Swickard: Putting the ouch into texting

© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. If you want a good laugh go to any college campus to watch some of the best and brightest students in the world trying to text and walk. The resultant signpost smack-downs are amazing. What is the communication value of their texting since these students make the same mistake day after day texting themselves into sign poles and off curbs?
       It makes me wonder when texting students wander out into traffic. Must be a Darwin moment when traffic has to frantically avoid them. Disaster strikes when a driver is texting and not watching the texting students. Both are knuckleheads. They cannot stop texting for even a few minutes.
      Some think we need more laws to keep people from being knuckleheads. Not me since a person intent upon being a knucklehead will be a knucklehead regardless of laws. We have plenty of data over the years of people who insisted on being foolish despite good advice.
       For the record I try to help text victims who accidentally embrace sign poles. My sympathy is given when all of a sudden they realize their device is broken so they will have to look life in the eyes all day long.
       A generation or two ago it was not texting that caused these accidents, it was loud music. By loud I mean volume that parts your hair when you get into the car. My generation sang along at the top of our lungs without anyone ever hearing us.
       Many in my generation drove right through red lights and into the path of emergency vehicles via the mind-numbing effects of loud music. One friend years ago said he did not hear the collision but realized that there had to have been one since when the music stopped he realized he was upside-down on the highway. Read full column

Swickard: Putting the ouch into texting

Ex-cop wants job back after acquittal

Former APD Officer Connor Rice

From KRQE-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A jury has found former Albuquerque Police Department Officer Connor Rice not guilty on two counts of abusing suspects during a drug investigation. Rice had been on trial since Monday accused of using excessive force when he and other officers chased men believed to have been smoking marijuana at a city park in May 2012. The jury found him not guilty of battery and aggravated battery.
     The jury got the case Wednesday afternoon and deliberated about 45 minutes before breaking for the night. Deliberations resumed Thursday morning, and the verdict was reached at about 11:30 a.m.
     Rice said he doesn't know what the future holds, but he has appealed his termination as an APD officer. “I loved my job,” Rice said. “I can tell you that. I'm deeply grateful for the relationships I formed on that job, and I will always be grateful for those relationships". Rice said he had been with APD for seven years. More

Ex-cop wants job back after acquittal

Advocates hold vigils outside Pearce's office

Advocates have launched a series of vigils outside of Congressman Steve Pearce's Las Cruces office to push for federal immigration reform. 

The group Border Network for Human Rights says it will the hold daily morning vigils until Friday. 

The move comes as immigrant advocates press the lone Republican in the state's Congressional delegation to support a federal proposal that would grant immigrants in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship.

 Pearce has said he didn't support that measure. Pearce represents New Mexico's border with Mexico and is viewed by the GOP as a key figure is helping attract Latino voters to the Republican Party.

Advocates hold vigils outside Pearce's office

Legislative auditors criticize child care providers

Legislative auditors are criticizing state oversight of taxpayer-subsidized child care providers, saying a government agency failed to detect sex offenders possibly living at child care locations. 

Auditors outlined their findings Wednesday to the Legislative Finance Committee. The audit report said the Children, Youth and Families Department suspended three child care homes after auditors told the agency that registered sex offenders listed the homes as their primary address. 

The audit report said New Mexico needs to better coordinate early childhood programs, such as subsidized child care for low-income families, with the state's more academically rigorous pre-kindergarten programs. Auditors said basic child care fails to improve the later school performance and literacy of students.

Legislative auditors criticize child care providers

Human Services Sec. under fire for hunger comments

Sidonie Squier

Senate Majority Leader Michael S. Sanchez is calling for the resignation of Human Services Department Secretary Sidonie Squier.  

This follows a report of an email written by Secretary Squier on September 17, 2013 stating, “…[T]here has never been and is not now any significant evidence of hunger in New Mexico….” Secretary Squier’s email was written in response to receiving a “Draft Hunger Task Force Report”.  

Her email in its entirety states, “Nicely written and organized document.  Since there has never been and is not now any significant evidence of hunger in New Mexico, I would offer that the focus of the report should be on getting proper nutrition for children (and adults).   

Governor Martinez and Secretary Squier have characterized her written words as “poorly worded."  

Human Services Sec. under fire for hunger comments

Liquor laws may be changing in San Juan County

From KOB-TV.com - By: Ashley McElroy, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - Restaurants in parts of San Juan County may soon be able to sell beer and wine, and it's all because of what one restaurant did.  Fishead’s San Juan River Lodge decided they wanted a beer and wine license because they thought it would be good for business.
     "Most of them like beer and wine with their meal, so when we decided to put the restaurant in place we thought that's a good idea," said general manager Thaddeus Cano.
     Right now, restaurants in the unincorporated areas of San Juan County are not allowed to serve liquor. But Fishead’s gathered enough signatures to force the county to hold an election.
     "Everybody who comes in, we ask 'Oh, are you a resident of San Juan County? Can you sign out petition?'” said assistant manager Betty Mauldin. If voters approve it, all restaurants in the county will be able to get a license to sell beer and wine.
     "I see the cities Farmington, Aztec and Bloomfield all serve beer and wine in their restaurants so I don't see the problem with county restaurants serving beer," said David Archuleta. The county commission is expected to decide on a date for the election at a meeting next week. More

Liquor laws may be changing in San Juan County

Public paid $27K for Martinez out-of-state trips

NewsNMSwickard - Hey, how about a look at former governor Bill Richardson's use of public money? Let's have a little balance please.

