FRI: Lujan Grisham to choose between incumbent, ex-PNM employee for utility regulator seat, + More
By KUNM News
October 30, 2026 at 5:58 AM MDT
Lujan Grisham to choose between incumbent, ex-PNM employee for utility regulator seat
—Justin Horwath, Albuquerque Journal
One of outgoing Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s most significant final acts as she exits office will be to appoint either Laura Sanchez or Gabriel Aguilera to New Mexico’s powerful Public Regulation Commission.
Those are the two names a nominating committee submitted to the governor in a public meeting on Friday. Out of eight candidates, the committee identified Aguilera, a current commissioner seeking reappointment, and Sanchez, chief general counsel for Democratic State Auditor Joseph Maestas, as most qualified for the post.
The governor, members of her Cabinet and state lawmakers appointed the nominating committee’s seven members.
Both Aguilera, a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission official, and Sanchez, who worked at Public Service Company of New Mexico from 2019 to 2024, are registered Democrats — meaning the commission will remain under that party’s control into the next decade.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico Civil Rights Act hasn’t sparked more lawsuits, police resignations, early study finds
—Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
In the years since New Mexico adopted its own Civil Rights Act, the state has not seen a significant uptick in lawsuit settlement payments or police officer resignations, according to a new study presented to state lawmakers Thursday.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, which lets residents allege that their civil rights under the state Constitution have been violated, into law in 2021. It also made New Mexico just the second state in the nation, behind Colorado, to eliminate qualified immunity — which completely shields public officials such as police officers from lawsuits — as a defense.
In the years since the law’s enactment, advocates for local government bodies and law enforcement agencies have argued it would lead to costly settlement payouts and difficulties in recruiting and retaining police officers. The new study presented at Thursday’s interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, however, found that hasn’t been the case in the law’s first years.
The study, titled “Watching the Sky Not Fall: A Quantitative Study of the Impact of the NMCRA,” used public records requests to analyze law enforcement agency data from 2017 to 2023 in the two states that abolished qualified immunity — New Mexico and Colorado — and in two states that didn’t — Washington and Utah.
Joanna Schwartz, a University of California, Los Angeles School of Law professor who co-authored the study and presented it to state lawmakers, provided a disclaimer with her presentation: Some of New Mexico’s law enforcement agencies didn’t fulfill her records request, limiting her research team’s ability to fully analyze the law’s impact.
“The evolution of litigation under the Civil Rights Act will take years and will develop as lawyers write and defend cases and judges issue rulings,” Schwartz said, adding that researchers need more data before they can make “definitive conclusions” about the full impact of the law.
The data she did obtain, though, showed that New Mexico and Colorado did not see a significant increase in the number of lawsuits filed against law enforcement agencies. It also showed no marked increase in lawsuit payouts or in police officer resignations and retirements. Resignations and retirements peaked in all four surveyed states in 2021, which Schwartz said was likely due to the national protests and sentiment regarding law enforcement agencies in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.
Across all four surveyed states, the cost of insurance rates increased from 2017 to 2023 — with no indication that increases in New Mexico and Colorado were related to the civil rights laws.
Despite the preliminary findings, officials with the New Mexico Association of Counties speaking alongside Schwartz told lawmakers they want to see the civil rights law amended in the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January.
Grace Philips, the New Mexico Association of Counties’ risk management director, told lawmakers she thinks the law needs three amendments to cap how much money can be awarded in these cases; eliminate the practice of plaintiffs’ attorneys recovering money under both the New Mexico Civil Rights Act and other laws in the same case; and require that plaintiffs give government bodies advance notice when they intend to file a lawsuit under the law.
Philips said that limiting the amount of money that can be awarded in these cases will help insurance pools that government entities rely on to stay solvent. The New Mexico Civil Rights Act initially capped claims at $2 million, but a provision in the law says that the cap will increase annually based on cost-of-living metrics.
“Frankly, we’re terrified about the solvency piece,” Philips said, asking lawmakers to go back to the $2 million limit.
State Rep. Marianna Anaya (D-Albuquerque) asked Philips how many settlements under the state civil rights law have hit the maximum payout. Philips said she didn’t have the figure readily available.
