Kennedy Hires Covid Vaccine Skeptic to Look at Dubious Claims of Military Deaths

In a legal deposition, the doctor, Theresa Long, compared immunizing service members against Covid to Nazi doctors experimenting on concentration camp prisoners.

By Apoorva Mandavilli and Jan Hoffman for The New YorkT imes

September 8, 2026

The Department of Health and Human Services has hired an Army doctor with a history of questioning the safety of Covid vaccines to investigate unsubstantiated claims that more than 2,500 U.S. service members died after receiving the shots.

The hiring of Lt. Col. Theresa Long, who has no specialized training in vaccines or viruses, is part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s intense campaign to explore long-held and baseless theories about the hazards of vaccines.

There is little evidence to support this latest investigation. More than 96 percent of service members were vaccinated against Covid before a mandate that they receive the shots was rescinded. A March report from the Pentagon, and one in July 2025, found no deaths from the vaccines.

Dr. Long said in an Aug. 14 legal deposition obtained by The New York Times that she is a senior medical military adviser to Mr. Kennedy but also reports to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

She said in the deposition that she had been appointed to investigate 55,000 reports of adverse effects and 2,544 deaths among service members who received Covid vaccines, in the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Experts have noted that while this database is the largest, it is also the least reliable: Reports of side effects can be submitted by anyone and are not vetted, so they may be subject to bias or manipulation.

Dr. Long’s role was reported earlier by Politico. She and H.H.S. did not respond to requests for comment or clarification on the project.

Billions worldwide have received Covid vaccines. The vast majority have experienced no serious side effects, and research has found deaths from the vaccines to be exceedingly rare.

“I have not seen any convincing reports that large numbers of people have died due to the vaccine,” said Dr. Ofer Levy, the director of the precision vaccines program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Long testified that she had personal knowledge of the deaths of 28 service members as a result of Covid vaccines. She also said that she knew of several service members who lost pregnancies after receiving Covid shots, and that the vaccines had caused pregnancy loss at a rate of about 82 percent. Studies in hundreds of thousands of women have shown that Covid vaccination is not linked to an increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or preterm birth.

Dr. Long also echoed inaccurate comments from Mr. Kennedy suggesting that vaccines may cause autism and contending that autism is “extraordinarily rare” in some groups like the Amish who often do not immunize their children. Dozens of studies have explored and dismissed those theories. Last week, Pennsylvania announced two deaths from measles, both in infants from the Amish community.

The 2026 Pentagon report concluded that Covid vaccinations caused a short-term rise in heart inflammation within 21 days — a known side effect — but that the inflammation did not persist, and Covid itself carried a larger risk of the complication. The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report also found that Covid vaccines decreased the incidence of eight conditions, including life-threatening ones such as acute kidney failure and hemorrhagic stroke.

Dr. Long told lawyers in the deposition that the Pentagon report cherry-picked data and that she had been appointed specifically to investigate “inaccuracies” in defense databases. She said she hoped to complete her investigation within a year.

Dr. Levy said given the military includes many young men, the group at highest risk of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, from Covid vaccines, he supported research into the safety of the shots in that population. But many infections, including Covid and flu, can cause myocarditis, he noted, and proving the exact cause of death can be exceedingly difficult.

A detailed investigation would require autopsy reports, including samples of nasal passages and lung fluid, and information on any infections the person may have had. “You’d want all of that and more to really reach a very serious conclusion that this is caused by the vaccine,” he said.

Dr. Long’s testimony was part of a defamation lawsuit brought against Ivan Raiklin, a far-right activist, by Dr. Terry Adirim, who as a senior Pentagon health official had advised that military personnel receive Covid shots. Shortly after she moved to a new post at the C.I.A., Mr. Raiklin accused her on social media of committing “jab genocide” with that advice.

In her deposition, Dr. Long spoke in support of Mr. Raiklin and said in immunizing service members, Dr. Adirim was morally comparable to Nazi doctors who were hanged for experimenting on prisoners in concentration camps during World War II.

Dr. Long said she did not receive the Covid vaccine or immunize her two children against the disease. She said she had received every vaccine the military required of her before then, but had struggled with infertility and heart failure.

“And so having received, you know, probably four or five rounds of vaccines every time they lost my vaccine card, I wouldn’t — I wouldn’t say that I feel like those vaccines helped in any way,” she said.

Beloved neighbor or identity thief and attempted murderer?

Weed, NM, resident sentenced in 40-year-old identity theft after fleeing the alleged bombing of ex-wife

BY MATTHEW REISEN / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 8, 2026

A 76-year- old man accused of trying to blow up his ex-wife in Wyoming before living under the identity of a dead college classmate for 40 years — much of that time in New Mexico — was sentenced Friday to more than six years in federal prison.

Stephen Campbel l, known for decades as “Walter Coffman” by his second wife and the town of Weed, pleaded guilty in May to misuse of a passport, possession of false papers to defraud the U.S., aggravated identity theft and fugitive from justice in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

His attorney declined to comment.

Campbell’s long-held secret began to unravel after, posing as Coffman, he provided fraudulent documents to renew his driver’s license at an MVD office in Cloudcroft in 2019. After the renewal, fraud investigators discovered Coffman had been killed by a drunk driver in 1975 and alerted federal authorities.

Following a multiyear investigation, FBI agents in tactical gear arrested Campbell in February 2025 after he fled into the woods behind his home armed with a rifle and wearing camouflage. Agents threw a few flashbangs and Campbell surrendered.

Court records show a search of his property turned up 57 firearms, a surplus of ammunition and “extensive identity theft documents” — including Coffman’s Social Security card and multiple passports.

Prior to the arrest, Campbell had been on the U.S. Marshals’ Most Wanted List for more than 40 years, where his name still appears. The wanted poster states Campbell is a “very capable outdoorsman.”

