FRI: Measles cases trend lower in latest week of NM outbreak, Big Tech lobbies for AG-backed bill, + More
By KUNM News
March 14, 2025 at 6:28 AM MDT
Measles cases reach nearly 300 total in Texas and New Mexico. Here's what you should know — Devi Shastri, AP Health Writer
The New Mexico Department of health reported only one new case in the past week, the fifth week of the outbreak. New cases have been trending down, with 6 cases reported in the fourth week, and 8 in the third week.
Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to nearly 300 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
The NMDOH is offering walk-in vaccinations with no appointment needed at 10 of their public health offices, the locations for which can be viewed at their online measles resource guide.
As of Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its count of confirmed measles cases in the U.S. surpassed 2024. Here's what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?
Texas state health officials said Friday there were 36 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing Texas' total to 259. Five more people were hospitalized, for a total of 34. The outbreak has spread to two new counties: Cochran in West Texas with six and Lamar in the northeast part of the state with four.
New Mexico health officials announced two new cases Friday, bringing the state's total to 35. Most of the cases are in Lea County, where two people are hospitalized. Eddy County has two cases.
Oklahoma's state health department reported two probable cases of measles Tuesday, saying they are "associated" with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.
A school-age child died of measles in Texas last month, and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult last week.
Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?
Measles cases have been reported in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases — and there have been three clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025.
In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles.
Do you need an MMR booster?
The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.
Adults with "presumptive evidence of immunity" generally don't need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.
A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don't always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.
Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.
People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don't need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from "killed" virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don't know which type they got.
What are the symptoms of measles?
Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.
The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.
Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
How can you treat measles?
There's no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
Why do vaccination rates matter?
Wagon Mound residents told to be ready for evacuation as wildfire grows — Gillian Barkhurst, The Albuquerque Journal
The village of Wagon Mound has been put on an evacuation notice as a wildfire torched more than 3,000 acres Friday afternoon, according to a New Mexico Forestry Division news release.
At this point the Wagon Mound Fire is 0% contained, according to the release, and is burning primarily grass although several nearby homes are threatened.
Wagon Mound has been placed on a "Ready, Set, Go" evacuation order, meaning residents should stand at the ready to evacuate should conditions worsen, according to a Mora County Sheriff's Office social media post.
The fire is spreading rapidly due to high winds, according to the post. The Fire Departments of Mora and San Miguel are already on scene, alongside the New Mexico State Police.
The fire started at around noon and authorities are still investigating what caused the fire, the release states.
‘Stonewalling’: Forest Service mum on firings during wildfire briefing for congressional staff — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
An annual wildfire briefing earlier this week between staffers for Southwestern members of Congress and Forest Service officials was unusual for two reasons, according to a congressional aide in attendance:
First, the private briefing happened about a month earlier than is typical, a sign of the acute risk of wildfires this season in New Mexico and Arizona amid years of climate change-caused drought and especially low snowpack this spring.
Second, even as Forest Service officials laid out alarming weather forecasts and wildfire predictions, they refused more than 10 times in the meeting to say how many Forest Service employees had been fired, how many resigned and what might come of wildfire dispatch centers if the Trump administration terminates their leases.
“We’ll have to send this to Washington and they will get back to you,” was the standard response, according to a Congressional aide who asked to remain anonymous to preserve the aide’s ability to have candid conversations with government officials.
The meeting embodied how fraught the relationship has become between Forest Service and congressional staff amid President Donald Trump’s blunt efforts to slash federal spending. New edicts require D.C.-level officials to approve all communications, including those with members of Congress or their staffs.
As a result, the aide said that what has for years been a free-flowing conversation about the upcoming fire season, with candid discussions of staffing levels and the effect of climate change on the region’s snowpack and forests, instead unfolded as a tense and frustrating 2.5-hour lecture during which the word “climate” was never mentioned.
The unique wildfire risk in the Southwest this season made the change in tone all the more stark, the aide said. According to the Forest Service’s powerpoint presentation, which Source NM obtained, above-normal temperatures, prolonged drought, proliferation of fine fuels and near-record-low snowpack will all factor into an “early overall start to the large fire season.”
The hazardous conditions present so early this fire season mean there will be few opportunities and resources to conduct prescribed burns, according to the presentation.
Frustration among the 50 or so staffers on the call grew and even spread to some lower-level Forest Service employees who could be seen on video holding their faces in their hands or throwing their arms up, the aide told Source New Mexico. “‘Stonewalling’ is the best way to put it,” the aide said.
As the call went on and Forest Service officials continued talking through the latest forecasts, anger spilled into the chat feature of the virtual Teams meeting.
“We have been in touch with your Washington DC office and they would not speak to any personnel issues,” one staffer wrote, according to screenshots of the chats Source NM obtained. “They will not give anyone information as to how many staff have been fired.”
“Don’t we have someone from the Washington Office on the call?” another staffer wrote.
“This is unheard of,” the first staffer added, “to not communicate important issues that put our communities at risk.”
Another staffer noted in the chat that “the questions about regional staffing and recent terminations are easily anticipated, and have already been asked by multiple Congressional offices. The information is readily available to the [Forest Service],” prompting four staffers to “like” the comment.
As Forest Service officials noted on the call, New Mexico and Arizona face a potentially devastating wildfire season.
Meanwhile, the United States Department of Agriculture fired nearly 5,700 probationary employees, an estimated 75% of whom had “red cards,” meaning they can be recruited to help suppress wildfires if needed.
Two judges this week ruled the Trump administration’s firing of probationary employees illegal and the federal Merit Systems Protection Board had previously paused the firings for 45 days. The status of those employees, and whether they’ve been able to return to work as ordered, remains uncertain, the aide and other sources told Source.
In addition to the firings, two New Mexico offices housing interagency wildfire dispatch centers may close due to federal lease terminations. The Albuquerque Interagency Dispatch Center monitors for blazes in Central New Mexico and parts of Oklahoma and Texas, and the Silver City center covers most of Southwestern New Mexico, including the Gila National Forest.
Source requested an interview with New Mexico State Forester Laura McCarthy, who said she attended the first hour of the meeting. She responded to a list of questions via email, in which she said she believes staffing, aviation and ground resources will be adequate this fire season.
Still, “The conditions are formidable, with abundant fine fuel that will carry fire if it starts on a windy day,” she told Source New Mexico in an email Thursday.
The aide who spoke to Source New Mexico said most staffers were concerned about whether the Forest Service would have enough personnel to adequately respond to one or more big wildfires in the Southwest this season.
A Forest Service official said in the presentation that 1,500 personnel will be available in the Southwest region at the “peak of the fire season,” and that those numbers will be “similar to 2024 capacities.” The slide also said that “onboarding efforts are ongoing.”
Despite that claim in the presentation, staffers remained skeptical after several follow-up questions, the aide said.
“Even if the answer was, ‘We are fully staffed in that one specific area,’ they still couldn’t say, ‘We don’t anticipate operations being impacted,’” the aide said.
The pre-fire season briefing occurs every year, usually with less tension, the aide said, and is vital for keeping members of Congress up-to-speed on where things stand and what to expect if and when the first spark ignites that year. Congressional offices often stay heavily involved in emergency response, including helping constituents obtain disaster assistance.
“We’ve never had issues with communication and correspondence, because this is something that the congressional delegations, just across the board with the Forest Service, we are all invested in making sure that we are able to respond to fires the best way possible,” the aide said.
But that collaboration was completely absent Tuesday. The officials from Washington, D.C. on the call, while they rarely spoke, made their presence well-known, the aide said.
The aide has participated in these briefings for years and said, “It’s the first time that’s happened. The individuals on the call from the Washington office also would not answer questions. They were ultimately there to make sure that those questions weren’t answered.”
Are you an employee or former employee at dispatch centers or other national forests in New Mexico? Reach out to reporter Patrick Lohmann securely on Signal at Plohmann.61 or by using this link.
Alzheimer's Association pairs up with New Mexico in US pilot program to raise awareness — Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
New Mexico has paired up with the Alzheimer's Association in a pilot U.S. initiative aimed at raising awareness about a disease that affects several million people across the nation, including family members and friends who often provide countless hours of unpaid care.
The joint campaign — a year in the making — features billboards, digital ads and social media posts. It was unveiled Wednesday, days after authorities confirmed that actor Gene Hackman died at his Santa Fe home of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Hackman, like the majority of people with Alzheimer's and related dementias, lived at home. His wife, Betsy Arakawa, was his caregiver but died from hantavirus, a rare, rodent-borne disease. Experts believe Hackman, in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, was unable to seek help.
The goal of the new partnership between the state and the Alzheimer's Association is to spark conversations within families and to educate the public on warning signs and treatments. It also aims to publicize support services for family members and other caregivers.
