News New Mexico - Once a statewide radio show providing state news aggregation and commentary, we have evolved. On this site we post political/cultural commentary, both domestic and international. At the top of the right hand sidebar there are links to discussions of the fundamental pillars of our world views. Click on these discussions and gain useful insights into our biases and how many of our views are formed.
From KRQE-TV.com - by Kim Holland - ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The city of Albuquerque was overly aggressive in spending tens of millions of dollars during the last decade to buy troubled and neglected properties throughout the city. "We're really in a situation now is we couldn't sell them for what we paid for them," said Rob Perry, the city’s chief operating officer.
Today, the city owns more than 2,200 properties across the city, though officials couldn’t be more exact because they aren’t sure themselves exactly how many properties the city bought. Not all of the properties were acquired in the last decade, however. Some came in land swaps, while others were donated, "Many were acquired historically 20, 50, 75 years ago and the records just aren't there,” Perry said.
Most of the properties bought in the last decade, however, were purchased with the idea to clean up crime-ridden, sometimes abandoned and trashed lots. Officials planned to resell some of the properties it bought and redevelop others as community centers or low income housing. But the economy tanked and most plans were put on hold. Now the city, which is sitting on $600,000 in mortgages, admits it may have gone overboard. Read more
From KOB-TV.com - By: Jill Galus, KOB Eyewitness News - Victoria's Secret is at the forefront of criticism from Native Americans across the country, as well as in New Mexico. This comes after one of the company's lingerie models wore what looked like a traditional headdress for the taping of next month's televised fashion show.A photograph released after last week's taping of the event has some Native Americans outraged.
"Why are you appropriating our history, our culture and using it for commercial means?" Navajo Tazbah McCullah said. Depicting a lingerie model in a floor-length headdress, adorned with traditional turquoise jewelry, and suede fringe over leopard panties and a bra is pure ignorance, McCullah said.
Historically, headdresses symbolize honor and respect, and depending on the tribe, are worn in ceremonial dances by men. "I wouldn't want my granddaughters thinking that that's okay to do this, to use anybody's culture to make a buck," McCullah said. Read more
Victoria's Secret facing firestorm from Native Americans
From the Santa Fe New Mexican - by Chris Quintana - The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service is considering ending at least some services at the downtown post office, 120 Federal Place, as part of cost-cutting measures. Public details on possible changes at the downtown site are sparse and conflicted, but Peter Hass, a Postal Service spokesman based in Arizona, said Tuesday that representatives for the agency intend to discuss their plans during a Nov. 28 meeting of the Santa Fe City Council.
Hass said a closing of the downtown post office could include removal of post office boxes where some residents collect their mail. “It’s not a final decision,” Hass said. “It’s just something we’re considering.”
The downtown location also is home to a distribution center through which local mail flows to and from a processing center in Albuquerque. It’s unclear what officials have in mind for that operation, or whether the drive-by drop boxes near the post office would be affected by any move. The Associated Press reported in August that the Postal Service suffered a $5.2 billion loss from April to June of 2012, and that it defaulted on payments to the U.S. Treasury and future retiree health benefits.
The Postal Service, which has seen a decrease in mail volume and has instituted a series of increases in postage rates, also has tried to close low-revenue offices in rural areas as a cost-cutting measure. Public opposition halted that plan. Instead, some sites now have shorter hours of operations. Read more
SF Postal Service considers closing downtown office
From NBCMiami - Luis Montano may be one of the most unlikely people to end up on the government’s no fly list that’s designed to stop terrorists. After all, he works for one of the country’s biggest airlines. But Team 6 Investigators found that he wasn’t just prevented from traveling by air, he was told by his employer to go home. He couldn’t work and the bills started piling up.
“Two months without work because of being on the no fly list,” Montano said. “I basically have been doing a lot of research concerning the TSA’s no fly list. I have been trying to basically reach out for help.” After 13 years working for an American Airlines as a gate agent, also in cargo operations, and at its South Florida headquarters, the U.S. citizen discovered he had been labeled a potential terrorist, a danger to the flying public.
“In shock. Just like, I couldn’t understand how you can just be put on a list and for no reason, haven’t been contacted by the government,” he said. In August, Montano says his boss told him he was placed on the TSA’s no fly list and sent him home.
