I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Albuquerque's proposed arena
Downtown arena could raise $344 million in financing with an increase in the gross receipts tax, but the city would have to figure out another way to come up with the money for things like a proposed canopy over the railroad tracks and a parking garage. As Dan McKay reports in today’s Albuquerque Journal:
The tight economy and meltdown on Wall Street could complicate matters. The city and state governments each plan to cut spending because of lower-than-expected revenues. City Council President Brad Winter said that, amid a budget crunch, he’s skeptical about the possibility of finding money for the extra $53 million not covered by the new tax and operating revenue. “Things are just down. It’s a bad time,” he said. The developers are “not looking at reality.”
Just a few weeks ago, Mayor Chavez was sanguine about the project, saying, ““In terms of an opportune time to make an investment, if anyone’s liquid enough, these are great times.”
Chavez’s best buddy on the City Council, Debbie O’Malley (Ha ha! You know we’re kidding, right?), agrees with the mayor for once, saying, “Families are going to be out of work, and here’s an opportunity to employ hundreds of people. It’s an investment.”
The full City Council will hear about all this in a study session Thursday night and it’ll be brought up at the regular meeting on Monday.
Meanwhile, there is much buzz about that supply of brackish water discovered on the land that SunCal bought from the Atrisco Land Grant heirs. SunCal tells the Journal today that it plans to use that water as bait to lure industry to the area. Meanwhile, on the Duke City Fix, Coco wonders whether SunCal is solvent enough to survive the financial crisis and complete its project in Albuquerque.
As if the weather prediction weren’t bad enough, a fire last night caused as much as $500,000 in damage to Ski Apache in Ruidoso. Equipment in a building at the resort was damaged, according to the Ruidoso News. “The heat was so intense, pieces of the trusses warped. The cab of the snowcat melted, it was so hot, and so did the lights off the water tender,” a firefighter told the paper.
