‘Fruit lady’ goes the distance to deliver fresh produce Sunday Spotlight, C-1
Locally owned and independent
St. Michael’s escapes with a 28-14 victory over Santa Fe High Sports, D-1
Sunday, August 31, 2014
www.santafenewmexican.com $1.25
Surplus under scrutiny As feds review local distribution of military gear, cash-strapped agencies in N.M. tout benefits of program
Total acquisition cost
www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Index
Colorado has set an example that New Mexico should follow to stop children having children. Opinions, B-2
Item (quantity)
$13,568,000
Mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (20)
$2,452,298
Two days after the City Council voted to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, people were openly smoking pot Friday during the burning of Zozobra.
Humvees (64)
$1,107,284
Helicopters (3)
$1,045,593
Truck tractors (7)
$890,140
Luke E. Montavon The New Mexican
Other armored vehicles (4)
Advocates hope effort to legalize pot will spread
Other Big-Ticket items in New Mexico Bomb-disposal robots (11)
$293,058 Night-vision goggles (10)
$35,780
Some view Santa Fe City Council’s decision as sign of changing attitudes
Sources: U.S. Department of Defense, The New York Times
By Daniel J. Chacón and Phaedra Haywood The New Mexican
In 2007, Denver voters approved an initiative to make marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority for police. Five years later, Colorado became the first state in the nation to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Now that the Santa Fe City Council has voted to decriminalize possession of an ounce or less of weed, advocates for drug reform hope the decision will set off the same kind of ripple effect that will lead to legalization in New Mexico.
A mine-resistant, ambushprotected vehicle, or MRAP. Associated press file photo
Total value of supplies received, by state Data include Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam and Washington, D.C., with figures from 2006-present 1. Florida 2. Alabama 3. Texas 4. California 5. Tennessee 6. Georgia 7. Illinois 8. South Carolina 9. Michigan 10. Indiana 11. Ohio 12. Kentucky 13. Puerto Rico 14. Arizona 15. Oklahoma 16. New Mexico 17. New York 18. Virginia 19. New Jersey 20. Washington 21. Arkansas 22. Washington, D.C. 23. Louisiana 24. Colorado 25. Missouri
$252,801,365.49 $117,321,970.75 $93,960,116.66 $92,199,594.55 $88,036,810.05 $74,258,127.54 $63,856,929.46 $49,446,894.25 $43,557,552.29 $43,153,872.84 $41,066,993.83 $38,672,666.63 $37,712,132.94 $37,173,754.35 $26,113,459.50 $25,077,905.94 $24,920,353.44 $24,257,646.82 $24,075,459.47 $23,543,976.61 $21,806,380.46 $21,741,478.09 $20,327,539.50 $17,701,285.74 $17,481,149.80
26. North Carolina 27. Delaware 28. Maine 29. Massachusetts 30. Wisconsin 31. West Virginia 32. Montana 33. New Hampshire 34. Minnesota 35. Connecticut 36. Iowa 37. Idaho 38. Maryland 39. Oregon 40. Pennsylvania 41. Nevada 42. Guam 43. Nebraska 44. Rhode Island 45. Wyoming 46. Kansas 47. North Dakota 48. Utah 49. Mississippi 50. South Dakota 51. Vermont 52. Alaska 53. Hawaii 54. Virgin Islands
$17,296,016.90 $12,483,178.35 $12,048,389.87 $11,878,711.88 $10,122,693.61 $8,970,650.95 $8,943,135.43 $8,806,115.87 $8,580,400.72 $7,920,540.33 $7,493,026.26 $7,491,468.74 $7,049,130.61 $6,891,336.22 $5,942,289.17 $5,836,317.88 $5,466,524.59 $5,430,787.55 $4,812,144.16 $4,575,149.39 $4,009,658.36 $3,871,164.59 $2,264,747.07 $1,791,294.53 $1,771,105.98 $1,609,630.11 $706,554.76 $521,054.41 $228,504.00
Please see POT, Page A-6
Scientists say N.M. forests are changing Experts: Coniferous tree loss could be harbinger of what’s to come elsewhere By Heath Haussamen New Mexico In Depth
GILA NATIONAL FOREST — The sun illuminates patches of green on brown and black hillsides around N.M. 152 near Emory Pass in the Gila National Forest. Gambel oak and other shrubs whose roots survived a lightning-sparked wildfire in 2013 sprout on many slopes once dominated by ponderosa pines. Black, mangled masses of wood and dead barley plants loom over the new growth, which also includes aspens, grass and wildflowers. The barley grew last fall from seeds the U.S. Forest Service dropped to minimize erosion after the Silver Fire. Pines survived in many areas within the 139,000-acre burn scar. But in other places, the trees were incinerated — and in the most heavily torched areas, new pines aren’t sprouting.
Sources: U.S. Department of Defense, The New York Times
Please see SURPLUS, Page A-5
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Our View: Curb teen pregnancy
(2006-present)
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Moisture levels have improved statewide, according to new U.S. Drought Monitor figures. Local News, C-1
Top 5 items acquired by New Mexico police agencies, By cost
By Anne Constable and Uriel J. Garcia
ast June, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office got a report about a 60-year-old man who had barricaded himself inside his Las Cruces home. The man had been fighting with his son, who left to seek help. When the son returned to the house with a sheriff’s deputy, his father fired a shot through the front door, and the deputy called for backup. The sheriff’s office dispatched a robot equipped with audio and video communication capabilities to negotiate with the man. The negotiations failed and the standoff ended in a fiery explosion and the death of the suspect. But no officers were injured. Kelly Jameson, the department’s spokeswoman, said the robot is just one of a number of items acquired by the agency under the U.S. Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which supplies surplus military gear to state and local law enforcement agencies, including many in New Mexico. “It’s a very lucrative program for us,” Jameson said. “Historically, we see our budget shrinking. We have to be very creative in how we can access better equipment from other sources.” The program has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the Aug. 9 shooting of an unarmed black teenager by police in Ferguson, Mo. Images of heavily armed police atop military vehicles with machine guns inflamed tensions in the St. Louis suburb and stoked national debate over whether the program has turned civilian police departments into gung-ho military units. A recent editorial cartoon shows Andy Griffith and Barney Fife of The Andy Griffith Show television series alongside modern-day counterparts in full combat gear. The controversy has prompted President Barack Obama to order a review of the program. But even before Ferguson, reports of SWAT teams being deployed to serve ordinary warrants raised concerns about the Pentagon initiative. At the same time, law enforcement officials in cash-strapped communities across the country say the program has been a boon, supplying them with equipment far beyond the armored vehicles and assault weapons that have caused such a stir.
August rains ease drought
Please see FORESTS, Page A-4
Kristina Dunham/The New Mexican
Mariachi Extravaganza de Santa Fe Concert with Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, Mariachi Buenaventura and Los Niños de Santa Fe, 7 p.m., Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., $35, 988-1234, ticketssantafe.org.
Today
Obituaries
Sunshine; breezy this afternoon. High 85, low 53.
Margaret Zuehlke Robson, 82, Aug. 24 Dr. Lois Katherine Viscoli, 86, Santa Fe, Aug. 26
Page D-8
Joyce Gail Eastwood, 80, Aug. 21 Jose “Paul” Garcia, 78, Santa Fe, Aug. 26 Henry P. McKinley, Aug. 12 Page C-2
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