Environment
Groups sue the state to block new law
Several groups have sued to block a new law restricting registration drives, The Associated Press is reporting.
The 2005 law limits organizations to 50 registration forms at a time, requires groups to record registrars with the secretary of state and provide information on them and give registrations to county clerks within 48 hours. Registering ineligible voters is subject to a $500 fine and-or up to six months in jail.
Advocates say the law has a chilling effect on registration dives and groups' ability to urge people to get involved in politics.
Navajos take on the government over compensation for uranium mining.
The Rocky Mountain News is taking an in-depth look at how Navajo uranium miners are faring in receiving compensation from the U.S. government decades after their work.
The story says many uranium workers are by law supposed to be compensated automatically through a program created eight years ago. It compensates workers who sacrificed their health, and sometimes their lives, as they labored amid highly toxic and top-secret materials used to build nuclear weapons.
But the paper reports:
Many of the Navajo were compensated $100,000 by a previous program created in 1990 and were to be automatically eligible for the new one, so their total benefits would rise to the current standards.
Instead, the Navajos have joined other former nuclear workers in fighting a different cold war, this time against their own government.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Layoffs at the Santa Fe New Mexican
The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper is resorting to layoffs because of a decline in ad revenue, the paper reports today.
The state of New Mexico has signed an agreement to explore clean energy projects to supply power to Kirtland, Holloman and Cannon Air Force bases according to New Mexico Business Weekly.
An innovative charter high school is set to commence within the confines of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center. Gordon Bernell Charter High School is a full fledged APS charter school and will begin classes full-time on August 4th, according to the Weekly Alibi.
The Associated Press is reporting that Nebraska is putting an embargo on beef cattle coming from New Mexico and California.
A national Hispanic group is calling on Gov. Bill Richardson to back a change in the New Mexico Constitution that would strip him and future governors of the power to appoint university regents, but Richardson isn't biting, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
The state announced a hearing on proposed rules for New Mexico's medical marijuana bill, according to The Associated Press.
The Navajo Nation also averted a shutdown of its Internet services -- for now, the Gallup Independent is reporting.
The big H2O transfer
The demand for water has driven up the value of Middle Rio Grande water rights more than tenfold in the last 20 years, and landowners are cashing out in what appear to be record numbers. But even as water transfers speed up, so has opposition from farmers and pueblos alike. In recent months the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has chimed in over concern for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow.
Get on board, Congress.
It’s no secret that, for two or three decades, the powers-that-be in America have ignored the looming energy crisis. Now, the emergency that could have been avoided has arrived. An Apollo-like program is what we need to solve the energy crisis, which is one of the most serious threats America has faced in decades. Enter T. Boone Pickens, an oilman who has the wisdom to understand that we can’t drill our way out of this problem, the guts to stick his neck out and the money to ensure his message is heard.
The hidden costs of a 'maquiladora'
Last week ground was broken on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez in what is set to be Mexico's largest 'maquiladora'. The Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn started construction in Jeronimo, Chihuaha on a facility that will eventually span 500 acres with more than 1.2 million square feet of structures and employ 30,000 people. Foxconn is one of the largest manufacturers of computer components and electronics worldwide.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Monsoons arrive and people cut water use.
After an extraordinarily dry spring, the summer monsoons have kicked in and in response, Albuquerque water customers have cut their use, reports the Albuquerque Journal.
In today's Santa Fe Reporter, (and posted on the paper's brand-new Web site ) Dave Maass follows up on a brouhaha between Green Party Public Regulation Commission candidate Rick Lass and Jerome Block, Sr., the father of Democratic candidate Jerome Block, Jr.
Also today, The Daily Times of Farmington follows up on the controversy over the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant. Read more here.
UNM School of Medicine researcher Dr. H. George Nurnberg was the leader of a study released yesterday showing that Viagra may help women overcome the sexual side-effects of antidepressants. According to the AP, Dr. Nurnberg's study of pre-menopausal women found that it helped them achieve orgasm.
Bingaman, Domenici spar on energy
There's a big congressional fight over what can be done to bring down high gas prices. And New Mexico has a front row seat. Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Republican Sen. Pete Domenici are their respective parties' top lawmakers on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. And each at times has acted as an eloquent spokesman for his party's views on how to address the issue.
NM Board of Finance postpones vote on new rules to clarify growth
The New Mexico Board of Finance voted unanimously today to postpone a vote until its September 16th meeting on a new rule to guide them when they consider creating a Tax Increment Development District.
Board of Finance Director Olivia Padilla-Jackson told the Independent the vote was postponed in order to give the Board time to review and consider the large number of comments received, which came from a wide range of non-profit organizations and for-profit development groups, as well as local city and county politicians.
Wind-energy classes offered at Mesalands Community College
Tucumcari may be where Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens find common ground — in the wind.
The former vice president last week called for a 10-year, man-on-the-moon commitment to wind and other forms of alternative energy, while the former Texas oilman has been promoting a similar message as he invests billions in the largest wind-energy project on Earth.
And Tucumcari? The little town on the eastern New Mexico plains is emerging as one of the few locations in the United States where someone can learn to master the giant turbines that have captured the minds of many, including Gore and Pickens. The first classes at the North American Wind Research and Training Center (NAWRTC) begin Aug. 25.
