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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
In one of the country's poorest states, crippling budget cuts loom
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'You couldn't design a budget-reconciliation package that would be worse for the state of New Mexico,' Sen. Martin Heinrich said at a health care forum. Advertisement But after years of robust federal spending in the state, some Republican legislators, who are in the minority in both chambers, are predicting that the new domestic policy bill will help root out waste and provide some tax relief. 'Just take a deep breath,' said state Rep. Mark Duncan, a Republican who sits on a new legislative subcommittee on federal funding. 'This is not going to happen tomorrow, for the most part.' The state estimates that it will lose $2.8 billion annually in Medicaid funding, and as much as $352 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps low-income families buy groceries. Six to eight rural hospitals could close within the next 24 months. Advertisement And out of roughly 22,000 jobs in state government, more than 2,000 are wholly funded by the federal government, while an additional 3,800 are partially funded, Wayne Propst, secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, told the funding subcommittee. To be sure, state budgets around the country have been generally strong of late thanks to billions in COVID-19 relief money and a record-breaking stock market. New Mexico has also been buoyed by robust oil and gas revenues. But few sectors of the state will be untouched. The Santa Fe Farmers' Market. MERIDITH KOHUT/NYT Manny Encinias, a cattle rancher and longtime vendor at the Santa Fe Farmers' Market, said some of his customers paid with SNAP food tokens. 'Suddenly, the rug has been pulled out from beneath us,' he said. For now, here's how some New Mexicans are sizing up the new normal: Medicaid and SNAP The New Mexico Health Care Authority, which administers Medicaid and SNAP, estimates that 88,000 residents could lose Medicaid, and 58,000 could lose SNAP. Many officials are worried about bureaucratic snarls and widespread confusion. Paulina Verduzco, 20, a restaurant host in Santa Fe, is already experiencing whiplash. After being uninsured for two years, Verduzco was recently approved for Medicaid. But a few weeks ago, she received a $300 bill for a one-hour intake call, done over Zoom. Panicked, she talked to a case worker and was told it was a mistake. She was also approved for SNAP, and on a recent Saturday at the Santa Fe Farmers' Market, she used her food tokens for the first time. She and her aunt purchased plants for cherry tomatoes, poblano peppers and lemon cucumbers to grow in their own tiny garden. Advertisement But two weeks later, Verduzco received a text informing her that she would no longer be receiving SNAP because she wasn't working enough hours -- even though she has been asking her employer for more hours. She is not sure if the cutoff was a result of the new federal policy, but work requirements are about to become even more stringent. 'You aren't making enough money to receive government money -- make that make sense,' Verduzco said. Gutting SNAP could squeeze the state's Double Up Food Bucks initiative, which enables recipients to buy fresh local produce at half the price, and bolsters ranchers and farmers, said Encinias, who owns Trilogy Beef and Buffalo Creek Ranch in Moriarty, and is also executive director of the Santa Fe Farmers' Market Institute. 'We're going to be impacted significantly,' he said. Nonprofit groups, which have often provided aid that supplemented government programs, are also under pressure. A recent survey of 200 nonprofits commissioned by three New Mexico foundations reported that 20% received at least half of their funding from federal grants -- grants that are now in jeopardy. The Food Depot, which serves northern New Mexico, has already announced that its Regional Farm to Food Bank program is ending. 'Make absolutely no mistake,' Jill Dixon, the group's executive director, said at a recent community meeting. 'The charitable food system cannot compensate for the loss that we are facing.' US Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Public Lands In a state nicknamed the Land of Enchantment for its striking landscapes and cultural history, outdoor recreation provided 29,000 jobs and generated $3.2 billion in economic impact in 2023. Advertisement To operate on lands controlled by the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service, it is necessary to have permits, adequate access points and working restrooms and campgrounds, said Nick Streit, whose father opened the Taos Fly Shop in 1980. But among the federal workers who lost their jobs in the first rounds of layoffs were several who worked on recreation and permitting. Those workers, Streit said, usually bought their waders and other outdoor equipment at local businesses and supported the local guide industry by maintaining standards. 'Those permits are important, because when members of the public come and they hire somebody, they know they're safe, they have insurance, they have training,' said Streit, who is also the executive director of Friends of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. Will Blackstock, who owns Far Flung Adventures, which offers white-water rafting trips on the Rio Grande, said that at the beginning of this summer, 'things were looking very bleak' as a result of the federal budget and staffing cuts, with a significant reduction in the number of river rangers who patrol the nearby Rio Chama, a major tributary of the Rio Grande. One more ranger has been added back since then. 'It's far less than the river program needs, but it is better than we thought it was going to be,' Blackstock said. Conservation group leaders said they were relieved that a plan by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to sell millions of acres of public lands was abandoned after intense pushback, including from many of Trump's supporters. Advertisement But Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins did rescind a long-standing rule prohibiting road construction and timber harvesting in remote areas of federal forests, which conservationists fear will threaten vulnerable species and compromise wilderness values on public lands. The announcement was made in Santa Fe. 'We are so on edge right now, I can't even tell you,' said Garrett VeneKlasen, the northern conservation director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. Natural Disasters In New Mexico, concerns often turn to the basics: fire and water. Summers are drier now and extreme heat more frequent, heightening wildfire concerns. Jane Lumsden, whose family has long owned a natural foods store in Las Vegas, New Mexico, lost her custom-built home in the devastating Calf Canyon-Hermit's Peak blaze in 2022. But she is grateful to the experts who predicted the fire's path and to the emergency responders who kept residents regularly apprised of fire dangers. Otherwise, she said, 'People most certainly would have died.' Now, as her family incorporates timber salvaged from their burned home to rebuild across the street, she is worried that the federal cuts could affect reforestation efforts and could make it more difficult to fill thousands of vacant firefighter jobs. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has also lost a quarter of its full-time staff since Trump took office. 'Climate and natural disasters are accelerating and without these kinds of warning systems and support, we will be at risk,' she said. 'Look what happened in Texas.' About 60 miles to the northwest in Chimayo, Champe Green, an elected member of the Santa Fe-Pojoaque Soil and Water Conservation District, worries often about the earthen Cañada De Ancha Dam, one of the state's most dangerous. Advertisement Champe Green near the earthen Canada De Ancha Dam in Chimayo, N.M. MERIDITH KOHUT/NYT Built 60 years ago, the dam has retention ponds that are now so choked with sediment that any significant rainfall could cause overflowing or breaching. An estimated 1,000 people, many of them poor and working-class, live within the potential flood area, according to the federal Department of Agriculture. The state has pledged $8 million to remove the sediment. That funding is contingent, however, on a federal match of roughly $11 million. Congress is considering the appropriation of up to $7 million in watershed rehabilitation funding for the next fiscal year -- for the entire country. 'There's not enough to pay for our one little project, much less all the projects around the country,' said Green, a retired biologist and ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service and the Army Corps of Engineers. And now it is monsoon season. 'If we got 2 inches in an hour, that would be scary,' he said. 'If we had 4 inches in 24 hours, I'd be scared to death.' Arts, Culture and Native Americans Robert K. Meya, general director of the Santa Fe Opera, has his own concerns related to wildfire threats. The opera's annual insurance rates doubled from 2024 to 2025. With its open-air productions each summer, performed against a breathtaking desert backdrop, the opera has installed air-quality sensors to gauge whether it is safe to perform. 'If you cut off the funding for the Forest Service and you're not maintaining these forests correctly,' Meya said, 'then the possibility for a fire will only increase significantly.' Apprentices rehearsed at the Santa Fe Opera. MERIDITH KOHUT/NYT In recent months, a $55,000 federal grant for this summer's premiere of Richard Wagner's 'Die Walküre' has been rescinded (though it is being appealed). And $100,000 spent on installing solar panels, which previously would have been eligible for tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, may never be recouped. Similar concerns weigh on organizations catering to the arts, education and Native Americans. Rose Eason, a board member of Creative New Mexico, an arts advocacy nonprofit, said at least $1.5 million in federal grants earmarked for two dozen organizations statewide had been terminated. Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute -- one of only two federally run colleges for Native Americans -- is facing a proposed 83% cut in federal funding. And the impending cuts to public broadcasting could shrink funding by 20% for KSUT, one of the country's first tribal radio stations. It provides Indigenous news, music and emergency alerts to rural northwestern New Mexico. 'It's one giant ecosystem,' Meya said. 'No one is immune.' This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Yahoo
