WEDS: New Mexico Epstein commission releases report on investigation so far, + More
By KUNM News
August 5, 2026 at 8:15 AM MDT
New Mexico Epstein commission releases report on investigation so far
—Julia Goldberg, Source New Mexico
The chair of a New Mexico House investigatory subcommittee created to probe the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s activities in the state acknowledged Wednesday its first report does not contain major revelations or final findings.
Truth Commission Chair Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) hefts the interim report during the New Mexico House investigatory subcommittee meeting on August 5, 2026. (Danielle Prokop for Source NM) What the interim report does accomplish, state Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) said, is memorializing for the first time what is known about Epstein’s time in New Mexico and his activities at Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County.
The report assembles a timeline for Epstein’s acquisition of the ranch, time spent there, visitors, use of firearms and alleged sexual crimes and human trafficking that took place through a variety of public documents, court records and other materials.
“In the seven years since Jeffrey Epstein died, in the two decades since his crimes first drew attention of law enforcement, no government, federal, state, or local, has ever compiled an account of what he did in New Mexico,” Romero said. “There are some court records that tell pieces of the story in other states’ cases for other states’ victims, but there has never been an official narrative for New Mexico. This report is the first.”
The nearly 120-page interim report prepared by the legal firm contracted by the commission also provides an accounting of the work the commission has done so far to document that narrative.
The New Mexico House of Representatives created the four-person bipartisan investigative subcommittee in its 2026 session. Its final report is due at the end of the year.
The commission’s work so far has included issuing 20 subpoenas to state agencies and local law enforcement, as well as private institutions such as the Santa Fe Institute, federal agencies and financial institutions J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. and Deutsche Bank.
Of those subpoenas, 11 have been met with full compliance, two were met with partial compliance and seven, Romero said, have been ignored, including by the Federal Aviation Administration and by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The latter agency has been a high-profile foil in New Mexico’s quest to investigate Epstein.
Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has said he agreed to stop interviewing witnesses in New Mexico’s former investigation of Epstein after coming to an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York that federal prosecutors would refer state-related matters to the New Mexico attorney general’s office at the end of their case.
In a July 20 letter to current New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, Balderas said SDNY failed to honor the agreement.
As such, Torrez announced Wednesday his New Mexico Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice over what it says has been the federal agency’s withholding of documents.
The Truth Commission also subpoenaed Torrez’s office. In a news conference Wednesday morning regarding the NMDOJ lawsuit and ahead of the commission’s meeting, Torrez said that NMDOJ “complied with that subpoena and provided the information that they’ve asked for, and so I would imagine that we would do so again in the future.”
The commission’s report, however, characterizes NMDOJ’s response as “partial compliance.” Moreover, it says the Truth Commission and NMDOJ are currently involved in negotiations over information-sharing but have thus far “been unable to reach an agreement.”
Torrez noted Wednesday morning that NMDOJ’s criminal investigation into Epstein’s activities, which he announced in February shortly after the Legislature approved the Truth Commission, differs fundamentally from the Truth Commission’s work.
“Our investigation is very much focused on whether or not there is still a viable criminal case to evaluate and prepare,” he said. “Their investigation is much broader into institutional failures, information sharing: who knew what, when, how they acted on it, how they responded to it.”
Thus, he noted, “we have very different objectives, and what that means is we go about our work in…fundamentally different ways, and so part of what that means is that the work that they do is by its nature much more transparent and open to the public.”
All told, Romero said, the commission has thus far received more than 100,000 records in response to the subpoenas issued thus far. The commission voted Wednesday to issue four more: to the state Workforce Solutions, Public Safety and Taxation and Revenue departments, as well as Ten Thousand Waves spa.
The latter is mentioned in the interim report and has been reported previously as a place from which Epstein recruited massage therapists. The spa in April issued a statement on social media that said it had “never provided therapists for off-premises ‘house calls’, no therapist under the age of 18 has ever worked at the spa, and all therapists work on a contract basis.” It also noted its support for the work of the Truth Commission.
