New Mexico
EPA Brownfields Funding Secured for New Mexico
Federal, state, and local officials were in Santa Fe on July 19 to announce $1 million of funding for Northern New Mexico through the EPA Brownfields program. Brownfields are former industrial or commercial sites where contamination stands in the way of productive re-use of the land.
Five hundred thousand dollars will go to the City of Raton to assess several sites where environmental cleanup is necessary.
The other $500,000 goes to a tuition-free education and certification program that Santa Fe Community College has offered over the past 15 years.
SFCC’s EPA jobs program has trained about 200 students and led to 74 percent landing jobs relating to environmental cleanup.
New Mexico Environment Department cabinet secretary James Kenney spoke at the announcement event, praising the educational program that bolsters the state’s environmental work force.
“When folks are being trained right here through this money, and have an understanding of how to clean up Brownfields, they inherently have an understanding how to then address uranium mining; how to clean up those Superfund sites; how to clean up those non-Superfund sites that just haven’t made the list, but are just—let’s call them ‘economic opportunities’ to really revitalize New Mexico,” said Kenney.
One of the graduates of the program attended the event, held at SFCC’s biowall. Isaiah Calabaza, who was born and raised on Santo Domingo Pueblo, completed the EPA Brownfields training program in 2023.
Calabaza, said that when he was younger, he got involved as an environmental activist, protesting projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline.
He said that the New Mexico Environmental Job Training Program transformed the way he looked at having an impact on our environmental future.
“Laws, regulations, policies—there’s actually things that you can do besides yelling and raising a flag,” said Calabaza. “You can actually go to school and get education and be in these meetings, in these rooms, where people are actually talking about what is going on, and you can use your voice to actually make a change.”
Shortly after completing the program, Calabaza landed a job on an environmental mediation team working at Los Alamos National Laboratory on a nine-month contract. Now he’s in the running for an apprenticeship position involving nuclear waste cleanup.
SFCC is currently accepting applications for the next run of its program, in September.
Leapfrog released its 2026 spring hospital safety grades.
Grades are assigned based on overall performance, including patient safety.
The Leapfrog Group’s goal is to publicly report patient safety and quality information for the benefit of consumers, purchasers, and referring physicians as they make decisions about where to seek care and where to direct patients,” the company stated on its website.
Here’s how your local hospitals performed.
MountainView Regional Medical Center – A
Leapfrog gave MountainView an “A.”
“Being the only hospital in Doña Ana County to earn an ‘A’ from The Leapfrog Group speaks to the high standards our team sets – and meets – every day,” said MountainView CEO Patrick Shannon. “This achievement reflects the dedication of our physicians, nurses, and employees to deliver the safest care possible for our community.”
“An ‘A’ Grade is a strong sign that MountainView is deeply committed to protecting patients from harm,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We commend the leadership, Board, clinicians, staff and volunteers for the role each played in earning this distinction.”
The hospital performed better than average in several areas including low infection rates, addressing safety problems, and ICU care. The hospital received below average performances ratings in surgical site infections post colon surgery, communication about medicine and discharge, communication with doctors and nurses and nursing and bedside care for patients.
Memorial Medical Center – B
Memorial Medical Center received a “B” grade from Leapfrog.
The hospital performed well in effective leadership, reduction and prevention of infections and addressing safety problems.
The hospital received below average ratings for kidney injury after surgery, serious breathing problems, harmful events, communication about medicine and discharge, and communication with doctors and nurses.
Not rated by Leapfrog were Three Crosses Regional Hospital.
Nearby top rated hospitals
Leapfrog gave an A to William Beaumont Army Medical Center and Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso. Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso received a B.
How did other New Mexico hospitals perform?
A recipients were:
- CHRISTUS Southern New Mexico in Alamogordo
B recipients were:
- Lovelace Women’s Hospital in Albuquerque
C recipients were:
- Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad
- CHRISTUS St. Vincent in Santa FE
- Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Roswell
- Lovelace Medical Center-Downtown in Albuquerque
- Lovelace Regional Hospital in Roswell
- Lovelace Westside Hospital in Albuquerque
- University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque
D recipients were:
- San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington
- UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center in Rio Rancho
Explore the full survey results at https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/.
Jessica Onsurez is editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News. Reach her by email at jonsurez@usatodayco.com.
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) — The Social Security Office released the most popular baby names for 2025 on Thursday. And here in New Mexico, we saw some familiar names top the charts once again.
Coming in at No. 1 for girls is Mia, and as for the boys, Noah ranks No. 1. That’s no change from 2024 when Mia and Noah also led the pack, both coming in at No 1. For 2025, there were a total of 66 babies named Mia and 115 babies named Noah, while in 2024, there were 81 Mias and 105 Noahs.
What do the names mean? Online sources list a few different interpretations for Mia, but one common association is with the Italian word “mia,” which means “mine.” As for Noah, the name is most commonly associated with the prominent bible figure. It’s thought to mean “rest,” or “comfort.”
Here’s a look at some of the other top baby names in New Mexico for 2025.
- Girls:
- Olivia (65 total)
- Sophia (65 total)
- Sofia (60 total)
- Camila (59 total)
- Eliana (57 total)
- Isabella (56 total)
- Amelia (53 total)
- Aria (45 total)
- Aurora (45 total)
- Boys:
- Liam (109 total)
- Mateo (99 total)
- Elijah (76 total)
- Santiago (70 total)
- Sebastian (69 total)
- Ezra (67 total)
- Elias (66 total)
- Ezekiel (66 total)
- Levi (69 total)
Nationally, Olivia and Liam are the most popular baby names, and have been for the past seven years, according to the Social Security Administration. As for the fastest-rising names, Klarity jumped nearly 1,400 spots on the girls’ list, and Kasai jumped 1,108 for boy names.
Other names rising in popularity for boys include Atlas, Adriel, Emiliano, Arthur, and Archer. On the girls’ list, Ailany, Sienna, Amara, and Georgia are becoming more popular.
You can find the full list by state online.
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