New Mexico reaches record settlement over natural gas flaring in the Permian Basin - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
New Mexico has reached a record settlement with a Texas-based company over air pollution violations at natural gas gathering sites in the Permian Basin.
The $24.5 million agreement with Ameredev announced Monday is the largest settlement the state Environment Department has ever reached for a civil oil and gas violation. It stems from the flaring of billions of cubic feet of natural gas that the company had extracted over an 18-month period but wasn't able to transport to downstream processors.
Environment Secretary James Kenney said in an interview that the flared gas would have been enough to have supplied nearly 17,000 homes for a year.
"It's completely the opposite of the way it's supposed to work," Kenney said. "Had they not wasted New Mexico's resources, they could have put that gas to use."
The flaring, or burning off of the gas, resulted in more than 7.6 million pounds of excess emissions that included hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other gases that state regulators said are known to cause respiratory issues and contribute to climate change.
Ameredev in a statement issued Monday said it was pleased to have solved what is described as a "legacy issue" and that the state's Air Quality Bureau was unaware of any ongoing compliance problems at the company's facilities.
"This is an issue we take very seriously," the company stated. "Over the last four years, Ameredev has not experienced any flaring-related excess emissions events thanks to our significant — and ongoing — investments in various advanced technologies and operational enhancements."
While operators can vent or flare natural gas during emergencies or equipment failures, New Mexico in 2021 adopted rules to prohibit routine venting and flaring and set a 2026 deadline for the companies to capture 98% of their gas. The rules also require the regular tracking and reporting of emissions.
A study published in March in the journal Nature calculated that American oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and compressors were spewing more greenhouse gases than the government thought, causing $9.3 billion in yearly climate damage. The authors said it is a fixable problem, as about half of the emissions come from just 1% of oil and gas sites.
Under the settlement, Ameredev agreed to do an independent audit of its operations in New Mexico to ensure compliance with emission requirements. It must also submit monthly reports on actual emission rates and propose a plan for weekly inspections for a two-year period or install leak and repair monitoring equipment.
Kenney said it was a citizen complaint that first alerted state regulators to Ameredev's flaring.
The Environment Department currently is investigating numerous other potential pollution violations around the basin, and Kenney said it was likely more penalties could result.
"With a 50% average compliance rate with the air quality regulations by the oil and gas industry," he said, "we have an obligation to continue to go and ensure compliance and hold polluters accountable."
Granholm says Inflation Reduction Act expanded manufacturing in America, New Mexico - Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of the Department of Energy, spoke about how the federal Inflation Reduction Act has created jobs and led to business expansions during a visit to Albuquerque on Friday.
While in Albuquerque, Granholm celebrated the groundbreaking of an expanded solar tracking manufacturing campus.
Array Technologies is building a new facility in west Albuquerque in addition to an already existing site.
The new $50 million facility in west Albuquerque is expected to provide more than $300 million in economic benefits to the city over the next ten years.
The new campus will be about 216,000 square feet and will employ more than 300 people who will work producing, assembling, designing and engineering solar tracking technology as well as assisting customers.
Array received $2.5 million in economic assistance from the state’s Local Economic Development Act job-creation fund, and both Albuquerque and Bernalillo County provided $250,000 in LEDA funds as well as a partial property tax abatement through an industrial revenue bond.
The company is also benefiting from incentives in the federal Inflation Reduction Act, a 2022 law that includes the largest investment in addressing climate change in the country’s history.
In particular, Array Technologies says the production tax credit made the expansion possible.
Array Technologies is among hundreds of businesses nationwide that have benefited from the incentives available through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Granholm said that in the energy sector alone more than 600 companies have announced that they are expanding operations or opening up a facility in the United States because of President Joe Biden’s Investing In America Agenda. That agenda includes the Inflation Reduction Act as well as other key pieces of legislation such as the bipartisan infrastructure law and the CHIPS and Science Act.
Those expansions and new facilities represent tens of thousands of good paying jobs, she said.
“That’s just so far,” Granholm said. “These credits last 10 years to give industry certainty about expanding. And so we’re excited. Everyday we open up the newspaper and there’s another factory that’s announced that it is opening up.”
