New Mexico Governor Shuts Down Grocery Stores for Two Weeks

A dozen grocery stores around the state have been forced to close for two weeks because of a public health order issued by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham at a time when the state’s residents are suffering from record high unemployment and food insecurity, critics say. The order requires businesses with four or more rapid responses of COVID-19 cases reported within in a 14-day period to close for two weeks. More than 25 essential businesses were shut down as of Monday afternoon, including a number of grocery stores and major retailers. The closures include two Walmarts in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe, an Albertson’s in Roswell, a Smiths Food & Drug Center in Albuquerque and New Mexico Food Distribution Center in Albuquerque.

The Hidden Trauma of “Short Stays” in Foster Care – New Mexico Ranks #1 in the Nation

When most Americans think of foster care, they think of children waiting years in homes or institutions to return to their families or to be placed for adoption. But every year, an average of nearly 17,000 children are removed from their families’ custody and placed in foster care only to be reunited within 10 days, according to a Marshall Project analysis of federal Department of Health and Human Services records dating back a decade. Every state allows certain officials—such as police officers, child-services workers or hospital staff—to take a child from her parents without a court order if they believe the child faces imminent danger of physical harm. But this analysis shows that thousands of children taken from their homes without court approval are quickly returned to their families after child-services officials review the evidence. The data was analyzed with assistance from the nonprofit organization Fostering Court Improvement, which maintains a database of federal child-welfare records. “Short stays,” as they are called by child-welfare experts, appear to happen most often in high-poverty areas where law enforcement officials are the only group authorized by state law to remove children without a court order. In 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, recorded a higher rate of short-term removals than any other major area in the country, followed by counties that include Santa Fe, Akron and New Orleans.

New Mexico Law Prohibits Forced Psychiatric Drugging of Children – First Such Law in the U.S.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has produced and released a new video featuring New Mexico lawmaker Nora Espinoza, who sponsored New Mexico House Bill 53 which ensures that a parent’s decision not to administer psychotropic drugs to a child is not grounds for a child being removed from parental custody by Child Protective Services (CPS). The law also restricts school personnel from taking any action against the parent or compelling or requiring any student to take a psychotropic drug and, further, requires parental written consent prior to any psychological screening. CCHR states that: "This is the strongest law against childhood drugging ever acted in the United States."