Albuquerque Mayor, City Council disagree on use of opioid settlement funds
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Albuquerque will get millions of dollars in opioid settlements funds over the next decade, but the latest decision over what to do with some of that funding has sparked disagreement between the mayor and city council. The Keller Administration is pushing for city council to change its proposal. The mayor wants more spent on existing programs, while some councilors want to see other non-profits get access to money.
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'The administration needs to know how they're going to fund these operations, not just one year at a time, so we need a plan, we haven't seen a plan,' said Renée Grout, Albuquerque City Councilor.
That's what she said is driving city councilors plan on where to spend millions in opioid settlement funds. 'I think it's really balanced plan that does meet what the community told us what they wanted, which was those non-profits to be taken care of,' said Tamy Fiebelkorn, Albuquerque City Councilor.
Meanwhile, Mayor Tim Keller's Administration is urging councilors to change their plan for roughly $14 million, saying the bulk of that money should go into existing programs like Serenity Mesa. 'I would hope that this money that Serenity Mesa would have an opportunity to apply for some of this funding, there's a lot of providers, really good providers in Albuquerque,' said Jennifer Burke, Serenity Mesa.
Councilors' current plan calls for $1.8 million for Albuquerque Public Schools' substance abuse prevention for school kids, while another $2 million would go toward smaller and medium-sized service providers. But the bulk of the money, $10 million, would go toward infrastructure grants for non-profits to expand. 'Nowhere in this resolution or the attachment does it say about building a new building, because no one I spoke to at any point in the last year and a half has said they wanted a new building,' said Councilor Fiebelkorn.
Facing uncertainty in the federal grant process, city administrators said now is the time to fund existing programs. 'If we wanted to bring on a new provider or expand our use of someone like Serenity Mesa, we currently can't do that because there is 10 million dollars locked away for three years for capital investment, capital projects, and buildings,' said JR Rael, Executive Operations Officer, City of Albuquerque.
City councilors are expected to vote on that resolution Monday night. If it passes, the mayor will ultimately have to decide if he'll sign or veto the plan. Albuquerque has already spent more than $18 million in opioid funds of the roughly $80 million they're expected to get over the next decade, including about $5 million on a pallet home community near Comanche Rd. and I-25.
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Atlantic
27 minutes ago
- Atlantic
The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles
The last time President Donald Trump tried to send military forces into American streets to put down civil unrest, in June 2020, Pete Hegseth was positioned outside the White House with a Kevlar helmet and riot shield. Major Hegseth's mobilization as part of a District of Columbia National Guard unit summoned to restore order in the nation's capital, where protests had erupted following the police murder of George Floyd, occurred as Pentagon leaders scrambled to avert what they feared could be a confrontation between active-duty U.S. forces and their fellow Americans. Today, Hegseth is second only to the president in directing the administration's use of the National Guard and active-duty Marines to respond to unrest over immigration raids in Los Angeles. And this time, the military's civilian leadership isn't acting as a brake on Trump's impulse to escalate the confrontation. The Hegseth-led Pentagon is an accelerant. The administration's decision to federalize 4,000 California National Guard forces, contrary to Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes, and to dispatch 700 active-duty Marines to the Los Angeles area, marks a break with decades of tradition under which presidents have limited their use of the military on American soil. If there are any internal misgivings about busting through yet another democratic norm, they haven't surfaced publicly. Indeed, officials at the White House told us they are satisfied with the way the L.A. confrontation has unfolded. They believe that it highlights their focus on immigration and law and order, and places Democrats on the wrong side of both. One widely circulated photo—showing a masked protester standing in front of a burning car, waving a Mexican flag—has been embraced by Trump supporters as a distillation of the conflict: a president unafraid to use force to defend an American city from those he deems foreign invaders. 'We couldn't have scripted this better,' said a senior White House aide granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. 'It's like the 2024 election never ended: Trump is strong while Democrats are weak and defending the indefensible.' Democrats, of course, take a different view, and say the administration's actions have only risked triggering further violence. Retired officers who study how the armed forces have been used in democracies told us they share those concerns. They point to the damage that Trump's orders could do to the military's relationship with the citizens it serves. 