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| Dennis Kintigh |
Looking In: Stealing private correspondence is wrong, on both sides of aisle
NM officials expand chronic wasting control areas
The areas where hunters have to abide by special rules for handling and transporting animal carcasses have been expanded due to chronic wasting disease in deer and elk in southern New Mexico. The state Game and Fish Department made the announcement Monday. The agency says all of game management units 34, 28 and 19 have been designed as control areas. Those include Fort Bliss and White Sands ranges. Under the department's rules, hunters can transport only certain portions of an animal carcass from a control area. That includes cut and wrapped meat, hides and clean skull plates with antlers attached, but no parts of the spinal column or head. Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease. It attacks the brains of infected animals, causing them to become emaciated, behave abnormally and eventually die.
Parents say coach ordered kids to campaign
When parents of the boy’s soccer teams at La Cueva High School got an email from the head coach about a mandatory community service project, delivering campaign brochures is not what they had in mind. One parent KRQE News 13 spoke to wanted to remain anonymous. “I had the understanding that it was going to be cleaning up the park, cutting grass, pulling weeds,” one parent said. Instead, the 50 or so junior varsity and varsity soccer players went door-to-door Sunday dropping off campaign brochures for Democratic Senator Lisa Curtis, who represents the far northeast heights. “Why is the school sponsoring this? Why is the school condoning this? This is not community service,” a parent said. Parents say no APS staff or coaches only members of Curtis' campaign were there to supervise the kids' political project. “Who knows who could have opened the door and responded to the literature being passed out,” a parent said. Senator Curtis says she Is good friends with la Cueva's soccer coach Kevin Driggs. “It was just a fundraiser for the team,” Senator Curtis said. She told the coach she wouldd make a $500 donation to the team in exchange for some help from the players. Curtis says the kids were not campaigning for her. “There’s no talking. Okay. There’s no campaigning. No issue discussing. All you're going to be doing is dropping lit. You're just making sure we're getting a bunch of literature out in the neighborhoods,” Senator Curtis said. However, parents and APS officials did not see it that way. “It is absolutely unacceptable,” APS Chief Operations Officer, Brad Winter, said. “We don't condone it. It should have never happened.”...
Pat Garrett's hearse on display in Las Cruces
After negotiations that spanned two decades, the famous horse-drawn hearse that carried Sheriff Pat Garrett to his final resting place in 1908 is back in Doña Ana County. The antique hearse, owned by the Woman's Improvement Association until 1912, was recently purchased privately and then donated to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department for permanent installation in the Historical Museum of Lawmen, located inside the lobby of the department's main headquarters at 845 N. Motel Boulevard in Las Cruces. Las Cruces resident Cal Traylor, a lifelong New Mexican and history buff with a particular fondness for information related to the murder of Pat Garrett, spearheaded the negotiations for the hearse and subsequently donated it to the museum. Traylor spent the past 20 years working to acquire the hearse, which was traced to an art museum in Pinos Altos, with the intentions of returning it to Doña Ana County.
"It was simply misplaced at its former location in Grant County," said Traylor, whose research concluded the Women's Improvement Association sold the hearse to local farmer Hal Cox, who converted it to a farm trailer until selling it to Grant County resident and antique collector Frank Tatsch in 1935. Tatsch later restored the hearse to its original condition and placed in the Piños Altos museum. After Tatsch's death, the hearse was willed to his son, who sold the hearse to Traylor. "Unfortunately, that museum was hard to find and rarely open," said Traylor. "This is a rare piece of local history, and it was important that it not only be returned to Doña Ana County, but also made accessible to anyone who would like to see it." The popularity of Western history, and Garrett's affiliation with Doña Ana County, was of particular interest to Traylor. He contacted the sheriff's office and was connected with Jim Beasley, a retired deputy of the department and curator of the lawman's museum...
Gardner apologizes following leaked audio
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| Keith Gardner |
State provides online access to LANL data
State environmental officials say they have finished their upgrade to a database that gives the public access to information on clean-up efforts at Los Alamos National Laboratory. New Mexico Environment Department Secretary David Martin says the new centralized, cloud-based database application called Intellus New Mexico provides the public with greater transparency and more timely access to the environmental data for tracking efforts to clean up toxic waste around the laboratory where the nuclear bomb was developed. Officials say validated and verified data will be consistently formatted and automatically updated to the new system every night.
NM to consider allowing concealed handguns in state parks
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A state agency is proposing to allow people licensed to carry a concealed handgun to bring their loaded weapons into a New Mexico state park. That's among several administrative rule changes proposed by the State Parks Division. Other proposals require life jackets for those using paddleboards. A public hearing on the proposals is scheduled Oct. 17 in Santa Fe at the Wendell Chino Building. Loaded concealed weapons currently are prohibited in state parks by an agency regulation. A Parks Division official says the proposed change will bring regulations into compliance with New Mexico law allowing people with permits to carry concealed handguns except in certain places such as courts, schools and bars. Since 2010, national parks have allowed visitors with a valid state permit to carry a concealed handgun.
State proposes revamp waste permit for Sandia Labs
Existing permits that govern the storage and treatment of hazardous and mixed waste at Sandia National Laboratories would be combined under a new permit drafted by state environment officials. The New Mexico Environment Department will be seeking public comments on the proposal through Nov. 16. The proposed permit would allow for the management of hazardous and mixed waste at eight container storage units and one area where explosive wastes could be burned. The proposal also spells out requirements in the event of a fire, explosion or other release of waste. Corrective action for cleaning up contaminated soil and water is also addressed. The latest draft has been years in the making. The department first issued a draft renewal permit in 2007. That was followed by public comments and requests for hearings but differences could not be resolved.
ABQ council works to cut back zoo admission
The ticket price hike at the zoo isn't sitting well with some, and a group of Albuquerque City Council members have a plan to roll back the admission fees put in place at the beginning of the month. Right now, it costs a few bucks more for families to visit the zoo. Some families don't mind the price increase. "If it's for upkeep, then I think it's a good idea. I mean it's not that big of an increase and it's still affordable," zoo-goer Natanya Cisneros said. The fee hike is to help maintain the aging BioPark, which needs $18 million in repairs. City Council member Ken Sanchez said $3 more for adults and $1.50 extra for children and seniors is more than enough. He's proposing admission be rolled back to $8, instead of $10. "We can get this done without having a big impact on the fees and families of this community," Sanchez said. Sanchez said his proposal will generate $400,000 and the city can find additional funding sources. "Right now, the mayor has $9 million in a discretionary fund called 'ABQ The Plan.' We should take part of the money, which is $3 million, and use some of the money to pay for maintenance at the zoo," Sanchez said. The mayor's office said Sanchez's proposal provides less revenue than needed to maintain the park and would cause layoffs for city employees. Read more...
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