Swickard: Our lovable corrupt New Mexico

© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. We have lovable rogues in our state. One had a sign on his office, “If I ain’t in, shove the money under the door and go away.” Everyone looked at the sign and laughed. Me, I was pretty sure that the sign meant exactly what it said. I never saw anyone in the media print a picture of the sign. Go figure.
     New Mexico, known as the Land of Enchantment, is a land of corruption. Many New Mexicans are enchanted with our loveable corrupt rogues. The only thing we ask is that they act with panache. We do not like people who bash suckers in the head and scurry away with their wallets.
     No, we want great schemes that leave us breathless as to the audacity. We want to laugh at the way that these rogues shred the laws by knowing which Judges are up for a bribe and which Judges are not. These Robin Hoods make a good living and make us glad that they came to our little slice of heaven to enliven the environs.
     I do not know why people look surprised when they metaphorically turn over a government rock and find night creatures. That is just the way many New Mexico leaders operate. As is the habit of little dogs to bark and bite, many of our leaders enrich themselves as did their parents and their grandparents. Their cousins all have government jobs.
     The problem for most corrupt leaders involves the idea that the media is watching. Most of the time the media is only watching a little bit because there are too few journalists working in each organization to spend the thousands of hours it takes to bring down these corrupt politicians. Most media are just getting by financially. In fact, it is the great hope of many journalists to get a government job with a pension.
     As for the authorities who are supposed to catch the crooks, what of them? Many are political animals who know how far to go and which of the “Fixers” to leave alone. There is a price politically to be paid if someone starts sticking their neck where it does not belong. Read full column

Swickard: Our lovable corrupt New Mexico

Lobbying group tryw to change city's min wage laws

From KOB-TV.com - By: Maria Guerrero, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - A lobbying group located three and a half hours away is trying to change Albuquerque’s minimum wage ordinance, specifically when it comes to tipped workers like waiters and bartenders. The group wants Albuquerque residents to vote on changes that would essentially triple wages for tipped workers, but it’s not necessarily designed to be pro-worker.
     The Albuquerque City Clerk said the group filed its accepted Notice of Intent on July 18 and now has 60 days to circulate the petitions. As of January 1, 2013, tipped workers in the city of Albuquerque started getting paid at least $3.83 an hour, plus tips.
     The proposal also wants to remove the percentages the employer has to pay in cash wages. Meaning, as long as the employee gets $9.50 an hour, the employer could reduce their wage from $3.83 an hour to $2.13 an hour, the federal wage for tipped workers.
     "This just allows that flexibility to that employer while still maintaining the employee gets a higher wage but gives that flexibility to the employer to be able to do it through tips and cash wages, instead of having that higher cash wage," said Smith.
     The group is now trying to gather 12,091 validated signatures of registered Albuquerque voters. The deadline is September 16th. If the group gets all the signatures needed, the proposal then goes to the city council for a vote and possibly even a special election at a later date.
     Even if the group gathers the signatures required, the proposal will not go on October’s ballot. More

Lobbying group tryw to change city's min wage laws

Audit shows mismanagemnt of mental health funds

From KRQE-TV.com - Jessica Garate - Patients, their families, and employees working with mental health and substance abuse providers said Tuesday they are fearful and upset about how the state has handled an audit showing more than a dozen providers possibly abusing the system.
     A mother whose son suffers with a mental illness said she is worried service will be disrupted. “I am fearful as a parent,” said Gay Finlayson. “This is a fragile system with fragile, fragile people and we need to support that and what has happened has not been supported, at least not to my family at all.”
      A five-month state audit exposed mismanagement, fraud, waste and abuse among 15 mental health and substance abuse providers across the state. The state said companies over-billed taxpayers by $36 million.
     The state is paying more than $15 million to an Arizona company to train and oversee the agencies. Once new management is in place , Medicaid payments will be restored. In the meantime, those companies must still provide services to patients. The governor says state action is necessary to avoid corruption.
      “Approximately $36 million are not going to those who deserve it and need it the most. Instead, [the money] was lost, misused, misspent, stolen. We're not going to put up with that,” said Gov. Susana Martinez. Attorney General Gary King refused to release the audit publicly because his office, along with the FBI, are still investigating to see if anyone will be charged criminally. More

