A boost in the money funneled to New Mexico's lottery scholarship fund is due to frenzied sales in January brought on by the record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot. The New Mexico Lottery Authority says it transferred $8.5 million to the scholarship fund in January. That's more than twice the $3.8 million that was funneled to the fund at the beginning of last year. State legislative analysts say proceeds so far this year total nearly $28 million compared to more than $23 million for the same period last year. Still, higher education officials expect demand for the financial assistance to continue outpacing lottery proceeds. Lawmakers are expected to weigh options over the next several months before proposing another round of measures. Those ideas will be aimed at addressing the scholarship program's solvency during the next session.
Thousands of the faithful winding their way north to El Santuario de Chimayo for the annual Good Friday pilgrimage will be flanked by law enforcement and neon signs warning motorists of their presence. New Mexico State Police, Santa Fe police and tribal officers also will be patrolling the area throughout the upcoming Easter weekend. State transportation crews will be installing message boards along roadways in the area as well as temporary stop signs, portable lights and trash cans. Chimayo is a national historic landmark. Some 200,000 people are estimated to visit each year, with the bulk occurring during Holy Week, known in Spanish as Semana Santa.
A web-based system designed to bring together data reporting and tracking systems for the Children, Youth, and Families Department faced delays and costs increases because of bad planning and oversight. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports criticism comes from a new report by the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee. The project had initially been slated to cost 12.6 million dollars. So far $26.6 million has been spent on the project, and that’s still expected to increase. The department is also at risk of losing federal funding for the system because it hasn’t yet implemented a component for the tracking and reporting of child protective children services. One of the problems the report suggests is a failure to cross-check the state’s sex offender registry with foster care parents and other providers. A spokesperson for CYFD has said that doesn’t mean the checks aren’t being done, because CYFD continues to use another data system.
A Republican gala honoring New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez in April will also include presidential primary front-runner Donald Trump as a special guest. The New York Republican Party confirmed Wednesday that the two politicians are scheduled to converge at a fundraiser in New York City. The event takes place five days before the April 19 New York primary. Martinez indicated Wednesday that she still has not endorsed Trump or any other GOP candidate after she campaigned unsuccessfully for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. GOP candidates John Kasich and Ted Cruz also have been invited to the gala. Martinez is the chairwoman of the Republican Governors Association, a fundraising arm of the GOP on state-level campaigns and issues. She previously denounced Trump when he compared Mexican immigrants to rapists and drug dealers.
The children of Santa Fe artist Margaret Bagshaw have filed a malpractice suit contesting the will drafted in the final weeks of Bagshaw’s life. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the suit was brought by Bagshaw’s children, Helen and Forrest Tindel. It alleges that their mother’s second husband had her sign a new will after suffering a stroke early last year that negated one she had executed in 2006. The new document took most of Bagshaw’s sizeable estate and granted it to her husband Dan McGuinness, cutting out the children. Bagshaw is the daughter of famed painter Helen Hardin and the granddaughter of Santa Clara Pueblo painter Pablita Velarde. Bagshaw’s estate held their intellectual property rights, as well as her own. Her children’s attorney in the lawsuit is Anthony Sawtell.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing a petition from a consortium of community groups who want all exemptions to the use of aquifers by oil and gas companies to be repealed. Today’s Santa Fe New Mexican reports Navajos at Church Rock brought concerns of uranium contamination in their water to the federal government more than 20 years ago. Last year the state Environment Department revoked a discharge permit for the uranium mining firm Hydro Resource, Inc. But an attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center says his clients want the government to end the practice of favoring oil, gas and mining industries over communities, permanently. The New Mexican notes that once an aquifer is tainted with oil or uranium, it is unlikely to be a good water source anymore. The state has almost 200 acquifer exemptions from the EPA and they are mostly for oil and gas operations.
A New Mexico city has agreed to a $3 million settlement in the case of a high school police intern who was sexually assaulted by an officer during a ride-along. Michael Garcia of the Las Cruces Police Department was sentenced in 2014 to nine years in federal prison for the sexual assault. The victim, Diana Guerrero, sued the city last year saying the department allowed for a culture of sexism and inappropriate behavior and that Garcia was never disciplined for a history of misconduct. Guerrero says she's glad the lawsuit brought to light what she called "a cesspool of sexual violence and harassment" in police departments across the country. In a yearlong investigation of sexual misconduct by U.S. law enforcement, the AP uncovered about 1,000 officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for various sex crimes.
U.S. authorities say they have discovered a secret cross-border tunnel in the California desert. Authorities scheduled a news conference Wednesday afternoon in a residential area of Calexico, a city of about 40,000 people located 120 miles east of San Diego. A media advisory from federal authorities says the tunnel links Calexico with the large industrial city of Mexicali, Mexico. Dozens of tunnels designed to smuggle drugs have been found along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years. Some have been equipped with hydraulic lifts and electric rail cars.