums they took in. New Mexico was one of seven states where insurers lost money, making it more expensive for them to function in the market.
The New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association’s PAC, the Committee on Individual Responsibility, spent $556,354 in the 2024 election cycle, according to the New Mexico Secretary of State database. Its largest donations were $52,000 to the Brian Egolf Speaker Fund, a political action committee that works to grow the Democratic majority in the state House, and $52,000 to the New Mexico Senate Democrats.
SB176’s lead sponsor did get thousands in campaign donations from health care organizations advocating for providers in 2024 — groups that could benefit from medical malpractice reform. Some medical-field political action committees also spent large sums. The New Mexico Health Care Association is a trade organization for facility-based long-term care providers, and its PAC spent over $125,850 in the 2024 election cycle, according to the Secretary of State database. The New Mexico Hospital Association’s PAC spent $84,826 for the election cycle.
LAWYER AND LAW FIRM DONATIONS
In addition to the trial lawyers’ generous donations to Democrats’ House and Senate election arms, committee members who will debate the bill, if it ever comes up, were also beneficiaries of large donations from the trial lawyer PAC and individual lawyers.
A committee chair decides when a bill can be heard. Democratic Committee Chair Sen. Linda Lopez’s highest 2024 campaign donor was the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, with $10,500, according to the Secretary of State’s database. She also received over $10,500 in donations from lawyers and law firms, according to her campaign filings.
Committee member Sen. Cindy Nava, D-Bernalillo, was the ninth-highest earner for 2024 New Mexico Legislature general election candidates, raising $164,000. Nava received $7,000 from the Trial Lawyers Association, her third-highest donor, and over $12,000 from lawyers or law firms.
Sen. Shannon Pinto, D-Tohatchi, received $6,000 from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, her top donor for the 2024 campaign cycle. Sen. Angel Charley, D.-Acoma, received $6,000 from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, her second-highest donor in 2024.
Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, is a retired attorney and law professor. In 2024, she received $1,000 from the Trial Lawyers Association and $1,000 from Presbyterian Hospital, making the organizations tie, along with Indian Pueblos Marketing Inc., for her second-highest campaign contributor, according to the Secretary of State’s database.
The only Democrat on the committee who did not get a direct donation from the Trial Lawyers Association is the bill’s lead sponsor and the committee vice-chair, Sen. Martin Hickey of Albuquerque. Hickey did receive approximately $3,000 in donations from individual lawyers or law firms, according to his campaign filings.
MEDICAL-FIELD DONATIONS
All the Democrats in the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee, where the bill is waiting to be heard, had hundreds, and sometimes thousands, in donations from health care organizations, but SB176’s lead sponsor, Hickey, had significantly more.
Hickey is a retired doctor and got thousands in campaign donations from individual physicians. The largest was $7,000 from an Albuquerque gastroenterologist. His campaign also garnered over $16,000 from health care organizations, including $3,500 from Molina Healthcare, $2,000 from Lovelace Health Systems and $3,000 from a statewide hospital trade association. Hickey was the fifth-highest earner for 2024 state Legislature general election candidates, raising $191,000 for his campaign.
REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE MEMBERS
For most of the committee’s Republican members, their top campaign contributors came from the construction and oil and gas industries. None had donations from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association. Three of the four had donations from medical organizations comparable to most of the committee’s Democrats, but none rivaled the amount of medical-field-related donations that Hickey received.
Republican Committee member Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, is an SB176 cosponsor. Block had no significant contributions clearly connected to the medical field. He did have a $521 contribution from a personal injury lawyer in Albuquerque.
NM AG Torrez opposes motion to dismiss case against former WNMU president Joseph Shepard - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Thursday filed a motion opposing former Western New Mexico University President Joseph Shepard’s motion to dismiss the state’s case against him.
Torrez filed a civil suit against Shepard and the WNMU Board of Regents in January in response to the board’s decision to award Shepard a $1.9 million severance package. That complaint alleges Shepard and the board violated fiduciary duties, the states anti-donation clause and the Open Meetings Act, as well as laws relating to unjust enrichment, parties not fulfilling their contractual obligations and acting on an unenforceable contract.
The university has been under scrutiny over the past year and a half for lavish spending by leadership and misuse of funds, as detailed in a report published in November by the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor.
The board unanimously voted to terminate Shepard’s contract in December, then approved what Torrez has frequently referred to as a “golden parachute” severance payment. The school released the payment to Shepard in early January.
Shepard filed a motion to dismiss the case against him on Feb. 19, arguing Torrez does not have the authority to bring claims of breach of fiduciary duty, lack of consideration, unconscionable contract and unjust enrichment against him.
According to court documents, Shepard claims he did not owe a fiduciary duty to WNMU when negotiating his termination from the university and the severance payment was made “in exchange for valid consideration,” to which the anti-donation clause does not apply.
A New Mexico Department of Justice news release Friday characterized Shepard’s motion as an “attempt to avoid legal scrutiny.”
“The Board of Regents does not have unlimited power to approve unlawful expenditures of public funds, and Dr. Shepard should not be allowed to profit from an invalid and unjust agreement,” Torrez said in a statement. “Our lawsuit seeks to protect taxpayers and hold public officials accountable.”
Torrez’s response to the motion maintains that the board acted unlawfully, without public transparency, in violation of state law and encourages the court to deny Shepard’s motion and continue the lawsuit.
The court has not scheduled a motion hearing as of press time.
Torrez and several lawmakers back a constitutional amendment introduced this legislative session, which, if approved by voters, would add regent fiduciary duties to the law; reasons for removal from their position; and clarify who has authority to seek the removal of regents from the board. House Joint Resolution 12 passed by a vote of 64-1 on the House Floor on March 1 and was referred to Senate committees.
Senate Bill 19 proposes establishing training requirements for new regents and Senate Joint Resolution 7 proposes creating a regent nominating committee that would screen potential regent candidates and make a list for the governor to choose from.
