Students read aloud. AI scores them

State-mandated testing program helps track progress but sparks concerns over inconsistent data and student frustration

By Natalie Robbins / Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

April 26, 2026

Lilly Garcia is learning to read. Her tutor is a robot.

On a Friday morning in her combination second- and third-grade class at Matheson Park Elementary School, Garcia reads a story about a rabbit and a fox traveling to a tropical island. She’s wearing a headset linked to a laptop running a program called Amira, an artificial intelligence-based learning software.

Amira works by listening to students read a sentence out loud and catching their mistakes. If a student mispronounces a word, a video of a human mouth appears on screen, repeating its correct pronunciation — “opposite,” “replied,” “admired” — and the student replicates it into the microphone for points.

A bespectacled cartoon girl with purple hair — this is Amira — sometimes pops in to ask students a question about the text: “What does the author mean by, ‘The wind is angry today?’”

Beginning this school year, the state of New Mexico is requiring all students in kindergarten through second grade at public schools and public charter schools to take reading assessments on Amira. Its use is approved up to grade eight. The program grades students’ progress in a numbered score used to measure school and district performance.

The New Mexico Public Education Department began using Amira after the software provider that schools had been using for testing, Istation, was acquired by the San Francisco-based company Amira Learning.

Amira is required for assessments in two states — New Mexico and Idaho — and is authorized for state use in Oklahoma, Georgia, California, Texas, Michigan and Massachusetts.

Some schools, like Matheson Park, a small elementary school in Northeast Albuquerque, have warmed to Amira. Teachers use it to monitor reading level progress at the beginning of each month, said Principal Jacqueline Lovato.

Matheson Park is an Amira success story — since the beginning of the year, reading scores in Lilly Garcia’s class are up nearly 30%, according to Amira data provided to the Journal.

“I haven’t heard any complaints from my teachers,” Lovato said. “I think the kids have gotten more comfortable.”

The PED recommends 30 minutes of Amira tutoring per week for students in need of reading intervention, according to department officials.

While official data from Amira and state agencies like the PED report the program grades with the same level of accuracy as human scorers, teachers told the Journal there are discrepancies between Amira’s scores and a student’s actual abilities.

Some teachers and staff at Albuquerque Public Schools say the program is inaccurate and cumbersome. Reported problems typically fall into two categories: speech and dialect variability and environmental and technical interference.

Amira sometimes does not recognize voices of students with speech disabilities or foreign accents, teachers said. These students still must use the program for assessments.

And in busy classrooms, teachers say the AI picks up background noise and voices of other students, leading to inaccurate results. 

In Celeste Hernandez’s kindergarten class at Bel-Air Elementary School in Northeast Albuquerque, Amira can be finicky and challenging, she said.

Hernandez has seven students on individualized education programs, or IEPs, for speech — meaning they have a disability accommodation — and eight who are learning English.

When used by these students, Amira has trouble recognizing their words, she said.

“It’s not always great at picking up the language of students, especially when they have trouble with (spoken) language,” Hernandez said. 

Some students with speech disabilities are difficult to understand, even for teachers, Hernandez said, and the program will make them repeat words again and again until they’re exasperated.

“They’re doing the best they can,” she said. “But I mean, there’s a point of frustration where it’s like, why are we doing this? You can just see it in kids — they just are defeated.”

As is true in most cases, before there were computers for conducting reading assessments, there were humans. Hernandez remembers when teachers would sit down with kids one-on-one to gauge their reading progress.

“Did it take a long time? Absolutely,” she said. “But I could tell you where every kid was all the time.”

In Ryan Hayes’ special education classroom at Chaparral Elementary School on Albuquerque’s West Side, about half of his students are adept at using Amira, he said. For these students, the program can provide a good representation of their abilities. For the rest, using Amira is difficult.

“The problem with any online platform in any setting — you’re going to have some students that are successful with it. You have some students that are not successful with it,” he said.

Some of his students have trouble processing directions. Hayes said he sometimes has to repeat instructions to them five to eight times. When Amira asks these students to read a sentence only once or twice, they’re not able to understand, he said.

“If you have a kid with social communication deficits, like the type of kiddos we work with in here — with receptive, expressive and articulation delays — I feel like there should be an opt-out,” he said.

Amira does have disability accommodations — the program has modifications for one of Hayes’ students who can’t speak, but the student’s short attention span means she frequently needs to be redirected to the test.

“When you have her do it a couple of times, she escalates and starts screaming and shouting,” Hayes said. “It dysregulates everybody in the classroom. They’re more focused on that behavior, and then their scores also plummet a little.”

Having to battle students once a week takes up precious instructional time, Hayes said.

“Tuesday’s actually our Amira day. Today, I’ll bring them in and they will start groaning. I have a couple of kids — they’ll start crying because they have to do it today,” he said.

Teachers are able to look at the data after assessments are complete, though sometimes, school staff say they find inconsistencies.

“I would say there are inaccurate scores more often than not,” Hernandez said.

Erik Johns is a teaching and learning coach at APS whose job it is to track and interpret student assessment data. The data Johns sees from Amira, he said, is often inconsistent.

“I’m seeing in the data these massive fluctuations month to month in children,” Johns said. “Statistically, when you’re looking at percentile rankings, if you see a kid fluctuate one to two points, that’s normal. Fluctuating 20 or 30 points every month is totally abnormal. And it’s primarily because the AI is not working correctly.”

Inaccurate data provides an inconsistent look into student progress, Johns said, which means it’s difficult to know how to help students who are struggling.

