Caffeine and kids: Stimulant-infused products raise concerns Life & Science, A-9
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Martinez unveils system to speed service at MVD By Russell Contreras The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Susana Martinez on Friday unveiled a new customer service system aimed at streamlining Motor Vehicle Division services and cutting down on wait time. Speaking at a news conference
inside an Albuquerque MVD branch, Martinez said the new program will give New Mexico residents a chance to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with services. She said the system will allow customers to give feedback at MVD customer service windows and help MVD staff develop ideas on improvements.
“This new system will hold our MVD employees to a higher customer service standard,” the governor said. “And it will also immediately recognize them for their good customer service.” Residents will be able to go to a service window and press a “smiley
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Gov. Susana Martinez says a new program will promote faster service at the Motor Vehicle Division. RUSSELL CONTRERAS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ReDuceD to aSh
David Old of Pecos walks through his Viveash ranch Friday, surveying the fire damage to his property. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Tres Lagunas blaze leaves massive cleanup effort for Pecos property owners By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
P
ECOS — Viveash Peak, east of Pecos Canyon, is a wasteland. Acres of skeletal black trees cling to the steep slope down into the drainage below. The ground, once green with grass, is layered thick with ash, still warm to the touch. The Tres Lagunas Fire roared up the drainage and over the peak a week ago. A whirling 40-mph wind whipped the blaze into a frenzy.
David Old, 57, stood in the middle of the devastation Friday. He was raised on this mountain. He’s only known it covered in pine, fir and aspen. His three children came here while growing up. For more than a decade, he’s made a living sustainably harvesting logs and milling them into custom wood flooring. He can’t do anything about the fire. What he worries about now is the aftermath. He figures he has less than two years to harvest any of the burned logs or they’ll rot beyond use. Most immediately, he’s worried what will hap-
pen if the rains come too soon and too hard. The drainage on his ranch north of the mesa now bears about 1,000 acres of burned trees. Even the trees that still show a little green are 90 percent dead, Old said. Wind will knock them over. A heavy rain will wash the debris, logs and ash down the drainage and into the Pecos River. The damage to downstream properties will only compound the fire damage. “This restoration needs to get started now,” he
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Feds propose expanding range for Mexican wolves Plan nixes protections for gray wolves outside the Southwest The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE — Endangered Mexican gray wolves would have more room to roam in the Southwest under a proposal unveiled Friday. The provisions regarding the Mexican wolves are part of a plan proposed by the Obama administration that calls for lifting most of the remaining federal protections for gray wolves elsewhere across the Lower 48 states.
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-6
Protections would remain only for the fledgling population of Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico, which now numbers 73 animals. The plan also would allow for captive Mexican wolves to be released in New Mexico and for the wolves to roam outside the current Blue Range recovery area — two changes that independent scientists and environmentalists have been pushing for over the past decade. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle said managers in the Southwest need more flexibility.
Comics B-12
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Lotteries A-2
Opinions A-11
N.M. flap spurs company evaluation as LULAC threatens to boycott By Russell Contreras The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE — Whole Foods Market is reviewing its employee language policy after two of its Spanish-speaking workers in New Mexico said they were suspended after complaining about it, a company spokeswoman said Friday. The Austin, Texas-based organic grocery chain is re-examining the policy “as we speak, and it will be the topic of ongoing conversations at an all-leadership conference next week,” spokeswoman Libba Letton said in a statement. Gov. Susana Martinez told The Associated Press she was happy the company is revisiting the policy because New Mexico has a history with Spanish and American Indian languages. “I’m glad they are willing to reevaluate that policy because I think every state is different,” Martinez, a Republican and the nation’s only Latina governor, said Friday after speaking to a constituent in Spanish. The Spanish language “is part of the fabric of what makes New Mexico great,” she said. The move by Whole Foods Market Inc. comes after two employees at an Albuquerque store said this week they were suspended for a day after recently complaining about a company rule that they say forbids them from speaking Spanish to each other while on the job. Whole Foods officials say the two were suspended for “rude” behavior. Ben Friedland, the company’s Rocky Mountain region executive marketing coordinator, said the policy states that all English-speaking workers must speak English to customers and other employees while on the clock, unless the customer speaks another language.
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Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Axle Contemporary Summer performance series debut features Mark Feigenbutz’s The Comedy Cart, 5-7 p.m. (hourly shows); look for the mobile gallery’s van at Railyard Plaza, 1607 Paseo de Peralta; visit axleart.com for van locations through July 7; 670-7612 or 670-5854. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Obituaries Waldo Ortiz Jr., 50, Nambé, June 1 PAge A-10
Today Federal wildlife officials have drafted plans to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, but the proposal would give more room to a subspecies, Mexican gray wolves, in the Southwest. U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Police notes A-10
Editor: Rob Dean, 986-3033, rdean@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
Whole Foods to review language policy
Sports B-1
Time Out B-11
Life & Science A-9
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Partly sunny. High 91, low 56. PAge A-12
Two sections, 24 pages TV Book, 32 pages 164th year, No. 159 Publication No. 596-440