News

New Mexicans will be able to purchase insurance through a portal that combines state and federal access to plans in a hybrid healthcare insurance exchange.  Members of the exchange board took steps to get the program up and running by this fall.

State of the RE:Union Thu. 5/30 8a: In this American Graduate special, State of the Re:Union takes a closer look at school, community, and the drop out crisis in this country.

With reporting from both urban and rural schools, and interviews with education experts, State of the RE:Union goes “ back to the basics”, looking at strategies that get to the heart of what makes students want to learn. 

State of the RE:Union Thu. 5/23 8a: More than two million veterans have come home so far from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. For returning veterans, reintegrating into society can be a challenge.

How do you find your place, when you’ve changed and the people you love don’t recognize you? When that old life is gone and you have to start a new one from scratch.

State of the Re:Union explores reintegration and asks the question: how do you come back home from war?

The Navajo Nation says the only financially viable future for its coal supply may be in clean coal technologies, and overseas exports.

KUNM's Tristan Ahtone reports the Nation is taking preliminary steps to find a future for its coal resources in light of tough, domestic regulations.

The University of New Mexico says it has reached an agreement in principal with former men's basketball coach Steve Alford over his buyout.

Alford said in April he was willing to pay a $200,000 buyout for leaving the Albuquerque school to take a job at UCLA, but he wouldn't pay the $1 million payment that New Mexico wanted.

The dispute stemmed from the timing of his announcement and a term sheet he had signed just weeks before agreeing to a new 10-year contract with New Mexico that included a $1 million buyout.

Albuquerque police are searching for leads in a drive-by shooting that landed a UNM Cancer Center executive in the hospital.

Police say Justin Schroer was jogging through a neighborhood near Constitution and Girard around 6 a.m. when he was shot once in the left side of his abdomen. The bullet passed through his right side. He's expected to survive.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that Schroer is the director of development for the cancer center.

A mother who chased down a man and ran into his car after he grabbed her 4-year-old says her "mother's instincts" kicked in when she launched her pursuit.

Melissa Torrez told The Associated Press on Friday she began her chase "without any feeling" and was focused only on getting her daughter back as the abductor led her on a high-speed chase throughout Albuquerque on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old mother of three says as soon as others in the apartment complex told her a man took her daughter she jumped in the car.

New Mexico is receiving a half million dollars from a Denver-based philanthropic group to expand programs that allow students to receive an associate degree from a college while attending high school.

Gov. Susana Martinez announced Friday that the Daniels Fund is providing $525,000 for the state to establish more pilot "early college high schools" like one that operates in Las Cruces.

Operations of an appointed advisory commission that investigates citizen complaints against the Albuquerque Police Department would be suspended while the City Council considers the commission's future.

Councilors Trudy Jones and Brad Winter plan Monday to propose that the Police Oversight Commission's operations be put on hold. A decision would come later.

A federal judge in Arizona is refusing to reconsider a ruling upholding the Interior Department's authority to ban new hard rock mining claims on federal land.

U.S. District Judge David Campbell's ruling Thursday denies mining industry groups' request for reconsideration his March 20 ruling.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a prohibition in 2012 on over a million acres near the Grand Canyon that are rich in high-grade uranium ore reserves.

Former State Insurance Superintendent Chris Krahling has been named to a panel that will select New Mexico's top insurance regulator.

A nine-member committee will select the next superintendent of insurance, who starting in July will be in charge of an independent office regulating insurance rates and policies.

The committee meets next Tuesday in Albuquerque, and is accepting applications for the superintendent's position until the end of the month.

All Damian Garcia wants to do is wear his black robe when he and his fellow high school classmates graduate next week.

Officials at St. Pius X Catholic School in Albuquerque say no. Because Garcia was born as a girl, the school insists he must wear a white robe along with the other girls.

Television station KRQE reports that Garcia was born Brandi Garcia, but he identifies as a male and even had a legal name-change last year. Fellow students, teachers and faculty call him Damian and so does his family.

A northern New Mexico historic site that is considered one of the best preserved examples of a 17th century Spanish colonial mission has been designated as a national historic landmark.

The San Jose de los Jemez Mission Church was added to the list of landmarks Thursday. There are now nearly four dozen national historic landmarks in New Mexico.

State Cultural Affairs Secretary Veronica Gonzales calls the church in Jemez Springs an "outstanding example of American history and culture."

The unemployment rate for Hispanics in New Mexico is double the rate for non-Hispanic whites, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.

In the last quarter of 2012, the unemployment rate for Hispanics here was 8.2 percent, compared to 4.7 percent for whites.

The Mescalero Apache tribe of New Mexico says it is looking to expand it's economy by mining rare earth elements. The elements are highly sought after for their applications in high-tech and green industries.

West Nile virus cases in the Southwest are up from previous years, according to new 2012 statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control.
First discovered in New York around 1999, the West Nile virus traveled west, carried by birds and mosquitoes, eventually hitting the Southwest.