From KOAT-TV.com - SANTA FE, N.M. —New Mexico taxpayers are picking up thousands of dollars of costs related to political fundraisers and other out-of-state trips by Gov. Susana Martinez.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that public records indicate that the state spent more than $27,000 on 11 such trips between mid-March and June.
     Just over $24,000 paid for transportation, lodging and food for the governor's security team while nearly $2,500 paid for travel expenses of Martinez aides. Most of Martinez's own costs were paid by her re-election campaign or organizations inviting her to events.
     Along with several political fundraisers, the governor's travels included a trip to Rome as part of a U.S. delegation attending the installation of the new pope and to Salt Lake City for a Republican Governors Association meeting. More

Public paid $27K for Martinez out-of-state trips

No 'Incredibly Small' Wars Against Energy by Obama

Commentary by Marita Noon - Look closely at the energy-related news stories of the past dozen or so days, and, between the lines, you’ll see a theme: government makes predictions and assertions that cannot be backed up by data to protect or project preferred messaging.
     The unusual collaboration of the University of Texas (UT) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) conducted a first-ever detailed examination more than 500 wells were analyzed of individual drilling sites to determine the total amount of escaped methane from shale gas operations. The study was released on September 16 by the National Academy of Sciences. The New York Times story on the study opens with: “Drilling for shale gas through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, appears to cause smaller leaks of the greenhouse gas methane than the federal government had estimated.” It reports: “Previous E.P.A. estimates relied on engineering calculations, and other studies gathered data via aircraft flights over drilling sites.”

     Why does this matter? Because environmental groups have used previous methane-leak estimates to claim that leaks offset the environmental benefits of the clean-burning natural gas the wells produce. Such claims are used to bolster fracking opposition. A September 17 press release from the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works states: “methane leakage from shale gas development is not releasing nearly as much methane as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had predicted. EPA’s grossly exaggerated estimates have been widely used by critics and far-left environmentalists to discredit the benefits of hydraulic fracturing.”
     The exaggerated estimates of methane leaks came from a study released two years ago when two Cornell University scientists, Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea, reported catastrophic levels of methane were being leaked by fracking operations. According to Forbes, “a slew of experts” discredited the research, which just reviewed EPA data and relied on estimates and hypotheticals. Read full column

No 'Incredibly Small' Wars Against Energy by Obama

One switch away from nuclear disaster

NewsNM-Swickard - the same thing happened in Albuquerque in 1957 when a hydrogen bomb fell accidentally from a military airplane Interesting story read here 

From KOB-TV.com - By: Mike Anderson, KOB Eyewitness News 4 -  A hydrogen bomb nearly detonated on the U. S. east coast, with a single switch averting a blast which would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that flattened Hiroshima, a newly published book says.
     In a recently declassified document, reported in a new book by Eric Schlosser, the supervisor of the nuclear weapons safety department at Sandia national laboratories said that one simple, vulnerable switch prevented nuclear catastrophe. The Guardian newspaper published the document on Saturday.
     Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on Jan. 24, 1961 after a B-52 bomber broke up in flight. One of the bombs apparently acted as if it was being armed and fired  its parachute opened and trigger mechanisms engaged.
     Parker F. Jones at the Sandia National Laboratories analyzed the accident in a document headed “How I learned to mistrust the H-Bomb.” “The MK39 Mod 2 bomb did not possess adequate safety for the airborne-alert role in the B-52,” he wrote.
      When the B-52 disintegrates in the air it is likely to release the bombs in “a near normal fashion,” he wrote, calling the safety mechanisms to prevent accidental arming “not complex enough.” The document said the bomb had four safety mechanisms, one of which is not effective in the air.When the aircraft broke up, two others were rendered ineffective.
     “One simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe!” Jones wrote, adding that it could have been “bad news — in spades” if the switch had shorted.
     Schlosser discovered the document, written in 1969, through the Freedom of Information Act. Read story

One switch away from nuclear disaster

Making it politically profitable to do the right thing

© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “The issue is not a partisan issue. We will not solve our problem by electing the right people. We will only solve our problem by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.” Milton Friedman.
     Those words spoken by economist Milton Friedman during the presidential administration of Jimmy Carter are just as true today. The problem he saw then is exactly the same problem we are experiencing now. Politicians, for the most part, always do the politically profitable things as it applies to them. Unfortunately, many citizens feel those are not the right things for them but do not know how to change the politicians.
     Changing politicians comes two ways: changing some of their actions and, changing from one politician to another. It would seem that, as Friedman said, it is not a partisan issue. Both political parties seem to want exactly the same thing: to make government bigger so that they are ever so much more powerful themselves.
     Government gets bigger no matter who is elected. It is true some politicians do not increase government quite as fast as other politicians, but in the last century government has always gotten bigger. President Thomas Jefferson observed, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”
     Sometimes the only thing that helps is to get new politicians in office who do not yet know the ropes to bind the citizens. Those are the ones that we think will be different. Mark Twain observed, “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”
     One of the most troubling aspects of politics to me is that to get elected both parties must promise to spend tomorrow’s money on today election. The way they see it, if they do not they will be yesterday’s news. Any politician saying they are not going to bring home the pork is unelectable. Read full column

Making it politically profitable to do the right thing