Here’s a look at today’s headlines:
Con Alma Health Foundation announced Tuesday $585,000 in grants to improve health in New Mexico. The state’s largest private foundation dedicated solely to health is providing four $50,000 grants and more than two dozen small grants to nonprofits in the state, including $12,000 to the Grant County Community Health Council to work with community partners in Luna, Hidalgo and Grant counties to continue to build the Southwest New Mexico Inmate Support Program in an effort to reduce recidivism.
The Silver City Woman’s club held its annual Holiday Luncheon on December 2nd. Those in attendance were treated to a holiday program by magician Christopher Mitchell, who performed magic and comedy tricks.
New Mexico public university presidents are urging the Legislature to extend extra funding from liquor taxes to a popular scholarship paid for mainly by state lottery proceeds. Supplementary scholarship funds from liquor taxes help New Mexico offset 90 percent of in-state tuition for more than 30,000 public university and college students. Scholarships would fall to 60 percent if the extra funding is allowed to expire in June.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Wednesday announced that the US Department of Agriculture will offer farmers and ranchers more opportunities to participate in the Conservation Reserve Program. The announcement includes new CRP practices to protect water quality and adds an additional 1.1 million acres targeted to benefit wildlife, pollinators and wetlands.
U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich joined 23 of their Senate colleagues in sending a letter to congressional leaders urging them to include strongly supported reforms to the foster care system in any end-of-year budget agreement. The Family First Prevention Services Act would allow states to use federal foster care funds to pay for programs that improve home life, such as mental health services and in-home parenting programs, which are crucial in light of the growing number of children in the foster care system whose families are affected by the opioid abuse epidemic and other substance abuse problems. The programs would enable more children to stay in their homes or with extended family and prevent children from being placed in group homes unnecessarily.
