Health providers announce diabetes initiative
The state Department of Health, Presbyterian Healthcare Service, and the University of New Mexico’s Project ECHO yesterday announced a series of programs aimed at the approximately 255,000 New Mexicans with diabetes, along with the 587,000 people who are prediabetic. According to a news release, each organization received five-year funding through Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants ($850,000 to DOH; $1 million each to Presbyterian and ECHO) to advance health equity for populations with or at risk of having diabetes—Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, in New Mexico’s case.
MLG creates new council for MMIWR
Gov Lujan Grisham announced this week her administration will create a new council to address the ongoing plight of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Her administration ended a prior task force last month, a move that has led to ongoing criticism from advocates. Officials said they are forming a new state council led by Pojoaque Pueblo Gov. Jenelle Roybal and Picuris Pueblo Gov. Craig Quanchello. The rest of the council’s makeup has not been disclosed.
State Supreme Court sides with Dems on redistricting lawsuit
Following oral arguments last week in a congressional redistricting lawsuit, the state Supreme Court yesterday affirmed Ninth Judicial District Judge Fred Van Soelen’s Oct. 6 ruling in Democrats’ favor in the Republican-led litigation. Van Soelen found that while Democrat lawmakers had participated in active attempts to “dilute the votes” of Republicans in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, their efforts had not constituted “egregious gerrymandering,” as outlined by the state Supreme Court in advance of the hearing.
The state Republican Party issued a statement saying it “is contemplating our next course of action in conference with our legal team,” and described itself as disappointed by the “ruling to uphold the gerrymandered map that disenfranchises the voices of conservative Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike and divides up vital industries.”