'We should be very careful, cautious, and even reluctant to use the military inside our country,' Bradley Bowman, a former Army officer who heads the defense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, told us. Conor Friedersdorf: Averting a worst-case scenario in Los Angeles State and local authorities typically use law-enforcement personnel as a first response to civil disturbances or riots, followed by National Guard forces if needed. Retired Major General Randy Manner, who served as acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau during the Obama administration, said the federalizing of California Guard forces—putting them under presidential rather than state control, a move allowed with certain limits—pulls those service members away from their civilian jobs and makes it harder to complete planned training or exercises. 'Basically, the risk does not justify the investment of these forces, and it will negatively impact on readiness,' Manner told us. Retired officers we spoke with also drew a distinction between the involvement of National Guard and active-duty forces. Whereas National Guard troops assist citizens after natural disasters and have the advantage of knowing the communities they serve, active-duty forces are primarily trained to 'see the enemy and neutralize the enemy,' said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'When you're dealing with U.S. citizens, no matter what they're doing, that's not the right mindset.' 'This is not Fallujah,' Bowman added. 'This is Los Angeles.' Juliette Kayyem: Trump's gross misuse of the National Guard This morning, Hegseth made his first congressional appearance since his bruising confirmation process, appearing before a House committee. His tone with Democrats was at times combative. When Representative Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat, asked the defense secretary what the cost of the California deployment would be, he declined to provide a figure and instead pivoted to criticism of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the state's response to the violence that followed Floyd's killing in 2020. (Military officials said later they expected the Los Angeles deployment, as envisioned, to cost roughly $134 million.) 'If you've got millions of illegals, you don't know where they're coming from, they're waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers, that's a problem,' Hegseth told lawmakers. Trump, for his part, told reporters that anyone who tries to protest at the Saturday parade celebrating the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army will 'be met with very big force.' He also said that he wouldn't hesitate to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would permit him to employ the military for law enforcement or to suppress a rebellion, if he believed that circumstances required. Speaking to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina later in the day, the president promised to stop the 'anarchy' in California. ' We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again,' he said. 'We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.' Some Republicans have privately expressed worry that Trump may overplay a winning hand. Even in the West Wing, two people we spoke with tried to downplay the incendiary rhetoric from Trump and Hegseth. They stressed that, to this point, National Guard forces have been in a defensive posture, protecting federal buildings. Although they believe that Trump has the political advantage at the moment, they acknowledged there would be real risks if U.S. troops got involved in violence. 'We don't know who would get blamed but no one wins if that happens,' one senior aide told us. 'No one wants to see that.' Hegseth's support for using active-duty troops in Los Angeles stands in contrast to what his predecessor did in 2020. At that time, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, scrambled to block Trump's desire to employ active-duty forces against the demonstrators protesting racial violence. The president had mused about shooting protesters in the legs, Esper wrote later. To satisfy his boss while also avoiding a dangerous confrontation, the defense chief called active-duty forces from Fort Bragg to Northern Virginia but sought to keep them out of the fray. Tom Nichols: Trump is using the National Guard as bait In his 2024 book The War on Warrior s, Hegseth described how his experience as a D.C. Guardsman in 2020 crystallized his views about the divide between military personnel and what he saw as the degenerate protesters who were lobbing bricks and bottles of urine at the citizen soldiers. When the D.C. Guard was again summoned seven months later, to help secure the 2021 inauguration following the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Hegseth was told to stand down because fellow Guardsmen suspected that one of his tattoos was a sign of extremism. (Hegseth has maintained it is part of his Christian faith.) Hegseth was angered by his exclusion and resigned from the Guard. That experience remains with him as he attempts to reshape the military, and its role in society, in line with Trump's worldview. As he has written: 'My trust for this Army is irrevocably broken.'
