Newsbreak New Mexico 5pm Webcast 12/13/12

Newsbreak New Mexico 5pm Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich

                                     Listen here:

Rio Rancho animal ordinance
Delegation appointments
Early flu season
Ute pipeline study 

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Newsbreak New Mexico 5pm Webcast 12/13/12

NM delegation appointments

New Mexico won’t have the most senior delegation when the 113th Congress convenes early next year, but it will have a seat on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat entering the fifth year of his first six-year term, learned Wednesday that he will serve on the elite spending committee – an assignment that could be critical for New Mexico, which is heavily dependent on federal money.  

Meanwhile, Sen.-elect Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., was appointed to serve on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It is another committee important to New Mexico, a major energy-producing state.  Heinrich also will serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Udall will also serve on the Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Indian Affairs committees. 

Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., learned Wednesday that he will serve on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, while Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M, will serve on the Financial Services Committee. 

NM delegation appointments

Newsbreak New Mexico 12pm Webcast 12/13/12

Newsbreak New Mexico 12pm Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich

                                     Listen here:

Early flu season
ABQ special election
Bingaman presides over last hearing
APS calendar change

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Newsbreak New Mexico 12pm Webcast 12/13/12

Wanted gun found at Magdalena school

The Magdalena Marshal’s Office is investigating how a gun from a capital murder case in Houston found its way to Magdalena Schools. 

The Marshal’s Office was called to Magdalena Schools about 8 p.m. Nov. 29 for shots fired outside the cafeteria during a basketball game, according to police records. Marshals recovered a .45-caliber Ruger from a 14-year-old boy believed to have fired the gun. The teen was taken to the Bernalillo County Detention Center, and charges have been filed by the Juvenile Probation Office.

 Police later discovered the gun was evidence wanted in the Houston murder case. According to the police report, the boy said he got the gun from a friend in Socorro and took it to school “to be cool.” The boy also said he did not fire the weapon, and that he had smoked marijuana and taken a drug. 

The report states Magdalena Schools staff found a spent cartridge near the cafeteria entrance on Nov. 30 and called it in to the marshal. The cartridge matched the gun.

Wanted gun found at Magdalena school

Senator Bingaman presides over final hearing

Jeff Bingaman

Sen. Jeff Bingaman presided over a Senate committee hearing for the final time Wednesday morning, prompting another senator to lament that the upper chamber of Congress will be “less thoughtful and less informed” in the New Mexico Democrat’s absence. 

Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is retiring next month after a 30-year Senate career. The senator is also a Finance Committee member, and with the energy committee’s work done for the year, he was asked to chair a finance hearing Wednesday on taxes and energy policy. 

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who also serves on the Finance Committee and is expected to take over from Bingaman as the energy chairman, said the Senate will miss Bingaman’s steady, low-key legislative style.

Senator Bingaman presides over final hearing

ABQ minimum wage fight continues

Efforts continue to fight Albuquerque’s oncoming minimum wage hike approved by voters in the November election. 

One group is asking city councilors to instead consider phasing-in the wage hike, but time is running out. The dollar-an-hour increase to $8.50 takes effect in less than a month.  The fate of the minimum wage hike lies largely with the Albuquerque city council even though voters overwhelmingly passed it back in November. 

But so far, no one is sponsoring anything.  Good news for those with the group OLE which fought hard for voter support. OLE member Andrea Serrano says a push by the New Mexico Restaurant Association to get councilors to amend the ordinance by phasing in the increase is wrong. 

The association says the dollar-an-hour increase won't fit well for many business owners whose budget planning didn't account for pay increases. 

ABQ minimum wage fight continues

Newsbreak New Mexico 8am Webcast 12/13/12

Newsbreak New Mexico 8am Newscast with Vanessa Dabovich

                                     Listen here:

Spaceport uncertainty
ABQ minimum wage fight continues
APS considering calendar change
Bingaman presides over last hearing 

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Newsbreak New Mexico 8am Webcast 12/13/12

Future of spaceport uncertain

The deal was sold to New Mexicans in classic Richard Branson fashion. 

 If taxpayers would build the colorful British businessman a $209 million futuristic spaceport, he would make New Mexico the launching point for his space tourism business. 

Now, with Spaceport America nearly complete, a Virgin Galactic official says the company will reassess its agreement if lawmakers don't pass liability exemption laws for its suppliers, raising the possibility the company could take its spacecraft and launch elsewhere. 

And state officials acknowledge the company could probably walk away from the deal.

Future of spaceport uncertain