By Cedar Attanasio, Associated Press
New Mexico Democrats say they re closer than ever to increasing withdrawals from one of the country s largest endowments to fund education initiatives.
Increasing annual payouts from the $20 billion Land Grant Permanent Fund would require voters to approve a constitutional amendment. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says a 1% increase in distributions should be set aside to fund early childhood education.
While the withdrawals will decrease future growth of the fund, Democratic legislators argue that the state needs to invest more in education. They say public sentiment is shifting in their favor, and a new crop of progressive legislators can get the needed resolution passed.
Associated Press
U.S. Rep.-elect Yvette Herrell of New Mexico says she ll be among Republican members of Congress who will formally object on Wednesday to the certification of the Electoral College tally of votes.
Herrell said Thursday on Facebook that she would vote against certifying the Electoral College results in which President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump, the Roswell Daily Record reported.
Herrell in November unseated first-term incumbent Democrat Xochitl Torres Small to represent the 2nd Congressional District in central and southern New Mexico.
Herrell is set to be sworn into office on Sunday, three days before House and Senate hold a joint session to certify the vote results.
Associated Press
New Mexico is seeing its daily COVID-19 case totals decline. But health officials have been worried about whether the Christmas holiday could lead to another spike as it takes two to three weeks for infections to manifest.
On Monday, the state reported an additional 700 confirmed cases, bringing the total to more than 138,650 since the pandemic began. The 36 additional deaths bring the death toll to 2,380.
Almost one-third of the latest deaths included people at long-term care facilities and one inmate at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility.
Vaccinations of health care workers as well as staff and residents at long-term care facilities is ongoing.
Associated Press
New Mexico will begin providing COVID-19 vaccinations to 15,000 people who work or live at long-term care facilities, state officials announced Saturday.
Beginning Sunday, the CVS and Walgreens pharmacy chains and Vida Pharmacy in Albuquerque will administer doses of the Moderna vaccine at nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the state, officials said.
Cabinet secretary of the Aging and Long-Term Services Department Katrina Hotrum-Lopez said people receiving vaccinations will need two doses from the same manufacturer administered several weeks apart. The pharmacies will send staff to facilities three times over the coming months to administer the vaccines.
Dr. Tracie Collins, Department of Health cabinet secretary, said people who have been vaccinated can still carry and transmit COVID-19, so it s important that they continue to wear masks and take other precautions such as washing their hands and distancing.
UNMH
By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Officials with some of the major hospitals in New Mexico say they expect to finish giving their employees the COVID-19 vaccine in the next two to three weeks as more doses arrive.
Thousands of front-line health care workers have already received their shot. Like other states, New Mexico learned last week it would be getting about one-third fewer doses of the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The initial shipments of the second vaccine, by Moderna, will be arriving soon. Those will be funneled to staff and residents at long-term care facilities and nursing homes.