TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Congress overrides presidential veto

Congress voted last night to override President Bush's veto of a bill that would have prevented a cut in the amount Medicare pays doctors. In the House, Tom Udall and Heather Wilson voted to override the veto; Steve Pearce did not vote, but a spokesman said this morning that he would have voted with his colleagues. In the Senate, Jeff Bingaman voted to override the President's veto, but Pete Domenici voted against it. As the Washington Post blogged last night, the override required the cooperation of many Republican legislators, despite the Administration's efforts to keep them in line.

PNM announced yesterday that gas bills are going to be significantly higher this winter. As the Journal points out, PNM is prohibited from making a profit on the cost of gas; they make money on the transmission of the gas. But as everyone knows, the cost of natural gas is up. Last year PNM sold a therm of gas for $.78, but today that same amount costs $1.30. PNM should have a more specific cost projection for this winter by August.

Speaking of high fuel prices, new figures released today by the Department of Labor show inflation is up sharply. Reuters has the details. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) leaped 1.1 percent in June. The CPI measures, in layman's terms, the cost of stuff we buy. And the cost of stuff we buy just took the biggest one-month spike in the since just after Hurricane Katrina. The 10 percent rise in gas prices was responsible for most of the rise in inflation, but food helped to account for some of the rest. The Department of Labor also reported that we're making less money than we were; earnings are down nearly 1 percent since June, again the biggest drop since Katrina.

Because of the higher price of gas, Attorney General Gary King is asking the state to pay a higher mileage reimbursement rate. Since 2003, state employees have been reimbursed at the rate of 32 cents per mile, but the Federal government raised its rate in March to 50.5 cents per mile. In a letter to Governor Richardson and Secretary of Finance and Administration Katherine Miller, King wrote, "This rate is supposed to reimburse government employees for both the cost of fuel and the cost of wear and tear on their vehicles. However, in light of increasing fuel expenses, the current rate is inadequate to reimburse government employees.

Also, today is the day when, in 1945, scientists from Los Alamos detonated the first atomic bomb at Trinity Site, at White Sands. Read more here.

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