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and international compacts that dictate water management of the West’s major rivers also complicate matters. California officials are considering a proposal to build two giant tunnels to boost water deliveries to far ms and cities and improve habitat for fish. In New Mexico, cities have been developing more sur face water resources and pushing residents to conserve to ease strains on underground aquifers. In Nevada, green lawns are going by the wayside, and Texas is trying to recover from the worst one-year drought in that state’s history. Texas has a water plan, but NRDC said it fails to address the impacts of climate change on water availability and it does not offer suggestions for adapting to climate change. The group had similar criticisms of New Mexico’s water planning process. New Mexico is behind
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meeting agenda by Monday, he said.
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new damage.
The stand-off lasted about three hours before police obtained a search warrant. Police had been advised the subject might
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grateful for opportunities to administer to the community, because really that’s what it’s about,” Botello said. “It’s just administering Jesus Christ and the love of Jesus to the community, and this is a way that we can get the kids out into the community and share the love of Christ.” Botello said the entire school was helping the community on Thursday, taking part in the annual GCS Workathon. She said students were out volunteering at various locations in the city, including The Salvation Army, Harvest Ministries and city parks. “We enjoy doing it,” she said. “All the kids love the Workathon; they love getting out and sharing Christ.” GCS student Robrena Wade said she always looks forward to volunteering, seeing it as a
in updating its water plan and critics have been pushing to make the process more inclusive. Water policy expert Sig Silber said 85 percent of the water used in New Mexico goes to agricultural purposes, but the industry is not officially involved in planning. Also, water associated with oil and natural gas development isn’t accounted for as part of the state’s water budget. “Our problem is more statewide planning than local planning,” Silber said. “I think local communities are stepping up. But we have some major rivers, and a single community can’t deal with a river that interconnects many parts of the state, others states and in one case another country. So that is the challenge.” The report also addressed the potential economic costs that changes in water resources could have for the states, from billions of dollars of lost gross domestic product over the next few decades to jobs losses and property damage. The NRDC’s color -
coded map also favored the usual political split between red and blue states. While the group did not consider politics in the rankings, it said a state’s preparedness for water impacts appeared linked to whether the issue was a priority of the governor.
Fry expressed hope that despite a difference in planning between the city and the UFO Museum, that the festival still be a “coordinated event that allows people to par-
ticipate in all the activities.”
According to website ufofestivalroswell.com, the city will host the UFO Festival June 29-July 1.
possess a firearm. The SWAT team made entry and arrested the subject, who was found in the attic of the house. The subject has since been identified as Jacob Sigala, 21. Sigala had an an outstanding warrant for failure to pay out of Magis-
trate Court, and is now being charged with criminal damage for the broken window and obstructing/resisting/evading. “If he would have just come out, he would have been in a whole lot less trouble,” said Officer Erica O’Bryon, RPD spokesman. nvernau@rdrnews.com
chance to bring people closer together. “It’s more of a blessing to me than it is to anybody else, just the fact that I get to come out here and bless somebody else, it warms my heart more than anything,” Wade said. “When you have different people from different organizations come together under one thing — under God — that’s the key. When you all have something in common, then you’re more likely to be friends, and the community just grows to be stronger.” GCS student Chris Taylor said Thursday was all about reaching people who do not have the same opportunities that he has. “Helping out in the community is a big thing at Gateway, we really try to enforce that — to really encourage it, to help our community,” Taylor said. “That’s what we’re called to do — we’re called to help, and serve, and go out to the needy. It’s just an awesome thing to get to help out, and we really
have a good opportunity to do that here.” Botello said students also helped clean rooms in the Petroleum Building where they filled the baskets, clearing out old boxes. She said the biggest thing about helping out is seeing a need, and meeting that need. “We just came to help,” Botello said. “We’re all about just helping one another, and encouraging one another, and we just want to be a part of the community. So it means a lot to us.” GCS student Caleb Kimberly said Workathon activities help him to remember his roots. “I came from a family who never really had a whole lot,” Kimberly said. “I think I’ve seen the other side of how it is, so I just like to pour it back to others, because now I have more than I have had in the past. So I just love helping families that don’t have enough, and just sharing the love of God with them.”
In New Mexico, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has been a vocal opponent of efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, including a cap-and-trade program that was recently overturned by state regulators. She has argued that environmental stewardship should be balanced with economic growth and development.