Granholm not only visited the groundbreaking at Array Technologies on Friday. She also headed south to Belen for a ribbon cutting at Arcosa Wind Towers, a wind turbine manufacturing facility that has also benefited from the Inflation Reduction Act. Arcosa previously hosted Biden during a visit last year where he described the facility as an example of the Inflation Reduction Act at work.
Granholm said that the Inflation Reduction Act has led to eight companies in New Mexico saying they will expand operations. Those companies include Array Technologies.
She said the United States has an incredibly low unemployment rate, which can also be seen in New Mexico.
“Part of that is due to this explosion of manufacturing across the country as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan infrastructure law, (and) the CHIPS and Science Act,” she said.
Granholm said New Mexico’s senators played important roles in drafting sections of the Inflation Reduction Act that have brought those benefits to the state.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat representing New Mexico, said at the groundbreaking that the three laws that Granholm referenced have “created incredible demand” for workers to fill manufacturing jobs.
“It’s a great time to be in the skilled trades or in manufacturing in the state of New Mexico,” he said.
He said the growth in the industry has led to challenges in filling job openings.
“Our biggest challenge right now is creating the workforce to fill that demand,” Heinrich said. “And that’s a good problem to have.”
One way that the Inflation Reduction Act is helping build that workforce is through incentivizing apprenticeships. The Inflation Reduction Act provides increased tax credits for companies that meet certain criteria including utilizing apprentices and pay prevailing wages.
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján described the Inflation Reduction Act, bipartisan infrastructure law and CHIPS and Science Act as job creators. He said the policies were focused on bringing back jobs that were no longer available in the United States.
He said those jobs are “now here and they’re in New Mexico. That’s why I’m so proud to be a part of this and to have supported this legislation.”
During the groundbreaking at Array Technologies, Granholm commented on the shirts that employees were wearing. The shirts all had the phrase #SolarJobs on their back. She said workers are crucial to the current industrial revolution.
She said the industrial strategy starts by “making America irresistible to investments.”
One way of doing that is through tax credits like those seen in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“We’re giving tax credits to manufacturers who supply these clean energy products, including trackers and of course solar panels, etc,” she said. “And we’re giving tax credits to utilities and to individuals to create demand for the products.”
The Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 and only one member of New Mexico’s congressional delegation opposed it at the time. That member was former U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, a Republican who was ousted from her seat a few months later by current Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat. Herrell is now running against Vasquez for that same seat.
The Inflation Reduction Act has brought more than just expanded businesses to New Mexico.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the state will receive $156 million to expand access to solar thanks to a funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act is also being used to expand access to clean water and to reduce emissions from the transportation sector.
CDC says it's identified 1st documented cases of HIV transmitted through cosmetic needles - Associated Press
Three women who were diagnosed with HIV after getting "vampire facial" procedures at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa are believed to be the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through a cosmetic procedure using needles, federal health officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its Morbidity and Mortality Report last week that an investigation into the clinic from 2018 through 2023 showed it apparently reused disposable equipment intended for one-time use.
Although HIV transmission from contaminated blood through unsterile injection is a well-known risk, the report said this is the first documentation of probable infections involving cosmetic services.
Many popular cosmetic treatments are delivered with needles, such as Botox to iron out wrinkles and fillers to plump lips. A "vampire facial," or platelet-rich plasma microneedling procedure, involves drawing a client's own blood, separating its components, then using tiny needles to inject plasma into the face to rejuvenate the skin. Tattoos also require needles.
The New Mexico Department of Health began investigating the spa in the summer of 2018 after it was notified that a woman in her 40s had tested positive for HIV even though she had no known risk factors. The woman reported exposure to needles through the procedure at the clinic that spring.
The spa closed in fall 2018 after the investigation was launched, and its owner was prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license.
The report said the investigation showed how important it is to require infection control practices at businesses that offer cosmetic procedures involving needles.
It also noted that the investigation was slowed by poor record keeping and said businesses providing such services should keep better records in case clients need to be contacted later.
