Immigrant advocates heed congressmen's call to join nationwide reform effort
Somos un Pueblo Unido, the immigrant-rights advocacy group, hosted one of 900 house parties that were held around the country this week to hear Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill., speak about his proposed immigration reform bill. The teleconference call was organized by the group Reform Immigration for America, which is pushing Congress to pass comprehensive reform. More than 52,000 people, including the 60 or so in Santa Fe, participated in the call in either Spanish or English. "It's a real ...
State mulls reducing Medicaid coverage
Gov. Bill Richardson's administration is proposing to overhaul Medicaid and scale back health care services to some lower-income New Mexicans to cope with a projected budget shortfall of $300 million next year in the state's largest health care program. Human Services Department officials told lawmakers Thursday that Medicaid benefits and eligibility likely would be limited to minimum federal requirements, such as covering low-income pregnant woman and some children. A package of healt ...
Audit: Suspect spending in school districts
Three sport utility vehicles purchased for school administrators from an out-of-state dealer. A $91,000 tow truck. Thousands of dollars for iPods for students. Paying athletes and cheerleaders to pull weeds. Lunches, including a $110 tab at the Rio Chama Steakhouse paid for by federal funds intended for low-income students. These are just some of the questionable expenditures uncovered by audits of five medium-sized school districts that were discussed Thursday at a meeting of the Legislati ...
New pizza place employs gas-sipping Smart Car
The newest Domino's Pizza in town opened Monday near DeVargas Mall in Santa Fe with a smart idea — a gas-sipping Smart Car for deliveries. The little car is painted in the cheery blue, white and red Domino's logo and a reminder that the driver does not carry more than $20 in cash. Anyone who wanted to mess with the driver could pretty much pick up the car and carry it off. Domino's delivery driver Vicki Smith said she's been getting a lot of looks and smiles when she pulls up next to ...
Sportsmen protesting White Peak land swap
Anyone with a few million dollars can bid on 7,000 acres of mountainous state trust land in northeast New Mexico around a popular hunting spot called White Peak. If no one else bids by 5 p.m. Tuesday, the Stanley Ranch likely will get it. Instead of paying cash to the State Land Office, however, the ranch owners will swap 3,300 acres of land they own nearby. The proposed exchange and three others like it around White Peak have angered sportsmen who say the land commissioner is once aga ...
Campaign funds pay Domenici's legal fees
ALBUQUERQUE — Campaign contributions to retired U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici paid for more than $700,000 in lawyers' bills arising from an ethics investigation into his role in the 2007 firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. The People for Pete Domenici Committee listed $705,043 in legal fees, with the bulk of that, $602,054, going to the Washington, D.C., firm of O'Melveny & Myers. Domenici did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press. He told the Albuquerque Jou ...
Santa Fe Community Foundation awards $410,000 in grants
The Santa Fe Community Foundation has awarded 40 grants totaling $410,000 to nonprofits in Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Mora, San Miguel, Taos and Rio Arriba counties. Despite the economy, the total was just $25,000 below last year, according to president Billie Blair. The foundation received 156 applications for grants totaling $1.9 million. The awards are made in the areas of arts, civic affairs, education, environment, and health and human services. Arts Española Valley Fiber Arts: $1 ...
American Eagle begins service to Los Angeles, second flight to Dallas
American Eagle's expanded service starts today with the launching of a daily flight to Los Angeles and the addition of a second daily flight to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Santa Fe Municipal Airport Manager Jim Montman believes the new direct link between Los Angeles and Santa Fe will be successful. "It's one people from around here have been asking about for years," he said. But, he added, "It will probably take a while for it to get established." The first two Ameri ...
Work on asphalt plant at landfill halted
Operators of an asphalt plant already built at Santa Fe's regional landfill no longer have permission from elected officials to open and could face fines from the county for building without a permit. County commissioners and city councilors on the joint board that oversees the landfill voted Tuesday to stop work on the asphalt plant project pending the outcome of a Santa Fe County development permit process. Machines to produce "hot-mix" asphalt were erected at the landfill this summe ...
'SuperNanny' seeks frustrated New Mexico parents
Got a surly teenager? An insolent toddler? A troubled child of any age? If so, SuperNanny is looking for you. If your family is blended, ethnic or nontraditional, all the better. A crew for the ABC network reality-TV show, now shooting its sixth season, will be in New Mexico early next month to interview families. If you haven't seen SuperNanny, it involves an experienced British nanny, Jo Frost, giving advice to frustrated American parents. Casting producer Johnny Beech ...
City removes waterline-pressure monitoring antennas after complaints
Radio antennas intended to transmit data about pressure inside Santa Fe waterlines were removed last week as the city Water Division changes its plan. Water-pressure monitoring equipment that included telemetry masts at 18 locations around the city was installed last year, but when some area residents objected to aesthetics, noise and potential health effects of the technology, councilors on the city Public Utilities Committee ordered the change. Instead of using the wireless data-coll ...
