A New Mexico legislative committee plans to start impeachment proceedings next week against embattled Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who is accused of funneling campaign contributions to personal bank accounts. No public official has been impeached in state history. Impeachment proceedings were started 10 years ago against state Treasurer Robert Vigil and again in 2011 against Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. In each case, the process was halted after the officials resigned their posts. Democratic Representative Ken Martinez of Grants co-chaired the Vigil impeachment panel and tells the Albuquerque Journal that impeachment proceedings are grave and "very difficult." Duran is facing criminal charges that that she funneled some 13-thousand dollars’ in campaign contributions to personal bank accounts. Duran's attorney has said she would fight the charges in court.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich will be touring the Navajo Nation today to get a firsthand look at the damage caused by the spill of wastewater from a Colorado mine. President Russell Begaye says Brockovich will join him in surveying areas devastated by the Gold King Mine spill. The August fifth spill from the mine near Silverton, Colorado, sent toxic sludge into waterways including the San Juan River that flows through the reservation. The tribe has been critical of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's response. Brockovich says she is "deeply concerned" by the EPA's actions. The environmental advocate was famously portrayed in the 2000 movie, "Erin Brockovich," which earned actress Julia Roberts an acting Oscar.
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's criticism of rival Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish is a distraction. A Republican and the nation's only Latina governor, Martinez said Friday following a news conference the spat was taking the focus away from real issues facing the country. Bush said he had been responding to a reporter's question in Spanish this week when he replied in Spanish to criticize Trump. Trump told Breitbart News that Bush should "set the example" by speaking English while in the U.S. Martinez says she grew up speaking English and Spanish and uses both languages to communicate with reporters and residents. She previously criticized Trump for remarks he made comparing Mexican immigrants to murderers and rapists.
New Mexico health officials say the state will get federal funding for the next four years to stop prescription drug overdoses. The New Mexico Department of Health has announced that the state will be part of the new program that will issue an annual grant of nearly 900-thousand dollars. New Mexico is one of 16 states that successfully competed for the grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Department of Health Cabinet Secretary Retta Ward says officials will also be able to reach communities where there are high rates of overdoses. The funding will help enhance prescription drug monitoring programs, facilitate work with health providers and other goals. Officials say nearly 300 died in New Mexico from prescription-drug-related overdoses in 2014.
An extensive review of operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory has turned up violations in how the lab has handled hundreds of containers of radioactive waste during the past decade. The latest revelations are on top of the permit violations that LANL first reported last year in the wake of the 2014 radiation release at the federal government's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico. That release was caused by a container that had been inappropriately packed at Los Alamos. The incident forced the indefinite closure of the repository, leaving in limbo national efforts to clean up decades' worth of plutonium-contaminated waste. Lab officials say the containers highlighted in the latest review pose no danger, but state officials are concerned about the lab's lack of compliance.
After 80 years of being a “boy's-only” club, the New Mexico State Police Motorcycle Division is getting its first female officer. KOB-TV reports that officer Vanessa Martinez is the first female motorcycle officer in the department's history. Martinez says she was worried she would not qualify for the division, but she passed all the tests and met all of the qualifications. She says she hopes she can be an inspiration to girls when they see her on her bike. The New Mexico State Police has been using motorcycles since 1935. Martinez started working with the division this summer.
Santa Fe Weather: Mostly sunny today with the high 83 and a slight chance for showers and thunderstorms after noon. Tonight: Partly cloudy with the overnight low, 57. Tomorrow: Mostly sunny and a bit cooler with the high, 78 and a 20-percent chance for showers and thunderstorms.