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Court Begins Hearings On Workers Comp Exclusion, State Proposes Medicaid Rate Cuts

Irving Rusinow, Photographer via Wikimedia Commons
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CREATIVE COMMONS
A clause from 1937 excludes farm workers from the Workers Compensation Act

NM Supreme Court To Hear Workers Comp Case – Albuquerque Journal

The New Mexico Supreme Court will begin hearing a case today on whether farm and ranch workers should be covered by workers compensation benefits.

The Albuquerque Journal reports the court is reviewing two lower court decisions that found it was unconstitutional to exclude farm and ranch workers under the Workers Compensation Act.

The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty is representing two workers who were injured on the job and denied compensation under a 1937 clause passed by the state legislature.

Ranching and agricultural officials and the Workers Compensation Administration argue the cost and logistics of covering these workers would hurt smaller farms and ranches. But advocates say there is no reason to exclude them.

New Mexico Outlines Cuts To Medicaid Provider RatesAssociated Press

New Mexico is releasing an outline of proposed cuts to reimbursement rates for Medicaid health care providers that would trim up to $160 million in annual state and federal spending.

The state Human Services Department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would rescind enhanced reimbursements to nearly 2,000 physicians and shave reimbursement rates to hospitals by between 3 percent and 8 percent.

Preventive care and obstetrics would be exempt from reimbursement cuts linked to various medical services.

New Mexico is seeking to close an $86 million state funding gap for Medicaid services between now and mid-2017. That means New Mexico is likely to forgo well over $300 million in federal matching funds.

Full Medicaid coverage now extends to more than one-third of New Mexico's 2.1 million residents.

2016 Wildfire Season Expected To Be Less SevereThe Associated Press

The nation's top wildfire-fighting official says the 2016 season isn't expected to be as bad as last year, when a record 15,800 square miles burned nationwide.

But U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said Wednesday that Southern California, other parts of the Southwest, Alaska and Montana could face severe fires.

Tidwell spoke to The Associated Press four days before the federal government issues its wildfire outlook for the summer season. He was in Denver for a conference on forest health.

Much of California remains in a long-term drought, despite an El Nino weather system that brought near-average snowfall to its mountains.

Tidwell says Montana and Alaska also suffered through dry winters.

The Forest Service is the nation's primary wildfire-fighting agency. Last year it spent a record $1.72 billion fighting fires.

Wildlife Agency Agrees To Deadline For Wolf Recovery PlanThe Associated Press

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to a deadline to craft a recovery plan for the endangered Mexican gray wolf.

The agency reached a settlement with environmentalists, Utah and Arizona, but it still needs the approval of a federal judge.

Farm bureaus in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah are expected to challenge the settlement, saying it places an unfair burden on the American public when the wolves' historical range includes Mexico.

States and environmental groups say the recovery plan is long overdue for a species that has struggled to gain a foothold in the Southwest.

The most recent annual survey shows at least 97 wolves live in forested lands in southwestern New Mexico and southeast Arizona.

The settlement would require a recovery plan by November 2017.

Tens Of Thousands Set To Gather For Nation's Largest PowwowThe Associated Press

More than 100,000 spectators, artists, and Native American dancers are converging on Albuquerque as part of North America's largest powwow.

The 33rd annual Gathering of Nations begins Thursday with the start of the three-day Miss Indian World pageant, one of the best known competitions of its kind. Powwow festivities get underway at noon Friday at the University of New Mexico basketball arena, better known as The Pit, where spectators also can shop at a Native American artists and traders market.

Some 700 Native American tribes in the United States and First Nations in Canada are represented at the Gathering of Nations, which has become Albuquerque's second-largest annual festival, and brings an estimated $21 million boost to the city's economy each year.

Search Resumes For Missing Treasure HunterThe Associated Press

Authorities have resumed the search for a Colorado man who disappeared while hunting for a $2 million cache of gold, jewels and artifacts in a rugged part of New Mexico.

Officials at Bandelier National Monument confirmed Wednesday that a search-and-rescue mission was underway in an area of the monument off-limits to the public.

Bandelier Superintendent Jason Lott declined to provide details but said authorities are encouraging people to stay out of the area, which covers steep slopes and a mass of loose rocks.

The search was triggered by the discovery of a backpack last weekend. Authorities wouldn't say whether it belonged to Randy Bilyeu of Broomfield, Colorado, who disappeared in January.

Bilyeu's dog and raft were found along the Rio Grande northwest of Santa Fe. Volunteers have been using everything from drones to dogs to scan the area.

Appeal Rejected In Off-Road Vehicles Case On Forest UseThe Associated Press

A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal by a motorized off-road vehicles users group that challenged a Forest Service decision reducing the routes available for use in the Santa Fe National Forest in northern New Mexico

A trial judge had upheld the agency's action, but the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling Wednesday says the New Mexico Off-Highway Vehicle Alliance didn't have a legal basis to sue.