Epstein survivor Rachel Benevidez watches the Truth Commission hearing on Aug. 5, 2026, alongside activist and elementary school teacher Lisa Christopherson, who has organized protests against Zorro Ranch on several occasions. (Danielle Prokop for Source NM) At its meeting on Wednesday, Romero also noted that the Truth Commission is centered on survivors “with a commitment to never asking a survivor to tell their story twice.”
Epstein survivor Rachel Benavidez, who has testified to the commission before, did so on Wednesday as well, in part calling for unreleased evidence to be made available.
“I use this survivor platform to stand on the right side of every survivor’s journey toward truth and justice,” she said. “I am holding onto faith that real accountability will be achieved.”
Torrez sues US Department of Justice over access to unredacted Epstein files
—Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico’s revived push to investigate possible crimes that occurred at Jeffrey Epstein’s remote ranch near Stanley has escalated into a legal battle with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Department of Justice and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, seeking access to unredacted Epstein files.
During a news conference, Torrez said federal prosecutors have stonewalled the state’s efforts to obtain the files over the last three-plus months, despite at least 10 separate requests to do so.
“We have heard repeatedly they are going to cooperate, but what our team has encountered is anything but cooperation,” Torrez told reporters.
Specifically, the 40-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeks to have a judge order the federal agency to produce the requested records. It also seeks attorney fees.
The lawsuit points out that New Mexico is one of the few jurisdictions that could still hold Epstein associates criminally accountable, and by doing so provide a sense of justice to survivors.
In response to the lawsuit, a DOJ spokesperson said Wednesday the agency is legally barred from releasing the requested Epstein files, in large part due to victim privacy concerns.
“The Epstein Files Transparency Act does not require, and the protective orders in place in the Southern District of New York do not permit, disclosure of victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures,” the DOJ spokesperson said in a statement.
But Torrez said the law cited by the federal agency does not prohibit information sharing between the federal government and the state.
He also said that, in hindsight, he would have advised former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas against halting a state investigation into activities that took place at Zorro Ranch. Balderas has said he agreed to stand down and turn over evidence to federal prosecutors in 2019 at their request.
Torrez announced in February that his office was reopening a criminal investigation into Epstein’s former Zorro Ranch. Investigators searched the 7,500-acre ranch in March, though the results have not been publicly disclosed.
The state’s top prosecutor acknowledged Wednesday he doesn’t know if the unredacted Epstein files might contain a “smoking gun” that would bolster the state’s investigation, but said reams of fully redacted documents currently make it all but impossible to make such a determination.
Epstein purchased the Zorro Ranch from the family of former Gov. Bruce King in 1993. The property features a 33,339-square-foot mansion, pool, hot tub and other structures. It was sold for an undisclosed price in 2023 to the family of Texas real estate mogul Don Huffines, who has said he plans to convert it into a Christian retreat center.
Court documents and civil cases have accused Epstein of sexually assaulting teenage girls and women at the ranch, which was one of several properties owned by Epstein. The financier and convicted sex offender also reportedly had homes in New York, Florida, Paris and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
One plaintiff described the property in 2019 as being “like a park” where teenage girls were encouraged to ride horses and ATVs and to use the pool and hot tub.
Epstein died in August 2019 in a New York City jail while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in New York and Florida. Medical investigators determined at the time that he died by suicide.
However, public interest in the Epstein files has continued to simmer amid the testimony of victims and the federal government’s approach to releasing records.
Fire burning in national forest north of Santa Fe
—Santa Fe New Mexican
North of Santa Fe, crews are battling a wildfire in the mountains near the Rio Frijoles. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the fire had burned about 10 acres as of this morning in the Santa Fe National Forest northeast of Nambé.
What’s being called the Frijoles Fire is located about three or four miles to the east of Cundiyó, which is about 30 miles north of Santa Fe. U.S. Forest Service officials told the New Mexican it’s unclear when the Frijoles Fire was first spotted or how it was sparked.
Second whistleblower lawsuit filed against NM childcare agency alleging multimillion dollar financial hole
—Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
A second former official is suing the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department, claiming retaliation for exposing an alleged multimillion dollar budget shortfall caused in part by universal childcare.
Kimberly Gonzales claims in her suit, filed Tuesday in New Mexico’s 1st Judicial District, that she was fired from her job as the ECECD’s former budget director after disclosing a $258 million hole in the department’s budget for fiscal year 2027.
