ALBUQUERQUE – New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas announced June 21 that Bernadette Etsitty was sentenced to 12 years for the DWI-based vehicular homicide of Roxana Saenz, the maximum allowed under the plea agreement. Etsitty was convicted by a guilty plea in April.

“Drunk driving devastates our families, and public safety depends on our state leaders to enforce accountability to keep dangerous drivers off the streets,’’ Balderas said.

On the evening of June 23, 2020, Etsitty drove drunk, swerving into oncoming traffic and crashing into a vehicle driven by 18-year-old Saenz. Saenz was killed instantly. Saenz had just graduated from Del Norte High School and was...

SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order protecting access to reproductive health care services in New Mexico on June 27, protecting medical providers from attempts at legal retribution and establishing that New Mexico will not entertain extradition attempts from other states relating to receiving or performing reproductive services.

“Today we have once again declared that we will take every available action to protect the rights and access to health care of anyone in New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham said. “As long as I am governor, abortion will continue to be legal, safe, and accessible in New Mexico.”

The executive order protects health care providers from...

It’s in the nature of emergencies that they’re unexpected and generally demand a response when there’s no time to think. Who do you call? Where do you go? What happens to your pets or livestock if you’re displaced?

Authorities in Gallup and McKinley County want to have answers for as many of those questions as possible before an emergency arises. Now, those answers include pets and livestock as well as people.

Counties are required to have emergency operations plans so they don’t have to figure out how to handle emergencies on the fly. That plan is broken into smaller components, including a Joint Shelter and Mass Care plan. It’s an agreement to respond and coordinate...

Gallup has a new budget for fiscal year 2023 – which starts next month – but it’s not quite as hefty as city departments had hoped, forcing the city to try to do more with less.

The  budget is just over $110,000, and it was approved June 14. It  includes over $34 million for operations and over $2 million for capital projects, for a total of over $36 million in general fund budget expenditures.

Some of those numbers might have been a little higher if the city council had approved a proposed 22.5% water rate hike earlier this year. Instead, the rate increase was set aside at council members’ request to look for a way to make it more palatable for citizens.

“We removed the...