KSFR News

The U.S. House Oversight Committee is the latest government group to press for answers on the Drug Enforcement Administration's fentanyl operations in New Mexico. Whistleblower reports claimed that the DEA let fentanyl on to New Mexico streets in order to arrest bigger traffickers.

James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday asking for records of the DEA tactics. The letter only requested information from Biden administration years even though the whistleblower report said the practice continued after President Trump was reelected. 

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A New Mexico activist traveled to New York to address the United Nations on Monday.

TAPE Cordova: "We were the first people exposed to radiation any place in the world. As ash fell from the sky in the days after the bomb, we were never warned before or after of the danger. So we lived our lives off the land as we always did."

Tina Cordova founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium 21 years ago. Since then, she's been advocating for the generations that have been affected by the Trinity nuclear test in 1945. For Cordova, the work is personal. She listed numerous family members who lived healthy lifestyles yet were stricken with multiple cancers.

One empty ballot spot for the November 3 election was filled Friday while another remains vacant. State Democrats have been working to get new candidates on the ballot after Elise Falanga Taylor and Joseph Franklin Hernandez dropped out of House races for District 23 and District 4. 

Falanga Taylor said she was dropping out due to alleged attacks on her character from her opponent, Republican Alan Martinez. Hernandez dropped out after a public nudity scandal in Chicago.

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Several tribal nations, including Isleta Pueblo, filed a complaint in federal court Thursday about the Trump administration's handling of Indian education program operations. The complaint claims that the administration moved some operations and staff out of the Department of Education without the legally required tribal consultation.

Project Jupiter was back in the news this week. The New Mexico Supreme Court has paused the controversial data center’s air quality permit. The next day a New Mexico Environment Department officer recused himself from dealing with the permit.

Oil and gas revenue helps pay for disaster relief in New Mexico while those industries contribute to disasters made worse by climate change.

Democrat Deb Haaland leads Republican Greg Hull in the first public poll for New Mexico’s next governor. 

And, looking back at Dolly Parton’s impact on literacy in New Mexico. 

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking Department of Justice records about federal fentanyl operations in New Mexico. Torrez has previously said that the DOJ rejected a records request he made in July and did not respond to an appeal.

The request and lawsuit come in response to whistleblower reports that the Drug Enforcement Administration knowingly allowed fentanyl onto New Mexico streets in order monitor and arrest higher level drug traffickers. 

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One group that typically leans conservative has some beef with a recent move by President Donald Trump- The New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association.

Trump signed a proclamation Thursday temporarily lifting tariffs on some foreign beef imports. Trump first announced potentially lifting the tariffs last week and pushback from farmers and lawmakers followed. 

The New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association called dropping the tariffs, "the wrong signal at the wrong moment," in a statement issued before Trump signed the proclamation. 

State economists are projecting $924 million in "new money" for New Mexico in the next fiscal year. They presented the growing numbers to the Legislative Finance Committee Wednesday.

Source New Mexico reports that much of the boon is the result of rising oil costs thanks to the war in Iran. Press releases from House Democrats and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham celebrated the budget growth but did not mention the war in Iran or oil revenue. 

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The City of Santa Fe will once again be searching for Youth and Family Services director less than a year after it filled the position. The Youth and Family Services director became the city's coordinator of homelessness services following a government restructuring. 

The vacancy comes at a time when the city is working to improve existing homelessness services and implement a new strategic plan. 

The number of executive orders issued in New Mexico has skyrocketed in recent years and many of them have been in response to fires, floods and other natural disasters. Ironically, many of the disasters are related to climate change and much of the money to pay for disaster remediation comes from oil and gas revenue- industries that contribute to a warming planet.

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While fans around the globe mourn the loss of country music superstar, songwriter, actor and entrepreneur Dolly Parton, her Imagination Library will live on in New Mexico and in over 1,600 communities worldwide. The program mails age-appropriate books to children until the age of 5. 

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Democrat Deb Haaland and Republican Greg Hull met at a gubernatorial candidate forum in Albuquerque Tuesday evening. The forum was hosted by the Commercial Real Estate Development Association and drew around 600 people to the Albuquerque Convention Center. It's the first time the candidates publicly met since the June primary. 

In the first public poll for this fall's gubernatorial race, former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland has a commanding 17 point lead over former Rio Rancho mayor Greg Hull.

New Mexico Political Report reports that neither candidate has the support of a majority of the electorate- the poll shows Haaland, a Democrat, with 41 percent of the vote and Republican Hull with 24 percent. More than a quarter of poll respondents remain undecided. 

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A New Mexico Environment Department officer has recused himself from the Project Jupiter data center air quality permit proceedings.

Attorneys from two environmental advocacy groups sought last week to disqualify the officer, Max Shepherd, claiming that he had failed to conduct a fair and impartial proceeding.

Fire crews have made significant progress on the Frijoles Fire. The fire has not grown since Thursday- hovering around 15,000 acres in size. The government agencies fighting and monitoring the blaze said the Frijoles Fire was 45 percent contained as of Sunday night. 

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The New Mexico Supreme Court has temporarily halted the air-permitting process for Project Jupiter. The controversial Oracle and OpenAI data center project in Southern New Mexico has been the topic of debate and protests since construction started months ago. 

It’s been another busy week in the New Mexico news landscape- especially if your name is Raul Torrez. The New Mexico Attorney General sued the U.S. Department of Justice for access to the Epstein Files, appealed a denied records request regarding the DEA’s fentanyl operations in the state and celebrated a win in a trial against Meta. 

And we'll hear about the Hopi inspired an environmental movement that started in the 1970s.

Two major developments were announced Wednesday regarding investigations into Zorro Ranch, the sprawling Santa Fe County property formerly owned by deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Attorney General Raul Torrez announced that the New Mexico Department of Justice is suing the U.S. Department Justice. NMDOJ is bringing the suit in a District of Columbia court in an effort to compel its federal counterpart to provide complete and unredacted Epstein files.

Later in the afternoon, the state legislature's Survivors' Truth Committee released an interim report into its separate investigation into Zorro Ranch.