'Vampire facials' were linked to cases of HIV. Here's what to know about the beauty treatment - By Alexa St. John Associated Press
Three women were diagnosed with HIV after getting "vampire facial" procedures at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report last week, marking the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through cosmetic services using needles.
Federal health officials said in a new report that an investigation from 2018 through 2023 into the clinic in Albuquerque, VIP Spa, found it apparently reused disposable equipment intended for one-time use, transmitting HIV to clients through its services via contaminated blood.
WHAT IS A VAMPIRE FACIAL? IS IT SAFE?
Vampire facials, formally known as platelet-rich plasma microneedling facials, are cosmetic procedures intended to rejuvenate one's skin, making it more youthful-looking and reducing acne scars and wrinkles, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.
After a client's blood is drawn, a machine separates the blood into platelets and cells.
The plasma is then injected into the client's face, either through single-use disposable or multiuse sterile needles.
Vampire facials have gained popularity in recent years as celebrities such as Kim Kardashian have publicized receiving the procedure.
HIV transmission via unsterile injection is a known risk of beauty treatments and other services, officials say.
Despite this, the Academy says vampire facials are generally safe.
Health officials say spa facilities that offer cosmetic injection services should practice proper infection control and maintain client records to help prevent the transmission of bloodborne pathogens such as HIV.
IS THIS PROCESS USED IN OTHER PROCEDURES?
Platelet-rich plasma injections were initially most used medically for bone grafting and osteoarthritis, and then became popular in cosmetic treatments.
Other services, such as Botox and lip fillers, are also delivered with needles, as are tattoos.
Though this procedure works for hair growth, its use for rejuvenation purposes is not Food and Drug Administration-approved, said Zakia Rahman, a clinical professor of dermatology at Stanford University.
But as such procedures grow in popularity, she said, it is "important for people to know and understand a medical procedure should be done in a medical setting."
HOW WERE THE HIV CASES LINKED TO THE SPA?
The New Mexico Department of Health was notified during summer 2018 that a woman with no known HIV risk factors was diagnosed with an HIV infection after receiving the spa's vampire facial services that spring.
During the investigation, similar HIV strains were found among three women, all former clients of the spa. Evidence suggested that contamination from services at the spa resulted in the positive HIV infection tests for these three patients, according to the CDC report.
Another woman, who also received services at the spa, and her male sexual partner, who did not go to the spa, were both found to have a close HIV strain as well, but the HIV diagnoses for these two patients "were likely attributed to exposures before receipt of cosmetic injection services," the CDC said.
Health officials found equipment containing blood on a kitchen counter, unlabeled tubes of blood and injectables in the refrigerator alongside food and unwrapped syringes not properly disposed of. The CDC report said that a steam sterilizer, known as an autoclave — which is necessary for cleaning equipment that is reused — was not found at the spa.
ARE ANY OTHER PATIENTS AT RISK?
Through the New Mexico Department of Health's investigation, nearly 200 former clients of the spa, and their sexual partners, were tested for HIV, and no additional infections were found.
According to the CDC, free testing remains available for those who previously frequented the spa.
"Having a medical procedure in a nonmedical setting, I think is the biggest danger of all," Rahman said. "Having that discount or the lower cost is not worth potentially putting your life at risk."
"There are a number of procedures and processes in place to make sure that these treatments are done safely and in medical settings," she said. "All of these things are in place to really reduce that risk, and when done safely, the risks are extraordinarily low."
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SPA OWNER?
The former owner of VIP Spa, Maria de Lourdes Ramos de Ruiz, pleaded guilty in 2022 to five felony counts of practicing medicine without a license, including conducting the unlicensed vampire facials.
The New Mexico Attorney General's office said Ramos de Ruiz also did illegal plasma and Botox-injection procedures.
According to prosecutors, inspections by state health and regulation and licensing departments found the code violations, and the spa closed in fall 2018 after the investigation was launched.
Ramos de Ruiz was sentenced to 7 1/2 years, with four years being suspended on supervised probation, 3 1/2 years time in prison and parole, according to court documents.
Raul A. Lopez, attorney for Ramos de Ruiz, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Affluent Americans are driving US economy and likely delaying need for Fed rate cuts - By Christopher Rugaber Ap Economics Writer
Since retiring two years ago, Joan Harris has upped her travel game.