The appellate court's ruling dismisses the alliance's appeal and orders the trial court to erase its own ruling and dismiss the lawsuit.

Hot-Potato Corruption Case Assigned To Albuquerque JudgeAssociated Press

The New Mexico Supreme Court has named a Republican district court judge from Albuquerque to oversee criminal proceedings against former Sen. Phil Griego after nine Santa Fe-based judges stepped aside or were excused.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court announced Tuesday that Brett Loveless will preside over the case. Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels made the appointment with the prior consent of Griego's attorney and the New Mexico attorney general's office.

Griego is accused of using his role as a legislator to profit from the sale of a state-owned building in 2014. He resigned in 2015 and recently pleaded not guilty to charges including fraud, bribery and tampering with public records.

Loveless won election in 2014 as a Second District Court judge after his appointment by Gov. Susana Martinez.

New Mexico Regulators Push For More Testing Of Racehorses – Associated Press

New Mexico regulators say they're expanding efforts to catch cheaters at the state's horse tracks.

The New Mexico Racing Commission announced Tuesday that enhanced out-of-competition testing is beginning immediately at SunRay Park, where live racing started earlier this month.

The random testing applies to horses being kept at licensed tracks or training centers, those under the care of licensed trainers or owners and any horse whose papers are filed in the racing office or has been nominated to a stakes race.

The penalty for a positive out-of-competition test could include a suspension of up to 120 days. The trainer also may be fined a maximum of $1,500.

Racing Commission Chairman Ray Willis says regulators want the public to know that New Mexico racing is going in the right direction.

Clinton Campaign Announces Plans For Offices In New MexicoAssociated Press

Hillary Clinton's campaign has announced the staffers who will be heading efforts for the Democratic presidential hopeful in New Mexico as the state's June 7 primary approaches.

A former state Democratic Party executive director, Scott Forrester will be leading the New Mexico campaign and Rich Thuma will serve as the organizing director.

The campaign announced Tuesday that it plans to open offices throughout the state in the coming weeks.

Forrester served as the state party director from 2009 through 2013. Previously, he was a political director for Clinton's 2008 campaign in New Mexico.

He most recently was the New Mexico House caucus director under former Speaker Ken Martinez.

Feds Use Prescribed Fire To Make Progress In SouthwestAssociated Press

There's nothing secret about what's planned for Area 74 — a swath of forested land along the Continental Divide in southern New Mexico that needs some attention.

After years of planning, crews with the Gila National Forest are making final preparations to walk the 16-mile perimeter with drip torches.

Nearly 16 square miles will be set ablaze this spring as part of a $375 million nationwide campaign by the U.S. Forest Service to clean up overgrown forest and reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires as things heat up and dry out.

The agency plans to treat close to 2 million acres with fire, mechanical thinning and other means.

State foresters, wildlife managers and environmental groups are pleading with Congress to approve more funding — $479 million — to boost the work in 2017.

Officers Shooting Involving Federal TaskforceAssociated Press, Albuquerque Journal

Authorities say at least one sheriff's deputy opened fire in a shooting that killed a fugitive at an Albuquerque apartment complex.

Federal and local authorities investigating the shooting Tuesday afternoon said the person killed was armed and wanted on a warrant for aggravated assault on an officer.

The Albuquerque Journal reports the fugitive was a female and that Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales said one of his deputies on the taskforce fired at least one shot.

Gonzales would not say how many shots were fired or how many officers were involved.

He says authorities with the Department of Corrections had attempted to apprehend the fugitive at an Albuquerque home Tuesday morning before the person fled to the apartment complex in a stolen truck.

No officers were wounded in the shooting.

Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima" To Be Made Into An OperaAssociated Press

Rudolfo Anaya's famed novel "Bless Me, Ultima," one of the most recognizable works of Mexican-American Literature, is being made into an opera.

National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque announced this week it is collaborating with Opera Southwest to commission the work based on Anaya's book about a New Mexico boy and a traditional healer.

The opera will be written by California-based composer Hector Armienta and is slated to be produced in 2018.

Center executive director Rebecca Avitia says "Bless Me, Ultima" is a magic piece of literature that she can see as an opera production.

Avitia says she hopes the project will draw more Latinos to opera.

Experts say Anaya's novel sparked the Chicano literary movement in the late 1960s and influenced a generation of Latino writers.

State To Draft Plan To Grow Endangered Bird's Population Santa Fe New Mexican, Associated Press

State wildlife officials will draft a plan to help protect an endangered bird species that is part of the grouse family.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the white-tailed ptarmigan has been listed as endangered in the state since 1975.

Taos County and the New Mexico Game and Fish Department will start drafting a management plan in May.

U.S. Forest Service data shows that less than 20 of the birds have been seen annually since 1985. Just three were seen in 2011.

Experts say white-tailed ptarmigans tend to inhabit high-altitude areas and survive in cooler temperatures.

Wildlife officials say the bird is threatened by factors like climate change, development and other animals competing for food.

A public meeting will be held May 5 in Taos.