Anaya told Philips that civil rights cases brought in federal court under the U.S. Constitution do not have a cap on damages.
“I believe it would be an incentive for us to just keep going with what we have, which seems like a good thing, comparatively,” she said.
Bernalillo offers $82,000 to hackers to resolve ransomware attack
—KOAT
In Sandoval County, the town of Bernalillo is offering $82,000 to hackers in an attempt to resolve a ransomware attack. KOAT-TV reports that the attack has disrupted key municipal services since October 16.
The cyber-attack was first discovered when the town’s IT director noticed suspicious activity on the computer systems and began shutting down devices. The hackers affected the town’s Motor Vehicle Division office, police body cameras, and online water bill payment systems. While most services have been restored, residents must still pay water bills in person or by mail.
After consulting with outside experts, the town council unanimously approved the $82,000 offer to the hackers. The town is hopeful the payment will end the attack, but there are no guarantees.
If the hackers accept the offer, the $82,000 payment will come from the town's general fund reserves.
Emergency responders in Socorro County corral goats trapped by flood into rescue boats
–-KOB-TV, KOAT-TV, El Defensor Chieftain
In Socorro County, members of the Tulsa Oklahoma Fire Department yesterday helped rescue nearly 80 goats from floodwaters.
KOB-TV reports the department worked with the New Mexico National Guard to find livestock trapped by the flood in the San Antonio area. A drone found about 7 head of stranded cattle as well.KOAT-TV reports they also rescued one mule and one dog from flooding in San Antonio and evacuated three people.
Rescuers corralled the goats into three boats, although Socorro County Emergency Manager Fred Berger said many livestock were also lost to the floods.
The Rio Puerco flooded on Sunday and emergency crews worked to rescue stranded residents, according to theEl Defensor Chieftain. One woman was killed when she was swept away. The area around Luis Lopez had already seen flooding in late September.
Jeff Jones from Luis Lopez told KOB the September flood damaged his family farm and his parents’ home. He said it will take years to rebuild.
New Mexico lawmakers revisit proposals to curb high levels of firearm crimes, trafficking
– Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico state lawmakers on Thursday revisited legislative proposals to curb the state’s high rates of shootings and gun trafficking.
A bill in this year’s legislative session would have required firearm dealers to train their employees to recognize signs of gun trafficking, would have raised the minimum age of employment at gun stores to 21 and would require gun stores to keep detailed records of each sale. It died, though, after some lawmakers criticized a provision that would have banned the sale of certain types of firearms.
Leaders from the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, which was involved in crafting this year’s failed bill, spoke before the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee again on Thursday. While they stopped short of endorsing a specific bill for the upcoming lawmaking session, which begins in January, they stressed the need for the Legislature to address New Mexico’s persistently high levels of gun crimes.
Retailers need to be trained to recognize the signs of trafficking, such as a customer who routinely buys guns in bulk and “straw purchases,” in which someone buys a gun and then later sells it to someone who is not legally allowed to purchase a firearm.
Lawmakers pitched the previous bill after a report from Everytown for Gun Safety found that New Mexico has an outsized problem with gun trafficking. It ranked New Mexico fifth in the nation for the highest rate of firearm homicides.
Police find the vast majority of guns used in crimes — 89% — in possession of someone other than the person who originally bought it at a store, Everytown for Gun Safety Senior Industry Advisor Marianna Mitchem said Thursday, adding that such statistics constitute clear signs of trafficking. Trafficking at that scale enables guns to quickly move across city, county and state lines, she said.
“When people engage in firearm trafficking activity, they don’t say, ‘Well, I bought this gun in Rio Rancho, so I’m only going to sell to people in Rio Rancho,’” Mitchem, a former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives official, said.
Mitchell credited the New Mexico Department of Justice with equipping police departments across the state with technology that can accurately trace guns and spent shell casings found at crime scenes. In August, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced that the initiative identified more than 500 crimes since it launched last year, including one gun that was used in 17 different crimes.