Once or twice a year, she visits her two adult children in different states. She's planning multiple other trips, including to a science fiction convention in Scotland and a Disney cruise soon after that, along with a trip next year to neolithic sites in Great Britain.
"I really have more money to spend now than when I was working," said Harris, 64, an engineer who worked 29 years for the federal government and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Back then, she and her now-ex-husband were paying for their children's college educations and piling money into savings accounts. Now, she's splurging a bit and, for the first time, is willing to pay for first-class plane tickets. She plans to fly business class to Scotland and has arranged for a higher-level suite on the cruise.
"I suddenly realized, with my dad getting old and my mom dying, it's like, 'No, you can't take it with you,' " she said. "I could become incapacitated to the point where I couldn't enjoy something like going to Scotland or going on a cruise. So I better do it, right?"
Older Americans like Harris are fueling a sustained boost to the U.S. economy. Benefiting from outsize gains in the stock and housing markets over the past several years, they are accounting for a larger share of consumer spending — the principal driver of economic growth — than ever before.
And much of their spending is going toward higher-priced services like travel, health care and entertainment, putting further upward pressure on those prices — and on inflation. Such spending is relatively immune to the Federal Reserve's push to slow growth and tame inflation through higher borrowing rates, because it rarely requires borrowing.
Affluent older Americans, if they own government bonds, may even be benefiting from the Fed's rate hikes. Those hikes have led to higher bond yields, generating more income for those who own such bonds.
The so-called "wealth effect," whereby rising home and stock values give people confidence to increase their spending, is a big reason why the economy has defied expectations of a sharp slowdown. Its unexpected strength, which is contributing to stickier inflation, has forced a shift in the Fed's plans.
As recently as March, the Fed's policymakers had projected that they would cut their benchmark rate three times this year. Since then, though, inflation measures have remained uncomfortably high, partly a consequence of brisk consumer spending. Chair Jerome Powell made clear recently that the Fed isn't confident enough that inflation is sustainably easing to cut rates.
When the Fed meets this week, it is sure to keep its benchmark rate unchanged at a 23-year high, the result of 11 rate hikes. The Fed's hikes have forced up borrowing costs across the economy — for everything from home and auto loans to credit cards and business loans.
Even as the Fed has jacked up borrowing costs, stock and home values have kept rising, enlarging the net worth of affluent households. Consider that household wealth grew by an average of 5.5% a year in the decade after the 2008-2009 Great Recession but that since 2018, it's accelerated to nearly 9%.
Stock prices, as measured by the S&P 500 index, are about 72% higher than they were five years ago. Home values soared 58% from the end of 2018 through 2023, according to the Federal Reserve.
All told, Americans' wealth has ballooned from $98 trillion at the end of 2018 to $147 trillion five years later. Adjusting for inflation, the gains are less dramatic, but still substantial.
"People have had significant wealth gains in stocks, significant wealth gains in fixed income, significant wealth gains in home prices, significant wealth gains even in crypto," said Torsten Slok, chief economist at the Apollo Group, an asset manager. "All that adds up to still a very significant tailwind."
The gains are hardly universal. The wealthiest one-tenth of Americans own two-thirds of all household wealth. Still, wealth for the median household — the midpoint between the richest and poorest — rose 37% from 2019 to 2022, the sharpest rise on record since the 1980s according to the Fed, to $193,000.
Wealth is also disproportionately held by older Americans. People ages 55 and over now own nearly three-quarters of all household wealth, up from 68% in 2010, according to the Fed. In percentage terms since the pandemic, household net worth has also surged for younger households. But because younger adults started from a much lower level, their gains haven't been anywhere near enough to keep pace with older Americans.
"The baby boomers are the richest retiring generation we've ever had," said Edward Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. "Not everybody is well-off, but we've never had a retiring generation with this much wealth. That's one of the major reasons why the economy is strong."
That said, many older Americans face significant financial challenges. One-quarter of Americans over age 50 have no retirement savings, according to a survey by the AARP.
