By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s governor is promising universal free child care to families of all income levels.

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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced her plans this week, saying she wants to leverage a financial windfall from oil and gas production to help more parents by removing the state’s income eligibility limit starting Nov. 1.

Rules for the program are being hashed out and lawmakers still have to approve funding, but New Mexico already is several steps ahead of other states when it comes to subsidizing child care.

The latest initiative expands on previous early childhood education investments by extending access to another 12,000 children and making low-interest loans available to spur construction of new child care centers as demands surge.

Lujan Grisham says it’s life-changing for parents to have free child care, since it means more money can be spent on utilities and groceries.

Gaining traction

Americans overwhelmingly view the cost of child care as a significant issue, but there are deep divisions over what the government’s role should be in addressing it, mainly whether it should foot the costs.

Many states are limited in what they can take on as President Donald Trump’s administration cuts or freezes billions of dollars in education funding.

Lujan Grisham hopes the initiative stirs conversations beyond New Mexico.

“My hope is, as we watch elections take hold around the country, that our congressional candidates are talking about these investments, our gubernatorial candidates are talking about these investments” in child care, the second-term Democrat said.

The concept of free child care is being embraced by lawmakers including Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, through proposed tax hikes. Oregon’s most populous county ramped up its universal preschool program this year despite funding issues, and enthusiasm for early childhood education spawned the creation last year of a dedicated state agency in Illinois.

Footing the bill

New Mexico in 2020 began diverting surplus government income linked to surging oil and gas production to a trust for early childhood education. The balance is nearing $10 billion, with about $500 million in investment earnings being funneled each year to early childhood education programs.

The child care expansion will draw on those savings, some federal funding and a request that state legislators provide an additional $120 million annually. That’s a 26% increase over current spending of $463 million, Lujan Grisham spokesperson Michael Coleman said.

The Democratic-led Legislature has balked at entitlement programs before, repeatedly rejecting paid family leave requirements for the private sector. Republican lawmakers are concerned that the governor’s latest plan would result in a handout for wealthy families.

New Mexico in 2022 expanded eligibility and waived copayments for child care assistance to families earning as much as four times the federal poverty rate — about $128,000 for a family of four this year.

Paul Gessing, president of the libertarian Rio Grande Foundation in New Mexico, said it’s baffling that a Democratic governor would come to the financial aid of upper-income parents.

“We’re already doing this up to 400% of the poverty level — that’s a pretty decent amount of money to be making,” he said.

By eliminating the income cutoff, state officials aim to improve family financial stability, encourage participation in the economy and better prepare toddlers for school.

Hurdles

To meet increased demand, the Lujan Grisham administration says it will need more than 50 new licensed child care centers, 120 licensed homes that accommodate a dozen children and as many as 1,000 new registered homes that serve four children.

Child care slots already are in short supply across New Mexico. And attendance from low-income families declined as assistance expanded to higher income brackets, according to a review by the Legislature’s budget and accountability office.

There’s also little evidence that New Mexico children are better prepared for school than children in other states. The 2025 survey by the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranked New Mexico’s public education system last among 50 states.

The governor’s plan includes incentives to improve quality — raising hourly base pay for child care workers to at least $18 where excellence is demonstrated.

The universal child care guarantee will cover crucial infant and toddler years before and after children become eligible for public preschool — defraying average annual costs of about $12,000 per year.

Eligibility for child care assistance also will extend to grandparents who are in charge of grandchildren, often because of parents struggling with addiction, with no work requirement.

Associated Press writer Claire Rush contributed from Portland, Ore.

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

BOSTON (AP) — A U.S. appeals court panel on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood while legal challenges continue.

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A federal judge in July ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.

Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.

A provision in Trump’s tax bill instructed the federal government to end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer medical services like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah filed a lawsuit in July against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“While the Trump administration wants to rip away reproductive freedom, we’re here to say loud and clear: we will not back down,” Dominique Lee, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts said in a statement. “This is not over.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to an online request for comment.

Planned Parenthood said Thursday’s ruling means that more than 1.1 million patients can’t use their Medicaid insurance at its health centers. That also puts as many as 200 of those health centers at risk of closure, Planned Parenthood said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood says it is the nation’s leading provider and advocate of affordable sexual and reproductive health care, as well as the nation’s largest provider of sex education.

