5.2 quake strikes New Mexico

No, this is Japan, New Mexico was fine

From KOAT-TV.com - A 5.2-magnitude earthquake rocked parts of New Mexico on Saturday night. Officials said the quake struck about 10:59 p.m. Saturday
     The KOAT-TV newsroom was flooded with phone calls from people who felt the earthquake.
     Residents in Silver City, Truth or Consequences, Tucson, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, said they felt the tremor.
     The epicenter was located about 31 miles northwest of Lordsburg.
     Officials said there were no reports of injuries or serious damage.

5.2 quake strikes New Mexico

Swickard: Job is not a four letter word

© 2014 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. The most important job young people will ever get is their first job. It may not pay well; but it leads to their second job. They cannot have a second job without a first job. Without the all-important first job, many young people will flounder and never get into the job market therefore wind up living on the street.
     Our society has put up many barriers to young people working. So many young do not get a no-brainer job and learn to work. They must learn to work as the boss says and to not quit until they have another job lined up. There is nothing wrong with working and going to school to get that first job. The key to my success over forty years was to get that first job and learn from it so I could get the next job and so on. Today many young people are in their middle twenties and still have not had a first job. I say to them that job is not a four letter word.
     There are three reasons many young people have not had their first job: first, they have not valued the things to learn from a first job. Secondly, many are not being forced by the economics of their life to get a job as long as they do not mind going in debt with student loans. Finally, many young people have not gotten that first job because the job market has collapsed.
     Many jobs are not open to young people because these young people do not have any job skills so employers are reluctant to hire young people who must be paid the minimum wage while they cannot return that productivity for the employer.
     In this tough economy many employers are slimming down their workforces and paying more to productive members of their staff while not hiring young people. There is a national push to make this worse by raising the minimum wage further. No one is speaking out for these young unemployed.
     Know this: they cannot get a second job without getting their first job. Further, they cannot get productive skills if employers will not hire them because of the minimum wage.
     There should be a waiver that if someone has never had a job previously then they can make any deal with an employer for a first job. Suddenly, they would be attractive. Read full column

Swickard: Job is not a four letter word

Española councilor charged with pistol-whipping man, shooting at truck

Espanola City Councilor Eric Radosevich

From KOB-TV.com - By: Elizabeth Reed, KOB.com - The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office confirms an Española city councilor is behind bars on charges of aggravated battery and assault.
     Councilor Eric Radosevich, 43, is accused of pistol whipping a man and shooting at his vehicle two times.  On June 21, the victim told the sheriff's office he was at a gas station when an unknown male approached his pickup truck to speak to his wife.
     The man said he confronted the stranger and then got into an argument. While trying to leave the gas station, the victim said the man followed him in a white Chevy pickup with other men inside.
     When he drove to the Roadrunner Cafe in Pojoaque, the victim said the stranger came out of his truck and struck him several times with a black handgun. The stranger then allegedly fired two rounds toward the victim while driving away--striking the victim's truck.
     Through the investigation, the sheriff's office learned the white Chevy pickup belonged to Radosevich. He was arrested on Wednesday and remains in custody at the Santa Fe County Detention Facility. More

Española councilor charged with pistol-whipping man, shooting at truck

Lack of imagination: a fatal flaw

Commentary - © 2014 Pat Temple - A lack of imagination can make life worse than death, in ways. And, sadly, the way human beings are made, they simply can't think ahead when it comes to certain specific areas. They're pretty good at laying out fields and irrigation systems. 

      They can picture a pecan farm twenty years in the future, and the way the house might look, with rich hardwood floors, high ceilings, and hand-created tile counter tops, but they are nearly hopeless at combating "common folklore" such as "the hook doesn't hurt the fish," despite the fact that the fish appears to be trying desperately to get off it.
     H. L. Mencken wrote, about 100 years ago, that people hadn't bathed until the last 75 years. He did that deliberately to see how many people would believe it. My father said he was thinking about that statement (and believing it) standing in front of a Roman bathtub in the Pliny Gardens in Florence, Italy. 

      He said the dichotomy almost did not occur to him. He was standing directly in front of proof that people bathed 2,000 years ago while thinking "I believe that people did not bathe until 75 years ago … and yet, here I am, standing in front of a bathtub that was hand-carved out of marble 2,000 years ago."

     It must have helped us survive, somehow, to have this ability to believe a certain set of facts that aren't facts at all, but it might not be so good for us as individuals. I know that for years the school system has said that children have to go to public schools "because they have to learn to get along with these people; they will be with them when they grow up." 

      It's not true. Getting along is among the most natural of any human qualities. Any two people sitting next to each other on an airplane can adjust to each other's differences in minutes, and find grounds for a first-rate conversation. Read full column

Lack of imagination: a fatal flaw

State sets aside money for special education dispute

The State Board of Finance has approved $26 million as a safety net if New Mexico loses a dispute with the federal government over special education funding. 

The board on Tuesday agreed to a transfer of the money from this year's budget accounts. The Legislature provided the money as part of a contingency plan for an ongoing fight over whether New Mexico met requirements for federal aid since 2010. 

Federal officials contend New Mexico has improperly trimmed state funding available for special education. The state disagrees.

