By Julia Goldberg | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning, folks. Happy Monday. Another hot week awaits, with the National Weather Service forecasting record temperatures in some portions of the state today. We started the day reading about the heat waves hitting the rest of the world, but it made us feel hotter so we switched to reading about ice cream. We have plenty for you to read below (no ice cream stories, though), and much more on the way at sourcenm.com. Stay cool and thanks for being here.
Glen Canyon Dam holds back the waters of Lake Powell near Page, Arizona, on Feb. 2, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Feds to impose new cuts on lower Colorado River states amid climate-fueled megadrought
The federal government on Friday formalized a set of guidelines for managing water use in the Colorado River Basin over the next decade, if the seven Western states that rely on it — including New Mexico — can’t come to an agreement on how to deal with declining flows caused in large part by climate change.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham joined lawmakers, cabinet officials, children and childcare providers on March 10, 2026, to sign her free, universal childcare initiative into law. New Mexico is the first state in the U.S. to offer such a program. (Photo by Joshua Bowling/Source NM)
Many states expanded care for children, older adults and workers
Many states have made marked progress over the past two years in extending crucial care and benefits to children, workers and aging adults. But they will be hard-pressed to fill the void left by impending federal cuts to social services, according to a new analysis. New Mexico ranked 13th among states in the Century Foundation and Caring Across Generations’ report, receiving a C+ grade as it did in 2024. However, the state did excel in several categories, particularly child care and early learning.
Aerial photos taken on June 26, 2026, show the construction site for Project Jupiter, the Oracle and OpenAI data center project planned for southern New Mexico. (Photos courtesy of Alexa Reynaud, Food & Water Watch, with aerial support provided by LightHawk)
Hearing for Project Jupiter data center’s air quality permit application rescheduled to September
A public hearing over whether the New Mexico Environment Department should issue an air quality permit for the controversial Project Jupiter data center is being rescheduled to September, according to newly filed documents.
The New Mexico Environment Department recently filed a motion to postpone rulemaking on worker heat safety to early 2027. (Photo by Danielle Prokop/Source NM)
New Mexico environment officials propose another delay on heat safety protections for workers
The New Mexico Environment Department has proposed delaying the process to create and adopt rules aimed at protecting workers from heat-related illness and injuries to early 2027. Environmental advocates lamented the delay, Source’s Joshua Bowling reports, and pointed to the region’s recent bout of triple-digit temperatures as evidence that workers need heat-related protections as soon as possible.
ICYMI
Thanks for reading!
We're reading about the new Hatch chile-inspired Nikes.
Thanks for reading Direct From the Source. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.