“Campbell is assumed to have changed his name and appearance,” according to the website. Campbell still has an active warrant for attempted murder out of Wyoming in the 1982 bombing of his ex-wife. Authorities say Campbell planted the bomb for the new boyfriend.

“When his wife opened the toolbox containing the bomb, it exploded, causing her to lose a finger and suffer other injuries,” according to court records. “The blast also set a fire to the residence and a neighboring unit.”

After being arrested in that case, Campbell posted bond and disappeared.

In 1984, Campbell applied for a passport as Coffman, whom he had attended the University of Arkansas with, and in 1988 he remarried under that identity. His second wife, who filed for divorce soon after his arrest last year, declined to comment Friday.

In 1995, while living in Oklahoma, Campbell contested Coffman’s death and obtained a replacement Social Security card in his name. Several years later, in 2003, Campbell and his wife moved to Weed in Otero County — where he became a volunteer firefighter, attended community meetings and started a community newsletter, The Weed Patch.

So beloved was “Walt,” in fact, that several residents — despite knowing of Campbell’s crimes and deceit — wrote letters asking the federal judge for leniency in his sentencing. Federal authorities say Campbell received around $140,000 in retirement benefits under Coffman’s name.

A marital settlement agreement showed Campbell and his second wife split almost $1.5 million in assets, including off-road vehicles, a homebuilt airplane, police radio scanners and artworks — many done by his second wife — totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

“Due to a difference in temperament and outlook, petitioner and respondent have been unable to live together harmoniously,” according to the divorce petition. “There is a discord and conflict of personality that have destroyed the marital relationship.”

In several letters to the judge, residents of Weed — with a population of 67 — spoke highly of Campbell, whom they fondly refer to as “Walt.” Some said they had known Campbell and his wife for more than 20 years.

One woman wrote she knew Campbell as “a soft-spoken man of great intellect with whom it was very easy to have a conversation.” She said he was active in the community and could often be seen at Otero County Commission meetings.

“When I heard of this recent situation in his life, you could have knocked me over with a feather,” she wrote. “I found it hard to believe of the Walt I knew. I pray for him often and would welcome him back into the community at any time.”

Another woman said “Walt” and his wife helped care for her stepfather and keep his property maintained as his health declined. She said after he passed, she gave Campbell 30 to 50 of his guns, calling the couple two “of the most selfless people.”

“I honestly didn’t think people like them existed anymore. They took away some of my cynicism of people only looking out for themselves,” the woman wrote.

Other residents wrote “Walt is a friend to me and to our little mountain town” and “Walt cares. I sincerely believe that Walt makes Weed a better place to live.”

One note read, “he is truly missed by me personally and many more.”

In a letter that began “Dear Walt (As I know you),” Otero County Commissioner Amy Barela thanked Campbell “for the guidance and support you have given me over the years.” She said he challenged her “to think outside the box,” and she never doubted his “passion for Weed and the surrounding area.”

Barela told the Journal on Friday she remembered “Walt” as being active in the community and “very knowledgeable about the laws.” She said she was “absolutely” surprised to learn he was living a lie.

“Well, I guess you have no idea who you’re hanging around,” Barela said.

A 2026 sentencing memorandum stated Campbell had several health issues, including kidney disease, short-term memory loss and a “recent significant fall,” requesting a two-year sentence.

“The Weed community views Mr. Campbell as a positive force — not a danger — and his age further reduces any future risk,” according to the memorandum. “His community will welcome him back, and he has substantial assistance waiting for him upon his release from custody.”

Court records show the Green River Police Department in Wyoming expressed interest in extraditing Campbell to face charges on the decades-old attempted murder charge. Calls to the police department went unanswered Friday.

In Silver City, rapid community response to local data center proposal

Few details so far about the proposed facility in Grant County

BY ALGERNON D’AMMASSA / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 8, 2026

SILVER CITY — Sometimes a news story breaks not on the front page or on TV, but in the classified ads.

Grant County residents first learned of a proposed data center near them from a public listing recently published in the Silver City Daily Press. The notice announced that an air quality permit would be filed Oct. 1 with the New Mexico Environment Department for construction of a data center “powered by (a) natural gas fired electrical power generation facility.”

Oly Perez, a community organizer who also works as a paramedic, said she, like many in her community, was “blindsided.”

Previous data center proposals — notably, the large-scale development known as Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa or Green Data’s stalled bids to manufacture solar-powered data centers in Socorro County or at Spaceport America — were publicly vetted because they sought partnerships with public bodies.

Perez and environmental advocates got to work right away gathering what information they could about the project while laying the groundwork for a grassroots campaign. By October, Grant County may even become the fourth New Mexico county to enact a moratorium on data center development.

According to the public notice, the project owner is identified as Site Layer 1 LLC, a corporate entity with a New York City address. Its manager is listed in corporate filings as AirLayer Advisory LLC, a Delaware-registered company with scant information about its ownership or means of contact.

The Silver City-based Gila Resources Information Project, or GRIP, connected it to Corner, a New York-based venture capital firm, and similarly named data center projects in other states, such as Site Layer 2 in Logan County, Colorado, and Site Layer 4 in Platte County, Wyoming.

Corner, which did not respond to an email from the Journal on Friday, described itself in a recent news release as “a multi-billion dollar investment firm that backs, builds, and operates companies across the AI economy.”

The location of the New Mexico project, according to the public notice, is a patch of private land among ranch properties and federally managed land 4.5 miles northeast of Playas and nearly 12 miles from the small community of Hachita, along N.M. 9 at the county’s southern tip.

