Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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SANTA FE — Attorneys for the state Republican Party asked a judge Monday to bar New Mexico from conducting this year's congressional elections under the new map adopted in last year's special session, describing it as an illegal partisan gerrymander. Lawyers for the Legislature and Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, by contrast, urged the judge to dismiss the lawsuit altogether, contending the map complies with every requirement in the state Constitution. The clash played out before Clovis-based District Judge Fred Van S...
April is National Donate Life Month. And a total of 1,010,536 New Mexicans with driver’s licenses or state-issued identification cards are registered as donors, according to New Mexico Taxation and Revenue. Last year, through March 31, 2021 (the latest figures available) 74,540 out of about 136,000 people issued credentials during the preceding 12 months chose to become organ donors. That gave New Mexico a donor designation rate of around 55%, well above the national average of 47%. It’s heartening to know so many are willing...
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 project...
SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday signed into law a bill expanding the in-state preference that New Mexico-based businesses get when applying for government contracts. The new law, approved by lawmakers during this year's 30-day session without a single "no" vote, will also extend a bidding preference for veteran-owned businesses that would have expired in June. "Keeping more state dollars right here in New Mexico supports local businesses and grows our economy," Lujan Grisham said in a statement. "Smart p...
After posting a narrow victory at the GOP state pre-primary convention over the weekend, Jay Block declared himself as the “front runner” of New Mexico’s Republican crop of governor candidates and quickly went on the attack. He called for fellow GOP candidate Mark Ronchetti to drop out of the race, saying he “kicked the crap out of him” at the convention, and criticized another candidate who is facing an ethics complaint. Block, a Sandoval County commissioner and retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, said in an interv...
SANTA FE — With bipartisan support, legislators adopted a revised budget proposal Monday that would grow state spending by 14% as New Mexico enjoys a revenue boom, allowing new investments in education and public safety. The Senate voted 37-3 in favor of the plan, sending it back to the House. Under the proposal, New Mexico’s budget would grow to almost $8.5 billion, or about $1 billion more than this year’s spending plan. The legislation includes especially healthy raises for educators and State Police, in addition to reten...
Six bucks a month. With state revenues projected to exceed $9 billion, a paltry $6 a month, about the price of a pound of premium bacon. That’s how much a family would save under the latest “tax cut” package limping along with a week left in the Legislature’s 30-day session. The tax cut backed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham would reduce the state’s GRT base rate by 0.25 percentage points — from 5.125% to 4.875% — and only if state revenue levels remain high. But as state Rep. Jason Harper notes, this GRT cut would amount...
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 disease...
SANTA FE — “Guardedly optimistic” is how state Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said he feels regarding the chances that a $3.87 billion education budget makes it through this year’s short legislative session, underscoring his “year of literacy.” The House last week approved that budget, which now goes to the Senate — where, Steinhaus acknowledged, it could be amended, approved or rejected. Even so, “I’ve never seen the executive branch and the legislative branch come together so quickly and so clearly aligned,” he said...
From Cuba to Clovis, violent crime has surged in at least two dozen New Mexico communities, while fewer and fewer cases statewide are being solved by arrest. Law enforcement agencies are struggling to keep up. And in some places, property crimes aren't being prosecuted because there aren't enough officers to investigate them. Amid the spike in violent crime, the number of offenders sent to New Mexico state prisons on new charges has been dropping, with prison population down some 35% since 2015. The recent public safety...
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...
SANTA FE — With the start of a 30-day legislative session just one week away, a key House budget-writing committee started work Monday crafting a spending plan that would put an unprecedented New Mexico budget windfall to work. During a hearing at the state Capitol, the top budget official in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration said the executive branch would let lawmakers take the lead on bringing forward a plan for spending unallocated funds the state received under the federal American Rescue Plan Act. “At this...
A year ago, we witnessed what many historians and political scientists regard as the biggest threat to democracy in modern U.S. history. For a country that survived the Watergate scandal, the bloodshed of the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War protests, that’s saying something. Sadly, the threat persists even a year after the violent scene at the U.S. Capitol, where thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. They stormed the Capit...
Thirty years ago, farmers in dry eastern New Mexico were growing fields of winter wheat and cotton. Over time, many have switched to sorghum, which uses less water. But the Ogallala Aquifer is still on the decline. Megadrought and higher temperatures only add to water scarcity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded $750,000 to a research team at New Mexico Tech and New Mexico State University for a three-year project studying ways to address agricultural drought in the High Plains region of Quay, Curry, Roosevelt...
