SANTA FE – The New Mexico Department of Health announced plans to relocate Turquoise Lodge Hospital in Bernalillo County to the former Gibson Medical Center at 5400 Gibson Blvd SE in Albuquerque to expand their services.

The relocation, announced Sept. 24, will help align both state and county resources to better address the behavioral health and substance misuse treatment needs in New Mexico. The move will take place in December 2018.

Moving TLH enables both government entities to expand their current substance misuse treatment services in New Mexico, resulting in increased resources to New Mexicans.

Turquoise Lodge Hospital serves as the hub for NMDOH’s drug and alcohol treatment...

ALBUQUERQUE  – Attorney General Hector Balderas announced Sept. 25 a sentence in excess of life imprisonment for Ameer Muhammad, the man convicted of the Albuquerque murder of Aaron Sieben in 2017.

Muhammad was found guilty of first degree felony murder, armed robbery, and shoplifting in July after Balderas took the case to trial.

“We have worked tirelessly to provide justice for Mr. Sieben’s family," Attorney General Hector Balderas said. "Today, they can finally know that the man who has caused them so much pain has been punished to the fullest extent provided by law.”

In March, 2017, Muhammad attacked Sieben near an Albuquerque gas station, fatally stabbing him, before...

Red Rocks Care Center HAS history of violations

Nothing could have prepared a Gallup family for what they allegedly found a day after they left a 93-year-old loved one at the Red Rocks Care Center in Gallup.

Dorothy Kein-Monahan was admitted to Red Rocks, 3720 Church Rock Rd., on Sept. 12 after an August surgery at the Gallup Indian Medical Center to remove her gallbladder.

Serena Penaloza, Kein-Monahan’s granddaughter, said the family hoped the staff would help aid their grandmother in her recovery. But when they returned to the facility the following day, they allegedly found Kein-Monahan wearing clothes that neither fit nor belonged to her, and she was not fully dressed...

Friends, colleagues remember Matt Wright fondly

Matt Wright, who retired after 20 years with the Gallup Police Department, died this past weekend after a short bout with cancer. He was 53.

“It was a shock to hear of his passing,” Gallup City Manager Maryann Ustick said. “He was so young.”

Born and raised in Gallup, Wright spent most of his adult life with the Gallup Police Department, rising from the ranks of patrolman to serving, at various times in his career, as a detective and public information officer.

He headed the department’s SWAT team for a while and at the time of his retirement was a lieutenant in charge of the department’s narcotics unit.

“He was probably...