Teachers, too, are being judged on data that may not be an accurate assessment of their students, he said.

“I have some really, really excellent teachers here, especially in my lower grade levels, and they’re being judged on this data that’s completely inaccurate,” Johns said. “It’s not factual, and it’s heartbreaking, because they’re working very, very hard to do the very best by our students.”

Since the program is a new state requirement, an adjustment period is expected, PED spokesperson Janelle Garcia said.

“The PED has been working with Amira to provide ongoing training and to support students who speak other languages or who have disabilities impacting speech,” she said. “In addition, a range of protections are built into the program to ensure that Amira’s mastery evaluations are not impacted by accent or unusual speech pattern.”

The department acknowledges that the program is not suitable for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.

“PED defers to students’ IEP teams to determine the most appropriate assessment approach for these students,” Garcia said.

At APS, 31,267 students have read 2.5 million minutes on Amira so far in the 2025-26 school year, according to Chris Blevins, Amira’s senior vice president of strategic partnerships and government relations. 

Despite the kinks, APS maintains that Amira is making an impact.

“We know there are issues with the program that the company is working to fix, but Amira is making a positive difference for students by providing personalized practice to strengthen early literacy skills,” APS spokesperson Martin Salazar said in a statement. “It’s an intervention resource that supports — not replaces — the instruction our teachers provide, helping them identify and address specific student needs.”

Based on the company’s findings, Amira officials say it has proved its worth: Students who use Amira 30 minutes per week report an additional eight weeks of reading growth with the program compared to students who didn’t use it, Blevins said.

Blevins asserts that the data from Amira is accurate. There are no major differences between the scores on this year’s assessment and the one conducted last year using a different program, he said.

For students with special needs, the program can be adaptable, he added. His own daughter has an IEP and uses Amira to read, he said.

“Amira is a safe place for her to read and to learn, and Amira is a helper for her,” Blevins said.

Blevins said he understands the panic about AI but hopes people have an open mind.

“AI reminds me of cellphones,” Blevins said. “Twenty years ago, when Steve Jobs brought out the iPhone, people were afraid of a device that was in their hands, and now everybody in the world seems to have a cellphone. I think this is just an evolution of technology.”

Amid parent backlash, APS keeps AI reading program with changes

District will limit student voice recordings and delete data more frequently

BY NATALIE ROBBINS / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 27, 2026

Amid mounting pressure to dump the software, leaders at Albuquerque Public Schools said Wednesday the district will continue to use the contentious artificial intelligence reading program Amira, but will scale back voice recordings and increase data deletion amid student privacy concerns.

Amira works by listening to students read aloud, noting incorrect pronunciations and scoring their performance. The program has been required for use by the state Public Education Department since the beginning of the 2025-26 school year and is used both for regular assessments and weekly tutoring.

In a letter to parents, APS Deputy Superintendent Randy Mahlerwein said Amira’s leadership provided documentation certifying that all voice data from before the current school year had been deleted. Data from Amira’s testing feature will be deleted every 48 hours so teachers have a chance to listen to the recordings, and Amira’s tutoring component will continue to score and analyze student voices but will not record them.

The move comes after parents showed up en masse at school board meetings across the state, asking district leaders to reconsider using the program, worried about where their children’s data goes and who sees it.

As the school year starts across New Mexico, several districts have already opted out of the PED requirement in favor of non-AI programs. Since the beginning of the month, 15 of the state’s 89 districts and one charter school have refused the program, some temporarily until further guidance is available, according to PED spokesperson Janelle Taylor García.

APS — the state’s largest district — has maintained that it will continue to use the program, even in the face of mounting parental discontent, citing the progress its students have made using Amira.

Parents who don’t want their children to use Amira can opt for a paper-and-pencil test, Mahlerwein said.

The program was approved for use after the non-AI software provider schools had been using for testing, Istation, was acquired by the San Francisco- based company Amira Learning in 2024.

New Mexico spends $2.7 million on Amira yearly for software use, professional development, data analysis and other additional tutoring and support programs, Amira leadership told the Journal. The cost of the statewide assessment alone is $1.4 million.

Amira is required for assessments in two states — New Mexico and Idaho — and is authorized for state use in Oklahoma, Georgia, California, Texas, Michigan and Massachusetts.

The concerns about Amira, it seems, are spreading to state government. On Monday, a group of more than 30 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle signed a letter addressed to PED Secretary Mariana Padilla, requesting that the agency ask for parental consent before using Amira and provide the public information about its functionality.

“You’re talking about the biometric data of children 5 to 8 years old,” said Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, who led the group of signatories. “That’s valuable stuff, and we know it, but we have to treat it as such.”

Serrato said she worries about the consequences of not teaching children AI literacy when they interact with Amira, who appears on students’ screens as a friendly purple- haired cartoon character in glasses.

“Our job right now is to be teaching every level of New Mexican, whether they’re children all the way up to our elders, just what AI is and what it isn’t,” she said. “My concern is that it really is humanizing this tool.”

Serrato said building stronger guidance for AI is a top priority at the next legislative session in January.

“As public servants, our job is to operate as transparently about things that the public has questions on as possible,” she said.

Taylor García said in a statement the PED had received the letter and that the agency “welcomes the opportunity to discuss these matters with the Legislature and to partner in creating clear safeguards, strong accountability measures, and transparent communication with families.”

“The department will continue evaluating emerging technologies to ensure they are used responsibly, securely, and in the best interest of New Mexico students,” she said.