N.M.'s No. 2 post gets new contender
With the addition of another GOP candidate for lieutenant governor Wednesday, the Republican primary is starting to become almost as crowded as the Democratic field for the state's No. 2 post. Sen. Kent Cravens, R-Albuquerque, joined the crowd, saying he'd restore trust in elected officials. "The agenda coming from Santa Fe has been unhealthy for our local economy, communities, and individual prosperity," he said in a statement. "Working together we can bring government back to the peo ...
SFPS head maintains positive outlook
Setting an optimistic tone in pessimistic times, Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Bobbie J. Gutierrez emphasized various achievements made by school administrators, teachers, students, volunteers and others in her state of the schools address Wednesday. Roughly 75 people, mostly educators, attended the hour-long speech at the Capitol Rotunda. That the address — which traditionally occurs this time of year — came on the heels of news that the district would cut more than $1.5 million f ...
Roundhouse Roundup: Capitol reporter cut in AP layoffs
The Associated Press is worth a lot less to New Mexico news organizations than it was just a couple of days ago — especially when it comes to state government coverage. That's because the wire service just laid off one of its two Capitol reporters, veteran Deborah Baker. The AP isn't just losing a body with a pen and reporter's notebook. Baker's frankly one of the finest reporters I know. She's persistent, tough and fair. And knowledgeable. She's worked the Roundhouse just shy of 20 years. ...
Not all state agencies plan furloughs
Several state agencies not under Gov. Bill Richardson's control are making it clear they don't intend to furlough employees to save money. State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons called Richardson's budget-cutting plan to force five days of unpaid leave on most state employees "cruel." "It's the governor's reckless fiscal policy that got us into this mess and now state employees are expected to bail him out," Lyons, the only Republican holding a statewide elected office, said Wednesday. ...
New H1N1 cases down in Santa Fe
There are fewer new cases of swine flu in Santa Fe than were reported a month ago. On Monday, 41 people showed H1N1 symptoms at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center's emergency room and various clinics. At Arroyo Chamiso Pediatric Center, 41 people were treated for the flu, while 10 people showed up at the ER. A month earlier — on Oct. 15 — the emergency room and the clinics handled a total of 139 cases. All of them are presumed to be swine flu, hospital spokesman Ar ...
Sites tracking other states' stimulus funds also show phantom districts
New Mexico isn't alone when it comes to phantom congressional districts where a government Web site says federal stimulus money has been spent. Several other states that posted spending information online also showed more congressional districts than they actually have, including Tennessee, Ohio and Louisiana. New Mexico, which has three congressional districts, until Wednesday was listed as having 13 districts on the www.recovery.gov site. The site now reports spending in the state's ...
Board: Loss of donor led horse shelter to ax director
Board members of a Cerrillos-area shelter for abused and neglected horses say they eliminated The Horse Shelter's executive director position after a charitable trust pulled its annual $50,000 donation because of the economic downturn. An Oct. 5 letter from Cindy H. Finn, trustee of the Norman Winer Charitable Trust, says the trust "will be unable to make a sizeable gift to The Horse Shelter this year and cannot commit to similar gifts going forward." Jennifer Rios and Wilhelmina Bandler, d ...
Northern New Mexico fishing report Nov. 19, 2009
NORTHEAST AREA CIMARRON RIVER: Water flow below Eagle Nest Lake as of Monday was .11 cfs. Trout fishing was slow. CONCHAS LAKE: Fishing pressure continued to be very light this past week. Fishing was slow with just a few walleye caught by anglers using slab spoons and jigs tipped with minnows. We had no reports on other species. EAGLE NEST LAKE: Kokanee snagging was fair to good north of the boat ramp and in the Honey Hole area. Trout fishing was fair using roe sacs, power bait, s ...
NM official: Chopper had no mechanical problem
Investigators have found no mechanical malfunctions in a state police helicopter that crashed in June during a mountain rescue of a lost hiker, Public Safety Secretary John Denko said Wednesday. The cause of the fatal accident remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, but Denko told legislators there’s no evidence so far of mechanical problems with the helicopter. A federal report on the crash will not be ready for six months or more, he said.Terry Williams, an N ...
Local news in brief, Nov. 20, 2009
State must pay nonprofits' legal costs A federal judge has ordered the state to pay $72,000 in legal fees and court costs to two nonprofits that sued the state over classifying them as political organizations. Judge Judith Herrera made the ruling Wednesday, said a news release from the Albuquerque-based Center for Civic Policy. The Southwest Organizing Project is the other nonprofit to benefit from the ruling. In August, Herrera ruled that the groups were not "political committees ...
Local news in brief Nov. 19, 2009
Court overturns exploitation verdict The New Mexico Court of Appeals has overturned the convictions of a former state worker for secretly videotaping teenage girls in a bathroom. Ronald Myers, a former employee of the Department of Transportation, had been convicted of sexual exploitation of children for videotaping girls in a bathroom next to his Santa Fe office in 2004. One of the girls was a 16-year-old intern and another was a 17-year-old daughter of a department employee. The ...
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