Morning Word: BernCo ordered to issue same-sex marriage licenses

State Representative Brian Egolf, an attorney who represented a same-sex couple in Santa Fe, has petitioned the Supreme Court to step in and consolidate all the lawsuits. He says that would remove the need for the appeals process and would result in a statewide opinion.

"Otherwise, we have the risk of different decisions for different counties," he said. "That's not good for the people of the state and that's not good for people who want to get married. It's not fair to have different rules county by county."

"The FBI crime rate in the last three years is the lowest FBI crime rate that the city has seen in the last 20 years," Mayor R.J. Berry said.

"Crime is up and Mayor, the FBI says it's up," said Democratic challenger Pete Dinelli.

But Republican and retired Sgt. Paul Heh took things a step further.

"I was a cop for 25 years and the mayor wants to say that the crime rate is going down? Ask a cop that works the streets," Heh said. "I have to call bulls**t, Mayor, I don't know any other way to say it."

One audience member took the microphone to ask the candidates a question, only to declare that, although he usually contributes financially to Berry’s campaigns, he won’t have to this time, presumably because the challengers are so weak.

It could take as many as four months for the IRS to approve a new fiscal agent for the group, Martínez said, during which time they would be unable to draw funds from government grants.

“We have not asked anyone to leave,” Southwest Behavioral Health Services CEO Jeff Jorde told The Taos News, adding that he was not informed of TeamBuilders’ role as a fiscal agent during the management overhaul.

He said he would use the treasurer's office as a "bully pulpit" to push progressive economic policies. He pointed out that the treasurer is the only state official to sit on all state economic boards and commissions — such as the state Board of Finance, the state Finance Authority and the State Investment Council — which means the treasurer has influence in several areas dealing with economics.

Willens said nothing was done improperly, but Pearce wanted to recover the money to exercise “abundance of caution.” Pearce, above, of Hobbs, represents southern New Mexico in Congress and is seeking re-election next year.

“Things were happening so fast, I didn’t know what was happening,” Salazar recalled.

Indeed, word about Singleton’s order traveled so fast Friday, Salazar said, that members of the public knew about the order before she did.

Salazar said that when she arrived at her office Friday she had no idea that Singleton had issued the order late Thursday. Then she started receiving calls from the media and the public asking whether she planned to begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples.

The deal lets the groups, led by Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, store water in Abiquiu Reservoir on the Rio Chama. It creates the opportunity for the groups to buy water from Rio Grande Valley farmers, using the water to support environmental flows in the river during drought conditions, said Jen Pelz, head of WildEarth Guardians’ Wild Rivers Program.

Martah Alondra Lozano, a former temporary human resources employee for the city, entered the plea in 3rd Judicial District Court as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

Under the arrangement, Lozano, who has moved to San Antonio, Texas, will be under one year of unsupervised probation. In exchange, she'll be called upon to testify truthfully in related public corruption cases involving former Sunland Park officials and employees.

Personal news: Sept. 12 will be my last day at the @ABQJournal -- nearly 10 years after my first.

— Jeff Proctor (@cjproctor74) August 26, 2013

San Juan County commissioners last week sent a letter stating that closure of Four Corners Power Plant could cause a chain reaction that would "decimate" the economies of the Navajo Nation and the county and cost "literally billions" to area and state economies.

The 2,040 megawatt coal-fired power plant and neighboring Navajo Mine west of Farmington employ more than 800 workers and support a network of local contractors and ancillary businesses.

Another person pointed out that if the nearby wells are shut down, the contaminants will just get drawn into the other wells over time. Mr. Evans acknowledged that if additional wells have to be shut down, Albuquerque could lose as much as 30% of its underground drinking water.

Hinton, the chair-elect of the American Hospital Association, started with Presbyterian in 1983. He made the 100th spot in the magazine’s list.“I’m humbled to appear on this list and know that my association with a great organization like Presbyterian is the reason for this recognition,” Hinton said.

I, on the other hand, am deeply saddened at the prospect of possibly having to attend twice as many weddings. I’m too fat for my suit, it’s hard for me to stay awake and Target is running low on those pizza pans with the holes in the bottom. But at least from this day forward, “gay marriage” will mean the union of two people who love each other just as much as any two other people do, or as much as any two other people ever did. Rather than just my wife’s whispered critique of some straight couple’s melodramatic wedding vows. (Hi, Honey!)