"That's kind of the whole point of the campaign — to start talking, to start thinking, to take some action," said Joey Long, a spokesperson with the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department. "So it's like, maybe they've been confused. Well, let's talk about what that means."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 7 million people are living with the disease in the U.S., where Alzheimer's is the seventh-leading cause of death. In New Mexico, estimates put the number of people with the disease at 46,000, with another 67,000 family members providing care at home within the last year.
Alzheimer's kills more people in the U.S. than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, according to statistics shared by the Alzheimer's Association, which is helping to fund research projects in dozens of countries around the world.
One of the challenges is that only about half of the people who are living with the disease are ever diagnosed, said Jim Herlihy, a spokesperson for the association's Rocky Mountain region. The number of undiagnosed people is higher in communities of color, he said.
Neurologists say it can take 20 years from the start of the disease taking shape in the brain to when it becomes recognizable and diagnosed, what Herlihy describes as a glacial pace.
"People think of this as either an old person's disease or something that happens to somebody else," Herlihy said. "And unless it's happened in your family and you have seen a loved one decline from this disease, or you have been put into the role of being a caregiver, you don't realize the impact that this has."
The nonprofit association published a special report last year detailing the importance of families mapping out a plan for care, acknowledging that it can be a complex maze involving social services, medications and specialists.
The billboards and ads are simple. One of them pictures a caution sign in the road that reads: "Honey, you've been confused." The messages urge people to talk about it and to visit a website that includes a hotline for those who don't know where to start.
A significant percentage of New Mexico's population is aging, which has spurred officials to find ways to educate and prepare state residents. In addition to the awareness campaign, the state is planning a series of community forums on the subject this spring in rural areas with high rates of the disease.
The Alzheimer's Association is hoping the campaign will expand to other states.
Big Tech lobbies New Mexico for AG-backed bill - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Two competing data privacy bills pending at the New Mexico Legislature appear aimed at protecting residents’ information online.
Both bills, if passed and signed into law, would protect New Mexicans’ personal data from disclosure without their consent, including information such as religious faith, consumer spending, health care and citizenship status. Both bills would also designate the New Mexico Department of Justice to write the rules to implement the law and take legal action to enforce it.
But only one would protect tech companies from being sued directly by consumers for breaking the law.
With less than two weeks left in the session, two camps have emerged around the proposals: local community groups advocate for one bill, while the state’s attorney general and lobbyists for big technology companies back the other. National Big Tech watchdogs also warn that the bill backed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has some red flags.
COMMUNITY GROUPS BACK SENATE BILL
Sen. Katy Duhigg (D-Albuquerque) introduced Senate Bill 420 on Feb. 17. The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee on Feb. 27 passed the bill in a 5-4 party-line vote, with Republicans in opposition. It heads next to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Numerous community groups turned out at the bill’s first hearing in support, including Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, Somos un Pueblo Unido, Bold Futures New Mexico, Conservation Voters New Mexico, the Center for Civic Policy and the National Organization for Women.
Representatives of these groups told the committee they back this bill because, for example, it would protect patients seeking abortion services from harassment or criminal prosecution where it’s illegal, and would protect immigrants from being targeted for deportation or criminalization.
Opponents included the New Mexico and Albuquerque Hispano chambers of commerce; TechNet, a trade association whose members include Apple, Google, Samsung and HP; and another trade group called the Consumer Data Industry Association.
“My understanding is there is a bill out there that all the tech guys want, and that I think that might have sign-on from the attorney general,” Duhigg told the committee. “I don’t think that is a bill that is going to protect New Mexicans. That is primarily for the benefit of the tech companies, not New Mexicans.”
In an emailed statement to Source NM on Wednesday, Duhigg confirmed she was referring to House Bill 410, a second data privacy bill being carried by Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe).
HOUSE BILL COMES FROM ‘THE CONSUMER PROTECTOR-IN-CHIEF’
On March 3, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez posted a video to Instagram in which he talked about HB410, and another bill that would change his agency’s enforcement power.
In the video, Torrez said HB410 would give consumers the right to delete information they send to tech companies; request sharing information; and prohibit the federal government from unlawfully sharing their personal data. He described the two bills as “essential to protect consumers and everyday citizens.”
In an interview with Source NM on Wednesday, sponsor Serrato said HB410 is Torrez’s “brainchild,” and they started working together on it early in the session.
Serrato, who has been in the House of Representatives since 2020, carried the reproductive and gender affirming health care bill in 2023 ensuring New Mexicans can’t be prosecuted for the health care decisions they make. That year, she also co-sponsored an expansion of the state’s Human Rights Act that closed loopholes in state law that allowed for discrimination against transgender people.
“I’ve been pretty clear on my stances on protecting citizens and noncitizens, you know, folks in New Mexico,” she told Source NM.
In an emailed statement to Source NM on Thursday, Department of Justice Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez said Torrez supports Serrato’s bill rather than Duhigg’s because it puts New Mexicans in control of their personal data.
“The bill not only gives consumers a right to opt out of any data collection practices in the marketplace, but it is also the only bill in the United States to specifically protect citizens against the unlawful disclosure of sensitive data held by the federal government,” she said.
Part of HB410 “specifically empowers New Mexicans to take legal action if their information is unlawfully transferred to third parties by the likes of Elon Musk and his DOGE employees,” she said.
Big tech likes Serrato’s bill too.
BIG TECH VISITS NEW MEXICO
Andrew Kingman, legal counsel for the State Privacy and Security Coalition, gave public comment via Zoom on Feb. 26 in support of HB410 before the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee.
The State Privacy and Security Coalition’s partners include Amazon, Google, Meta, Target and General Motors. “We work on these types of bills nationally,” Kingman told the committee.
An emailed request for comment from Kingman sent to the Coalition was not returned as of publication.
Kingman’s lobbying work has resulted in many states passing data-privacy laws that are relatively friendly to business, according to POLITICO. The news organization found the State Privacy and Security Coalition has lobbied in at least 32 states looking to pass data privacy regulations.
Kingman told the committee “our only major issue” with the version of HB410 being debated at the time was a provision titled Section 13, which would have required companies to create at least two ways for consumers to ask for copies of or to delete their data. He said that part was redundant with other parts of the bill.
He said he “would love to work with the sponsor on moving this bill forward, but without Section 13.”
Then on March 3, House Commerce held another hearing on HB410, during which Serrato introduced a substitute version. “The biggest change was that the Section 13 that gave folks a lot of concerns after many discussions, we entirely removed Section 13,” she told the committee.
After hearing testimony in support of HB410 from Kingman and some of the same groups who opposed SB420, the committee voted unanimously to pass HB410. It awaits a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.
The version passed by House Commerce still allows consumers to request copies or deletion of their data, but no longer contains the provision requiring companies to create at least two user-friendly ways to do that. It allows companies to create “a secure and reliable means” of submitting a data request, and requires them to explain it to consumers in their privacy notice.
Serrato told Source NM that she met with Kingman in-person at the Roundhouse after the House Commerce committee passed her bill. She said while Kingman told her he agreed with the decision to remove Section 13, conversations with various businesses, not just him, led to the change.
“He was one of the conversations, I wouldn’t say he was the crux,” Serrato said.
Rodriguez, the AG’s chief of staff, did not respond to Source NM’s questions about Kingman’s lobbying efforts in New Mexico, including whether anyone from NMDOJ met with him while he was visiting, or whether the State Privacy and Security Coalition had any role in drafting HB410.
SHOULD CONSUMERS BE ALLOWED TO SUE?
A key difference between the two bills is that Duhigg’s would allow a consumer to hold companies liable for violating the law and recover damages in court through what’s called a “private right of action,” while Serrato’s would not.
POLITICO found that all of the state laws Kingman has influenced keep citizens from directly suing companies for data privacy violations.
Serrato told Source NM her bill places enforcement entirely with the attorney general, without giving people the option to hire a lawyer and take the companies to civil court themselves. She said Torrez told her that he feels that consumer protection enforcement is part of his job and his office could handle the workload.
“We treat him — whether it’s unfair practices laws or what have you — as the consumer protector-in-chief, that’s how we look at him,” Serrato told Source NM. “He is the person, literally, who is equipped the best to take on a major company and actually win.”
But consumer privacy advocates caution against passing state laws that don’t allow people to directly sue corporations that run afoul of the law.
Hayley Tsukayama, associate director of legislative activism at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Source NM that her organization has supported more narrow legislation that doesn’t allow consumers to sue, but when it comes to big comprehensive consumer data privacy bills, “EFF won’t support a bill that doesn’t have a strong private right of action.”
“If companies are violating the law, you should be able to sue them,” Tsukayama said. “People should be empowered to be their own privacy enforcers. They have a sense of what the costs are to them and their privacy the best. We believe that truly strong consumer privacy bills and honestly, most strong consumer bills, have a private right of action, because at the end of the day, it’s about what’s happened to the consumer, and they are the best person to judge that.”
