New jets from Eclipse Aerospace

From KRQE-TV - ALBUQUERQUE, NM - Eclipse Aerospace announced Monday that it will start production for the first time since the original company, Eclipse Aviation went bankrupt in November 2008. Mason Holland, President and CEO of Eclipse Aeropace made the announcement at the 2011 National Business Aviation Assocation Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Holland said final construction of the aircraft will likely stay in Albuquerque. He also said Eclipse will double its workforce in Albuquerque from 150 to 300 employees by the end of 2012. Eclipse Aerospace plans on producing between 50 and 100 new planes a year. It will sell the Eclipse 550 for more than $2.5 million dollars. Read more
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Santa Fe residents may face jail time for unpaid parking tickets

From KOB-TV.com - Santa Fe officials are issuing a warning, pay your parking tickets on time or face the possibility of going to jail. Eyewitness News 4 learned Monday that city officials have been working with Santa Fe's municipal court to set up a program that could result in bench warrants for those who ignore parking tickets. "People are just not taking them as seriously as they should," said Santa Fe's parking division manager, Jacqueline Lucero. Lucero said currently the city is owed around $2 million in unpaid parking fees. The city will continue to mail out citation information and if fines are not paid within 15 days, they will double in costs. The city will then mail out another notice for a court date. If the fine continues to go unpaid, the court will issue a criminal summons. At that point, if a violator does not show up for court in response to the criminal summons, a bench warrant may be issued by the judge for failure to appear. The process from citation to bench warrant could take as little as three months. Read more
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Santa Fe City, county lack formal vote on N.M. Rail Runner

From the Santa Fe New Mexican - by Julie Ann Grimm - Santa Feans pay taxes that help fund the New Mexico Rail Runner Express passenger trains, and trains pass their homes and streets every day, but area residents don't have an elected voting representative on train management issues. That's because an Albuquerque-area government partnership handles the contract for the train that delivers passengers between Santa Fe and metropolitan Albuquerque. The arrangement isn't changing anytime soon. However, a paid employee of the regional transit district that includes Santa Fe is now serving on a committee that will advise train managers about preferred ways to get the train's financial picture under control. Rio Metro Transit District has been the fiscal agent for the train and has overseen train operations since 2009. Although the district receives gross-receipts tax revenues from four counties, including Santa Fe, its voting members are only representatives from the governments in the state's central transit district — the cities of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, villages of Los Lunas, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, Corrales and Bosque Farms and counties of Bernalillo, Sandoval and Valencia. Mayor David Coss said during a visit to The New Mexican last week that he had learned the city and county would be "getting a voting seat on the Rio Metro board." Coss, who was visiting New York City on Monday, said in a telephone interview that he got that information from City Councilor Rosemary Romero, the city's representative on the transit district board and its current chairwoman. Romero said the transit district board hasn't had a formal discussion about seeking representation on the Rio Metro board, but the idea is likely to be on its agenda soon. Having Mortillaro serve on the advisory committee for train sustainability means the region already has more input than it has in the past, she said. Read more
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Gila Cliff Dwellings to close for major repairs

From the El Paso Times - by Paula Monarez Diaz - The Cliff Dwellings Unit of the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument will be closed from Oct. 24 to Dec. 24 due to major repairs to the West Fork Bridge on New Mexico Highway 15, one mile south of the Cliff Dwellings, said Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Superintendent Steve Riley. The two month closure will allow A.S. Horner, Incorporated of Albuquerque under contract with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to reconstruct the north approach and both abutments of the bridge, damaged by flooding in 2008 and 2010. There will be free guided tours at the TJ Unit of the Monument, an unexcavated 250 room Classic Mimbres pueblo located just east of the Gila Visitor Center. The site is accessible only by guided tour. Read more
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Portales attorney Eric Dixon charged with attempting to run over a District Judge


Eric Dixon
From the Clovis News Journal - Portales attorney Eric Dixon is accused of attempting to run down District Judge Ted L. Hartley with a vehicle in April outside the Curry County Courthouse. Dixon was charged Wednesday with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a fourth-degree felony, according to 3rd Judicial District Attorney Amy Orlando of Las Cruces. Dixon was released from the Roosevelt County Detention Center after posting a $5,000 cash bond. Orlando said she was appointed a special prosecutor in the case after 9th Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler stepped aside, citing a conflict of interest. Hartley declined comment Wednesday, saying it would be inappropriate. Attempts to reach Dixon weren’t successful. He denied the charges during an interview with an investigator. The incident happened April 5 as Hartley was returning to his office from lunch, according to documents filed at Clovis Magistrate Court by 3rd Judicial District chief investigator, Kip Scarborough. Read more
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Process to replace Jerome Block’s seat proceeds

From the New Mexico Independent - By - The eighty-eight applicants to officially declare their interest for Jerome Block Jr.’s vacated District 3 commissioner of the Public Regulation Commission, seat include: an American Telepsychiatrists sales representative, the owner of a Santa Fe optical store, a substitute teacher, a musician, a rancher, a stay-at-home dad, a solar-power products designer, a graphic designer of a free monthly newspaper, an insurance agent, a resort director and an equipment maintenance technician at Intel. Fred Nathan and Jason Espinoza, directors at Think New Mexico, a think tank that released an influential assessment of the PRC one week ago, say they have never heard of most of the candidates. Nathan sees the economy’s pull as the driving factor for the high turnout –”the appeal of a $90,000-a-year job,” he said. Moreover, the duties of the commissioner are a signature part of the current administration. “This appointment’s going to be under the spotlight,” said Nathan. “The governor ran her campaign on an ethics platform. So this will be a test for her as to who she picks and why.” But the two directors have favorites for the race: Peter Pacheco, chairman of the Santa Fe County Republican Party and vice president of Century Bank; Charles Christmann Jr., chairman of the Sandoval County GOP; former PRC chief of staff Orlando Romero, who recently retired from the State Treasurer’s office; and conservative New Mexican columnist Gregg Bemis, who has also run unsuccessfully for the state legislature and congress. As Espinoza pointed out, however, a number of the eighty-eight applicants are not even in District 3, the northern New Mexico region that includes Santa Fe. “We’d like it if Governor Martinez were to select someone with the relevant educational and professional background that the job demands,” said Nathan. “And I imagine that among these eighty-eight people, you can find at least a dozen who are worth interviewing.” Read more
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Commentary: My father had to get in the back of the line; so should everyone else

From NM Politics.net - By - For the record, I am the son of an immigrant. I am first-generation. My father first came to America working on a boat. At one point, he was deported back to his native land because of improper documentation procedures. It took him another eight years to become a legal, naturalized citizen of the United States of America. In 1963, eight years after I was born, my father became an American citizen. I explained this situation to my New Mexico House representative, Mr. Moe Maestas, in September one afternoon on my lunch hour at a rally in support of people without legal status at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. I asked Representative Maestas a simple question. I inquired, “Mr. Maestas, I am the son of an immigrant who came here to this country improperly the first time and was forced to go back to his native land and return properly and go through the procedures, which took him another eight years. Why, sir, should these folks here be given special treatment and not be required to do the same thing?” My representative, Mr. Maestas, negatively responded loudly that because my skin color appeared to be much whiter than his, my father was given special treatment. I then explained to Mr. Maestas that my father’s skin color was actually a much darker shade than his own. (My father came from southern Italy.) At this, I appealed to Mr. Maestas’ sense of legal matters (he is a lawyer by trade), and at that, he became negatively vocal and created a scene for all to see. I stood my ground, kept my cool, and realized, immigration issues are really hot topic in New Mexico. Read more
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