NEW MEXICO

State promises free child care

SANTA FE — New Mexico’s governor is promising universal free child care to families of all income levels.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced her plans in the second week of September, saying she wants to leverage a financial windfall from oil and gas production to help more parents by removing the state’s income eligibility limit starting Nov. 1.

Rules for the program are being hashed out and lawmakers still have to approve funding, but New Mexico already is several steps ahead of other states when it comes to subsidizing child care.

The latest initiative expands on previous early childhood education investments by extending access to another 12,000 children and making low-interest loans available to spur construction of new child care centers as demands surge.

New Mexico in 2020 began diverting surplus government income linked to surging oil and gas production to a trust for early childhood education. The balance is nearing $10 billion, with about $500 million in investment earnings being funneled each year to early childhood education programs.

The child care expansion will draw on those savings, some federal funding and a request that state legislators provide an additional $120 million annually. That’s a 26% increase over current spending of $463 million, Lujan Grisham spokesperson Michael Coleman said.

New Mexico in 2022 expanded eligibility and waived copayments for child care assistance to families earning as much as four times the federal poverty rate — about $128,000 for a family of four this year.

To meet increased demand, the Lujan Grisham administration says it will need more than 50 new licensed child care centers, 120 licensed homes that accommodate a dozen children and as many as 1,000 new registered homes that serve four children.

The universal child care guarantee will cover crucial infant and toddler years before and after children become eligible for public preschool — defraying average annual costs of about $12,000 per year.

UTAH

Olympic games lay out fundraising

SALT LAKE CITY — Organizers of the Salt Lake City 2034 Winter Games announced a fundraising effort on Sept. 8 that they say is the largest philanthropic campaign supporting a host city in Olympic and Paralympic history.

The initiative, branded as Podium34, has raised more than $200 million and will fund community engagement programs surrounding the Games. It covers roughly a tenth of the $2.84 billion operating budget projected by organizers.

The announcement helps ease the worries of Olympic officials who had questioned whether the state could meet its fundraising goals just a few years after the U.S. hosts other major global sporting events.

The International Olympic Committee awarded Salt Lake City the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in July 2024, giving Utah its second Games after hosting in 2002. Utah’s capital city was the only candidate for 2034 after the Olympic committee gave it exclusive negotiating rights. 

Nine of Utah’s wealthiest families and foundations have each pledged at least $20 million over the next nine years and were named founding captains of the project. Organizers said the donations will support efforts focused on education, youth sports, mental health, arts and culture, and other programs that capture the spirit of the Games. They hope to raise $300 million from the project.

The plan requires no new permanent construction, with all 13 venues already in place from when the city first hosted. They have pledged not to use state tax money to host the Games, except for some funds used for maintaining Olympic venues also used by the public.

MONTANA

Meth burn smokes out animal shelter

BILLINGS — A cloud of smoke from two pounds of methamphetamine seized by the FBI and incinerated inside a Montana animal shelter sent its workers to the hospital, city officials in Billings said.

The smoke started to fill the building during a drug burn on Sept. 10, apparently because of negative pressure that sucked it back inside, Billings Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland said. A fan was supposed to be on hand in such situations to reverse the pressure so smoke would flow out of the building, but Iffland said it wasn’t readily available.

The incinerator is used primarily to burn carcasses of animals euthanized or collected by the city’s animal control division. But every couple of months local law enforcement or FBI agents use it to burn seized narcotics, Iffland said.

Fourteen workers from the nonprofit Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter evacuated and went to the hospital. The shelter’s 75 dogs and cats were relocated or put into foster homes, said Iffland and shelter director Triniti Halverson.

The workers found out it was methamphetamine smoke through a call from a city official while they were the hospital, Halverson said. Most of the staff spent several hours in an oxygen chamber for treatment.

Symptoms have lingered for some workers, Halverson said.

They also were closely monitoring four litters of kittens that got more heavily exposed because they were in a closed room with lots of smoke, she said.

The FBI routinely uses outside facilities to conduct controlled drug evidence burns, agency spokesperson Sandra Barker said. She referred further questions to Billings officials.

ARIZONA

Body found in parched lake

PAGE — Low water levels brought on by years of drought have revealed a submerged pickup truck containing human remains at Lake Powell near the Arizona-Utah border.

Investigators say the truck belonged to a 54-year-old man who has been missing since December 2023. The identity of the remains hasn’t yet been determined. The death is under investigation.

People spotted the truck just below the water line over the Labor Day weekend at Lone Rock Beach, located in Utah within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Authorities pulled the truck out of the water on Sept. 3.

As the lake has suffered from a yearslong drought, its water level has fallen about 20 feet since when the man was reported missing, Lt. Alan Alldredge of the Kane County Sheriff’s Office in Utah said.

The truck’s owner was last seen at a store in Kanab, Utah, on Dec. 1, 2023.

Several sets of human remains were also found in 2022 at Lake Mead, located at the Arizona-Nevada border, over 300 miles west of Lake Powell.