To become financially whole for FY2027, the complaint alleges the department needs $155 million in revenue from the State Investment Council's early childhood trust fund that was not transferred to the ECECD as initially promised, an additional $83 million to fund universal childcare payments and $20 million for various other programs.
In September, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to offer free childcare to all residents. The program was announced Sept. 8, and is expected to cost the state $606 million in fiscal year 2027, according to a state news release.
Gonzales claims in her suit she raised the issues to department officials including ECECD Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky and to the Department of Finance and Administration and recommended various spending restrictions and controls.
Gonzales, who was hired in late October 2025, was notified she was under internal investigation on June 30 for what the suit alleges was an undisclosed reason. On July 13, she was placed on administrative leave — 20 minutes before her scheduled interview on the investigation, the complaint alleges — and was fired on July 21 for “inappropriate behavior and unprofessional conduct.”
Gonzales is seeking reinstatement, double back pay plus interest, damages and attorney fees.
Gonzales is being represented by attorney Jacob Candelaria, a former New Mexico state senator, who served in the Legislature from 2013 to 2022, first as a Democrat and later as an independent.
Candelaria is also representing the ECECD’s former chief financial officer, Carmel Pacheco-Aragon, in her whistleblower lawsuit against the department, filed last week. In it, Pacheco-Aragon alleges she was placed on administrative leave from her job after exposing an $83 million budget shortfall created by the universal childcare program.
Candelaria is the same attorney who represented Republican gubernatorial hopeful Duke Rodriguez and two other plaintiffs when they sued the state earlier this year, claiming the rules underpinning the universal childcare program were unlawful. The suit was dismissed in June.
“The push for universal childcare, candidly, is a recent invention of this administration, because (Gov.) Michelle Lujan Grisham wants to prove that she’s relevant in an increasingly socialist Democratic Party,” Candelaria said.
Candelaria contended that both Groginsky and Finance and Administration Secretary Wayne Propst should be investigated for approving childcare payments knowing the state did not have enough funds to cover them.
“I hope that the (attorney general) will set aside partisan loyalty and how popular this idea of (universal) childcare has become and look at the evidence,” Candelaria said.
In a statement Tuesday, Deputy ECECD Secretary Kendal Chavez said the allegations in the complaint were false.
“This complaint is another manufactured and unfounded allegation by Jacob Candelaria who has shown dedication to taking down universal childcare and taking vital benefits from New Mexico’s families and children at all costs,” Chavez said.
“ECECD has never and will never take retaliatory action against employees for coming forward with information, questions or concerns about the operations of our department. We cannot comment on the specifics of this litigation, but we will bring the facts to court, and we are confident we will prevail once again.”
Candelaria said the agency invoking his name was an attempt to divert attention from the facts of the case.
“They can say whatever they want about me,” he said. “I’ve been called worse by a lot better.”
Village of Angel Fire declares 'drought emergency'
—John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
The largest village in the sparsely populated high mountain valley east of Taos is enacting a series of water conservation measures after officials declared a “drought emergency” on Monday.
The village of Angel Fire cited water shortages driven by “a long and continued period of unusually dry weather, abnormally low stream flows, and reduced groundwater levels.”
About 1,200 people live in Angel Fire, which is located in the heart of the Moreno Valley in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains.
Outdoor watering under the order is limited to twice per week, restaurants and bars may only offer water to patrons upon request and short-term rental owners must post signage notifying guests to conserve water.
Failure to comply can result in fines of up to $500 per day, the notice warns.
Angel Fire’s declaration comes a week after the town of Taos discovered a leak in one of its municipal water storage tanks and a glitch in an automated system that had caused water levels to drop to critical levels.
Much of Cerro, near Questa in northern Taos County, has been without water since a water pump failed in May.
All of northern New Mexico remains in extreme or severe drought this month, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and forecasters are warning that parts of the state this week could experience record high temperatures.
Procedural mutiny: ABQ City Councilors overrule Council President to block tax ballot measure – Jesse Jones, The Paper
Taxpayers in the Duke City will not see a proposed gross receipts tax increase on their November ballots after city councilors used a procedural move to stop the measure before it reached a vote.
