Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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ALBUQUERQUE — The body camera worn on the chest of New Mexico State Police officer Justin Hare the early morning of March 15 captured the image of a stranded motorist on Interstate 40 west of Tucumcari who wanted a lift into town. The NMSP-issued device recorded the sound of the first gunshot, causing the 35-year-old Hare to slump over in his patrol vehicle, an FBI agent testified Tuesday in federal court. The video footage showed the assailant come around to the driver’s side, “briefly pausing as a semi-truck passed by,” and then shootin...
In a state often lacking statesmanship, two crime-fighters are emerging who are giving us hope. Listening to Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman and Attorney General Raúl Torrez talk about crime, you wouldn’t know they’re Democrats. Or Republicans, or independents or anything else for that matter. Few New Mexicans outside law enforcement likely knew that police officers had been prosecuting shoplifting cases in Albuquerque’s Metropolitan Court. And their conviction rates were abysmal, only about 15%. Bregman said the old system was...
The constitutional amendment voters approved in 2020 changing the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission from five elected members to three appointed ones was aimed, in large part, at ensuring a more qualified board to handle technical and important issues. The belief also was that the commission would have more credibility than previous boards, which had their share of controversy — even scandal. So much for good intentions. It turns out the Republican grocery store owner from Clayton, appointed to the PRC last month by Democratic Gov. M...
You don’t have to be an animal lover to appreciate why a recent federal court order involving the future of more than 30 chimpanzees at an Alamogordo research facility is a big deal. The case is as much about the rule of law, reining in a rogue federal agency, and wise use of tax dollars as it is about the moral aspects of denying mankind’s closest living relatives the space and freedom they deserve to live out their lives the way nature intended. The ruling paves the way for the National Institutes of Health to relocate the chimps to a san...
A one-game suspension. Really? That’s what New Mexico State University officials determined was the proper discipline for three basketball players who broke curfew early Nov. 19 to take possession of and hide evidence in a fatal shooting on the campus of the University of New Mexico. Police records say NMSU player Mike Peake was lured to UNM the morning of the highly touted NMSU-UNM rivalry game by a group of UNM students seeking revenge for an earlier brawl at the Lobo-Aggie football game. UNM student Brandon Travis was one of three p...
A 50% increase in K-12 English language arts and math achievement by the 2025-26 school year might seem aspirational, until you realize where New Mexico is starting from. At last count, prepandemic, just one in five N.M. students was proficient in math and one in three proficient in reading. If those numbers were still accurate — doubtful with the learning loss remote education inflicted — reaching these goals would mean just one in three students will be able to do math and only half will be able to read at grade level. But especially giv...
A high-ranking Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office official and three other first responders battling a small wildfire in northern New Mexico were all killed when the helicopter they were in crashed Saturday evening in a remote area south of Las Vegas. A sheriff's office spokeswoman said the crew had been "providing bucket drops and other air logistics needs to fire crews on the ground" prior to the crash. The BCSO helicopter - dubbed Metro 2 - crashed about 7:20 p.m., spokeswoman Jayme Fuller st...
Before she was elected governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham acknowledged the state’s system of allocating elk licenses was unfair to N.M.’s resident hunters. But instead of empowering the New Mexico State Game Commission to implement a more equitable system, Lujan Grisham has fallen back on a tired tradition of using unchecked gubernatorial power to preserve the status quo, a system that makes New Mexicans an afterthought in harvesting — and protecting — the wildlife that belongs to them. This isn’t a new criticism, nor exclusively a Lujan Gri...
An 85-page U.S. Forest Service review of the origins of the Hermits Peak Fire suggests the biggest wildfire in state history was caused in large part by a breakdown in protocols. But the review also revealed a troubling culture problem within the service. The review conducted by the Forest Service itself said a local team faced pressure to “accomplish the mission,” possibly leading to the crew to take greater risks in a rush to catch up on prescribed burns after postponements in many burn projects due to the COVID-19 pandemic and litigation. Th...
The same day an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, two students were found with guns at Albuquerque-area schools. The boy who allegedly brought a handgun to Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho on May 24 was arrested, booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center and the incident was summarily cloaked in secrecy. The 14-year-old boy who allegedly brought a gun fitted with an extended magazine filled with 20 hollow-point bullets to Volcano Vista High School in...
The $50 million “junior” spending bill Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed last week provided a current-events lesson in just one of the dysfunctional aspects of our state’s legislative structure. The bill provided supplemental spending for a host of purposes picked by individual lawmakers. The $50 million would come from the state’s general fund, even though about half of it was earmarked for capital projects, usually funded through general obligation bonds. In vetoing the legislation, the governor noted some of the projects wouldn’t get enoug...
We join the many New Mexicans and others around the nation who are pulling for a full and speedy recovery for U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján. News on Feb. 1 that the congenial 49-year-old lawmaker from Nambé had suffered a stroke five days earlier shocked New Mexicans and national leaders in Congress, the White House and beyond. Luján’s chief of staff, Carlos Sanchez, says Luján is expected to make a full recovery. That’s very good news. As many New Mexicans know from the experience of their loved ones, strokes are serious diseases that affect...