The notice discloses that the center would be powered by 32 natural gas-fueled engines, producing 9.4 megawatts apiece or 300.8 megawatts in total. The notice includes anticipated emissions of nearly 1.3 million tons of greenhouse gases per year, roughly equivalent to annual emissions from 173,000 homes or 300,000 gasoline- powered automobiles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The notice does not include information about the project’s square-footage or water demands.

Perez said particulate matter — estimated in the notice at 225 tons per year — was of particular concern to her because the area is notorious for wind and dust storms, raising the possibility that contaminants would be spread widely into population centers in Hidalgo, Grant and Luna counties.

“As a paramedic, I know we already see these high rates of respiratory illness,” she said.

Perez set up a table on the patio of June June’s ice cream shop downtown Thursday, stocked with supplies for sending letters to the state Environment Department opposing an air quality permit and to the county commissioners advocating for a moratorium.

The table was stocked with model letters and mailing labels, with bicycle gears serving as paperweights. Perez also put out matte paints, foam brushes and markers for art. “Sometimes people don’t want to write letters,” she said. “I think that it takes all kinds. If you feel confident doing a poster, do a poster.”

In a statement on its website, GRIP urged community members to organize well before the air quality permit process begins.

“We cannot afford to wait until the formal public comment period begins to speak up,” GRIP wrote in its statement. “Now is the time for residents, community leaders, and elected officials to make clear that southern New Mexico’s limited water resources, clean air, and long-term future must come before the demands of a massive, energyand water-intensive data center.”

Over three dozen people visited Perez and accepted letter-writing materials, with many expressing opposition to a data center in the county. Others — including the two candidates running to represent Grant County in the state Legislature — favored a moratorium as a way to slow development long enough to establish environmental guardrails.

“You cannot tell a good project from a bad one when the first anybody hears of it is small print in the classifieds,” state House candidate Raul Turrieta, a Silver City Democrat, wrote in a campaign email. “And right now, nothing in New Mexico law requires them to tell us more than that.”

A recent Journal poll found that 75% of respondents favored a temporary halt to data center development in order to set standards addressing their local environmental and economic consequences. Support for moratoriums scored highly even among residents who support data centers.

“Not all data centers are the same,” Turrieta told the Journal, saying he advocates full disclosure of water, power and land uses, binding community benefit agreements and guarantees that data centers will bear their own energy costs in order to protect ratepayers.

On this issue, at least, Turrieta and the incumbent he is challenging, state Rep. Luis Terrazas, R-Santa Clara, find common ground.

“There are still far too many unanswered questions about what data centers could mean for our water, our resources, and the people who call these communities home,” Terrazas told the Journal Thursday. “Until we have clear answers, we need to pause and make sure New Mexicans are not being asked to sacrifice their future for someone else’s development.”

Grant County Commissioner Nancy Stephens confirmed Friday that she plans to propose a one-year moratorium, modeled on Socorro County’s resolution, as soon as the commissioners’ Sept. 24 meeting.

APD places 6 officers on leave in DWI scandal

9 officers have pleaded guilty to criminal charges as part of the investigation

By Nakayla McClelland / Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

August 31, 2026

Six officers with the Albuquerque Police Department have been placed on leave as part of an ongoing investigation into a decades-long scheme involving a defense attorney paying law enforcement officers in an effort to get DWI cases dismissed.

Gilbert Gallegos, spokesperson for APD, said Monday that the agency is doing an internal investigation into the six officers, who were not named Monday afternoon.

“We are not releasing the names at this time,” Gallegos said in an email to the Journal. “The overall investigation is still ongoing. These six officers have not yet been interviewed.”

APD created an Internal Affairs Task Force in January 2024 to investigate alleged misconduct by former or current officers. Fourteen officers have since been fired, resigned or retired during the internal investigation, Gallegos said.

The FBI is leading a separate investigation into allegations of illegal conduct. The six officers have not been charged in that case.

Since the scandal came to light, more than a dozen law enforcement officers have been fired or placed on leave, including nine APD officers who have pleaded guilty in the FBI’s investigation.

At least three APD officers’ homes were raided by the FBI during the investigation.

Two lawyers, a paralegal, an officer with the New Mexico State Police and deputies with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, have also been implicated.

Officers worked with Albuquerque attorney Thomas Clear III in a criminal racketeering enterprise that paid off officers to help get DWI cases dismissed, according to previous Journal reporting.

Police officers would intentionally fail to appear at required court hearings, withhold evidence or fail to file court paperwork for DWI offenders — some of whom were aware of the scheme and others who were not — who hired Clear.

Clear said during in his plea agreement that the scheme dated back to 1995. 

“Under this scheme, I would then appear at the (Motor Vehicle Division) administrative hearings and the criminal case settings on behalf of the DWI offender and would move to dismiss the proceedings,” Clear wrote in the plea agreement.

Prior Journal reporting also states that the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office has dismissed more than 260 DWI cases linked to the federal cases.

Clear and his paralegal and co-conspirator Ricardo Mendez entered guilty pleas on charges of racketeering, among other federal charges.

Clear faces 130 years in prison but no one who has pleaded guilty in the case has been sentenced.

What’s in a name? How this release of alleged DWI-scheme conspirators was different

Previously identified officer filed suit against city, alleging he was a ‘scapegoat’

BY COLLEEN HEILD AND MATTHEW REISEN / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITERS

September 8, 2026

The decision to withhold the names of six Albuquerque police officers facing internal investigation in the DWI extortion scandal appeared to be a departure from past practice under former Police Chief Harold Medina.

But an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman insisted there has been no shift in policy or practice since Medina’s successor, Cecily Barker, became chief in March.

APD announced Aug. 31 that the six officers were on leave with pay pending an internal affairs investigation. Agency spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the officers hadn’t yet been interviewed and offered no timetable as to when that will occur.

