Treating the problem: Medical, pharmacy boards consider changes to curb prescription drug abuse
Texans helping out with New Mexico wildfires
Fort Worth Star-Telegram - When nearly 4 million acres of Texas went up in smoke last year, more than 16,000 emergency responders from all 50 states and Puerto Rico helped the Lone Star State's beleaguered firefighters beat back the flames. Now, Texas is returning the favor. Fifteen emergency responders, including 11 from the Forest Service, headed to New Mexico over the weekend to aid in recovery efforts on the Little Bear Fire near Ruidoso. "This is our chance to say thank you; we have a big debt to repay," said Tom Boggus, director of the Texas Forest Service which contended with 10,331 fires last year at a cost of around $337 million. "We are available to help our neighbors. If we have the resources they need, we will go," he said Monday. Fire experts say that the same combustible combination of prolonged drought, heat and strong winds that created last year's Texas firestorm is still in place over much of the Rocky Mountain region."The drought ended over Texas and stayed in place over the Rockies," said Ed Delgado, national predictive services meteorologist at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. "Last year in Texas was quite an anomaly; it was a combination of all the things you don't want. You were in the midst of a 20-month drought, coupled with extreme temperatures that caused all the vegetation to be primed for fire," he said. All told, 6,500 firefighters from local, state and federal agencies are now committed to fighting large fires across the country, said Jennifer Jones, a public affairs specialist at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.The Texas responders joined more than 1,100 firefighters battling the 38,000-acre Little Bear Fire which has destroyed 242 homes and businesses. Another fire in the Gila Wilderness, already the largest in New Mexico history, has now blackened 463 square miles. Read More News New Mexico
NM Democrats upset over elimination of straight-party voting
Capitol Report New Mexico - One day after hearing that Secretary of State Dianna Duran has decided to get rid of straight-party voting in the upcoming November elections, the reaction in the Roundhouse was predictable as Democrats opposed the ruling while Republicans approved it.
“A decision like that should be the prerogative of the voters,” Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela (D-Santa Fe) said while House Minority Leader Tom Taylor (R-Farmington) said, “I believe it’s a good move.”
In straight-ticket voting, voters simply select “Democrat” or “Republican” and every candidate in the appropriate party receives a vote — from the highest office in the land to the lowest local official.
Since Democrats outnumber Republicans in New Mexico, some say straight-party ballots help Democrats more than the GOP. “That’s probably true,” Republican Taylor said Monday (June 18) although the Associated Press story announcing the move pointed out that New Mexico Democratic and Republican voters tend to vote the straight-party ticket at roughly the same rate (23 percent for Democrats, 18 percent for Republicans in the 2010 elections).
“We disenfranchise people by not allowing a straight-party vote,” Varela said. “And to have the Secretary of State say she has the authority to do that is not right.”
Duran is the first Republican elected Secretary of State in 80 years and a spokesman for Duran said her office will not allow straight-party voting because there is no provision in state law specifically authorizing it. Read More News New Mexico
Susana changes e-mail policy
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| Susana Martinez |
Here’s the statement released late Monday afternoon (June 18):
“Today, I am directing all state employees under the governor’s authority to utilize official state email when conducting state business via email. This includes discussions preliminary in nature to final decisions or actions that have occasionally been sent via personal email because they are not required to be maintained under state law. There is no state law that requires this to be done, but utilizing only state email to conduct state business in connection with public employees’ duties is another important step to ensure continued confidence in government.”
”This directive goes beyond what has been required or practiced in the past in New Mexico, and it exceeds what is practiced in most other states. In addition, given that numerous other public officials, including legislators, discuss public matters on personal email addresses, I am urging the Legislature, other executive branch agencies, and local governments and municipalities to also adopt a similar policy that requires official email to be used when conducting state business and retained according to state regulations. Furthermore, we would be pleased to work with interested parties to ensure that our records statutes and regulations are coherent, strong, practical, and consistent across government.”
Read More News New Mexico
Border Patrol Council: Holder Should Resign
Washington Times - The National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 17,000 of the agency’s nonsupervisory agents, called Monday for the resignation of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for his role in the botched “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation that resulted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Two semi-automatic AK-47 assault weapons found at the scene of the Dec. 15, 2010, killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry were traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to “straw buyers” who bought the weapons as part of the Fast and Furious investigation. The agent died during a gunfight with heavily-armed Mexican bandits along the U.S.-Mexico border south of Tucson, Ariz. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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| Eric Holder |
Council President George E. McCubbin III, a 25-year Border Patrol veteran, described Mr. Holder’s actions in the case as “a slap in the face to all Border Patrol agents who serve this country,” adding that the attorney general showed “an utter failure of leadership at the highest levels of government.”
Two semi-automatic AK-47 assault weapons found at the scene of the Dec. 15, 2010, killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry were traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to “straw buyers” who bought the weapons as part of the Fast and Furious investigation. The agent died during a gunfight with heavily-armed Mexican bandits along the U.S.-Mexico border south of Tucson, Ariz. Read full story here: News New Mexico
On energy, Republican Governor Bob McDonnell more closely resembles President Obama
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| Marita Noon |
I’ve encouraged people to tweet about Karl Rove’s contrarian position backing the extension of the wind energy subsidy, known as the PTC, which is set to naturally expire at the end of this year. Rove’s PTC extension support puts him at odds with most of the Republican Party. We can’t vote Rove out, but we can shame him for supporting a subsidy at a time when we have to borrow from China to do it. He should know better.
I’ve asked people to call or email Tennessee’s Republican Senator Lamar Alexander to pressure him to join his party—and coal state and vulnerable Democrats—in supporting Senator Inhofe’s resolution (SJ 37) that would neuter President Obama’s regulatory war on coal. Despite the known increase in electricity prices and the hardships the regulations will put on working families, Alexander is resolutely siding with the President.
Now, it is time to call out Republican Governor Bob McDonnell—whose actions on energy more closely resemble those of the Obama administration than his Republican colleagues. Read rest of column here: News New Mexico
Stimulus for New Mexico Funds Monkey Study, European Travel
Father's Day Memories
While waiting for the golf tournament to begin I decided to do a little Internet research on the song and discovered that a man from Idaho, Larry LaPrise, wrote the tune way back in the 1940's. LaPrise died at the ripe old age of 93 back in 1996. Apparently as preparations began for his funeral things got pretty traumatic for his family. While trying to get him situated in the coffin in front of all his loved ones, the funeral director put his left leg in. And then the trouble started.
Raging N.M. fire prompts rescue of threatened fish
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| Gila Trout |
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