Los Angeles Times
28 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Protesters gather at Santa Ana federal building: ‘This is the healthiest thing to do'
In Santa Ana, about 120 protesters gathered outside a federal building near City Hall on Monday afternoon. Multiple raids had been conducted across Santa Ana that morning, including at Home Depots and restaurants and in industrial areas of the city. 'I feel enraged,' said Councilmember Jessie Lopez, standing with the crowd. 'If [U.S. Atty.] Bill Essayli cares about criminals, he should start at the White house.' Essayli last week sent a letter to Santa Ana, warning the sanctuary city about its proposal to pass a resolution that would require the Santa Ana Police Department to inform residents whenever they received a courtesy call from Immigration and Customs Enforcement alerting them about upcoming raids. Bethany Anderson was with a group of friends from Fullerton, where they had been receiving calls Monday. They were standing in front of a driveway that led to a small gated garage where unmarked white vans had been driving in and out all day. 'I knew they would bring people here' to the federal building, said Anderson, who is accredited by the Department of Justice as a legal representative. 'This is not a jail, so we have no idea about the quality of conditions inside, so that's very worrisome. Suddenly, she saw movement in the driveway and grabbed the bullhorn hanging from her shoulder. 'We see you!' Anderson shouted as protesters screamed, 'Shame!' and rushed to see what was going on. 'We see you, private security guards! You don't have to do this!' The Orange County Rapid Response Network posted addresses and photos of locations where ICE had conducted raids in Fountain Valley. The group's co-director, Casey Conway, said he was happy to see so many people show up in Santa Ana. 'But this isn't just today. This has been every day for three weeks. We're super overwhelmed right now.' The crowd held pro-immigrant and anti-Trump signs and waved Mexican flags. Someone passed around bottled waters and masks as a young woman chanted on a bullhorn, 'Move ICE, get out the way!' to artist Ludacris' song 'Move.' Federal police stood by the building's entrance, where some took photos of the crowd. When they went back inside, the crowd started chanting, '¡Quiere llorar!' — 'He wants to cry,' a common insult among Mexican soccer and rock fans. Alicia Rojas looked on from the edge of a sidewalk. The Colombian native had her amnesty application denied in the federal building as a child. 'This is all triggering,' said the 48-year-old artist. Now a U.S. citizen, Rojas grew up in Mission Viejo during the era of Prop. 187 and remembered all the racism against people like her at the time. Seeing so many young people out to protest made her 'hopeful, but I'm also worried. I've seen how the response has been to these peaceful protests. This administration has no capacity to be American.' She looked on. 'I feel rage inside, but this is the healthiest thing to do. More than anything. I'm here to look after the kids.' As the vans came in and out throughout the afternoon, activists at first blocked them but later backed down when federal agents shot pepper balls into the ground. Among those hit was Conway, who rushed to the side to have their reddened eyes washed out with water. 'I need someone to be on deescalation,' Conway gasped. The task fell to Tui Dashark. Dressed in neon green Doc Martens, an olive hat and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt, he led the crowd through chants including 'No firman nada' (Don't sign anything). 'Please stop throwing water bottles,' Dashark said at one point. 'They're just water bottles to us. But to them, it's assault with a deadly weapon.' The crowd calmed down. 'I'm proud of you guys for not escalating,' Dashark said. 'You're the f— real ones.' He turned to the gate driveway, where federal agents had quietly returned. 'You're so cool man,' Dashark said in a sarcastic voice as the crowd laughed. ' I wonder, what kind of person is up thinking, 'I want to lock up kids as a career?' As the day continued, the situation eventually evolved into the old children's game of Red Rover: Protesters would get too close and throw water bottles, federal agents would shoot pepper balls and eventually escalate to flash-bang grenades and tear gas. After a couple of hours, the crowd moved a couple of hundred feet to the east to Sasscer Park, named after a Santa Ana police officer killed in the 1960s by a member of the Black Panther Party. Local activists call it Black Panther Park. By 5 p.m., the protesters numbered at least 500. T-shirts emblazoned with logos of beloved Santa Ana Chicano institutions colored the scene: Suavecito. Gunthers. Funk Freaks. Santa Ana High. El Centro Cultural de México. People took turns on bullhorns to urge calm and to unite. But then another protester saw federal agents gathering at the federal building again. 'We gotta make them work overtime!' a young woman proclaimed on a bullhorn. 'They don't make enough money. let's go back!' The crowd rushed back to the federal building. Eventually, Santa Ana police officers arrived to create a line and declare an unlawful assembly. For the next four hours, the scene was akin to a party broken up occasionally by tear gas and less-than-lethal projectiles. Cars cruised on nearby streets blasting Rage against the Machine, sierreño music and the tunes of Panteón Rococó, a socialism-tinged Mexican ska group. Someone used AutoTune to shout profanities against the police, drawing giggles from the overwhelmingly Gen Z crowd. A Latina woman who gave her name only as Flor arrived with her teenage daughter. It was their first protest. 'We live in a MAGA-ass town and saw this on television,' Flor said. 'I grew up just down the street from here. No way can we let this happen here.' Nearby, Giovanni Lopez blew on a loud plastic horn. It was his first protest as well. 'I'm all for them deporting the criminals,' said the Santa Ana resident. He wore a white poncho bearing the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. 'But that's not what they're doing. My wife is Honduran and she's not a citizen. She's scared to go to her work now even though she's legal. I told her not to be afraid.' The Santa Ana police slowly pushed the protesters out of Sasscer Park. Some, like Brayn Nestor, bore bloody welts from the rubber bullets that had hit them. 'Does someone have a cigarette?' he asked out loud in Spanish. The Mexico City native said he was there to 'support the raza, güey.' He was in obvious pain, but the trademarks arachidonic humor of his native city still bubbled through. 'It's chido [cool] that they hit me,' he proclaimed to anyone who would listen. 'Es perro, güey [it's cool, dog]. So the world knows what jerks those pigs are.'