She added that most states that limit consumer data privacy enforcement to state attorneys general often only have two or three attorneys responsible for an entire state, and “we just have not seen that much enforcement.”
“Even in states that have fairly strong laws, people have only taken a couple of actions on some of those laws in a couple years,” she said. “It takes a very long time to pull together those actions. It takes a lot of investigation. In terms of where that rubber actually hits the road and people actually get taken to task for what they’ve done, it can be really hard. It could be very few, and often only the worst companies.”
The House Commerce panel on March 3 also heard opposition to HB410 from Catrina Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. She said part of the problem with existing state data privacy laws is that they’re heavily influenced by big tech, and they don’t do enough to protect people online.
“They do little to change the status quo of companies being able to collect and use personal data however they like, as long as they tell us what they’re doing in a privacy policy that no one reads,” she said.
Fitzgerald said Serrato’s bill appears to be largely modeled on Connecticut’s data privacy law, which doesn’t allow consumers to sue.
She pointed the committee to a report published in January by her group and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group that scored state privacy laws. They gave Connecticut’s law a D grade, and described it as “a favored piece of template legislation for lobbyists, particularly in bluer states.”
Fitzgerald told the committee her group “would have much preferred” the identical House version of Duhigg’s bill, which Fitzgerald called “a much more pro-consumer bill.” Sponsor Rep. Pamelya Herndon, another Albuquerque Democrat, pulled HB307 and is a co-sponsor on Duhigg’s legislation. Herndon has not responded to requests for comment on this story.
HB410 also contains a grace period for companies that violate the law, giving them 30 days to fix it after prosecutors notify them.
Tsukayama, with EFF, said these 30-day cure periods have two problems: One, they don’t really result in repercussions for not complying with the law, and two, if you’re sharing information or not deleting it, the damage is done and the consumer can’t actually fix it.
“California actually eliminated its right to cure because, if you take all the time to pull together a case, and then you notify them, and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we fixed it,’ then you don’t move forward,” she said. “So what we’ve heard from other attorneys is, it’s a deterrent to enforcers to bring cases.”
Duhigg told Source NM in a written statement that the differences between her and Serrato’s bills amount to “a fundamental difference in priorities.”
“Big tech companies want business as usual because their primary concern is protecting profits and maintaining data access,” she said. “Our concern is protecting New Mexicans. We’re focused on the safety and privacy of our communities at a time when digital exploitation has reached unprecedented levels.”
“Tech lobbyists are worried about quarterly earnings, while we’re worried about our neighbors, our families, and our children’s future,” Duhigg continued. “This isn’t about industry convenience—it’s about community protection when New Mexicans need it most.”
Laid off federal employees waiting to hear if they will be rehired - Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
A federal court in California ordered federal agencies to rehire thousands of employees fired as part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal workforce, a decision that should impact laid-off federal employees in New Mexico.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the Interior, Agriculture, Defense, Treasury, Energy and Veterans Affairs departments to give fired probationary employees their jobs back within the next six days, calling the terminations unlawful. Many probationary employees were fired with similar letters that alleged the terminations were because of workplace performance. The lawsuit was brought by labor unions. Laid-off federal workers in New Mexico said they have not received any official communications yet about coming back to work but were heartened by the news.
“I definitely would go back,” said former Fish and Wildlife biologist Robert Prather, who lives in Albuquerque. “I think even beyond me, there’s people who will probably return just to make the record right. Having this on our record is a total stain, and we don’t deserve to have such a thing on our record. Ultimately, that’s one of the biggest reasons I would want to return, even if I knew I was going to be terminated in a (reduction in force).”
Getting rehired would probably include back pay, and extend terminated employees’ health insurance, Prather said. He has yet to hear from his agency, but thinks he is likely included in the order.
Former U.S. Forest Service biologist Jordan Martinez, who worked in the Carson National Forest, is also awaiting official communication that she will be rehired. Martinez expects to be rehired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture not simply because of Thursday’s court decision, but also because of a recent U.S. Merit Board decision ordering the USDA to rehire employees for at least 45 days who were fired for alleged performance issues with the same form letter.
“I’m really concerned that we might get fired again after the 45 days,” Martinez said. “I do understand there’s more lawsuits coming, so I’m really anxious to see what happens after those. I’m hoping for the best, but it’s very hard to keep our hopes up. It seems like every day we get bad news.”
The White House will likely appeal the order, said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., and the situation is still chaotic.
“It’s been very clear since day one that the activities that Elon Musk and (the Department of Government Efficiency) have been undertaking through (the Office of Personnel Management) and through the various entities that DOGE is operating are not only reckless and without a plan, but are illegal,” Stansbury said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt questioned the judge’s authority to issue the order in a statement posted on social media, continuing the Trump administration’s pattern of questioning the authority of the legislative and judicial branches of government and trying to consolidate more power under the executive branch.
“A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch,” the statement reads, and the administration will “immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order.”
Gene Hackman's estate asks court to block release of death investigation records - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A representative for the estate of actor Gene Hackman is seeking to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports, especially photographs and police body-camera video, related to the recent deaths of Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa after their partially mummified bodies were discovered at their New Mexico home in February.
Authorities last week announced Hackman died at age 95 of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer's disease as much as a week after a rare, rodent-borne disease — hantavirus pulmonary syndrome — took the life of his 65-year-old wife.
Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity on Feb. 18, indicating an abnormal heart rhythm on the day he likely died. The couple's bodies weren't discovered until Feb. 26 when maintenance and security workers showed up at the Santa Fe home and alerted police, leaving a mystery for law enforcement and medical investigators to unravel.
Julia Peters, a representative for the estate of Hackman and Arakawa, urged a state district court in Santa Fe to seal records in the cases to protect the family's right to privacy in grief under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, emphasizing the possibly shocking nature of photographs and video in the investigation and potential for their dissemination by media.
The request, filed Tuesday, also described the couple's discrete lifestyle in Santa Fe since Hackman's retirement. The state capital city is known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.
The couple "lived an exemplary private life for over thirty years in Santa Fe, New Mexico and did not showcase their lifestyle," the petition said.
New Mexico's open records law blocks public access to sensitive images, including depictions of people who are deceased, said Amanda Lavin, legal director at the nonprofit New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. Some medical information also is not considered public record under the state Inspection of Public Records Act.
At the same time, the bulk of death investigations by law enforcement and autopsy reports by medical investigators are typically considered public records under state law in the spirit of ensuring government transparency and accountability, she said.
"I do think it does infringe on transparency if the court were to prohibit release of all the investigation records, including the autopsies," Lavin said Thursday. "The whole idea of those records being available is to ensure accountability in the way those investigations are done."
"There is also a public health concern given that hantavirus was involved," Lavin said.
She said the preemptive request to prevent the release of government records on constitutional grounds is unusual.
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.
'Young Guns 3: Dead or Alive' to film in New Mexico - Associated Press
It's been almost 40 years since Emilio Estevez first drew his revolver as Billy the Kid in the iconic Western "Young Guns."
The actor visited the New Mexico State Capitol on Thursday during Film and Media Day to announce that he'll be coming back to where it all started to film the next installment in the franchise. He will direct "Young Guns 3: Dead or Alive" and will star again as the famous outlaw. The cast also includes original members Lou Diamond Phillips and Christian Slater.
Estevez said during a news conference that he's heard jokes about whether the title should be "Old Guns."
The first "Young Guns" premiered in 1988. Its success resulted in a sequel that followed two years later. Both were filmed in New Mexico.
The state has a long history in the movie making business. Its stunning and rugged landscapes were a popular backdrop for Westerns starring John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and Kirk Douglas. It's now home to production hubs for Netflix and NBCUniversal.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday highlighted "Young Guns" as one of the films that helped to establish the state as a premier filming destination, saying the next one will add to the legacy.
"This production represents exactly what our film incentives are designed to attract — high-quality projects that create jobs for New Mexicans while showcasing our state's extraordinary beauty," she said.
Estevez, 62, said some work already is happening on the film, but officials didn't provide any details on when the cameras could start rolling. The plot also is under wraps, although Estevez and Phillips had hinted in interviews in recent years that it was very possible that the franchise would return to the big screen.
Written by Estevez and John Fusco, "Young Guns 3" will be produced by Morgan Creek.
Tim Keller seeks to make history, officially launches reelection bid for mayor - By Noah Alcala Bach, Albuquerque Journal
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller has formally launched his reelection campaign, seeking to become the first mayor elected to three consecutive terms.
His announcement comes at a time when tensions are flaring with the City Council; voters have favored charter amendments that chip away at the strong mayor system, and crime and homelessness are top of mind for residents.
“I see what you see: the challenges with homelessness, with crime, with empty buildings, but I also see that we’re finally getting traction on some of these big challenges,” Keller said in a campaign ad released Thursday.