While state legislators consider a proposal requiring financial literacy be taught in high schools, it might be a good idea if they took a class themselves in investing wisely. Just two years ago, lawmakers and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham created a state early childhood trust fund to help pay for expanded prekindergarten and other early childhood programs. The fund received a $300 million startup infusion from the state and gets energy-related tax collections in years when total state cash reserves exceed 25% of spending levels. The strategy...
Doctors and nurses have cajoled and pleaded, talking about how they are watching patients struggle to breathe before they ultimately go on a ventilator and die. The governor has offered cash incentives and a lottery and alluded to the possibility of going back to lockdown-style measures much more restrictive than masking up indoors as the highly contagious delta variant takes hold and hospital intensive care units fill up. Despite these efforts and many others, an estimated 500,000 New Mexicans who are eligible to get vaccinated against...
New Mexico lawmakers, in the words of Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, “have got ourselves in a really tough predicament.” Richard Anklam, executive director of the nonpartisan New Mexico Tax Research Institute, gave legislators a presentation this month showing what that predicament looks like — and how it is hitting consumers in the pocketbook and making it tougher for businesses to compete. Testifying before the legislative Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee, Anklam said rising gross receipts taxes statewide over...
Work on the results of the decennial census in New Mexico has gotten off to a rocky start, and the members of the newly appointed Citizen Redistricting Committee missed a golden opportunity to boost its legitimacy by demonstrating they are not afraid to be open about how they intend to represent all corners of the state. After committee members were named, criticism came quickly from people with various points of view as well as those who live in the far-flung reaches of the state. It was apparent this group was not going to represent gender, g...
Pressed by NBC’s Lester Holt earlier this month about why she hasn’t visited the U.S.-Mexico border to personally witness the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the unforgiving desert, Vice President Kamala Harris tried to make light of a deadly serious situation. “I haven’t been to Europe. I don’t understand the point you’re making,” Harris quipped, her words falling as flat as a TV sitcom missing its laugh track. Holt’s question seemed pretty straightforward: Why hasn’t Harris, who was tapped by President Joe Biden in March to lead efforts to s...
May 22 was a big day for Virgin Galactic, Spaceport America, commercial space flight and New Mexico. After years of delays, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity successfully shot into space after breaking away from its mothership at 44,000 feet. Unity climbed about 55 miles above Earth before gliding down to Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport near Truth or Consequences. Although Unity had no passengers, the successful launch from Spaceport was a long-awaited achievement. “After so many years and so much hard work,...
“Wake-up call” is perhaps one of the most over-used phrases in the English language. And one of the most ignored. The recent shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline because of hackers, apparently a criminal gang working out of Russia, is a case in point. The pipeline stretches from Texas to New Jersey and transports half the fuel consumed on the East Coast. When the pipeline was shut down, panic buying ensued with long lines and gas shortages. Hundreds of stations ran out of fuel. The company that operates the pipeline paid roughly $5 million to the...
The use of a secure communications app by the Children, Youth and Families Department that routinely encrypts and deletes communications between staffers is more than troubling. One child advocacy organization calls it “outrageous.” The attorney general says it’s “highly concerning.” And an open government organization likens it to shredding public documents, raising the possibility it constitutes a crime. In contrast to standard texts or emails, which can be accessed by attorneys, lawmakers, reporters and the public under the state’s I...
The settlement between Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and former campaign spokesman James Hallinan, who accused her of inappropriate conduct during a campaign meeting, is right out of the informal PR manual on how to deal with potential fallout from a sordid allegation. First, say the claim is absolutely without merit, even scurrilous and defamatory. Then, open up a checkbook and pay the person making the allegations, with details shrouded in confidentiality. Finally, say the settlement was made only to avoid “the continuing distraction and signif...
There comes a point in every child’s life when he or she first learns of the sin of slavery in America. While it’s a jolt to all children, those of us who are not African American can only imagine the dismay felt by young Black children when they first learn that their ancestors were dehumanized under the U.S. Constitution and state laws. That’s what makes Black History Month so important, and unique. We are a melting pot of diversity, a nation with a history of wrongs and rights, but it should go without saying that one of the greatest wrong...
If you are one to dwell in the negative, this editorial challenge is not for you. But if you are one to look at, and reach for, the stars, who understands how very smart and talented so many of our fellow New Mexicans are, who recognizes the unique synergy of our military bases, national labs, research universities, private aerospace enterprises and one-of-a-kind purpose-built spaceport, New Mexico needs your voice. Because over the next month, it is essential we do everything possible to ensure those determining the new home of the new U.S....
When Americans woke up last Wednesday, they still weren't sure who had won the presidential election as ballots were still being tabulated in several pivotal states. But New Mexico was not one of them. Despite rhetoric raising concerns of absentee balloting fraud, untallied or discarded absentee ballots, a Postal Service overwhelmed with mailed ballots, vulnerable drop boxes, long lines that would discourage in-person voting and not enough polling sites in general, the election went smoothly in New Mexico. By 7:34 a.m. last Wednesday, the...
There’s good reason why New Mexico Educational Retirement Board policies don’t give staff the authority to pick and choose stocks from market-determined index funds. Index mutual funds are generally considered ideal core portfolio holdings for retirement accounts. They provide broad market exposure, allowing investors to buy all of the S&P 500 companies at the low cost an index fund offers, rather than picking out individual stocks. They’ve been safe investments over the long term for the 60,000 active members and 50,000 retirees inves...