During the Aug. 3 City Council meeting, Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn used a parliamentary challenge to block Council President Klarissa Peña’s Resolution R-26-58 from advancing through the President’s Letter of Introduction. Citing Robert’s Rules of Order, Fiebelkorn argued the proposal was substantially the same as three gross receipts tax measures the council rejected earlier this year. “Strategic editing doesn’t create a new question,” Fiebelkorn said, arguing that changing the percentage allocations did not make the proposal different.
The council voted 7-2 to uphold the objection and remove the measure from the agenda, with Peña and Councilor Brook Bassan voting to allow the proposal’s introduction.
Peña pushed back against the procedural move during the meeting and in a post-meeting statement. “I am deeply disappointed by the procedural maneuver taken tonight to defeat R-26-58 before the public ever had the chance to weigh in,” Peña said in an official press release following the meeting.
She added during the council meeting that the vote “took the ability away from you, the voters, to make the decision.”
With the measure off the table, city leaders must address staff vacancies and employee pay issues within the existing budget.
What stayed the same:
New Mexico state veterinarian says more screwworm cases ‘headed this way’ — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
While no new cases of New World screwworm have been detected in New Mexico for more than a month, the parasitic fly “definitely is headed this way,” and a widespread infection would quickly exhaust the state’s resources, the state’s top veterinarian told state lawmakers Tuesday.
Samantha Holeck, state veterinarian with the New Mexico Livestock Board, told legislators that the state is urgently finalizing a program that would increase the number of certified livestock inspectors to help private veterinarians, along with state and federal officials, contain a screwworm outbreak.
The pest, which has advanced rapidly through Mexico after being mainly contained in Central America for several decades, is named for the maggot’s behavior of feeding on live tissue.
The fly made its first new incursion to the United States in early June, when it was detected in a south Texas calf, and then officials identified a separate infection in a Lea County dog in New Mexico a few days later.
Since then, the number of cases has increased in Texas and in Mexican states along the U.S.-Mexico border. As of Monday, Texas tallied 43 total infections, including eight new cases. Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico, has 57 cases, a case count Holeck said has “risen rather quickly.”
As a result of those spikes in cases, Hoseck said more infections in New Mexico are inevitable.
“We’ll have much more than just a single isolated case,” she said.
The infestation of maggots causes severe wounds that can result in injury and deaths of pets, wildlife, livestock and — in rare cases — people. The risks to livestock, especially in the eastern part of the state where cattle operations are most concentrated, have state officials most worried, Holeck told lawmakers on the interim Federal Funding Stabilization and Affordability Subcommittee.
The lack of federal support adds to her concern, she said. The United States Agriculture Department currently employs three federal field veterinarians for the whole state, she said, following widespread cuts to the department last year.
While the USDA is rapidly trying to hire new staff in New Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border, Hoseck said that process could take up to four more months. The state, which also has only three field veterinarians, will likely have to recruit private veterinarians if the screwworm outbreak worsens.
“If it becomes much more prevalent here, similar to what’s going on in Texas, even our accredited veterinarians will be tapped out fairly quickly,” she said. “Imagine if this gets into the east side of the state, into our very concentrated dairy population. It’s going to be a challenge, significantly.”
The state is finalizing curriculum to certify additional inspectors, she said, through a one-day course in which students will conduct “nose-to-tail” inspections of cattle and also learn about the biology of the fly. Texas launched a similar program in early June. The free, online course grants recipients the authority to certify that animals are safe to be transported, among other duties.
Hesock said launching a similar program in New Mexico is “critical.”
“If the outbreak expands here, then we can activate additional individuals to help maintain the continuity of business for the livestock industry in New Mexico,” she said.
—Julia Goldberg, Source New Mexico
The chair of a New Mexico House investigatory subcommittee created to probe the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s activities in the state acknowledged Wednesday its first report does not contain major revelations or final findings.
Truth Commission Chair Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) hefts the interim report during the New Mexico House investigatory subcommittee meeting on August 5, 2026. (Danielle Prokop for Source NM) What the interim report does accomplish, state Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) said, is memorializing for the first time what is known about Epstein’s time in New Mexico and his activities at Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County.