Homelessness — in line with the national trend — has increased since Keller was elected.
In 2017, the year before Keller took office, the annual Point in Time Count recorded 1,318 people experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque. In 2024, the same study counted 2,740 people sleeping on the streets in the city.
Since his election, Keller’s administration has focused on and spent millions on the Gateway network of shelters, which has a capacity of just over 800 beds and offers resources for medical and housing services.
Keller also touts that crime numbers are down in the advertisement.
Albuquerque Police Department crime stats indicate that property crime has steadily declined since Keller assumed office in 2018, whereas violent crime has experienced fluctuations.
In August, Keller confirmed his intention to run for a third term and told KOAT-TV that he was doing so to “finish key projects.”
He was not made available for comment Thursday.
The mayor filed with the city clerk on Thursday afternoon and will run a publicly financed campaign.
His formal announcement to pursue a third term comes after a year when the City Council made multiple attempts to change the city charter, including a change that would have no longer required a 50% majority for a candidate to win the mayoral election — Keller vetoed it.
But voters approved a pair of charter changes in November.
The changes boost the council's power to fire police and fire chiefs and requires the council and mayor's office to quickly fill seats on a committee that aims to address separation of powers issues.
Keller’s announcement also comes on the heels of a meeting when councilors overwhelmingly overturned a veto from him and sided on a 7-2 vote with the local firefighter's union to override staffing changes from the fire chief appointed by Keller.
The incumbent mayor will face former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, conservative radio show host Eddy Aragon, former Sandoval County Deputy County Manager Mayling Armijo, retired firefighter Eddie Varela and Patrick Sais, who garnered approximately 30 votes during the last mayoral election.
Additionally, Councilor Louie Sanchez — one of the most vocal critics of Keller and Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina — told news outlet City Desk that he is eyeing a run.
Keller was first elected in a runoff election in 2017 and easily held on to his seat in 2021. The only mayor in the city’s history to serve three terms was Martin J. Chávez from 1993 to 1997 and 2001 to 2009.
The Regular Local Election, which also includes the seats in City Council Districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, is slated for Nov. 4.
Strategic Water Supply slides over to Senate - By Danielle Prokop, Source New MexicoA formerly controversial bill aimed at addressing a future in which New Mexico’s limited water supplies become even more strained will soon have its first Senate committee hearing following House passage last week.
That passage came with no debate, following a significant overhaul in the face of considerable environmental opposition to the so-called Strategic Water Supply.
In a nutshell, the bill proposes a a $40 million program for removing the salt from less drinkable aquifers and $19 million to map how much water is available beneath the ground.
Rep. Susan Herrera (D-Embudo), who sponsored House Bill 137, said on the House Floor Friday that the bill is crucial for New Mexico as climate change shrinks the rivers and puts pressure on freshwater aquifers. New Mexico, she said, needs to develop additional sources of water to preserve fresh supplies for drinking and agriculture.
“There is no snow on the mountains,” Herrera said. “I continue to remind members of the House this is one of the greatest dangers confronting our state.”
In a 57-4 vote, the House passed HB137, which now moves to the Senate Conservation and Finance committees before heading to the Senate floor. Senate Conservation scheduled the first hearing for Saturday.
Lawmakers have overhauled the legislation since it was first introduced in the session’s opening days.
The Strategic Water Supply previously described a program to develop projects to treat not only brackish water, the salty water in deep aquifers belowground, but also oil and gas wastewater, often called produced water. A similar $500 million measure introduced in the 2024 session failed.
A coalition of indigenous, water and environmental nonprofit groups opposed to the project said the bill failed to address logistics of treating oil and gas wastewater and ignored the potential health and environmental risks.
Advocates shrunk down this session’s proposal, initially seeking $75 million for developing treatment projects and technologies for oil and gas wastewater and a five-cent-tax per-barrel to generate revenue for the program.
Legislators stripped all references to oil and gas wastewater in committees, along with a proposed per barrel fee for oil and gas companies to pay to generate program revenue.
The bill now limits development to brackish water, including $40 million for a fund for grants to local communities or contracts to develop brackish water treatment facilities.
The fast vote reflects the efforts to change the bill, according to Rebecca Roose, the infrastructure advisor for Gov. Michlle Lujan Grisham’s office, who has championed the project.
“We are running a bill that people really want to get behind, and we feel really encouraged by that,” Roose told Source NM.
Lingering objections to the bill remain.
Mariel Nanasi, the executive director of Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy, said the bill should require plants to use 100% renewable energy, given desalination plants’ high-energy use.
“Desalination plants funded by the state should not exacerbate climate change, they should help us address water scarcity without exacerbating that scarcity with polluting energy sources,” Nanasi said in a written statement.
Nanasi said additional concerns with the current bill include the prospect for disposing of the concentrated brine from removing salt from the water.
HB137 pulls resources away from other initiatives to address water issues, said Norm Gaume, a former water engineer and member of Water Advocates.
“My major objection is the House Budget shortchanged the Office of the State Engineer and Interstate Stream Commission,” Gaume said in a statement. “For example, HB2 includes $40 million for these brackish water initiatives and nothing to prevent the pending compact violation due to Middle Rio Grande water overuse.”
The bill also includes $4 million appropriation for New Mexico State University to develop additional treatment technology, and boosts the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources’ budget by $19 million to study and monitor aquifers, which have never been fully characterized by the state, meaning New Mexico’s exact water supplies are unknown.
“In the past, [the Bureau’s] recurring funding was $600,000 per year,” Herrera said on the floor Friday. “This sets a new stage for understanding water resources in our state, which I think is imperative to our future.”
All three appropriations made it into the state’s budget in House Bill 2. On the floor, Rep. Jack Chatfield (R-Mosquero) introduced an amendment, which the House unanimously approved, to increase public input options during the process.
Roose said with 12 days left in the session, this bill stands front and center for the administration.
“We hope that based on the amount of changes that we made to the bill in the House that we will not see a lot more changes or maybe not any changes in the Senate, but it’s one step at a time,” Roose said. ”We’re just needing to let the process play out and we’re definitely keeping a sense of urgency to make sure that we use the time left effectively.”
Albuquerque Indian Center closure leaves vulnerable scrambling - By Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
In an area of the city where daily life is a struggle for hundreds who live on the street, the Albuquerque Indian Center (AIC) was a place to be fed, receive mail and find some respite. The relief it provided was brought to a halt Jan. 21 when the center, located at 105 Texas St. SE in the International District, closed due to financial issues.
But it didn’t take long for area residents and Native American organizations to begin forming plans for the site’s potential future. In the short term, the nearby First Nations Community HealthSource clinic organized meal distribution (about 250 were fed once a day at the AIC) and became a temporary location for mail distribution.
The ability to receive mail at a dedicated address or post office box is likely taken for granted by most, but for scores of people without a permanent address, the convenience is of great importance.
“We thought: ‘Oh, my God — that’s mail that people need for their Social Security benefits,’” Chenoa Bah with University of New Mexico Health Sciences said.
Bah said postal officials held the AIC’s mail while others worked to have it rerouted to First Nations.
“We think that about 4,000 pieces of mail have been returned to sender,” Laura Harris, executive director of Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), said. “There could be money in that mail, court dates, maybe somebody passed away.”
‘WE CAN DO A LOT BETTER’
Bah, Harris and other Native leaders say the AIC’s location is a vital one that needs to be preserved. It’s adjacent to the Bernalillo County-operated Tiny Home Village and was recently the site of a vigil recognizing homeless deaths in 2024, part of the annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Many filled the center in December, including city councilors and Mayor Tim Keller.
The AIC is also in an area of the International District where encampments filled with those who are struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues are common. Harris noted that many in the encampments are Native American, which represent 40% of the city’s homeless population but only 8.5% of the total population.
“It’s just a stark picture to see,” she said. “We think we could do a lot better and help people — not just feed them — but figure out ways to get more assistance to them and get them settled. This would be our ultimate goal.”
Harris is a member of the Native Leadership Collective (NLC) of Albuquerque, which formed in 2019 to give Native Americans a greater voice in city, county and Albuquerque Public Schools affairs. (About 10% of APS students are Native American). The collective currently includes 36 executive directors and CEOs of Native-led nonprofits and Indian-owned businesses that are all headquartered in Albuquerque.
Harris said NLC representatives have been in contact with the AIC’s executive director, Mary Garcia, and that a new board of directors is being assembled.
“Mostly they wanted somebody to come and save them financially,” Harris said. “We’ve done that before when they closed in 2016. They’ve just been having a great deal of difficulty fundraising and running their programs.”
Harris said whatever happens to the site, the community and Native coalitions will be included in decisions.
