John Arnold

Mayors battle bottled water

What kind of "mouthfeel" does your drinking water provide? The bottled water industry is pulling out all the marketing stops to convince you that their water is "more than a pretty taste," as long as you’re willing to pay more for it — as much as  $40 a bottle in the case of BlingH20, the [...]

Newspaper compares presidential hopefuls on the e-campaign trail

John McCain may be "aware of the Internet," but Barack Obama is mastering it as a campaign tool.

Christian Science Monitor blogger Dante Chinni today analyzed the "stark differences" between the two candidates and how they’re using e-communications to reach out to supporters. Chinni’s blog has set up e-mail accounts for  "pseudovoters" in 11 representative communities [...]

Udall votes against lab cuts

SANTA FE — Rep. Tom Udall on Wednesday voted against a spending bill that would significantly cut Los Alamos National Laboratory’s budget and halt plutonium pit production at the lab.

Over Udall’s objection, the House Appropriations Committee passed the measure on a voice vote, and it will now head to the House floor.

Udall released a [...]

Domenici asks Bush for help on nuke, lab funding (updated)

With an important vote on U.S. nuclear weapons funding looming, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is asking President Bush to pressure Congress to fund a new generation of nuclear warheads.

The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up a funding measure Wednesday that would leave out funding for the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead and make [...]

Report: Politics influenced hiring at U.S. Justice Department

The Justice Department has been recruiting law students based on "political and ideological factors" for the past six years, according to a report from the agency’s Inspector General’s office.

According to the New York Times:

The blistering report, prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general, is the first in what will be a series of investigations growing [...]

Pressure grows to change “relic” law

The chorus for mining law reform is growing.

Citing a New Mexico gold mining proposal, the New York Times yesterday issued its argument for changes to the 1872 mining law, which the paper’s editorial labels "flimsy" and "a relic of the boisterous era of Western expansion":
…the law gives hard-rock mining precedence over all other uses of [...]

Spoiler alert

 
SANTA FE – Meet Carol Miller. Actually, you’ve met her before—in 1997 and 1998—when she ran as a Green Party candidate for New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District seat.

The Peñasco-area resident is running again this year—this time as an Independent against Democratic nominee and Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Ray Lujan and Republican contractor Dan East. Another [...]

House committee wants nuke cuts

A House subcommittee has voted for a modest cut to the U.S. nuclear weapons budget, which funds thousands of jobs at New Mexico’s national laboratories.

The House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee cut $100 million — or 1.6 percent — from this year’s budget. The Bush Administration has asked for an increase in weapons funding, but [...]

No slam dunk

SANTA FE — In April 2007, just a few months after a hard-fought and ultimately successful battle to ban energy development in northern New Mexico’s pristine Valle Vidal, local conservationists were brimming with confidence and had their sights set on another chunk of rugged beauty near the Colorado border. On the eve of Earth Day [...]

Congress pushes to protect wilderness

As soaring oil prices fuel the call for more domestic oil and gas drilling, a push is on in Washington to protect millions of acres of wilderness across the U.S., including a 20,000-acre tract in eastern New Mexico, the Washington Post is reporting today. Congress is considering bills that would place as many as a [...]