A Fridley man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday for last year’s fatal shootings of a woman, her son and husband. Prosecutors say he and his two accomplices pretended to be UPS delivery drivers to help them get inside the family’s Coon Rapids home and look for money.

An Anoka County jury on Aug. 29 convicted Alonzo Pierre Mingo, 39, with five counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in connection with the Jan. 26, 2024, killings of Shannon Patricia Jungwirth, 42, her son, Jorge Alexander Reyes-Jungwirth, 20, and her husband, Mario Alberto Trejo Estrada, 39.

Jurors found Mingo guilty of pulling the trigger in the killings of Jungwirth and Reyes-Jungwirth and aiding and abetting in the murder of Estrada.

All three were shot in the head, and the killings were caught by video cameras inside the home in the 200 block of 94th Avenue Northwest. Two small children, both under the age of 5, were also in the home at the time of the killings but not injured.

Alonzo Pierre Mingo, Demetrius Trenton Shumpert and Omari Malik Shumpert (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)

Also indicted in the killings are brothers Omar Malik Shumpert, 20, and Demetrius Trenton Shumpert, 32, both of Minneapolis. They face their own jury trials later this year.

Video shows Omari Shumpert repeatedly pistol-whipping Estrada before shooting him in the head after he fought back, prosecutors say.

Court records show that Estrada was suspected of drug trafficking and that law enforcement was on his trail in the days leading up to the murders. Afterward, investigators searched a Golden Valley storage unit that Estrada had rented under a false name and seized three bags of white powder, seven bags of psilocybin mushrooms, three bags of marijuana and a bag of meth, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Fake UPS delivery

Coon Rapids police were dispatched to the home just before 12:30 p.m. after receiving an emergency call that captured a female voice in the background of a possible domestic situation. All three victims were found dead inside.

Law enforcement learned a pole camera was mounted across the street from the house. It captured a navy blue Nissan Altima pull up and park in front at 12:21 p.m.

Jorge Alexander Reyes-Jungwirth worked for a Lakeville-based business trimming and removing trees. (Courtesy of Jack Heidelberg)

All men three wore clothing similar to UPS drivers. Mingo carried a cardboard box “as if he is delivering a package” and he and Demetrius Shumpert pulled out guns and forced Reyes-Jungwirth, who went outside to let out his dog, back into the home, the charges say.

Once inside, Mingo and the Shumpert brothers pistol-whipped Estrada at the front entryway.

Demetrius Shumpert forced Reyes-Jungwirth to lie on the ground face down. Video also shows the brothers pistol-whipping Reyes-Jungwirth, the charges say.

Demetrius Shumpert and Mingo then forced Jungwirth to open credenza drawers while demanding money.

After Estrada fought back and was shot, Jungwirth began screaming and crying and moved toward the back bedroom. Mingo followed her and shot her. Mingo then left the bedroom and shot Reyes-Jungwirth as he moved toward the front door.

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A crime alert was issued on the Nissan and Mingo was pulled over about three hours after the killings near his Fridley home. A UPS shirt and vest were inside a backpack, and investigators later learned that Mingo had been employed by UPS until earlier that month.

Cellphone records show the Shumperts and Mingo were at Demetrius Shumpert’s home together the morning of the killings, the charges say.

Demetrius and Omari Shumpert were arrested in Minneapolis 18 days after the killings.

CAPE MAY, N.J. (AP) — Humpty Dumpty took a big fall, and now police are hoping to crack the case.

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A playful, colorful statue of the nursery rhyme icon was forcibly removed from a structure at a miniature golf course in Cape May, New Jersey, on Sunday and dumped down the street.

Local police say they’re looking for two men who are seen on video stopping at Ocean Putt Golf at around 4 a.m. Video shows one of them entering the course by climbing over a fence, grabbing and rocking the statue back and forth and pulling it off its foundation before walking off with it.

The statue, showing a smiling Humpty Dumpty with big, white head, red cheeks, a yellow bow tie, a blue jacket and gray pants, was found several properties away. In a nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty falls off a wall and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put him back together again.

A message was left at a phone number listed for Ocean Putt Golf, whose Instagram page shows the statue above one of the course’s holes earlier this year.

Cape May police detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying the two men seen in multiple videos posted on the department’s Facebook page.