The report assembles a timeline for Epstein’s acquisition of the ranch, time spent there, visitors, use of firearms and alleged sexual crimes and human trafficking that took place through a variety of public documents, court records and other materials.
“In the seven years since Jeffrey Epstein died, in the two decades since his crimes first drew attention of law enforcement, no government, federal, state, or local, has ever compiled an account of what he did in New Mexico,” Romero said. “There are some court records that tell pieces of the story in other states’ cases for other states’ victims, but there has never been an official narrative for New Mexico. This report is the first.”
The nearly 120-page interim report prepared by the legal firm contracted by the commission also provides an accounting of the work the commission has done so far to document that narrative.
The New Mexico House of Representatives created the four-person bipartisan investigative subcommittee in its 2026 session. Its final report is due at the end of the year.
The commission’s work so far has included issuing 20 subpoenas to state agencies and local law enforcement, as well as private institutions such as the Santa Fe Institute, federal agencies and financial institutions J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. and Deutsche Bank.
Of those subpoenas, 11 have been met with full compliance, two were met with partial compliance and seven, Romero said, have been ignored, including by the Federal Aviation Administration and by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The latter agency has been a high-profile foil in New Mexico’s quest to investigate Epstein.
Former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has said he agreed to stop interviewing witnesses in New Mexico’s former investigation of Epstein after coming to an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York that federal prosecutors would refer state-related matters to the New Mexico attorney general’s office at the end of their case.
In a July 20 letter to current New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, Balderas said SDNY failed to honor the agreement.
As such, Torrez announced Wednesday his New Mexico Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice over what it says has been the federal agency’s withholding of documents.
The Truth Commission also subpoenaed Torrez’s office. In a news conference Wednesday morning regarding the NMDOJ lawsuit and ahead of the commission’s meeting, Torrez said that NMDOJ “complied with that subpoena and provided the information that they’ve asked for, and so I would imagine that we would do so again in the future.”
The commission’s report, however, characterizes NMDOJ’s response as “partial compliance.” Moreover, it says the Truth Commission and NMDOJ are currently involved in negotiations over information-sharing but have thus far “been unable to reach an agreement.”
Torrez noted Wednesday morning that NMDOJ’s criminal investigation into Epstein’s activities, which he announced in February shortly after the Legislature approved the Truth Commission, differs fundamentally from the Truth Commission’s work.
“Our investigation is very much focused on whether or not there is still a viable criminal case to evaluate and prepare,” he said. “Their investigation is much broader into institutional failures, information sharing: who knew what, when, how they acted on it, how they responded to it.”
Thus, he noted, “we have very different objectives, and what that means is we go about our work in…fundamentally different ways, and so part of what that means is that the work that they do is by its nature much more transparent and open to the public.”
All told, Romero said, the commission has thus far received more than 100,000 records in response to the subpoenas issued thus far. The commission voted Wednesday to issue four more: to the state Workforce Solutions, Public Safety and Taxation and Revenue departments, as well as Ten Thousand Waves spa.
The latter is mentioned in the interim report and has been reported previously as a place from which Epstein recruited massage therapists. The spa in April issued a statement on social media that said it had “never provided therapists for off-premises ‘house calls’, no therapist under the age of 18 has ever worked at the spa, and all therapists work on a contract basis.” It also noted its support for the work of the Truth Commission.
Epstein survivor Rachel Benevidez watches the Truth Commission hearing on Aug. 5, 2026, alongside activist and elementary school teacher Lisa Christopherson, who has organized protests against Zorro Ranch on several occasions. (Danielle Prokop for Source NM) At its meeting on Wednesday, Romero also noted that the Truth Commission is centered on survivors “with a commitment to never asking a survivor to tell their story twice.”
Epstein survivor Rachel Benavidez, who has testified to the commission before, did so on Wednesday as well, in part calling for unreleased evidence to be made available.
“I use this survivor platform to stand on the right side of every survivor’s journey toward truth and justice,” she said. “I am holding onto faith that real accountability will be achieved.”
Torrez sues US Department of Justice over access to unredacted Epstein files
—Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico’s revived push to investigate possible crimes that occurred at Jeffrey Epstein’s remote ranch near Stanley has escalated into a legal battle with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Department of Justice and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, seeking access to unredacted Epstein files.
