New Mexico education secretary resigns, + More

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New Mexico education secretary resigns - By Nash Jones, KUNM News

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Wednesday evening that the head of the New Mexico Public Education Department has stepped down. Secretary Arsenio Romero’s resignation is effective immediately, according to the announcement.

The governor said in a statement that she appreciated Romero’s service and wished him “the best in his future endeavors.”

That may include a new top job at New Mexico State University. According to the announcement, Romero is one of five finalists in the search for a new president of the Las Cruces university.

The Governor’s Office has not yet not named an interim secretary, saying only that Lujan Grisham and her staff would, “begin interviewing candidates to replace Romero…immediately.”

Death toll is now 8 in listeria outbreak tied to Boar's Head deli meat, CDC says - By Jonel Aleccia, AP Health Writer

At least eight people have died after being infected with listeria from Boar's Head deli meats tied to a massive recall last month, federal health officials said Wednesday.

The new food poisoning toll includes two deaths in South Carolina plus one each in Florida, New Mexico and Tennessee, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Three deaths were previously confirmed in people who lived in Illinois, New Jersey and Virginia.

At least 57 people have been sickened and hospitalized in the outbreak. Illnesses were reported starting in late May and have continued into August, the agency said. It's the largest listeria outbreak in the U.S. since 2011, and Boar's Head has recalled more than 7 million pounds of deli products.

Listeria infections are caused by a hardy type of bacteria that can survive and even thrive during refrigeration. An estimated 1,600 people get listeria food poisoning each year and about 260 die, according to the CDC. Infections can be hard to pinpoint because symptoms may occur quickly — or up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food.

The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those who are pregnant or those with weakened immune systems.

The problem was discovered when a Boar's Head liverwurst sample collected by health officials in Maryland tested positive for listeria. Further testing showed that the type of bacteria was the same strain causing illnesses in people.

Boar's Head officials originally recalled liverwurst and other products meant to be sliced in retail delis with sell-by dates from July 25 to August 30. On July 29, the recall was expanded to include all foods produced at the firm's plant in Jarratt, Virginia. The products included those sliced at deli counters as well as some prepackaged retail sausage, frankfurters and bacon.

All the recalled deli meats have been removed from stores and are no longer available, Boar's Head officials said on the company's website. The products were distributed to stores nationwide, as well as to the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama, U.S. Agriculture Department officials said.

CDC officials urged consumers to check their refrigerators for the recalled products. Look for EST. 12612 or P-12612 inside the USDA mark of inspection on the product labels, some of which have sell-by dates that extend into October. Discard recalled foods and thoroughly clean and sanitize refrigerator and other surfaces they touched.

Many illnesses caused by food poisoning are short-lived, but listeria infections can have devastating effects.

In Virginia, Gunter "Garshon" Morgenstein, of Newport News, died on July 18 from a brain infection caused by listeria bacteria, an illness that was confirmed to be linked to the contaminated Boar's Head products.

Morgenstein, 88, was a German-born Holocaust survivor who moved to Canada and then the U.S. as a young man and later became a flamboyant hair stylist, according to his son, Garshon Morgenstein. During his 70-year career, his father styled celebrities such as the singer Tom Jones and was known for his funny, outgoing personality, Garshon Morgenstein said.

Gunter Morgenstein enjoyed liverwurst, usually spread on bagels, and bought it regularly, insisting on the Boar's Head brand because he believed it was top quality, his son said.

He fell ill in early July and was hospitalized on July 8, eventually becoming so sick that doctors said he suffered permanent brain damage and was unlikely to recover. Family members withdrew life support, his son said.

After Morgenstein's death, a review of receipts showed that he bought the recalled deli meat tied to the outbreak on June 30. The family has hired a lawyer, Houston-based Ron Simon.

"It's really just a senseless accident and tragedy for something that just should not have ever happened," his son said. "He still had many good years left."

Bernalillo County manager contract approved - By Rodd Cayton, City Desk ABQ

Bernalillo County officially has its next manager.

Cindy Chavez will start in the job Nov. 13 after county commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to approve her employment contract.

Chavez will make $230,000 a year to start, with possible annual merit-based pay increases. She replaces Julie Morgas Baca, who retired at the end of June.

Chavez will supervise more than 2,500 people and a budget of more than $1 billion.

County Attorney Ken Martinez said the contract is in line with what other governments are paying and fits an executive wage analysis the county recently performed. He noted that Morgas Baca made $215,000 last year and said Doña Ana County recently hired a new manager at a salary of $220,000.

Appearing remotely, Chavez said she enjoyed the process leading to her hire.

“I want to say how honored I would be to serve as your county executive, and I enjoyed meeting everybody there that I’ve had an opportunity to meet,” she told commissioners.

Commission Chair Barbara Baca said she anticipates a smooth transition, as Chavez has visited the area a few times since being chosen and will return before starting the job. She said Chavez has been working closely with interim county manager Shirley Ragin as she prepares to take over.

