Protests such as this one, held earlier this year in Santa Fe, have helped define an anti-abortion movement that has gained political traction in recent years.
- Anti-abortion activists
- are facing criticism over some of their tactics
- ahead of a vote on a 20-week abortion ban. --- Most notably, comparing abortion to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany where millions of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and others were killed.
- The Anti-Defamation League’s statement said the protest trivialized the Holocaust by creating a “moral equivalency between the Nazis’ systematic murder of millions of Jews and others during the Holocaust with abortions.”
Tara Shaver, a spokeswoman for the local effort to enact abortion restrictions in Albuquerque, defended the comparison. She said there have been 50 million abortions in America since 1973. - The man recently revealed as former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici's grandson, Adam Laxalt,
- is considering a run for office in Nevada
- . Laxalt's grandfather was Paul Laxalt, who was a U.S. Senator from Nevada when Domenici's affair occurred.
- Media News:
- The
- Santa Fe Reporter has a new editor
- . Julie Ann Grimm, most recently from the Santa Fe New Mexican, will take over the helm from Alexa Schirtzinger.
- Schirtzinger is
- leaving later this month
- after being chosen for a prestigious John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship. As a way of disclosure, the Morning Word appears in the Santa Fe Reporter and I occasionally freelance for the paper.
- Arizona governor Jan Brewer
- will headline a fundraiser for the Republican Party of New Mexico
- .
- V.B. Price
- doesn't think that "Old Main," the old state penitentiary, should be turned into a "tourist attraction."
- He cites, as all opponents to the plan do, that it was the sight of one of the worst prison riots in United States history.
- To make some sort of tourist attraction out of the Santa Fe Pen would be rather like making a Halloween ride though the remains of a Gestapo torture chamber. It would trivialize reality so grotesquely that new shame would rain down upon us, undermining our state’s reputation, damaging our tourist economy and making a mockery of the terrible suffering that killed and afflicted so many in the riot of 1980.
- The Associated Press
- writes about how Albuquerque hopes more TV shows film here
- as Breaking Bad comes to an end.
- Breaking Bad
- saw very high ratings last night
- -- the highest of the show's existence.
- The state Public Education Department
- approved the plan by Santa Fe Public Schools on teacher evaluations
- .
- The state’s plan has drawn criticism from teachers and educators for its heavy reliance on student test scores.
Santa Fe’s plan also evaluates teachers based on how their students do on standardized tests, but Superintendent Joel Boyd said it is more fair. Half of the score is based on student achievement. Performance on individual Standards Based Assessments accounts for 35 percent of that share (the minimum required by the state), collective scores account for 10 percent and a student survey for 5 percent. The system uses three years of standardized test data. - A team from Los Alamos National Labs
- traveled to Japan to help with the recovery from the Fukushima reactor meltdown
- .
- The Daily Drought and Fire Digest:
- New Mexico
- doesn't have the tools to deal with drought
- , John Fleck writes.
- Last year and again this year, drought dropped the Rio Grande so low that Albuquerque resorted to pumping groundwater exclusively to meet our needs. Because the groundwater and the river are connected, every gallon we pump eventually reduces the Rio Grande by an identical gallon for future users in farms and cities downstream. The water isn’t free. We’re taking it from other users.
But our affluence is a buffer, at least in the short run. In the long run, with climate change depleting the region’s water supply, we should not take this for granted. But for now, as I rode past Altura Park on my bike Friday morning, I looked at the expanse of green and wondered, “What drought?” - KOB was at a wildfire conference
- and spoke to the Ruidoso fire chief
- .
- As for your front yard, remove all fire fuels from your yard, brush that ignites easily. The Ruidoso Fire Chief said if you don't do your part, they might not even help you protect your home.
"When something bad happens and we show up, are we going to make that stand on that property or are we going to go to that next property that has already taken care of their front yards,” said Vincent. - Tony Heller writes that
- drought is normal
- in New Mexico.