Lawmakers also wrote of anxieties surrounding “model drift,” the decline in an AI product’s functioning or accuracy after it is launched to the public as it adapts to user behavior.

“The unfortunate reality is that once children’s voices and other real-world data are used to train the model and influence its future output, the system’s behavior and performance can change,” the letter reads.

Amira CEO Mark Angel maintains that this is not an issue with the program, which does use student voices to “train” its performance, since the assessment does not change from the beginning of a school year to the end.

“This is a complete misunderstanding,” Angel said. “If anyone on the Senate team or staff had talked to us, we would have explained that any concern about model drift does not impact Amira’s ability to accurately assess students. And I think if people think about it, we’re approved by more than 30 state agencies. If there was any truth to what they’re asserting, no state agency would be willing to rely on our data.”

Amira does collect student data, but only under direction from the PED, so the state can produce its reading performance reports, Angel said.

“We don’t want to collect this data; it’s a nuisance,” he said. “If the Legislature or PED tells us to stop collecting the data, we will stop instantaneously.”

Recordings are stored so that teachers can listen back to them to hear student progress, Angel said, so a 48-hour deletion window means teachers have less time to listen to the recordings.

“People are confused about this. They think that we are keeping this audio because it’s serving some interior purpose,” he said. “It’s actually serving the exterior purpose of helping teachers to benefit from the assessment process.”

Angel insists the company does not sell or transmit data to any other agency or company.

“We have contractual obligations, civil penalties from the Federal Trade Commission, and legal responsibilities to a wide range of government agencies that make it almost an absurdity to imagine that we would do something both as immoral or as suicidal as sell or provide this data,” he said.

High oil prices mean $924M in ‘new’ money for New Mexico

Projected revenue growth could bolster state trust funds, prompt debates about financial relief

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL CAPITOL BUREAU BY DAN BOYD

August 27, 2026

SANTA FE — A simmering military conflict more than 7,000 miles away is driving New Mexico revenue collections to unprecedented levels.

Due in large part to high oil prices connected to the U.S.-Iran war, New Mexico is projected to take in $14.8 billion in revenue during the coming budget year, according to new estimates released Wednesday.

That means lawmakers — and the state’s next governor — could have $924.2 million in “new” money to spend in the coming year, though uncertain economic conditions could cause that amount to fluctuate. New money represents the difference between current total spending and projected revenue.

“Times are great right now, but they won’t always be great,” Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, said during a Wednesday meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee in Farmington.

The surging revenue levels — the projected revenue amount for this year is $618 million higher than it was in December — could also mean hefty infusions into several state trust funds established in recent years. That includes an early childhood trust fund that’s been tapped to help pay for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s universal child care initiative.

Already, the state has roughly $75 billion invested in its various endowment funds, most of which provide yearly distributions to help pay for public schools and other state programs.

“That additional funding is now flowing into our savings accounts,” state Taxation and Revenue Secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke told lawmakers during Wednesday’s hearing.

However, state officials also cautioned the surging revenue levels could obscure trouble spots in New Mexico’s economy.

That includes high inflation rates and a labor force participation rate of 56.9% as of June, a figure that remains below the state’s pre-pandemic peak, according to LFC data.

Legislative Finance Committee Chief Economist Ismael Torres said the state’s economy is “struggling to find its footing” but has shown resilience amid uncertainty over tariffs and federal government spending.

He also said nearly 40% of the state’s total general fund revenue stems from sources that are not a direct tax burden on New Mexicans — namely investment income and oil and gas revenues. Without those revenue sources, state taxes on residents would have to be higher in order to maintain current spending levels, Torres said.

Meanwhile, New Mexico’s ongoing revenue growth comes as several other western states are weathering budget shortfalls.

In neighboring Colorado, for instance, lawmakers were forced to cut Medicaid provider rates and enact other cost-saving measures earlier this year in response to a budget crunch.

Revenue windfall could prompt debate

New Mexico’s latest revenue surge — revenue levels have more than doubled since 2018 — could reignite a debate at the Roundhouse over how the money should be spent.

High gas prices prompted Lujan Grisham last month to propose rebates of $250 per taxpayer. But that plan has gotten a tepid response from gubernatorial candidates — Democrat Deb Haaland and Republican Gregg Hull — and many state lawmakers.

Instead, GOP legislators, along with some Democrats, have proposed the more drastic step of eliminating the state’s personal income tax code to provide lasting financial relief to taxpayers.

There are currently nine states that do not have an income tax system, including Texas, Nevada and South Dakota.

“I’m just wondering when we have enough in our coffers to decide that New Mexico’s working citizens and retirees that have disposable income are worthy of having the ability to stay in our state,” Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, said during Wednesday’s hearing. “It just doesn’t seem like it’s ever enough.”

But Schardin Clarke argued against such a move, saying a repeal of the personal income tax code would primarily benefit New Mexico’s wealthiest residents and would also eliminate various tax breaks intended to help low-income families.

A 2025 bill that sought to repeal the state’s personal income tax would have eventually cost the state more than $4 billion per year in forgone revenue, according to a legislative analysis.

Meanwhile, prices at the pump remain high for New Mexico commuters, with a statewide average price of $4.06 per gallon as of Wednesday, according to AAA data.

Outgoing governor’s cash drawdown

While Lujan Grisham will step down at the end of this year after concluding her second term as governor, she could still have an impact on next year’s budget decisions.

That’s because the Democratic governor has issued a deluge of executive orders, primarily in response to wildfires and floods across New Mexico, that have reduced the amount of money available for other purposes.