Chavez is currently a member of the Santa Clara County (California) Board of Supervisors. She was chosen after a national search that resulted in interviews of 10 applicants and a forum at which three finalists met with commissioners and the public.

The four-year contract also calls for the county to provide Chavez with a vehicle for her official duties and limited personal use, and pay for job-related memberships in professional societies and associations, as well as dues or fees necessary to maintain licenses or bonds. She will also be entitled to Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico participation, with the county contributing $20,000 a year on her behalf, as well as some moving expenses.

Chavez was born in Alamogordo and has family members who live in the East Mountains.

OTHER ITEMS

Commissioners also approved allocating more than $763,000 for the Department of Behavioral Health’s CARE Campus detox center. Of that, $463,216 will go toward additional staffing for the observation and assessment unit. The four additional nurses will ensure the unit can maintain 24-hour operations and accommodate the growing number of people seeking emergency behavioral health support, county staff said.

The CARE Campus is already a 24-hour operation, county spokesperson Estevan Vásquez said Wednesday, but the focus is on provision of services during the day.

Also approved was $300,000 for the implementation and maintenance of the Unite Us closed-loop referral platform. Staff said the project, a collaboration with the City of Albuquerque, will streamline the referral process among social service providers, ensuring clients receive coordinated and comprehensive care.

Las Vegas to get $98 million to replace water treatment facilities after 2022 wildfire damage - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico

The town of Las Vegas will soon receive $98 million to replace its water treatment facilities damaged more than two years ago in the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, officials announced Tuesday afternoon.

The April 2022 wildfire, which is the biggest in state history, caused debris flows and floods that polluted the city’s reservoirs. It also turned the Gallinas River black for a short period as it trickled under a bridge into the town of 12,000. Congress approved nearly $4 billion to compensate families, businesses and governments for their losses in the fire, caused by two botched federal prescribed burns.

Included in the $3.95 billion appropriation was $140 million specifically for the City of Las Vegas to repair its water systems. At a special City Council meeting Tuesday, the city and the federal claims office overseeing the compensation fund inked a “memorandum of agreement” that allows the city to receive what it calls the “first installment” toward fixing its water problems.

Post-fire flooding has occurred in and around the burn scar, often flowing into the city’s drinking water supply, repeatedly since the fires.

A huge flood event June 21 caused major infrastructure damage and prompted the city to place water restrictions on households and local businesses, including car washes and laundromats. The last of those restrictions was lifted a week ago.

After the June 21 floods, town officials said they recognized the “severity and complexity” of the adopted a “new approach” to the city’s water challenges, based on recommendations from the Sulzer Group, a consulting firm the city hired.

“While the original plan concentrated mainly on the need of water treatment facilities, the current administration recognized the necessity of broadening their strategy,” according to the news release from the City of Las Vegas. “This expanded approach now includes not only the repair and upgrading of infrastructure but also a comprehensive reassessment of emergency response protocols, flood management systems, and community resilience measures.”

‘A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE’

Previous water restrictions have required restaurants to serve food on plastic plates and water in bottles. Residents have regularly received notices in their mailboxes about potential contaminants in the water supply. At one point in summer 2022, the city had only a couple weeks of water left.

Las Vegas Mayor David Romero did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon, but he said in a news release that Tuesday was a “significant milestone for the City of Las Vegas and its future in water sustainability.”

In February 2023, the city received $2.6 million to pay for engineering reports related to the water system.

The memorandum signed in the small town on Tuesday authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is overseeing the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Claims Office, to pay $98 million to the city. That is the most-recent estimate for costs to replace water treatment facilities and systems, though it notes that “additional funding may be required” as designs are completed and construction begins.

The city is required to submit a scope of work and ensure that all payments go solely to the water treatment problem. The city and the federal claims office will also begin meeting every 30 days, according to the memorandum.

It’s not clear from the memorandum when the process could be completed or how much work has already been done to complete the project, but it lays out a 12-month planning phase, a 23-month design phase, a 3-month bid phase and a 34-month construction phase. That totals six years.

Jay Mitchell, director of the FEMA claims office overseeing the nearly $4 billion compensation fund, said in the news release Tuesday that the funding will help the city build a sustainable and effective solution to the city’s long-term water needs.

“The project will provide access to clean, safe drinking water to the City of Las Vegas — an achievement that is crucial for the health and well-being of its residents,” Mitchell said. “It is gratifying to see this initiative progressing.”

Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office is interested in using AI chatbots to write crime reports - By Sean Murphy and Matt O'Brien Associated Press , Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News

Police officers are starting to use artificial intelligence to help write crime reports.

Pulling from the sounds of an officer's body camera, an AI tool sold by Axon is based on the same technology as ChatGPT. It can churn out the first draft of an incident report in seconds.

Officers who've tried it in Oklahoma City and other police departments are enthused about the time-saving technology.

Some prosecutors, police watchdogs and legal scholars have concerns about how it could alter a fundamental document in the criminal justice system that plays a role in who gets prosecuted or imprisoned.

