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Latest New Mexico news, sports, business and entertainment at 3:20 a.m. MST

  • Democratic-led Legislature begins redistricting process

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Leading state lawmakers are laying plans for the next legislative session in January after an election that ushered in a new slate of progressive Democrats to the state Senate. A meeting of House and Senate leaders with legal counsel is scheduled Friday as the Legislature initiates the process of redrawing legislative district boundaries and discusses the executive powers that the governor commands in response to the coronavirus. Democrats retained substantial majorities in the Legislature in Tuesday's election. At the same time, several conservative-leaning Democrats won't return to the state Senate next year after primary election losses, including the Senate president and gatekeepers for tax policy and state spending decisions.

  • New Mexico governor warns of critical COVID-19 situation

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says the state is reporting its highest daily count for deaths related to the coronavirus pandemic. She announced an additional 23 deaths during a public briefing Thursday, saying the statewide total now stands at more than 1,080. Like other states, New Mexico has been dealing with a surge of cases, higher positivity rates and more hospitalizations. Lujan Grisham says people can't get numb to the troubling data or the threat of the state's health care system being overwhelmed. She says this "dramatic, critical situation" is what state officials had been warning about.VIRGIN GALACTIC
Virgin Galactic plans 1st New Mexico space launch this month
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Virgin Galactic is planning to launch its first manned test flight into space from New Mexico this month. The plans were announced Thursday for the spaceflight to be held between Nov. 19 and 23. The company's spacecraft has conducted two previous test flights from Mojave, California, before moving to its facilities at Spaceport America in New Mexico. That will be Virgin Galactic's base for launching passengers on brief trips high above the Earth, starting with billionaire founder Richard Branson next year. The date for that event was not specified. The company also reported progress in construction of its second spacecraft.

  • Top Democrat says district will be redrawn after GOP win

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A day after Republicans won back New Mexico's only conservative-leaning congressional district, a top state Democrat says its boundaries will be redrawn. House Speaker Brian Egolf has suggested there could be implications for Republicans holding on to the seat. The redistricting process this time will be guided by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Democrats also dominate the state Supreme Court, which could decide any legal disputes. Political experts have said there's more temptation to pass a partisan plan when the executive and legislative branches are held by the same party. Republicans say Egolf's focus should instead be on addressing the state's problems.

  • First Black state senator is progressive Air Force veteran

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Tuesday's election is transforming the New Mexico Legislature to look more like the population it represents. Residents on the outskirts of Albuquerque are choosing an African American senator for the first time in New Mexico's 108-year history as a state. Retired Air Force Captain Harold Pope Jr. says he didn't make his campaign about race, but he is proud to break the barrier. He says he hopes to be a role model for young people of color. Pope is joined be two recently elected openly LGBT senators, bringing the total to four. In the House, a majority of representatives will be women for the first time.

  • Confounding Democrats, Trump makes inroads with Latinos

President Donald Trump and his GOP allies made inroads with Latinos in Tuesday's election that eroded Democratic strength among the nation's second-largest demographic group. Not only did Trump win Florida partly from his support in heavily Cuban American Miami, but he also won some heavily Latino areas along the Texas border and helped the GOP keep an open congressional seat there. Republicans also defeated a Democratic congresswoman in New Mexico and ate away at Democratic margins among Latinos in Arizona and Nevada. The inroads demonstrate the diversity of the Latino electorate and how its members can be far more interested in the economy and jobs than in immigration.

  • Colorado agency says it's planning on wolf reintroduction

DENVER (AP) — Colorado's wildlife agency says it considers a ballot initiative to reintroduce the gray wolf into the state to have passed after a group that opposes the initiative conceded the race and after the agency consulted with the office of Gov. Jared Polis. An announcement by Colorado Parks and Wildlife that it would begin planning for an eventual restoration of wolves in the state came even though thousands of ballots are still uncounted and another group opposed to the initiative said it was not conceding. Coloradans Protecting Wildlife and the Colorado Cattlemen's Association issued statements saying it appeared that the initiative would succeed. Other opposition groups made no such declaration.

  • 2 people charged in destruction of Santa Fe Plaza obelisk

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities in New Mexico say charges have been filed against two people accused of destroying a monument that had stood at the center of Santa Fe's historic Plaza for more than 150 years. The Santa Fe Police Department announced Wednesday that 33-year-old Lily Sage Schweitzer and 29-year-old Ryan Witt each face multiple charges, including criminal damage to property and criminal trespass. Online court records didn't list attorneys for Witt and Schweitzer who could comment on their behalf. Police previously arrested two men following a rally on Indigenous Peoples Day last month that resulted in the obelisk being pulled down. Some view the monument as a symbol of the oppression of Native Americans.