Los Angeles Times
32 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Newsom says Trump purposely 'fanned the flames' of L.A. protests in address to California
Gov. Gavin Newsom Tuesday night accused President Trump of intentionally fanning the flames of the Los Angeles protests and 'pulling a military dragnet across' the city endangering peaceful protesters and targeting hardworking immigrant families. The Democratic governor's comment's were a forceful rebuke to the president's claims that deploying the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to the city was necessary to control the civil unrest. 'Donald Trump's government isn't protecting our communities – they're traumatizing our communities,' Newsom said. 'And that seems to be the entire point.' The governor posted his video address to California on social media hours after Trump said he sent in troops to protect immigration agents from 'the attacks of a vicious and violent mob' in a speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The picture Trump painted of the federal government's role in the protests against immigration raids marks a sharp contrast to Newsom's assertion that state and local law enforcement were successfully keeping the peace before federal authorities deployed 'tear gas, 'flash-bang grenades' and 'rubber bullets' on Angelenos exercising their Constitutional right to free speech and assembly. Then Trump 'illegally' called up the California National Guard, Newsom said. 'This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers, and even our National Guard at risk,' Newsom said. 'That's when the downward spiral began. He doubled down on his dangerous National Guard deployment by fanning the flames even harder. And the president, he did it on purpose.' The governor, who has become a target for Republicans and a central figure in the political and legal battle around the protests, has said for days that an 'unhinged' Trump deployed federal troops to intentionally incite violence and chaos, seeking to divert attention away from his actions in Washington and assert his 'dictatorial tendencies.' Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta filed a request for a restraining order earlier Tuesday asking a federal judge to call off the 'Department of Defense's illegal militarization of Los Angeles and the takeover of a California National Guard unit.' The request came the day after California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging that the deployment of the guard without the governor's consent violated the U.S. Constitution. After returning to Washington, Trump commented on the 'good relationship' he's always had with Newsom, before blaming the governor for the unrest. 'This should never have been allowed to start, and if we didn't get involved, Los Angeles would be burning down right now,' Trump said, and then made a reference to the deadly wildfires in the Los Angeles area in January. 'Just as the houses burned down.' He said the military is in the city to deescalate the situation and control what he described as paid 'insurrectionists,' 'agitators' and 'troublemakers.' 'We have a lot of people all over the world watching Los Angeles,' Trump said. 'We've got the Olympics, so we have this guy allowing this to happen.' On Monday, Trump said his top border policy advisor Tom Homan should follow through on threats to arrest the governor. Newsom immediately jumped on the comment, comparing the federal administration to an 'authoritarian regime.' 'I never thought I'd hear those words. Honestly, Democrat, Republican. Never thought I'd hear those in my lifetime to threaten a political opponent who happens to be sitting governor,' Newsom said. House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to answer a question about whether Newsom should be arrested on Tuesday and instead said the governor should be 'tarred and feathered.' Newsom took a shot at Johnson during his address, saying the speaker has 'completely abdicated' his responsibility for Congress to serve as a check on the White House. He warned that 'other states are next.' 'At this moment, we all need to stand up and be held to account, a higher level of accountability,' Newsom said, imploring protesters to exercise free speech rights peacefully. 'I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress, and fear. But I want you to know that you are the antidote to that fear and anxiety. 'What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty. Your silence. To be complicit in this moment. Do not give into him.' Staff writer Laura Nelson and Washington Bureau Chief Michael Wilner contributed to this report.