Nationally, gunfire is the leading cause of death for children and teenagers. New Mexico’s firearm mortality rate of 26.6 per 100,000 residents is among the highest in the nation, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Ryan Burt, the CEO of Calibers, an Albuquerque-based indoor shooting range, presented alongside Mitchell and pushed back that her report was meant to “scare people.”
He said that he subjects his employees to rigorous background checks and trains them to spot the signs of straw purchases and trafficking. He said he believes raising the cost to secure a federal firearm dealer license — which is $200 and then $90 to renew every three years — would be a more effective way to weed out bad actors.
“Make it $5,000. You’re going to get rid of half, if not more” of gun dealers, he said.
Burt also sits on the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Range and Retail Advisory Council. The foundation joined the Second Amendment Foundation earlier this month in suing New Mexico over its weeklong waiting period for gun sales. A federal judge in August found that the state couldn’t enforce the waiting period on two people who challenged the rule in 2024.
State lawmakers on Thursday were split on the broader issue along party lines.
Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) said she believes business owners such as Burt are “very careful” in making sure they don’t sell to traffickers, because they could face stiff penalties if they don’t.
“There’s millions of us in New Mexico with firearms who are doing nothing wrong,” she said.
Democrats, including Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) who co-sponsored the anti-gun trafficking bill in this year’s legislative session, said the state ought to more closely regulate “the most deadly weapons in our society.”
Arrest leads to discovery of more than 100 cats inside bus in university area
– Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
A police investigation in Southeast Albuquerque led to the discovery of more than 100 cats inside a disabled bus in the university area Wednesday. During the capture of the cats, a fire sparked nearby, destroying a detached garage and a parked vehicle.
Animal Welfare workers spent Wednesday evening wrangling dozens of cats into boxes to transport them to an animal shelter for medical evaluation. Cats leapt through weeds attempting to escape as Animal Welfare workers swung their nets to try and capture them.
At least four kittens that were being bottle-fed were transferred to an emergency center for specialized care, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Rebecca Atkins said in a news release.
One cat was found dead inside the bus and police told the Journal that feces and urine could be found throughout the bus.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Bernalillo County expecting 10 USDOJ monitors on Election Day
– Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The United States Department of Justice will send approximately 10 monitors to polling sites in New Mexico’s most populous county on Election Day, county officials told Source NM on Thursday, amid the federal government’s recently announced expansion of its nationwide election monitoring effort.
The USDOJ announced this week that it intends to send 1,000 election monitors to polling locations in all 50 states on Nov. 3, marking an expansion of its previous election monitoring efforts. But federal officials declined to say which polling locations they’ll target for the expanded effort.
Bernalillo County officials told Source NM on Thursday that the USDOJ informed the county approximately three weeks ago it would be sending monitors, but did not specify why they had selected the county.
In an emailed statement, Bernalillo County Clerk Michelle Kavanaugh noted that the USDOJ has previously deployed monitors to the county and said local officials are “prepared for their arrival” this year.
“This is not unusual for us, and we’ve accommodated DOJ monitors in previous elections without incident,” she said.
The USDOJ’s expanded monitoring effort has sparked fears of federal meddling in elections across the country during a mid-term election that will determine the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
Other New Mexico locations where federal monitors may show up remains unclear. Lindsey Bachman, the secretary of state’s communications, legislative and executive affairs director, told Source NM on Thursday that her office has been made aware only of their presence in Bernalillo County, but the USDOJ has reportedly reached out directly to county clerks in other states.
Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin told Source NM on Thursday in a text message that she has not heard from the USDOJ about monitors in the state’s second-most-populous county. The county will also likely process the largest percentage of the votes cast in the closely watched 2nd Congressional District race between incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) and Republican challenger Greg Cunningham.
During the last mid-term election in 2022, former President Joe Biden’s USDOJ sent 289 monitors to 24 states, including Bernalillo County and San Juan County in New Mexico. San Juan County officials did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment Thursday about whether they expect the federal government’s presence at their polling sites again, as much of the county recovers from recent flooding.
Fears of federal interference in the state’s elections prompted state lawmakers this session to pass Senate Bill 264, which aims to prevent intimidation by federal immigration and others in local elections. The Secretary of State and Attorney General’s Office earlier this month issued a voter advisory that underscored voters’ rights to cast ballots with interference.
