State working to launch new livestock inspector program to fill ‘critical’ need

Owner of well-drilling company says he was ‘just doing what I was asked to do’ under federal contract

Local officials said in addition to grappling with natural disasters, they were also responding to a new AI news outlet named Prism McKinley County that they say has regularly published false and misleading information in a time of crisis.

For instance, within the last week, Prism published a story about a woman drowning in floods, but the death occurred last year, according to Matt Robinson, Gallup’s tourism and marketing manager. The misleading story caused people to believe the recent floods caused her death, he said. The recent flooding has not caused any deaths or injuries, according to city officials.

“They’re taking things that happened years ago that are negative, bringing them to light, scaring people, and sharing false information,” Robinson said. “It’s really not a good thing.”

Other misleading or false stories include one July 18 that reported that two women were robbed and beaten at a Walmart. The article goes on to say that the robbery actually occurred March 3, 2020, and Police Chief Erin Toadlena-Pablo told Source NM she does not know where the outlet got its information.

Beginning Saturday, roughly 500 Democratic Party of New Mexico members will begin casting ballots to replace Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver as the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor in the Nov. 3 general election.

Toulouse Oliver dropped out of the race June 18 citing health reasons shortly after handily winning the June 2 primary election against State Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque). In the month since, candidates waged a mini-campaign targeted at members of the Democratic Party’s State Central Committee, composed of party insiders that members elect at the county level.

Four candidates — Pope, Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard, Geoffrey Luehring and Toni Pinedo — have jumped in to replace Toulouse Oliver, though Pope and Garcia Richard have done the most campaigning. Haaland endorsed Garcia Richard as her running mate.

The New Mexico Environment Department will hold a public hearing in Sunland Park in October over whether to approve data center Project Jupiter’s controversial air quality permit application.

Developer Yucca Growth Infrastructure’s application shows plans to use fuel cell technology to power the OpenAI and Oracle data center. The technology can convert natural gas, biogas or hydrogen into electricity and documents filed as part of the air quality permit application shows they rely on natural gas pipelines. The permit, if approved, would allow the project to emit more greenhouse gases annually than Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined.

New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard this week again shot down a proposal to build part of a natural gas pipeline for the controversial Project Jupiter data center on state land.

Lawyers for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department on Thursday argued that a Republican lawsuit before the state Supreme Court over the state’s universal childcare program is “less a legal challenge than a political lament.”

Just a week after filing new documentation alleging New Mexico Corrections Department probation officers’ widespread coordination with federal immigration officers, the State Ethics Commission on Friday announced it was proceeding with a lawsuit against Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero.

The new lawsuit, brought under a state law passed in 2025 prohibiting such coordination, marks a more direct approach to forcing the Corrections Department to cease the practice, SEC Deputy Director Amelia Bierle told Source NM on Friday.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Thursday released a letter sent to U.S Department of Justice officials contending the federal agency has delayed release of multiple records related to the state’s criminal investigation of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s activities at his Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe.

The June 30 letter asserts that the heavily redacted “open-source” records establish multiple survivors brought to Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County “on numerous occasions, where they were subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation.” Moreover, those records, Torrez writes, show that the USDOJ has records that contain the names of survivors, witnesses, co-conspirators and others the New Mexico Department of Justice needs to “fulfill its obligation to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct” that occurred in the state. Thus far, he says, New Mexico’s efforts to “obtain these materials through cooperative means have been extensive” and unsuccessful, with more than 130 days passing since the AG’s initial request.

The New Mexico Department of Justice recently published the results of a yearslong investigation into Gallup-McKinley County Schools and found that the district disproportionately disciplines Native American and Hispanic students, causing them to miss exponentially more instructional time than other students across the state.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s report, published Thursday, found that the district’s students lose “at least twice as many” instructional days as those in other New Mexico districts to out-of-school suspensions. It’s even higher for Native American and Hispanic students, who lose “roughly eight to 10 times” and three to four times as many school days as their white peers, according to the report.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland greatly outraised Republican opponent Gregg Hull in the month following the June 3 primary election, according to the latest reports that campaigns provided to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.

Haaland’s haul of more than $750,000 in more than 15,000 donations between June 4 and June 27 continues the fundraising dominance she demonstrated during the Democratic primary, during which she raised more than $12 million. That was nearly three times as much as her opponent, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman.

A coalition of New Mexico residents are pushing to save the nearly 80-year-old Sunspot Solar Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains near Alamogordo, after the National Science Foundation announced its plans to demolish the site.

The U.S. Air Force in 1947 announced it would fund a solar observatory dedicated to researching solar flares and sunspots — within eyesight of the White Sands Missile Range. The National Science Foundation took over operations in the mid-1970s and a consortium including New Mexico State University has overseen operations of the visitor’s center and Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope since 2017.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham spoke alongside local, state and law enforcement officials Monday to announce that they plan to pursue restitution from the federal government over allegations that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials knowingly let fentanyl shipments into New Mexico.

Mayors, district attorneys and sheriffs from across New Mexico joined Lujan Grisham in condemning the federal government’s alleged actions, which were detailed in a whistleblower complaint first reported by the Albuquerque Journal and the Associated Press. In one instance, a whistleblower alleged that agents stood by while 1.8 million fentanyl pills were trafficked in hopes of catching higher-ranking dealers and suppliers down the line.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Friday announced he was opening a formal investigation into allegations recently reported by the Associated Press and the Albuquerque Journal that Drug Enforcement Administration officials declined to seize large fentanyl shipments in New Mexico in hopes of catching high-level dealers and suppliers further down the line.

Deb Haaland, the former U.S. Interior secretary who soundly secured the Democratic nomination to be New Mexico’s next governor, on Friday endorsed Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard for lieutenant governor as state party officials prepare to select Haaland’s running mate.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver defeated state Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque) for the Democratic lieutenant governor nomination in the June 2 primary election. However, Toulouse Oliver abruptly dropped out of the race last week, citing her health, which set in motion a statewide search for her replacement.

A landspout tore through parts of Los Lunas, damaging cars and knocking out power for a few minutes but hurting no one.

The storm moved through Thursday evening near the Home Depot parking lot, where employees said a typical monsoon quickly turned into something they had never seen before.

“People were running inside from the outside. And then next thing I know, it’s raining really hard, like really, really hard,” said Rosemarie Armijo.

Armijo said she later saw damage across the parking lot, with branches scattered around and broken car windows.