Gene Hackman died at home a week after wife Betsy Arakawa died from hantavirus, authorities say - By Morgan Lee, Susan Montoya Bryan and Lisa Baumann, Associated Press
Forensic experts came to a heartrending conclusion Friday about the manner of death for actor Gene Hackman: he died of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer's disease on an empty stomach a week after a rare, rodent-borne disease took the life of his wife at their home in Santa Fe.
The partially mummified remains of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb. 26 when maintenance and security workers showed up at the home and alerted police.
Authorities unraveled the mysterious circumstances and revealed that Arakawa likely died Feb. 11 at home from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings.
Hackman, in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, apparently was unaware that his wife was dead.
"He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death," chief medical investigator Dr. Heather Jarrell said. "It's quite possible he was not aware she was deceased."
Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Arakawa's last known outing was a round of errands and shopping Feb. 11. She visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to the couple's gated neighborhood that evening.
Arakawa stopped answering emails that day. The couple's cellphone communications have not yet been analyzed.
Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later, indicating an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said.
Hackman was found in the home's entryway, and Arakawa was found in a bathroom. Their bodies were decomposing with some mummification, a consequence of body type and climate in Santa Fe's especially dry air at an elevation of nearly 7,200 feet (2,200 meters).
The revelations about the manner of the couple's deaths jolted Santa Fe, the state capital city known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.
"All of us that knew him should have been checking on him," said Stuart Ashman, co-owner of Artes de Cuba gallery, who cherished his encounters with Hackman at a local Pilates exercise studio. "I had no idea. ... It's just really sad. And that she died a week before him. My God."
Experts believe Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer's disease and unable to deal with his wife's death in the last week of his life — or seek help after she died.
"Their (the authorities') explanation, I thought, was quite clear and plausible, said Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist in Virginia. "I believe they really discovered what truly happened in this case."
Most older Americans with Alzheimer's diesease and related dementias live at home, and many receive care from family or friends.
Hantavirus typically is reported in spring and summer, often due to exposures that occur when people are near mouse droppings in homes, sheds or poorly ventilated areas. This is the first confirmed case of hantavirus in New Mexico this year.
While hantavirus is found throughout the world, most cases in the U.S. have been found in western states. The virus can cause a severe and sometimes deadly lung infection.
Jarrell said it was not known how quickly Arakawa died.
One of the couple's three dogs, a kelpie mix named Zinna, also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs survived.
Dogs do not get sick from hantavirus, said Erin Phipps, a veterinarian with the New Mexico Health Department. A necropsy will be done on the dog.
The sheriff considers this an open investigation until they receive results of the dog's necropsy and finish checking into data from personal cellphones retrieved from the home.
Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a storied career in films including "The French Connection," "Hoosiers" and "Superman" from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
Arakawa, born in Hawaii, studied as a concert pianist, attended the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid-1980s while working at a California gym.
Hackman dedicated much of his time in retirement to painting and writing novels far from Hollywood's social circuit. He served for several years on the board of trustees at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and he and Arakawa were investors in local businesses.
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This story has been corrected to show one of the causes of Hackman's death was heart disease, not heart failure.
Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington. Associated Press reporters Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Carla Johnson in Seattle contributed.
Local school districts respond to court ruling on PED’s 180-day school calendar - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
As lawmakers work to pass a bill clarifying school districts’ control over their academic calendars, scheduling for next year is underway.
House Bill 65 proposes making changes to the Public School Code to clarify that local school districts have the flexibility to create their school calendars, as long as they meet the state required minimum of 1,140 instructional hours per year.
The instructional hour minimum was raised to its current level in 2023 in response to the landmark Yazzie-Martinez education lawsuit, which found that at-risk students were not receiving equitable educational opportunities from the state. In March 2024, the Public Education Department, under former Secretary Arsenio Romero, created a rule requiring K-12 schools adopt a 180-day school calendar in an effort to meet the instructional hour requirement.
Opponents quickly sued PED over the rule due and said it conflicted with state law and also pointed to the added expenses Native and rural school districts would incur for adding instructional days such as transportation and meals.
Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Dustin K. Hunter initially issued an injunction against the rule and then in early February 2025 decreed that the education department lacks the authority to mandate a minimum number of instructional days.
Now, school districts are back to making their own decisions about their calendars, while a proposed law that would codify their right to do so makes its way through the legislative process.
“I don’t believe that the number of school days determines success,” Peñasco Independent School District Superintendent Michelle Gonzales told Source NM. “I think that what really makes a difference is having teachers that are dedicated and invested in the students and the community.”
Gonzales said in her district, which operates on a four-day week, making room in the budget for an extended calendar required cuts to security, cafeteria and maintenance personnel. And to meet the 180-day requirement for the current school year, class started earlier in the year and will end later. School officials also cut the lengths of the winter and Thanksgiving Day breaks.
She added that the school calendar committee is moving forward with next year’s calendar now that a decision has been made regarding the 180-day rule. Gonzales said the calendar will likely be similar to this year’s, but with a start date in August rather than in July.
Veronica Garcia, interim superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools and a former Public Education Department cabinet secretary, told Source that SFPS developed two calendars last year – one with 180 days and one with 175 days. She said because of the injunction granted by the court in the PED lawsuit, SFPS went with the 175-day calendar.
The district, which is on a five-day week schedule, conducted a poll of the community, Garcia said, and found that “[in] Santa Fe by and large, the community likes to have the calendar end before Memorial Day.” If the longer calendar year had been adopted, she said school would have likely started in late July. She said next school year’s calendar will be made public in April and will also include 175 days.
Garcia added that because a large portion of the students in New Mexico attend schools in urban areas, policy is often dictated by these districts, overlooking rural schools.
“I think that the best approach would be to bring superintendents to the table representing large, medium-sized and smaller-sized school districts to work with the PED in collaboration, to work together,” she said. “I think both sides want the best for the kids and I think it’s a matter of understanding each other’s perspective and understanding the nuances here, because I don’t think it’s really a black and white answer.”
