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ABQ City Council makes it a crime to loiter or camp near drainage ditches, citing drowning risk
The Albuquerque City Council this week approved a measure criminalizing camping or loitering along the city’s diversion ditches, an effort they say will cut down on drowning risk to the public and first responders. In 2021, four people who “domicile or loiter in stormwater channels” drowned, according to a report reviewed by the Albuquerque City […]
NM evictions at 65% of normal rate, Supreme Court Justice says at White House event
Eviction filings in New Mexico have stayed at below-average rates despite the lifting of state and federal eviction bans imposed during the pandemic, New Mexico’s Chief Supreme Court Justice said during a virtual White House event Tuesday. Justice Shannon Bacon, who became chief justice earlier this year, was one of several speakers chosen nationally to […]
Hotel chain in NM used ‘egregious’ tactics in pandemic to force out tenants, report finds
A congressional report on a national extended-stay hotel chain with properties in New Mexico found the corporation lied to tenants, turned off amenities, towed vehicles and otherwise engaged in “egregious” and “illegal” tactics to force people out of their homes despite pandemic-related eviction bans. Siegel rooms are often the last housing people with low incomes […]
‘We’re stable here.’ Residents say ABQ’s Coronado Park provides what a shelter can’t.
News of the Coronado Park closure filtered through to residents quickly enough. The day after Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller’s announcement, many were already thinking through their options. But no option seems great, several people said in interviews with Source New Mexico. The Westside Emergency Housing Center is crowded and feels like jail because it used […]
ABQ mayor to close Coronado Park, uprooting encampment amid housing shortage
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller released more details Tuesday about his decision to close Coronado Park where about 100 unsheltered people reside. Keller, in a news conference across the street from the park, said the decision to break up the longtime camp partly comes from increased violence there. It’s also finally time to do something about […]
After fire and flood, ash chokes acequias in northern NM
Grace Vigil peered through the blinds of her mobile home near Mora last week and, seeing the wall of water rushing toward her, realized how few options she had. To her left was Cañoncito Creek, which had swelled over its banks, growing large and fast enough to carry trees and debris at high speed. To […]
After passing US House, Hermits Peak Fire aid act won’t hit the Senate for weeks
A bipartisan effort to get more money in the hands of victims of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire is on its way to the United States Senate after clearing the House on Thursday, but it won’t be considered again until at least September. The bill is an effort to fully compensate those who lost homes […]
Ronchetti has to walk a fine line on abortion as election nears, expert says
New Mexico’s Republican candidate for governor emphasized in public comments that the overturn of Roe v. Wade is a chance for “measured dialogue” on abortion and that his position — that abortion should be banned after 15 weeks, with exceptions — is “a very reasonable position that most in New Mexico will support.” That Mark […]
State to hire two uranium mine officials, a first step in cleanup effort
One of the new jobs will be advertised in early August and will pay between $67,000 and $108,000. The other job will be advertised sometime this fall and will pay between $58,000 and $97,000.
Three things FEMA could do better, according to a Congresswoman fielding NM fire victims’ calls
When the ash finally settles from the biggest fire in New Mexico history, it will take congressional might to change how the Federal Emergency Management Agency handles disasters like the one here, according to the member of Congress whose district is left scarred by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon blaze. U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez said […]
FEMA reverses course on ‘safe-to-occupy’ home after pressure. But what about everyone else?
After initial denials, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reversed course and will provide the maximum in disaster aid to a family whose house was the first destroyed by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire. The agency previously provided four reasons to deny aid to Kathryn Mahan and her family for their destroyed home in Las Dispensas. […]
Roads flooded, barn damaged, but not ‘worst-case scenario’ yet in the burn scar, reports indicate
The National Weather Service got at least seven reports of flooding over the weekend in the scar of the biggest fire in state history. Residents of northern New Mexico have been watching rain clouds with a sense of dread since the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon wildfire burned more than 340,000 acres of the Santa Fe National […]