New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham this week signed a flurry of bills that lawmakers sent to her desk during the recent legislative session, including measures related to health care, law enforcement’s use of automatic license plate reader data, water and more.
Including the health-related bills the governor signed Friday, Lujan Grisham has now signed 48 of the 74 bills the Legislature approved during the 30-day legislative session that ended Feb. 19.
One bill she signed Wednesday, Senate Bill 40, restricts New Mexico law enforcement’s sharing of information collected by high-tech cameras that vacuum up location, license plate and other data from vehicles driving on public roads.
The Driver Privacy and Security Act prohibits automatic license plate reader data from being used in investigations into “protected health care activities,” like seeking gender-affirming or abortion care. The bill also prohibits data from being used to investigate participation in political rallies, and it can’t be used for investigations into a driver’s immigration status, which immigrant advocacy groups said is necessary amid a federal mass deportation push.
“New Mexico should be able to drive safely and with peace of mind, without fear that their personal data will be collected or sold to monitor, criminalize, or target them,” said Fabiola Landeros, an organizer with El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, an immigrant advocacy group, in a statement Friday to Source NM. “This is a tangible victory for our working communities, who rely on their cars to get to work, take their children to school, and care for their families.”
On Thursday, the governor also signed Senate Bill 152, the Low-Income Telecommunications Assistance Program, which appropriates $10 million to help low-income families afford broadband service. The bill could eventually allow up to $45 million to provide additional subsidies to more than 100,000 families, according to the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion .
“The governor’s signature ensures that tens of thousands of New Mexicans will now be able to afford high-speed internet,” Jeff Lopez, the office’s director, said in a statement Friday.
Five of the bills the governor signed this week relate to water and the environment, according to a news release Friday from her office. Two relate to infrastructure; four to economic development; four to education; and nine to public safety.
Four of the bills the governor signed this week will go into effect immediately because the bills contain “emergency clauses,” including two water bills, one education bill and a bill that tweaks property tax discounts for disabled veterans.
The governor has until March 11 to sign remaining bills, including the $11.1 billion budget bill. The ones she doesn’t sign by then are effectively vetoed.
This post first appeared at sourcenm.com
An interesting story of the hot springs
While assisting the Y.M.C.A. and Commercial club joint committee in preparing its report for the Loyal Order of Moose, William E. Gortner came across an old pamphlet, the contents of which will be of interest to old-timers and new-comers alike. It is descriptive of the Las Vegas Hot Springs and the Montezuma hotel and is as follows:
The Legend of the Hot Springs
This famous resort is located at the head of the Gallinas canyon, six miles from the City of Las Vegas, on the line of the A.T.&S.F. Ry. For many years previous to the American occupation of New Mexico, the site was known and utilized by the Indians as a rendezvous for an annual encampment, to which point thousands congregated for feasting and supplication to the Great Spirit, begging strength for War and the Chase, and Mercy in the event of dissolution in the days that would go to make up another year.
It is a fact handed down through many generations of tribal traditions, – so many, in truth, that the mind of man runneth not to the contrary, and attested later by authentic history, than an annual pilgrimage to this ancient “Mecca” of the early inhabitants, assured health, strength, and prowess of unusual excellence, – could the weary traveler tarry at this health giving basin.
Huge underground extinct river found
Between the sheer rock walls of an underground canyon through which an underground river tumbled some time in the dim past, Frank Earnest Nicholson, New York explorer, has found his way to a section of Carlsbad Cavern entirely different from the known portions.
Using a 50-foot rope, Nicholson, Geron Mendenhall, his photographer, and Douglas Oliver, a Boy Scout with the expedition, lowered themselves into a room below the Devil’s Den, at a point about midway through the normal morning tourist trip.
“We found evidence,” Nicholson said, “that someone previously had attempted to reach this lower level, but was unable to attain the goal because no rope was at hand.”
PNM sells Montaña de Fibra plant
The fiberboard plant in Las Vegas has been sold to Medite Corporation for an undisclosed price, announced an executive of Meadows Resources, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Public Service Company of New Mexico.
Bruno Carrara, vice president of Meadows Resources, Inc., said the Montaña de Fibra fiberboard plant was sold as another major step in PNM’s Turnaround Project, a cost-savings plan that has the giant utility company focusing back on the basics – the gas, water and electric businesses. The sale, which is subject to final regulatory approvals and certain other conditions, is expected to close in April.
The estimated 200 employees at the MDF plant were told of the sale Thursday. Bill Black, who has been MDF’s president since 1986, said, “Over the past two years, all the employees at the plant have pulled together to build this plant into what it is today. It has taken teamwork and talent. We plan to make this transition as smooth as possible.”
Ted Bauer, president of Medite (which he says rhymes with “right”), said today that there would be little change initially at the Las Vegas plant. “Hardly a hiccup at first but eventually, we intend to make this plant profitable.”
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