Even so, as the huge baby boom generation has aged and, on average, has accumulated more assets, they have accounted for a rising share of consumer spending. Americans ages 65 or over supplied nearly 22% of consumer spending in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. That's the highest such figure on records dating to 1989, up from about 16% in 2010.
One result of the Fed's higher rates has been a kind of bifurcated economy, by age. Older, wealthier Americans who already own homes and cars have been much less affected by the Fed's rate hikes. By contrast, younger Americans are enduring a combination of expensive home prices and high mortgage rates, making it much harder to buy a first home.
Harris, for one, sees this divide in her own family: Her home and car are paid off, and higher interest rates have had little effect on her finances. She recently visited a home in her neighborhood that she was surprised to see priced at $500,000. She bought hers, which she thinks could fetch a higher price, for $162,000 in 1991.
Her 25-year-old daughter, Ruby, had a vastly different experience during a recent visit to an open house near her boyfriend's apartment in the Boston area. An older two-bedroom apartment was on sale for $800,000; it sold within a week.
Ruby considers herself fortunate to have a well-paying job as a materials engineer. But that apartment price still seemed astronomical. She loves the area, especially for its walkability, but doubts she'll ever be able to afford a house there.
"In the long term, it probably won't be affordable to stay here," she said. "Whereas the Midwest is more affordable but won't have the neighborhoods that I like."
Economists calculate that while the wealth effect generally has a relatively modest effect on spending, it may be larger now. That's because retirement-age Americans, who are more likely to spend out of their wealth, constitute a larger proportion of the nation: Americans ages 65 and over make up about 17% of the population, up from 13% in 2010. And people with stock holdings can now easily access their account balances online, increasing their awareness of increases in their net worth.
Research by Michael Brown, an economist at Visa and others has also found that significant stock market wealth typically boosts spending on discretionary items such as restaurants, travel and entertainment — sectors of the economy where spending is surging and inflation remains elevated.
The Conference Board, a business research group, asks Americans in its monthly survey of consumer confidence whether they plan an overseas vacation in the next six months. Slok noted that more than one in five households say they are — a record-high proportion on records dating to 1967.
The cruise provider Royal Caribbean just reported blowout earnings and strong demand, "leading to higher pricing for all our key products," CEO Jason Liberty told investors. "Customer sentiment remains very positive, bolstered by resilient labor markets, wage growth, stabilizing inflation and record-high household net worth."
Last week, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, excluding volatile food and energy costs, rose 2.8% from a year earlier, a sign that inflation remains sticky. Solid consumer spending, particularly on services, was one key factor. In one measure of services inflation that the Fed watches closely, prices climbed 3.5% from a year earlier, far higher than is consistent with its 2% inflation target.
Interstate near Arizona-New Mexico line reopens after train derailment as lingering fuel burns off - Associated Press
Interstate 40 was reopened in both directions Sunday as fire crews continued watch over a controlled burn of remaining fuel from a freight train derailment near the Arizona-New Mexico state line, a local fire chief said.
Earlier evacuation orders have now been lifted.
"It's all under control," said Fire Chief Lawrence Montoya Jr., of McKinley County, New Mexico. "Our hazmat team is on site, along with our well-trained firefighters."
Montoya, the incident commander at the scene, said the controlled burns were still consuming remaining fuel on some cars. He said no one was hurt in the Friday derailment of the BNSF Railway train near Lupton, Arizona, which occurred on the New Mexico side of the tracks, or during the subsequent firefighting operation.
For a time, the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 were closed around Holbrook, Arizona, and the westbound lanes of the interstate were closed at Grants, New Mexico.
The New Mexico Department of Transportation reported Sunday that motorists should continue to expect heavy smoke in some areas, as well as long delays that could require them to seek other routes or postpone travel to the area.
Montoya said firefighters continued to remove debris from the area and that repair of the tracks was under way.
The cause of the derailment remained under investigation Sunday, said Montoya. He said investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and other federal agencies were at the scene.
APS puts staff on leave after drag performance at prom - KOB-TV, Albuquerque Journal, KOAT-TV, KUNM News
The principal of Atrisco Heritage Academy High School has been replaced by an acting principal after a drag performance at the school’s prom.