“We don’t know exactly how it’s all going to end up, but the community has rallied,” she said. “We want folks to know that they haven’t been forgotten and we’re trying to organize to figure out how we can keep that property in community hands.”
Harris can be contacted at lharris@aio.org.
The New Mexico Department of health reported only one new case in the past week, the fifth week of the outbreak. New cases have been trending down, with 6 cases reported in the fourth week, and 8 in the third week.
Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to nearly 300 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
The NMDOH is offering walk-in vaccinations with no appointment needed at 10 of their public health offices, the locations for which can be viewed at their online measles resource guide.
As of Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its count of confirmed measles cases in the U.S. surpassed 2024. Here's what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?
Texas state health officials said Friday there were 36 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing Texas' total to 259. Five more people were hospitalized, for a total of 34. The outbreak has spread to two new counties: Cochran in West Texas with six and Lamar in the northeast part of the state with four.
New Mexico health officials announced two new cases Friday, bringing the state's total to 35. Most of the cases are in Lea County, where two people are hospitalized. Eddy County has two cases.
Oklahoma's state health department reported two probable cases of measles Tuesday, saying they are "associated" with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks.
A school-age child died of measles in Texas last month, and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult last week.
Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?
Measles cases have been reported in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases — and there have been three clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025.
In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles.
Do you need an MMR booster?
The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.
Adults with "presumptive evidence of immunity" generally don't need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.
A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don't always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.
Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.
People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don't need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from "killed" virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don't know which type they got.
What are the symptoms of measles?
Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.
The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.
Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
How can you treat measles?
There's no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
Why do vaccination rates matter?
Wagon Mound residents told to be ready for evacuation as wildfire grows — Gillian Barkhurst, The Albuquerque Journal
The village of Wagon Mound has been put on an evacuation notice as a wildfire torched more than 3,000 acres Friday afternoon, according to a New Mexico Forestry Division news release.
At this point the Wagon Mound Fire is 0% contained, according to the release, and is burning primarily grass although several nearby homes are threatened.
Wagon Mound has been placed on a "Ready, Set, Go" evacuation order, meaning residents should stand at the ready to evacuate should conditions worsen, according to a Mora County Sheriff's Office social media post.
The fire is spreading rapidly due to high winds, according to the post. The Fire Departments of Mora and San Miguel are already on scene, alongside the New Mexico State Police.
The fire started at around noon and authorities are still investigating what caused the fire, the release states.
‘Stonewalling’: Forest Service mum on firings during wildfire briefing for congressional staff — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
An annual wildfire briefing earlier this week between staffers for Southwestern members of Congress and Forest Service officials was unusual for two reasons, according to a congressional aide in attendance:
First, the private briefing happened about a month earlier than is typical, a sign of the acute risk of wildfires this season in New Mexico and Arizona amid years of climate change-caused drought and especially low snowpack this spring.
Second, even as Forest Service officials laid out alarming weather forecasts and wildfire predictions, they refused more than 10 times in the meeting to say how many Forest Service employees had been fired, how many resigned and what might come of wildfire dispatch centers if the Trump administration terminates their leases.
“We’ll have to send this to Washington and they will get back to you,” was the standard response, according to a Congressional aide who asked to remain anonymous to preserve the aide’s ability to have candid conversations with government officials.
The meeting embodied how fraught the relationship has become between Forest Service and congressional staff amid President Donald Trump’s blunt efforts to slash federal spending. New edicts require D.C.-level officials to approve all communications, including those with members of Congress or their staffs.
As a result, the aide said that what has for years been a free-flowing conversation about the upcoming fire season, with candid discussions of staffing levels and the effect of climate change on the region’s snowpack and forests, instead unfolded as a tense and frustrating 2.5-hour lecture during which the word “climate” was never mentioned.
The unique wildfire risk in the Southwest this season made the change in tone all the more stark, the aide said. According to the Forest Service’s powerpoint presentation, which Source NM obtained, above-normal temperatures, prolonged drought, proliferation of fine fuels and near-record-low snowpack will all factor into an “early overall start to the large fire season.”
The hazardous conditions present so early this fire season mean there will be few opportunities and resources to conduct prescribed burns, according to the presentation.
Frustration among the 50 or so staffers on the call grew and even spread to some lower-level Forest Service employees who could be seen on video holding their faces in their hands or throwing their arms up, the aide told Source New Mexico. “‘Stonewalling’ is the best way to put it,” the aide said.
As the call went on and Forest Service officials continued talking through the latest forecasts, anger spilled into the chat feature of the virtual Teams meeting.
“We have been in touch with your Washington DC office and they would not speak to any personnel issues,” one staffer wrote, according to screenshots of the chats Source NM obtained. “They will not give anyone information as to how many staff have been fired.”
“Don’t we have someone from the Washington Office on the call?” another staffer wrote.
“This is unheard of,” the first staffer added, “to not communicate important issues that put our communities at risk.”
Another staffer noted in the chat that “the questions about regional staffing and recent terminations are easily anticipated, and have already been asked by multiple Congressional offices. The information is readily available to the [Forest Service],” prompting four staffers to “like” the comment.
As Forest Service officials noted on the call, New Mexico and Arizona face a potentially devastating wildfire season.
Meanwhile, the United States Department of Agriculture fired nearly 5,700 probationary employees, an estimated 75% of whom had “red cards,” meaning they can be recruited to help suppress wildfires if needed.
Two judges this week ruled the Trump administration’s firing of probationary employees illegal and the federal Merit Systems Protection Board had previously paused the firings for 45 days. The status of those employees, and whether they’ve been able to return to work as ordered, remains uncertain, the aide and other sources told Source.
In addition to the firings, two New Mexico offices housing interagency wildfire dispatch centers may close due to federal lease terminations. The Albuquerque Interagency Dispatch Center monitors for blazes in Central New Mexico and parts of Oklahoma and Texas, and the Silver City center covers most of Southwestern New Mexico, including the Gila National Forest.
Source requested an interview with New Mexico State Forester Laura McCarthy, who said she attended the first hour of the meeting. She responded to a list of questions via email, in which she said she believes staffing, aviation and ground resources will be adequate this fire season.
Still, “The conditions are formidable, with abundant fine fuel that will carry fire if it starts on a windy day,” she told Source New Mexico in an email Thursday.
The aide who spoke to Source New Mexico said most staffers were concerned about whether the Forest Service would have enough personnel to adequately respond to one or more big wildfires in the Southwest this season.
A Forest Service official said in the presentation that 1,500 personnel will be available in the Southwest region at the “peak of the fire season,” and that those numbers will be “similar to 2024 capacities.” The slide also said that “onboarding efforts are ongoing.”
Despite that claim in the presentation, staffers remained skeptical after several follow-up questions, the aide said.
“Even if the answer was, ‘We are fully staffed in that one specific area,’ they still couldn’t say, ‘We don’t anticipate operations being impacted,’” the aide said.
The pre-fire season briefing occurs every year, usually with less tension, the aide said, and is vital for keeping members of Congress up-to-speed on where things stand and what to expect if and when the first spark ignites that year. Congressional offices often stay heavily involved in emergency response, including helping constituents obtain disaster assistance.
“We’ve never had issues with communication and correspondence, because this is something that the congressional delegations, just across the board with the Forest Service, we are all invested in making sure that we are able to respond to fires the best way possible,” the aide said.
But that collaboration was completely absent Tuesday. The officials from Washington, D.C. on the call, while they rarely spoke, made their presence well-known, the aide said.
The aide has participated in these briefings for years and said, “It’s the first time that’s happened. The individuals on the call from the Washington office also would not answer questions. They were ultimately there to make sure that those questions weren’t answered.”
Are you an employee or former employee at dispatch centers or other national forests in New Mexico? Reach out to reporter Patrick Lohmann securely on Signal at Plohmann.61 or by using this link.
Alzheimer's Association pairs up with New Mexico in US pilot program to raise awareness — Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
New Mexico has paired up with the Alzheimer's Association in a pilot U.S. initiative aimed at raising awareness about a disease that affects several million people across the nation, including family members and friends who often provide countless hours of unpaid care.
The joint campaign — a year in the making — features billboards, digital ads and social media posts. It was unveiled Wednesday, days after authorities confirmed that actor Gene Hackman died at his Santa Fe home of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Hackman, like the majority of people with Alzheimer's and related dementias, lived at home. His wife, Betsy Arakawa, was his caregiver but died from hantavirus, a rare, rodent-borne disease. Experts believe Hackman, in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, was unable to seek help.
The goal of the new partnership between the state and the Alzheimer's Association is to spark conversations within families and to educate the public on warning signs and treatments. It also aims to publicize support services for family members and other caregivers.
"That's kind of the whole point of the campaign — to start talking, to start thinking, to take some action," said Joey Long, a spokesperson with the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department. "So it's like, maybe they've been confused. Well, let's talk about what that means."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 7 million people are living with the disease in the U.S., where Alzheimer's is the seventh-leading cause of death. In New Mexico, estimates put the number of people with the disease at 46,000, with another 67,000 family members providing care at home within the last year.
