Taos coach arrested on charge of abuse

TAOS — Taos High School assistant football coach Anthony Labella, 43, was arrested on a child-abuse charge involving a player after the team lost a game Friday in Las Vegas, N.M., New Mexico State Police told The Taos News.

Labella, angry about the season-opening 36-12 loss, picked up a 14-year-old player and threw him down onto a helmet, police spokesman Peter Olsen told the weekly newspaper.

The player was taken to the hospital but wasn't seriously injured, Olsen said, and was released that night.

Taos High School athletics director James Branch told a reporter he had been directed not to comment on the matter.

Head coach Rex Stevenson and school district Superintendent Loretta DeLong did not return phone calls from The Taos News, but district Human Resources Director Esther Winter said Labella was in a volunteer position with the district.

Santa Feans star in Obama video

A Santa Fe artist has released a music video with 200 locals praising Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in front of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, on the Plaza and in an African dance class at the Santa Fe Railyard.

Susan Slotter said she got the idea after attending Obama's visit to Santa Fe Community College in February. "When I heard Barack speak, I thought, 'I will do anything in my power to get this guy elected,' " she said.

Slotter said she began by writing the lyrics for Choose to Unite and enlisting the help of musician Eric George, who helped her write the rhythm and blues music, and videographer Grant Taylor. Among other locals who appear prominently in the piece are Mary Lou Cook and Elise Gent.

Choose to Unite has garnered about 10,000 hits in the one week it has been on You Tube. It has its own Web site at www.choosetounite.com. Slotter said she sent a copy to the Obama campaign but has not yet heard back.

Stefanics to lead talk on oil, gas

Incoming District 5 County Commissioner Liz Stefanics will be the main speaker at a community dialogue event hosted by the Eldorado Oil and Gas Team at 7 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Eldorado Community Center.

Outgoing District 5 Commissioner Jack Sullivan and Kathleen Holian (commissioner-elect for District 4) will also participate in the discussion, which is being billed as an opportunity for the public to talk with politicians about oil and gas development and sustainable energy.

EOGT is a small, informal group of Eldorado residents whose goal is to disseminate information about oil and gas drilling in the region. The group has worked with the Santa Fe County Clerk's Office to develop a plan to help people determine who owns the mineral rights under their land, according to a member.

EOGT has also conducted a survey of 500 local residents on oil and gas issues, and the results may be available at the Sept. 11 meeting. For more information, contact Deborah Boldt at 466-2295.

Pickens to give talk in Albuquerque

Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, the oil tycoon turned wind proponent, is coming to Albuquerque on Wednesday to talk about his energy independence plan.

The free town hall-styled event is scheduled at the Albuquerque Convention Center Ballroom, W. Complex, 401 2nd Street NW at 10:30 a.m. Doors open to the public at 9:30 a.m.

The Pickens Plan calls for increasing the use of wind energy to 30 percent to meet energy needs. It lays out ways of investing in wind power generation and shifting natural gas use into running vehicles.

This is the eighth town hall on the Pickens Plan that the endlessly energetic octogenarian has held around the country since he launched his idea July 8.

For more on the plan, see www.pickensplan.com.

BLM holding firewood lottery

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is offering cords of cured, cut piñon and juniper firewood in a lottery drawing.

The lottery is for up to four cords of wood per household, at a cost of $30 per cord. The firewood will be available in the Wind Mountain area east of U.S. 285 and north of U.S. 64. The firewood has been cut into 3- to 5-foot lengths.

To apply for the lottery, send a 3-inch by 5-inch card with the name of the individual to contact, an address and phone number, and the number of cords requested. Individuals must pick up the wood in person, and only one card per household will be accepted. Cards must be received by Sept. 15. All successful applicants will be notified by BLM personnel.

Send cards to: Bureau of Land Management, Taos Field Office, Wind Mountain Wood lottery, 226 Cruz Alta Road, Taos, NM 87571.

For more information, call Kyle Sahd, fire management specialist, at 575-751-4767.

Celts collect food, funds for hungry

Irish step dancers, Celtic musicians and bagpipe bands will gather Saturday to raise funds and food for the hungry. The Celts for the Hungry festival will be held at the James A. Little Theater at the New Mexico School for the Deaf, 1060 Cerrillos Road, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Among the performers are Belisama Irish Dancers, Celtic Coyotes, Fishback Scottish Highland Dancers, Gerry Carthy and more.

Advance tickets are $5, available at www.thistlesociety.com.

Tickets are $8 or five cans of food at the door. A schedule of the events is available at the Thistle Society Web site. For more information, call 699-6480.

No panda for Rio Grande Zoo

ALBUQUERQUE — Albuquerque City Hall's $56,000 effort to acquire a Chinese panda for the Rio Grande Zoo has been abandoned.

"The Chinese thought there were too many panda pairs in the United States," said Ray Darnell, Albuquerque's director of cultural services.

Chinese officials indicated they might not send anymore of the animals to U.S. zoos, he said.

Chinese government leaders appeared to be carefully considering the idea during Albuquerque's 2 1/2-year effort, and it is not clear it was rejected, Darnell said.

The city had proposed a project to bring young pandas to the zoo, in partnership with the San Diego Zoo and Sandia National Laboratories.

The city's expenditure on the effort included travel to China and legal fees.

Endangered pandas are housed at four U.S. zoos — Atlanta, San Diego, Memphis and Washington, D.C.

The giant panda is revered as an unofficial national symbol of China. Only about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in southwestern Sichuan province.

Cannon to build new airmen center

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — Cannon Air Force Base is building a $9.9 million dining, recreation and services facility in anticipation of a growing population of airmen.

Cannon spokesman Staff Sgt. Brandon Seals says the two-story building will be ready to furnish by the end of the year.

He says Cannon needs a larger facility to accommodate more airmen. Base officials estimate Cannon's population to reach between 4,400 and 5,000 by 2014, compared to the current population of about 2,000 airmen.

Seals says 1,000 more people are expected by next summer.

The new center replaces the base's current dining facility and its Airman's Center, which Seals says houses a post office, the honor guard and the base community center.