During a news conference, Torrez said federal prosecutors have stonewalled the state’s efforts to obtain the files over the last three-plus months, despite at least 10 separate requests to do so.
“We have heard repeatedly they are going to cooperate, but what our team has encountered is anything but cooperation,” Torrez told reporters.
Specifically, the 40-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeks to have a judge order the federal agency to produce the requested records. It also seeks attorney fees.
The lawsuit points out that New Mexico is one of the few jurisdictions that could still hold Epstein associates criminally accountable, and by doing so provide a sense of justice to survivors.
In response to the lawsuit, a DOJ spokesperson said Wednesday the agency is legally barred from releasing the requested Epstein files, in large part due to victim privacy concerns.
“The Epstein Files Transparency Act does not require, and the protective orders in place in the Southern District of New York do not permit, disclosure of victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures,” the DOJ spokesperson said in a statement.
But Torrez said the law cited by the federal agency does not prohibit information sharing between the federal government and the state.
He also said that, in hindsight, he would have advised former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas against halting a state investigation into activities that took place at Zorro Ranch. Balderas has said he agreed to stand down and turn over evidence to federal prosecutors in 2019 at their request.
Torrez announced in February that his office was reopening a criminal investigation into Epstein’s former Zorro Ranch. Investigators searched the 7,500-acre ranch in March, though the results have not been publicly disclosed.
The state’s top prosecutor acknowledged Wednesday he doesn’t know if the unredacted Epstein files might contain a “smoking gun” that would bolster the state’s investigation, but said reams of fully redacted documents currently make it all but impossible to make such a determination.
Epstein purchased the Zorro Ranch from the family of former Gov. Bruce King in 1993. The property features a 33,339-square-foot mansion, pool, hot tub and other structures. It was sold for an undisclosed price in 2023 to the family of Texas real estate mogul Don Huffines, who has said he plans to convert it into a Christian retreat center.
Court documents and civil cases have accused Epstein of sexually assaulting teenage girls and women at the ranch, which was one of several properties owned by Epstein. The financier and convicted sex offender also reportedly had homes in New York, Florida, Paris and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
One plaintiff described the property in 2019 as being “like a park” where teenage girls were encouraged to ride horses and ATVs and to use the pool and hot tub.
Epstein died in August 2019 in a New York City jail while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in New York and Florida. Medical investigators determined at the time that he died by suicide.
However, public interest in the Epstein files has continued to simmer amid the testimony of victims and the federal government’s approach to releasing records.
Fire burning in national forest north of Santa Fe
—Santa Fe New Mexican
North of Santa Fe, crews are battling a wildfire in the mountains near the Rio Frijoles. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the fire had burned about 10 acres as of this morning in the Santa Fe National Forest northeast of Nambé.
What’s being called the Frijoles Fire is located about three or four miles to the east of Cundiyó, which is about 30 miles north of Santa Fe. U.S. Forest Service officials told the New Mexican it’s unclear when the Frijoles Fire was first spotted or how it was sparked.
Second whistleblower lawsuit filed against NM childcare agency alleging multimillion dollar financial hole
—Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
A second former official is suing the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department, claiming retaliation for exposing an alleged multimillion dollar budget shortfall caused in part by universal childcare.
Kimberly Gonzales claims in her suit, filed Tuesday in New Mexico’s 1st Judicial District, that she was fired from her job as the ECECD’s former budget director after disclosing a $258 million hole in the department’s budget for fiscal year 2027.
To become financially whole for FY2027, the complaint alleges the department needs $155 million in revenue from the State Investment Council's early childhood trust fund that was not transferred to the ECECD as initially promised, an additional $83 million to fund universal childcare payments and $20 million for various other programs.
In September, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to offer free childcare to all residents. The program was announced Sept. 8, and is expected to cost the state $606 million in fiscal year 2027, according to a state news release.
Gonzales claims in her suit she raised the issues to department officials including ECECD Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky and to the Department of Finance and Administration and recommended various spending restrictions and controls.
