Las Cruces could see New Mexico’s state-funded reproductive health clinic open its doors on the east side of town by late summer or fall 2026, according to project organizers.

Christopher Ramirez, spokesperson for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, told Source NM that organizers are in the final stages of design and development and expect to present plans to the Department of Higher Education and the State Board of Finance for approval in May and June. Once approved, the search for a contractor will start.

“Our hope is to have a contractor in place and construction to begin by September/October,” Ramirez told Source NM in an email, adding that the goal is to open doors to patients about a year later.

The Center for Reproductive Health is part of a $10 million capital outlay project requested by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and approved in 2023 to expand access to reproductive health care in Southern New Mexico. The project is a partnership between UNM and advocacy organizations Bold Futures, Strong Families New Mexico and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

Lujan Grisham, legislators, organizers and local leaders broke ground on the center in September 2024, on East Lohman Avenue near MountainView Regional Medical Center, following over a year of few updates on the project.

The center is expected to offer medication and procedural abortion, contraception options, pregnancy loss support and management, lactation support and doula support, along with other services.

Lujan Grisham recently requested another $10 million in capital outlay funds for a reproductive health center in Northern New Mexico. Neither the governor nor the Las Cruces center organizers have confirmed that the same organizers will be part of the planning for the second center. A location for the center has not been released, though Republican lawmakers speculated during the legislative session that Santa Fe would be the target.

The Legislature passed capital outlay projects in House Bill 450 and it awaits the governor’s signature.

Ramirez previously told Source NM that “as with all items relating to UNM, this capital outlay funding will be thoroughly analyzed, and our teams will continue working with the Legislature and the Executive to understand UNM’s role.”

A reported “hit list” of clean energy projects that could lose U.S. Department of Energy funding includes a long-duration storage demonstration project that included Santa Fe.

The project aims to reuse batteries from electric vehicles for energy storage for consumers to later use.

E&E News first reported on the DOE “hit list” on Friday. The projects on the list have been awarded funding under the Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan infrastructure law or through annual appropriations.

According to news reports, the projects on the list will be submitted to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Management and Budget and could subsequently be canceled.

HEATED and Popular Information teamed up to look into some of the projects on that “hit list.” According to their reporting, one of the projects on the list is the Long-Duration Energy Storage Communities Accessing Resilient Energy Storage project, led by the company ReJoule .

ReJoule received $1 million in funding for phase one of a project that would repurpose used lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles. Those batteries would then be used in modular, energy storage systems that vary in size and use. Those systems would have the potential to support microgrids and electric storage as an alternative to fossil fuel-powered peaker plants.

The CARES project is supposed to be located in Santa Fe as well as in Red Lake Nation, Minn. and Petaluma, Calif.

According to the funding announcement from July, the $1 million award could be just the start and the project could have a total federal cost share of up to $10 million.

Phase 1 of the project is expected to last 12 to 16 months. During that time, ReJoule and its project team will plan activities related to budgeting, permitting, procurement and early development, according to the award announcement.

“New Mexico has incredible energy resources and a long history of partnering with the Department of Energy to advance transmission, storage, and clean energy production projects,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office said in a statement in response to a request for comment. “We expect the Department to honor the federal government’s commitments in existing contracts that invest critical funding for local and regional projects that benefit New Mexicans.”

The University of New Mexico said it would cooperate with the federal investigation into alleged “race-exclusionary practices” announced earlier this month, and is working to put together a response about the university’s relationship with a nonprofit aiming to increase minority participation in PhD programs and faculty positions.

On March 14, the U.S. Department of Education issued a new release informing 45 universities that the Office for Civil Rights had received a complaint that they were allegedly discriminating against graduate students based on race or ethnicity for their past affiliations with the PhD Project.

The New Jersey-based nonprofit PhD Project supports Black, Hispanic and Native American students pursuing business PhD programs, and provides peer support as they become professors, according to its website .

PBS reported that letters sent to other higher education institutions instated a March 31 deadline for universities to submit information about their relationship to the nonprofit.

However, UNM’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Cinnamon Blair told Source NM she had not seen a copy of a letter from federal education officials.