West Texas reports nearly 200 measles cases. New Mexico is up to 30 - By Devi Shastri, AP Health Writer
A historic measles outbreak in West Texas is just short of 200 cases, Texas state health officials said Friday, while the number of cases in neighboring New Mexico tripled to 30.
Most of the cases across both states are in people younger than 18 and people who are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.
Texas health officials identified 39 new infections of the highly contagious disease, bringing the total count in the West Texas outbreak to 198 people since it began in late January. Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far.
Last week, a school-age child died of measles in Texas, the nation's first measles death in a decade. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that they were sending a team to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the outbreak.
New Mexico health officials had been reporting for weeks a steady number of cases in Lea County — which borders the epicenter of Texas' outbreak. But on Friday, state health officials provided The Associated Press a week-by-week count that shows cases have steadily increased from 14 cases in the week of Feb. 9 to 30 this week.
A spokesman for the health department said more cases are expected and that many of the cases reported Friday weren't identified until after people's illnesses had run their course. The department has said it hasn't been able to prove a clear connection to the Texas outbreak, though on Feb. 14, it said a link is "suspected."
On Thursday, New Mexico health officials confirmed an unvaccinated adult who died without seeking medical care tested positive for measles. The state medical investigator has not announced the official cause of death, but the state health department said Friday it is "measles-related."
The CDC said Friday it has also confirmed measles cases in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington. But the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks make up for most of the nation's case count.
The rise in measles cases has been a major test for U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has questioned the safety of childhood vaccines. Recently, he has stopped short of recommending people get the vaccine, and has promoted unproven treatments for the virus, like cod liver oil.
Kennedy dismissed the Texas outbreak as "not unusual," though most local doctors in the West Texas region told The Associated Press that they have never seen a case of measles in their careers until this outbreak.
The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases. The first shot is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.
Childhood vaccination rates across the country have declined as an increasing number of parents seek exemptions from public school requirements for personal or religious reasons. In Gaines County, Texas, which has the majority of cases, the kindergarten measles vaccination rate is 82% - far below the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks.
Many of Gaines County's cases are in the county's "close-knit, undervaccinated" Mennonite community, a diverse group that has historically had lower vaccination rates and whose members can be distrusting of government mandates and intervention.
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the CDC. Owing to the success of the vaccine, the U.S. considered measles eliminated in 2000.
Tribes and Native American students sue over Bureau of Indian Education firings - By Graham Lee Brewer, Associated Press
Three tribal nations and five Native American students say in a lawsuit that the Trump administration has failed its legal obligations to tribes when it cut jobs at Bureau of Indian Education schools.
Firings at two colleges as part of the administration's cuts to federal agencies, with the help of Elon Musk, have left students and staff with unsafe conditions, canceled classes, and delayed financial aid, according to the lawsuit Friday.
Lawyers at the Native American Rights Fund filed the suit in federal court in the nation's capital against the heads of the Interior Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Indian Education Programs on behalf of the Pueblo of Isleta, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. The tribes allege they were not consulted when the federal government laid off several employees at the two colleges under the purview of the BIE.
Nearly one-quarter of the staff at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, including nine instructors, were fired or forced to resign in February. The lawsuit alleges that security and maintenance firings have left the campus unsafe, including two power outages in the past few weeks that went unresolved due to the lack of staff.
One SIPI student named in the lawsuit, Kaiya Brown, said in the filing that her dorm was without power for 13 hours. "Ms. Brown was forced to leave her dorm residence and drive to a second location to be able to complete her school assignments," according to the lawsuit.
Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas lost more than one-quarter of its staff, including "the Dean of Students, instructors, property management specialists, coaches, tutors, residential advisors, academic advisors, custodians, and food services employees" as well as its only bus driver, the lawsuit states. It also notes that Haskell's student center has been shuttered and students reported their financial aid has either been delayed or has not been disbursed.
Students also reported reduced meal sizes, bathrooms without toilet paper, and classes that are now being taught by deans who do not have the same expertise as the professors who were fired.
Both institutions report that some staff and faculty have been rehired, but "BIE notified those individuals that this might be temporary and they may be laid off again," according to the lawsuit.
The BIA said it was department policy to not comment on pending litigation. A spokesperson for the Interior Department declined to comment.
The BIE is responsible for providing educational opportunities for Native Americans and Alaska Natives across the country, part of the U.S. government's trust responsibilities — the legal and moral obligations the U.S. has to protect and uphold treaties, laws and congressional acts dealing with tribes.
There are 183 bureau-funded elementary and secondary schools on 64 reservations in 23 states, that serve about 42,000 Indian students, according to the BIE's website. It says 55 are BIE-operated and 128 are tribally operated.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has highlighted for several years significant understaffing at the BIE that has impacted its ability to monitor and assist schools.
One of the federal government's obligations to tribal nations is to provide meaningful consultation before it takes any action that could possibly harm tribes or their services, said Hershel Gorham, lieutenant governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, which has 35 students at Haskell. "In this case there is no consultation that was done, not only from the BIA and BIE, but the federal government in general."
Recent cuts to the Departments of the Interior and Health and Human Services that affect tribal citizens and were later rescinded might show that Doug Burgum and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the respective secretaries of those departments, understand those trust responsibilities, Gorham said, but also might suggest they don't have the autonomy to prevent the violation of those rights for Native Americans.
"Right now it seems like they're not being given that full autonomy, if you look at the cuts that were made to Haskell, SIPI and the BIE schools," he said.
NMED issues $9M fine for air pollution; recordkeeping violations at White Sands - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
New Mexico environment officials issued a more than $9 million fine last week to the U.S. Army for more than two dozen violations permits, including pollution events and record-keeping issues between 2020 and 2024 at White Sands Missile Range.
White Sands Missile Range is a 3,200 square mile area covering portions of Doña Ana, Otero, Sierra, Socorro and Lincoln counties.
On Friday, the New Mexico Environment Department issued a 54-page order including a $9.7 million civil penalty to the U.S. Army. The order alleges pollution from a gasoline dispensing facility on base and says the U.S. Army failed to report violations on time; exceeded limits for fuel dispensal; overran time limits for engines at least 30 times; and failed to follow rules on mandatory maintenance for emergency and standby engines. The most significant portion of the penalties stemmed from the emissions and the record-keeping violations.