NBC 6 contacted the airlines and American said it must follow the TSA’s rules, and that it was waiting to see if there was any change in their employee’s status. For six weeks, without success, Montano was on the computer trying to get the government to reverse his status when American cut his pay.
Was it a case of mistaken identity? Maybe. But Montano says it’s hard to fight the inclusion because the Department of Homeland Security provides little information, even though it says less than one percent of those who complain have an actual connection to a terrorist.
He spent weeks struggling to pay his bills and was told by American he could lose his job for good. Five days after NBC 6 contacted the government, Homeland Security sent a letter saying he's no longer a potential terrorist. They gave no answers in their letter. They just said they could neither confirm nor deny any information about him. Montano said he was still waiting to be cleared by the airlines' security department to return to work. Read more
American Airlines employee suddenly on No Fly list
From Townhall.com - by Dr. Thomas Sowell - Mitt Romney now joins the long list of the kinds of presidential candidates favored by the Republican establishment-- nice, moderate losers, people with no coherently articulated vision, despite how many ad hoc talking points they may have. Any number of conservative commentators, both in the print media and on talk radio, examined and exposed the fraudulence of Obama's "tax cuts for the rich" argument. But did you ever hear Mitt Romney bother to explain the specifics which exposed the flaws in Obama's argument?
When you look at this as a horse race, there is no question that the Republicans deserved to lose. But the stakes for this great nation, at this crucial juncture in its history and in the history of the world, are far too momentous to look at this election as just a contest between two candidates or two political parties. Quite aside from the immediate effects of particular policies, Barack Obama has repeatedly circumvented the laws, including the Constitution of the United States, in ways and on a scale that pushes this nation in the direction of arbitrary one-man rule.
Now that Obama will be in a position to appoint Supreme Court justices who can rubber stamp his evasions of the law and usurpations of power, this country may be unrecognizable in a few years as the America that once led the world in freedom, as well as in many other things. Barack Obama's boast, on the eve of the election of 2008-- "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America"-- can now be carried out, without fear of ever having to face the voters again.
This "transforming" project extends far beyond fundamental internal institutions, or even the polarization and corruption of the people themselves, with goodies handed out in exchange for their surrendering their birthright of freedom. Have you noticed how many of our enemies in other countries have been rooting for Obama? You or your children may yet have reason to recall that as a bitter memory of a warning sign ignored on election day in 2012. Read full column
Newsbreak New Mexico 5pm Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich
Listen here:
Santa Fe sets new recycling goals Las Cruces officials relocating popular landmark Santa Teresa evacuation cause still a mystery ABQ council not likely to overturn min. wage vote
Attempts to
undo the minimum wage increase approved by Albuquerque voters last week appear to be
dead on arrival.
City voters approved the increase in overwhelming numbers last
week and while the City Council does have the power to overturn the vote, but
it doesn’t seem likely. Sixty-six percent of city voters approved a raise in
the minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $8.50.
The Council has the power to
repeal or change it. But, rejecting the voters is like swallowing political
poison and most councilors seem to know that.
Another probable roadblock: the
Mayor of Albuquerque would have to sign off on it, and Richard Berry, appearing
on Sunday morning's "Eye on New
Mexico" program, did not sound ready to do that.
What may stop the pay raise from going into effect in 2013 is faulty language
in the ballot proposition. Election watchers say It could turn out to be
fertile territory for a legal challenge.
ABQ council not likely to overturn minimum wage vote
Santa Fe didn't
meet its goal of doubling its recycling tonnage over the past year, but the
amount of recyclable materials delivered to a regional processing facility is
rising.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that city leaders have been focused on
getting more businesses to recycle and to distribute more recycling bins to
residential customers. Since July, the city has signed up 24 businesses for
recycling collection and has a goal of adding a new account every week.
The
policy on plastic bins used for residential recycling has changed. Rather than
requiring a people to go to a department office with a utility bill to pick up
a pair of 18-gallon containers for recycling, workers have been distributing
them at community events to anyone who shows up.
Newsbreak New Mexico 12pm Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich
Listen here:
Santa Teresa evacuation cause still a mystery Las Vegas woman mails pot to inmate California company installing solar panels on military homes AG's office investigating Rio Rancho voting problems
The Spaceport America project has entered the final phase of
construction in the desert
of Southern New Mexico.
$1.13 million dollars in new contracts were approved last
week to complete the last construction phase.
Spaceport Director Christine Anderson says phase one was
most of the buildings and operation center as well as the ten thousand foot
runway. The next phase includes visitor experience.