That includes 12 orders issued this month in response to the Frijoles Fire in northern New Mexico that, combined, have authorized nearly $9 million in emergency spending.

With the governor already having authorized the spending of roughly $155 million this year via executive order, that means the amount of new money available to lawmakers next year could be reduced accordingly, Torres said.

The Lujan Grisham administration is not expected to issue a budget plan for the coming year before the governor leaves office, but the governor said Wednesday the state was positioned for success.

“New Mexico planned for this by building reserves when times were good and investing in programs that help improve the lives of New Mexicans, including universal child care, expanded health care access and enhanced educational opportunities,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “We made sure that the next administration inherits a state that’s financially sound.”

Whoever is elected as New Mexico’s next governor will take office just weeks before the start of next year’s 60-day legislative session, during which lawmakers will be tasked with approving a new state budget.

Meta agrees to $ 17B teen safety settlement

New Mexico not part of the 47-state settlement but pursued separate litigation

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY AND KELVIN CHAN / ASSOCIATED PRESS and OLIVIER UYTTEBROUCK /ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 27, 2026

OAKLAND, Calif. — Meta has agreed to pay $17 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by 47 states, state attorneys general announced Wednesday.

New Mexico is not a party to the multistate settlement but pursued separate litigation with Meta that led to two trials this year in Santa Fe.

A state district judge in early August ordered the social media giant to pay $567 million to repair harm caused by the company’s platforms. The order came in addition to a jury verdict in March that ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who brought the 2023 lawsuit that led to the ruling and the jury verdict in the New Mexico case, praised the new settlement agreement on Wednesday but defended his decision to take a separate path.

Torrez “declined to join the multi-state litigation by other states and instead initiated its own case against Meta under New Mexico law,” said Lauren Rodriguez, chief of staff for the New Mexico Department of Justice. “That decision resulted in not only the first ever trial victory against the social media giant but also a historic $942 million recovery for New Mexico’s kids.”

By pursuing its own litigation, “New Mexico’s trial verdict resulted in a per capita recovery that is more than 8 times higher than it would have been in the multi-state litigation,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

New Mexico litigation resulted in “a direct ban on romantic and sexualized AI chatbot interactions with minors, safeguards against adults targeting kids in private messages and enforceable requirements to better manage referrals related to child exploitation,” Rodriguez said.

New Mexico’s litigation emphasized criminal attacks on children and included real-world investigations into child sex crimes. In his Aug. 6 order, District Judge Bryan Biedscheid called for Meta to take steps to improve cooperation with New Mexico law enforcement.

The judge ordered Meta to prepare and pay for semiannual trainings for state and federal law enforcement related to internet crimes against children. It also requires Meta to maintain a 24/7 point of contact for the New Mexico Department of Justice’s Internet Crimes Against Children division and to improve Meta’s system for reporting internet sex crimes.

A Meta spokesperson said the company disagrees with Biedscheid’s ruling and will appeal. As of Wednesday, Meta had not filed an appeal, court records show.

The new 47-state settlement resolves a pivotal legal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people’s attention.

“For years, Meta intentionally deceived the public about the addictive and harmful design features that have wreaked havoc on youth mental health,” Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said. The settlement “will put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the money would be paid out over 10 years, with the state getting at least $1.5 billion if the settlement is approved by the court. New Jersey expects to receive at least $525 million and Colorado $615 million over nine years.

Meta urges rivals to adopt similar safety measures

Meta said in a blog post that it was “building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens.”

“Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,” the company said. “We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that’s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard.”

The company urged rivals Tik-Tok and YouTube to adopt similar safety measures.

The $17 billion settlement is a fraction of Meta’s 2025 revenue of $201 billion.

The agreement cuts short an ongoing court case involving California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which were among 29 states that sued Meta in 2023. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was among those expected to take the stand before a jury in federal court in California.

The lawsuit accused Meta of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms and hiding them from the public. The case also argued that Meta violated federal laws by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent.

The trial kicked off last week in Oakland, California, with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers overseeing the proceedings. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, began his testimony late Tuesday and defended Meta’s record and progress on child safety and privacy.

The cases in other states had been expected to go to trial later. In addition, nine attorneys general filed lawsuits in their respective states.

Time limits and curbs on push notifications

Under the proposed settlement, Meta agreed to adopt a series of safety features, including a “hard cap” on daily time limits and pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook. It will eliminate push notifications during weekday school hours and bring in “robust” age-assurance measures and “age-appropriate” content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material about eating disorders and self-harm.

There will be stronger and more user-friendly parental controls and limits on social comparison features such as “like” counts.

An independent auditor will assess how Meta is implementing the safety features and how effective they are.

Meta put the settlement at $18 billion, a figure that apparently includes a large award for Texas.

The money is to be paid out annually over 10 years, to fund youth online safety initiatives. However, the company said 30% of that amount — about $5.3 billion — will only be released to states if rivals YouTube and TikTok meet two conditions: implementing similar safety features, including a one-hour daily time limit, a nighttime block and age-assurance measures; and paying the same amount, split between the two companies.

Neither YouTube owner Google nor TikTok responded immediately to requests for comments.

Investigation was led by bipartisan coalition

The federal lawsuit was the result of an investigation led by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. It followed newspaper reports, first by The Wall Street Journal in 2021, that found that the company knew about the harm Instagram can cause teenagers — especially teen girls — when it comes to mental health and body image issues.

Meta has since added a host of safety features to Instagram, including separate accounts for teenagers with stronger protections around messaging and privacy, along with content restrictions.