“I think it’s a little odd the department would make that statement without identifying the officers,” said Albuquerque attorney Thomas Grover, who represents officers accused of misconduct.

Since early 2025, nine APD officers, one Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy, two Albuquerque attorneys and a paralegal have pleaded guilty to federal charges ranging from racketeering to extortion.

When the FBI’s criminal case came to light in January 2024, Medina opened a parallel Internal Affairs inquiry into the allegations that multiple DWI unit officers dating back decades had been receiving money and gifts in exchange for failing to file paperwork or attend interviews or hearings on suspects they arrested.

In all but one case, APD has identified the officers who were targets of the internal administrative investigation and placed on leave.

“Maybe this is an indication that business is going to be done a little differently (under Barker),” Grover said. Medina retired from the APD on Dec. 31.

Grover in late July filed a lawsuit on behalf of former Internal Affairs commander Mark Landavazo, one of two supervisors who was identified by the APD as being placed on administrative leave in connection with the administrative inquiry. Both were later terminated, but were never charged in the scheme.

Landavazo’s whistleblower lawsuit contends he was unfairly targeted and used as a “scapegoat” by Medina.

Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, said he didn’t know the reasoning for not releasing the names but commented, “at the end of the day, we have a new chief now.”

Willoughby said, regardless of the why, he thought it was “tactically more appropriate” to not name officers who are pending an internal investigation and not criminally charged.

“I think the department has a long history of willy-nilly releasing names of officers when there’s just allegations,” he said. “We have always taken issue with the department on that.”

Asked to explain why the officers weren’t identified, Gallegos told the Journal that APD had previously named officers put on leave if they were deemed “Giglio-impaired” by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, which is overseeing the DWI extortion prosecution.

Currently, there are 17 former law enforcement officers linked to the DWI scandal on the list. Known formally as the Brady-Giglio disclosure list, it names law enforcement personnel deemed untrustworthy to testify.

When reminded on Wednesday that two APD Internal Affairs supervisors who weren’t on the list were publicly identified during Medina’s tenure, Gallegos responded, “The Giglio List is one reason we identified officers in the past.”

The two APD officers named were Gustavo Gomez, who was fired in March 2025 and Landavazo, who was terminated on Aug. 1, 2024. In the months preceding their departures, APD reported they had been placed on leave.

Asked why they were named, Gallegos told the Journal, “I don’t recall specifically, but I know there were concerns because they were both Commanders at Internal Affairs.”

In his state whistleblower lawsuit against the city, Landavazo contends he was “singled out” by Medina.

Landavazo was accused of short-circuiting a complaint relayed by an FBI agent in 2022 that involved a DWI offender arrested by one of the officers involved in the extortion scheme.

Landavazo, who had nearly 20 years with the APD, contends that after checking with his supervisor, he referred the FBI agent to the Civilian Police Oversight Agency. Medina has previously told the Journal that that the complaint should have been directed to his office.

Landavazo’s lawsuit states that Landavazo never saw the actual complaint to the FBI, but that he became the “focus of scrutiny, allowing leadership to include then-Chief Medina to deflect attention from systemic issues and shift accountability away from high-level decision-makers.”

The city hadn’t filed an answer in the lawsuit as of Friday.

Gallegos defended the APD as being “transparent by publicly announcing this update in its investigation and decision to place six officers on administrative leave during the investigation.”

The announcement occurred after what appeared to be a monthslong wind-down of the federal prosecution.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico hasn’t filed criminal charges in the case since January, when former APD Lt. Justin Hunt, a 21-year veteran, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion.

And it had been more than a year since APD’s last public statements about any administrative inquiry that was part of the DWI-scheme investigation.

Meanwhile, sentencing dates are still months away for those convicted in the scheme, including Ricardo Mendez, who handled the day-to-day operations by recruiting officers and soliciting and extorting clients to pay thousands of dollars for prominent defense attorney Thomas Clear III to get their cases dismissed.

There are no sentencing dates for the two principals in the case, Mendez and Clear, who has been disbarred.

The mystery behind an audio clip that helped upend a Senate race

Artificial intelligence tools increasingly allow political actors to fool voters — and help candidates cast doubt on reality.

By Liz Goodwin for the Washington Post

September 5, 2026

Late last month, left-wing firebrand Hasan Piker showed his Twitch viewers a social media post quoting a supposed audio recording of a Jewish American politician saying that the primary objective of his campaign was to aid Israel.

Piker displayed the post during a monologue on American Jews and Israel that has since roiled the Democratic Party and upended a U.S. Senate race in Michigan.

But even now, weeks later, it is still not publicly known whether the audio recording in question is even real.

The politician the audio is attributed to, Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D), has said the clip was manipulated or fabricated and “peddles in offensive tropes” about dual loyalty. Digital-forensics specialists who examined it for The Washington Post found no evidence that it was AI-generated or manipulated but could not establish who recorded it, whether the voice was definitively Moss’s or whether the excerpt had been stripped of relevant context.

That ambiguity has helped the episode fester and highlights how artificial intelligence tools can destabilize the information ecosystem voters rely on to make their decisions. Those tools have made it easier to imitate a person’s voice or likeness, while their very existence has also made it easier to dismiss potentially authentic material as fake.

The episode is still smoldering, with the party continuing to debate the line between antisemitism and opposition to the Israeli government, as well as the role of online influencers in elections.

Murky origins

The purported Moss audio took a particularly circuitous path.

The comments surfaced last November, when a user on a Reddit forum called TrackAIPAC posted a 25-second audio clip of a person identified as Moss saying that the entire purpose of his campaign was to ensure continued U.S. support for Israel. The speaker also says it’s not wrong for American Jews to want to put Israel first, because American Jews have been victims of antisemitism and the United States “is not our homeland.”

