Winners
87508
Running Santa Fe through the New Mexico Sex Offender Registry, SFR discovered that close to 70 sex offenders call the City Different home. Breaking it down by zip code, it turns out that bulk live in the 87507, 87506 and 87501 areas, while the 87508 area only has three registered sex offender residents: a convicted child molester, a convicted rapist and another individual convicted of "aggravated indecent assault."
The kids
Is it insensitive to use the term "pork" and "police" in the same sentence? Well, the wordplay is hard to ignore: In a press release dated Sept. 16, US Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, took credit for a $1.05 million appropriation from the US Department of Justice to support the New Mexico Sheriff and Police Athletic League, which pairs cops with troubled kids and uses sports and recreation to get the kids shootin' hoops rather than, you know, each other.
Drunk drivers
According to the Santa Fe County Sheriff Department's "Hotsheet," on Sept. 18, a thief stole ignition-interlock devices from two cars parked on Camino Tierra Real. The sheriff's office reported no suspects, and it's currently unclear why anybody would want the devices. Nevertheless, if there is a serial interlock thief on the loose, that's a good excuse for drivers convicted of DUIs to make their own interlock devices disappear.
Losers
Appellate Court Judicial Nominating Commission
The ACJNC will have its hands full in October as it reviews applications for a total of three vacancies on the 10-member New Mexico Court of Appeals, the state's second-highest court. The first vacancy opened up on Sept. 17 with the retirement of Judge Ira Robinson. The next opens on Nov. 1, with the resignation of Judge Lynn Pickard. The third opens Jan. 1, with the expiration of Judge Joseph Alarid's term. The deadline for applications is Sept. 26 and the evaluation process begins Oct. 16.
Taxpayers
According to the National Priorities Project (nationalpriorities.org), New Mexico will lose almost $393 million to pay for Pres. George W Bush's tax cuts for the richest 10 percent of our nation in 2009. That money, by the project's calculations, could have funded more than 10,000 new public-safety officers in the state of New Mexico, or the equivalent of one more officer per five residents.
The Polite Robber
As Santa Fe's judges complain about how overloaded they are with case work [see Pop Quiz], it's actually the pre-trial suspects who feel the worst of the wait. For example, John T Abraham, aka DJ Fido and "The Polite Robber," who was arrested in April on suspicion of holding up a half-dozen store owners at knife point, will have to wait until January for even jury-selection in his case to begin. Abraham faces three counts of robbery, three counts of aggravated assault and another 21 counts of forgery related to writing checks in someone else's name.