Thursday’s Top Stories
- Albuquerque police chief reflects on National Guard partnership as deployment ends
- Rio Rancho Public Schools names new superintendent
- Water managers push for funding to remove invasive plants from the bosque
- BernCo questionnaire for students and families who received healthcare at school
- New Mexico Attorney General holds meeting on oilfield theft
- $2.4 million project aims to improve safety at intersection on the Santa Ana Pueblo
Thursday’s Five Facts
[1] Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina announces retirement from department – APD confirmed morning that their police chief, Harold Medina, will be retiring on Dec. 31, 2025. Medina has spent the last five years as APD’s police chief. Medina is taking on a new role, “developing leadership programs for police chiefs across the country,” in January of 2026. Medina says he’s looking forward to enjoying more free time and getting into new work. Chief Administrative Officer Samantha Sengel will name the acting chief as the city conducts a national search for a permanent chief.
[2] Retired APD Officer takes guilty plea in DWI corruption scheme – Retired APD officer Timothy McCarson is the latest officer to admit in federal court that he conspired with a local defense attorney to get DWI cases dismissed. McCarson admits to conspiring with former defense attorney Thomas Clear III’s office and Clear’s former paralegal Ricardo ‘Rick’ Mendez to get DWI cases dismissed in exchange for cash and gifts. McCarson admits he purposefully failed to appear at an MVD hearing for someone he arrested for DWI at a sobriety checkpoint in 2015. McCarson also admits that in September 2021, he investigated a DWI crash and the driver hired Clear’s office, who, in turn, paid McCarson $5,000 to never file DWI charges against Clear’s client.
[3] Windy to start in east New Mexico & more record warmth – A stretch of record warmth continues across New Mexico and will stick around through early next week. A weak cold front will drop high temperatures a few degrees Thursday afternoon, especially in eastern New Mexico. This will be short lived with a breezy wind returning Friday. More places will break record high temperatures Saturday and Sunday. The record warmth continues into Sunday for the first official day of winter…