“What I can share is that the University was notified that a complaint was filed with the Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, related to Project PhD,” Blair said in a written statement Wednesday. “UNM prohibits unlawful discrimination and will cooperate with OCR in its review of this matter.”

Blair told Source NM the UNM administration is “still determining the extent of its relationship with the PhD Project,” in a phone call Thursday.

Blair also said she could not make anyone who had read the letter available for an interview as the university would not comment on an open investigation before issuing its formal response.

A spokesperson for the PhD Project did not respond to questions regarding the organization’s relationship with UNM, but issued the following statement on behalf of the nonprofit.

Higher Ed Diversity by the numbers:While college student populations have become increasingly diverse in the past 20 years — especially Hispanic and Latino students, who doubled their share of admissions to approximately 21.2% of the population, according to a 2024 report from the higher-ed think tank American Council on Education . However, enrollment of white students (40.6%) and Asian students (61.6%) remain “far above” other racial and ethnic groups.

Higher education faculty are less diverse than student bodies. The latest federal data from 2022 reports that 72% of all faculty at post-secondary institutions are white; 13% Asian; 7% Black; 6% Hispanic; 1% are more than one race; and the remaining 1% split between American Indian/Alaskan Native and Pacific Islanders.

“For the last 30 years, The PhD Project has worked to expand the pool of workplace talent by developing business school faculty who inspire, mentor, and support tomorrow’s leaders. Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to excellence and to each other, through networking, mentorship, and unique events.”

The statement concluded: “This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision. The PhD Project was founded with the goal of providing more role models in the front of business classrooms, which remains our goal today.”

Source NM has filed public information requests at both the federal and state level for the complaint against UNM, as well as for the letter informing UNM of the complaint.

The complaint comes amid a period of uncertainty for higher education as President Donald Trump and other Republicans move to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education fully, while also threatening to pull universities’ funding for continuing programs to increase diversity, equity and inclusion. The Department of Education touches nearly every level of education in the U.S. , from issuing grant funds to lower-income schools, to administering loans, grants and work-study funds for college attendees.

The investigation also follows a “Dear Colleague” letter from federal education officials stating that universities must “cease using race preferences and stereotypes as a factor in their admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, sanctions, discipline, and other programs and activities” or face the loss of federal funding. An FAQ on that letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights includes — as its first FAQ — information on where to file discrimination complaints.

Earlier this month, President Garnett Stokes, in a weekly newsletter to students, said the university will continue to “monitor and review” UNM’s policies and provide updates on the President’s webpage .

“To avoid amplifying uncertainty or disrupting our work unnecessarily, we have established a general response philosophy that we will only respond to specific and actionable federal requirements or actions, says a statement posted to website. “We will avoid making rapid changes to university policies and programs where not clearly warranted.”

It started with a letter.

“The Department of Homeland Security has significant concerns that (Shelter and Services Program) funding is going to entities engaged in facilitating illegal activities,” it read.

The letter was sent to the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande two weeks ago, according to church leadership, and six other churches, including a ministry in Brownsville, Texas, and the Episcopal Dioceses of West Texas.

The “illegal activities” in question are “encouraging” immigrants to cross the border, transporting “illegal aliens” and “harboring, concealing, or shielding” them from authorities, according to the letter.

It notified the church, which is based in Albuquerque but runs a migrant shelter in El Paso, that more than $265,000 in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be withheld until all church leaders sign legal documents swearing they had no knowledge of illegal activity, and all asylum seekers’ names and contact information are handed over to the Department of Homeland Security.

The Department of Homeland Security could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The letter arrived as Trump steps up his immigration agenda, with threats of mass deportations, rumors of migrants being housed at military bases and attempts to end birthright citizenship.

Bishop Michael Hunn of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande said they have only sheltered those asylum seekers brought to them directly by Customs and Border Protection agents. And, after policy changes during the Biden administration followed by the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration, the church hasn’t sheltered anyone at all — because nobody is coming across.

