- HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY-DECLINING FACULTY
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Highlands University officials are worried about the declining number of faculty and are reporting its lowest number of tenured positions in school history.The Las Vegas Optic reports Vice President of Finance and Administration Max Baca told the school's Board of Regents this week that officials want to address the falling numbers at the northern New Mexico college.
Baca says the school would be pushing legislators for money to increase salaries to make Highlands University more competitive with other institutions.
Faculty association president Kathy Jenkins says there is a certain level of dissatisfaction with some of the faculty that led them to start looking for employment elsewhere.
Faculty Senate Chair Orit Tamir says she worried about the impact on the students with the declining numbers of faculty.
- LGBTQ CHURCH-VANDALIZED
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Vandals continue to target a New Mexico church known for welcoming LGBTQ residents and immigrants.KRQE-TV reports Metropolitan Community Church members said this week the Albuquerque church has been the target of vandalism seven times in less than three weeks.
The most recent vandalism happened Monday night. Members say that's when someone threw a rock through the window on the front door, knocking out the newly installed plexiglass.
Albuquerque police are investigating.
No arrests have been made.
Church board members said it will cost an estimated $5,000 to fix the damage.
The Christian church has been at the same location for 18 years and it has reported only a few minor episodes in its history.
- PRISON-SEXUAL ASSAULT
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Three former inmates of a New Mexico prison say they were repeatedly sexually assaulted by guards and their complaints were met with indifference or retaliation.The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the women recently filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court over assaults that allegedly occurred in a Springer, New Mexico, prison from 2016 to 2018.
According to the lawsuit, the prison guards forced the women to show their body parts and kiss each other.
One woman says her abuser harassed her when she was in solitary confinement by turning the lights on every half hour to wake her up and made derogatory comments about her body.
New Mexico Corrections Department spokesman Ricardo Montoya says the department has not seen the lawsuit.
- PENCE-TRADE WAR CAMPAIGN
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence is renewing efforts to promote the Trump administration's trade deal with Mexico and Canada as he travels to the border state of New Mexico and then Salt Lake City.The Office of the Vice President announced that Pence will talk about the trade pact Wednesday while visiting an Artesia-based service company for oil and natural gas production in the Permian basin that straddles New Mexico and Texas.
The trip provides Pence with an additional forum for the administration's efforts to ease federal environmental regulations and boost employment prospects in a critical location for U.S. oil and exploration.
Congressional Democrats have signaled that the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico needs stronger protections for workers and the environment before it can be ratified.
- NEW MEXICO-ATHLETICS SPENDING
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Former University of New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs has been indicted in connection with a lavish 2015 golf trip to Scotland that was partly paid for with state funds.Documents filed Wednesday in state district court show a grand jury indicted the 63-year-old Krebs on embezzlement, larceny, and tampering charges.
The charges are part of an investigation into questionable spending by the school's troubled athletic department.
Attorney General Hector Balderas launched an investigation in 2017 after it was discovered that the university used nearly $25,000 in public money to pay some private donor expenses on the Scotland trip.
Krebs served as New Mexico athletic director from 2006 to 2017.
Krebs' attorney Paul Kennedy says he's confident his client will be vindicated by a jury.
- VAPING-LUNG DISEASE-NEW MEXICO
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Department of Health is investigating possible cases of lung disease associated with vaping and recommends against using vaping cartridges containing an active ingredient of marijuana.The department said in a statement Wednesday that a 29-year-old Albuquerque area man has been determined to have lung disease associated with vaping and that three additional cases are under investigation.
The department also says all of those people reported using vaping cartridges and that those cartridges might have contained THC, an active ingredient of marijuana.
According to the department, similar cases have been reported in at least 14 other states and federal and state agencies are investigating possible causes.
The department urged health providers to report cases of lung disease possibly associated with vaping.
- POLICE SHOOTING-ALBUQUERQUE
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A man who allegedly waved a gun out the window while driving erratically was hospitalized in stable condition after being shot during an encounter with an Albuquerque police officer.Police said the shooting occurred Tuesday after the man stopped his vehicle and got out of it.
The officer was not hurt.
The wounded man's identity was not released.
A man who witnessed the incident told news outlets that the man later shot by police had been driving toward oncoming traffic and sideswiped two other vehicles.
- PUBLIC EDUCATION-NEW MEXICO
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Karen Trujillo, the former New Mexico public education secretary who was fired just six months into her job, has been chosen to lead Las Cruces Public Schools.The Las Cruces Sun-News reports the Las Cruces Public School board voted Tuesday to name Trujillo the district's interim superintendent after Superintendent Greg Ewing resigned last week.
Last month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham abruptly fired Trujillo as leader of state's Public Education Department, raising eyebrows from some state lawmakers and criticism for some in southern New Mexico.
Lujan Grisham said the firing came after some of her "expectations were not met."
Trujillo is a former Doña Ana County Commissioner. The Las Cruces resident was most recently interim associate dean for research in New Mexico State University's College of Education.