“New Mexico is committed to protecting its water as we face the effects of an ongoing drought,” said Martinez spokesman Greg Blair. “However, the capand-trade program would have cost New Mexico jobs and put us at an unnecessary disadvantage with other states in the region. ... The economic impact would have been widespread.”
nvernau@rdrnews.com
S u p p o r t t h e U n i t e d Wa y
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — A union-funded political group asked Attorney General Gary King on Thursday to investigate the awarding of a 25-year lease that will permit the Downs at Albuquerque to build a larger casino at the state fairgrounds. Independent Source PAC, in a letter to King, contends that the lease should be invalidated because businesses connected to two of the Down’s owners contributed to Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s political action committee potentially in violation of a state law restricting donations from potential government contractors. A spokesman for King, who is a Democrat, said the group’s allegations will be reviewed. Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell said the contributions were permissible under state law and didn’t influence decisions on the fairgrounds lease. The state Board of Finance approved the lease last December. The governor voted for the lease. She is the board’s president and appoints a majority of its members. The least will allow the Downs to continue operating a horse racing track at the fairgrounds in Albuquerque and build a new casino, which is estimated
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reform-minded legislature for the first time in many decades.
“I want to be able to leave to my granddaugh-
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election that could stir Obama’s core Democratic supporters and draw crucial independent voters as well. Among those are immigration, voting rights and a revisit of a campaign finance ruling that Obama has already criticized as an outrage. This can be dangerous ground, as Obama discovered. Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, few presidents have directly assailed the Supreme Court. In Obama’s case, he issued an indirect challenge, but the former constitutional law professor tripped over the details. Obama told a press conference on Monday that he was “confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overtur ning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.” The Supreme Court does sometimes overturn laws passed by Congress. Obama later clarified that he was referring to a narrow class of constitutional law, but even then Republicans and some
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PAC wants lease review
Saturday, April 7th 8am — 6pm Everything on sale in the store and under our covered walkway Records • Collectibles • Furniture • Knives Tools • Artwork and lots of miscellaneous
Amos
reFINDery 1400 W Second St., Suite F across from Samon’s
(575) 627-2155
Friday, April 6, 2012
to cost $20 million and will have twice as many slot machines as the current casino. State law prohibits a potential contractor, during a procurement process or contract negotiations, from contributing to a government official with influence over the awarding of the contract. Michael Corwin, executive director of Independent Source, said the law appears to bar at least $10,000 in contributions in 2011 that went to the governor’s PAC from a racetrack and a ranching company in which two Downs owners have an interest — $5,000 on May 6 and $5,000 on July 7, according to state campaign finance reports. The state fair issued a “request for proposals” for competitive bids on a longterm lease on July 24, but Corwin said that apparently had been planned for July 5 based on an email from the fairgrounds manager that the group obtained through a public records request. Independent Source, as part of a report provided to King, contends the state fair was potentially negotiating a one-year lease contract extension with the Downs in 2011 when the May contribution was
made. However, Dar nell said that’s incorrect.
A possible lease extension was signed in June 1 by the fair’s general manager, but Darnell said that was done without lengthy negotiations. The extension ultimately was never needed because of the new longterm lease.
Jay McCleskey, the governor’s political adviser, said the dates of the contributions in campaign reports reflect when checks were deposited by the PAC and the donations actually were given in late April and June 2011. McCleskey said the timing of the contributions does not run afoul of the law governing contractor donations.
Independent Source, which has been sharply critical of the Martinez administration, is heavily financed by a national labor union that represents some state workers. The Communications Workers of America contributed $100,000 to the PAC last year, according to a disclosure report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Corwin, an Albuquerque private investigator who has done opposition research for Democratic candidates, said he is not working for any campaigns.
ter those freedoms that I have had, that my father left me. The opportunity to succeed to whatever level that she wants to. If she is willing to work hard, she can accomplish whatever she wants,” Espinoza said. “And not to give her hard-earned
dollars to the gover nment. Government has grown to be too big. It just needs to be reduced. We need more of the decisions to be made locally. The best way to govern is closest to the people.”
court scholars took issue. What’s not in question is that the law wasn’t approved by a strong, majority — the vote was a slim 219 to 212 in the House. A Republican-appointed federal judge took umbrage at the suggestion that federal courts might be powerless to overturn such laws, and ordered the Justice Department to provide written assurance. He insisted the response be at least three pages, single-spaced. Attorney General Eric Holder took on that task himself, telling the judge Thursday that “the longstanding, historical position of the United States regarding judicial review of the constitutionality of federal legislation has not changed.” He also took the opportunity to cite Supreme Court case law supporting the premise that laws passed by Congress are “presumptively constitutional.” The constitutional issue aside, Obama made it clear that the thrust of his argument is political. He ticked off popular elements of the law that are already in force, and said the consequences of losing those protections
would be grave for young people and the elderly, in particular. It wasn’t the first time Obama criticized the court. He blasted the court’s then-fresh campaign finance ruling in his 2010 State of the Union address. “The Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said then. Democrats and many constitutional scholars were also appalled by the court’s actions in 2000, when it took on the disputed presidential election and effectively called the race for Republican George W. Bush. The court has had a conservative majority for more than a decade. But while the court was far from a rubber stamp for Bush, it took the election of Democrat Obama to draw a sharp contrast between the court and the executive. Both Democrats and Republicans are being disingenuous by using the court as a political instrument, said Orin Kerr, a prominent conservative Supreme Court expert.
j.bergman@rdrnews.com