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Elections 101: An interview with elections expert Lonna Atkeson

William Bowen | October 27

ALBUQUERQUE — With the 2020 general election just over a week away, some voters still may have questions about the election process — particularly those for whom this will be the first presidential election in which they’ve been old enough to take part. To help guide voters through this momentous, era-defining election, the Daily Lobo interviewed Lonna Atkeson, a political science professor and the director of the University of New Mexico’s Center for the Study of Voting, Elections and Democracy. The first step of participating in an election is, naturally, ensuring you are registered to vote.

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Progressive legislative candidates again push for repeal of anti-abortion law

Sayra Ramos | October 27

With a half-century anti-abortion statute still on the books that has the potential to once again restrict women’s reproductive health care access were the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling overturned, New Mexico state legislative candidates weighed in ahead of the Nov. 3 election with their stances on decriminalizing abortion. Pro-choice advocates feel an increasingly more urgent need to decriminalize abortion in New Mexico, especially since the Sept. 18 death of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served as a safety net for abortion health care in the United States.

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UNM cancels classes, remotely

Lissa Knudsen | October 27

The University of New Mexico will be closed today, Tuesday, Oct. 27, due to inclement weather conditions. “All classes (including online and remote delivery classes) on UNM's main campus and at the Health Sciences Center have been canceled for today only,” according to the UNM Newsroom website. A powerful storm system will continue in Albuquerque through Tuesday night, bringing a predicted four inches of additional snowfall, according to the National Weather Service. In addition, record-breaking cold air will continue with widespread sub-freezing temperatures and bitter cold wind chills.

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Concerns about voter intimidation loom in election run-up

Bella Davis | October 26

Albuquerque resident Eleanor Chavez was driving by the 98th and Central early voting site on Saturday, Oct. 17 when she passed a caravan of flag-waving Trump supporters who drove through the parking lot. Hours later, she went back and saw a man with a Trump flag on the back of his truck yelling at voters before the police arrived. “Who does that? I’ve been voting for a hundred million years, and I’ve never seen anything like that,” Chavez said. Chavez said she was planning to vote that day but decided to wait because of the activity she observed, which she called “threatening.”

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Analysis: What to watch for on election night

Liam Debonis | October 26

With Election Day just over a week away, President Donald Trump’s odds are looking grim. In national polling averages, Joe Biden led by 9.2 percentage points as of the evening of Oct. 25. Traditionally red states like Georgia and Arizona have turned into fierce campaign battlegrounds. Biden signaled his confidence in a tweet on Oct. 19, telling his supporters “let’s finish strong” while Trump publicly mused about the likelihood of his defeat at a campaign rally just days earlier.

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UNM’s Project ECHO gets $237 million in federal funding

Gino Gutierrez | October 22

Project ECHO, the University of New Mexico School of Medicine’s tele-mentoring initiative for medical providers, has been awarded $237 million dollars in federal funding. An award of this size is unprecedented. In comparison, all of the Health Sciences Center’s awards for the 2020 fiscal year totaled $202 million, according to Mark Rudi, an HSC spokesperson. The program is designed to provide “remote-infection control training and technical assistance,” according to a press release from the UNM Health Sciences Newsroom.

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GPSA announces support for graduate worker union

Bella Davis | October 21

University of New Mexico graduate student workers are organizing a union called United Graduate Workers of UNM, with the support of UNM Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA), as was announced to all graduate students via email on Monday. Pay, benefits and working conditions, all of which would presumably be the focus of union contract negotiations, “are of material importance to the ability of our graduate and professional students to access a high-quality education, maintain good standing in their graduate programs and complete their degrees in a reasonable timeframe,” the GPSA email said.

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Medical abortion available to New Mexico women through telehealth

Sayra Ramos | October 20

New Mexico residents can now obtain abortion medication through the mail. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) is now participating in a study known as TelAbortion, which provides telehealth medical abortion services. The process is the same through TelAbortion as that of a regular medical abortion, but does not require patients to physically enter an abortion clinic.

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Campus organizations lobby for $12.6 million in student fee funding

Lissa Knudsen | October 19

The University of New Mexico’s Student Fee Review Board (SFRB) held its first of two student forums on Thursday, Oct. 15, with close to 50 attendees and board members participating via Zoom. This year, 30 programs have applied for recurring funding, with six asking for an increase of more than $100,000 over what the board recommended last year. The SFRB is a student committee — consisting of five undergraduate and two graduate student leaders — that meets annually to draft recommendations on how approximately $12.6 million in student activity fees should be allocated.

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COVID-19 jail outbreak jeopardizes vulnerable populations

Bella Davis | October 19

The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) on the far west side of Albuquerque has seen a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases this month. Between Oct. 12-15, the jail reported 139 new cases. In response, public defenders are calling for police to cite people rather than arrest them when possible. MDC bookings show that over the past week, dozens of people have been jailed for minor, nonviolent crimes like possession of a controlled substance, driving with a revoked license and criminal trespassing. Trespassing is a charge often leveled against unhoused people, as the Daily Lobo previously reported in July.

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Operation Legend leaves behind a cloud of ambiguity

Gino Gutierrez | October 16

ALBUQUERQUE — U.S. Attorney for New Mexico John C. Anderson appeared alongside U.S. Attorney General William Barr at a press conference Wednesday about the status of the Operation Legend task force. In a statement released in July by the Department of Justice, Barr said Operation Legend aimed to “combine federal and local resources to combat the disturbing uptick in violence by surging federal agents and other federal assets into cities.” Barr praised the actions of the 40 Operation Legend federal agents in Albuquerque. “Violent crime is solvable. It’s not something people have to live with at the levels they’re living with,” Barr said.