But child safety experts, along with some former Meta employees, have long contended that the features are little more than window dressing.

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director, said during his testimony last week that Meta consistently prioritized profits over safety in designing its products, focusing on how often and for how long people used them, even if it was detrimental to their mental well-being.

“If you step away from the product, they are not going to make any money,” he said.

While the four states in the Oakland trial did not officially say how much they had been seeking, Meta said in a court filing that financial penalties in the case could amount to as much as $1.4 trillion — a figure legal experts said was unlikely, if not impossible.

Pete’s postgame speech was short but powerful

A graduate of Shiprock High School and former NMSU Aggie, his Native American heritage is a huge part of the story

By Rick Wright for the Albuquerque Journal

August 26, 2026

Actions on the field, not words spoken in a locker room, will determine whether Shiyazh Pete makes the Dallas Cowboys’ final 2026 roster — or, if not, whether he gets a chance with another NFL team.

Yet, words the former New Mexico State Aggie uttered on Saturday have reverberated far beyond the bowels of State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

That night, the Cowboys defeated the Arizona Cardinals 34-13. Pete, an unsigned free-agent offensive lineman who’d finished his college career at Kentucky last fall, played all of six snaps against the Cardinals.

Yet, a healthy portion of the fans attending the game had come for the sole purpose of seeing Pete become the first member of the Navajo Nation to play for an NFL team — preseason or otherwise.

“I saw something tonight I’d never seen before, in 25 years in the NFL,” Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said, addressing his team after the game. “An entire section (of the stands), cheering for one man.”

Schottenheimer then called on Pete to say a few words to his cheering teammates. Those few words, it has been suggested since, crystallize what athletic competition is about.

“That was an incredible win,” Pete said. “I’m very fortunate to be amongst you and play in the same field with the same star holding on our chest. I’m proud of us, proud of how far we’ve come. This game, fate, has brought us here as strangers, but this game, this star, this team will make us brothers.”

NM leaders react to paused Project Jupiter permits

Court ruling buys time for leaders to consider data center regulations, but not everyone agrees on next steps

BY GILLIAN BARKHURST AND ALGERNON D’AMMASSA / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITERS

August 26, 2026

As news broke that the New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously decided to pause the permitting process for Project Jupiter, federal, state and local leaders were quick to weigh in on the massive data center campus under construction in Santa Teresa.

“I think that New Mexicans have been loud and clear that they do not want data centers in their backyard,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., during a press briefing Monday. “And they certainly don’t want large new industrial uses that are going to threaten the water supply, the air quality and the well-being of our communities.”

Sunday night, the state’s highest court issued temporary stays that paused air and water permits in response to petitions by clean energy and conservation groups. The petitions alleged that permit proceedings lacked due process and that the developer, Oracle Corp., had not been transparent about environmental effects and power usage.

Joining with Stansbury, Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., also spoke out against Project Jupiter.

Vasquez, a vocal opponent of a planned and later canceled data center outside Socorro, said in a Tuesday statement that he was “appalled” by the lack of transparency from developers.

“New Mexico should absolutely compete for the jobs and technology of the future, but we are not going to sell out our water, our clean air or our way of life to do it,” Vasquez said. “If you want to do business here, you need to be transparent, listen to residents and most importantly, prove to New Mexicans that projects will serve, not steal from, our communities.”

Vasquez said he would support several congressional bills to regulate data centers; one to protect consumers from electricity price hikes caused by data centers and another to require full transparency about energy and water usage.

Despite permitting delays, construction at the site is well underway. Last September, developers broke ground on the 1,400-acre data center campus and have spent approximately $144.5 million on preliminary work for an on-site natural gas microgrid.

The campus, which will train artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT, was initially lauded by some New Mexican leaders for bringing an emerging industry to the state’s rural south.

However, since construction began, estimates about water and energy usage have continuously grown. Latest estimates project the data center to generate nearly twice as many greenhouse gases as both Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined, far exceeding original estimates shared with the public. Since April, with the project approximately 10% completed, developers have allegedly pumped more than 100 million gallons of water from a ground well.

These contradicting statements and estimates have flipped some supporters into firm opponents.

Rep. Sarah Silva, a Las Cruces Democrat, initially supported the project and saw it as an opportunity to economically uplift southern New Mexico. However, when developers wavered on promises about energy consumption and full-time positions, Silva quickly grew skeptical.

“We can’t negotiate with corporations that aren’t honest with us,” Silva said Tuesday.

Other state leaders have proposed bringing a data center moratorium bill to the Legislature in January. Among them is Democratic State Sen. Carrie Hamblen of Las Cruces.

Hamblen responded Monday with a statement welcoming the court’s oversight and saying, “Southern New Mexico deserves to be heard by our state government.”

Earlier this month, Hamblen was one of four Democratic senators from Las Cruces who held a public listening session focused on Project Jupiter. During that meeting, Hamblen announced that she planned to sponsor the bill in the upcoming session.

“We deserve due process to ensure hyperscale data centers like Project Jupiter do not irrevocably damage the land, air, and water we rely on. This due process should not be rushed,” Hamblen’s statement continued.

For Silva, a moratorium only serves to “kick the can further down the road.” With several months before the legislative session, Silva said state lawmakers have the time to create more comprehensive regulations and guardrails. As an example, Silva mentioned that she was considering a bill to tax hyperscale data centers like Project Jupiter.

Breaking from other Democrats, outgoing Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has remained a firm supporter of Project Jupiter despite recent developments.