The Albuquerque Journal reports the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office is looking into the technology in hopes of cutting down on deputy paperwork, allowing for more time to be spent on policing.

Spokesperson Jayme Gonzales told the Journal that the sheriff’s office is still in the research phase and that testing the technology is still “well over a year out.”

Gonzales said deputies spend around 40% of their hours writing reports. He called the potential of AI doing that work a “game changer,” as long as the roll-out is done well.

The Albuquerque Police Department and New Mexico State Police, which both use Axon body-worn cameras, did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.

Homelessness project that meets 3,000+ needs more funding, NM health leaders say - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico

A New Mexico Department of Health project designed to meet people experiencing homelessness in rural communities with barriers to transportation, language and services needs more funding.

The call came from a presentation to state lawmakers from the department’s appointed boss, Patrick Allen. The health department secretary advised the New Mexico Legislative Health and Human Services Interim Committee on Monday that the $4 million appropriated from the legislature last year needs to grow.

“We’re not trying to deal with homelessness comprehensively in this project. This is really looking at a slice of it,” Allen said.

He added that challenges people face connecting with services are compounded in more rural settings, including fewer services available and longer distances to reach them.

Homelessness is an issue for at least 4,600 people in the state, according to the 2024 Point in Time Count that took a rough estimate of the number of people in the state experiencing homelessness on Jan. 29.

The majority of people in this situation are in Albuquerque, the report shows.

The point in time count relies on volunteers to conduct a head count in their area in one day. It is recognized as being an undercount that gives just a snapshot into the night of homelessness in America.

Not all counties in New Mexico participated in the count. In 2024, 20 out of the 33 counties had organizations and volunteers who participated. Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln and Quay gave responses for the first time.

The state partnered with 13 community organizations offering services in 19 counties throughout New Mexico, Allen said. Areas that received expanded assistance from the state included Farmington, Española, Santo Domingo Pueblo, Roswell, Silver City and Las Cruces.

WHO DID THE STATE MEET?

Mobile units reached over 3,000 unhoused people in areas where they already lived or frequented, rather than expecting them to make their way to services. They offered people food, street medicine, overdose prevention and assistance. They were also set up to connect people to benefits, job training, housing and documentation.

When asked by lawmakers about the reasons people gave for finding themselves unhoused, Allen said the crux of the issue is the availability of affordable housing.

“This will sound like I’m being a smart aleck, but the number one cause of homelessness is lack of a home,” he said.

Allen said funding for the mobile project now requires ongoing funding from the state. He said the department is working with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office to determine what will be needed in the next year and beyond, to expand the program to more counties and partner with more organizations.

Local DA’s office uses DNA analysis to create an image of a man whose remains are unidentified - El Paso Times, KUNM News

Investigators in Otero County are turning to new technology in hopes of solving a years-old cold case. New Mexico’s Twelfth Judicial District Attorney's Office has released an image of what a man whose remains were found in 2021 may have looked like.

The El Paso Times reports the DA’s office worked with Virginia-based ParabonNanolabs to create a model of the victims’ face using DNA and genealogical analysis.

The office says it’s unclear how old the person was when he died or how long he’d been deceased. The generated image approximates what he’d look like as a 40-year-old, which is around the middle of a range of ages he could have been.

The person may have been from New Mexico, surrounding states or California, according to the office.

Anyone who recognizes the individual in the image or has other information is encouraged to contact Special Agent Kyle Graham with the Otero County DA’s Office.

Senators demand the USDA fix its backlog of food distribution to Native American tribes - KUNM News, Associated Press

A group of bipartisan senators including New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich is demanding immediate action from USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack after several tribal nations reported that a federal food distribution program they rely on has not fulfilled orders for months. In some cases, it has delivered expired food.

The federal program provides food assistance to 50,000 Native American families across the country.

Last spring, the USDA made the decision to use a single contractor to distribute food to Indian Reservations.

In a letter sent to Vilsack on Friday, the senators expressed concern that those who rely on it are experiencing “extreme disruptions.”

The senators wrote that,“Participating households have not had consistent food deliveries for over four months,” and that, “This is unacceptable.”

Director of the Food Distribution for the Spirit Lake Nation, Mary Greene-Trottier said, “Imagine showing up at the grocery store during COVID or a winter blizzard, and the shelves are empty. That’s the feeling that they get.”

In the July letter to Secretary Vilsack, she and other tribal officials expressed skepticism that the remaining contractor, Paris Brothers Inc., would have enough time to transition into being the sole provider for food deliveries to dozens of tribal nations. The Kansas City, Missouri-based food wholesaler was given only four weeks to prepare for the increased workload, according to the letter.

In a statement, Paris Brothers Inc. said it is “actively addressing” the recent challenges.

The USDA has made $11 million in federal aid available and is helping the company scale up.

Tribal leaders say the change has increased food insecurity for some of the country's most impoverished communities.

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