New Mexico

NM Legislature Day 5 recap: Senior Day shenanigans • Source New Mexico

Published

11 months ago

January 27, 2025

NM Legislature Day 5 recap: Senior Day shenanigans • Source New Mexico

Hundreds of New Mexicans convened today at the Roundhouse for day 5 of the legislative session.

For the first half of the day, the Roundhouse was packed with older New Mexicans, caregivers and advocates in honor of Senior Day, hosted by the state’s Aging and Long-Term Services Department. Secretary-Designate Emily Kaltenbach said several hundred people attended.

“Those stories you share will have a direct impact on the budget we get for our department this year,” Kaltenbach told the crowd in the rotunda. “That budget, which I think is very reasonable this year but critically needed, will support aging in place, providing services in our homes and our communities.”

Fern Reyna, Laverne Zaragoza and Alfie Levaldo traveled from Acoma Pueblo to ask lawmakers for additional funds for the senior center.

“We’re looking to build a computer center, so we can learn to use computers and our smartphones, which are way too smart for us,” Zaragoza quipped.

In addition, Levaldo said the pueblo needs additional funds to expand services with an assisted living facility and a daycare.

Adrienne Smith, president and CEO of the New Mexico Caregivers Coalition, joined the crowd to encourage people to find their legislators and share with them their personal stories of caring for loved ones.

“I’ll tell you what, if you’re not a caregiver now, I bet you will be,” Smith said.

She specifically asked Senior Day attendees to encourage lawmakers to reactivate the Long-Term Services Division and call for more direct funding for family caregivers.

Ernest Smith, 61, and Emily Wauneka 66, the Elder King and Queen from both from the Sheep Springs Chapter of the Navajo Nation, sit in the Rotunda for Senior Day. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)

New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department seeks $1M to reactivate key division

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also made an appearance at Senior Day, where she maintained her stance on public safety, promising New Mexicans that legislators would address stricter sentencing for drug offenses.

Bill Watch

The Paid Family & Medical Leave Act received its first committee hearing this morning in the House Health & Human Services Committee and passed by a 6-4 vote.

Both bills before the Senate Rules Committee moved on. Senate Bill 85, which proposes expanded definitions of expenditures and donations in campaigns, received a unanimous 9-0 pass, while Senate Bill 5, which reforms the state’s game commission, received two amendments and passed by a 7-2 vote.

Tomorrow, committees are getting warmed up with big bills. House Bill 4 on criminal competency, one of the top priorities by both lawmakers and the governor, will be heard in the House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee at its 1:30 p.m. meeting.

Senate Conservation Committee has a full slate, with Senate Bill 4, the Clear Horizons Act first up, which would codify state emission reduction goals into law. Committee members will also hear two bills on stream protections, which you can read more about here. The agenda concludes with Senate Bill 23 which proposes increases to the state’s oil and gas royalty rates. NM State Land Office Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard backed earlier this month.

House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources is scheduled to meet at 8:30 a.m. to discuss a proposed one-mile buffer zone preventing oil and gas companies from producing pollution around schools, daycare facilities and public parks.

Pups in the people’s house

Dolores Aragon drove up from Clovis, with Pumpkin and Boo, both aged 6, to show up in the Roundhouse on Jan. 27, 2025 for Senior’s Day. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)

Phillip Mondragon and Dolores Aragon brought their two dogs, Boo and Pumpkin, with them to Senior Day, driving up from Clovis on Sunday. Mondragon told Source NM that their 6-year-old service pups go everywhere with them to help Aragon with her sight.

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New Mexico

Ice hasn’t stopped trout in northern New Mexico – Alamogordo Daily News

Published

6 hours ago

December 14, 2025

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Ice hasn’t stopped trout in northern New Mexico – Alamogordo Daily News

Molly Bullard, age 12, of Rio Rancho caught three 12-inch rainbow trout in less than 15 minutes using worms on Dec. 2, 2025 at the Seven Springs Kids’ Pond.

Information and photos provided by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Eli Rodarte caught a 24-inch rainbow trout using worms in the bait…

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New Mexico

Running hot and cold: New Mexico runners earn 17 All American awards at national XC championships

Published

18 hours ago

December 14, 2025

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Running hot and cold: New Mexico runners earn 17 All American awards at national XC championships

YOUTH SPORTS

Gianna Chavez earns fourth in boys 8-and-under race

Ava Denton, of Albuquerque Athletics Track, competes Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025 at the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championship meet at Blue River Cross Country Course in Shelbyville, Indiana. Temperatures were in the 20s with a wind chill near zero.