“The governor respects the Court’s ruling and will comply fully with its orders as the case proceeds,” a spokesperson from the Governor’s Office said in a statement Tuesday. “The administration remains committed to a permitting process that is lawful, thorough and fair to all parties and we will continue to evaluate the project through proper regulatory channels within whatever new timeline the Court sets.”

Meanwhile, in Doña Ana, county officials weighed in on the project unfolding in their backyard. Doña Ana County Commissioner Susana Chaparro reflected on the Supreme Court’s actions during the commissioners’ Tuesday session.

Chaparro, a Democrat serving her second term on the board, was the lone vote against industrial revenue bonds and tax incentives supporting Project Jupiter last September. Chaparro’s objections centered on the process, which she said had been rushed and left her feeling pressured to vote despite missing information and a lack of meaningful public participation.

She asked her colleagues three times to support a motion delaying a vote to allow more time to consider Project Jupiter and was rebuffed.

The Supreme Court’s intervention “sparked hope,” Chaparro said: “And hopefully it will unite this community as a team, because that’s what we are. … It is an obligation of this commission to listen to you regarding what you want and what you don’t want in this community.”

Embattled House Democrat withdraws from District 4 race

Democratic Party nominates former Rep. Anthony Allison to replace Hernandez for November election

BY JOHN MILLER / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 26, 2026

New Mexico House Rep. Joseph Hernandez, D-Shiprock, has announced he will not seek reelection after a police report and witnesses implicated him in an apparently alcohol-fueled public nudity episode at a Chicago hotel last month.

Hernandez released a statement at 4 p.m. Tuesday announcing he was dropping out of the contested race, which decides who will represent parts of San Juan County, Farmington and a swath of Navajo Nation in the New Mexico House of Representatives.

“After careful consideration, I have made the difficult decision to withdraw my candidacy from the upcoming general election,” Hernandez said. “At this time, I believe the best decision for me and those I love is to focus on my health and my family, while continuing to serve the community that entrusted me with this office through the remainder of my term.”

A state Democratic Party spokesman confirmed that former state Rep. Anthony Allison has been nominated to replace Hernandez on the ballot. If the party agrees, Allison will face off with Republican candidate Heather Ellison in the November general.

Hernandez’s announcement fell on the last day of the 70-day deadline for a party to replace a candidate prior to a general election in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s website.

Democratic House Speaker Javier Martínez said in a statement Monday that the party was “very disappointed in what transpired in Chicago” and said the party wanted to “make sure that Representative Hernandez gets the help he needs to show up as the best version of himself for his family and community.”

A fundraiser in Farmington for Hernandez’s campaign was canceled on Monday after the representative issued an apology in the wake of a Journal investigation that revealed details of the incident on Sunday.

An incident report from Chicago Police Department and two eyewitnesses who spoke to the Journal alleged that the 38-year-old House member was “running around naked” and “banging and knocking on other guests’ doors” on the 17th floor of the Holiday Inn at Wolf Point early the morning of July 29.

Hernandez initially said little when asked about the incident, referring to a “negative experience” with security and police. He claimed the encounter was “over quickly” after he found new accommodations in the Windy City.

While the heavily redacted police report didn’t name Hernandez, it provided descriptors that matched his age and likeness. The eyewitnesses, who spoke to the Journal on the condition of anonymity to protect their employment, said they were certain the representative was the suspect in question.

They also accused Hernandez of pushing a staff member who responded to the incident and alleged the representative had “passed out” on a couch in the hotel lobby on another night during his stay, leading Holiday Inn staff to call security.

The incident report indicates that police officers who responded to the hotel helped Hernandez collect his belongings from his room and escorted him from the premises, but for reasons that remain unclear, police did not file charges.

While dispatchers originally classified the call as a report of a “sex offense,” officers listed the roughly 2-hour incident as a “criminal trespass,” marking the episode as “cleared closed (other exceptional).”

In his statement on Monday, Hernandez said he has “challenges with alcohol” and seemed to leave open the possibility that he would still face Ellison come November.

Hernandez’s decision to drop his reelection bid marks the latest in a string of alcohol-related incidents involving New Mexico legislators.

Former Democratic state Rep. Georgene Louis of Albuquerque also did not seek reelection after being arrested by Santa Fe police in the final days of the 2022 legislative session.

Four years earlier, former Rep. Monica Youngblood, R-Albuquerque, did run for reelection after being convicted of aggravated DWI in 2018 was defeated in that year’s general election.

Former state Sen. Richard Martinez, an Española Democrat, was also defeated in 2020 after being convicted a year earlier of reckless driving and driving while intoxicated.

Martinez was arrested after plowing into the back of a car waiting at a stoplight in Española.

Hearing officer withdraws from air permit case

BY ALGERNON D’AMMASSA / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 25, 2026

The hearing examiner overseeing an air quality permit application for the data center known as Project Jupiter recused himself and withdrew from the case over the weekend in an order made public Monday.

Max Shepherd, responding to an emergency motion filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center that sought his disqualification, denied a hearing on the matter and concluded, “I hereby disqualify and recuse myself from acting as the Hearing Officer in this case effective immediately.”

The New Mexico Environment Department named Shepherd to preside over permits sought by Yucca Growth Infrastructure for emissions from planned microgrid power generating facilities at the Santa Teresa data center under construction for tenants Oracle Corp. and OpenAI.

The controversial application seeks approval for a methane-fueled fuel cell system to supply power to the data center, with greenhouse gas emissions estimated between 8.8 million and over 10 million tons per year.

