Posted inAlbuquerque, State Government

Lawmakers want attorney general to create new task force on missing and murdered Indigenous people

By Bella Davis/NM In Depth Five New Mexico lawmakers want the state attorney general to establish a task force focused on missing and murdered Indigenous people.  They’ve made the request via Senate Joint Memorial 2, which they introduced this week. The memorial puts on display the disagreement some lawmakers have with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s quiet shuttering last year of […]

Posted inHousing & Homelessness, New Mexico, State Government

$500 million for affordable housing clears first committee

 PATRICK LOHMANN/ Source New Mexico A Senate committee on Monday approved legislation that would put half a billion dollars toward affordable housing in New Mexico – a huge investment that one lawmaker said is necessary to stem the tide of homelessness and rising housing costs in the state. Sen. Nancy Rodriguez (D-Santa Fe) acknowledged that […]

Posted inBernCo, crime-courts

How a cry for food sparked Christmas Day trouble in New Mexico’s largest jail for kids

By Joshua Bowling/Searchlight New Mexico The sun was setting as parents waited for the Christmas Day call from their incarcerated children, unaware of the fraught situation that had broken out hours earlier: a so-called “riot” at New Mexico’s largest jail for kids. The news media were depicting a violent uprising inside the Bernalillo County Youth […]

Posted inAlbuquerque, Education

And then there were two

Albuquerque Public Schools announced today that one of the three superintendent finalists chosen by the Board of Education last week, has withdrawn from the search. Mason Bellamy, who currently serves as the Chief of Academics and Schools for Metro Nashville Public Schools, informed the search firm over the weekend that he is no longer pursuing […]

Posted inNew Mexico, State Government

Bill would stop libraries from banning books

Nicole Maxwell/Source New Mexico A bill in the state legislature proposes preventing public libraries from banning books based on political or religious views from what one of the bill’s sponsors calls “hate groups.” HB 123 aims to prevent public libraries from receiving funding if they do not adopt and comply with the American Library Association’s Library Bill […]

Posted inAlbuquerque, crime-courts, internationaldist

Police charge the “Wobbly Tire Bandit” with 122 felonies

APD detectives charged Abie Chavez, identified as the “Wobbly Tire Bandit,” with 122 felonies and cleared 23 cases after an investigation revealed he was linked to approximately 34 burglary cases.  In October 2023, APD learned of the “Wobbly Tire Bandit” when a series of crimes were reported of a male flagging down elderly women, advising […]

Posted inAlbuquerque, Education

APS narrows superintendent search to three

After about three hours of second-round virtual interviews, in an executive session that began shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday and ended at about 1:45 p.m., the APS Board of Education chose Thomas Ahart, Mason Bellamy and Gabriella Durán Blakey as finalists for the APS superintendent post.  The three were among four semi-finalists, including Channell Segura, and […]