Courtesy Carl Brasher

New Mexico had 17 athletes earn All American awards at the 2025 National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championship meet held Saturday at snowy Blue River Cross Country Course in Shelbyville, Indiana.

Gianni Chavez, of Albuquerque Athletics Track, earned his fourth USA Track & Field All American award with a fourth place finish in the 8-and-under boys 2K race. Chavez, an Osuna Elementary third-grader, ran his 2K race in a personal best time of 7 minutes, 44.9 seconds.

Gianni Chavez celebrates his fourth-place finish Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.

Courtesy Carl Brasher

The top 25 individual finishers and top three teams earn USATF All American awards.

The Cougar Track Club 8U girls team, based out of Albuquerque, placed second and was led by Antonette Marquez, who finished 12th. Other CTC 8U girls team members include Kimberly Reed (31st), Viola Crabbe Maple (55th), Payton Pacheco (61st), Chloe Chino (85th), Emery Grieco (113th) and Zay’a Cheromiah (149th).

Others individual All American award winners include Ava Denton, of AAT, 16th in 13/14 girls 4K; Brynlee Reed, of CTC, 22nd in 15/16 girls 5K; Sihasin Fleg, of Running Medicine, 21st in 8U girls 2K; Eden Pino, of Running Medicine, 12th in 9/10 girls 3K; Nizhoni Fleg, of Running Medicine, 14th in 17/18 girls 5K; Brady Garcia, of Running Medicine, seventh in 17/18 boys 5K; Justice Jones, of Zia, 14th in 9/10 girls 3K; Emilo Otero Soltero, of Dukes Track Club, 12th in 9/10 boys 3K; Miles Gray, unattached, 21st in 9/10 boys 3K.

Also Saturday, at the Brooks Cross Country Nationals in San Diego, Eldorado’s Gianna Rahmer placed 17th in the girls championship 5K with a time of 18:00.7 and Moriarty’s Carmen Dorsey-Spitz placed 25th 18:09.4.

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New Mexico

Anthony, NM man sentenced to prison, sold meth from parents’ property

Published

1 day ago

December 13, 2025

Press Room

An Anthony, New Mexico man was sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison for selling methamphetamine.
David Amaya, 43, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute after being caught in an FBI investigation.
Authorities found over 1,100 grams of methamphetamine and two firearms in a trailer on his parents’ property.

An Anthony, New Mexico man was sentenced to nearly two decades in federal prison for selling methamphetamine from a trailer on his parents’ property, authorities said.

A federal judge sentenced David Amaya, 43, to 19 years and seven months in prison on one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, New Mexico federal court records show. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release after he serves his prison term.

U.S. District Judge Margaret I. Strickland handed down the sentence on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the federal courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Williams prosecuted the case.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Ryan Ellison and FBI Albuquerque Field Office Special Agent in Charge Justin A. Garris announced Amaya’s sentencing in a joint news release.

Amaya pleaded guilty to the charge in September as part of a plea agreement that dismissed one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, court records show.

Anthony, New Mexico man sells meth on parents’ property

FBI agents began investigating Amaya after he sold methamphetamine to a “controlled buyer” in July and August 2024, the news release states. Controlled buys are when law enforcement uses an undercover agent or a witness to purchase drugs from a suspected drug dealer.

The agents obtained a search warrant on Aug. 22, 2024, for a “specific tow-behind type trailer that Amaya was known to be living in and conducting narcotics transfers out of,” a federal complaint affidavit states. The trailer was located on property owned by Amaya’s parents in Anthony, New Mexico, the news release states.

The trailer did not have a restroom, but agents found a small makeshift bathroom structure with a porta-potty inside next to the trailer. The agents then obtained a warrant to also search the small bathroom structure.

The agents found “a large quantity of white crystalline substance suspected to be methamphetamine” throughout the trailer and bathroom structure, the affidavit states. In the bathroom, agents found a clothing hamper with “a gallon zip lock bag full of suspected methamphetamine” hidden inside.

Agents found a black Ruger .357 caliber handgun containing five rounds of .357 caliber ammunition and a black Mossberg 500 E410 gauge shotgun on the bed inside the trailer, the affidavit states. The news release states agents found “hundreds of rounds of ammunition.”

They also found about 4.42 grams of methamphetamine on the bed and another 26 grams under the bed, the affidavit states. Agents found eight more grams of methamphetamine on a nightstand.

Amaya told agents during an interview that the methamphetamine was his, he had acquired it over a period of time, and did not realize how much it was, the affidavit states. He added he “needed the guns for protection, so people would know he has them, making him safer,” the affidavit states.

In total, the agents found 1,183 grams of methamphetamine.

Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com.

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