KOB-TV reports APS has placed multiple staff members on administrative leave as the district investigates, though did not confirm how many.
According to a letter sent to families, former Principal Irene Cisneros has been replaced by acting Principal Anthony Lovato.
The April 20 performance by local drag queen Dylan Payan, who performs as Mythica Sahreen, has been shared widely on social media, garnering pushback from some who believe it was inappropriate for a high school audience.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Chief of Schools Channell Segura and Mark Garcia, associate superintendent of leadership, learning and equity sent an email to parents Wednesday. It said that the district was investigating what occurred during the performance and how students were impacted.
KOAT-TV reports it has obtained emails and texts confirming the school agreed to the performance. Payan told the outlet that he has performed at the school previously without issue, though agrees parents should have been informed.
Payan says he has received death threats over the incident and has yet to be contacted by school officials, adding he feels he’s “having to fight this alone in the dark.”
UNM encampment in solidarity with Palestinians continues - Daily Lobo, KUNM News
An encampment in place since Monday is continuing on UNM's campus. It is in support of Palestinians and in solidarity with similar protests on campuses nationwide, as Israel's war in Gaza continues.
The Daily Lobo reports the protesters are calling for the University's Board of Regents to employ a resolution written by the UNM Law Students Against Imperialism, the UNM Muslim Student Association and the UNM College Democrats.
The resolution calls on the regents to investigate the University's financial holdings and, "begin a process of orderly divestment from companies consistently and knowingly involved in human rights violations and state violence in Gaza and the West Bank".
On Wednesday, April 24, at an Associated Students at the University of New Mexico full Senate meeting, President Garnett Stokes was asked whether campus representatives were going to come to a compromise regarding the camp. “There are many perspectives on many complex issues, and our focus is on education,” Stokes said.
UNM Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Cinnamon Blair said in a statement to the Daily Lobo: “Setting up tents and sleeping bags or an encampment of any kind is not permissible on the UNM campus, and is in violation of UAPPM Policy 2270; citations could be issued or arrests made for non-compliance.”
Lujan Grisham expresses frustration with feds over cannabis seizures in leaked audio - Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
An unauthorized audio recording captured Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham expressing frustration over seizures of legalized recreational and medicinal cannabis at U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints in Southern New Mexico.
As the Santa Fe New Mexican reports, Lujan Grisham says in the recording she's being hounded by the news media over the seizures and threatens to write a letter accusing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of failing to work with her administration on immigration.
The recording was posted Thursday night on the social media platform X. Lujan Grisham says in the recording she's "cranky" with the "secretary," an apparent reference to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokeswoman for the governor, confirmed it is Lujan Grisham in the recording.
She said in a statement, "This unauthorized and edited recording of the governor's private phone call reflects what she has already said publicly — that she is frustrated by federal seizures of licensed cannabis products in New Mexico, particularly those from small producers. She has expressed the same concerns in phone calls with Secretary Mayorkas."
State Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca said in a statement: "In the leaked audio, there is substantive discussion about the border crisis, including the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into New Mexico, and the unwillingness of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to act."
He called on the Governor to clarify what elected officials are doing to keep the state safe.
NMDOJ investigates complaints about county commissioners - ByCity Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ
The New Mexico Department of Justice (NMDOJ) is investigating claims that some members of the Bernalillo County Commission have violated meeting rules.
In a letter dated April 24, and addressed to County Manager Julie Ann Baca and Attorney Ken Martinez, the NMDOJ said, “Based on the materials reviewed, there are indications that deliberations on public business and ‘caucus-like’ activities were taking place among various members of the Commission outside of open Commission meetings.”
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government filed a complaint with the NMDOJ after receiving reports that commissioners had made a plan outside of the meeting to create a search committee to decide how to fill the position of the outgoing county manager.
Executive director Melanie Majors said FOG applauds the decision.
“This action is significant because it makes clear that a majority of the Commission discussed the selection process for hiring a new County Manager and agreed to the process in advance of the April 9 Commission Meeting in violation of the OMA,” Majors wrote in a news release.