The recording wasn’t widely spread, however, until July, when Moss’s then-Democratic primary opponent in the race for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District posted it to her X account.

Weeks later, Moss addressed the recording publicly, calling it “manipulated and unsourced” political disinformation that “peddles in offensive tropes and lies” and contains “things I never did and never would say.” He wrote that circulating the clip was eroding democracy.

His statement did not address whether he believed the entire recording to be false or just parts of it.

The origins of the recording are murky. The group whose name matches the subreddit where they were initially posted, TrackAIPAC, said the subreddit where the comments were posted is an impostor and not affiliated with its group, which tracks and opposes the pro-Israel lobby.

Moss’s Democratic opponent, Aisha Farooqi, who posted the recording months later, said she could not share anything about the audio’s origins or who recorded it.

Another political group opposed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Independence Project, made its own post about the clip, appending misleading captions to the video claiming the speaker says Israel uses the U.S. as a “pawn,” which cannot be heard in the clip. That post racked up at least 1.5 million views on X. (TrackAIPAC’s official X account amplified the clip, as well, in July.)

Piker’s show

When the comments reached Piker’s show, on Aug. 20, he was being asked by a viewer how best to persuade fellow Jewish people at synagogue to oppose Zionism. Piker had displayed a social media post containing Moss’s alleged comments and started talking about the dangers American Jews face if the public believes Judaism is synonymous with support for Israel and its government’s actions.

“If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they’re singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action — not against Israel, mind you, but against American Jews,” Piker said.

Those comments drew rebukes from top Democrats as well as Republicans and sparked Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan who had campaigned with Piker, to distance himself from the streamer, saying Piker did not speak for him. Some of El-Sayed’s critics said he should have issued a stronger condemnation.

Piker’s stream also drew another denial from Moss, who told the Detroit News that the clip “is manipulated, either stitched and edited together or just a complete fabrication.” He linked the clip to a toxic political culture in which he had been personally targeted, including by a bomb threat on his home last year.

No evidence of AI alteration

Experts in detecting digital fakes who reviewed the audio clip told The Post they were not able to find evidence that the clip was altered by AI.

Hany Farid, a leading expert in digital forensics and chief science officer at GetReal Security, which detects deepfakes, analyzed the clip using the company’s model that is trained to distinguish real from AI-generated voices and found no evidence of AI generation. The audio does not sound as if it were spliced together, either, Farid added, and the clip’s metadata suggests it is an iPhone recording.

Henk van Ess, an investigator with expertise in detecting AI-generated content, said a commercial audio detection tool, Hive, did not flag that the clip as AI generated. A leading voice technology firm, ElevenLabs, said the clip was not made with their tool, he added.

The origins of the clip are unknown, however, and neither expert could authenticate the recording. AI detection tools are not 100 percent foolproof, and neither analyst performed a biometric match to confirm Moss’s voice.

A spokesperson for Moss declined an interview request. She did not answer whether Moss denies making specific statements in the clip, including that the entire purpose of his campaign was to ensure U.S. support for Israel.

‘Liar’s dividend’

The episode illustrates how AI-generated videos and other content in politics have made it harder for voters to know what to believe — a distrust that political actors can take advantage of in multiple ways.

At least one candidate for Congress, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin), has promoted an AI-generated video of his Democratic opponent calling voters “peasants” and herself “the anointed one,” which Democrats slammed as an attempt to trick voters.

And in 2024, a political consultant paid for an AI-generated robocall of Joe Biden’s voice urging Democrats not to vote in the Jan. 23, 2024, presidential primary. The consultant, who said he was only trying to raise awareness of the perils of AI, was ordered to pay a $6 million fine in the case.

The existence of AI can also benefit candidates who want to cast doubt on the authenticity of a damaging story, said Greg Bowen, a Democratic political consultant in Michigan.

“It’s now getting to the point where there’s controversies that pop up and it’s easy for people to dismiss them as fake,” Bowen said.

Politicians are increasingly doing so. Last month, Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) was captured on surveillance video rifling through a voter’s mailbox while door-knocking in his district. His office confirmed to TMZ the video showed Fine, but later, when asked by a reporter, Fine said he thought the video could be fake.

“It might have been an AI video,” he said.

President Donald Trump has also invoked AI to cast doubt on events, including when he told Fox News that images showing evidence of a U.S. strike on an Iranian school could have been faked.

Researchers have called this phenomenon a “liar’s dividend,” where politicians can distance themselves from a negative story with little downside.

Claire Wardle, an expert in misinformation at Cornell, said the difficulty people have in 100 percent proving that a recording is either authentic or AI-generated risks leaving voters feeling hopeless about finding the truth.

“This case is going to be repeated in every single congressional district in different ways, and it’s just making people say: ‘No, I can’t. I can’t be part of a process where I don’t have the certainty that I need to have,’” Wardle said.

Moss’s opponent in the congressional race, Troy Mayor Ethan Baker (R), said in a statement that the level of hatred directed at Moss about the recording is “unhealthy” and damaging and urged people to de-escalate their rhetoric. But he also said Moss should explain the comments that have concerned “many people of the 11th Congressional District,” saying his denials may have been referencing the inaccurate captions appended by one group to the recording online.

The recording’s other comments “have yet to be clearly refuted or explained,” Baker said.

Canada won’t be bullied by its biggest neighbor

This is a local op-ed published by the Journal from Jerry Pacheco, the executive director of the nonprofit International Business Accelerator. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or jerry@nmiba.com.

September 6, 2026

What’s the last country in the world that you think the U.S. would get into an uglier-bythe- day, insult-hurling, deepening trade war with? I think most of us would choose our North American neighbor, Canada.

Having been part of the former British Empire, Canadians and Americans share similar culture and history. Both countries have fought and died sideby- side in wars against aggressors.

