De Baca County News

The Senate’s approval of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act could soon give schools the option to serve whole and 2% milk again.

A long-running push to restore whole and 2% milk to school cafeterias took a major step forward recently, as the U.S.

Senate passed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act by unanimous consent.

If the House follows and the president sign the bill, schools would once again have the option to serve whole and reduced-fat milk alongside the fat-free and 1% varieties currently allowed. Supporters say this would better reflect what families buy at home and align school offerings with current nutrition science.

“Restoring schools’ option to offer whole and reduced-fat milk will mean more schoolkids will get the essential nutrients they need,” says NMPF president and

CEO Gregg Doud. “This commonsense legislation will help American children get back on solid nutritional footing.”

American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall echoes that message, adding broader implications for both students and dairy producers.

This is a win-win for kids and dairy farmers because the nutritional benefits of whole milk are now broadly known,” Duvall says. “By lifting the restrictions on whole and reduced-fat 2% milk in schools, kids have more access to important protein, calcium and vitamins. Because school milk accounts for almost 8% of fluid milk demand, it’s a significant market driver, too.” Michael Dykes, president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association, also weighed in, highlighting the broader coalition behind the effort.

“The long wait is nearly over.

We’re closer than ever to bringing whole milk back to schools. Today’s Senate passage is a watershed moment for children’s health and for the dairy farmers, processors, parents and nutrition advocates who have fought for decades to restore whole and 2% milk to school meals.”

The Senate measure is sponsored by senators Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Dave McCormick (R-Pen.) and John Fetterman, (D-Pen.). Senate agriculture chairman John Boozman (R-Ark.), and ranking member Amy Klobuchar (D-Min.), led the committee in approving the bill by voice vote in June.

Long road back

Whole and reduced-fat milk were removed from school menus in 2012 under nutrition standards set by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, aimed at reducing childhood obesity. At the time, schools were restricted to serving only fat-free or 1% milk, and flavored options had to be fat-free as well.

While intended to improve student health, the change coincided with a noticeable drop in school milk consumption and left children without the milk choices most families rely on at home.

Over the past decade, research has shown milk fat, from skim to whole, has a neutral or even positive effect on health outcomes, prompting nutrition experts and policymakers to reconsider the restrictions.

The shift in understanding has helped build bipartisan support for restoring school flexibility.

A similar measure passed the House overwhelmingly in 2023 but stalled in the Senate. With Senate backing now secured, supporters expect the House to act swiftly under the leadership of chairman GT Thompson (R-Pen.) and Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), who have championed the issue for years.

Potential market impact

Beyond nutrition, the bill could meaningfully shift dairy markets. In 2024, the National School Lunch Program served 4.86 billion meals, with about 85% of students choosing milk, roughly 4.13 billion half-pint cartons.

Redirecting even a portion of those servings to whole milk would substantially increase butterfat demand.

Farm Bureau economist Daniel Munch estimates if 25% of schools adopt whole milk, butterfat utilization would rise by about 18 million pounds annually under an all-skim baseline. At 50% adoption, that figure climbs to roughly 36 million pounds, and at 75% it reaches 55 million pounds. Even under more conservative assumptions, additional butterfat demand ranges from 13 million to 46 million pounds.

“A near-universal shift to whole milk could divert the equivalent of 45 million to 66 million pounds of finished butter into fluid use each year, based on the Federal Milk Marketing Order yield assumption that 1 pound of butterfat produces about 1.21 pounds of butter. That amounts to roughly 2% to 3% of total U.S. butter production, a significant reallocation of components from manufactured to beverage markets.

This shift would come at a time when U.S. dairy farmers have already answered the call for more butterfat and would help capture greater value from that production in a market that often struggles to absorb the surplus fat,” he writes.

If passed, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act could modestly tighten butter and cream supplies, increase Class I utilization, and lift overall blend prices.

As more milkfat moves into school milk, the market would see a subtle but meaningful shift in how butterfat is absorbed and valued.

Mike Smith
Artesia Daily Press

The Artesia City Council approved $500,000 for housing incentives during a special City Council meeting Monday, Dec. 15.

The money transfer is part of a housing incentive program which was matched with another $500,000 from Eddy County to encourage additional housing developments in Artesia, according to a report from the City of Artesia Facebook page.