Former Corpus Christi police officer convicted on charge of enticement of a minor
A U.S. district court has convicted a former Corpus Christi Police Department officer of coercing a 15-year-old girl to have sex with him. Daniel Abelardo Verduzco, 32, entered a plea of guilty on May 16 to one count of enticement of a minor, according to records from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. U.S. District Judge David S. Morales found Verduzco guilty on May 23 and ordered a presentence investigation report to be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office. Morales accepted the plea on June 9. Verduzco is scheduled to appear for sentencing on Aug. 21. U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents notified the Corpus Christi Police Department that they had arrested Verduzco on Jan. 19 in Nueces County. Police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, began investigating Verduzco on Jan. 8 after a concerned parent told them that she thought her daughter was involved in a relationship with a Corpus Christi police officer. The mother looked at her daughter's Snapchat account and found photo messages between her daughter and a user known as 'Danny' inside of a police cruiser with a computer mount and laptop that revealed sensitive information about police calls and notes about the police calls, the Caller-Times previously reported. Tulsa police found that the girl and the Snapchat user had exchanged more than 3,700 messages, which included photos of the girl's breasts and videos and photos of her in sexually suggestive poses and outfits, according to a criminal complaint filed on Jan. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The teenager's mother said that at the time she believed 'Danny' to be the same age as her daughter, the complaint showed. However, her daughters confirmed that 'Danny' was a police officer, she said. Verduzco is no longer employed with the city of Corpus Christi, Lt. Eryca Gonzalez of the Corpus Christi Police Department confirmed on June 16. The department previously placed Verduzco on administrative leave after the investigation began in January. Gonzalez said the police department fully cooperated with the investigation, which was led by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but did not comment further on the case. (This story was updated to add new information.) More: How can I learn more about sex offenders in my area? Nueces County has a tool for that More: Two individuals charged in crimes involving sex trafficking, solicitation of minors This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Former Corpus Christi officer convicted of sexually coercing minor
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
Former LAPD officer pleads guilty to murder in DUI crash that killed 3
A former LAPD officer accused of slamming into another vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol — killing all the passengers inside — pleaded guilty Friday to three counts of murder, prosecutors said. Edgar Verduzco, 34, also pleaded guilty to one count of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and one count of driving with a 0.08% blood-alcohol content causing injury, according to the L.A. County district attorney's office. He faces three concurrent terms of 15 years to life in state prison, as well as one concurrent term of three years, authorities said. Verduzco, of Santa Ana, was arrested in April 2018 — roughly seven months after authorities say he sped his Chevy Camaro into the rear of a Nissan while driving drunk south on the 605 Freeway in Whittier. Read more: LAPD officer arrested on 3 counts of murder in suspected DUI crash in Whittier Verduzco, who was off duty, was driving at a speed of 150 mph, according to the district attorney's office. The Nissan burst into flames. The three occupants — Mario Davila, 60; his wife, Maribel Davila, 52; and their son Oscar Davila, 19 — died in their vehicle. Verduzco's vehicle continued on and hit a second car, injuring the driver, a mother and her baby in a car seat, authorities said. Just hours before the crash, Verduzco allegedly posted an Instagram video from a bar with the message '#dontdrinkanddrive,' KTLA reported. In 2019, Verduzco pleaded not guilty to the murder charges and related offenses stemming from the crash. He was a police officer at the time of the crash but has since been relieved of duty, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Read more: Former LAPD officer pleads not guilty in connection with DUI crash that killed 3 "As a police officer, Mr. Verduzco was aware that recklessly driving under the influence of alcohol at 150 miles per hour was extremely dangerous to human life and could result in the death of innocent victims, as it tragically did in this case," L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement. "Oscar Davila, a beloved student at UC Riverside, was just 19 years old, and his life and his parents' lives were senselessly taken in an instant," he continued. "My support and sympathy go out to the Davila family's loved ones, including Oscar's four surviving siblings." Read more: Friends and relatives mourn parents and son killed in suspected DUI crash with LAPD officer Verduzco is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown L.A. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