Audit shows mismanagemnt of mental health funds

First case of West Nile virus reported in state

From KOB-TV.com - By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - A 13-year-old boy from San Juan County is New Mexico’s first human case of West Nile virus this year. The boy is recovering at home after a short stay in the hospital, but West Nile can be a very serious illness, especially for people over 60.
     Mosquitoes carry West Nile, and they’re breeding like crazy with all of the rain we’ve been getting. New Mexico sees most of its cases in August and September, so we’re just getting started.
     “Mosquito populations are increasing and we should expect West Nile Virus activity throughout the state,” said Dr. Paul Ettestad, the state’s public health veterinarian.
     Symptoms include fever, nausea, headache and muscle ache. In rare cases it can lead to meningitis and encephalitis. Best advice: avoid mosquito bites. When you’re outside, use insect repellents containing DEET, Picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or IR3535 on skin and permethrin on clothing.
     The state had 47 West Nile cases last year, with one fatality. More

First case of West Nile virus reported in state

NM House members defied party leaders in NSA vote

From Capitol Report New Mexico - It’s not often that the one Republican and two Democrats in New Mexico’s House of Representatives delegation on Capitol Hill vote the same way but it happened. Democrats Michelle Lujan Grisham and Ben Ray Luján joined the GOP’sSteve Pearce in voting for an amendment calling for the defunding of the National Security Agency phone metadata program.
     The amendment failed 217-205 but the closeness of the vote drew plenty of attention, indicating growing calls form some Americans to rein in government surveillance programs. The amendment’s sponsor, libertarian Republican Justin Amash of Michigan took to Twitter to write, “We fight on.”
     Both New Mexico Democrats voted for the amendment even though the Obama administration defended the phone log collection program and labeled the amendment a “blunt approach” that is not “the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process.”
     Speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner, and the Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, each voted against the amendment, meaning that each member of the New Mexico delegation bucked their party leadership.
     The domestic spying issue makes for strange political bedfellows: joining the left wing’s concerns about civil rights and whose adherents express sympathy for the likes of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange with the libertarian wing of the GOP that worries about the size and scope of government infringing on individual liberties.
     On the same day as the vote on the NSA amendment, a Washington Post/ABC News poll showedAmericans overwhelmingly think the NSA surveillance efforts intrude on some citizens’ privacy rights – 74 percent say so – and about half, 49 percent, see the spying as an intrusion on their own personal privacy. More

NM House members defied party leaders in NSA vote

Swickard: Horsemeat to the zoo as an act of love

© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Especially out West, horses have a special place in our lives. Personally, any day I get horse snot on me is a good day. Along with my love of horses comes a sense of duty. This includes endorsing the idea of a horsemeat packing facility in Roswell.
     It is not my first choice to send viable horses to the packers, but right now in America there are about 200,000 unwanted horses. They will die one of three deaths: packers, left to die by the side of the road or in Mexico where who knows how humane they will be.
     The reason for this glut involves the bad economy along with the skyrocketing cost of feed. If I had my way, I would care for all of them. But a look at my bank account tells me it is not possible.
     Society has turned its back on the plight of the horses for a number of years. Several years ago Congress pulled the funding of the horsemeat packing facilities around the nation. The politicians felt righteous. They did not know that they made things much worse for unwanted horses. The horses had to be meat packed in Mexico without any guarantee of humane treatment.
     Now there is a proposed horsemeat packing facility in Roswell. This has people outraged. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to save the hundreds of thousands of unwanted horses. This is like having to put down unwanted dogs and cats. No one wants to do it but it must be done because there is no way to care for the millions of unwanted pets.
     The only thing worse is to leave them on their own to perish in horrible conditions.     So thousands upon thousands of horses will die in Roswell or they will die of malnourishment or they will be meat packed in Mexico. No amount of wishing and hoping will change this fact. The only question is if there is going to be any positive in the death of the horses. Could something good come of the death of a horse? Well, there is lots of valuable meat.
      Where is the meat going? It will not be consumed by Americans. But there is something Americans love. They love to go to Zoos to look at Lions and Tigers. Horsemeat is used by Zoos as part of the large cat diet. Read full column

