Gallup Sun

For more than 30 years I’ve watched from the sidelines as the controversy over Native American team names has evolved.  Not decidedly in favor or opposed, I haven’t felt hugely impacted by names, logos, mascots, and other Native American imagery in professional and college sports.  As a Pueblo person from New Mexico, I’ve prioritized social and political concerns that in my view more directly impact contemporary Native people.  However, I also have Midwestern roots.

I was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan and there first acknowledged a different perspective when my older sister helped organize a protest in the neighboring city of Ypsilanti; challenging Eastern Michigan...

SANTA FE — Teresa Leger Fernandez, the first woman and first Latina Democratic nominee for New Mexico’s Third Congressional District, issued the following statement applauding the Supreme Court’s ruling in June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo to protect abortion access:

“Women and families across the nation are breathing a sigh of relief that these latest attacks on reproductive freedom have failed. The Supreme Court decision announced today (June 29) is an important victory for protecting abortion access and ensuring our community members can access the critical healthcare they need.

“But we know that this fight is not over. Donald Trump and his right-wing allies have made...

Washington, D.C. — U.S. House Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., issued the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law June 29 that would have closed all but one abortion clinic in that state.

“The Court’s ruling reaffirms women’s reproductive rights, and it sends the message that laws like the one passed in Louisiana, infringe on those rights by limiting access to safe abortions. While this will certainly not be the last time that extremist legislators around the country try to chip away at a woman’s right to choose, today’s decision is a victory for the generations of women, advocates, and allies who have fought to uphold this...

SANTA FE — Despite a once-in-a-generation pandemic and an economic collapse never experienced in our lifetime, the Trump administration has decided to press the Supreme Court of the United States to eliminate the Affordable Care Act in its entirety.

That would mean 24 million Americans losing their health insurance; people with pre-existing conditions being denied coverage or charged exorbitant rates because of their illness; eliminating the federal and state health insurance exchanges; removing children up to age 26 from their parents’ health insurance policy; and eliminating critical federal health care funding for Medicaid expansion and premium assistance.

There is never an...