12-04-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Former LAPD officer pleads guilty to murder in DUI crash that killed 3
A former LAPD officer accused of slamming into another vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol — killing all the passengers inside — pleaded guilty Friday to three counts of murder, prosecutors said. Edgar Verduzco, 34, also pleaded guilty to one count of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and one count of driving with a 0.08% blood-alcohol content causing injury, according to the L.A. County district attorney's office. He faces three concurrent terms of 15 years to life in state prison, as well as one concurrent term of three years, authorities said. Verduzco, of Santa Ana, was arrested in April 2018 — roughly seven months after authorities say he sped his Chevy Camaro into the rear of a Nissan while driving drunk south on the 605 Freeway in Whittier. Verduzco, who was off duty, was driving at a speed of 150 mph, according to the district attorney's office. The Nissan burst into flames. The three occupants — Mario Davila, 60; his wife, Maribel Davila, 52; and their son Oscar Davila, 19 — died in their vehicle. Verduzco's vehicle continued on and hit a second car, injuring the driver, a mother and her baby in a car seat, authorities said. Just hours before the crash, Verduzco allegedly posted an Instagram video from a bar with the message '#dontdrinkanddrive,' KTLA reported. In 2019, Verduzco pleaded not guilty to the murder charges and related offenses stemming from the crash. He was a police officer at the time of the crash but has since been relieved of duty, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. 'As a police officer, Mr. Verduzco was aware that recklessly driving under the influence of alcohol at 150 miles per hour was extremely dangerous to human life and could result in the death of innocent victims, as it tragically did in this case,' L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement. 'Oscar Davila, a beloved student at UC Riverside, was just 19 years old, and his life and his parents' lives were senselessly taken in an instant,' he continued. 'My support and sympathy go out to the Davila family's loved ones, including Oscar's four surviving siblings.' Verduzco is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown L.A.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
Former LAPD officer pleads guilty to murder in DUI crash that killed family of three
A former Los Angeles police officer has pleaded guilty to three counts of murder for a 2017 drunk driving crash that killed a mother, father, and their 19-year-old son on the 605 Freeway, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Friday. Edgar Verduzco, 34, admitted to three counts of murder, one count of driving under the influence causing injury, and one count of driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent causing injury. Verduzco was off-duty and speeding at 150 mph when he crashed into two vehicles on Sept. 26, 2017. One vehicle hit the center divider and caught fire, killing Maribel Davila, Mario Davila, and their son, Oscar Davila, a 19-year-old UC Riverside student. The second vehicle's driver, a mother with a baby in a car seat, suffered minor injuries. Shortly before the crash, a video apparently filmed at a bar was posted on Verduzco's Instagram account with the hashtag #dontdrinkanddrive. 'I cannot tell you how angry and disappointed I am that a Los Angeles police officer would disregard the law and cause an accident with such awful, awful consequences,' then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said at the time of his arrest. Verduzco was initially released from jail due to 'insufficient grounds to file charges,' but he was arrested and formally charged months later. Hochman offered his condolences to the surviving members of the Davila family, and saying Verduzco's actions were not fitting for someone entrusted to enforce the law. 'As a police officer, Mr. Verduzco was aware that recklessly driving under the influence of alcohol at 150 miles per hour was extremely dangerous to human life and could result in the death of innocent victims, as it tragically did in this case,' Hochman said. '[The three family members] were senselessly taken in an instant.' Verduzco is scheduled to be sentenced July 11 and faces three concurrent terms of 15 years to life in state prison for the murder charges, as well as a concurrent three-year term for the DUI-related offenses. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
