Morning Word
Wow, it's already just about halfway through June.
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It seems like just yesterday that we were talking about the primary results. And, well, we are still talking about the results in a couple of races.
These include the Democratic primary in Senate District 30, where there is an update in the Word from the Maxine Velasquez campaign.
And, of course, there are still those fires that are still raging in southern New Mexico. It would be nice to have those monsoons come through -- without the lightning that, spectacular as it may be, would be very dangerous in these very dry conditions.
On to the Word:
- U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce has been outspoken about blaming federal officials for not dropping water on the Little Bear fire before it became a massive wildfire. Turns out, Pearce was asking them to do something very dangerous.
- "The question has come up, why wasn't water used, why wasn't a bucket drop used," [Ruidoso Police Chief Joe Magill] said. Because of the elevation of the fire, 10,500 feet above sea level, helicopters were unable to respond with standard equipment, he said.
[...] The judgment call on safety was left in the hands of the experts, the pilots, he said. "They tried to get off the ground and they just couldn't do it. Quite frankly, we've had some tough weather days up there." - Sometimes the best off-the-cuff soundbites are end up being very uninformed statements.
- Officials have the Whitewater-Baldy fire
- more than halfway contained
- . It sits at 280,000 acres burned.
- An update on the Senate 30 race where when Cibola County finished their canvassing, Clemente Sanchez led Maxine Velasquez 1833 to 1824.
- “We won on election night, they won tonight, but there is still a long way to go until the recount on June 26th," Velasquez said. "I feel confident we’ll come out on top in the end." Yup, a recount is acomin'.
- Steve Terrell writes about
- the fallout of the Public Education Department creating a list
- for Gov. Susana Martinez's political adviser.
- "This just goes to show that there are special rules for special people," Gwyneth Doland, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said Wednesday.
[...] On Wednesday, Behrens said, "I don't believe responding to requests is treating anyone special. It is part of my job." - As a way of disclosure... Doland is my former editor at the New Mexico Independent and a personal friend. Behrens also wrote for the Independent for a short time.
- Organizers in the Land of Enchantment (OLÉ) Education Fund will have a 20-foot-tall inflatable Big Oil Fat Cat near the Phillips 66 station at Carlisle in I-40 in Albuquerque.
- KUNM is "considering the Endangered Species Act and its affect on the wildlife, and people, of New Mexico." Monday, they
- spoke about the Mexican Gray Wolf
- .
- New Mexico may be able to cash in on power companies
- increasingly looking at renewable energy sources
- according to the Mountain View Telegraph's report on the Renewable Energy and Transmission stakeholders luncheon at the Moriarty Civic Center.
- The New Mexico Broadcasters Association announced the winners for its
- 2012 Excellence in Broadcasting Awards
- .
- Martinez wants to make it easier for
- local governments to ban fireworks during an extreme drought
- .
- State law allows local jurisdictions the power to restrict the use of fireworks and to ban certain fireworks during droughts. However, local officials must hold a public hearing and issue a proclamation for a ban at least 20 days before a holiday for which fireworks can be sold.
- Every summer, you see a slew of local governments outlawing the fireworks before the 4th of July. For example,
- Santa Fe County
- . But Farmington won't be able to because
- the drought isn't considered bad enough there
- .
- The AP reports on
- more horse racing woes
- .
- The Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed the New Mexico Gaming Control Board's 2010 decision to nullify a license for electronic slot machines at a track casino that never opened.
The board revoked the license for La Mesa Racetrack and Casino in Raton because developers failed to open the casino by May 2010 and didn't show they had adequate financing to complete the racetrack. - To say that 2010 has been a bad year for the horse racing industry New Mexico would be an understatement. The New York Times has highlighted the high amount of deaths and injuries at some New Mexico tracks and Ruidoso was recently the site of a raid by federal authorities on a horse racing operation tied to a Mexican cartel.
- The Santa Fe Reporter (where you very well could be reading this feature) wrote about
- what Santa Fe could learn from Detroit
- when it comes to economic and cultural redevelopment.
- But while the city’s overall population declined by 25 percent between 2000 and 2010, during the same period, downtown Detroit reaped major gains in a category that Santa Fe might envy: a 59-percent increase in young professionals under 35.
Santa Fe’s share of residents aged 20-35 declined from 19 percent to 16 percent during this past decade. In order to cope with the influx of a younger workforce, Jeff Aronoff created D:Hive, a community and business hub in downtown Detroit that serves as a one-stop shop for young people in the city. As executive director, Aronoff assists them with job, housing and quality-of-life resources. Like many of Detroit’s other economic development initiatives, D:Hive, which formally launched last month, is funded primarily by a grant from a local foundation (in this case, a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the Hudson-Webber Foundation). Foundations, supported largely by money from the once-booming auto industry, are still a mainstay in southeast Michigan. - Interesting read.
- Former Governor Gary Johnson will be on KNME's Report from Santa Fe.
- “Look, we want to end the wars now. We want to bring home our troops from Afghanistan. We want to balance the federal budget now. We need to reform entitlements now. We want to repeal the Patriot Act. We want to bring an end to the drug war. Marriage equality is a good thing," he says according to the press release. "I am socially tolerant and I am fiscally responsible. I am the average American. I want to be represented.”
- Count these among the things
- I didn't know about the annual Pork & Brew event in Rio Rancho
- (which, admittedly, is a lot):
- Pork & Brew is a sanctioned Kansas City Barbecue Society event, one of the top 10 events on the society’s calendar, according to the convention and visitor’s bureau website. With more than 20,000 in attendance last year, Pork & Brew has become one of the largest events in New Mexico. Winners go on to participate in Kansas City, Mo., at the nationals.
- If you want to fill up on barbecue and beer, it will be July 6-8 in the parking lot of the Santa Ana Star Center.
- Oh, hey, news from Sunland Park (which
- still
- doesn't have a mayor). The
- Las Cruces Sun-News
- :
- Former Sunland Park mayor hopeful Gerardo Hernandez's appeal won't be tossed out, in spite of a request by the city to do so, a state judge decided Wednesday.
Also, District Judge Manuel Arrieta decided that indicted former Mayor-elect Daniel Salinas and sitting City Councilor Jessica Avila should be formally added to the case. They hadn't participated up until now.