The Eddy County Board of County Commissioners approved matching funds during that body’s Dec. 16 meeting in Carlsbad, meaning the Artesia incentives entailed $1 million total.

The incentives will be provided to developers in $10,000 payments per rooftop built in the city.

Along with the incentive money, Commissioners also approved funding for two Artesia housing developments.

All three appropriations were paid for by a $15.6 million fund to set aside to help fund housing projects in the county’s four municipalities: Artesia, Hope, Loving and Carlsbad.

A total of 240 lots for homes in a development known as the Park Place Subdivision would be built on Hermosa Drive, near Jaycee Park.The city of Artesia requested $4 million in county funds to buy the land, which would see the first 72 lots developed.

Construction was slated to start in mid-March 2026.

The second project, known as EOG Development, includes 340 lots near the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center with the county providing $2 million to purchase land and begin developing property.

The land is owned and operated by EOG, an oil company and the money would be used the purchase the land and complete an engineering study.

Voting districts changed

During Monday night’s meeting, councilors also placed two recently annexed properties into new city council voting districts.

Land on North Richey was placed into District 2 and the Paris and York area was placed in to District 3.

Residents living in those areas would be allowed to run and vote in the March 2026 city elections, according to the Facebook post.

“The new areas were annexed back in April. The process on Monday was to assign them to voting districts so that residents in those areas can run and vote in our city elections in March. Local elections have a huge impact on the future of our city, so it’s important that all our residents get to be part of that process,” said Burns. 

Councilors also voted to take no action on pending litigation after a closed session but declined to clarify what litigation was discussed.

Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 extension-2361.

Think New Mexico

A growing coalition of organizations from across the political spectrum supports New Mexico joining the interstate compacts for health care workers.

Joining these interstate compacts was one of the top reforms recommended by the nonpartisan think tank Think New Mexico in its 2024 report, How to Solve New Mexico’s Health Care Worker Shortage.

Interstate health care worker compacts are agreements among states to recognize and accept professional licenses issued by the other states participating in the compact.

Similar to the way that a person can hold a driver’s license from one state and legally drive in another, states that participate in an interstate compacts agree to recognize licenses issued to health care professionals by other states. Without these agreements, doctors and other health care workers licensed in other states cannot legally provide services in New Mexico – even via telehealth – unless they go through New Mexico’s lengthy licensing process.

States that join the doctor compact experience an increase of 10-15% in the number of doctors licensed every year, according to the New Mexico Medical Board. Forty-three states and D.C. participate in the interstate compact for physicians, including all five states that border New Mexico.

A growing majority of states also participate in compacts for psychologists, counselors, physical therapists, audiologists and speech therapists, physician assistants, dentists, and emergency medical personnel – all fields where New Mexico has shortages.

New Mexico is one of just four states that participates in one or no compacts. Meanwhile Colorado has joined all ten compacts; Utah is in nine; Oklahoma is in eight; Arizona is in seven; and even Texas is in five. During the 2025 regular legislative session, the House unanimously passed seven health care worker compacts, and Governor Lujan Grisham expressed her support for them.

Senate Republicans also endorsed joining the compacts. However, during the 2025 session the Senate Judiciary Committee killed six of the seven compact bills without a hearing, and killed the doctor compact by making 32 amendments. (Because compacts are agreements among states, all states must agree to the same terms in order to join the compact.)

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth pledged to consider the compacts for doctors and social workers during the 2026 session. However, there was no commitment to pass the other eight compacts, even though New Mexico has shortages across all those health professions.

For example, in order to meet national benchmarks, New Mexico needs 2,510 more EMTs, 526 more physical therapists, 281 more physician assistants, and 114 more occupational therapists, among other professions.

The state’s behavioral health care system has been in crisis for over a decade, with severe shortages of psychologists and counselors. The coalition of groups supporting the interstate health care worker compacts spans the political spectrum, including representatives of business, like the NM Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce, as well as labor unions AFSCME and the AFT. It ranges from progressive.

Indivisible chapters to the Coalition of Conservatives in Action. The doctor compact is supported by both the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

“Joining the interstate health care worker compacts unites New Mexicans all across the political spectrum,” said Fred Nathan, Jr., Executive Director of Think New Mexico. For more information, visit Think New Mexico’s website at: www.thinknewmexico.org.

Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press

Roads used to transport nuclear waste throughout New Mexico could be maintained using $20 million in federal funds.

The appropriation was included in the Senate Appropriations Committee version of the Energy and Water Development Act of 2026, published Nov. 25 by the committee. The bill funds water and energy projects at several federal agencies for fiscal year 2026, which runs from Oct. 1, 2025 to Sept. 30, 2026.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version, without the New Mexico road money, on Sept. 4 on a 214-213 vote. The Senate has yet to vote on its own rewrite.

The funds, if ultimately approved, would provide $20 million a year to maintain highways in New Mexico used to transport nuclear waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from federal facilities around the country.

The federally approved routes are also used to send empty trucks from the WIPP site, about 30 miles east of Carlsbad, to its generator sites where the waste is packaged and loaded for transport to the disposal site.

At WIPP, the Energy Department disposes of transuranic nuclear waste (TRU), which is clothing materials, equipment and other debris irradiated during nuclear activities.

The waste is buried at WIPP in a salt deposit about 2,000 feet underground. The salt gradually collapses on the waste, burying the refuse and blocking radiation from escaping.

But to get the waste to the WIPP site, the department sends trucks along its approved routes into New Mexico on east-west Interstate 40 and north-south Interstate 25.

U.S. Highway 285 connects to the interstates at a junction near Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico, heading southeast toward Carlsbad. Another, shorter section of U.S. Highway 128 can carry waste to the WIPP site west from New Mexico’s southeast border with Texas.

Under the Senate version of the appropriations bill, those four roads could be maintained using the funds via projects agreed to by the state of New Mexico and Department of Energy.

A report filed by the Senate Appropriations committee with its version of the bill explained the federal government provided the money for the roads to New Mexico for fiscal years 1999 to 2012 under the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act.

The funds were cut off at the end of the 14-year period and were not extended, read the report.

Meanwhile, the committee noted, 59% of WIPP roads were rated in “fair” or lower condition by the Department of Energy in a 2023 report, with 21% of the roads receiving a “poor” grade

“The Committee continues to recognize the importance of well-maintained roadways throughout approved transportation routes for promoting public safety and safe transportation of transuranic waste to the WIPP,” the report read. “The deteriorated roadway conditions near WIPP pose a safety risk to both WIPP staff and transuranic [TRU] shipments.”

Carlsbad Mayor Pro Tem JJ Chavez said local leaders lobbied Congress “for years” to resume the road funding. He said that in the past the funds were appropriated annually and that he hopes the 2026 appropriation will be similarly extended.

“The shipments still pass through those roads, and we still need the money,” Chavez said. “This makes the roads safer not only for WIPP, but for the entire state of New Mexico. Everybody benefits from this.”

Chavez also works as a Mine Safety Health Administration compliance manager at WIPP, and serves as vice chair of the Energy Communities Alliance, a national group of local officials from communities that host Department of Energy projects such as national laboratories and other facilities.

Chavez said supporting WIPP’s roads was crucial to maintaining safe disposal of nuclear waste, to the benefit of all federal nuclear facilities in the U.S., namely Los Alamos National Laboratory.

New Mexico officials recently pressured the federal government to clean up nuclear waste at Los Alamos left over from the Cold War, adding a clause to WIPP’s 10-year state operations permit renewed in 2023 to prioritize such waste. This came as the lab was being prepared to increase the production of plutonium pits – triggers of atomic warheads – in a national effort to modernize the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

“It helps us get the waste off Los Alamos,” Chavez said. “As soon as they (Los Alamos) call with waste ready, we respond. This ensures that those roads are safe.”

Jack Volpato, who chairs the Carlsbad Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force and has for several years lobbied for the needs of WIPP in state and federal government, said a crucial part of the funding language prohibits state officials from sweeping the money for other needs.

He estimated it costs about $1 million a mile to repave the roads, meaning more will be needed than the single appropriation for FY 2026.

“It’s a caveat that the state of New Mexico can’t move it anywhere else,” Volpato said of the funding. “I’m hoping we can get a recurring authorization. It will help us make sure the roads are safe and properly maintained.”