In the order, the New Mexico Environment Department alleged repeated failures to keep required records and said U.S. Army officials did not answer NMED’s questions, provide data or explanations for the permit violations in multiple violations over the past four years.
“It’s been several years of us issuing violations to the Army on these engines and getting crickets for a response,” =NMED Director of Compliance and Enforcement Bruce Baizel told Source.
NMED ordered the U.S. Army to “cease and desist” running engines over the time limits and violating pollution standards. The state also ordered the U.S. Army submit a training plan to prevent further air pollution within the next 90 days, and an entire facility-wide inventory of all of the engines used on site.
“It’s not like these are rocket engines,” Baizel said. “They are pretty standard diesel engines. So there’s a way they can work within their operation.”
White Sands Missile Range did not return emailed requests for comment.
The U.S. Army has 30 days to submit a formal answer and request a hearing to appeal the order.
Baizel said the military has already requested an extension to prepare a response, which NMED would most likely grant.
“Reading between the lines, I think they are focused on their mission and operations, and that’s fine, they need to do that, but it can be done in a way that doesn’t violate the Clean Air Act and human health standards,” Baizel said. “I think we’ll be able to work this out.”
Health care recruitment bill passes House chamber - By Lauren Lifke, New Mexico Political Report
A bill that aims to entice health care workers back to New Mexico after graduating and leaving the state hit its halfway point this week after the New Mexico House voted to advance it.
House Bill 15, sponsored by Rep. Marianna Anaya, D-Albuquerque, proposes addressing the health care worker shortage by recruiting workers who graduated from institutions in New Mexico and no longer live in the state.
“This is the first program of its kind in the entire nation,” Anaya, a freshman representative, said. “One of the things that I really hoped to bring to this body and to this floor was new ideas.”
The program would be run by the Department of Workforce Solutions and contain two aspects: finding recruits and helping them adjust to their return to New Mexico.
It would help educate recruits about existing loan forgiveness and tax credits available in the state, Anaya said. The “concierge” aspect of the program would walk the recruits through licensing, credentialing, housing and child care incentives.
Anaya said the program would gather data about health care workers who graduated from New Mexico institutions. Anaya said she has spoken with local medical facilities about their current recruitment processes.
“When I asked how they are recruiting — that’s where I saw the biggest gap,” Anaya said. “We are not actively recruiting.”
The program would use the data to contact those who have graduated from local institutions and encourage them to return.
“We’re not waiting for health care recruits to come to us,” Anaya said. “We are recruiting them actively.”
The Legislature and governor would later use the data to evaluate whether the program is working.
The bill passed 39-21, with some opposition arguing the state should prioritize other ways of solving the crisis by advocating to keep health care workers who are already in New Mexico.
“Our health care workers across the state may need a little bit of a battle cry to come back home,” Anaya said. “We miss you, and we’re ready for you.”
The New Mexico Health Care Authority Monday began sending reminders out to SNAP recipients who are not meeting their work requirement for the food stamp benefits. The federal requirement went into effect for nearly 12,000 New Mexicans at the beginning of the year. With a grace period of three months, people out of compliance risk losing their benefits as soon as the beginning of next month.
The new requirement applies to adults under 54 who don’t have dependents, are physically able to work, and live in Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Eddy, or Los Alamos counties or the pueblos of San Ildefonso, Pojoaque, Santa Clara, or Laguna. According to the department, that’s because those areas did not qualify for a waiver due to their “steadily improving unemployment rates.”
The kind of work that meets the requirement varies, but must be done at least part time for an average of 80 hours a month. It can include paid or unpaid work, attending school, or participating in a work program like the SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) Program.
Exemptions exist for people who are veterans, pregnant, former foster kids under 24, experiencing homelessness, receiving unemployment benefits, or in treatment for substance use.
Either work or an exemption can be reported online through the YES New Mexico website, or by calling or going in person to an Income Support Division office.
SNAP recipients who must work can only miss a total of three months between January of this year and May of next year before losing their benefits. To get them back, a person must meet the work requirements for 30 days or become exempt.
Cleanup money for uranium mines and other contaminated sites in budget, for now - By Bella Davis, New Mexico In Depth
New Mexico could soon be cleaning up some of the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines and other contaminated sites around the state and paving the way for continued efforts — if $50 million for that purpose remains in the state budget.
There are at least 302 “orphan sites” in New Mexico, where “known or suspected contamination is causing a threat to human health or the environment,” according to the New Mexico Environment Department. These sites, in addition to about 50 old uranium mines, aren’t eligible for cleanup under any existing programs, and the state can’t identify any responsible parties.
The state would use the funding to begin cleaning up those roughly 350 sites.
In addition to those orphan sites and the 50 or so old uranium mines the state would be targeting, there are another 200 some odd former uranium mines in New Mexico, some in various stages of cleanup. Many of the old mines in the state are on or near tribal lands, and Indigenous communities have advocated for remediation for decades, citing ongoing health and environmental impacts.
Rep. Joseph Hernandez, D-Shiprock, and his family, along with many others in the state, have “gone through numerous doctors appointments, numerous times taking care of our elders who either worked in the industry or are family members of someone” who did, he said last month during a committee hearing. Hernandez recounted stories his mother would tell about his grandfather getting home after long shifts in a nearby mill with uranium dust coating his clothes.
“And this dust today continues to get blown through our communities, not just on Navajo,” Hernandez (Diné) told the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee. “This is communities throughout New Mexico. Many families feel left behind.”
Hernandez and Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, both sponsored bills this year to add in the state budget $50 million for cleaning up contaminated sites, including old uranium mines. That money is now in the $10.8 billion proposed budget the House passed last week.