Alzheimer's kills more people in the U.S. than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, according to statistics shared by the Alzheimer's Association, which is helping to fund research projects in dozens of countries around the world.
One of the challenges is that only about half of the people who are living with the disease are ever diagnosed, said Jim Herlihy, a spokesperson for the association's Rocky Mountain region. The number of undiagnosed people is higher in communities of color, he said.
Neurologists say it can take 20 years from the start of the disease taking shape in the brain to when it becomes recognizable and diagnosed, what Herlihy describes as a glacial pace.
"People think of this as either an old person's disease or something that happens to somebody else," Herlihy said. "And unless it's happened in your family and you have seen a loved one decline from this disease, or you have been put into the role of being a caregiver, you don't realize the impact that this has."
The nonprofit association published a special report last year detailing the importance of families mapping out a plan for care, acknowledging that it can be a complex maze involving social services, medications and specialists.
The billboards and ads are simple. One of them pictures a caution sign in the road that reads: "Honey, you've been confused." The messages urge people to talk about it and to visit a website that includes a hotline for those who don't know where to start.
A significant percentage of New Mexico's population is aging, which has spurred officials to find ways to educate and prepare state residents. In addition to the awareness campaign, the state is planning a series of community forums on the subject this spring in rural areas with high rates of the disease.
The Alzheimer's Association is hoping the campaign will expand to other states.
Big Tech lobbies New Mexico for AG-backed bill - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Two competing data privacy bills pending at the New Mexico Legislature appear aimed at protecting residents’ information online.
Both bills, if passed and signed into law, would protect New Mexicans’ personal data from disclosure without their consent, including information such as religious faith, consumer spending, health care and citizenship status. Both bills would also designate the New Mexico Department of Justice to write the rules to implement the law and take legal action to enforce it.
But only one would protect tech companies from being sued directly by consumers for breaking the law.
With less than two weeks left in the session, two camps have emerged around the proposals: local community groups advocate for one bill, while the state’s attorney general and lobbyists for big technology companies back the other. National Big Tech watchdogs also warn that the bill backed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has some red flags.
COMMUNITY GROUPS BACK SENATE BILL
Sen. Katy Duhigg (D-Albuquerque) introduced Senate Bill 420 on Feb. 17. The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee on Feb. 27 passed the bill in a 5-4 party-line vote, with Republicans in opposition. It heads next to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Numerous community groups turned out at the bill’s first hearing in support, including Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, Somos un Pueblo Unido, Bold Futures New Mexico, Conservation Voters New Mexico, the Center for Civic Policy and the National Organization for Women.
Representatives of these groups told the committee they back this bill because, for example, it would protect patients seeking abortion services from harassment or criminal prosecution where it’s illegal, and would protect immigrants from being targeted for deportation or criminalization.
Opponents included the New Mexico and Albuquerque Hispano chambers of commerce; TechNet, a trade association whose members include Apple, Google, Samsung and HP; and another trade group called the Consumer Data Industry Association.
“My understanding is there is a bill out there that all the tech guys want, and that I think that might have sign-on from the attorney general,” Duhigg told the committee. “I don’t think that is a bill that is going to protect New Mexicans. That is primarily for the benefit of the tech companies, not New Mexicans.”
In an emailed statement to Source NM on Wednesday, Duhigg confirmed she was referring to House Bill 410, a second data privacy bill being carried by Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe).
HOUSE BILL COMES FROM ‘THE CONSUMER PROTECTOR-IN-CHIEF’
On March 3, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez posted a video to Instagram in which he talked about HB410, and another bill that would change his agency’s enforcement power.
In the video, Torrez said HB410 would give consumers the right to delete information they send to tech companies; request sharing information; and prohibit the federal government from unlawfully sharing their personal data. He described the two bills as “essential to protect consumers and everyday citizens.”
In an interview with Source NM on Wednesday, sponsor Serrato said HB410 is Torrez’s “brainchild,” and they started working together on it early in the session.
Serrato, who has been in the House of Representatives since 2020, carried the reproductive and gender affirming health care bill in 2023 ensuring New Mexicans can’t be prosecuted for the health care decisions they make. That year, she also co-sponsored an expansion of the state’s Human Rights Act that closed loopholes in state law that allowed for discrimination against transgender people.
“I’ve been pretty clear on my stances on protecting citizens and noncitizens, you know, folks in New Mexico,” she told Source NM.
In an emailed statement to Source NM on Thursday, Department of Justice Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez said Torrez supports Serrato’s bill rather than Duhigg’s because it puts New Mexicans in control of their personal data.
“The bill not only gives consumers a right to opt out of any data collection practices in the marketplace, but it is also the only bill in the United States to specifically protect citizens against the unlawful disclosure of sensitive data held by the federal government,” she said.
Part of HB410 “specifically empowers New Mexicans to take legal action if their information is unlawfully transferred to third parties by the likes of Elon Musk and his DOGE employees,” she said.
Big tech likes Serrato’s bill too.
BIG TECH VISITS NEW MEXICO
Andrew Kingman, legal counsel for the State Privacy and Security Coalition, gave public comment via Zoom on Feb. 26 in support of HB410 before the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee.
The State Privacy and Security Coalition’s partners include Amazon, Google, Meta, Target and General Motors. “We work on these types of bills nationally,” Kingman told the committee.
An emailed request for comment from Kingman sent to the Coalition was not returned as of publication.
Kingman’s lobbying work has resulted in many states passing data-privacy laws that are relatively friendly to business, according to POLITICO. The news organization found the State Privacy and Security Coalition has lobbied in at least 32 states looking to pass data privacy regulations.
Kingman told the committee “our only major issue” with the version of HB410 being debated at the time was a provision titled Section 13, which would have required companies to create at least two ways for consumers to ask for copies of or to delete their data. He said that part was redundant with other parts of the bill.
He said he “would love to work with the sponsor on moving this bill forward, but without Section 13.”
Then on March 3, House Commerce held another hearing on HB410, during which Serrato introduced a substitute version. “The biggest change was that the Section 13 that gave folks a lot of concerns after many discussions, we entirely removed Section 13,” she told the committee.
After hearing testimony in support of HB410 from Kingman and some of the same groups who opposed SB420, the committee voted unanimously to pass HB410. It awaits a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.
The version passed by House Commerce still allows consumers to request copies or deletion of their data, but no longer contains the provision requiring companies to create at least two user-friendly ways to do that. It allows companies to create “a secure and reliable means” of submitting a data request, and requires them to explain it to consumers in their privacy notice.
Serrato told Source NM that she met with Kingman in-person at the Roundhouse after the House Commerce committee passed her bill. She said while Kingman told her he agreed with the decision to remove Section 13, conversations with various businesses, not just him, led to the change.
“He was one of the conversations, I wouldn’t say he was the crux,” Serrato said.
Rodriguez, the AG’s chief of staff, did not respond to Source NM’s questions about Kingman’s lobbying efforts in New Mexico, including whether anyone from NMDOJ met with him while he was visiting, or whether the State Privacy and Security Coalition had any role in drafting HB410.
SHOULD CONSUMERS BE ALLOWED TO SUE?
A key difference between the two bills is that Duhigg’s would allow a consumer to hold companies liable for violating the law and recover damages in court through what’s called a “private right of action,” while Serrato’s would not.
POLITICO found that all of the state laws Kingman has influenced keep citizens from directly suing companies for data privacy violations.
Serrato told Source NM her bill places enforcement entirely with the attorney general, without giving people the option to hire a lawyer and take the companies to civil court themselves. She said Torrez told her that he feels that consumer protection enforcement is part of his job and his office could handle the workload.
“We treat him — whether it’s unfair practices laws or what have you — as the consumer protector-in-chief, that’s how we look at him,” Serrato told Source NM. “He is the person, literally, who is equipped the best to take on a major company and actually win.”
But consumer privacy advocates caution against passing state laws that don’t allow people to directly sue corporations that run afoul of the law.
Hayley Tsukayama, associate director of legislative activism at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Source NM that her organization has supported more narrow legislation that doesn’t allow consumers to sue, but when it comes to big comprehensive consumer data privacy bills, “EFF won’t support a bill that doesn’t have a strong private right of action.”
“If companies are violating the law, you should be able to sue them,” Tsukayama said. “People should be empowered to be their own privacy enforcers. They have a sense of what the costs are to them and their privacy the best. We believe that truly strong consumer privacy bills and honestly, most strong consumer bills, have a private right of action, because at the end of the day, it’s about what’s happened to the consumer, and they are the best person to judge that.”
She added that most states that limit consumer data privacy enforcement to state attorneys general often only have two or three attorneys responsible for an entire state, and “we just have not seen that much enforcement.”