Canadians send the U.S. entertainers such as Neil Young, Shania Twain, Leonard Cohen, Ryan Gosling and Keanu Reeves.

We send Canada MLB, the NBA and television shows such as “The Simpsons,” “Friends” and “The Office.” There has not been a nation so close to the U.S. both diplomatically and culturally. However, by reading the daily news, one would not guess that this is true.

In February 2025, President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada, even though most goods are supposedly protected from tariffs under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. Canada retaliated by imposing 25% tariffs on U.S. metal imports, and then on automobiles. This significantly decreased the purchase of U.S. automobiles by Canadians. In response, in April 2025, incensed at Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian automotive products.

As required by the USMCA treaty, a sixth-year review was mandated for July 1, 2026. The U.S. had been negotiating with Canada on parts of this agreement — but talks fell apart on Aug. 21.

The Trump administration then stated that it had “no choice” but to impose a 50% tariff on $20 billion of Canadian imports, including aluminum, steel, lumber and automotive components, starting Aug. 25.

Trump also vowed to impose a 50% tariff on Canadian automobile imports on Jan.

1. In announcing the new tariffs, Trump posted on social media, “Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years. They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US.” He also claimed that Canada had been unfair to U.S. dairy producers.

In response, Canada announced that it would pursue a dollar-for-dollar tariff strategy worth $20 billion on more than 600 U.S. imported goods, including appliances, cheese, milk, cream, toilet paper, tissue and wood pulp used to make these last two products. These tariffs will come into effect on Sept. 8. Canada also announced a $5.42 billion financial aid package for Canadian businesses affected by the trade war. Accompanying Canada’s new tariffs was an announcement by Canadian Minister of Industry Melanie Joly that the country is “also targeting products that will target states in the U.S. We’re being wise and strategic to put political pressure.” Canada is particularly targeting U.S. swing states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

What is really going on here? Canada is our second-largest trading partner, with U.S.-Canada bilateral trade worth more than $872 billion in 2025. The U.S. GDP was $30 trillion in 2025, while Canada’s GDP was $2.32 trillion. The U.S. exported $336 billion in goods to Canada in 2025, down about 3.8%, most of which is attributable to the tariff war. It is very hard to make a case that a country with a GDP less than 10% of that of the U.S.’s can be ripping us off. The U.S. is currently exporting almost $30 billion of products to Canada per month.

Canada does indeed impose some tariffs on U.S. dairy imports. However, to say that Canada is shutting out U.S. dairy products from its market is untrue. Canada did not change the average tariffs on U.S. dairy imports from Trump’s first term in office through the Biden administration. When the trade war started, dairy products did come under fire. However, the U.S.

Department of Agriculture recently reported that Canadian imports of U.S. dairy products have increased by 80% since 2020. Furthermore, it was reported that the U.S. sells double the number of dairy products to Canada as Canada sells to the U.S. This clearly indicates that exports to Canada are not the real reason for the trade war.

Trump seems genuinely agitated and surprised that Canada fights back when he picks a fight with them. Of course, Canada will retaliate — and this seems to trigger Trump to escalate the trade war.

Canadians are tired of being bullied and belittled by Trump, and the majority of Canadians do not want Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to back down.

Americans are weary of tariffs and their effect on inflation. American businesses are weary of the instability that tariffs today, no tariffs tomorrow, and tariffs again the next day are causing for their business planning and supply chains. For Canadians, the weariness doesn’t seem to have so much to do with tariffs, but rather with the disrespect and bullying that the U.S. has shown this long-standing ally and neighbor since Trump returned to office last year. Canadians have been willing to stop buying U.S.-made products even when no tariff exists. There are currently boycotts in several Canadian provinces preventing the stocking of U.S. liquor.

Canadian tourism is steeply down in popular tourist spots such as Miami and Las Vegas, Nevada.

While the U.S. economy is much larger than Canada’s and is poised to withstand a continuing trade war better than Canada, Canadians have an advantage over the U.S. in this spat: resolve. They are voluntarily choosing not to spend their money on U.S. products and entertainment — tariffs or no tariffs.

They are encouraging Carney to forge stronger trade relationships with other countries and become less dependent on the U.S. in the future.

In this sense, Canada can claim victory for having stood up to the U.S. Needless to say, Canada will probably be revered by other nations who have seen the U.S. impose tariffs on their imports for its actions in a war it didn’t start.

Meanwhile, the U.S. will have to figure out a way to end this latest war, since Canada, like Iran, apparently is not backing down.

Albuquerque umpire chases major league dream

Sandia grad returns home to call Isotopes-Rainiers series

BY GEOFF GRAMMER / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 6, 2026

They say an umpire never gets a home game. Tell that to the plate of green chile enchiladas Tim Barreras scarfed down earlier this week.

“Nothing beats mom’s green chile chicken enchiladas,” said Barreras, the 29-year-old Triple-A umpire, and Albuquerque native, working this week’s sixgame series between the Albuquerque Isotopes and visiting Tacoma Rainiers.

For the 2015 Sandia High School graduate, who went on to earn a civil engineering degree from New Mexico Tech, this week’s assignment in his home city is a first.

The son of former longtime Albuquerque Public Schools Athletic Director Ken Barreras and APS educator Deb Barreras, Tim Barreras and his younger brother, Joe, pretty much grew up around sports. Tim was a star on the Sandia baseball team and two-year starting quarterback for the football team. Joe, too, would later be a star Sandia athlete.

But going to college at New Mexico Tech, Tim’s sports life going took a little bit of a turn.

“They have some club teams and intramurals at New Mexico Tech, but no (varsity) sports there, so that was definitely an academic four years,” he said.

When it was over, he knew he wanted sports to still very much be a part of his life.

