Joel Gay
Rail Runner: On to Santa Fe by mid-December
The Rail Runner Express commuter train appears to be on schedule to make its historic first run from Albuquerque into downtown Santa Fe next month, and officials say they expect a bumper crop of riders. “We’re bracing ourselves for a huge ridership level,” said Lawrence Rael, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments, which manages the train.
N.M.’s judge evaluation program leaves voters in the dark
New Mexico is one of a handful of states with a commission that evaluates judges’ performance and then recommends to voters on which to retain. But while other states provide pages of data on each judge, New Mexico voters get only a single paragraph, and sometimes “no opinion.”
TODAY’S TOP STORIES: New rules for APD, a minimum wage hike in Santa Fe, and big chile news too!
After a spate of embarrassing arrests that have turned into public relations nightmares, Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz has ordered his officers to think twice before citing individuals with the broad and vague charge of “refusing to obey,” The Albuquerque Journal reports. The announcement comes after a Journal story showing that 70 percent of such [...]
Patricia Madrid’s competition for Interior Dept. nod looks tough
Former New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid may be in the running for secretary of interior, but she has some stiff competition for the post. Democratic Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva is also cited in news reports, and he appears to have much more forest, basin and range cred for the job than Madrid.
Funds drying up for N.M.’s new water sources
The economic downturn may do what the state cannot — slow the headlong rush for brackish water deep below the desert west of Albuquerque. It will take tens of millions of dollars to turn any of the three reported supplies of brine into water fit for human consumption, and neither private nor public sources of money appear to be overflowing these days.
Drip irrigation has drawbacks, N.M. study says
A New Mexico State University agriculture professor has some surprising news on the water front: Drip irrigation is not the water-saver it’s cracked up to be.
The study, co-authored by NMSU water resource economist Frank Ward and Manuel Pulido-Velazquez of Spain and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks at the big [...]
Dems give Waxman key chairmanship long held by Dingell
Congressional Democrats have ousted longtime Michigan Rep. John Dingell as chairman of the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee and replaced him with the more progressive Rep. Henry Waxman of California.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES: A $500 million hole at the Roundhouse
The state’s economic picture is coming into focus and it’s a mix of good and bad. State Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings tells The Associate Press today that lower oil and gas revenue could create a $500 million hole for Gov. Bill Richardson and legislators to fill — that’s twice the shortfall predicted earlier.
The [...]
Detroit: To rescue, or not to rescue, that is the question
As Congress convenes to discuss the proposed $25 billion bailout for the Big Three automakers — and as news sinks in that the federal government’s earlier financial aid plans haven’t worked out exactly as advertised — it’s helpful to read around the edges of the idea. Lots of people are thinking about whether Detroit is [...]
Bicycle commuting gets (mini) bailout of its own
Tucked in among billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street are a few crumbs for the people — not for the folks who took out risky mortgages or who thought someone else would pay off their credit card bills, but for that tiny slice of America that bicycles to work.