The funding would be a “drop in the bucket,” Steinborn said in an interview on Friday. The state environment department already has plans for two sites to be remediated, one of which is a uranium mine estimated to cost between $4 and $8 million. The other is a site with chemically contaminated soil and groundwater estimated to cost $5 million to clean up, the agency reported in a bill analysis.
The money would allow the state to “begin to characterize more of the sites, do some cleanup work, and then lay the groundwork for a plan to do much broader efforts,” Steinborn said.
He wants more specifically for uranium cleanup. He’s sponsoring Senate Bill 276, a proposal to put $75 million in the uranium mine reclamation revolving fund.
Since Steinborn was first elected to the Legislature nearly two decades ago, lawmakers have been talking about the need, he said, but weren’t making progress — until 2022. During that session, lawmakers mandated the state develop a strategic plan for cleanup and created the revolving fund.
But the fund has sat empty in the three years since then.
Money deposited in the fund would be used for “site assessments, safeguarding, closure designs, surface reclamation, groundwater remediation, and monitoring, where appropriate,” reads a November presentation state environment department staff gave lawmakers on the interim Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee.
For some of the abandoned mines, there are owners that the state, including the attorney general, could go after legally, Steinborn said. But some of the companies don’t exist anymore, and some of the mines aren’t eligible for cleanup under any federal programs.
That’s where the state should step in, he said.
With just a few weeks left in the session, Steinborn said he continues to advocate for $75 million for the revolving fund, but “we’re going to have to fight to ensure” $50 million for cleanup of contaminated sites more broadly — which would include abandoned uranium mines but wouldn’t be exclusive to cleanup of those sites — stays in the budget.
The Senate is “having to make budget adjustments and fill some budgetary holes, as it’s been explained, that weren’t addressed in the House,” said Steinborn, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, tasked with reviewing the budget.
“If they’re having to come up with money to fill some holes, a $50 million pot of money sitting there, it could be attractive to some to say, ‘Hey, let’s make that number a little smaller and help fill a hole somewhere else.’ So it’s going to require continued advocacy and education to preserve that, which I will be doing and others should as well,” he said.
Medical malpractice bill yet to be heard in Senate committee. Major campaign donors connected to issue - Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
Five Democrats on the committee where a medical malpractice bill is waiting to be heard received some of their largest campaign contributions from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association.
There are six bills related to medical malpractice filed in the Legislature, but only one appears to have a slim path to passage: Senate Bill 176, which would curb medical malpractice liability without limiting caps in an effort to make the state more appealing to doctors. The bill has amassed 23 cosponsors, but seems unlikely to pass this session, as it’s been assigned to three committees, none have heard it yet, and the session is due to end in just two weeks. The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee teased scheduling the bill over the last week, but has not yet done so.
Supporters of Senate Bill 176 argue that New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws have made the state a magnet for out-of-state attorneys and discourage doctors from practicing in New Mexico, contributing to the state’s provider shortage. Critics, like the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, say the bill will make it more difficult for injured patients to sue health care providers.
In 2022, New Mexico had the highest medical malpractice insurance loss ratio in the country, according to a recent Think New Mexico report, meaning insurers paid out 183% of the premiums they took in. New Mexico was one of seven states where insurers lost money, making it more expensive for them to function in the market.
The New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association’s PAC, the Committee on Individual Responsibility, spent $556,354 in the 2024 election cycle, according to the New Mexico Secretary of State database. Its largest donations were $52,000 to the Brian Egolf Speaker Fund, a political action committee that works to grow the Democratic majority in the state House, and $52,000 to the New Mexico Senate Democrats.
SB176’s lead sponsor did get thousands in campaign donations from health care organizations advocating for providers in 2024 — groups that could benefit from medical malpractice reform. Some medical-field political action committees also spent large sums. The New Mexico Health Care Association is a trade organization for facility-based long-term care providers, and its PAC spent over $125,850 in the 2024 election cycle, according to the Secretary of State database. The New Mexico Hospital Association’s PAC spent $84,826 for the election cycle.
LAWYER AND LAW FIRM DONATIONS
In addition to the trial lawyers’ generous donations to Democrats’ House and Senate election arms, committee members who will debate the bill, if it ever comes up, were also beneficiaries of large donations from the trial lawyer PAC and individual lawyers.
A committee chair decides when a bill can be heard. Democratic Committee Chair Sen. Linda Lopez’s highest 2024 campaign donor was the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, with $10,500, according to the Secretary of State’s database. She also received over $10,500 in donations from lawyers and law firms, according to her campaign filings.
Committee member Sen. Cindy Nava, D-Bernalillo, was the ninth-highest earner for 2024 New Mexico Legislature general election candidates, raising $164,000. Nava received $7,000 from the Trial Lawyers Association, her third-highest donor, and over $12,000 from lawyers or law firms.
Sen. Shannon Pinto, D-Tohatchi, received $6,000 from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, her top donor for the 2024 campaign cycle. Sen. Angel Charley, D.-Acoma, received $6,000 from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, her second-highest donor in 2024.
Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, is a retired attorney and law professor. In 2024, she received $1,000 from the Trial Lawyers Association and $1,000 from Presbyterian Hospital, making the organizations tie, along with Indian Pueblos Marketing Inc., for her second-highest campaign contributor, according to the Secretary of State’s database.
The only Democrat on the committee who did not get a direct donation from the Trial Lawyers Association is the bill’s lead sponsor and the committee vice-chair, Sen. Martin Hickey of Albuquerque. Hickey did receive approximately $3,000 in donations from individual lawyers or law firms, according to his campaign filings.
MEDICAL-FIELD DONATIONS
All the Democrats in the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee, where the bill is waiting to be heard, had hundreds, and sometimes thousands, in donations from health care organizations, but SB176’s lead sponsor, Hickey, had significantly more.
Hickey is a retired doctor and got thousands in campaign donations from individual physicians. The largest was $7,000 from an Albuquerque gastroenterologist. His campaign also garnered over $16,000 from health care organizations, including $3,500 from Molina Healthcare, $2,000 from Lovelace Health Systems and $3,000 from a statewide hospital trade association. Hickey was the fifth-highest earner for 2024 state Legislature general election candidates, raising $191,000 for his campaign.
REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE MEMBERS
For most of the committee’s Republican members, their top campaign contributors came from the construction and oil and gas industries. None had donations from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association. Three of the four had donations from medical organizations comparable to most of the committee’s Democrats, but none rivaled the amount of medical-field-related donations that Hickey received.
Republican Committee member Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, is an SB176 cosponsor. Block had no significant contributions clearly connected to the medical field. He did have a $521 contribution from a personal injury lawyer in Albuquerque.
NM AG Torrez opposes motion to dismiss case against former WNMU president Joseph Shepard - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Thursday filed a motion opposing former Western New Mexico University President Joseph Shepard’s motion to dismiss the state’s case against him.
Torrez filed a civil suit against Shepard and the WNMU Board of Regents in January in response to the board’s decision to award Shepard a $1.9 million severance package. That complaint alleges Shepard and the board violated fiduciary duties, the states anti-donation clause and the Open Meetings Act, as well as laws relating to unjust enrichment, parties not fulfilling their contractual obligations and acting on an unenforceable contract.
The university has been under scrutiny over the past year and a half for lavish spending by leadership and misuse of funds, as detailed in a report published in November by the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor.
The board unanimously voted to terminate Shepard’s contract in December, then approved what Torrez has frequently referred to as a “golden parachute” severance payment. The school released the payment to Shepard in early January.
Shepard filed a motion to dismiss the case against him on Feb. 19, arguing Torrez does not have the authority to bring claims of breach of fiduciary duty, lack of consideration, unconscionable contract and unjust enrichment against him.
According to court documents, Shepard claims he did not owe a fiduciary duty to WNMU when negotiating his termination from the university and the severance payment was made “in exchange for valid consideration,” to which the anti-donation clause does not apply.
A New Mexico Department of Justice news release Friday characterized Shepard’s motion as an “attempt to avoid legal scrutiny.”
“The Board of Regents does not have unlimited power to approve unlawful expenditures of public funds, and Dr. Shepard should not be allowed to profit from an invalid and unjust agreement,” Torrez said in a statement. “Our lawsuit seeks to protect taxpayers and hold public officials accountable.”
Torrez’s response to the motion maintains that the board acted unlawfully, without public transparency, in violation of state law and encourages the court to deny Shepard’s motion and continue the lawsuit.
The court has not scheduled a motion hearing as of press time.
Torrez and several lawmakers back a constitutional amendment introduced this legislative session, which, if approved by voters, would add regent fiduciary duties to the law; reasons for removal from their position; and clarify who has authority to seek the removal of regents from the board. House Joint Resolution 12 passed by a vote of 64-1 on the House Floor on March 1 and was referred to Senate committees.
Senate Bill 19 proposes establishing training requirements for new regents and Senate Joint Resolution 7 proposes creating a regent nominating committee that would screen potential regent candidates and make a list for the governor to choose from.
Gene Hackman died at home a week after wife Betsy Arakawa died from hantavirus, authorities say - By Morgan Lee, Susan Montoya Bryan and Lisa Baumann, Associated Press
Forensic experts came to a heartrending conclusion Friday about the manner of death for actor Gene Hackman: he died of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer's disease on an empty stomach a week after a rare, rodent-borne disease took the life of his wife at their home in Santa Fe.
The partially mummified remains of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb. 26 when maintenance and security workers showed up at the home and alerted police.
Authorities unraveled the mysterious circumstances and revealed that Arakawa likely died Feb. 11 at home from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings.
Hackman, in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, apparently was unaware that his wife was dead.
"He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death," chief medical investigator Dr. Heather Jarrell said. "It's quite possible he was not aware she was deceased."
Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Arakawa's last known outing was a round of errands and shopping Feb. 11. She visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to the couple's gated neighborhood that evening.
Arakawa stopped answering emails that day. The couple's cellphone communications have not yet been analyzed.
Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later, indicating an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said.
Hackman was found in the home's entryway, and Arakawa was found in a bathroom. Their bodies were decomposing with some mummification, a consequence of body type and climate in Santa Fe's especially dry air at an elevation of nearly 7,200 feet (2,200 meters).
The revelations about the manner of the couple's deaths jolted Santa Fe, the state capital city known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.
"All of us that knew him should have been checking on him," said Stuart Ashman, co-owner of Artes de Cuba gallery, who cherished his encounters with Hackman at a local Pilates exercise studio. "I had no idea. ... It's just really sad. And that she died a week before him. My God."
Experts believe Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer's disease and unable to deal with his wife's death in the last week of his life — or seek help after she died.
"Their (the authorities') explanation, I thought, was quite clear and plausible, said Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist in Virginia. "I believe they really discovered what truly happened in this case."
Most older Americans with Alzheimer's diesease and related dementias live at home, and many receive care from family or friends.
Hantavirus typically is reported in spring and summer, often due to exposures that occur when people are near mouse droppings in homes, sheds or poorly ventilated areas. This is the first confirmed case of hantavirus in New Mexico this year.
While hantavirus is found throughout the world, most cases in the U.S. have been found in western states. The virus can cause a severe and sometimes deadly lung infection.
Jarrell said it was not known how quickly Arakawa died.
One of the couple's three dogs, a kelpie mix named Zinna, also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs survived.
Dogs do not get sick from hantavirus, said Erin Phipps, a veterinarian with the New Mexico Health Department. A necropsy will be done on the dog.
The sheriff considers this an open investigation until they receive results of the dog's necropsy and finish checking into data from personal cellphones retrieved from the home.
Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a storied career in films including "The French Connection," "Hoosiers" and "Superman" from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
Arakawa, born in Hawaii, studied as a concert pianist, attended the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid-1980s while working at a California gym.
Hackman dedicated much of his time in retirement to painting and writing novels far from Hollywood's social circuit. He served for several years on the board of trustees at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and he and Arakawa were investors in local businesses.
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This story has been corrected to show one of the causes of Hackman's death was heart disease, not heart failure.
Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington. Associated Press reporters Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Carla Johnson in Seattle contributed.
Local school districts respond to court ruling on PED’s 180-day school calendar - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
As lawmakers work to pass a bill clarifying school districts’ control over their academic calendars, scheduling for next year is underway.
House Bill 65 proposes making changes to the Public School Code to clarify that local school districts have the flexibility to create their school calendars, as long as they meet the state required minimum of 1,140 instructional hours per year.
The instructional hour minimum was raised to its current level in 2023 in response to the landmark Yazzie-Martinez education lawsuit, which found that at-risk students were not receiving equitable educational opportunities from the state. In March 2024, the Public Education Department, under former Secretary Arsenio Romero, created a rule requiring K-12 schools adopt a 180-day school calendar in an effort to meet the instructional hour requirement.
Opponents quickly sued PED over the rule due and said it conflicted with state law and also pointed to the added expenses Native and rural school districts would incur for adding instructional days such as transportation and meals.
Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Dustin K. Hunter initially issued an injunction against the rule and then in early February 2025 decreed that the education department lacks the authority to mandate a minimum number of instructional days.
Now, school districts are back to making their own decisions about their calendars, while a proposed law that would codify their right to do so makes its way through the legislative process.
“I don’t believe that the number of school days determines success,” Peñasco Independent School District Superintendent Michelle Gonzales told Source NM. “I think that what really makes a difference is having teachers that are dedicated and invested in the students and the community.”
Gonzales said in her district, which operates on a four-day week, making room in the budget for an extended calendar required cuts to security, cafeteria and maintenance personnel. And to meet the 180-day requirement for the current school year, class started earlier in the year and will end later. School officials also cut the lengths of the winter and Thanksgiving Day breaks.
She added that the school calendar committee is moving forward with next year’s calendar now that a decision has been made regarding the 180-day rule. Gonzales said the calendar will likely be similar to this year’s, but with a start date in August rather than in July.
Veronica Garcia, interim superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools and a former Public Education Department cabinet secretary, told Source that SFPS developed two calendars last year – one with 180 days and one with 175 days. She said because of the injunction granted by the court in the PED lawsuit, SFPS went with the 175-day calendar.
The district, which is on a five-day week schedule, conducted a poll of the community, Garcia said, and found that “[in] Santa Fe by and large, the community likes to have the calendar end before Memorial Day.” If the longer calendar year had been adopted, she said school would have likely started in late July. She said next school year’s calendar will be made public in April and will also include 175 days.
Garcia added that because a large portion of the students in New Mexico attend schools in urban areas, policy is often dictated by these districts, overlooking rural schools.
“I think that the best approach would be to bring superintendents to the table representing large, medium-sized and smaller-sized school districts to work with the PED in collaboration, to work together,” she said. “I think both sides want the best for the kids and I think it’s a matter of understanding each other’s perspective and understanding the nuances here, because I don’t think it’s really a black and white answer.”
West Texas reports nearly 200 measles cases. New Mexico is up to 30 - By Devi Shastri, AP Health Writer
A historic measles outbreak in West Texas is just short of 200 cases, Texas state health officials said Friday, while the number of cases in neighboring New Mexico tripled to 30.
Most of the cases across both states are in people younger than 18 and people who are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.
Texas health officials identified 39 new infections of the highly contagious disease, bringing the total count in the West Texas outbreak to 198 people since it began in late January. Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far.
Last week, a school-age child died of measles in Texas, the nation's first measles death in a decade. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that they were sending a team to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the outbreak.
New Mexico health officials had been reporting for weeks a steady number of cases in Lea County — which borders the epicenter of Texas' outbreak. But on Friday, state health officials provided The Associated Press a week-by-week count that shows cases have steadily increased from 14 cases in the week of Feb. 9 to 30 this week.
A spokesman for the health department said more cases are expected and that many of the cases reported Friday weren't identified until after people's illnesses had run their course. The department has said it hasn't been able to prove a clear connection to the Texas outbreak, though on Feb. 14, it said a link is "suspected."
On Thursday, New Mexico health officials confirmed an unvaccinated adult who died without seeking medical care tested positive for measles. The state medical investigator has not announced the official cause of death, but the state health department said Friday it is "measles-related."
The CDC said Friday it has also confirmed measles cases in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington. But the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks make up for most of the nation's case count.
The rise in measles cases has been a major test for U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has questioned the safety of childhood vaccines. Recently, he has stopped short of recommending people get the vaccine, and has promoted unproven treatments for the virus, like cod liver oil.
Kennedy dismissed the Texas outbreak as "not unusual," though most local doctors in the West Texas region told The Associated Press that they have never seen a case of measles in their careers until this outbreak.
The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases. The first shot is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.
Childhood vaccination rates across the country have declined as an increasing number of parents seek exemptions from public school requirements for personal or religious reasons. In Gaines County, Texas, which has the majority of cases, the kindergarten measles vaccination rate is 82% - far below the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks.
Many of Gaines County's cases are in the county's "close-knit, undervaccinated" Mennonite community, a diverse group that has historically had lower vaccination rates and whose members can be distrusting of government mandates and intervention.
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the CDC. Owing to the success of the vaccine, the U.S. considered measles eliminated in 2000.
Tribes and Native American students sue over Bureau of Indian Education firings - By Graham Lee Brewer, Associated Press
Three tribal nations and five Native American students say in a lawsuit that the Trump administration has failed its legal obligations to tribes when it cut jobs at Bureau of Indian Education schools.
Firings at two colleges as part of the administration's cuts to federal agencies, with the help of Elon Musk, have left students and staff with unsafe conditions, canceled classes, and delayed financial aid, according to the lawsuit Friday.
Lawyers at the Native American Rights Fund filed the suit in federal court in the nation's capital against the heads of the Interior Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Indian Education Programs on behalf of the Pueblo of Isleta, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. The tribes allege they were not consulted when the federal government laid off several employees at the two colleges under the purview of the BIE.
