Free Republic

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A “secret shopper” accountability study shows that medical patients can’t readily schedule appointments by phone through Medicaid providers in New Mexico, even as the state and federal government spend $8.8 billion annually on the health care program that serves nearly half of state residents. When primary health care providers were reached by phone, more than one-quarter were either not accepting new patients or had left the listed medical practice. The study found that patients who were able to connect with Medicaid care providers confronted waiting lists or appointment times that exceeded contractual requirements. The consumer-protection...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A statewide holiday on Election Day to encourage voting. Automated restoration of voting rights for ex-convicts. More time to distribute and count absentee ballots. Democratic lawmakers have a lengthy wish list in New Mexico as they seek to expand access to voting. Here are the key changes sought by Democrats and counterpoints from opponents. State Democrats want to increasing voter access by turning Election Day into a state holiday, closing public schools and nonessential government offices for the day. A monthlong period for early, in-person voting would be extended to the Sunday before elections, when...

As Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in two killings that he said were self-defense, armed civilians patrolled the streets near the Wisconsin courthouse with guns in plain view. In Georgia, testimony in the trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers showed that armed patrols were commonplace in the neighborhood where Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased down by three white men and shot. The two proceedings sent startling new signals about the boundaries of self-defense as more guns emerge from homes amid political and racial tensions and the advance of laws that ease permitting requirements and expand the allowable use of force....

SANTA FE, N.M. -- The governor of New Mexico ordered the withdrawal of the majority of the state's National Guard troops from the U.S. border with Mexico on Tuesday, in a move that challenges President Trump's description of a security crisis. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the partial withdrawal shortly before Trump's State of the Union address. Her Republican predecessor deployed National Guard troops to the border in April 2018 at Trump's suggestion, and 118 remained there before Tuesday's reversal. "New Mexico will not take part in the president's charade of border fear-mongering by misusing our diligent National Guard troops,"...