The prospect of federal interference has also prompted third party groups and political parties to step up their presence at polling sites across the country.
In New Mexico, the Secretary of State’s Office has credentialed 571 watchers from six different organizations to monitor elections this year. Bachman could not immediately say how that number compares to previous years.
But Carmen Lopez, co-lead for Observe New Mexico Elections, which employs the majority of the state’s election watchers, told Source NM that the group has nearly twice as many volunteer observers this cycle than the 2024 general election. Approximately 325 observers affiliated with her group are approved this year, compared with about 170 in 2024, she said.
“We had more interest in our observation program this year, partly because more people know about it, and also because people want to participate,” she said. “There are all of these other observation efforts, both inside the polls and outside the polls, that have garnered a lot of interest.”
The other groups that the Secretary of State’s Office has approved for election observation, Bachman said, are Disability Rights New Mexico, League of Women Voters of New Mexico and Southern New Mexico, Taos United Indivisible and Land of Action.
Land of Action is a recently formed, nonpartisan civic association and hub for progressive groups throughout the state. Executive director Heidi Li Feldman told Source NM on Thursday that her group of approximately 80 watchers will fan out primarily to rural counties like San Juan, Grant, Luna, Hidalgo, Otero and Rio Arriba counties.
Feldman said the volunteers are on alert for federal monitors on Election Day, especially since the USDOJ has not said where they will be.
“Since no one really knows, we’ve trained our watchers to be alert to people who are agents, DOJ monitors,” she said, “and to be extra sensitive to whether they are following New Mexico state law about what law enforcement, federal or otherwise, may and may not do at the polls.”
Project Jupiter in ‘potential breach’ of county agreement
– Algernon d’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
In a surprise move, Doña Ana County’s Board of Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to notify Project Jupiter’s developers of a “potential breach” of its $165 billion industrial revenue bond agreement, approved in 2025 to support financing for the data center.
Commission Chair Manny Sanchez made the motion after the panel met in closed session to discuss a number of matters confidentially with the county legal department for over two and half hours.
At about 3:30 p.m., the commissioners returned to public session and took action on Project Jupiter without elaborating. Sanchez simply stated that the potential breach concerned “their proposed power generation plan,” and directed county management to “engage in discussions to identify a potential path forward working with Doña Ana County.”
Project Jupiter is among the largest data center projects currently under development in the U.S. Located within 1,400 acres of industrial land in Santa Teresa, Stack Infrastructure is building four data center structures, cooling infrastructure and office space for Oracle Corp. and OpenAI. Yucca Growth Infrastructure and Bloom Energy are seeking air quality permitting for a natural gas-powered fuel cell installation to produce 2.45 gigawatts of power on site.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico DOT to proceed with Gorge Bridge railing project despite governor's directive, advocate says
– Taos News
The state Department of Transportation plans to build higher railings at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in order to deter suicides. The Taos News reports the agency intends to do so despite a directive from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office to explore different options.
Help Outreach Taos Executive Director Stephanie Waters has been working with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to address the bridge's safety issues. She told the Taos News that acting Transportation Secretary David Quintana called her this week to reaffirm his agency’s commitment to the railing project.
The governor’s directive to look at other options came after NMDOT had already chosen a design and received funding for construction.
Some estimates say the project could result in the bridge being closed for as long as two years. However, a Department of Transportation spokesperson told the Taos News that a closure of that length is not viable, given the bridge’s importance to the communities of the region.
Santa Fe County commissioners approve plan for 24-lot subdivision
– Santa Fe New Mexican
A proposed 24-lot subdivision northwest of Santa Fe is moving forward.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that La Vida Estates is planned for 125 acres off La Vida Trail and Los Suenos, west of state road 599.
The average lot size of the subdivision would be three acres. Forty-three acres, or about 35% of the property, would remain undeveloped. Four of the 24 lots in La Vida Estates would be considered “affordable units.”
Santa Fe County commissioners approved the conceptual plan for the project at their meeting this week. In June, commissioners rejected a much larger 158-home subdivision proposed for the Camino La Tierra area in the same part of the county. The developer has filed an appeal in district court.