Volpato further argued the funding would serve a dual purpose in New Mexico’s southeast corner, where highways are heavily trafficked by the booming oil and gas industry.

“It’s good for the local community, good for the state of New Mexico and good for the WIPP site,” Volpato said. “Those roads really get a pounding.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

Sarah Rubinstein
Artesia Daily Press

Step back in time with inn’s 1975 menu

Mark Chino has fond memories of a steak dinner at The Inn of the Mountain Gods in 1975. He did it again Tuesday night – another New York Strip sirloin steak at Wendell’s restaurant, another $9.75 tab.

Chino, 71, was one of 400 diners who helped the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino close out a yearlong celebration of its 50th year in business with a 1975-priced meal.

He has a special connection to Wendell’s Steak & Seafood, originally known as Dan Li Kå Dining Room but renamed 20 years ago in honor of Chino’s father Wendell Chino.

Wendell Chino was a longtime leader of the Mescalaro nation, and led development of the eesort and casino, which is owned and operated by the Mescalero Apache Tribe.

The Resort and Casino’s chief operating officer, 43-year-old Frizzell J. Frizzell Jr., said he conceived the 1975 retrospective as an ideal way to commemorate the resort’s half century of success.

To get the idea off the ground, he tracked down the long-abandoned 1975 Wendell’s Steak and Seafood menu on eBay – and shelled out $80 to buy it.

“This whole year what we’ve done on the second Tuesday of every month, we serve the original 1975 menu at the 1975 prices as an appreciation to our guests for coming 50 years and supporting Inn of the Mountain Gods,” he said. “So, people are literally getting $400 meals for $75.”

The steak that cost $9.75 in 1975 is called a New York Striploin on Wendell’s current menu and sells for $65. A side of broccoli cost $1.25 in 1975 and now goes for $12. An appetizer of a dozen oysters was priced at $6 in 1975. Today’s price: $78.

When Executive Chef Brendan Gochenour heard Frizzell’s idea for a 50-year menu price rollback, he said he considered it his duty “as steward of this place” to challenge the plan.

Frizzell’s response, according to Gochenour: “I want to give back to the community for supporting us these past 50 years. It’s a way to honor our heritage and the start of all of this.”

Gochenour watched as the unique celebration sparked a buzz throughout the community. When the specially priced servings were launched last January, reservations started pouring in and were completely booked until October. On Dec. 9, the final night of the promotion, Wendell’s had 402 reservations.

Ruidoso native Gochenour, 56, calls the original menu “a culinary time capsule” that brought back classic French “comfort food,” dishes he was trained on in the 1980s.

The biggest challenge he faced, Gochenour said, was working with older recipes. One offering, pickled herring, was impossible to find, so he decided to create it in-house. His favorite dish to cook, he said, was the Sweet and Sour Shrimp Oriental Style.

Angel Saiza, who worked as a dinner cook at Wendell’s from 1975 to 1978, remembers cooking this exact menu. Saiza learned the trade under John Fyre, who was executive chef at the time.

“He taught us all of the names of food that we never experienced before,” he said.

Former tribe president Gabe Aguilar, 49, who has enjoyed the 1975 dinner special three or four times this year, said he and his family have many special memories related to Wendell’s restaurant.

“When we were kids, we were waiters. All the kids we grew up with were serving, bussing in there,” he said.

More than just a good deal for guests, the unique menu offering allowed the Apache tribe to celebrate how far the resort has come. The resort originally had 134 rooms and now accommodates around 273 guests.

“Where in the United States or in the world are you going to get a pound of king crab legs for $11.50 right now?” asked Alan Kirgan, the resort’s food and beverage director for the past 16 years.

Kirgan, 56, said he’s proud of bringing the Apache culture to everything at the resort, including the serving of Native American beef.

“We try to represent Mescalero in quite a few of our dishes,” Kirgan said. “We try to bring that rustic and homey feeling.”

The resort employs about 70% of the tribe, Kirgan said. It is the second largest employer in Otero County, following Holloman Air Force Base. He said the anniversary signals 50 successful years of strengthening the tribe’s economy while preserving its cultural heritage.

“It’s a symbol of pride for our Mescalero people, our tribal members, because it was really the first major economic project that the tribe undertook in the tribe’s history and it started many people on their way to financial independence,” Chino said.