Majors went on to say that FOG is particularly pleased that the NMDOJ pointed out that “while individual Commission members may explore the feasibility of resolutions prior to their proposal, individual Commission members are strongly cautioned to avoid engaging in any conversations, telephone calls or text messaging on matters of public business in order to reserve those discussions and deliberations for observation in an open Commission meeting. Engaging in a pre-meeting voting caucus or making an agreement with fellow Commissioners to vote on a particular matter prior to a Commission Meeting could constitute a rolling quorum in violation of the OMA.”
Today’s scheduled meeting of the County Manager Search Committee was canceled due to the NMDOJ decision, the county said. No rescheduled date has been announced.
USDA issues new testing requirements for dairy cattle amid bird flu outbreak - Alice Fordham, KUNM News
The United States Department of Agriculture has issued new mandates aimed at limiting the spread of the bird flu virus recently discovered in some dairy cattle, including in New Mexico.
Beginning Monday, a Federal Order will be enacted, requiring that prior to interstate movement, dairy cattle are required to receive a negative test for the virus at an approved lab.
Labs must report positive results to the USDA.
As of April 25, USDA has confirmed the presence of bird flu at 33 dairy cattle facilities in eight states, including New Mexico.
USDA has also confirmed that the same virus detected in dairy cattle has also been found at eight poultry facilities in five states, including in New Mexico.
Affluent Americans are driving US economy and likely delaying need for Fed rate cuts - By Christopher Rugaber, Ap Economics Writer
Since retiring two years ago, Joan Harris has upped her travel game.
Once or twice a year, she visits her two adult children in different states. She's planning multiple other trips, including to a science fiction convention in Scotland and a Disney cruise soon after that, along with a trip next year to neolithic sites in Great Britain.
"I really have more money to spend now than when I was working," said Harris, 64, an engineer who worked 29 years for the federal government and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Back then, she and her now-ex-husband were paying for their children's college educations and piling money into savings accounts. Now, she's splurging a bit and, for the first time, is willing to pay for first-class plane tickets. She plans to fly business class to Scotland and has arranged for a higher-level suite on the cruise.
"I suddenly realized, with my dad getting old and my mom dying, it's like, 'No, you can't take it with you,' " she said. "I could become incapacitated to the point where I couldn't enjoy something like going to Scotland or going on a cruise. So I better do it, right?"
Older Americans like Harris are fueling a sustained boost to the U.S. economy. Benefiting from outsize gains in the stock and housing markets over the past several years, they are accounting for a larger share of consumer spending — the principal driver of economic growth — than ever before.
And much of their spending is going toward higher-priced services like travel, health care and entertainment, putting further upward pressure on those prices — and on inflation. Such spending is relatively immune to the Federal Reserve's push to slow growth and tame inflation through higher borrowing rates, because it rarely requires borrowing.
Affluent older Americans, if they own government bonds, may even be benefiting from the Fed's rate hikes. Those hikes have led to higher bond yields, generating more income for those who own such bonds.
The so-called "wealth effect," whereby rising home and stock values give people confidence to increase their spending, is a big reason why the economy has defied expectations of a sharp slowdown. Its unexpected strength, which is contributing to stickier inflation, has forced a shift in the Fed's plans.
As recently as March, the Fed's policymakers had projected that they would cut their benchmark rate three times this year. Since then, though, inflation measures have remained uncomfortably high, partly a consequence of brisk consumer spending. Chair Jerome Powell made clear recently that the Fed isn't confident enough that inflation is sustainably easing to cut rates.
When the Fed meets this week, it is sure to keep its benchmark rate unchanged at a 23-year high, the result of 11 rate hikes. The Fed's hikes have forced up borrowing costs across the economy — for everything from home and auto loans to credit cards and business loans.
Even as the Fed has jacked up borrowing costs, stock and home values have kept rising, enlarging the net worth of affluent households. Consider that household wealth grew by an average of 5.5% a year in the decade after the 2008-2009 Great Recession but that since 2018, it's accelerated to nearly 9%.
Stock prices, as measured by the S&P 500 index, are about 72% higher than they were five years ago. Home values soared 58% from the end of 2018 through 2023, according to the Federal Reserve.