Mexico Notebook: Should PEMEX, the 'people's oil,' be privatized?
A recent edition of Reforma, one of Mexico City's largest-circulation newspapers, had no fewer than four articles in its first four pages related to one of the the hottest news items in this nation: the proposal to privatize Mexico's national oil system, PEMEX. People go to the polls Sunday to decide. The vote comes 70 or so years after this nation nationalized oil to wrest control of Mexico's natural resource away from American companies in the late 1930s. Mexico is considering privatizing because, it says, it needs investment to further exploration, most notably in the Gulf of Mexico.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Feds must help with public transit, group says.
The Albuquerque Journal's John Fleck over the weekend looked at the growth of the Albuquerque/Santa Fe corridor, what a new Brookings Institute report identifies as one of several rapidly growing "megapolitan" areas in the west that are increasing in national importance.
The Alamagordo Daily News has an informative environmental health feature about the effects of formaldehyde poisoning.
The state is privatizing Medicaid senior care dollars by contracting with two private HMO's, through which it believes it can cut state costs by up to 20 percent in three years. This will happen by handing over a set amount per person to one of two companies, who will "maximize efficiency in the system," according to the Rio Grande Sun.
Mexico Notebook: Solar hot water for life
CHIHUAHUA CITY, Mexico -- "Free! Hot Water for Life," screams the billboard by the highway. In the near distance are the boxy-modern condos that spring up like hongos [mushrooms] around virtually every city in Mexico to accommodate their burgeoning populations.
No doubt the company selling this solar water heater -- in this case Signa Hogar -- would like to see a solar boiler atop each one.
Why don't we see signs like that in the States?
Clarifying incentives for growth
How New Mexico goes about allocating big chunks of state tax revenue to so-called Tax Increment Development Districts (TIDDs) may soon be given some much-needed clarity. The New Mexico Board of Finance will vote on proposed rules Tuesday that would provide more guidelines for evaluation when they consider applications by developers to reserve years worth of future gross receipts tax (GRT) revenue for their projects. The use of TIDDs sometimes generates controversy over the tax revenue that’s lost and the growth they incentivize.
Texas wagers huge on wind
New Mexico has its work cut out if it wants to catch up with its eastern neighbor in wind generation.
Texas is betting big -- as in billions of dollars -- on a massive system of transmission lines to help move electricity generated along the windy patches of West Texas to the state's power-hungry metropolitan areas, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The newspaper reports:
State officials on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a $4.9 billion wind power project that will add a massive system of transmission lines to help move electricity generated along the windy patches of West Texas to power-hungry metropolitan areas such as Austin.
If the plan wins final approval, it would be the country's largest investment in clean and renewable power.
Mining reform: Will it occur this year?
With the 2008 Senate calendar winding down, opponents and proponents of mining reform are anxiously waiting to see if the stalemate in the Senate Energy and Resources Committee over the bill, headed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and ranking member Pete Domenici (R-NM), can be overcome. The reform would establish hardrock mining royalties, add stricter environmental standards and would give local communities the right to deny a mining project in their immediate area.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Tamalewood is attracting Bollywood.
Tamalewood is attracting Bollywood. New Mexico Business Weekly says the signature song and dance cinematic style will be coming to New Mexico. Roshan, a major star in his native India, will be bringing the production of "Kites" to the area.
A Silver City judge's recent decision that new household water wells cannot impinge on a neighbor's water is rippling through the state, creating the potential to drive up rural home prices, dry up agricultural land and cause a major political dust-up in Santa Fe.
Senator Jeff Bingaman attached a significant chunk of change for Indian Country to the HIV/Aids Bill that the Senate passed yesterday.
The head of Santa Fe's city union remains under investigation for supplying the drug OxyContin in a drug sale, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Manny Aragon's luck has changed, at least momentarily. The tainted former state senator awaiting trial for public-corruption and conspiracy charges won a new sports car at the Isleta Resort and Casino's grand opening, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
According to The Associated Press, Greenpeace has been denied entrance to the 2008 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. The organization had planned to fly their Earth balloon, which reads "Stop Global Warming, Save the Climate," but their application was denied by fiesta officials.
Hey, whose rain water is it anyway?
In Albuquerque, Santa Fe and other New Mexico communities, water authorities actively encourage residents to capture rainwater streaming off the roof for use on gardens and lawns. In Colorado, that's against the law.
But the law didn't keep Santa Fe water-harvesting advocate Doug Pushard from going over the border to encourage a bit of civil disobedience. The Durango Herald reports that Pushard, a Santa Fe resident and founder of the water-conservation advocacy site HarvestH20.com, recently met with La Plata County residents in Durango to discuss the pros and cons of collecting rainwater "should a homeowner decide to do so."
Water worries
Bingaman: $2 billion for Indian country
The bill, which gives $48 billion in foreign aid over the next five years for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria treatment and prevention, triples the amount of previous U.S. aid authorized in 2003. The New York Times describes it as the most "ambitious foreign public health program ever developed by the United States."
Bingaman's amendment authorizes $2 billion for Indian communities: $1 billion to be used specifically to settle Indian water rights claims; $750 million for law enforcement; and the remaining $250 million for health care.