The last time state lawmakers were tasked with drawing new maps for the state House and Senate, it took more than a year of fiercely partisan wrangling, four trials and $5.6 million of litigation costs billed to taxpayers. The final House map crafted by a state District Court judge in 2012 and approved by the New Mexico Supreme Court pitted two incumbent Democrats against each other and two incumbent Republicans against each other for seats in the N.M. House of Representatives. The map, drawn by retired District Judge James...
The term “constitutional crisis” isn’t one that should be tossed around carelessly. And it might overstate the importance of the simmering dispute between Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and lawmakers of both political parties over who has authority to decide how to spend roughly $1.1 billion in unspent federal stimulus funding doled out by Washington, D.C., during the pandemic. But if it is an overstatement, it’s not by much - and the term “constitutional emergency of generational importance” used by two state senators ch...
SANTA FE — With many New Mexico cities and counties struggling to staff frontline positions, momentum could be building for legislation that would partially undo a 2010 law that bars retired public sector employees from going back to work while still collecting pension benefits. Several counties have passed resolutions supporting a “return-to-work” proposal, which received largely positive feedback during a Tuesday legislative hearing. Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque, said he’s working on a proposal for the upcoming 30-day...
Front-page headlines in recent editions of the Albuquerque Journal paint the picture of a system in crisis. • NM struggles with teacher vacancies; ‘Staggering number’ of 1,000 openings, up from 570 last year (Sept. 22). • Pandemic learning loss may lead to more school; After 43 of 89 districts reject adding days voluntarily, mandate a possibility (Sept. 23). • ‘Alarming’: NM education retirements increase 40%; Wave comes amid severe shortage of teachers (Sept. 25). As has been reported again and again, New Mexico’s K-12 syste...
A toxicology report reveals that a balloon pilot had marijuana and cocaine in his system when his balloon crashed, killing him and four others, including two former Clovis residents. The Federal Aviation Administration report states that the drugs were found in the blood and urine of Nick Meleski, 62. He died after his balloon struck power lines on June 26 and plummeted to the ground near Central and Unser NW in Albuquerque. Also killed in the crash were passengers Martin...
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...
SANTA FE — The more contagious COVID-19 variant flooding New Mexico is reaching vaccinated residents, not just the unvaccinated. In fact, fully vaccinated individuals made up 19% of new COVID-19 infections and 13% of hospitalizations in a recent four-week period, according to a Journal analysis of state data. The numbers do demonstrate that unvaccinated people still make up the vast majority of New Mexico’s coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, even amid the recent surge. But vaccinated residents have been caught in the...
SANTA FE — As Albuquerque faces a record-breaking year of homicides and reels from a school shooting, New Mexico lawmakers said Monday they will ask Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to add crime and firearms legislation to the agenda of the next regular session. No consensus emerged Monday, but the ideas include imposing tougher criminal penalties, authorizing extra money to hire more police officers and requiring gun owners to lock up their firearms. The discussion comes as legislators prepare for two legislative sessions — a spe...
ALBUQUERQUE — On Friday — the third day of the school year — students at Washington Middle School took their lunch break a little after noon, many gathering outside. Amari Asbury, 13, was playing basketball when he heard the sound of gunfire. “I heard boom, boom, boom, boom, boom five times,” said Asbury, speaking with the Journal as he was picked up from school by his mother. “Me and my friend, we thought it came from the park ... Then his best friend came over crying and everything. What happened? He just got shot.” Poli...
SANTA FE — In an attempt to put low-income workers on more solid financial footing, New Mexico lawmakers in recent years have approved a minimum wage increase and a paid sick leave requirement, among other policies. The newest debate on the horizon could center on guaranteed basic income, a policy that provides low-income residents with regular financial payments. At least two New Mexico cities — Las Cruces and Santa Fe — are already considering, or moving forward with, targeted guaranteed basic income pilot projects and s...
A medical sales representative who also owns an indoor shooting range on Sunday became the sixth Republican to announce an attempt to unseat the state’s Democratic governor. Louie Sanchez, 56, announced his campaign in a news release that targeted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, in part for her handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the state. Sanchez’s work takes him to cities and towns across the state, where he said dilapidated main streets signal a need for change. “You go down the main streets of these towns and they...