Swickard: Horsemeat to the zoo as an act of love

NM 6th in growth … for state spending

From Capitol Report New Mexico - Economic downturn be damned, in the space of 10 years state government spending increased in every single state in the nation between 2001-2011 and New Mexico racked up the sixth-largest rate of growth.
     The numbers come from the U.S. Census Bureau and are compiled by the Tax Foundation, a Washington D.C. think tank that calls for “fundamental tax reform and restoring America’s global tax competitiveness” and is considered right of center politically.New Mexico saw a 41.8 percent increase in direct state spending in real dollars per capita from 2001 to 2011.
     Only Louisiana, Wyoming, New Jersey, Arizona and New Hampshire saw bigger increases. Every state saw escalations and only one — Alaska (at 8.9 percent) — saw its spending numbers go up less than 10 percent.
     New Mexico’s numbers did not surprise Paul Gessing, the president of the Rio Grande Foundation, the free-market think tank based in Albuquerque that champions low tax rates. “Spending really exploded during the heyday of the Richardson Administration (when the national and state economies were strong prior to 2008),” Gessing said in an e-mail. “And, while Richardson really opened the taps to bigger spending, that overspending ended in New Mexico and elsewhere in the economic downturn.”
     Bill Jordan of New Mexico Voices for Children, a nonprofit in based in Albuquerque considered left of center, said of the map, “The real question is not whether spending is growing or not, but whether it is meeting basic needs. More

NM 6th in growth … for state spending

NM receives early childhood education funds

New Mexico will receive a $12.5 million federal grant for its smallest learners, Gov. Susana Martinez announced Tuesday. 

The grant is part of the federal Race to the Top program, in which states compete for education grants that reward certain types of reform. This is in addition to a $25 million Race to the Top grant for early learning the state received last year. 

The money will be used to create systems that track students’ progress in preschool and provide them with support before elementary school. Specifically, it will be used to expand teacher training opportunities, create a student data system that different agencies can access and develop a kindergarten assessment process that will be consistent statewide. 

Some of these programs have already begun, but opportunities for students are expected to dramatically increase in August, according to the news release. 

Fourteen states received money through the “early learning challenge” portion of Race to the Top.

NM receives early childhood education funds

City replacing traffic circle at cost of over $100,000

NewsNM:Swickard - KOB, my old television station from when I worked there in the 1970s is hinting that there is some influence. Could be. From KOB-TV.com - By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - The city of Albuquerque has demolished a traffic circle out in front of the Albuquerque Country Club, and now plans to replace it with (trumpet fanfare please) a new improved traffic circle!
     Most neighbors will tell you that the traffic circle was there for six months, maybe eight months. But city officials say nope, make it two years. At any rate it was never intended to be permanent, just a cheap asphalt pin-down job to see how people liked the traffic circle concept, and it seems they did.Price tag? About $16,000. “It’s materials we can save and use at another location, so it’s not a waste of money,” said city Municipal Development chief Michael Riordan. “Then there is some pavement striping, some temporary striping. That will be a lost cost, but most of that $16,000 we’ll be able to use somewhere else in the city.”
     The new traffic circle will be made of stouter stuff – concrete, curb-and-gutter, nice landscaping – with a price tag of about $150,000. “It seems a bit much to me,” said neighbor Gordon Wohlert. “These are difficult times. $150,000? Well, that’s more than I have in my pocket!”
     City officials plan to meet with neighbors next month to get their ideas about landscaping and design. We feel compelled to point out that the Albuquerque Country Club is a well-known hub of affluence and influence. And the surrounding neighborhood is far from shabby! We’re just saying. More

City replacing traffic circle at cost of over $100,000

Valley Meat Co. denied wastewater permit

The New Mexico Environment Department on Monday dealt a new blow to a Roswell company's hard-fought attempts to begin slaughtering horses next month, declining a request to renew Valley Meat Co.'s wastewater discharge permit. 

The denial came the same day that actor Robert Redford and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson joined the divisive debate, announcing formation of an animal protection foundation to fight a return to domestic horse slaughter. 

The NMED says it won't renew the permit without a public hearing, noting it has received more than 450 comments against letting the former cattle slaughterhouse open as a horse slaughter plant. 

Valley Meat Co. attorney Blair Dunn cried foul, saying the agency was unfairly targeting a small family-owned business. He says the plant can still open, but would have to haul its waste.

Valley Meat Co. denied wastewater permit