The state Supreme Court granted a temporary stay on the proceeding Sunday night after clean energy advocate New Energy Economy filed an emergency writ seeking to dismiss the permit application, arguing that the State Land Office’s refusal to approve a proposed natural gas pipeline route through state trust land meant the project did not have an established fuel source.

The air permit hearing would have opened on Sept. 14 in Santa Teresa, with a deadline for the Environment Department to make its decision on the permit by Nov. 23, but the temporary stay has paused the process while the state’s high court reviews it. It will not decide the question of the air permit itself.

Last week, Yucca Growth Infrastructure called New Energy Economy’s petition “an attempt to circumvent the procedural deadlines of NMED’s air permit process.”

Shepherd ruled in July that the hearing would begin Oct. 19 only to move it up to Sept. 14. Challengers to the permit have connected that reversal to a meeting that week among Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and representatives of Oracle. Shepherd’s decision cut time for opponents to review technical records and for expert witnesses to prepare testimony by an Aug. 24 deadline, NEE said.

As the dispute unfolded earlier this month, Lujan Grisham and her office maintained that the hearing process was proceeding independently.

The petition further complained that Shepherd allowed the NMED to produce the full administrative record on the same day as the deadline for challengers’ technical testimony, which would have fallen on Monday.

Initially, Shepherd ordered Yucca Growth to file a response to the petition, only to reverse himself days later and say the question should be argued at the hearing.

New Energy Economy’s executive director, Mariel Nanasi, complained that the inconsistent orders turned the process “upside down,” barred meaningful public participation and prevented technical experts from preparing for the hearing.

On Monday, Nanasi welcomed Shepherd’s recusal “after a litany of reversals that repeatedly undermined confidence in the fairness of this proceeding,” she said.

“That withdrawal speaks volumes,” she continued. “The process became so compromised that even the presiding officer could no longer credibly continue.”

The Center for Biological Diversity’s senior attorney in New Mexico, Colin Cox, told the Journal Monday he met Shepherd’s decision with “a mixture of surprise and relief.”

“We’ve consistently been asking just for the bare minimum level of due process,” Cox said. “Mr. Shepherd has repeatedly denied our requests for information and for time to review a proposal for what would be the largest source of air pollution in the state of New Mexico. It deserves a thorough hearing.”

Maslyn Locke, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center’s senior attorney, said Shepherd made the right call.

“His pattern of reversing his decisions showed what we perceived to be a clear pattern of favoritism and bias towards NMED and YGI that would have made a fair hearing completely impossible,” Locke said Monday afternoon. “We’re hopeful that, if this process moves forward, impacted community members and supporting organizations will not only have a say in the selection of the next hearing officer, but will also be provided all constitutional guarantees we are entitled to.”

Shepherd did not respond to a query from the Journal.

Cox also welcomed the state Supreme Court’s review of the process, saying, “We need someone outside of the Michelle Lujan Grisham administration to give this project the scrutiny it deserves and make sure agencies are following the law.”

The Environment Department did not immediately comment on Shepherd’s recusal. The Journal has also reached out to Yucca Growth Infrastructure for comment, but has not heard back.

NM Supreme Court intervenes in Project Jupiter construction

Justices pause permit hearing, water well use

BY ALGERNON D’AMMASSA / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 25, 2026

The New Mexico Supreme Court has intervened in the construction of the state’s largest data center project.

In a pair of orders filed Sunday night, the court indicated it would consider separate petitions filed by opponents of Project Jupiter that raised arguments about legal processes vital to the completion of the 1,400acre data center campus in Santa Teresa.

Under construction since last September, the project is building four data centers for AI training capacity to be used by Oracle and OpenAI, along with an office complex and an on-site power generating facility to supply the data center with electricity.

The power system, as proposed in a permit application by Yucca Growth Infrastructure, would use methane to power a fuel cell system by Bloom Energy projected to supply 2.45 gigawatts and emit an estimated 8.8 to 10 million tons of greenhouse gases annually.

The first court order responded to a petition by New Energy Economy, a clean energy advocacy organization, arguing that the New Mexico Environment Department cannot proceed with its Sept. 14 public hearing on the data center’s air quality permit application because it has not established a fuel source for the data center.

New Energy Economy Executive Director Mariel Nanasi in a statement called the order “an extraordinary and necessary intervention.”

The justices are not being asked to decide for or against issuing the permit. The temporary stay allows the court time to review New Energy Economy’s petition and the threshold issue it raises.

NEE argued that the application is not ripe for a hearing due to setbacks in establishing a route for a pipeline that would supply 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from El Paso across 18 miles of private, federal and state trust land.

Dallas-based company Energy Transfer has proposed the pipeline.

However, New Mexico’s State Land Office has denied access to state land for part of the route, and in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings the company recently stated the pipeline may not be ready for service until 2027.

New Energy Economy argued that the application should be dismissed until the microgrid’s fuel source was in place.

“The public was being railroaded through a process designed to move at extraordinary speed while opponents were denied the tools necessary to test the Applicant’s claims,” Nanasi said in her written statement. “That sequence of events raises grave questions about political pressure and whether this process was being driven toward a predetermined result instead of a search for the truth.”

An Oracle spokesperson defended the permitting process and said, “We are committed to protecting New Mexico’s resources, are abiding by every applicable regulatory process and public review period, and have complied with every required timeline along the way.”

“The effort to bypass the (Environment) department’s established procedural deadlines is unwarranted, but we will continue to share facts about the project transparently and are confident the regulatory process will prevail,” Oracle’s spokesperson said. “The effort to bypass the department’s established procedural deadlines is unwarranted, but we will continue to share facts about the project transparently and are confident the regulatory process will prevail.”

