NM Legislative Recap March 3: ‘Dream high, and you'll fly high' — even if you're a turkey

Yahoo

04-03-2025

New Mexico Tech Associate Professor Mostafa Hassanalian and graduate students Darion Vosbein, Joel Opoki and Samuel Maimako pose for a photo with their taxidermy drones and Dan Schatzman, a member of the NewSpace Nexus Advisory Board, at the New Mexico Legislature on Aerospace and Aviation Day on March 3, 2025. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)
From the late-night talk show circuit to the halls of the Roundhouse, this fake turkey has seen it all.
At first glance, it looks like any taxidermied poultry. Look closer, and one will find an entire mechanical system integrated into the bird, including motors that allow it to flap its wings, while the drone inside of it actually flies using its rotors. This is ThanksGoblin, a creation of mechanical engineering students at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.
'Naturally, we know that turkeys don't fly,' said Samuel Maimako, a first-year graduate student. 'But the idea here is just dream high, and you'll fly high.'
Maimako and fellow New Mexico Tech students Darion Vosbein and Joel Opoki joined their professor, Mostafa Hassanalian, Monday morning in the Rotunda at the New Mexico Legislature to show off their work for Aerospace and Aviation Day.
While most of the researchers' drones have practical purposes – like search and rescue, monitoring wildlife and weather monitoring – the one dressed up to look like a turkey is 'just for fun,' Hassanalian, an associate professor at New Mexico Tech, said.
The taxidermy robotics lab has quite a few nature-inspired designs.
One drone can drop a package of sensors inspired by an ostrich egg. Another weighs just 10 grams and is inspired by dandelions, which Hassanalian said can fly up to 100 miles on the wind. Yet another is more simple: a stationary pigeon with a camera hidden under its chin.
Drones normally make a lot of noise, which scares animals away, making it impossible to monitor them, Hassanalian said. To solve that problem, the group affixed taxidermied birds to the drones and made their wings flap at a realistic rate and with enough lift for flight.
After technology website Gizmodo featured the New Mexico Tech researchers' work, ThanksGoblin even made an appearance on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.'
Members of New Mexico's congressional delegation last week forewarned about the impact potential cuts to Medicaid would have on the state, which has the highest proportion among U.S. states of residents on the government healthcare program.
Their concerns follow the U.S. House GOP's budget resolution, which Democrats predict will include cuts to Medicaid.
Members of the state Senate Finance Committee on Monday heard more about how federal cuts could impact the state, albeit with many caveats.
'There's a lot of uncertainty right now,' Legislative Finance Committee Deputy Director Jon Courtney told legislators, who noted that while federal cuts were likely to hit Medicaid and food support programs, 'the range of what that impact would be will depend on the decisions that are going to be made in Washington…over the next few months.'
LFC Chief Economist Ismael Torres laid out some of the risks in a presentation, such as New Mexico's vulnerability to tariffs — we are the second most vulnerable state in the U.S.
That being said, Torres also emphasized the unknowns in the discussion. 'I really wanted to highlight what this discussion represents and what it doesn't represent,' he told lawmakers. 'And really, this presentation is a very high level discussion of risks. It does not represent in any way a detailed analysis or expectation of outcomes.'
Several cabinet secretaries and higher education representatives also weighed in on the potential impact of unknown federal cuts to their agencies.
Health Secretary-Designate Gina DeBlassie said that the health department is very dependent on federal funding, particularly for grants in its public health division. Specifically, she said, the budget for public health is $266 million, and 'most of it' is related to 'federal grants,' she said.
That work includes outreach, she said, and epidemiological surveillance.
On that note, she added, 'I can tell you that now, with the measles outbreak that we had in New Mexico, we have been in contact with the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], and they've been extremely supportive. We hadn't had anything fall through the cracks there.'
Torres' presentation also noted New Mexico has the 6th highest concentration of federal employment in the country, but said the state has not seen a notable increase in unemployment claims thus far in the aftermath of federal firings.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
The House powered through eight bills Monday, sending them all to the Senate for committee assignments and a floor vote there.
Representatives unanimously voted to pass House Bill 41, which would set aside more than $6 million for drinking water projects, $2 million for local government planning and $5 million for cultural affairs facilities; House Bill 145, which would levy a 3.75% tax for every megawatt hour of large-scale renewable energy production starting in 2026; House Bill 199, which would allow some tax data to be shared with the Legislative Finance Committee, which could use it for program evaluation; and House Bill 174, which would require some health insurance plans to cover medication dispensing fees.
House Bill 19 passed in a 56-4 vote. It would allow state agencies and local governments to partner with private businesses to finance and build trade port projects.
Representatives passed House Bill 291 in a 68-2 vote. The bill would allow smaller land grants access to larger amounts of money from the Land Grant-Merced Assistance Fund.
House Bill 20 passed in a 54-3 vote and would create a new division in the Economic Development Department that would support and promote technology and innovation.
House Bill 181 passed in a 57-3 vote and would add more evaluation and accountability guardrails to the 'Government Results and Opportunity' fund.
Over the weekend, the House passed a handful of bills, including changes to limit housing discrimination against renters, addressing leadership at higher education and expanding solar for tribal and rural communities.
The Senate passed four bills Monday afternoon. This included a 26-16 vote on Senate Bill 57, which would create an exemption for public sector abortion providers in the state's sunshine law.
'Basically, what [the Inspection of Public Records Act] is being used for is to target providers and [it] puts those providers and their contacts at risk,' said Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe), one of the bill sponsors on the floor.
Wirth emphasized the narrowness of the exemption and said it was needed 'given the uncertainty and violence that's involved in this area.'
On Monday, the Senate also approved:
Senate Bill 142, which would require two state agencies to work together to modernize the state's electric grid, and passed unanimously 39-0.
Senate Bill 113 in a 28-12 vote. The bill would extend the sunset dates for various state boards to 2032.
Senate Bill 417 passed in a 38-1 vote. It would allow parents of children born through assisted reproduction to use the courts to confirm their parentage and adopt the child.
The weekend wrap: Housing, child care reform and Department of Wildlife advance
Senate Bill 16, which would allow decline-to-state voters to participate in primary elections without having to change their registration, advanced Monday through its first House committee. The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs committee passed it on a 5-4 vote. The bill now heads to the House Judiciary. It will still need to pass a full floor vote and the governor's sign-off before becoming law.
Last Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to table a bill to modernize New Mexico's police training.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX