N.M. loses ground in some areas, moves from 48 to 49 in Child Poverty

ALBUQUERQUE, - It’s a case of good news/bad news for New Mexico’s children in the 2019 New Mexico Kids Count Data Book. The most notable change in the annual accounting of child well-being, which was released Jan. 15 by New Mexico Voices for Children shows an improvement in child poverty rates. The data book also shows that teen birth rates, child health insurance rates, and preschool attendance, among other indicators, have also improved over time.

But that’s countered by the bad news. While our child poverty rate has improved - from 27% in last year’s data book to 26% in this year’s report - New Mexico...

Week ending Friday, January 17, 2020


Greenhouse Earth

Weather agencies of the United States and United Nations calculate that 2019 was the second-hottest year on record, with the global warming threatening to unleash even more severe weather events in the future.  Worldwide, last year’s heat across the planet’s land surface was second only to that recorded in 2016. A new study also found that Earth’s oceans have warmed to a level not seen before in modern history.  Researchers say this is because most of the accumulating heat from the greenhouse effect has so far been absorbed by the oceans. The past decade was also the hottest on record.

Earthquakes

An aftershock of Puerto...

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer offered condolences to the family of Sophie Yazzie, who died Jan.25 in Tucson, Ariz. at the age of 105.  Yazzie was the longest-living veteran in the state of Ariz.

She was a member of the Navajo Nation, born in 1914 in Canyon de Chelly, Ariz.

At the age of 28, Yazzie enlisted with the U. S. Army Air Corps and served during World War II until she was honorably discharged. Following her time in the military, she returned home and worked at Wingate Boarding School.

She had four children with her late husband Jordan B. Yazzie. She was grandmother to five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren...

Group presents follow up to landmark 2018 case

Public education in New Mexico was under the microscope when parents and elected officials gathered at the Gallup-McKinley County Schools Student Support Services boardroom Jan. 15 at a forum organized by Transform Education N.M.

Transform Education N.M.is a coalition of education, tribal and community leaders with the goal of advancing a new vision for the state’s public education system and holding the state accountable to fulfill the constitutional rights of its students.

CASE BACKGROUND

The central topic was the outcome the Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico lawsuit filed in 2017, which is based on the legal claim that the...