It seems like this month just flew by. I spent the first two weeks out on my trip, doing some freelance work. --- Now, the notoriously slow-news month of August is coming. Things may open up in the Albuquerque mayoral race, with the election in October, but even that may not happen for a few more weeks.
None can spend the huge amounts of money that are available in Congressional or even statewide races due to the campaign finance restrictions.
On to the Word:
- A New Mexican
- was named to be the deputy Interior Secretary
- -- the second in command in the federal department.
- A great story by Dan McKay on how legislation by petition
- is becoming a frequently-used tool in Albuquerque
- . Already, two progressive attempts have passed, including an increase of the city's minimum wage. Now conservatives are trying with a late-term abortion ban.
- Pete Dinelli
- announced his economic plan at a press conference on Thursday
- .
- The unemployment rate in New Mexico
- skyrocketed between May and June
- thanks to a growing work force combined with a lack of jobs.
- The Santa FE County Commission
- voted to support same-sex marriage
- .
- Attorney General Gary King
- told KUNM what a fast-tracked investigation means
- when it comes to mental health providers.
- New Mexico In Depth
- writes about how the Attorney General refuses to release the behavioral health audit
- .
- A pharmacy shutdown
- disrupted the service for some patients
- . The pharmacy was shut down because the Arizona company that the state contracted to run the clinic in Las Cruces did not have a license to operate the pharmacy.
- Public News Service
- covered the mental health provider story
- .
- Los Alamos National Labs
- recently celebrated its 70th anniversary
- .
- Drought and Fire Digest:
- Monsoons are nice,
- but don't put much of a dent in the drought
- .
- For the month of July, Jones said, Albuquerque has officially recorded 2.79 inches so far, an inch and a quarter above average.
"But to put an asterisk on this," Jones said. "While it may make a dent in the meteorological drought," Albuquerque is still 10 to 12 inches below normal for the last three years. "Normal precipitation for an entire year is 9.44 inches," he said. "So we are missing a year's precipitation somewhere in the last three years." - Be like a kid and pray for snow days.
- John Fleck
- writes about a farmer who farms "against the odds on the Rio Grande."
- An
- HBO show may be set in New Mexico
- .
- Gwyneth Doland writes a story for the Santa Fe Reporter
- about feral hogs and the efforts to eradicate them in the state
- .
- In January, a group of state and federal agencies, armed with $1 million in federal funding, joined forces to launch an assault on feral hogs in New Mexico. The plan was to locate their whereabouts using intelligence from double agents known as “Judas pigs,” then send forces in a helicopter to ambush and kill as many of them as possible. Although non-native wild hogs are spreading quickly across the country, no other state has taken such swift, aggressive measures to get rid of them. The team has killed 500 animals so far, and team leaders say they’re ahead of schedule to completely eliminate them. .
- Paul Heh
- supports the late-term abortion ban that will be on the Albuquerque municipal ballot in October
- .
- KRQE
- got responses from the other two candidates
- .
- Dinelli says he supports a woman's right to choose and opposes the proposal. Berry was less equivocal than Heh, but says he supports it.
- Doña Ana County residents rejected two ballot questions, but passed two others.
- The Las Cruces Sun-News
- :
- Doña Ana County voters rejected a sales tax hike and a bond to upgrade the county fairgrounds west of Las Cruces, but OK'd two other GO bonds, including one for a new 911 center.
- The PRC
- wants Tri-State and the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative to settle a dispute
- over a proposed rate increase from Tri-State.
- Sandia Labs
- has a machine that puts out a crazy amount of electricity
- .
- In a fraction of a second, the machine releases 80 terawatts of juice, more than every generating station on the planet combined. More power than 2,600 lightning bolts.
- Seems about time
- .
- Now, new policies at BSCO and APD are cracking down and making it harder for officers and deputies to run through a red without a good cause.
It used to be that Sheriff’s Deputies and APD officers could throw on their lights just to get through an intersection.
