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San Juan Generating Station to be discussed at PRC’s first closed-door meeting under new policy
Despite transparency concerns from government watchdogs, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission is holding a private meeting this week in place of the weekly public meetings it used to have. Commissioners are supposed to discuss the Public Service Company of New Mexico’s abandonment of San Juan Generating Station units, but members of the public won’t […]
FEMA has so far paid out less than 1% of what Congress allocated for victims of NM wildfire
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Source New Mexico. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. A couple months after two planned fires escaped to become the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, President Joe Biden promised to “fully compensate […]
Black Fire relief funds should be at correct state agency by end of month
Millions in disaster relief dollars should soon sit with the right New Mexico agency after lawmakers and the governor approved a 2023 budget that sent the money to the wrong place. The state budget allocated $2 million for “response and restoration” to the Black Fire that devastated parts of the Gila National Forest in 2022. […]
Immigrant detention system isn’t as beneficial for local economies as some think, new report says
Lawmakers blocked a bill in the 2023 legislative session that would’ve prohibited local New Mexico governments from hiring federal immigration officers to detain migrants, arguing that detention centers boost local economies. That may not be entirely true, according to a recent report published by Innovation Law Lab, a nonprofit that provides support for immigrants. Immigration […]
FEMA willing to pay for fire victims’ flood insurance premiums for a longer period of time
Floods could be a threat for years along the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire burn scar in northern New Mexico. Now, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended the timeline it’s willing to buy flood insurance plans from one year to five years for communities with high flood risks following New Mexico’s largest wildfire. Angela Gladwell, […]
Las Vegas needs to modernize technology to keep water safe post 2022 wildfire
For decades, increased levels of pollutants could be present in the water supply used by thousands in Las Vegas, New Mexico. This is the message state lawmakers heard on Tuesday from local experts and officials still trying to navigate recovery from the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire. They’re figuring out how to keep ensuring that drinking […]
Federal disaster recovery aid for acequias in southern NM depends on officials paying upfront
Historic acequias in southern New Mexico are still recovering from the fires and floods disrupting life since the Black Fire in 2022. A new source of federal help could be available for acequia stewards in southern New Mexico. That money is dependent on local counties and districts finding some dollars on their own to cover […]
Santo Domingo Pueblo 3D prints materials for its first large-scale solar farm
SANTO DOMINGO PUEBLO — From having very little internet access at all to setting up a Pueblo-wide service network over the past few years, Santo Domingo leaders are working to expand broadband services in a self-sufficient way. They’re now in the process of creating the Pueblo’s first large-scale solar farm, a project that’ll help get […]
NM broadband officials figure out how to use $675M for broadband expansion, despite federal errors
With a $675 million federal grant secured for broadband expansion in New Mexico, state officials now have to figure out a plan to distribute that money. It’ll be months before anyone can access the grant money that the federal government announced in June. The goal is to set up reliable, high-speed internet around the state, […]
Asylum seeker doesn’t think federal immigration system will change, despite national policy shift
Dirty bathrooms. Guards who treat migrants roughly. Unsafe living conditions. This is what asylum seeker Juan Ángel Hernández Castillo said he lived through at Torrance County Detention Center in Estancia, New Mexico. And despite a recent national Immigrations and Customs Enforcement policy change spurred by another asylum seeker detained in New Mexico, Hernández Castillo isn’t […]
Family members of missing and murdered Indigenous people question FBI’s ability to address crisis
Before Daisy Mae Heath went missing in 1987, she told her sister Patricia Whitefoot to be aware of racism and cultural oppression against Native American people. That’s what Whitefoot (Yakama) keeps in mind still to this day when the Federal Bureau of Investigation looks into cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people. She’s never forgotten […]
Federal commission asks Indigenous communities to share stories on missing and murdered relatives
Daisy Mae Heath went missing just before Halloween in 1987. After 20 years, her sister Patricia Whitefoot was sent partial remains after federal law enforcement ruled the death a homicide. If alive, Daisy would be a Yakama Nation elder in her sixties. This is one story of many in the crisis of missing and murdered […]