“Even in states that have fairly strong laws, people have only taken a couple of actions on some of those laws in a couple years,” she said. “It takes a very long time to pull together those actions. It takes a lot of investigation. In terms of where that rubber actually hits the road and people actually get taken to task for what they’ve done, it can be really hard. It could be very few, and often only the worst companies.”
The House Commerce panel on March 3 also heard opposition to HB410 from Catrina Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. She said part of the problem with existing state data privacy laws is that they’re heavily influenced by big tech, and they don’t do enough to protect people online.
“They do little to change the status quo of companies being able to collect and use personal data however they like, as long as they tell us what they’re doing in a privacy policy that no one reads,” she said.
Fitzgerald said Serrato’s bill appears to be largely modeled on Connecticut’s data privacy law, which doesn’t allow consumers to sue.
She pointed the committee to a report published in January by her group and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group that scored state privacy laws. They gave Connecticut’s law a D grade, and described it as “a favored piece of template legislation for lobbyists, particularly in bluer states.”
Fitzgerald told the committee her group “would have much preferred” the identical House version of Duhigg’s bill, which Fitzgerald called “a much more pro-consumer bill.” Sponsor Rep. Pamelya Herndon, another Albuquerque Democrat, pulled HB307 and is a co-sponsor on Duhigg’s legislation. Herndon has not responded to requests for comment on this story.
HB410 also contains a grace period for companies that violate the law, giving them 30 days to fix it after prosecutors notify them.
Tsukayama, with EFF, said these 30-day cure periods have two problems: One, they don’t really result in repercussions for not complying with the law, and two, if you’re sharing information or not deleting it, the damage is done and the consumer can’t actually fix it.
“California actually eliminated its right to cure because, if you take all the time to pull together a case, and then you notify them, and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we fixed it,’ then you don’t move forward,” she said. “So what we’ve heard from other attorneys is, it’s a deterrent to enforcers to bring cases.”
Duhigg told Source NM in a written statement that the differences between her and Serrato’s bills amount to “a fundamental difference in priorities.”
“Big tech companies want business as usual because their primary concern is protecting profits and maintaining data access,” she said. “Our concern is protecting New Mexicans. We’re focused on the safety and privacy of our communities at a time when digital exploitation has reached unprecedented levels.”
“Tech lobbyists are worried about quarterly earnings, while we’re worried about our neighbors, our families, and our children’s future,” Duhigg continued. “This isn’t about industry convenience—it’s about community protection when New Mexicans need it most.”
Laid off federal employees waiting to hear if they will be rehired - Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
A federal court in California ordered federal agencies to rehire thousands of employees fired as part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal workforce, a decision that should impact laid-off federal employees in New Mexico.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the Interior, Agriculture, Defense, Treasury, Energy and Veterans Affairs departments to give fired probationary employees their jobs back within the next six days, calling the terminations unlawful. Many probationary employees were fired with similar letters that alleged the terminations were because of workplace performance. The lawsuit was brought by labor unions. Laid-off federal workers in New Mexico said they have not received any official communications yet about coming back to work but were heartened by the news.
“I definitely would go back,” said former Fish and Wildlife biologist Robert Prather, who lives in Albuquerque. “I think even beyond me, there’s people who will probably return just to make the record right. Having this on our record is a total stain, and we don’t deserve to have such a thing on our record. Ultimately, that’s one of the biggest reasons I would want to return, even if I knew I was going to be terminated in a (reduction in force).”
Getting rehired would probably include back pay, and extend terminated employees’ health insurance, Prather said. He has yet to hear from his agency, but thinks he is likely included in the order.
Former U.S. Forest Service biologist Jordan Martinez, who worked in the Carson National Forest, is also awaiting official communication that she will be rehired. Martinez expects to be rehired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture not simply because of Thursday’s court decision, but also because of a recent U.S. Merit Board decision ordering the USDA to rehire employees for at least 45 days who were fired for alleged performance issues with the same form letter.
“I’m really concerned that we might get fired again after the 45 days,” Martinez said. “I do understand there’s more lawsuits coming, so I’m really anxious to see what happens after those. I’m hoping for the best, but it’s very hard to keep our hopes up. It seems like every day we get bad news.”
The White House will likely appeal the order, said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., and the situation is still chaotic.
“It’s been very clear since day one that the activities that Elon Musk and (the Department of Government Efficiency) have been undertaking through (the Office of Personnel Management) and through the various entities that DOGE is operating are not only reckless and without a plan, but are illegal,” Stansbury said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt questioned the judge’s authority to issue the order in a statement posted on social media, continuing the Trump administration’s pattern of questioning the authority of the legislative and judicial branches of government and trying to consolidate more power under the executive branch.
“A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch,” the statement reads, and the administration will “immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order.”
Gene Hackman's estate asks court to block release of death investigation records - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A representative for the estate of actor Gene Hackman is seeking to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports, especially photographs and police body-camera video, related to the recent deaths of Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa after their partially mummified bodies were discovered at their New Mexico home in February.
Authorities last week announced Hackman died at age 95 of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer's disease as much as a week after a rare, rodent-borne disease — hantavirus pulmonary syndrome — took the life of his 65-year-old wife.
Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity on Feb. 18, indicating an abnormal heart rhythm on the day he likely died. The couple's bodies weren't discovered until Feb. 26 when maintenance and security workers showed up at the Santa Fe home and alerted police, leaving a mystery for law enforcement and medical investigators to unravel.
Julia Peters, a representative for the estate of Hackman and Arakawa, urged a state district court in Santa Fe to seal records in the cases to protect the family's right to privacy in grief under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, emphasizing the possibly shocking nature of photographs and video in the investigation and potential for their dissemination by media.
The request, filed Tuesday, also described the couple's discrete lifestyle in Santa Fe since Hackman's retirement. The state capital city is known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.
The couple "lived an exemplary private life for over thirty years in Santa Fe, New Mexico and did not showcase their lifestyle," the petition said.
New Mexico's open records law blocks public access to sensitive images, including depictions of people who are deceased, said Amanda Lavin, legal director at the nonprofit New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. Some medical information also is not considered public record under the state Inspection of Public Records Act.
At the same time, the bulk of death investigations by law enforcement and autopsy reports by medical investigators are typically considered public records under state law in the spirit of ensuring government transparency and accountability, she said.
"I do think it does infringe on transparency if the court were to prohibit release of all the investigation records, including the autopsies," Lavin said Thursday. "The whole idea of those records being available is to ensure accountability in the way those investigations are done."
"There is also a public health concern given that hantavirus was involved," Lavin said.
She said the preemptive request to prevent the release of government records on constitutional grounds is unusual.
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.
'Young Guns 3: Dead or Alive' to film in New Mexico - Associated Press
It's been almost 40 years since Emilio Estevez first drew his revolver as Billy the Kid in the iconic Western "Young Guns."
The actor visited the New Mexico State Capitol on Thursday during Film and Media Day to announce that he'll be coming back to where it all started to film the next installment in the franchise. He will direct "Young Guns 3: Dead or Alive" and will star again as the famous outlaw. The cast also includes original members Lou Diamond Phillips and Christian Slater.
Estevez said during a news conference that he's heard jokes about whether the title should be "Old Guns."
The first "Young Guns" premiered in 1988. Its success resulted in a sequel that followed two years later. Both were filmed in New Mexico.
The state has a long history in the movie making business. Its stunning and rugged landscapes were a popular backdrop for Westerns starring John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and Kirk Douglas. It's now home to production hubs for Netflix and NBCUniversal.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday highlighted "Young Guns" as one of the films that helped to establish the state as a premier filming destination, saying the next one will add to the legacy.
"This production represents exactly what our film incentives are designed to attract — high-quality projects that create jobs for New Mexicans while showcasing our state's extraordinary beauty," she said.
Estevez, 62, said some work already is happening on the film, but officials didn't provide any details on when the cameras could start rolling. The plot also is under wraps, although Estevez and Phillips had hinted in interviews in recent years that it was very possible that the franchise would return to the big screen.
Written by Estevez and John Fusco, "Young Guns 3" will be produced by Morgan Creek.
Tim Keller seeks to make history, officially launches reelection bid for mayor - By Noah Alcala Bach, Albuquerque Journal
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller has formally launched his reelection campaign, seeking to become the first mayor elected to three consecutive terms.
His announcement comes at a time when tensions are flaring with the City Council; voters have favored charter amendments that chip away at the strong mayor system, and crime and homelessness are top of mind for residents.
“I see what you see: the challenges with homelessness, with crime, with empty buildings, but I also see that we’re finally getting traction on some of these big challenges,” Keller said in a campaign ad released Thursday.
Homelessness — in line with the national trend — has increased since Keller was elected.