Federal authorities say the number of people crossing the border illegally in the El Paso Sector, from southwest Texas to the Arizona line, has plummeted — from a peak of 2,700 a day in 2022 to 50 people a day now. And those who do come across illegally are no longer able to get asylum, instead being deported immediately or, if from a non-neighboring country, detained until they can be returned to where they came from.

For that reason, CBP said, they are no longer utilizing shelters along the border to house migrants seeking asylum.

“I’m insulted by the insinuation that we have been involved in anything illegal or immoral,” Hunn said in a YouTube video responding to the Department of Homeland Security, which has gotten more than 8,400 views. “We in the Dioceses of the Rio Grande have been practicing our constitutionally guaranteed faith.”

Hunn called the demands for the identification of asylum seekers “ironic,” saying the federal government — having brought them to the shelter in the first place — already has the names, contact information, and more, on file as a part of the asylum seeking process, which involves lengthy interviews, applications and court hearings.

“Letters like this will have a chilling effect on the practice of Christianity,” Hunn said. “Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, loving our neighbor— is the practice of our faith. It’s not just what we do on Sunday.”

Hunn told the Journal, “This is not and has never been a political thing for us.”

“We’re just following Jesus’ teachings to love our neighbor and to welcome the stranger and care for those who are in need,” he said. “... We’re supposed to somehow be immigration enforcers who check ID before we give somebody a sandwich or a can of beans.”

The church is in talks with its lawyers, Hunn said, and are uncertain what its next steps will be.

A measles outbreak in Kansas doubled in less than a week to 23 cases and has "a possible link" to outbreaks here in New Mexico and Texas that have sickened more than 370 total, with 43 in New Mexico alone, the state health department said Wednesday.

And health officials in Ohio say a single case identified in Ashtabula County has spread to nine others. Even before these two growing clusters were reported, the number of measles cases in the U.S. had already surpassed the case count for all of 2024, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment put doctors on high alert on Monday and recommended early vaccination for infants 6 to 11 months old who live in outbreak counties or near them. Usually, children get the measles, mumps and rubella shot after they turn 1. In outbreaks, early vaccination can be an option.

The New Mexico Department of Health is offering vaccine clinics at many of their public health offices and are offering vaccinations on a walk-in basis at locations in and around Eddy and Lea counties.

More information can be found on their measles guidance website .

Kansas’s last count Friday included 10 cases across three southwestern counties: Grant, Morton and Stevens. Now, the outbreak includes Haskell, Gray, and Kiowa counties. All but two of the cases are in people younger than 18, state data shows. The outbreak started with a measles case in Stevens County identified March 13.

In Ohio, 10 cases are in Ashtabula County and a separate visitor in Knox County exposed people there and in several other counties, the state health department said. A measles outbreak in central Ohio sickened 85 in 2022.

"Given the measles activity in Texas, New Mexico, and other states around the country, we're disappointed but not surprised we now have several cases here in Ohio and known exposure in some counties," said Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff. "This disease can be very serious, even deadly, but it is almost entirely avoidable by being properly vaccinated."

New Mexico had 43 outbreak-associated cases Tuesday and Texas had 327. The Oklahoma outbreak "associated" with Texas and New Mexico has 9 cases.

Public health experts say the outbreak that started in Texas in late January could last for months. If it hits other unvaccinated communities across the U.S., as may now be the case in Kansas, the outbreak could endure for a year and threaten the nation's status as having eliminated local spread of the vaccine-preventable disease, they said.

Experts consider communities protected from measles outbreaks if they have an MMR vaccination rate of 95% or higher. The two-shot series is required before entering public kindergarten and is 97% effective at protecting against measles.

Several of the Kansas counties seeing measles spread have much lower vaccination rates, including: 82% in Morton County, 83% in Stevens County, 58% in Haskell County, and 66% in Gray County, according to state health department data from the 2023-2024 school year. Statewide, 89% of kindergarteners in Ohio were vaccinated against measles in the 2023-24 school year, CDC data shows.

"Due to the highly contagious nature of measles, additional cases are likely to occur within the current outbreak area and the surrounding counties, especially among those who are unvaccinated," said Jill Bronaugh, the Kansas state health department's spokeswoman.

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