—Justin Horwath, Albuquerque Journal
One of outgoing Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s most significant final acts as she exits office will be to appoint either Laura Sanchez or Gabriel Aguilera to New Mexico’s powerful Public Regulation Commission.
Those are the two names a nominating committee submitted to the governor in a public meeting on Friday. Out of eight candidates, the committee identified Aguilera, a current commissioner seeking reappointment, and Sanchez, chief general counsel for Democratic State Auditor Joseph Maestas, as most qualified for the post.
The governor, members of her Cabinet and state lawmakers appointed the nominating committee’s seven members.
Both Aguilera, a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission official, and Sanchez, who worked at Public Service Company of New Mexico from 2019 to 2024, are registered Democrats — meaning the commission will remain under that party’s control into the next decade.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico Civil Rights Act hasn’t sparked more lawsuits, police resignations, early study finds
—Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
In the years since New Mexico adopted its own Civil Rights Act, the state has not seen a significant uptick in lawsuit settlement payments or police officer resignations, according to a new study presented to state lawmakers Thursday.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, which lets residents allege that their civil rights under the state Constitution have been violated, into law in 2021. It also made New Mexico just the second state in the nation, behind Colorado, to eliminate qualified immunity — which completely shields public officials such as police officers from lawsuits — as a defense.
In the years since the law’s enactment, advocates for local government bodies and law enforcement agencies have argued it would lead to costly settlement payouts and difficulties in recruiting and retaining police officers. The new study presented at Thursday’s interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, however, found that hasn’t been the case in the law’s first years.
The study, titled “Watching the Sky Not Fall: A Quantitative Study of the Impact of the NMCRA,” used public records requests to analyze law enforcement agency data from 2017 to 2023 in the two states that abolished qualified immunity — New Mexico and Colorado — and in two states that didn’t — Washington and Utah.
Joanna Schwartz, a University of California, Los Angeles School of Law professor who co-authored the study and presented it to state lawmakers, provided a disclaimer with her presentation: Some of New Mexico’s law enforcement agencies didn’t fulfill her records request, limiting her research team’s ability to fully analyze the law’s impact.
“The evolution of litigation under the Civil Rights Act will take years and will develop as lawyers write and defend cases and judges issue rulings,” Schwartz said, adding that researchers need more data before they can make “definitive conclusions” about the full impact of the law.
The data she did obtain, though, showed that New Mexico and Colorado did not see a significant increase in the number of lawsuits filed against law enforcement agencies. It also showed no marked increase in lawsuit payouts or in police officer resignations and retirements. Resignations and retirements peaked in all four surveyed states in 2021, which Schwartz said was likely due to the national protests and sentiment regarding law enforcement agencies in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.
Across all four surveyed states, the cost of insurance rates increased from 2017 to 2023 — with no indication that increases in New Mexico and Colorado were related to the civil rights laws.
Despite the preliminary findings, officials with the New Mexico Association of Counties speaking alongside Schwartz told lawmakers they want to see the civil rights law amended in the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January.
Grace Philips, the New Mexico Association of Counties’ risk management director, told lawmakers she thinks the law needs three amendments to cap how much money can be awarded in these cases; eliminate the practice of plaintiffs’ attorneys recovering money under both the New Mexico Civil Rights Act and other laws in the same case; and require that plaintiffs give government bodies advance notice when they intend to file a lawsuit under the law.
Philips said that limiting the amount of money that can be awarded in these cases will help insurance pools that government entities rely on to stay solvent. The New Mexico Civil Rights Act initially capped claims at $2 million, but a provision in the law says that the cap will increase annually based on cost-of-living metrics.
“Frankly, we’re terrified about the solvency piece,” Philips said, asking lawmakers to go back to the $2 million limit.
State Rep. Marianna Anaya (D-Albuquerque) asked Philips how many settlements under the state civil rights law have hit the maximum payout. Philips said she didn’t have the figure readily available.
Anaya told Philips that civil rights cases brought in federal court under the U.S. Constitution do not have a cap on damages.
