New Mexico
‘Baby box’ soon to be active in Portales
After two years of discussion, a Safe Haven Baby Box will soon be active at the Portales Fire Department.
The baby box was delivered to the fire department on Monday. The official day as to when it will be active is still unknown. However, Angie Smith, the chair for Right to Life of Curry and Roosevelt counties, said contractors will get it installed soon and it will then be tested to make sure it’s working correctly. She anticipates that to take only a couple of weeks.
“They’re starting to spread across New Mexico,” Smith said. “I think this is going to be a wonderful, wonderful thing.”
A Safe Haven Baby Box, according to the organization’s website, “is a designated location where parents can anonymously and safely leave an infant they are unable or unwilling to care for.”
It “takes the face-to-face interaction out of the surrender and protects the mother from being seen.”
Smith said she first learned about the baby box from a pastor in South Korea. The box helped save over 1,500 babies, she said.
After doing some research, Smith contacted those with the organization to help bring one to Portales. Community members raised more than $16,000 for the project, while some contractors have volunteered their time to help install it.
“It just proves even further how pro-life Portales and Roosevelt County are,” Smith said.
Smith said she first went to the City Council to explain the idea in February of 2022.
“We’ve given 100% support from the City Council on this,” said Sarah Austin, Portales’ city manager.
However, there was a delay along the way as the city attorney had some concerns about the city’s liability in owning a baby box.
“There was an argument over a state statute on whether or not the baby had to be placed into somebody’s hands or if the box would count,” Austin said.
After doing some research on other entities, Austin said the Council felt like there wasn’t much of a risk of litigation.
“They knew this is the best choice for them (the parent) and their child,” Smith said.
Utilizing the baby box is a completely anonymous action. All one has to do is open the box, leave the baby, and walk away.
Portales Fire Chief TJ Cathey explained how the baby box works once it’s opened.
“It will alert our dispatch center, and there will be an alert inside the station, not outside,” Cathey said.
The box, depending on what the weather is like, will keep the baby cooled or heated until someone can respond to the baby.
The baby is then examined to make sure it hasn’t been abused or neglected.
Smith said there’s a 90-day waiting period to give mom, dad, grandparents, or other relatives the chance to come forward and claim the baby.
“From our standpoint, anything that we as firefighters and (first responders) can do to protect life, we’re going to be all for it,” Cathey said.
“We just want to make sure that they have a secure place to take their baby,” Austin said. “We don’t walk in their shoes, we don’t know their situation or their story.”
New Mexico
A 900K-acre land sale just made LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke the nation’s largest private landowner
The purchase of a New Mexico ranch nearing 1 million acres tipped the scales for Stan Kroenke, who is now the largest private landowner in America.
Kroenke, 78, topped Land Report’s annual list of the country’s 100 largest landowners, leading a pack of billionaires eager to beef up their rural portfolios.
Kroenke is worth an estimated $26.8 billion, according to Bloomberg, largely thanks to his ownership of sport franchises like the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets and the UK’s Arsenal Football Club — as well as several of the teams’ sports arenas.
Kroenke, a Missouri native, is married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke.
Kroenke recently acquired more than 937,000 acres of noncontiguous New Mexico ranchland, rounding out his total land holdings to more than 2.7 million acres across the American West and Canada.
Land Report confirmed the December deal, which spans four New Mexico counties. The off-market transaction is the largest single land purchase in the US since 2011.
The price of Kroenke’s New Mexico purchase remains under wraps, but Land Report estimated the former value of his ranch holdings at $3.9 billion.
Kroenke made headlines in 2016 when he snapped up Texas’ historic Waggoner Ranch — the 535,000-acre property is largest piece of unbroken ranchland in the Lone Star State. Other acquisitions include massive ranches in Montana and Nevada.
In addition to rolling rural plains, Kroenke owns an estimated 60 million square feet of commercial holdings, the New York Times reported, including sports venues in California and Denver.
The investor’s busy two decades of ranch acquisitions has set him far above other high-profile billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Bezos’ holdings ranked 21st in Land Report’s report, spanning close to half a million acres largely concentrated in Texas. Gates trailed behind in 44th place, whose prolific farmland purchases span roughly 275,000 acres.
An uptick in rural land grabs among billionaires over the past decade was hastened along in recent years by the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic and the so-called “Yellowstone Effect.”
New Mexico
Actor Timothy Busfield turns himself in following child sex abuse allegations in New Mexico
Timothy Busfield turned himself into police on Tuesday after authorities in New Mexico issued an arrest warrant for the director and Emmy Award-winning actor accused of child sex abuse.
A spokesperson for the Albuquerque Police Department confirmed to CBS News that Busfield had surrendered. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County on a child sex abuse charge. The arrest warrant, which was signed by a judge, said the charge was for two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.
An investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department on Friday filed a criminal complaint which alleged a child reported that Busfield touched him inappropriately. The acts allegedly occurred on the set of “The Cleaning Lady,” a TV series that Busfield directed and acted in.
In a video provided to TMZ, Busfield said the allegations “are all lies.”
“I did not do anything to those little boys,” the 68-year-old actor said in the video appearing to show him in Albuquerque. He said he arrived in the city after driving 2,000 miles. Busfield’s attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.
The criminal complaint filed by an investigator with Albuquerque police says the boy reported that he was 7 years old when Busfield touched him three or four times on private areas over his clothing. Busfield allegedly touched him five or six times on another occasion when he was 8, the complaint said.
The child was reportedly afraid to tell anyone because Busfield was the director and he feared he would get mad at him, the complaint said.
The boy’s twin brother told authorities he was touched by Busfield but did not specify where. He said he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get in trouble.
When interviewed by authorities, Busfield suggested that the boys’ mother was seeking revenge for her children being replaced on the series. He also said he likely would have picked up and tickled the boys, saying the set was a playful environment.
The mother of the twins — who are identified only by their initials in court records — reported to Child Protective Services that the abuse occurred between November 2022 and spring 2024, the complaint said.
“The Cleaning Lady” aired for four seasons on Fox, ending in 2025. It was produced by Warner Bros., which according to the complaint conducted its own investigation into the abuse allegations but was unable to corroborate them.
Busfield is known for appearances in “The West Wing,” “Field of Dreams” and “Thirtysomething,” the latter of which won him an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series in 1991. He is married to actor Melissa Gilbert, who deactivated her Instagram account amid the allegations.
Gilbert indicated through a publicist that she won’t speak publicly at the request of attorneys for Busfield while the legal process unfolds.
“Her focus is on supporting and caring for their very large family,” publicist Ame Van Iden said in a statement. “Melissa stands with and supports her husband and will address the public at an appropriate time.”
The investigation began in November 2024, when the investigator responded to a call from a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The boys’ parents had gone there at the recommendation of a law firm, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, one of the boys has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. A social worker documented him saying he has had nightmares about Busfield touching him.
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