Small N.M. town named on dangerous cities list

From KOB-TV.com - By: Ashley McElroy, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - Which cities would you think are the "most dangerous" in the country? Does Farmington make your list? It made one website's list. Every year neighborhoodscout.com puts out a list of the 100 most dangerous cities, and according to the list, Farmington is number 59.
     The site uses data from uniform crime reporting, or UCR, a FBI database. But is this list accurate?
     "It shouldn't be done in the first place, because there’s too many variables,” said Jerry Worrell, crime analyst for the Farmington Police Department.
     On the UCR website, there is a list of variables explaining why these numbers shouldn't be used for rankings. One variable is population change. Farmington is the largest town in the region and a lot of people come into town throughout the week. Worrell said if a violent crime is committed when those people come to town, the numbers won't be accurate.
     "The population at any given time is much greater than what would be counted on the U.S. census report,” he said.  Worrell also said the department misreported certain crimes.
     "What they called aggravated assault for example and what the state defines aggravated assault under state code are quite different and there's some confusion in that," he said.  He said after this survey came out, the department identified the confusion so the city doesn't get back on this list.
     No other New Mexico town was on the list. Read more

Small N.M. town named on dangerous cities list

International Space Hall of Fame inducts original DC-X team

From the Alamogordo Daily News - The International Space Hall of Fame and the New Mexico Museum of Space History officials said Friday that members of the original Delta Clipper Experimental team will be enshrined at the space hall Aug. 17. The DC-X team will be the first group ever inducted into the ISHF. Every member of the DC-X team, hall officials said, displayed qualities required to be an inductee: imagination, achievement, the dedication to further advance man's knowledge of the universe, and his ability to explore and develop space for the benefit of all mankind.
     Many obstacles confronted the DC-X team as they worked toward making the dream of aircraft-like safety for affordable space travel a reality. From underfunding to a seemingly impossible turn-around time, the team, inspired by famed astronaut and space visionary Pete Conrad, faced each obstacle with renewed determination.
     The induction ceremony will be held in conjunction with the DC-X First Flight Plus 20 anniversary and Spaceplane Conference on August 16-18 at Spaceport America and NMMSH. The induction ceremony will take place at the New Mexico State University-Alamogordo's Tays Special Events Center. The team will join a prestigious group of 154 other inductees that include the likes of Neil Armstrong, Gene Kranz, Edwin Aldrin, Gene Cernan, Nicolaus Copernicus, Valentina Tereshkova, Wernher von Braun, and many other space pioneers and visionaries. Read more

International Space Hall of Fame inducts original DC-X team

Another step toward a loan for water plant

From the Alamogordo Daily News - By John Bear, Staff Writer - he Alamogordo City Commission on Tuesday took the first step toward obtaining $1.1 million in state-distributed federal loan money for designing a desalination plant and related infrastructure. City Utilities Director Brian Cesar said Tuesday that money not expended on the design of the mobile desalination plant can be rolled over into another loan the city can use for actual construction.
     The city has plans to build a mobile desalination plant at a city water treatment facility and pump brackish ground water in from well fields north of Tularosa. Brackish water has a salt content that makes it unsuitable to drink but has a lower salinity than sea water. The federal government granted the city permission last year to build several wells and pipeline to transport water which will be purified for municipal use. More

Another step toward a loan for water plant

New blaze growing quickly in northern N.M.

From KOB-TV.com - By: Avicra Luckey, KOB.com Staff - A new fire in the northern part of the state sparked up Thursday afternoon. The Whites Peak fire is currently burning about 10 miles northeast of Ocate, N.M. The blaze started after a lightning strike. It has grown to more than 200 acres. No structures are threatened at this time. More

New blaze growing quickly in northern N.M.

Swickard: Reasoning with an unreasonable government

© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Be reasonable. That is a common desire in our society. We wish to be surrounded by reasonable people and to have a reasonable government to protect us from unreasonable people. The problem is when the government itself becomes that which we cannot stand: when the government becomes unreasonable. Then we citizens have a problem.
     From the moment of our founding, this country has been haunted by the specter of totalitarian rule. The Constitution was carefully crafted to protect American Citizens from the urges of power-hungry leaders. Over the decades, little by little, power-hungry leaders have dismantled those protections. Most of these actions came with the promise of some reward for citizens foregoing their protections from governments taking their freedoms.
     It started when the government started doing things for people who wanted things they did not have. There is an impulse to get something from the government to which we do not own. Part of this involves protecting us from the human emotion of want.
     Most of the time the trade of our freedoms to satisfy some of our wants is above-board so that anyone who wishes to know can know the trade that has been made. The government steps in to give us our wants if we give the government their want of power. The accumulation of power requires us to surrender our freedoms. We know where people want to start in having the government do things. The quest is to know when they, whoever they are, have gone too far.