“I believe it would be an incentive for us to just keep going with what we have, which seems like a good thing, comparatively,” she said.
Bernalillo offers $82,000 to hackers to resolve ransomware attack
—KOAT
In Sandoval County, the town of Bernalillo is offering $82,000 to hackers in an attempt to resolve a ransomware attack. KOAT-TV reports that the attack has disrupted key municipal services since October 16.
The cyber-attack was first discovered when the town’s IT director noticed suspicious activity on the computer systems and began shutting down devices. The hackers affected the town’s Motor Vehicle Division office, police body cameras, and online water bill payment systems. While most services have been restored, residents must still pay water bills in person or by mail.
After consulting with outside experts, the town council unanimously approved the $82,000 offer to the hackers. The town is hopeful the payment will end the attack, but there are no guarantees.
If the hackers accept the offer, the $82,000 payment will come from the town's general fund reserves.
Emergency responders in Socorro County corral goats trapped by flood into rescue boats
–-KOB-TV, KOAT-TV, El Defensor Chieftain
In Socorro County, members of the Tulsa Oklahoma Fire Department yesterday helped rescue nearly 80 goats from floodwaters.
KOB-TV reports the department worked with the New Mexico National Guard to find livestock trapped by the flood in the San Antonio area. A drone found about 7 head of stranded cattle as well.KOAT-TV reports they also rescued one mule and one dog from flooding in San Antonio and evacuated three people.
Rescuers corralled the goats into three boats, although Socorro County Emergency Manager Fred Berger said many livestock were also lost to the floods.
The Rio Puerco flooded on Sunday and emergency crews worked to rescue stranded residents, according to theEl Defensor Chieftain. One woman was killed when she was swept away. The area around Luis Lopez had already seen flooding in late September.
Jeff Jones from Luis Lopez told KOB the September flood damaged his family farm and his parents’ home. He said it will take years to rebuild.
New Mexico lawmakers revisit proposals to curb high levels of firearm crimes, trafficking
– Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico state lawmakers on Thursday revisited legislative proposals to curb the state’s high rates of shootings and gun trafficking.
A bill in this year’s legislative session would have required firearm dealers to train their employees to recognize signs of gun trafficking, would have raised the minimum age of employment at gun stores to 21 and would require gun stores to keep detailed records of each sale. It died, though, after some lawmakers criticized a provision that would have banned the sale of certain types of firearms.
Leaders from the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, which was involved in crafting this year’s failed bill, spoke before the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee again on Thursday. While they stopped short of endorsing a specific bill for the upcoming lawmaking session, which begins in January, they stressed the need for the Legislature to address New Mexico’s persistently high levels of gun crimes.
Retailers need to be trained to recognize the signs of trafficking, such as a customer who routinely buys guns in bulk and “straw purchases,” in which someone buys a gun and then later sells it to someone who is not legally allowed to purchase a firearm.
Lawmakers pitched the previous bill after a report from Everytown for Gun Safety found that New Mexico has an outsized problem with gun trafficking. It ranked New Mexico fifth in the nation for the highest rate of firearm homicides.
Police find the vast majority of guns used in crimes — 89% — in possession of someone other than the person who originally bought it at a store, Everytown for Gun Safety Senior Industry Advisor Marianna Mitchem said Thursday, adding that such statistics constitute clear signs of trafficking. Trafficking at that scale enables guns to quickly move across city, county and state lines, she said.
“When people engage in firearm trafficking activity, they don’t say, ‘Well, I bought this gun in Rio Rancho, so I’m only going to sell to people in Rio Rancho,’” Mitchem, a former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives official, said.
Mitchell credited the New Mexico Department of Justice with equipping police departments across the state with technology that can accurately trace guns and spent shell casings found at crime scenes. In August, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced that the initiative identified more than 500 crimes since it launched last year, including one gun that was used in 17 different crimes.
Nationally, gunfire is the leading cause of death for children and teenagers. New Mexico’s firearm mortality rate of 26.6 per 100,000 residents is among the highest in the nation, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Ryan Burt, the CEO of Calibers, an Albuquerque-based indoor shooting range, presented alongside Mitchell and pushed back that her report was meant to “scare people.”