Gonzales, who was hired in late October 2025, was notified she was under internal investigation on June 30 for what the suit alleges was an undisclosed reason. On July 13, she was placed on administrative leave — 20 minutes before her scheduled interview on the investigation, the complaint alleges — and was fired on July 21 for “inappropriate behavior and unprofessional conduct.”
Gonzales is seeking reinstatement, double back pay plus interest, damages and attorney fees.
Gonzales is being represented by attorney Jacob Candelaria, a former New Mexico state senator, who served in the Legislature from 2013 to 2022, first as a Democrat and later as an independent.
Candelaria is also representing the ECECD’s former chief financial officer, Carmel Pacheco-Aragon, in her whistleblower lawsuit against the department, filed last week. In it, Pacheco-Aragon alleges she was placed on administrative leave from her job after exposing an $83 million budget shortfall created by the universal childcare program.
Candelaria is the same attorney who represented Republican gubernatorial hopeful Duke Rodriguez and two other plaintiffs when they sued the state earlier this year, claiming the rules underpinning the universal childcare program were unlawful. The suit was dismissed in June.
“The push for universal childcare, candidly, is a recent invention of this administration, because (Gov.) Michelle Lujan Grisham wants to prove that she’s relevant in an increasingly socialist Democratic Party,” Candelaria said.
Candelaria contended that both Groginsky and Finance and Administration Secretary Wayne Propst should be investigated for approving childcare payments knowing the state did not have enough funds to cover them.
“I hope that the (attorney general) will set aside partisan loyalty and how popular this idea of (universal) childcare has become and look at the evidence,” Candelaria said.
In a statement Tuesday, Deputy ECECD Secretary Kendal Chavez said the allegations in the complaint were false.
“This complaint is another manufactured and unfounded allegation by Jacob Candelaria who has shown dedication to taking down universal childcare and taking vital benefits from New Mexico’s families and children at all costs,” Chavez said.
“ECECD has never and will never take retaliatory action against employees for coming forward with information, questions or concerns about the operations of our department. We cannot comment on the specifics of this litigation, but we will bring the facts to court, and we are confident we will prevail once again.”
Candelaria said the agency invoking his name was an attempt to divert attention from the facts of the case.
“They can say whatever they want about me,” he said. “I’ve been called worse by a lot better.”
Village of Angel Fire declares 'drought emergency'
—John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
The largest village in the sparsely populated high mountain valley east of Taos is enacting a series of water conservation measures after officials declared a “drought emergency” on Monday.
The village of Angel Fire cited water shortages driven by “a long and continued period of unusually dry weather, abnormally low stream flows, and reduced groundwater levels.”
About 1,200 people live in Angel Fire, which is located in the heart of the Moreno Valley in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains.
Outdoor watering under the order is limited to twice per week, restaurants and bars may only offer water to patrons upon request and short-term rental owners must post signage notifying guests to conserve water.
Failure to comply can result in fines of up to $500 per day, the notice warns.
Angel Fire’s declaration comes a week after the town of Taos discovered a leak in one of its municipal water storage tanks and a glitch in an automated system that had caused water levels to drop to critical levels.
Much of Cerro, near Questa in northern Taos County, has been without water since a water pump failed in May.
All of northern New Mexico remains in extreme or severe drought this month, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and forecasters are warning that parts of the state this week could experience record high temperatures.
Procedural mutiny: ABQ City Councilors overrule Council President to block tax ballot measure – Jesse Jones, The Paper
Taxpayers in the Duke City will not see a proposed gross receipts tax increase on their November ballots after city councilors used a procedural move to stop the measure before it reached a vote.
During the Aug. 3 City Council meeting, Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn used a parliamentary challenge to block Council President Klarissa Peña’s Resolution R-26-58 from advancing through the President’s Letter of Introduction. Citing Robert’s Rules of Order, Fiebelkorn argued the proposal was substantially the same as three gross receipts tax measures the council rejected earlier this year. “Strategic editing doesn’t create a new question,” Fiebelkorn said, arguing that changing the percentage allocations did not make the proposal different.
The council voted 7-2 to uphold the objection and remove the measure from the agenda, with Peña and Councilor Brook Bassan voting to allow the proposal’s introduction.
