National Weather Service: Monsoon season has arrived

From KOB-Tv.com - The National Weather Service said monsoon season has arrived in New Mexico, offering hope for crews battling the fires across the state. Forecasters said rain is on the way. The weather prediction is showing an average summer rainy season, but any rainfall would reduce fire danger in the highly combustible forests and dried up grasslands. "And we are finally seeing a relaxing of those westerly winds that we've been plagued with and finally that's a sign of the monsoon starting to come and basically we're seeing a bigger upper level area of high pressure that's building…that's allowing the westerly winds to relax," Todd Shoemake of the National Weather Service said. Read more
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Fun in Roswell on the 4th

UFO Festival Attendee
News New Mexico attended the annual UFO Festival in Roswell, NM which draws an estimated 15,000 visitors each year on the 4th of July weekend. This year the Roswell International Sci-Fi Film Festival held it's debut and was a huge success. At left is an interesting guy we met. Click this link to see more of the pictures we took of the interesting people we encountered during our visit.

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Alb. Emergency Protest for Gaza Flotilla

From the Party for Socialism and Liberation -Dozens of activists from Albuquerque joined together in an emergency protest on July 2 at the busy intersection of Central Avenue and Tulane to demand that the U.S. and Israel stop blocking the ships of the Freedom Flotilla II from sailing to Gaza in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The action was called by the Albuquerque Network for Palestinian Rights (ANPR) and endorsed by the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) of New Mexico. More News New Mexico
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Happy Birthday America!


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The Week in Review

We began the week with the story of a TSA employee demanding that a 95 year old woman dying of leukemia allow her adult diaper to be searched before boarding a plane. The story called "It's something I couldn't imagine happening on America, is a perfect illustration of government at work.
In our story entitled “How About LIFO to FIFO?” a $72 billion cash grab scheme by the Obama Administration is exposed. The latest business shakedown scam involves a proposal to force a critical change in accounting and reserving rules. Apparently, since the federal government long since blew its own rainy day reserves, the Obama administration is looking to tap into the emergency funds of job creators. If you are wondering why hiring has slowed to a crawl read this story.
Fire dominated the news in the week just past in New Mexico. The Las Conchas fire in Los Alamos is now the largest fire in the history of the state. We were stunned as we made our way to Roswell for the UFO Festival by the damage in the Ruidoso Downs and Hondo areas. The size of the burned area is remarkable. The Ruidoso Downs fire engulfed tens of thousands of acres and threatened the racetrack. As the Donaldson fire near Hondo continues, we can only imagine the devastation in the Jemez forest near Los Alamos. It is difficult for pictures to tell the story.
Susana Martinez
News New Mexico was simply swamped by press releases from the governor’s office all week as Susana Martinez juggled National Guard resources and deployed emergency service personnel in areas where they were urgently needed. Governor Martinez also pleaded with citizens to use common sense and not light fireworks in a state that is best described as a tinderbox. We only hope the state’s citizens will comply. All and all it was a very harrowing week for people near forest areas in many parts of the state.
In the Santa Fe New Mexican story “Santa Fe Schools Near Bottom” we learned that in an area of New Mexico where anything other than big government thinking including the support of pouring endless resources into the public education cesspool is tantamount to blasphemy, the Santa Fe schools rank near the bottom in graduation rates. What is the solution according to public education advocates? It is all very simple. We suspect they will say what we really need is more government involvement.
The White House said it all this week as the debate raged over exactly how much more inter-generational theft we should tolerate by increasing the debt ceiling. Those in favor of borrowing additional trillions of dollars are: Morally Superior. It would seem that being morally superior is really getting easier. With his budget rejected 97-0 in the Senate, it would appear our president is the only moral elected official we have left.
Forest Management Policymakers
We posted an op-ed piece by Congressman Steve Pearce entitled: “Common Sense Forest Management Needed.” And then, on Wednesday’s show, we had one of our best guests ever. Dr. John Fowler offered coherent science-based explanations of how the hysterically radical environmental movement has finally, through years of threatening costly and endless litigation, set the stage for the series of devastating forest fires the state and the nation. You can listen to Dr. Fowler’s segment here:

Michael and Conrad
My partner Dr. Michael Swickard’s column, “The Consent of the Governed” represented one of the more thought-provoking columns I have read in recent months. It poses a very simple proposition for those of us who catch ourselves yelling at the television or biting our tongues at an airport while mindless government practices violate common sense in nearly every way.
NMPolitics.net ran a story called, “Denish Out Chavez In.” The piece explains the decision by former Lt. Governor Diane Denish to skip the CD # 1 race. It also discusses the decision by former Albuquerque mayor Marty Chavez to jump in. Rob Nikolewski of Capitol Report New Mexico called the one dimensional monologue video Chavez released announcing his candidacy, one of the worst he had ever seen.