All told, Americans' wealth has ballooned from $98 trillion at the end of 2018 to $147 trillion five years later. Adjusting for inflation, the gains are less dramatic, but still substantial.
"People have had significant wealth gains in stocks, significant wealth gains in fixed income, significant wealth gains in home prices, significant wealth gains even in crypto," said Torsten Slok, chief economist at the Apollo Group, an asset manager. "All that adds up to still a very significant tailwind."
The gains are hardly universal. The wealthiest one-tenth of Americans own two-thirds of all household wealth. Still, wealth for the median household — the midpoint between the richest and poorest — rose 37% from 2019 to 2022, the sharpest rise on record since the 1980s according to the Fed, to $193,000.
Wealth is also disproportionately held by older Americans. People ages 55 and over now own nearly three-quarters of all household wealth, up from 68% in 2010, according to the Fed. In percentage terms since the pandemic, household net worth has also surged for younger households. But because younger adults started from a much lower level, their gains haven't been anywhere near enough to keep pace with older Americans.
"The baby boomers are the richest retiring generation we've ever had," said Edward Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. "Not everybody is well-off, but we've never had a retiring generation with this much wealth. That's one of the major reasons why the economy is strong."
That said, many older Americans face significant financial challenges. One-quarter of Americans over age 50 have no retirement savings, according to a survey by the AARP.
Even so, as the huge baby boom generation has aged and, on average, has accumulated more assets, they have accounted for a rising share of consumer spending. Americans ages 65 or over supplied nearly 22% of consumer spending in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. That's the highest such figure on records dating to 1989, up from about 16% in 2010.
One result of the Fed's higher rates has been a kind of bifurcated economy, by age. Older, wealthier Americans who already own homes and cars have been much less affected by the Fed's rate hikes. By contrast, younger Americans are enduring a combination of expensive home prices and high mortgage rates, making it much harder to buy a first home.
Harris, for one, sees this divide in her own family: Her home and car are paid off, and higher interest rates have had little effect on her finances. She recently visited a home in her neighborhood that she was surprised to see priced at $500,000. She bought hers, which she thinks could fetch a higher price, for $162,000 in 1991.
Her 25-year-old daughter, Ruby, had a vastly different experience during a recent visit to an open house near her boyfriend's apartment in the Boston area. An older two-bedroom apartment was on sale for $800,000; it sold within a week.
Ruby considers herself fortunate to have a well-paying job as a materials engineer. But that apartment price still seemed astronomical. She loves the area, especially for its walkability, but doubts she'll ever be able to afford a house there.
"In the long term, it probably won't be affordable to stay here," she said. "Whereas the Midwest is more affordable but won't have the neighborhoods that I like."
Economists calculate that while the wealth effect generally has a relatively modest effect on spending, it may be larger now. That's because retirement-age Americans, who are more likely to spend out of their wealth, constitute a larger proportion of the nation: Americans ages 65 and over make up about 17% of the population, up from 13% in 2010. And people with stock holdings can now easily access their account balances online, increasing their awareness of increases in their net worth.
Research by Michael Brown, an economist at Visa and others has also found that significant stock market wealth typically boosts spending on discretionary items such as restaurants, travel and entertainment — sectors of the economy where spending is surging and inflation remains elevated.
The Conference Board, a business research group, asks Americans in its monthly survey of consumer confidence whether they plan an overseas vacation in the next six months. Slok noted that more than one in five households say they are — a record-high proportion on records dating to 1967.
The cruise provider Royal Caribbean just reported blowout earnings and strong demand, "leading to higher pricing for all our key products," CEO Jason Liberty told investors. "Customer sentiment remains very positive, bolstered by resilient labor markets, wage growth, stabilizing inflation and record-high household net worth."
Last week, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, excluding volatile food and energy costs, rose 2.8% from a year earlier, a sign that inflation remains sticky. Solid consumer spending, particularly on services, was one key factor. In one measure of services inflation that the Fed watches closely, prices climbed 3.5% from a year earlier, far higher than is consistent with its 2% inflation target.