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Haaland aims to make outdoors more accessible

Cameron Ward | October 16

U.S. Reps. Deb Haaland and Grace Meng have introduced legislation highlighting the issue that many Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) and low-income families don’t have equal access to outdoor activities and economic opportunities. “Equal access to natural areas and open lands is a right that everyone holds. However, low-income communities across the U.S. are consistently denied access to these natural treasures and the benefits that public lands provide,” said Haaland, the vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources in her introduction of the Environmental Justice in Recreation Permitting Act.

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Guns, oil and outside money: The expensive race for southern New Mexico

William Bowen | October 13

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story ran in the Daily Lobo’s print edition on Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. That story has been updated with quotes from one of the candidates that came in after deadline. One of the closest congressional races in the country is taking place in southern New Mexico: House District 2, contested between incumbent Democrat Xochitl Torres Small and Republican and former state legislator Yvette Herrell. The race is a rematch of the 2018 election, which Torres Small won by only about 4,000 votes — and polling indicates the race is tight once again.

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Graduate student workers organize for better pay, working conditions

Bella Davis | October 13

At a virtual town hall attended by over 150 people, University of New Mexico graduate student workers discussed how the administration has continuously ignored their concerns related to pay and working conditions. Now, they’re organizing to form a union. “This is a historical moment for us to be organizing and unionizing during a pandemic,” United Graduate Workers of UNM organizer and Chicana/o Studies PhD candidate Natalia Toscano said. “The fact is that we’re standing up to ensure that all workers have a voice at the table and that we’re getting all of the benefits and pay and resources that ensure that we live full and dignified lives.”

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Protesters chain themselves to obelisk in opposition to lack of action regarding indigenous recognition

Nicholas Romero | October 11

Two protesters chained themselves to the obelisk in Santa Fe Plaza on Saturday afternoon. A sign chained next to the two men read, “Here I will remain, a white ally chained to the monoliths of racism, colonialism and hatred holding a sign that makes me feel hopeful. But I can no longer be willing to hope for a better future, rather I now must be willing to fight for one!” A crowd of protesters gathered around the obelisk with signs and intentionally disrupted patrons walking around the plaza. The protesters asked passersby to donate directly to them, rather than supporting those other businesses that claim to support Indigenous peoples but don’t give the money back to the people that need it. Protesters also called out those without masks in the plaza and tourists from out of state for increasing the spread of the coronavirus.

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UNMPD officer receives written warning for racist video

Bella Davis | October 11

After a TikTok video featuring a South Park “scanning for Mexicans” voiceover circulated on social media last month and caused an upset among the student body, University of New Mexico police officer Eric Peer was placed on paid administrative leave for two weeks while an internal investigation was conducted, as previously reported in the Daily Lobo. At the time Peer was allowed to return to work, UNM spokesperson Cinnamon Blair said “appropriate disciplinary action” had been taken but declined to disclose any details. Through a records request, the Daily Lobo has learned that the disciplinary action levied against Peer was a written warning.

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UNM withholds on-campus dorms coronavirus data, citing privacy concerns

Bella Davis and Spencer Butler | October 11

Mirroring many other universities across the country in lack of transparency, the University of New Mexico is refusing to disclose how many students living in on-campus housing have tested positive for COVID-19. Responding to a question from the Daily Lobo about which dorms have had outbreaks and how many students who live on campus have tested positive, Sarah Scott, a spokesperson for UNM Institutional Support Services which UNM Residence Life and Student Housing falls under, said the University will not release those details “to protect student privacy.” Melanie Majors, the executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said that universities nationwide are abusing federal privacy laws as an excuse to not disclose coronavirus data.

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Party for Socialism and Liberation courts young voters

William Bowen | October 9

ALBUQUERQUE — As the 2020 election cycle nears its end, some voters are turning away from establishment political parties. One of the parties attracting young voters in particular is the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a self-described revolutionary Marxist party whose presidential ticket will appear on New Mexicans’ ballots in 2020. The PSL 2020 presidential ticket features Albuquerque native and longtime activist Gloria La Riva for president and disability rights advocate and cultural worker Sunil Freeman for vice president. The party is hoping to ride a wave of youth support.

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UNMPD files leaked in large-scale law enforcement hack

Bella Davis | October 7

Amidst national protests against police brutality spurred by the police murder of George Floyd, hundreds of University of New Mexico Police Department files were leaked in what is reportedly the largest hack of United States law enforcement agencies. Notably, UNMPD appears to be the only university police department included in the leak. It’s now been over three months since the hacked files were published with no public action from the University. Responding to a request from the Daily Lobo, UNM said they were unaware that private information — like home addresses and driver’s license numbers collected for police reports — was made public.

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COVID-19, flu season threaten to push hospitals over the edge

Nikita Jaiswal | October 7

U.S. health officials are bracing for a potential perfect storm as the flu season begins amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Each year influenza, or the common flu, poses a large burden on the health care system. Within the last year, New Mexico has seen several hundred deaths due to the flu. The state’s mortality rates follow closely with national mortality rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The University of New Mexico Hospital is operating at critical levels, “well above the 85% average capacity threshold considered optimal for hospital efficiency,” according to a UNMH report. A heavy flu season could stagger hospitals already dealing with COVID cases, as both respiratory viral infections can require intensive care treatment.