State pulling money from New Mexico Bowl

From KOB-TV.com - By: Steve Mieczkowski - The New Mexico Tourism Department is pulling more of it's funding from the New Mexico Bowl. The nationally televised game takes place each year at University Stadium in Albuquerque during the Bowl season at the end of College football. The New Mexico Bowl is played around the third week in December.
This year, the Tourism department is providing $50,000 to the bowl, which is $100,000 less than the amount that was provided last year.
The department said it has given less money each year at the bowl gains more corporate sponsors. Read more




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Swickard: Delayed advice on the presidential election

Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. - Often I am tempted to give the younger generation, er, generations, the benefit of mistakes I made as a youth. But it is stupid to talk to youth today knowing I would not have listened when I was their age. I did some things right and some things wrong.
As a youngster I refilled my father’s Zippo lighter with fluid and replaced the flints. I emptied ash trays and absorbed eighteen years of second-hand smoke. Was I ever tempted to smoke? No, the women of my family did not approve of smoking. Specifically, there was my grandmother who shaped me in thought and religion. She made sure I understood her position against smoking.
My grandfather did not smoke but she could not stop her daughters from marrying smoking men. Did I know cigarettes were harmful? Yes, everyone knew smoking was harmful, but the harm was an abstract concept lacking long-term understanding.
As a young person I could not imagine the painful deaths of my father and Uncle Ralph tied to decades of smoking. With the benefit of age I see smoking for its entire effect, I get the whole picture and am sad when young people take up smoking.
Likewise I see the effect of politics in ways I could not decades ago. This presidential election reminds me of the Ford/Carter race of 1976. I was young and believed the hype of Jimmy Carter. I even had a Carter bumper sticker on my car. One of my relatives tried to tell me the harm that Carter was going to do to the economy but I would not listen. He was old, therefore, could not know anything.
Four years later I could not wait to throw Carter out of office for the damage he did to the economy, the military and our role in the world. I voted for Carter only once which is why I have trouble warning young people today of the harm that Obama poses for them. Read Column


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Newsbreak New Mexico Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich

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Jane Seymour shooting movie in Santa Fe
ABQ makes strip club ordinance changes
U.S News and World Report lists ABQ among
best places to retire
Former Gallup mayor to challenge lawsuit dismissal 
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Jane Seymour to shoot movie in Santa Fe

Jane Seymour

There will be another famous face around Albuquerque and Santa Fe this month. 
The New Mexico Film Office says a movie starring Jane Seymour will be filming in the area.
 In addition to being shot in New Mexico, the story line for the movie, called American Girl: 2013 Girl of the Year, takes place in Albuquerque so it is based on places and events in New Mexico
The movie is about a 9-year-old girl who is devastated when her best friend comes back from summer camp with another best friend.


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Secretary of state rules Sen. Mary Jane Garcia violated campaign laws

Mary Jane Garcia
New Mexico WatchdogNew Mexico Secretary of State Diana Duran has ruled that Sen. Mary Jane Garcia committed twelve separate violations of the Campaign Reporting Act and double-dipped by paying herself in campaign cash for travel expenses for which she was also reimbursed bythe State of New Mexico.   The Secretary of State fined Garcia $1,200 and has given her 10 days to provide an explanation of her conduct under penalty of perjury. The Secretary of State issued her ruling in response to a complaint by Bryan Steagall, campaign treasurer for Lee Cotter, the Republican challenging Garcia in the race to respresent the 36th Senatorial District.  Garcia, a Dona Ana Democrat, has served in the State Senate since 1988. Read more News New Mexico

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Flamin' Hot Cheetos come under fire at an ABQ school

Audio story here:



The popularity of Flamin' Hot Cheetos has fired up a health teacher at Lyndon B Johnson Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That teacher says the snack food poses many problems and she wants it banned from school.
  
A letter to parents urges them to keep the Cheetos off of campus for many reasons including poor nutritional value.  The letter also states they share the Cheetos, spreading germs. And the last and messiest reason, janitors have to clean up red fingerprints everywhere from the dye in the Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

Chante Coleman told KTLA she tries to control her daughters eating habit.

Coleman-"My daughter brings snack packs to school; I don't have her bringing a family size pack of Cheetos to school. Just because I know my child and I know she would eat the whole bag in one day. I do appreciate that the school is trying to take charge in that way to keep the kids healthy and active."

The school is encouraging children and parents to replace the Flamin' Hot Cheetos with a healthier snack. A regular bag has four servings but administrators are concerned many students will eat the whole thing, consuming 44 grams of fat and nearly 700 calories all at once.  That’s about half the caloric intake a teenager needs in a day.

For Newsbreak New Mexico, I’m Vanessa Dabovich

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Newbreak New Mexico 12pm Webcast 10/17/12

Newsbreak New Mexico 12pm Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich

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ABQ ranks best place to retire
New UNM hospital approval postponed
John Kerry to campaign for Martin Heinrich
Report shows Alamogordo Public Safety Department in trouble
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Former Gallup mayor to challenge lawsuit dismissal

Harry Mendoza

Former Gallup Mayor Harry Mendoza says he will challenge the dismissal of the final claim in a lawsuit he filed against a newspaper and its publisher. 