“I wanted to stay in baseball, but I couldn’t play anymore,” he said. “So I had to find a different avenue to stay on the field, stay involved.”

While he had done some Little League umpiring when he was in high school, and some high school umpiring after college, it was in 2022 when he took a big leap of faith — paying his own way to the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School in Florida.

From there, he was selected by Major League Baseball Umpire Development Staff to attend its advanced course, which then landed him a job as a professional umpire in Minor League Baseball.

Four years later, he’s already at the Triple-A level and has the same hopes as just about everyone he shares the field with each night.

“The goal is to be a Major League Baseball umpire,” Barreras told the Journal on Friday.

“There’s not really a number or timeline to put on it or anything like that. You progress up through the leagues, just like anybody else (including the players) on the field in professional baseball. And eventually, hopefully, you get your chance at the major league level.”

He says he’s lucky to be in the position he’s in — on a career path in a profession he loves with the solid foundation of a lot of good teachers and mentors in life along the way.

Can you hear me now?

As for his chosen career path being one that might rank in popularity only slightly above jobs like lawyer, politician or the dreaded journalist, Barreras says being the target of nightly ribbing from fans isn’t all that bad.

“You don’t have to listen to them if you don’t want to,” Barreras said.

Selective hearing, he points out, is nice to have.

On the field, anyway. “With my girlfriend, I better be — I mean I am listening to every single thing she has to say,” Barreras said.

On the road again

Barreras along with the other two members of his three-man crew this season — Steve Hodgins and Joe McCarthy, who also got to enjoy some always-appreciated non-hotel room nights this past week visiting the Barreras family — have one more game Sunday afternoon at Rio Grande Credit Union Field before hitting the road again.

For a Triple-A umpiring crew, which largely stays together for the entire season — spring training in March through season wrap-up in September — they follow the same schedule the teams do. That means Mondays off, then six-consecutive days of games, a different city every week.

Still, it’s a life he’s loving being a part of right now and one he wouldn’t shy away from encouraging others with an interest to pursue.

“You miss all of the opportunities that you don’t take,” Barreras said. “If it’s something that you’re passionate about, and really love the game and really want to get into it, I say take the shot.”

NM bans uranium mining on state lands

Executive order from outgoing State Land Commissioner Garcia Richard goes into effect immediately

BY JUSTIN HORWATH / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 6, 2026

Outgoing State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard on Friday announced a ban on uranium mining on state lands, a move she says will help stave off President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to mine the radioactive metal. But critics call the action largely symbolic.

Flanked by politicians and environmental advocates at a news conference in front of her downtown Santa Fe office, Garcia Richard said New Mexico has a “painful and long history as the site of the development of the nuclear bomb and as the largest producer of uranium ore in the United States’ history.”

“This history has negatively impacted countless New Mexicans, from Indigenous and local communities contaminated by nearby uranium production to the downwinders of the Trinity test site,” she said, referring to the first detonation of a nuclear bomb. “These New Mexicans have been overlooked by the uranium industry and the federal government for far too long.”

The executive order, which goes into effect immediately, has its critics.

“Banning something that doesn’t exist isn’t policy, it’s a press release,” Matt Thompson, a lobbyist and executive director for the New Mexico Mining Association, wrote in an email. He called legacy contamination from uranium mining a “real problem.” But he said the problem was created by mines that predate New Mexico’s 1993 Mining Act, which sets bonding and remediation requirements that future mining projects would have to comply with.

The executive order cites some of that history, including what it calls “one of the largest radioactive environmental disasters in U.S. history at the Church Rock mill site” in 1979, which resulted in the spill of 94 million gallons of radioactive material onto nearby lands and into the Rio Puerco. Numerous peer-reviewed studies have documented high rates of lung cancer and respiratory illnesses in New Mexico’s uranium mining population.

There are no active uranium mining projects on state land, Garcia Richard said. Garcia Richard, a Democrat, said the order is not connected to her campaign for lieutenant governor.

Rather, Garcia Richard said she issued the order in her final months in office — during which, for eight years, has not approved a uranium mining project on state trust land — for two reasons. One is pressure from the Trump administration to open up uranium mining. Secondly, there are two uranium projects with leases on state land. The leases expire in the 2030s, she said.

But she acknowledged that the executive order is not “legally binding.”

“We are putting this out there so that if a future land commissioner wants to mine uranium, they’re going to have to overturn this,” she said. “And we will be asking them why they … did not uphold this document.”

Juan De Jesus Sanchez III, the Democratic candidate for state land commissioner, wrote in a text message that he fully supports Garcia Richard’s executive order.

“When it comes to uranium mining, our focus needs to be on cleanup of the dozens of abandoned mines on state trust land and hundreds throughout the state, not more mining that harms our communities,” he said. Michael Perry, the Republican candidate, said that he considers himself an environmentalist and his “gut reaction” to uranium mining is to oppose it on state land. The State Land Office does “need to find a responsible way to replace that revenue stream in the future when oil and gas goes by the wayside,” Perry said.

“I really think we need to get the input from those local communities before we step all over them with any kind of decision,” he added. “I mean, this might be something that those communities need for gross receipts tax revenue.”

Elizabeth Bisbey-Kuehn, an environmental compliance manager with the State Land Office, said there are 50 abandoned uranium mines on state trust land. State officials are currently cleaning up four of them — remediation projects that cost the state up to $10 million each. Lawmakers have appropriated $20 million for uranium mining cleanup, she added.

Thompson, the mining lobbyist, said that “New Mexico currently has no commercial uranium production anywhere in the state, including on state trust land.”