 Deputy Public Education Secretary Paul Aguilar said up to $18 million could be needed if the federal government rules against the state for this year's budget.

 The board's bookkeeping move makes up to $26 million available if it's necessary when the dispute is resolved.

Information from The Associated Press. 

State sets aside money for special education dispute

State working to eliminate feral pigs

State and federal wildlife managers in New Mexico are making progress in their fight against feral pigs. 

They say they have eliminated the majority of invasive porkers from 10 counties and progress is being made in another seven counties where pigs have taken up residency. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Service Division says federal hunters tracked down and eliminated about 700 pigs last year as part of a $1 million pilot project. Most of the work was done across New Mexico's eastern plains. 

Officials say most of the pigs removed were female, which should put a dent in the population's ability to multiple again.

 Officials will be targeting two counties in New Mexico's Bootheel region next. 

Information from The Associated Press. 

State working to eliminate feral pigs

Judge says Ruidoso can't ban negative opinions

Ruidoso Village Council

A federal judge has come down hard on Ruidoso officials who tried to ban residents from saying anything negative at council meetings. 

 U.S. District Judge James O. Browning issued an injunction Monday finding that the village of Ruidoso's rule or policy barring speakers from being critical is "an unconstitutional burden on free speech."

 Under the village rules, a speaker could praise personnel, staff or the village council, or could make a neutral comment, but could not voice criticism.

 In an 89-page opinion, Browning granted summary judgment to lawyer William Griffin, who sued after the council refused his request to speak at a meeting. Browning said limits can be placed on time and topic, but not on the speaker's opinion.

Judge says Ruidoso can't ban negative opinions

Rep. Garcia challenges primary election results

Mary Helen Garcia

Attorneys for the campaign of Rep. Mary Helen Garcia have formally a filed a motion challenging the results in the June Primary Election. 

Specifically, the attorneys cite irregularities in the signatures associated with absentee voting in the primary election for New Mexico House District 34. Rep. 

Garcia said. “The fact that Sunland Park has been marred by election fraud in the past, most recently in the 2013 municipal elections, and that the fact that similarities exist in this election, is more than a coincidence."

  Attorneys for Rep. Garcia submitted information by a forensic handwriting analyst, citing at least 17 cases of signatures not matching voter rolls. 

Third Judicial District Judge  Jim T. Martin set August 12 as the trial date for the election challenge. 

Information from The Associated Press. 

Rep. Garcia challenges primary election results

Photos show challenges battling Assayii Lake Fire

From KOB-TV.com - By: Elizabeth Reed, KOB.com - A new look at the Assayii Lake Fire shows what firefighters see and experience up close to the flames. Neil Damon, a crew boss with the Navajo Scouts, said they have been fighting the fire for more than a week. Damon took several pictures near the fire lines.
     At one point, he said the flames were so bad his crew had to back away. "When a fire blows up that basically just means that the fire takes off to a bigger extent, and our rule of fire: If the fire is more than four feet, higher than four feet, we can't fight it. It has to be four feet or less. If it's more than that, they just pull everyone off the line. These flames were from four feet to thirty feet," he said.
     Federal officials and a minority-owned medics group have also released photos from behind the fire line. Christina Nicole with Wilderness Medics captured a photo of firefighters hosing down fire fuels. She also shot a photo of a helicopter making water drops.
     Brandon Oberhardt with the U.S. Forest Service also snapped up-close photos of areas where the fire was low intensity. See more and the photos

Photos show challenges battling Assayii Lake Fire

Climate change–less of a scientific agenda and more of a political agenda

Commentary by Marita Noon - Those who don’t believe in climate change are “a threat to the future,” says the Washington Post in a June 14 article on President Obama’s commencement address for the University of California-Irvine. Regarding the speech, the Associated Press reported: “President Obama said denying climate change is like arguing the moon is made of cheese.” He declared: “Scientists have long established that the world needs to fight climate change.”
      The emphasis on a single government policy strays far from the flowery rhetoric found at the traditional graduation ceremony—especially in light of the timing. While the president was speaking, all of the progress made by America’s investment of blood and treasure in Iraq was under immediate threat. And, as I pointed out last week, what is taking place right now in Iraq has the potential of an imminent impact to our economic security. Instead of addressing the threat now, why is he talking about “a threat to the future” that might happen in the next 100 years?
     The answer, I believe, is found later in his comments. In his speech, Obama accused “some in Congress” of knowing that climate change is real, but refusing to admit it because they’ll “be run out of town by a radical fringe that thinks climate science is a liberal plot.”
     Perhaps he’s read a new book by a climatologist with more than forty years of experience in the discipline: The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science by Tim Ball, PhD—which convincingly lays out the case for believing that the current climate change narrative is “a liberal plot.” (Read a review from Principia Scientific International.) In the preface, Ball states: “I’ve watched my chosen profession—climatology—get hijacked and exploited in service of a political agenda.” He indirectly calls the actions of the president and his environmental allies: “the greatest deception in history” and claims: “the extent of the damage has yet to be exposed and measured.” Read full column

Climate change–less of a scientific agenda and more of a political agenda