Gov & Politics
Biden delivers speech during Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado Springs
President Joe Biden gave a commencement address during a ceremony Thursday at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He congratulated each member of the class of 2023 after they received diplomas in the academy’s 65th graduation ceremony. Hundreds of families crowded into Falcon Stadium on the Air Force Academy campus under a cloudy […]
Agricultural producers share concerns about new federal environmental protection proposal
New Mexico rancher Bret Riley is concerned a new federal rule that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management wants to set in place could interfere with his agricultural business. Leroy Romero, a retired electrical engineer, didn’t know much about the proposed rule until recently but has questions about how it’ll affect his outdoor hunting and […]
Judge halts efforts by city of Eunice to sue the state over abortion access
A judge has stayed a lawsuit filed by the city of Eunice, after the city tried to sue the state over a law related to access to reproductive and transgender healthcare. In a hearing Tuesday, Judge Lee A. Kirksey of the Fifth Judicial District Court granted the state’s request to stay a lawsuit filed by the […]
Failed NM House candidate facing federal election interference charges after shootings
A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday unsealed an indictment accusing a candidate for the New Mexico House of Representatives of orchestrating violent interference in the 2022 midterm election. A week earlier, a federal grand jury charged Solomon Peña, 40, with crimes related to a spree of shootings targeting four elected officials in the Albuquerque area […]
Here’s what your New Mexico lawmakers are doing for the rest of the year
Although New Mexico’s legislative session does not begin until January 2024, lawmakers and legislative staff will be working throughout the summer at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe and in places across the state to study and set agendas for the state moving forward. Below are some of the goals outlined in the Legislative Finance Committee’s […]
Feds update map detailing New Mexico internet access, revised after inaccuracies
A federal map, released on Tuesday, lays out who does and doesn’t have reliable, high-speed internet access in New Mexico. After errors in the map released previously, the updated version could make the difference in the state getting hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money to set up broadband. New Mexico’s broadband officials have […]
New Mexico trying to build and train new workforce for broadband expansion
Tamara Rosenberg successfully wrote a grant to get Luna County $75,000 to help set up high-speed internet for rural New Mexicans. The problem? There isn’t much of a workforce to pay to get broadband going. “We don’t have enough people with skill sets to make the materials, to install the materials, to know how to […]
Symbols of the Confederacy are slowly coming down from US military bases
Without much fanfare, a federal panel is removing the names of Confederate generals from U.S. military bases and replacing them with names that exemplify modern-day values and patriotism. Most recently, on May 11, 2023, the U.S. Army base in Georgia originally named after Confederate Brig. Gen. Henry Benning was renamed Fort Moore after both Lt. […]
Federal grants no longer enough to fully connect Native communities to high-speed internet
SANTA CLARA PUEBLO — While the sun beamed down on old adobe houses outside on Wednesday, a group of tribal and federal officials gathered inside to analyze a mostly red map detailing a lack of good internet access across Santa Clara Pueblo. Work is in progress to change that. Last year, Santa Clara Pueblo was […]
Boots on the Ground
Stewart Rhodes, the infamous leader of the anti-government Oath Keeper militia, was standing on a street in Conroe, Texas, a city about 40 miles north of Houston. The sky was clear blue, but remnants of darker days were everywhere. Residents were shoveling up splintered lumber and debris. A boy holding a broom was halfheartedly scooping […]
The COVID vaccine deniers and QAnon believers coming to speak at the Arizona legislature
A special committee created by the Arizona legislature to examine the state’s response to COVID-19 will feature a litany of speakers who have spread disinformation about the pandemic, vaccines, spoken at QAnon events and have conspiratorial beliefs about the virus, including believing it will usher in the “mark of the beast.” And the two-day hearing […]
NM fiscal experts outline plans to track record spending by state agencies
The “once-in-history” money approved by the 2023 New Mexico Legislature is ready to spend, and the Legislative Finance Committee is tracking the agencies and projects while building priorities for the next year before lawmakers return in January. Oil and gas revenues boosted the budget by more than $3.6 billion – even as New Mexico is […]