Martin Chavez
Just a couple of days before News New Mexico celebrated its first birthday, this site, newsnm.com, crossed the six figure mark in page views. We thank all of our loyal followers, our sponsors, and our radio station affiliates for contributing to our success. Governor Garrey Carruthers signed off in the final seconds of his latest appearance on News New Mexico on Friday morning by seemingly affectionately referring to the hosts as the “Bubbas of Broadcasting.” Though we may well have found a new moniker for our second year, Michael and I both hopped in our pickup trucks and drove off right after the show wondering what the former governor meant by the term “bubbas.”
Chris Garcia

In the story “More Than Books in Garcia's UNM Office” New Mexico is being treated to its own sex scandal. This one involves former UNM President Chris Garcia. We promise to do what we can to have fun with this story. However, without a name like “Weiner” to work with, it is going to be a bit tougher. Please “bare” with us.
Michelle Bachmann
In the story “Bachman Leads in NM Republican Poll” we learned that the message of former tax attorney and current Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann is resonating with GOP voters in the state. We will try to get Congressman Steve Pearce’s take on the surging popularity of Bachmann when he appears on the show Tuesday morning.
Bill Richardson
And finally, it seems like we simply cannot experience more than a week in New Mexico without the announcement of another pay-to-play scandal involving Bill Richardson. In the Chicago Tribune story “Lawsuit Ties Ex-Congressman to Pay to Play Deal” we read about the latest round of allegations casting a long shadow on the two terms served by Big Bill.

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Biggest Threat to Spotted Owl is Fire

Spotted Owl
KOB - TV - Efforts to begin thinning Arizona's overgrown forests to reduce wildfire danger got two significant boosts in recent weeks. The developments came even as the largest blaze in state history wiped out huge swaths of trees in the eastern part of the state. The U.S. Forest Service asked loggers for bids on thinning more than 468 square miles in four national forests. They want the job done in 10 years. News New Mexico
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Judge Gives Gary King More "Time"

Judge Albert Murdoch
New Mexico Watchdog - Although repeated delays threaten to paint him into a corner where he has no choice but to dismiss the case, an Albuquerque judge is determined to bring to light any truth to corruption charges against former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron. On Friday, 2nd Judicial District Judge Albert Murdoch gave prosecutors another month to decide who will move the case forward. What’s more, if state’s attorneys show “good cause” why they can’t yet find a prosecutor, Murdoch indicated he is willing to further extend his patience beyond the latest deadline of August 1.
Rebecca Vigil-Giron
Yet he will only wait so long for state’s prosecutors to get their case in order, Murdoch said. Every judge wants to decide a case on the merits, but process matters, too, he explained. “I must reiterate that, eventually I will get to the point where the state has painted me into a corner and I have to do what I have to do. … The defendants and the taxpayers alike deserve to know whether there was wrongdoing or not and the longer we delay the worse it looks for both the defendants and the people of this state.” Read full story here: News New Mexico

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New Mexico Taxpayers Hit By a Train

Westport News — Finances for the state's Rail Runner Express are facing big shortfalls in both the short and long term. The railroad's governing board eliminated weekend service as it worked to close a projected $1.2 million shortfall in the budget year that began Friday. But board member Larry Abraham, the mayor of Los Ranchos, told the Albuquerque Journal that the deficit is just the tip of the iceberg. The railroad takes in much less from taxes and fares than it needs to operate the trains between Belen and Santa Fe. That doesn't take into account payments on $451 million in bonds the state issued to purchase track and rolling stock. Abraham said the Rail Runner "will die a slow death" unless the state finds ways of increasing ridership and better aligning the train system with the state's tourism industry. The weekend service cut was needed to as a wake-up call about a looming financial crisis and the future of the rail system, he said. It helped fill a budget hole caused by the expiration of a federal clean air grant. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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Los Alamos residents happy to be home

From KRQE-TV.com - LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (KRQE) - The announcement that the evacuation of Los Alamos had been lifted brought joy and relief to thousands of residents. Residents were once again packing up their stuff, but this time their destination was home. “I’ve lived here for 37 years and when I came around the corner and saw the skyline for the first time in a week, I teared up and said right out loud, oh Los Alamos,” a Los Alamos resident said. As the neighborhoods fill back up, there is a lot of catching up to do. Many people said they hope to just get back to their daily routine after a week away from it, and to a lot of others who are just so thankful they can come home. Read more
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