Health

Burnt up remnants from what used to be a house sit in a forest full of dead trees.

U.S. Forest Service says it’s not obligated to follow state law on prescribed burns

BY: - June 6, 2023

The U.S. Forest Service scheduled two prescribed burns last week in the southwest part of the state despite a red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service. Ultimately the agency burned the day before, but not the day of the warning. However, officials also said a new state law banning burning during red flag […]

Decarbonization ambitions ignite debate over mining, permitting

BY: - June 6, 2023

The decarbonized, electrified future envisioned by the Biden administration, state governments, automakers, utility companies and corporate sustainability goals depends to a huge degree on minerals and metals. Lots more lithium will be needed for car and truck batteries, as well as the big banks of batteries that are increasingly popping onto the electric grid to […]

COMMENTARY

Are you hungry? Prove it.

BY: - June 6, 2023

I want to thank the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives for reminding us that we are, in fact, not a Christian nation. Even though some within their own party insist that the nation was founded by a bunch of holy-rolling churchgoers, the conservatives have demonstrated their secular bonafides by insisting that people who […]

Half a million people in 11 states have lost Medicaid coverage since April

BY: - June 5, 2023

More than 500,000 people across 11 states have lost their Medicaid coverage since the unwinding of a policy that allowed people to stay in the program throughout the pandemic. The data, reported by the states and tracked by health policy researcher KFF, shows that of the five states providing data on people who lost Medicaid […]

New Mexico temporarily bans new oil and gas leases near schools

BY: - June 2, 2023

Nearly a month ago, plaintiffs sued New Mexico regarding pollution caused by the state’s robust oil and gas production. On Thursday, the state put a temporary halt on granting new fossil fuel leases near places where children and students gather. New Mexico Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard announced the moratorium Thursday morning with an executive […]

Judge halts efforts by city of Eunice to sue the state over abortion access

BY: - June 1, 2023

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 […]

GOP’s desired work requirements for federal aid would kick roughly 21M from anti-poverty programs

BY: - May 23, 2023

Congressional Republicans’ efforts to slash federal spending by tying work requirements to Medicaid and SNAP would have far-reaching consequences for people with mental health issues, chronic health problems, and some people with disabilities if enacted, policy experts on anti-poverty programs say. They say the work requirements as laid out by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s Limit, […]

Appeals court judges embrace anti-abortion speculation

BY: and - May 22, 2023

America’s major medical institutions and drug policy scholars have roundly denounced as “pseudoscience” many of the claims brought by anti-abortion groups in a high-profile federal lawsuit asking the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its 23-year-old approval of mifepristone, one half of a two-drug regimen that has become the most common form of pregnancy termination […]

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 25: Heat waves emanate from the exhaust pipe of a city transit bus as it passes an American flag hung on the Los Angeles County Hall of Justice by workers renovating the historic structure on April 25, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. The nation's second largest city, Los Angeles, has again been ranked the worst in the nation for ozone pollution and fourth for particulates by the American Lung Association in it's annual air quality report card. Ozone is a component of smog that forms when sunlight reacts with hydrocarbon and nitrous oxide emissions. Particulates pollution includes substances like dust and soot. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

With summer coming fast, regulator issues electric reliability warning

BY: - May 22, 2023

As much as two thirds of North America could face shortages of electricity this summer in the event of severe and protracted heat, according to the regulator in charge of setting and enforcing standards for the electric grid.  “Increased, rapid deployment of wind, solar and batteries have made a positive impact,” said Mark Olson, manager […]

Medical care at largest jail in N.M. to go public

BY: - May 19, 2023

New Mexico’s flagship hospital is expected this summer to begin sending its staff to treat people incarcerated while awaiting trial in the state’s largest jail. An advisory panel for the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County on Wednesday night endorsed a proposal to no longer rely on private companies to provide health care, and instead […]

New Mexico Program to Reduce Maternity Care Deserts in Rural Areas Fights for Survival

BY: - May 19, 2023

CLAYTON, N.M. — Thirteen weeks into her pregnancy, 29-year-old Cloie Davila was so “pukey” and nauseated that she began lovingly calling her baby “spicy.” Davila was sick enough that staffers at the local hospital gave her 2 liters of IV fluids and prescribed a daily regimen of vitamins and medication. This will be Davila’s third […]

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has said a state cannot bar a resident from traveling to another state to obtain an abortion because there is a constitutional right to interstate travel. (Photo by Astrid Riecken/Getty Images)

Lawmakers debate violence against abortion clinics, anti-abortion pregnancy centers

BY: - May 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — Republicans at a U.S. House hearing aired frustration with the Department of Justice this week for what they contended is a lack of enforcement of a Clinton-era law that protects access to reproductive health care at anti-abortion pregnancy centers and abortion clinics. GOP lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee expressed anger the Federal […]