- U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce
- spoke to the Clovis News Journal
- about some issues, including immigration reform.
- Immigration reform we must do but my point is that amnesty or the Senate pathway to citizenship is not the only solution to the problem that’s the reason I suggested the guest worker plan. Many people who we talk to who are here illegally say they’re not much interested in citizenship that there mostly interested in working. So if we were to ask that question formally I think it would be 90 or 95 percent that would actually just say put us on a worker program. We just try to suggest something that would be good for the country and be a solution too as we definitely need to solve the problem.
- After years of decline, thanks to cheaper foreign exports,
- the chile industry in New Mexico has stabilized
- . But it is still well off the peak of the early 1990s.
- But not all is good for the industry.
- Hatch-area grower Jerry Franzoy said stricter immigration enforcement by federal authorities has cut down on the number of Mexican immigrants who cross into the United States and get residency status -- a pool of workers farmers have relied upon for labor-intensive chile crops. Franzoy said the shortage is worse this year for the chile harvest because onion harvesting has gone longer than usual.
"We're starting to feel it more and more," he said. "If something doesn't happen soon, we're going to be in trouble for picking chile," he said. - U.S. Senator Tom Udall
- revealed his plan to get breakthroughs from national labs and research facilities to the marketplace
- .
- “New Mexico is home to some of the brightest minds in science and some of the most innovative entrepreneurs. From a new ultrasound technology that can be used to screen for breast cancer, to a device that tests for biotoxins, our labs and universities are already a launching pad for exciting — even revolutionary — new products,” Udall said in a statement. “If we can harness that potential, New Mexico can lead the nation in high-tech innovation.”
- The Farmington City Council
- will oppose a haze-reduction plan at the San Juan Generating Station
- .
- A revision to the so-called "state implementation plan" for haze reduction at San Juan Generating Station near Waterflow mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was unveiled in October 2012 and calls for closing units two and three at the coal-fired power plant by the end of 2017. Selective non-catalytic reduction technology would be installed on the remaining two units in 2016.
- Meanwhile, the Albuquerque Journal reports
- PNM wants to replace the site with a natural gas plant
- and with some electricity from a nuclear plant in Arizona. Environmentalists want to see a shift to renewable energy.
- Despite denying charges of mismanaging the department, the Ruidoso Downs police chief "resigned, retired and was placed on paid administrative leave"
- according to the Ruidoso News
- .
- An environmental non-profit
- doesn't like a proposal for a range improvement project in the Carson National Forest
- .
- According to an environmental assessment prepared by the Forest Service, the proposed project would take place on 12,000 acres of sagebrush in Carson National Forest’s Canjilon Ranger District, in Río Arriba County.
“Increased bare ground has accelerated soil erosion,” the environmental assessment states. “Overall rangeland health is declining. Restoring sagebrush densities to historic conditions would increase plant productivity, health and vigor, increase ground cover, reduce soil erosion, improve wildlife habitat, increase species composition, increase forage production for livestock and wildlife, and improve watershed condition.” - The Bureau of Land Management
- is looking for public comment on a proposed potash mine
- .
- ICP’s plan includes an underground mine accessed by a shaft and a ramp, and processing facilities, including the ore process plant, dry stack tailings pile, evaporation ponds, water wells, pipelines, power lines, and a railroad load out facility, according to a news release issued by the BLM.
- Business and political leaders
- celebrated the state's aviation industry
- .
- Gov. Susana Martinez appointed Republican Benjamin Rawson
- to replace a Doña Ana County commissioner who is leaving for a job in Texas
- . Rawson is the first Republican on the commission since 2008. He is lso the son of former State Sen. Lee Rawson, also a Republican.
- New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Petra Maes
- will hold a pro bono presentation seminar in Farmington
- on August 20.
- New Mexico
- has improved on the error rate when it comes to food stamps
- , but it still stands above the country's average.
- The White Rock Methodist Church
- was vandalized
- .