Anderson-“We
really built a whole small city out there. It is a pretty remote location and
you want that for a spaceport, but to do that you have to run power and water
and it’s taken quite a bit of engineering to get that done. We are about to
kick off phase two and that is visitor experience, so when folks come out to
the spaceport and they aren’t as lucky to get a ride on a spacecraft they’ll
still be able to enjoy space. There is lots of things to do for kids and
families.”
At a recent symposium and expo Spaceport officials said they
are anxiously awaiting the day when suborbital flights will begin, but as of
yet there is no set date.
This is due to the fact that construction is not yet
complete and they don’t want engineers to rush the work and some attribute the
delay to anxiety of New Mexico
law.
The New Mexico
Legislature has enacted law that provides informed consent to operators, such
as Virgin Galactic. However, similar legislation that would have also applied
to suppliers of commercial spaceflight companies never got out of legislative
committees.
New Mexico Lt.
Governor John Sanchez says there must be continued effort to change the law for
the success of the space industry in the state.
Sanchez- “The informed
consent law is a common sense piece of legislation that will allow the
spaceport to flourish. It’s being blocked by the Democrats in the NM state
legislature. IT would allow the spaceport to compete and what’s happening is we
are losing out already to other states that have an informed consent law on the
books and the spaceport is in risk.”
Sanchez says the
spaceport needs to be fully maximized to provide high paying jobs and make a
significant impact on the state’s economy. Sanchez says it is worth $209 million
dollars of New Mexico
tax dollars.
The legislature
meets for a sixty day session in January and Senator Mary Kay Papen says the
bill is already prepared and will again be considered.
For Newsbreak New
Mexico,
I’m Vanessa Dabovich.
Spaceport America facing setbacks in one area and progress in another
City officials in Las Cruces are considering where to relocate
the city's giant statue of a roadrunner.
The 20-foot-tall, 40-foot-long statue
is currently in the backyard of its creator, artist Olin Calk. The statue was
completed in 1993 as part of a recycling education program and was stationed
that year at what was then the Las Cruces Foothills Landfill as a way to
encourage creative recycling projects.
It moved in 2001 to a rest area just
west of Las Cruces
off I-10 where it became a familiar landmark to thousands of travelers.
The
city has paid $26,000 to remove and reconstruct the statue.
A New
Mexico woman is facing charges after authorities say she tried to mail
marijuana taped to a picture of a transformer to an inmate.
33-year-old Melissa
Martinez was recently arrested and faces a number of charges, including
conspiracy to bring contraband into a jail.
According to court documents, the Las Vegas resident was
linked to the marijuana-laced letter mailed to San Miguel County Detention
Center inmate Apolinario Arturo Gonzales through recorded jail conversations.
Las Vegas woman arrested for mailing pot to inmate
Attorney General Gary King's office is investigating why
Rio Rancho voters had to wait in line for hours to cast ballots after polls
closed in last week's election.
King said in a statement Monday he was
concerned about possible voter suppression. There have been reports some people
in line may not have voted after learning the outcome of the presidential race.
SandovalCounty operated five voting locations
for Rio Rancho, a community of 87,000. County officials say they sought more voting
equipment for polling sites but the secretary of state's office says it didn't
receive such a request.
AG's office investigating Rio Rancho voting problems
A New Mexico man who was the state's oldest
survivor of World War II's infamous Bataan Death March has died at the age of
99.
The New Mexico Department of Veterans' Services says Virgil Wallace was
buried with full military honors Monday afternoon in Tatum. The department says
Wallace died last week in Idalou,
Texas. He was born in West Texas
and raised in southeastern New Mexico.
He was among the 1,800 members of the 200th and 515th Coast Guard Artillery
Units who were ordered to surrender to Japanese forces on April 9, 1942.
State leaders say the federal government plans to move forward
with the Real ID Act in January.
That means people won't be able to use a
driver's license as an ID at airports across the country. Officials say that is
because New Mexico
issues licenses to illegal immigrants.
According to state officials, if the act
goes into effect, residents will have to use a passport or military ID at
airports and federal facilities.
Sen. Tom Udall says many states, including New Mexico, will not be
in full compliance with the REAL ID act by the Jan. 15 deadline. He says we faced a similar situation in 2011
and the deadline was extended. He expects DHS to make similar accommodations
again.
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