KWH Law Center

Head Start centers told to avoid ‘disability,’ ‘women’ and more in funding requests

Head Start Funding at risk by JFK and HHS

Source: NPR Some Head Start early childhood programs are being told by the federal government to remove a list of nearly 200 words and phrases from their funding applications or they could be denied. That’s according to recently submitted court documents. The list of words includes “accessible,” “belong,” “Black,” “disability,” “female,” “minority,” “trauma,” “tribal” and […]

New Mexico is first state in nation to offer universal child care

Source: Office of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham SANTA FE — Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department announced a historic milestone on Monday: New Mexico will become the first state in the nation to guarantee no-cost universal child care starting Nov. 1. This groundbreaking new initiative will make […]

Program offers metro students a chance to learn professional skills

Source: KOB4 – New Mexico ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A free summer program is giving students in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho a chance to sharpen their professional skills. “Usually in normal schooling, we don’t usually learn those things so Horizons is a really good opportunity for us to be able to learn those things,” student Tabitha […]

US surgeon general declares US gun violence an urgent public health crisis

Source: CNN Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis that demands urgent action, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared in a major new advisory that pushes for more research and stronger laws designed to reduce harm. It’s the first time a publication from the country’s leading voice for public health has focused on […]

Supreme Court rejects challenge to abortion pill accessibility

Source: NPR The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday tossed out a challenge to the FDA’s rules for prescribing and dispensing abortion pills. By a unanimous vote, the court said the anti-abortion doctors who brought the challenge had failed to show they had been harmed, as they do not prescribe the medication, and thus, essentially, had no […]

New Mexico housing price increases rank high in the U.S.

Source: KRQE News ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Across the nation, housing prices are on the rise, new data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency reveals. And in the last year, New Mexico ranked as the state with the 23rd largest increase in single-family home prices. From the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, New Mexico’s […]

Kim Kardashian to join Kamala Harris at White House to talk criminal justice

Source: CNN Kim Kardashian will join Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Thursday for a roundtable to discuss pardons issued by President Joe Biden earlier this month, a White House official said Thursday. Kardashian previously met with former President Donald Trump at the White House as part of her advocacy for criminal […]

Florida’s abortion amendment has enough signatures to make the ballot

Florida's abortion battle

Source: MSNBC The proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution must get past the Florida Supreme Court, which will soon hear oral arguments in a challenge from the state’s attorney general. Abortion rights activists in Florida have collected enough signatures for a ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, potentially setting […]

FDA approves first postpartum depression pill in the US

US FDA approves postpartum drug

Source: CNN The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the medication zuranolone for the treatment of postpartum depression – making it the first FDA-approved oral pill in the United States specifically for postpartum depression, a serious mental illness that can develop in about 1 in 7 new mothers after childbirth. On Friday, the FDA announced that the treatment, […]

It’s Giving Tuesday! Help Support KWH Law Center Advocate for the Community

Giving Tuesday gives people an opportunity to give back to their communities through small business, non-profit, and organizational support. Please support KWH Law Center this Giving Tuesday as we continue our fight for social justice and civil rights across the South and Southwest. Please join our fight and donate today.

Voting Rights are Everybody’s Rights

Source: National Action Network WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the civil rights leaders behind the March On for Voting Rights announced 146 partners joining the August 28th nationwide demonstrations to demand federal voting rights legislation. Stand Up America, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the League of Women Voters, Brady, and When We All Vote are among the dozens […]

Middle schooler fatally shot by fellow student in Albuquerque

Source: ABC News One student was killed by another in a shooting at a middle school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday. The shooting took place at about 12:45 p.m. local time between two male students during a lunch break outside Washington Middle School. Friday was just the third day of classes for the school […]

How security failures enabled Trump mob to storm US Capitol

Source: Al Jazeera Despite rumblings of danger, the Capitol Police force did not request advance help to secure the legislative complex. The bloody chaos inside the US Capitol on Wednesday came after the police force that protects the legislative complex was overrun by a mob of Trump supporters in what law enforcement officials called a […]

Giving abuse survivors a helping hand

helping domestic abuse survivors

Source: Albuquerque Journal A trio of credit unions have launched a unique program in New Mexico designed to help survivors of domestic violence find their financial footing when leaving their abusers. CU SAFE, a partnership among U.S. Eagle Federal Credit Union, Rio Grande Credit Union and Coast360 Federal Credit Union in Guam, began operating in […]

ASK Academy Senior organizes Gen Z vote rally

Galicia Monforte

Source: Albuquerque Journal ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Had you asked a year ago, many high school students might not have been inclined to think of themselves as politically engaged. Politically aware, yes. Gen Z youth – those born after 1996 – live online and swipe through data of the day in significant measure. But a year […]

Join Us to Celebrate 100 Years of Women Voting, Watch Here

The wait is over, and the day to celebrate the centenary anniversary of a woman’s right to vote is here. To kick things off, join us for a Toast to Tenacity today (Aug. 26) at 12 noon, with special guests Justice Shannon Bacon and Judge Shammara Henderson. Register to join the virtual celebration here. The […]

The pandemic and a broken unemployment system are upending people’s lives

Source: Washington Post The pandemic crept up on Lakeisha Rollins one text at a time. When the coronavirus hit the District in March, the 30-year-old was working at the Whole Foods Market on P Street NW, pulling items off shelves to fill online orders. Rollins, who is studying to become a nursing assistant, got a message […]

Record number of Black women are running for U.S. Congress

Source: Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Joyce Elliott, an Arkansas state senator who is seeking a U.S. congressional seat in November, was the second Black student to attend her local public high school; the first was her older sister. If elected in November, she will be the first Black lawmaker in Congress from Arkansas, ever. On […]

Celebrating 100 Years of Women Voting

Wednesday, August 26, 2020 – 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm The year 2020 marks the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote. Women throughout New Mexico and around the country will convene in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on our virtual stage on August 26, 2020 from […]

Complete Your 2020 Census Today, It Could Change Your Future

The U.S. 2020 Census is here, and every person counts. A complete and accurate count is needed to better provide for you and your community. “The census provides critical data that lawmakers, business owners, teachers, and many others use to provide daily services, products, and support for you and your community. Every year, billions of […]

What to Know About Pregnancy, Breastfeeding & COVID-19

Source: Centers for Disease Control (CDC) COVID-19 is a new disease and we are still learning how it spreads, the severity of illness it causes, and to what extent it may spread in the United States. Can COVID-19 be passed from a pregnant woman to the fetus or newborn? We still do not know if a […]

Use of genealogy website leads to New Mexico rape arrest

Source: Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — DNA evidence checked against a genealogy website led to a man’s arrest in a 2015 Albuquerque-area rape, Bernalillo County officials said. The arrest announced Thursday was believed to be the first in New Mexico resulting from use of use of a publicly available genealogy website, the Albuquerque Journal reported. […]

‘Not My Fault’: Women in Mexico Fight Back Against Violence

Source: The New York Times ECATEPEC, Mexico — Itan Flores was a young teenager when her first boyfriend imprisoned her for six weeks in a room furnished with just a mattress and a radio. He returned only to rape her, she said, often withholding food and water. She escaped when he forgot to lock the […]

US Stance at UN a Backward Step on Women’s Rights

Source: Human Rights Watch Trump administration threatens to veto Security Council Resolution on sexual violence. (New York) – The United States’ threat to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution on sexual violence in conflict because it mentioned women’s reproductive health services is another deeply cynical and cruel step in its assault on women’s rights in US foreign policy, […]