Alcohol believed to be a factor

One person was killed Sept. 17 after she was hit by a train near Fire Rock Navajo Casino at 249 Hwy. 66 in Church Rock, according to a police report.

At about 8:10 pm, Deputy Gabrielle Puhuyesva of the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to the area behind the casino in reference to two pedestrians hit by a westbound train.

“While walking from the front to the back of the train, I passed the conductor of the Amtrak train,” Puhuyesva recorded in the report. “The conductor advised that there were two victims.”

Puhuyesva wrote that a female victim, Chelsea Chavez, 24, of Borrego Pass, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Derrick...

The death penalty debate will be coming to the Legislature sooner than many expected.

Susana Martinez announced Sept. 20 that she will add the death penalty to the call for the upcoming special session, adding a contentious piece of debate to a special session that already promised to hold heated debates over fixing the state’s massive budget deficit.

Martinez still has not set a date for the special session.

“I will ask the legislature to reinstate the death penalty as an option for those who murder children and police officers, as well as correctional officers,” Martinez wrote in a statement on Facebook. “Those horrific crimes deserve the ultimate punishment.”

She says...

Attorney General Hector Balderas announced Sept. 21 that his office sent an investigatory letter to the makers of EpiPens.

The devices, which inject synthetic adrenaline through the brand-name injector to those suffering severe allergic reactions, have been in the news recently after public outcry about a massive increase in costs in recent years. The prices for the devices increased 550 percent in just under a decade.

The Attorney General’s office wants Mylan, the manufacturer of EpiPens, to provide his office information on EpiPens in New Mexico. Balderas is requesting how many such devices were sold in New Mexico in the last five years, how many schools take part in the...

A new survey says 50 percent of New Mexican registered voters approve of Gov. Susana Martinez’s job performance, according to a Morning Consult poll that looked at the approval ratings of all 50 governors. That’s compared to the 45 percent who disapprove.

Her approval rating increased from the last time Morning Consult released results, in May. At that time, 48 percent of New Mexican registered voters approved of Martinez’s job performance to 45 percent who disapproved.

Martinez has the 11th highest percentage of those who disapprove, and the 32nd highest amount of those who approve of her job performance.

Still, there’s a big distance between her rating and the top ten...