Up to 15-months of rent, utility assistance available

As New Mexico families emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us find life incredibly different than it was 15 months ago. Our households, our communities, and our jobs have all been impacted and likely look very different now.

The pandemic was an indiscriminate hammer, fracturing the lives of people across the spectrum and far too many New Mexicans now find themselves struggling to make ends meet, or are employed, but behind on housing costs like mortgages, rent, or utilities.

Fortunately, thousands of renters in New Mexico are likely eligible to receive funds to cover up to 15 months of rent and utility payments. These...

Transparency issues often focus on elected bodies and whether they follow the law governing public meetings, or executive agencies and whether they comply with statutes like the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

Important questions, to be sure. But a judicial system that is open and accessible to the public is every bit as important, or perhaps more so, when we consider its role in a functioning democracy. It is the courts, after all, that arbitrate disputes on access issues involving other branches of government. And it is the courts and jury system that resolve civil disputes and ultimately decide whether criminal conduct merits the deprivation of liberty.

Chief Justice...

According to traffic statistics, Gallup has an extremely high rate of car/truck crashes.  The New Mexico Department of Transportation looked at all of the crashes in the Gallup area — driving, walking, biking, etc. The area around the Interstate 40/U.S. 491 interchange emerges as a top priority. According to an accompanying report, the interchange area has almost 15 percent of the crashes that occur in the Gallup area “making the facility unsafe and unreliable.”

The report indicates that a crash occurs approximately every three days in the interchange area. Over the last five years there have been over 200 rear-end, 121 side-swipe and 97 head-on accidents.

Remember that this...

Calls to cancel registration of flea, tick collar

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal legal petition April 8 at https://bit.ly/3dcSwq5, urging the Environmental Protection Agency to cancel the registration of the Seresto flea and tick collar which has been linked to the deaths of nearly 1,700 pets.

The EPA has received more than 75,000 complaints linking the flea collar to harms ranging from skin irritation to the death of pets. But the agency has taken no action to investigate the reports, recall the product, or issue a nationwide warning to the public of its potential dangers.

The EPA has defended its track record on the Seresto collar by claiming that the reports...