Peña pushed back against the procedural move during the meeting and in a post-meeting statement. “I am deeply disappointed by the procedural maneuver taken tonight to defeat R-26-58 before the public ever had the chance to weigh in,” Peña said in an official press release following the meeting.
She added during the council meeting that the vote “took the ability away from you, the voters, to make the decision.”
With the measure off the table, city leaders must address staff vacancies and employee pay issues within the existing budget.
What stayed the same:
- Same tax rate: Both the earlier proposals and the new measure would impose a 0.4875% municipal gross receipts tax increase.
- Same funding goals: The proposals would use the new revenue for city operations, maintenance, capital projects and community improvements.
- Same workforce concern: Each measure points to the city’s employee pay gaps identified in the Classification and Compensation Study, also known as the Evergreen Study, as a reason for additional funding.
- Shift in funding priorities: Earlier proposals split revenue evenly, with 50% going to general operations and 50% going to capital improvement projects. The new measure shifts the split to 53% for operations and 47% for capital projects to prioritize ongoing city services.
- Employee pay requirements: The proposal requires at least 6% of operational revenue to go toward employee base wage increases, to reach half of the salary levels recommended in the Evergreen Study. Those funds cannot be used for benefits, payroll taxes or administrative costs.
- Capital funding would expire: The 47% portion dedicated to capital and community improvement projects would automatically end after 21 years under a new sunset clause.
- District-by-district funding: Capital improvement revenue would be divided equally among the city’s nine council districts, with one additional share dedicated to citywide projects.
- Spending protections: The measure adds “supplement, not supplant” language requiring the new revenue to add to existing city funding rather than replace it.
New Mexico state veterinarian says more screwworm cases ‘headed this way’ — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
While no new cases of New World screwworm have been detected in New Mexico for more than a month, the parasitic fly “definitely is headed this way,” and a widespread infection would quickly exhaust the state’s resources, the state’s top veterinarian told state lawmakers Tuesday.
Samantha Holeck, state veterinarian with the New Mexico Livestock Board, told legislators that the state is urgently finalizing a program that would increase the number of certified livestock inspectors to help private veterinarians, along with state and federal officials, contain a screwworm outbreak.
The pest, which has advanced rapidly through Mexico after being mainly contained in Central America for several decades, is named for the maggot’s behavior of feeding on live tissue.
The fly made its first new incursion to the United States in early June, when it was detected in a south Texas calf, and then officials identified a separate infection in a Lea County dog in New Mexico a few days later.
Since then, the number of cases has increased in Texas and in Mexican states along the U.S.-Mexico border. As of Monday, Texas tallied 43 total infections, including eight new cases. Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico, has 57 cases, a case count Holeck said has “risen rather quickly.”
As a result of those spikes in cases, Hoseck said more infections in New Mexico are inevitable.
“We’ll have much more than just a single isolated case,” she said.
The infestation of maggots causes severe wounds that can result in injury and deaths of pets, wildlife, livestock and — in rare cases — people. The risks to livestock, especially in the eastern part of the state where cattle operations are most concentrated, have state officials most worried, Holeck told lawmakers on the interim Federal Funding Stabilization and Affordability Subcommittee.
The lack of federal support adds to her concern, she said. The United States Agriculture Department currently employs three federal field veterinarians for the whole state, she said, following widespread cuts to the department last year.
While the USDA is rapidly trying to hire new staff in New Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border, Hoseck said that process could take up to four more months. The state, which also has only three field veterinarians, will likely have to recruit private veterinarians if the screwworm outbreak worsens.
“If it becomes much more prevalent here, similar to what’s going on in Texas, even our accredited veterinarians will be tapped out fairly quickly,” she said. “Imagine if this gets into the east side of the state, into our very concentrated dairy population. It’s going to be a challenge, significantly.”
The state is finalizing curriculum to certify additional inspectors, she said, through a one-day course in which students will conduct “nose-to-tail” inspections of cattle and also learn about the biology of the fly. Texas launched a similar program in early June. The free, online course grants recipients the authority to certify that animals are safe to be transported, among other duties.
Hesock said launching a similar program in New Mexico is “critical.”
“If the outbreak expands here, then we can activate additional individuals to help maintain the continuity of business for the livestock industry in New Mexico,” she said.