In 2017, the year before Keller took office, the annual Point in Time Count recorded 1,318 people experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque. In 2024, the same study counted 2,740 people sleeping on the streets in the city.
Since his election, Keller’s administration has focused on and spent millions on the Gateway network of shelters, which has a capacity of just over 800 beds and offers resources for medical and housing services.
Keller also touts that crime numbers are down in the advertisement.
Albuquerque Police Department crime stats indicate that property crime has steadily declined since Keller assumed office in 2018, whereas violent crime has experienced fluctuations.
In August, Keller confirmed his intention to run for a third term and told KOAT-TV that he was doing so to “finish key projects.”
He was not made available for comment Thursday.
The mayor filed with the city clerk on Thursday afternoon and will run a publicly financed campaign.
His formal announcement to pursue a third term comes after a year when the City Council made multiple attempts to change the city charter, including a change that would have no longer required a 50% majority for a candidate to win the mayoral election — Keller vetoed it.
But voters approved a pair of charter changes in November.
The changes boost the council's power to fire police and fire chiefs and requires the council and mayor's office to quickly fill seats on a committee that aims to address separation of powers issues.
Keller’s announcement also comes on the heels of a meeting when councilors overwhelmingly overturned a veto from him and sided on a 7-2 vote with the local firefighter's union to override staffing changes from the fire chief appointed by Keller.
The incumbent mayor will face former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, conservative radio show host Eddy Aragon, former Sandoval County Deputy County Manager Mayling Armijo, retired firefighter Eddie Varela and Patrick Sais, who garnered approximately 30 votes during the last mayoral election.
Additionally, Councilor Louie Sanchez — one of the most vocal critics of Keller and Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina — told news outlet City Desk that he is eyeing a run.
Keller was first elected in a runoff election in 2017 and easily held on to his seat in 2021. The only mayor in the city’s history to serve three terms was Martin J. Chávez from 1993 to 1997 and 2001 to 2009.
The Regular Local Election, which also includes the seats in City Council Districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, is slated for Nov. 4.
Strategic Water Supply slides over to Senate - By Danielle Prokop, Source New MexicoA formerly controversial bill aimed at addressing a future in which New Mexico’s limited water supplies become even more strained will soon have its first Senate committee hearing following House passage last week.
That passage came with no debate, following a significant overhaul in the face of considerable environmental opposition to the so-called Strategic Water Supply.
In a nutshell, the bill proposes a a $40 million program for removing the salt from less drinkable aquifers and $19 million to map how much water is available beneath the ground.
Rep. Susan Herrera (D-Embudo), who sponsored House Bill 137, said on the House Floor Friday that the bill is crucial for New Mexico as climate change shrinks the rivers and puts pressure on freshwater aquifers. New Mexico, she said, needs to develop additional sources of water to preserve fresh supplies for drinking and agriculture.
“There is no snow on the mountains,” Herrera said. “I continue to remind members of the House this is one of the greatest dangers confronting our state.”
In a 57-4 vote, the House passed HB137, which now moves to the Senate Conservation and Finance committees before heading to the Senate floor. Senate Conservation scheduled the first hearing for Saturday.
Lawmakers have overhauled the legislation since it was first introduced in the session’s opening days.
The Strategic Water Supply previously described a program to develop projects to treat not only brackish water, the salty water in deep aquifers belowground, but also oil and gas wastewater, often called produced water. A similar $500 million measure introduced in the 2024 session failed.
A coalition of indigenous, water and environmental nonprofit groups opposed to the project said the bill failed to address logistics of treating oil and gas wastewater and ignored the potential health and environmental risks.
Advocates shrunk down this session’s proposal, initially seeking $75 million for developing treatment projects and technologies for oil and gas wastewater and a five-cent-tax per-barrel to generate revenue for the program.
Legislators stripped all references to oil and gas wastewater in committees, along with a proposed per barrel fee for oil and gas companies to pay to generate program revenue.
The bill now limits development to brackish water, including $40 million for a fund for grants to local communities or contracts to develop brackish water treatment facilities.
The fast vote reflects the efforts to change the bill, according to Rebecca Roose, the infrastructure advisor for Gov. Michlle Lujan Grisham’s office, who has championed the project.
“We are running a bill that people really want to get behind, and we feel really encouraged by that,” Roose told Source NM.
Lingering objections to the bill remain.
Mariel Nanasi, the executive director of Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy, said the bill should require plants to use 100% renewable energy, given desalination plants’ high-energy use.
“Desalination plants funded by the state should not exacerbate climate change, they should help us address water scarcity without exacerbating that scarcity with polluting energy sources,” Nanasi said in a written statement.
Nanasi said additional concerns with the current bill include the prospect for disposing of the concentrated brine from removing salt from the water.
HB137 pulls resources away from other initiatives to address water issues, said Norm Gaume, a former water engineer and member of Water Advocates.
“My major objection is the House Budget shortchanged the Office of the State Engineer and Interstate Stream Commission,” Gaume said in a statement. “For example, HB2 includes $40 million for these brackish water initiatives and nothing to prevent the pending compact violation due to Middle Rio Grande water overuse.”
The bill also includes $4 million appropriation for New Mexico State University to develop additional treatment technology, and boosts the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources’ budget by $19 million to study and monitor aquifers, which have never been fully characterized by the state, meaning New Mexico’s exact water supplies are unknown.
“In the past, [the Bureau’s] recurring funding was $600,000 per year,” Herrera said on the floor Friday. “This sets a new stage for understanding water resources in our state, which I think is imperative to our future.”
All three appropriations made it into the state’s budget in House Bill 2. On the floor, Rep. Jack Chatfield (R-Mosquero) introduced an amendment, which the House unanimously approved, to increase public input options during the process.
Roose said with 12 days left in the session, this bill stands front and center for the administration.
“We hope that based on the amount of changes that we made to the bill in the House that we will not see a lot more changes or maybe not any changes in the Senate, but it’s one step at a time,” Roose said. ”We’re just needing to let the process play out and we’re definitely keeping a sense of urgency to make sure that we use the time left effectively.”
Albuquerque Indian Center closure leaves vulnerable scrambling - By Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
In an area of the city where daily life is a struggle for hundreds who live on the street, the Albuquerque Indian Center (AIC) was a place to be fed, receive mail and find some respite. The relief it provided was brought to a halt Jan. 21 when the center, located at 105 Texas St. SE in the International District, closed due to financial issues.
But it didn’t take long for area residents and Native American organizations to begin forming plans for the site’s potential future. In the short term, the nearby First Nations Community HealthSource clinic organized meal distribution (about 250 were fed once a day at the AIC) and became a temporary location for mail distribution.
The ability to receive mail at a dedicated address or post office box is likely taken for granted by most, but for scores of people without a permanent address, the convenience is of great importance.
“We thought: ‘Oh, my God — that’s mail that people need for their Social Security benefits,’” Chenoa Bah with University of New Mexico Health Sciences said.
Bah said postal officials held the AIC’s mail while others worked to have it rerouted to First Nations.
“We think that about 4,000 pieces of mail have been returned to sender,” Laura Harris, executive director of Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), said. “There could be money in that mail, court dates, maybe somebody passed away.”
‘WE CAN DO A LOT BETTER’
Bah, Harris and other Native leaders say the AIC’s location is a vital one that needs to be preserved. It’s adjacent to the Bernalillo County-operated Tiny Home Village and was recently the site of a vigil recognizing homeless deaths in 2024, part of the annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Many filled the center in December, including city councilors and Mayor Tim Keller.
The AIC is also in an area of the International District where encampments filled with those who are struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues are common. Harris noted that many in the encampments are Native American, which represent 40% of the city’s homeless population but only 8.5% of the total population.
“It’s just a stark picture to see,” she said. “We think we could do a lot better and help people — not just feed them — but figure out ways to get more assistance to them and get them settled. This would be our ultimate goal.”
Harris is a member of the Native Leadership Collective (NLC) of Albuquerque, which formed in 2019 to give Native Americans a greater voice in city, county and Albuquerque Public Schools affairs. (About 10% of APS students are Native American). The collective currently includes 36 executive directors and CEOs of Native-led nonprofits and Indian-owned businesses that are all headquartered in Albuquerque.
Harris said NLC representatives have been in contact with the AIC’s executive director, Mary Garcia, and that a new board of directors is being assembled.
“Mostly they wanted somebody to come and save them financially,” Harris said. “We’ve done that before when they closed in 2016. They’ve just been having a great deal of difficulty fundraising and running their programs.”
Harris said whatever happens to the site, the community and Native coalitions will be included in decisions.
“We don’t know exactly how it’s all going to end up, but the community has rallied,” she said. “We want folks to know that they haven’t been forgotten and we’re trying to organize to figure out how we can keep that property in community hands.”
Harris can be contacted at lharris@aio.org.