in the news

After hours of impassioned debate on the Senate floor late Wednesday night, U.S. senators voted Thursday morning 50 to 49 to roll back key protections for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. It resurrects a proposal to develop of a foreign-owned copper-nickel mine at the headwaters of America’s most popular...

The United States Senate voted today on H.J. 140 to repeal the 20-year mining moratorium on federal land in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Area. The vote, which was an unprecedented use of the Congressional Review Act, passed narrowly, with 50 Republican Senators voting in favor of the action; 49 Senators opposed it,...

The top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is probing whether the Trump administration adequately planned for the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has roiled energy markets for weeks as the war with Iran drags on. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., in a letter dated Tuesday to Energy Secretary Chris Wright,...

Standing amid vibrant murals and hoop houses, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich announced the reintroduction of the Revitalizing America’s Schoolyards Act on Thursday at Polk Academy of Agricultural Science. The legislation aims to provide schools nationwide with the resources to transform traditional asphalt playgrounds into living, learning ecosystems...

At age 19, JC Btaiche, the son of a nuclear physicist, decided not to pursue a college degree. Since he was a young boy, he was fascinated by the physics of the cosmos and, eventually, nuclear fusion, which powers the sun and stars — and could promise to bring humanity limitless energy. Now 26, Btaiche is the CEO of a company that has broken half a...

In a virtual call with news media on Thursday, New Mexico officials, tribal leaders and advocates said they will mount resistance against a cascade of Trump administration proposals to mine and extract oil and gas on federal public lands within the state. In the last several weeks alone, federal officials began moves to end a ban on oil and gas...

Two federal agencies on Monday issued a notice to formally reverse efforts to ban mining in the Upper Pecos, potentially opening up nearly 165,000 acres for mineral extraction. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management under the Biden administration had supported an administrative mining ban on mining in the area, but backtracked in...

The Trump administration on Friday outlined the most detailed plans yet for its new Wildland Fire Service, which would overhaul how the nation fights wildfires in the run up to what experts say could be one of the worst U.S. fire seasons in recent memory. As intense drought conditions turn the American West into a tinderbox, firefighters and fire...

The school's Aprende program gives early childhood education students hands-on experience—and a paycheck As New Mexico’s subsidized childcare program continues to expand, so too does the gap between the supply and demand for early childhood educators. According to estimates from last year, the state needs to add at least 5,000 early childhood...

New Mexico’s federal delegation and tribal officials on Wednesday accused the Trump administration of rushing the process to reverse a federal ban on oil and gas drilling around Chaco Culture National Historical Park by only allowing a week for limited public comment. The Trump administration, for the last year, has floated a proposal to reverse a...

The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations recently announced congressional funding for two projects in New Mexico State University's College of Health, Education and Social Transformation, allowing the college to continue leading the way in improving the quality of education in New Mexico. With the help of U.S. senators Martin Heinrich...

The U.S. Senate began debating the Safe Guard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) this week. The bill would require voters to provide documents to prove their citizenship at the time of registration. U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) delivered remarks on the Senate floor on Wednesday where he railed against the bill. In New Mexico, the REAL...

Like most other countries, America's past is both inspired by high ideals and flawed by cruelty. But the Trump administration wants any depictions that might be unflattering removed from national parks and public lands. That led U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and some of his Senate colleagues to blast the Trump administration Wednesday for what...

As the Interior Department carries out President Trump’s order to remove or hide information at parks and other sites that might “disparage Americans,” internal records show striking inconsistencies around the displays the agency is eliminating and those it chooses to keep. An exhibit at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming about the massacre of...

In October 2023, Kit Carson Electric Cooperative learned that the U.S. Department of Energy selected its project for a $15 million federal grant to help it build microgrids in rural areas that face high wildfire risk. But two years later the DOE notified the utility, which supplies some 30,000 northern New Mexicans with electricity, that it was...

After the Supreme Court struck down a large portion of President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda last month, the possibility of getting tariff dividend checks was seemingly discarded too, experts said. “Tariff dividends were a long shot from the beginning,” certified financial planner Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate, told CNBC at the...

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., introduced a bill Thursday to create a new tax rebate for individuals and families hit by the cost of President Donald Trump’s now-defunct “reciprocal tariffs.” The bill, dubbed the “Tariff Refunds for Working Families Act” and shared exclusively with CNBC, is part of the escalating effort by Democrats to capitalize on...

Its now been five days since Michael and Aditi’s flights were diverted as their plane was airborne from Qatar to Dallas. Despite uncertainty, the husband and wife are optimistic. Michael Gardner and his wife, Aditi Mittal, were vacationing in India, visiting family for a wedding. But three hours after their flight home took off, an announcement...

The United States and Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran Saturday morning, prompting near universal condemnation from New Mexico’s elected members of Congress for President Trump’s action without Congressional approval, as is required by the Constitution. Here’s what they had to say in their first comments following the news: Senator...

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich on Monday announced he would vote against former New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce to run the federal Bureau of Land Management. President Donald Trump in November nominated Pearce, a Republican who represented New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District from 2003-2009 and 2011-2019, to lead the BLM, which oversees 245...