KSFR News

Earlier this month, in an attempt to get a grip on inflation, the Federal Reserve Board, America’s central bank, raised interest rates a quarter of a percent for the first time in three years. KSFR reporter Mary Lou Cooper reached out to University of New Mexico economist Professor Reilly White to find out the implications for consumers here in New Mexico and across the nation. Professor White is the chair of the Finance Department at UNM’s School of Business Leadership. 

A representative from the Environmental Protection Agency told residents that waste from the Questa Chevron mine was never dumped on Chevron property that will be home to a hydrogen power facility. 

Yet earlier this year Kit Carson Electric President Luis Reyes told KSFR that the site's history as a mine tailings site made it a good home for a power facility.

 “This was a Superfund site that had been contaminated,” he said. “There was no other use for it.”

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New Mexico Republicans are drafting legislation that would require candidates for governor to meet on a debate stage. State Senator Nicole Tobiassen and House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong are calling the initiative the "Ducking Debate Rule."

The announcement comes after Democratic candidate Deb Haaland said she would not debate Republican Greg Hull. 

The top two candidates for lieutenant governor faced off in a televised debate on Thursday night. Democrat Stephanie Garcia Richard and Republican David Gallegos answered questions from KOB and Albuquerque Journal reporters and even questioned each other.

Garcia-Richard focused on things like affordability and healthcare access while some of Gallegos's priorities included public safety and economic development. 

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Tribal delegates and the Indian Gaming Association told lawmakers Tuesday that prediction markets like Kalshi are threatening tribal funding for vital services. They fear that online prediction markets will diminish Native gaming revenues.

Native gaming and sports betting must be done in person on Tribal lands and is restricted to people 21 and over. But anyone over 18 can bet on prediction markets from any location. 

Three New Mexico Democrats announced new legislation to protect children and consumers on Wednesday. Attorney General Raul Torrez crafted the legislation that State Representative Linda Serrato plans to sponsor in the upcoming legislative session next year. Candidate for governor Deb Haaland joined Torrez and Serrato at a press conference in Albuquerque on to voice her support for the legislation.

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Closing arguments have taken place in another New Mexico trial against Facebook. This lawsuit alleged a failure to protect users from a third-party quiz that harvested data from 87 million profiles. The data was sold to Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. 

If you didn’t have time to keep up with the news, KSFR has got you covered. 

It was a big week for AI data center news. The New Mexico Supreme Court is allowing the air quality permitting process for Project Jupiter to proceed. Meanwhile, Google is exploring a new data center in Lea County, New Mexico. Candidate for governor Deb Haaland announced support for a data center moratorium. But that was after she faced criticism for receiving campaign donations from data center developers. And U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich took to the Senate floor to push for greater accountability for data centers. Did you catch all that?

We’ll take a look at that Supreme Court decision, plus a bill that would fund Native water infrastructure, and the Texas legislative committee eyeing New Mexico’s top-oil producing counties. 

The New Mexico Supreme Court shot down to environmental groups' challenges to Project Jupiter's air quality permit. The court handed down the unanimous decision on Thursday. 

Even as the air quality permit was temporarily delayed, construction on the massive data center has continued in Doña Ana County. Estimates show that Project Jupiter could emit as many greenhouse gases as New Mexico's largest cities combined.

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Deb Haaland said that if she becomes New Mexico's next governor, she will sign an executive order on day one establishing a moratorium for new large-scale data center projects. 

The announcement came just two days after The Santa Fe New Mexican broke news of data center developers donating a total of over $87,000 to Haaland's campaign. 

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Plus a lookahead at next week's episode of The Forum-- a conversation about homelessness in Santa Fe.

Authorities said that three people died early Wednesday morning after being swept away by flood waters on the Navajo Nation.

The Associated Press reports that police officers received a call around 12:30 a.m. about people being washed away near Newcomb in northwestern New Mexico.

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The prospect of new uranium mines is testing state protections of a mountain in northwest New Mexico. Mount Taylor is sacred to the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and the Pueblos of Laguna, Acoma and Zuni. Tribal members described a millennia-long relationship with the mountain at a meeting of the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee last Friday. 

On Tuesday, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources unanimously advanced a bill that will support water infrastructure for some New Mexico Tribes and Pueblos. Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez authored the bill.

"In New Mexico we say, 'Agua es vida; water is life.,'" the New Mexico Democrat said. "And water is also key to tribal sovereignty." 

The U.S. Senate passed companion legislation last year. This bill now heads to a full House vote.

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Google announced earlier this week that it is exploring the potential of a possible data center in Lea County in Southeast New Mexico. 

The website LeaCountyDataCenter.com states that Google is in the early stages of evaluating a Lea County project. The site characterizes the potential data center as a "long-term partnership with the community." It also says the website will be the "source of truth for facts and updates."

This has been a particularly bad year for New Mexico's black bear population. The Department of Wildlife keeps statistics on how many bears are killed after run  ins with humans from April through the following March. That means that the current season isn't even halfway over.

But New Mexico In-Depth reports that a record number of bears have already been killed- over 250. 

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Fuego 505 is the winner of the 18th annual New Mexico State Fair Green Chile Cheeseburger Challenge. The Albuquerque restaurant won the Blind Judging Championship while Badlands Burgers and Brew of Aztec was crowned People's Choice Champion. 

La Villa Burgers and Boba of Santa Rosa was second in the blind judging championship while Fat Sats of Belen came in third.

A Texas House committee plans to examine the legality of annexing New Mexico counties at a hearing later this month. The committee is looking at Eddy, Lea and Roosevelt counties. Eddy County and Lea County are the top two oil-producing counties in the state.

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Attorney General Raul Torrez's office has asked the state's largest utility provider to explain its billing practices.

The request to PNM came in a hand delivered letter last week. 

The Albuquerque Journal reports that the letter follows customer complaints to utility regulators and on social media. The summer was one of the hottest on record and electricity use broke records, too.