News New Mexico

New lawsuit against Mexican grey wolf program

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit Wednesday in a bid to push federal wildlife officials into making rule changes, first recommended 11 years ago, to increase the population of the endangered Mexican gray wolf.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Arizona, marks the latest chapter in a year’s long effort to get the Fish and Wildlife Service to amend project rules that environmentalists and biologists say have hindered the wolf recovery effort.

At the start of 2012, there were 58 wolves in national forests in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico, far below the 100 that biologists estimated would be roaming wild by the end of 2006.

In June 2001, three years after the first release of wolves in Arizona, a review team of wolf experts recommended three key changes be made “immediately” to the program.

Two recounts ordered in NM legislative races

Recounts are set to start next week in two close New Mexico legislative races that will determine the strength of the Democratic majority in the state House of Representatives.

The state Canvassing Board on Tuesday ordered the recounts to start Dec. 4. The recounts are required under state law because the margin between the candidates is less than one-half of 1 percent.

There’s a tie in a Southern New Mexico race between Republican Rep. Terry McMillan and Democrat Joanne Ferrary, both of Las Cruces. Each received 6,247 votes, according to results certified by the board. The district covers portions of Doña Ana County.

There was a 66-vote margin in a race for an Albuquerque-area House seat, with Republican Paul Pacheco of Albuquerque leading Democrat Marci Blaze of Corrales. The district covers parts of Sandoval and Bernalillo counties.

Well-traveled Trout not intimidated by New York – or Cotto

Austin Trout

AHD Note: Mayfield High School Grad Austin Trout will defend his championship belt against Miguel Cotto Saturday December 1st. Las Crucen, former championship boxer and Trout's head trainer Louie Burke will join News New Mexico Friday morning. RingTV - Much has been made about Miguel Cotto – a four-time former titleholder in three divisions and one of the sport's biggest stars – and his perceived home court advantage going into Saturday's fight at Madison Square Garden. Cotto (37-3, 30 knockouts), of Caguas, Puerto Rico, will be vying for the WBA junior middleweight title held by Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KOs), of Las Cruces, New Mexico, in front of what is sure to be a heavily pro-Cotto crowd. Cotto's popularity in The Big Apple is so that at Wednesday afternoon's final press conference, MSG Executive Vice President of Sports Bookings Joel Fisher handed Cotto a commemorative "Golden Ticket" for selling over 100,000 tickets in his eight appearances at "The Mecca of Boxing." Cotto has gone 7-0 in those fights. Trout, though undefeated, isn't as celebrated in America, having fought many of his signature wins in other countries like Mexico, Panama and Canada. Still, despite having never previously competed in New York or the Northeast region for that matter, Trout's familial ties give him a sense of home. “I always say, I'm more New York than Miguel Cotto is,” said Trout, whose mother and grandmother were both Brooklyn natives, and whose father was born in Harlem. “I've been coming back and forth to New York since I was a little boy. I'm not new to the city.” Read More News New Mexico

Newsbreak New Mexico 12pm Webcast 11/29/12

Newsbreak New Mexico 12pm Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich

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ABQ mayor says city is cooperating with probe
Lottery scholarship rules may change
BLM horse removal protest
State's largest jail cuts methadone treatment

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Lottery scholarship rules may change

A college scholarship that's bankrolled by the state lottery may become merit-based or granted on financial need, New Mexico's Senate majority leader has acknowledged.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that Sen. Michael Sanchez told a summit organized by University of New Mexico student leaders that his long-held stance that the scholarship should be available to all New Mexican students, regardless of financial need or academic accomplishments, might have to change.

That's because a Legislative Finance Committee reported in September that the scholarship fund is projected to run out of money in the next fiscal year. Sanchez says making the scholarship needs-based may be something that has to happen.

But Sanchez, who helped draft the bill creating the program in 1996, said he would oppose making the scholarship merit-based, using himself as an example of a student who didn't perform well in high school but went on to graduate from UNM.

Teachers union petition denied

The state Supreme Court has denied a petition from teacher unions, which had asked to court to strike down the state’s new teacher evaluation system on the basis that it violated the separation of powers in the state Constitution.

After two attempts to overhaul the teacher evaluation system through legislation, the Public Education Department instead wrote administrative rules that required teacher evaluations to be based in part on student test score improvement.

The state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers and its Albuquerque chapter argued that changes constitute a major policy change, and that policy change is the job of legislators, not executive departments.

State's largest jail cuts methadone treatment

New Mexico's largest county jail has announced that it will no longer provide methadone treatment to inmates.

Metropolitan Detention Center officials said Tuesday that all inmates who are currently incarcerated and receiving methadone will undergo a "discontinuation process" during the next several weeks.

Official say the move was made out of health concern for inmates. The methadone program was initiated at the MDC by the New Mexico Department of Health in 2006. Officials say pregnant women will continue to receive methadone through their pregnancies.

Methadone is a synthetic opioid that is used as part of a drug addiction detoxification and maintenance program.

NM peanut plant lays off workers

A New Mexico peanut butter plant has laid off a third of its 150 workers after federal authorities shuttered the plant.

A salmonella outbreak traced to the peanut butter has sickened 41 people in 20 states.

Millions of pounds of the regions prized sweet Valencia peanuts sit in barns at the Sunland peanut butter plant. Farmers are worried about getting paid. And residents wonder what toll the shutdown will have on the region's economy.

The tension boiled over on Monday, when the Food and Drug Administration suspended Sunland's registration to operate because of repeated safety violations. It came just as the plant was set to resume shelling the bumper crop.

Newsbreak New Mexico 8am Webcast 11/29/12

Newsbreak New Mexico 8am Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich

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Protest to BLM horse removal
Jail to no longer offer methadone treatment
Sunland Inc. lays off workers

Visit spenceassetmanagement.com

State workers to contribute more to retirement

State and local government workers and educators could see their take-home pay shrink in the next several years under proposals to have them contribute more of their salaries for retirement benefits.

A legislative panel on Wednesday endorsed a pair of proposals to shore up the long-term finances of two programs for public employees — the retirement system for educators and a separate program offering health insurance to retirees from state and local government jobs as well as public schools and universities.

One proposal calls for nearly 62,000 educators to pay an extra $46 million over two years into their pension system. Under another measure, 133,000 public employees, including educators, would pay $30 million over three years for retiree health care while taxpayers pay $60 million more.

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