Also on Sunday night, the state Supreme Court issued another unanimous order with the potential to temporarily slow or halt construction in the near future.

Legality of water well in question

The court called a temporary halt to the state’s authorization of a new water well currently supporting construction of Project Jupiter.

The order, filed at 8:33 p.m., granted a request by the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity for a temporary stay on an emergency authorization for a new well on a historic water right, through which the state permitted use of a groundwater source near the Project Jupiter site.

The nonprofit filed an emergency petition last week challenging the Office of the State Engineer’s approval of the well last October. Based on meter readings, the petition alleges over 100 million gallons of water have been pumped from the well since April.

Petitioner Santa Teresa Capital of El Paso applied to OSE for a change to an existing water right — historically intended for irrigating a sod farm — plus an emergency authorization to drill a replacement well. The water right allows up to 2,400 acre-feet per year.

OSE granted the authorization two days later; yet, after 10 months and despite a formal protest filed in January, the agency has yet to call a hearing.

The center is asking the state’s high court to declare the authorization unlawful, temporarily halt activity and schedule the legally mandated hearing to determine whether the new well and water use are in the public interest.

A spokesperson for OSE declined to comment on the court’s order Monday, as it pertains to pending litigation.

“We’re thrilled this stay from the New Mexico Supreme Court blocks Project Jupiter’s unlawful water permit for now,” Colin Cox, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity based in New Mexico, said in a written statement. “Our precious freshwater is safe from this wildly unpopular mega data center. New Mexico has strict laws to protect our water that must be enforced. No company is above the law.”

Oracle’s spokesperson told the Journal, “We are deeply saddened that this order impacts a local small business. The immediate impact of this order falls on the region’s only commercial sod farm and the 14 Santa Teresa residents whose jobs depend on its operations.”

Oracle pointed to its plans for a closed-loop cooling system and a “carefully developed plan” to manage water use for the center’s operations. It also announced a regional water efficiency program in collaboration with an agricultural tech company, Arable, it claims will conserve 21 million gallons per year.

“Although the stay is not permanent, it gives people a chance to breathe, both literally and figuratively,” said Maslyn Locke, a senior attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. “It also shows that New Mexico has at least one branch of the government that may not be willing to let Project Jupiter developers simply get everything they want when they want it.”

NM House Rep. Joseph Hernandez acknowledges and apologizes for police incident at Chicago hotel

Democrat says he will seek professional help for ‘challenges with alcohol’ after reports of public nudity, disturbing guests

BY JOHN MILLER / A;BUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 25, 2026

New Mexico House Rep. Joseph Hernandez, D-Shiprock, apologized late Sunday after the Journal reported he was allegedly found naked and banging on doors at a Chicago hotel last month before being removed from the premises.

“I want to sincerely apologize to my family and my community for my behavior during a recent stay in Chicago,” Hernandez wrote in a Facebook post. “My conduct was not reflective of my role as a state representative or my duty to you — my constituents, and I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

Before details of the episode emerged, Hernandez had issued a two-sentence statement through New Mexico House Democrats, vaguely referring to a “negative experience” he had with security and police that caused him to leave the Holiday Inn at Wolf Point on July 29. A National Conference of State Legislatures summit was being held in Chicago at the time, though organizers have not released a list of attendees.

The response left much open to interpretation, suggesting that the representative might not have been culpable in the incident and that he possibly left the hotel of his own accord.

A Chicago Police Department report recently released to the Journal and two eyewitnesses allege that the representative was naked, running around the 17th floor of the hotel and “banging on other guests’ doors” before police were called and escorted the representative from the premises.

One of the witnesses also claimed the representative pushed him near an elevator before police arrived, but the representative does not appear to have been charged in connection with the incident.

Both eyewitnesses, who spoke to the Journal on the condition of anonymity to protect their employment, stated that Hernandez had “passed out” on a couch in the lobby of the hotel on a previous night of his stay, leading to his first encounter with security.

In his statement on Monday, Hernandez said he was “seeking professional help to address my challenges with alcohol,” describing the incident as a “regretful lapse in judgement.”

“I am truly sorry for disappointing all those who put their faith in me, and I am committed to making meaningful changes to recover my health, regain your trust, and uphold the high standards you deserve from your elected representative,” he wrote.

The representative could not be reached for further comment on Monday.

Details of the incident prompted backlash across social media, with some constituents and even fellow House officials calling for Hernandez’s resignation — which neither Hernandez nor House Democrats have addressed directly.

“We’re very disappointed in what transpired in Chicago,” Democratic House Speaker Javier Martínez said in a statement Monday. “We also want to make sure that Representative Hernandez gets the help he needs to show up as the best version of himself for his family and community.”

Speaking to the Journal last month, Martínez said he had planned to speak with Hernandez about the incident directly, but the speaker added that he could not speak to whether a complaint about the representative’s behavior had been filed with the New Mexico Interim Legislative Ethics Committee.

House Rep. Jim Townsend, R-Artesia, called the incident “an embarrassment” on social media and said he was concerned that the Democrat- led Legislature would not take disciplinary action against one of its own.

“He is a Democrat, so chances are it will be immediately forgotten,” Townsend wrote in a Facebook post.

Hernandez took office in 2025. After winning the Democratic primary in June, the one-term representative is now up against Republican challenger Heather Ellison in the November general to retain his District 4 seat.

Last month, Ellison joined calls for the representative “to tell the truth and take accountability for what happened.”