Mendoza contends the Gallup Independent and Robert Zollinger portrayed him in a false light and invaded his privacy when they alleged that he participated in a 1948 gang rape. Mendoza was not convicted in the attack. 

The Albuquerque Journal reports that state District Judge Louis DePauli has ruled that Mendoza cannot seek damages on those claims because he undoubtedly was a public figure.



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NMSU Interim President tours Carlsbad campus

Dr. Manuel Pacheco
It's good to come home.
Manuel Pacheco, recently appointed as interim president of New Mexico State University, returned to the place his career started Monday morning as the NMSU Board of Regents held a special meeting at the university's Carlsbad campus.
"I started my teaching career here in Carlsbad in 1962, and I have a special remembrance of that set of experiences," he said.
Pacheco was appointed to his new position last week, but initial plans would have called for his appointment to be made during Monday's meeting at the Carlsbad campus. Ben Woods, NMSU senior vice president for external relations and chief of staff, said he was glad the appointment didn't happen as originally planned.
"He thinks a lot of the community," Woods said of Pacheco. "He was able to speak effectively about NMSU and Carlsbad."
The Board of Regents was in town Monday as part of a rotating meeting schedule. Each year the university board holds at least one meeting at one of its off-site campuses.
NMSU Carlsbad President John Gratton said he appreciated the extra attention. Gratton showed regents that the Carlsbad campus is on the right track as he bragged about the community college's 18.1 percent enrollment increase this fall.
"We've seen great things happen here," Gratton said. "That took the efforts of lots of people."

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NM Board of Finance tables new UNM hospital proposal

The New Mexico Board of Finance voted to table the approval of UNM’s proposed new, $146 million hospital after several hours of deliberation at the Roundhouse on Tuesday. 

A majority of members said they felt they still did not have enough information to make a decision.  They also say potential approval should be delayed until after the Nov. 6 presidential election. 

Members are concerned that the need for new beds could change if the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, is repealed, which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has vowed to do if he wins.

UNM Health Sciences Center Chancellor Paul Roth said the need for those extra beds will not change regardless of whether or not the ACA stands.


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Newsbreak New Mexico 8am Webcast 10/17/12

Newsbreak New Mexico 8am Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich

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Federal court may consider straight ticket lawsuit
Republican officials in ABQ say no to minimum wage hike
Report shows Alamogordo Public Safety Department in trouble


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John Kerry to hold fundraiser for Martin Heinrich in Santa Fe

John Kerry 
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is to appear at a fundraiser in Santa Fe next week for New Mexico Democratic Senate candidate Martin Heinrich. 

Heinrich's campaign says Kerry is the featured guest at an Oct. 24 fundraiser at a restaurant near the state Capitol. 
Kerry is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry was the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and lost to then President George W. Bush, who carried New Mexico by less than 1 percentage point. 
A poll conducted for the Albuquerque Journal last week showed Heinrich leading Republican Heather Wilson in the Senate race. 



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Report: Trouble at Alamogordo Department of Public Safety

A city-commissioned study says the Alamogordo Department of Public Safety is plagued by infighting and factionalism and the leadership inspires little confidence among subordinates. 

The 112-page report also cites a strained relationship between ADPS and the Otero County Sheriff's Department. 
It says those problems are longstanding and preceded the tenures of current Sheriff Benny House and recently retired ADPS director Kelly O. Wallis.
The study by the law-enforcement consulting firm Berkshire Advisors was obtained the Alamogordo Daily News. The newspaper says the Alamogordo City Commissioners received the report last month, but kept it secret until Monday.
It was released after the Daily News submitted several requests to view the report, which cost the city almost $50,000.


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ABQ republicans against minimum wage hike

Two Albuquerque Republican city councilors are urging voters to vote against a proposed minimum wage hike on the November ballot. 

Trudy Jones and Dan Lewis both say the city can't afford the $1 million dollars plus that would have to be paid out for temporary and seasonal workers, if the bump to $8.50 an hour passes. 
Proponents of the wage hike, which was put on the ballot after more than 25,000 signature were collected, say that the opposition is just using "scare tactics."  
Organizers of the petition, like Mary Lee Ortega with Ole, have long said more money paid out to more minimum wage workers will encourage more spending, thus giving metro area businesses a boost.


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Federal court may consider straight ticket voting lawsuit

Dianna Duran
A lawsuit over straight party ticket voting is on hold in the New Mexico Supreme Court while a federal court considers the legal dispute.  

The state's highest court on Tuesday postponed proceedings in a case brought by Democrats to restore the option of straight ticket voting. The court order came a day after Republican Secretary of State Dianna Duran asked the U.S. District Court to handle the case.
 She contends it will violate the Constitution's equal protection guarantee if ballots are redesigned after some New Mexicans already have voted.


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