He said that he subjects his employees to rigorous background checks and trains them to spot the signs of straw purchases and trafficking. He said he believes raising the cost to secure a federal firearm dealer license — which is $200 and then $90 to renew every three years — would be a more effective way to weed out bad actors.
“Make it $5,000. You’re going to get rid of half, if not more” of gun dealers, he said.
Burt also sits on the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Range and Retail Advisory Council. The foundation joined the Second Amendment Foundation earlier this month in suing New Mexico over its weeklong waiting period for gun sales. A federal judge in August found that the state couldn’t enforce the waiting period on two people who challenged the rule in 2024.
State lawmakers on Thursday were split on the broader issue along party lines.
Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) said she believes business owners such as Burt are “very careful” in making sure they don’t sell to traffickers, because they could face stiff penalties if they don’t.
“There’s millions of us in New Mexico with firearms who are doing nothing wrong,” she said.
Democrats, including Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) who co-sponsored the anti-gun trafficking bill in this year’s legislative session, said the state ought to more closely regulate “the most deadly weapons in our society.”
Arrest leads to discovery of more than 100 cats inside bus in university area
– Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
A police investigation in Southeast Albuquerque led to the discovery of more than 100 cats inside a disabled bus in the university area Wednesday. During the capture of the cats, a fire sparked nearby, destroying a detached garage and a parked vehicle.
Animal Welfare workers spent Wednesday evening wrangling dozens of cats into boxes to transport them to an animal shelter for medical evaluation. Cats leapt through weeds attempting to escape as Animal Welfare workers swung their nets to try and capture them.
At least four kittens that were being bottle-fed were transferred to an emergency center for specialized care, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Rebecca Atkins said in a news release.
One cat was found dead inside the bus and police told the Journal that feces and urine could be found throughout the bus.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Bernalillo County expecting 10 USDOJ monitors on Election Day
– Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The United States Department of Justice will send approximately 10 monitors to polling sites in New Mexico’s most populous county on Election Day, county officials told Source NM on Thursday, amid the federal government’s recently announced expansion of its nationwide election monitoring effort.
The USDOJ announced this week that it intends to send 1,000 election monitors to polling locations in all 50 states on Nov. 3, marking an expansion of its previous election monitoring efforts. But federal officials declined to say which polling locations they’ll target for the expanded effort.
Bernalillo County officials told Source NM on Thursday that the USDOJ informed the county approximately three weeks ago it would be sending monitors, but did not specify why they had selected the county.
In an emailed statement, Bernalillo County Clerk Michelle Kavanaugh noted that the USDOJ has previously deployed monitors to the county and said local officials are “prepared for their arrival” this year.
“This is not unusual for us, and we’ve accommodated DOJ monitors in previous elections without incident,” she said.
The USDOJ’s expanded monitoring effort has sparked fears of federal meddling in elections across the country during a mid-term election that will determine the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
Other New Mexico locations where federal monitors may show up remains unclear. Lindsey Bachman, the secretary of state’s communications, legislative and executive affairs director, told Source NM on Thursday that her office has been made aware only of their presence in Bernalillo County, but the USDOJ has reportedly reached out directly to county clerks in other states.
Doña Ana County Clerk Amanda López Askin told Source NM on Thursday in a text message that she has not heard from the USDOJ about monitors in the state’s second-most-populous county. The county will also likely process the largest percentage of the votes cast in the closely watched 2nd Congressional District race between incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) and Republican challenger Greg Cunningham.
During the last mid-term election in 2022, former President Joe Biden’s USDOJ sent 289 monitors to 24 states, including Bernalillo County and San Juan County in New Mexico. San Juan County officials did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment Thursday about whether they expect the federal government’s presence at their polling sites again, as much of the county recovers from recent flooding.
Fears of federal interference in the state’s elections prompted state lawmakers this session to pass Senate Bill 264, which aims to prevent intimidation by federal immigration and others in local elections. The Secretary of State and Attorney General’s Office earlier this month issued a voter advisory that underscored voters’ rights to cast ballots with interference.