Nearly one-quarter of the staff at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, including nine instructors, were fired or forced to resign in February. The lawsuit alleges that security and maintenance firings have left the campus unsafe, including two power outages in the past few weeks that went unresolved due to the lack of staff.
One SIPI student named in the lawsuit, Kaiya Brown, said in the filing that her dorm was without power for 13 hours. "Ms. Brown was forced to leave her dorm residence and drive to a second location to be able to complete her school assignments," according to the lawsuit.
Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas lost more than one-quarter of its staff, including "the Dean of Students, instructors, property management specialists, coaches, tutors, residential advisors, academic advisors, custodians, and food services employees" as well as its only bus driver, the lawsuit states. It also notes that Haskell's student center has been shuttered and students reported their financial aid has either been delayed or has not been disbursed.
Students also reported reduced meal sizes, bathrooms without toilet paper, and classes that are now being taught by deans who do not have the same expertise as the professors who were fired.
Both institutions report that some staff and faculty have been rehired, but "BIE notified those individuals that this might be temporary and they may be laid off again," according to the lawsuit.
The BIA said it was department policy to not comment on pending litigation. A spokesperson for the Interior Department declined to comment.
The BIE is responsible for providing educational opportunities for Native Americans and Alaska Natives across the country, part of the U.S. government's trust responsibilities — the legal and moral obligations the U.S. has to protect and uphold treaties, laws and congressional acts dealing with tribes.
There are 183 bureau-funded elementary and secondary schools on 64 reservations in 23 states, that serve about 42,000 Indian students, according to the BIE's website. It says 55 are BIE-operated and 128 are tribally operated.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has highlighted for several years significant understaffing at the BIE that has impacted its ability to monitor and assist schools.
One of the federal government's obligations to tribal nations is to provide meaningful consultation before it takes any action that could possibly harm tribes or their services, said Hershel Gorham, lieutenant governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, which has 35 students at Haskell. "In this case there is no consultation that was done, not only from the BIA and BIE, but the federal government in general."
Recent cuts to the Departments of the Interior and Health and Human Services that affect tribal citizens and were later rescinded might show that Doug Burgum and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the respective secretaries of those departments, understand those trust responsibilities, Gorham said, but also might suggest they don't have the autonomy to prevent the violation of those rights for Native Americans.
"Right now it seems like they're not being given that full autonomy, if you look at the cuts that were made to Haskell, SIPI and the BIE schools," he said.
NMED issues $9M fine for air pollution; recordkeeping violations at White Sands - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
New Mexico environment officials issued a more than $9 million fine last week to the U.S. Army for more than two dozen violations permits, including pollution events and record-keeping issues between 2020 and 2024 at White Sands Missile Range.
White Sands Missile Range is a 3,200 square mile area covering portions of Doña Ana, Otero, Sierra, Socorro and Lincoln counties.
On Friday, the New Mexico Environment Department issued a 54-page order including a $9.7 million civil penalty to the U.S. Army. The order alleges pollution from a gasoline dispensing facility on base and says the U.S. Army failed to report violations on time; exceeded limits for fuel dispensal; overran time limits for engines at least 30 times; and failed to follow rules on mandatory maintenance for emergency and standby engines. The most significant portion of the penalties stemmed from the emissions and the record-keeping violations.
In the order, the New Mexico Environment Department alleged repeated failures to keep required records and said U.S. Army officials did not answer NMED’s questions, provide data or explanations for the permit violations in multiple violations over the past four years.
“It’s been several years of us issuing violations to the Army on these engines and getting crickets for a response,” =NMED Director of Compliance and Enforcement Bruce Baizel told Source.
NMED ordered the U.S. Army to “cease and desist” running engines over the time limits and violating pollution standards. The state also ordered the U.S. Army submit a training plan to prevent further air pollution within the next 90 days, and an entire facility-wide inventory of all of the engines used on site.
“It’s not like these are rocket engines,” Baizel said. “They are pretty standard diesel engines. So there’s a way they can work within their operation.”
White Sands Missile Range did not return emailed requests for comment.
The U.S. Army has 30 days to submit a formal answer and request a hearing to appeal the order.
Baizel said the military has already requested an extension to prepare a response, which NMED would most likely grant.
“Reading between the lines, I think they are focused on their mission and operations, and that’s fine, they need to do that, but it can be done in a way that doesn’t violate the Clean Air Act and human health standards,” Baizel said. “I think we’ll be able to work this out.”
Health care recruitment bill passes House chamber - By Lauren Lifke, New Mexico Political Report
A bill that aims to entice health care workers back to New Mexico after graduating and leaving the state hit its halfway point this week after the New Mexico House voted to advance it.
House Bill 15, sponsored by Rep. Marianna Anaya, D-Albuquerque, proposes addressing the health care worker shortage by recruiting workers who graduated from institutions in New Mexico and no longer live in the state.
“This is the first program of its kind in the entire nation,” Anaya, a freshman representative, said. “One of the things that I really hoped to bring to this body and to this floor was new ideas.”
The program would be run by the Department of Workforce Solutions and contain two aspects: finding recruits and helping them adjust to their return to New Mexico.
It would help educate recruits about existing loan forgiveness and tax credits available in the state, Anaya said. The “concierge” aspect of the program would walk the recruits through licensing, credentialing, housing and child care incentives.
Anaya said the program would gather data about health care workers who graduated from New Mexico institutions. Anaya said she has spoken with local medical facilities about their current recruitment processes.
“When I asked how they are recruiting — that’s where I saw the biggest gap,” Anaya said. “We are not actively recruiting.”
The program would use the data to contact those who have graduated from local institutions and encourage them to return.
“We’re not waiting for health care recruits to come to us,” Anaya said. “We are recruiting them actively.”
The Legislature and governor would later use the data to evaluate whether the program is working.
The bill passed 39-21, with some opposition arguing the state should prioritize other ways of solving the crisis by advocating to keep health care workers who are already in New Mexico.
“Our health care workers across the state may need a little bit of a battle cry to come back home,” Anaya said. “We miss you, and we’re ready for you.”