Energy Fuels, a Lakewood, Colorado-based mining company that bills itself as the largest U.S. uranium producer, has a lease for its Roca Honda Project, northwest of Grants in McKinley County. The company says the project could produce up to 2.7 million pounds of uranium annually. The company did not return a request for comment. The state lands lease, signed in 2015, expires in 2030, a spokesperson for the State Land Office said.

Joey Keefe, a State Land Office spokesperson, said the other project’s lease, signed in 2018, expires in 2033. Laramide Resources Ltd., a publicly traded mining company based in Toronto, owns the Crownpoint-Churchrock project through its subsidiary Nufuels Inc., Josh Leftwich, vice president for operations and strategic development, wrote in an email. A section of that project is on state trust land.

Leftwich said the company believes Garcia Richard’s announcement “should be considered in the context of the significant effort now underway at the federal level to rebuild a secure domestic nuclear fuel supply chain.”

The Trump administration has called for the U.S. to start mining and enriching uranium again for national security purposes and to support the nuclear power industry.

“The United States remains heavily dependent on foreign sources of uranium, while the federal government has made rebuilding domestic uranium production and nuclear fuel-cycle capacity a national priority,” Leftwich said.

“We also recognize New Mexico’s difficult legacy from historical uranium mining.” But addressing “that legacy and considering responsible future uranium development do not have to be mutually exclusive,” Leftwich added.

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., cited the cancers and birth defects created by the mining as her reason for supporting the executive order.

Asked whether she opposes all uranium mining in the United States — and, if so, where the country should acquire its uranium — she said the U.S. should push renewable energy development. She said the U.S. needs to “find a way to make (uranium mining) safe.”

“When things go wrong, they go really wrong,” she said.

JOURNAL POLL: Proposal to pay NM legislators a salary has support, but many voters still undecided

Democratic voters more likely than Republicans to support proposed constitutional amendment

BY DAN BOYD / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL CAPITOL BUREAU

September 6, 2026

SANTA FE — A proposal to allow New Mexico legislators to be paid a salary is getting a positive reception among voters, a new Journal Poll found.

But more than one-third of voters said they have still not decided whether to vote for or against the proposed constitutional amendment — Constitutional Amendment 4 — when they head to the polls this fall.

In all, 39% of likely voters surveyed said they support the proposal to pay lawmakers a salary, while 21% said they oppose the idea. The remaining 40% of voters said they were undecided or wanted more details.

“It’s off to a good start in terms of likelihood of passing, but there are still a lot of voters looking for more information on this,” said Brian Sanderoff, president of Albuquerque- based Research & Polling Inc., which conducted the poll.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature narrowly approved the proposed constitutional amendment during this year’s 30-day session, sending it to voters. If approved, it would take effect in 2029.

Specifically, the plan would tie lawmakers’ pay to the state’s gross median annual household income, with future increases connected to inflation. That amount is currently set at roughly $67,800 per year.

New Mexico is currently the only state that does not pay its legislators a salary, though lawmakers do receive a per diem payment — currently set at $247 per day — for food and lodging expenses. They can also qualify for a legislative pension plan.

The proposed salary amount under New Mexico’s constitutional amendment would be higher than legislators get in neighboring states. Legislative salary levels in other states range from $100 per year in New Hampshire to $142,000 per year in New York, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Meanwhile, some senators argued during this year’s debate that the wording on the ballot measure is misleading.

Specifically, the ballot language will ask voters whether they support amending the Constitution to “allow legislative compensation that is limited to the median household income for New Mexico.”

That same phrasing was used in the Journal Poll question, in keeping with a longstanding tradition of using the same ballot language that will be presented to voters. The policy is intended to predict the election results more accurately.

A party affiliation chasm

The Journal Poll found Democratic voters were much more likely to support the legislative salary proposal than were Republicans.

Among Democrats, 49% said they would support the ballot measure, compared to just 13% who opposed. In contrast, only 26% of Republicans surveyed said they backed the proposal, while 32% expressed opposition.

That difference in view was not surprising, Sanderoff said, as Republicans generally tend to be more cautious about spending taxpayer dollars.

That partisan split also largely mirrors the legislative vote on the proposal, as most Democrats voted in favor and all Republicans but one cast “no” votes.

Independents, or voters who decline to affiliate with a political party, were more closely aligned with Democrats than Republicans on the legislative salary proposal, the Journal Poll found.

But nearly 40% of independent voters were still undecided on whether to support the ballot measure.

Meanwhile, educational attainment was another key predictor in the Journal Poll, as voters with a graduate degree were more likely than other voters to back the legislative salary plan.

Backers of the proposal have argued that paying legislators a salary would broaden the pool of who can run for the Legislature, while also making the state House and Senate more reflective of New Mexico as a whole.

But the timing of the ballot measure comes as several lawmakers are facing scrutiny over their actions.

Rep. Joseph Hernandez, D-Shiprock, recently announced he was suspending his reelection campaign after police reports and witness testimony linked him to a late-night disturbance at a Chicago hotel that involved him “running around naked” and pounding on hotel doors.

In addition, Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, is facing ethics complaints for accepting a part-time job at the local district attorney’s office despite a prohibition against lawmakers holding state offices or employment. She stepped down from the job this week but is not facing prosecution.

Methodology

The Journal Poll was conducted from Aug. 21 through Aug. 28. It is based on a statewide random sample of 516 voters who cast ballots in the 2022 and/or 2024 general elections, and a sample of adults who registered to vote since January 2025 and who said they are likely to vote in the upcoming election.

The total sample of 516 voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. The margin of error grows for subsamples.

The sample was stratified by race/ethnicity and county and weighted by party affiliation, gender and education level based on traditional voting patterns in New Mexico general elections, to ensure a more representative sample.

All interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers based in Albuquerque, with multiple callbacks to households that did not initially answer the phone.

Both cellphone numbers (96%) and landlines (4%) of likely general election voters were used.