The New Mexico Supreme Court is considering whether thousands of state workers covered by union contracts are owed back pay and raises totaling millions of dollars.

The state high court on Wednesday heard arguments on an appeal by the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez.

Her administration is appealing a state Court Appeals' ruling.

New Mexico's top water manager plans to order irrigators, municipalities and industry in a portion of the state to install meters on their underground wells to measure water use.

State Engineer Scott Verhines said he will issue the order for the Fort Sumner Underground Water Basin this month and it will require meters to be installed by January.

No metering will be required for household wells or small wells used to supply water for livestock.

It's strike two for a Mexican gray wolf that was released into the wild just weeks ago.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the male wolf — dubbed M1133 — was captured Saturday just east of New Mexico's San Mateo Mountains. The animal left his pregnant mate and roamed outside the wolf recovery area that spans parts of New Mexico and Arizona.

Two weeks before, the wolf and his mate were packed into the Gila Wilderness on the back of a mule so they could be released.

Congress has approved an additional $19 million for nuclear waste cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The New Mexico congressional delegation on Wednesday announced the approval of a "reprogramming" request by the Department of Energy to transfer money from other programs to ensure the lab can meet its promise to remove thousands of barrels of radioactive waste by 2014.

The potential dangers of the waste, which is stored above ground, made national headlines in 2011 when the Las Conchas fire raged near the lab.

States aiming to run their own health insurance exchanges, will be in need of federal grants to get those exchanges launched, and are facing a deadline today. New Mexico's application is in, but there's still a question of whether or not the exchange will be run by the state, federal government, or both.

New Mexico's federal grant request totals about $20-million dollars, and will be used for marketing, public relations, and outreach. With much of the states population living in rural areas, that outreach will be critical to the exchanges survival.

KUNM Call In Show Thu. 5/16 8a: While the cost of attending the University of New Mexico remains a relative bargain compared to other state universities, undergraduate tuition and fees have almost doubled in a decade, tripled in 15 years.  We'll hear from administration and student representatives about the rationale behind the recent two-tiered increase and we'll look at the potential effect the increase may have on the UNM student body.

277-5866 (locally in Albuquerque)

877-899-5866 (toll-free)

Bernalillo County is imposing new restrictions and prohibitions on outdoor smoking, campfires and open burning in areas of the county outside the Albuquerque city limits.

The Board of Commissioners approved the restrictions in a resolution Tuesday evening because of dry conditions and the threat of wildfires.

Prohibited activities include bonfires, campfires, cooking fires, burning of slash piles and ignition of rocket motors.

A coalition of media outlets are seeking to unseal pretrial motions in the case of a former Albuquerque police officer accused of killing his wife.

A hearing on the coalition's request to unseal the motions is scheduled Wednesday in Sandoval District Court.

Petitioners include the Albuquerque Journal, The Associated Press, Valencia County News-Bulletin, and televisions stations KOAT, KOB and KRQE.

Mining regulators are being asked to hold a public hearing regarding a permit proposal that calls for changing the status of an idle uranium mine in western New Mexico.

The Mount Taylor mine has been on standby status for more than 20 years. The mine's owner, Rio Grande Resources, announced last month that it plans to ask regulators to change the status to active.

The New Mexico Environmental Law Center says the change in the company's plan is curious given that the market is soft and uranium mines in the U.S. are operating at less than one-third of their capacity.

  It will be a day of praying for rain and blessings for fields and community ditches as New Mexico Catholics gather to honor San Ysidro, the patron saint of farmers.

Prayer processions are planned Wednesday in Albuquerque's South Valley and in the historic village of Agua Fria near Santa Fe.

Organizers say they hope the celebrations will help ease what has turned into a third consecutive year of drought for New Mexico.

Albuquerque police say a pilot is facing felony charges after a drug-sniffing dog found a load of marijuana stashed on the man's single-engine plane.

Police and Homeland Security agents got a tip Monday that there was an incoming flight with drugs on board.

After the plane landed at Albuquerque's Double Eagle Airport, authorities say the pilot — identified as 54-year-old Stephen Acton — was found without a valid pilot's license. He also had an expired plane registration and a fraudulent flight plan.

A bipartisan group of western lawmakers are pushing legislation in Washington to restore cuts of $110 million in federal mineral royalty payments to 35 states.

Senators from New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah and Idaho have signed onto legislation that Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, introduced Tuesday.

A similar bill was introduced in the House by Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis.

The head of the Albuquerque tea party says the group's application for nonprofit tax status is among those of tea party groups nationally targeted for extra scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS has disclosed that IRS workers looked for groups with "tea party" and "patriot" in their names when deciding which applications to check to see whether the groups complied with eligibility restrictions on political activity.

The head of the Albuquerque tea party says the group's application for nonprofit tax status is among those of tea party groups nationally targeted for extra scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS has disclosed that IRS workers looked for groups with "tea party" and "patriot" in their names when deciding which applications to check to see whether the groups complied with eligibility restrictions on political activity.