The prospect of federal interference has also prompted third party groups and political parties to step up their presence at polling sites across the country.
In New Mexico, the Secretary of State’s Office has credentialed 571 watchers from six different organizations to monitor elections this year. Bachman could not immediately say how that number compares to previous years.
But Carmen Lopez, co-lead for Observe New Mexico Elections, which employs the majority of the state’s election watchers, told Source NM that the group has nearly twice as many volunteer observers this cycle than the 2024 general election. Approximately 325 observers affiliated with her group are approved this year, compared with about 170 in 2024, she said.
“We had more interest in our observation program this year, partly because more people know about it, and also because people want to participate,” she said. “There are all of these other observation efforts, both inside the polls and outside the polls, that have garnered a lot of interest.”
The other groups that the Secretary of State’s Office has approved for election observation, Bachman said, are Disability Rights New Mexico, League of Women Voters of New Mexico and Southern New Mexico, Taos United Indivisible and Land of Action.
Land of Action is a recently formed, nonpartisan civic association and hub for progressive groups throughout the state. Executive director Heidi Li Feldman told Source NM on Thursday that her group of approximately 80 watchers will fan out primarily to rural counties like San Juan, Grant, Luna, Hidalgo, Otero and Rio Arriba counties.
Feldman said the volunteers are on alert for federal monitors on Election Day, especially since the USDOJ has not said where they will be.
“Since no one really knows, we’ve trained our watchers to be alert to people who are agents, DOJ monitors,” she said, “and to be extra sensitive to whether they are following New Mexico state law about what law enforcement, federal or otherwise, may and may not do at the polls.”
Project Jupiter in ‘potential breach’ of county agreement
– Algernon d’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
In a surprise move, Doña Ana County’s Board of Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to notify Project Jupiter’s developers of a “potential breach” of its $165 billion industrial revenue bond agreement, approved in 2025 to support financing for the data center.
Commission Chair Manny Sanchez made the motion after the panel met in closed session to discuss a number of matters confidentially with the county legal department for over two and half hours.
At about 3:30 p.m., the commissioners returned to public session and took action on Project Jupiter without elaborating. Sanchez simply stated that the potential breach concerned “their proposed power generation plan,” and directed county management to “engage in discussions to identify a potential path forward working with Doña Ana County.”
Project Jupiter is among the largest data center projects currently under development in the U.S. Located within 1,400 acres of industrial land in Santa Teresa, Stack Infrastructure is building four data center structures, cooling infrastructure and office space for Oracle Corp. and OpenAI. Yucca Growth Infrastructure and Bloom Energy are seeking air quality permitting for a natural gas-powered fuel cell installation to produce 2.45 gigawatts of power on site.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico DOT to proceed with Gorge Bridge railing project despite governor's directive, advocate says
– Taos News
The state Department of Transportation plans to build higher railings at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in order to deter suicides. The Taos News reports the agency intends to do so despite a directive from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office to explore different options.
Help Outreach Taos Executive Director Stephanie Waters has been working with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to address the bridge's safety issues. She told the Taos News that acting Transportation Secretary David Quintana called her this week to reaffirm his agency’s commitment to the railing project.
The governor’s directive to look at other options came after NMDOT had already chosen a design and received funding for construction.
Some estimates say the project could result in the bridge being closed for as long as two years. However, a Department of Transportation spokesperson told the Taos News that a closure of that length is not viable, given the bridge’s importance to the communities of the region.
Santa Fe County commissioners approve plan for 24-lot subdivision
– Santa Fe New Mexican
A proposed 24-lot subdivision northwest of Santa Fe is moving forward.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that La Vida Estates is planned for 125 acres off La Vida Trail and Los Suenos, west of state road 599.
The average lot size of the subdivision would be three acres. Forty-three acres, or about 35% of the property, would remain undeveloped. Four of the 24 lots in La Vida Estates would be considered “affordable units.”
Santa Fe County commissioners approved the conceptual plan for the project at their meeting this week. In June, commissioners rejected a much larger 158-home subdivision proposed for the Camino La Tierra area in the same part of the county. The developer has filed an appeal in district court.