     And the loss of our freedoms is still not enough for our government. The end-game is most certainly a total dictatorship. The loss of freedom is never all at once, it is always incremental. It is always “reasonable” until it becomes unreasonable.
     Having an all-powerful government watching the communications of every citizen without any presumption of doing something wrong is the road to ruin for our society. Do we have any servants left or are we the servants to the government? Time will tell. Read full column

Swickard: Reasoning with an unreasonable government

State medical marijuana board head leaves office

The state medical marijuana advisory board's chairman is leaving office after not being reappointed by Gov. Susana Martinez's administration. 

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that Dr. Steve Jenison was instrumental in establishing New Mexico's medical marijuana program. Health Secretary Retta Ward told Jenison in a letter that he will no longer be part of the board. 

Health Department spokesman Kenny Vigil declined to elaborate on why Jension isn't being reappointed. Jenison says the decision may be stem from his efforts to ensure compliance with rules and to press for timely decisions on requests to add medical conditions allowing medical marijuana use.

State medical marijuana board head leaves office

Udall leads way for NSA investigations

Tom Udall 

U.S Senator Tom Udall is leading a bipartisan call for an independent investigation into the National Security Agency’s (NSA) phone records and data collection programs by a key privacy and civil liberties panel originally recommended by the 9/11 Commission and strengthened through Udall’s efforts. 

Udall sent a bipartisan letter to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, asking it to “make it an urgent priority to investigate the programs mentioned above and determine whether they (1) are conducted within the statutory authority granted by Congress, and (2) take the necessary precautions to protect the privacy and civil liberties of American citizens under the Constitution.”  

The letter is also signed by 12 other Senators. 

Udall leads way for NSA investigations

Fire teams confident they'll save Kingston

From KRQE-TV.com - HILLSBORO - Despite helpful winds the Silver Fire continues to bear down on Kingston as firefighters vow to save the historic mountain community. The latest estimate has the fire within a quarter of a mile of the village tucked into a high canyon in the Black Range.
     While firefighters say the winds may actually be helping them today, this town is still very much in danger. As of late afternoon winds were pushing the flames away from the town, but it's still a big fight complicated by knowing the winds could act up at any moment. People in Kingston say they got word early Monday morning that they had to leave.
     Meanwhile, the latest estimates indicate the fire sparked by a lightning strike on Friday has grown to nearly 12,000 acres. Fire officials say it's grown to the south and west in very rugged terrain that's making it hard to fight on the ground. Instead the fire team is relying on aircraft dropping water and retardant.
     Fire lines are also being set up near the end of the tree line where it goes back into grassland and where fire fighters can actually work. They're doing all this while keeping an eye on Kingston. Another thing working against firefighters is the extreme heat with little to no humidity.
     Still they are confident they can keep the flames out of Kingston. Read more

Fire teams confident they'll save Kingston

Experts: Cartel disputes fuel increase in Juárez region violence

From the El Paso Times - By Diana Washington Valdez - U.S. officials on Wednesday said their intelligence indicates that the Sinaloa and Juárez drug-trafficking organizations are still active in the Juárez region, and that a recent spike in drug violence there can be attributed to cartel disputes.
     Joseph Arabit, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in El Paso, said the violence stems from "fracturing within the Sinaloa cartel and continued fighting between the cartels."
     Army Col. Marisa Tanner, intelligence director for Joint Task Force North at Fort Bliss, said rogue elements of cartels that break away from the main groups contribute to violence.
     Arabit and Tanner were among panelists Wednesday at the International Association for Intelligence Education hosted this week by the University of Texas at El Paso. The conference brings together intelligence educators and trainers from around the world.
     They were joined for a discussion on border security by Ian Brownlee, U.S. consul in Juárez; Mark Morgan, FBI special agent in charge in El Paso; and Edward Regula, chief of the Border Intelligence Fusion Section at the El Paso Intelligence Center.
     Although elements of both drug cartels operate in the Juárez region, the experts said, intelligence indicates that Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman's organization, of Sinaloa, is the dominant group. Read more

Experts: Cartel disputes fuel increase in Juárez region violence

Study puts NM at top for child hunger

New statistics show the state has the most hungry children of any state in the country. 

The numbers show one in every three New Mexican children don't have enough to eat. The study was done by Feeding America, a hunger relief charity. 

Stephanie Miller of the Road Runner Food Bank said there's a number of reasons - from recession to parents unable to provide -- that a third of the state's kids are going hungry. The food bank can also check and see if patrons qualify for food stamps. 

New Mexico also ranks second overall in the country for adult hunger, which means 20 percent of New Mexican adults don't know where they'll get their next meal.

Study puts NM at top for child hunger