Tesla issued a press release in February of 2007 stating that they will build their WhiteStar sedan in New Mexico.

Governor Richardson announced today that Tesla Motors will build a new automobile assembly facility in Albuquerque, bringing 400 high wage jobs and a total capital investment of $35 million. Construction on the 150,000 square foot plant will begin in April 2007, at the latest.

It’s the end of June 2008 and no electric car plants have been built. The state of California screwed New Mexico out of that opportunity.

Ze’ev Drori, CEO of Tesla Motors, and Governor Schwarzenegger announced today at a press conference at Tesla Motors headquarters that Tesla’s next product, a 4-door, 5-passenger sedan, will be manufactured at a facility in the state of California.

Previously it had been announced that the sedan manufacturing facility was planned for Albuquerque, New Mexico. After a thorough review of the program, Tesla decided that it would be highly advantageous to build manufacturing facilities in close proximity to the engineering and research and development functions in Tesla’s San Carlos headquarters. Tesla’s battery pack, a critical component of the Tesla Roadster, is currently manufactured in California. Final assembly of the Tesla Roadster is also currently in California.

That really sucks.

Mountain Lions are pretty common in New Mexico and most occur near the uh... mountains. Last week a Mountain Lions apparently killed an ate a man in Pinos Altos, NM. Pinos Altos is located way south of Albuquerque. They caught a cat that may have been the cat that did it, so they killed it anyways. The American way i guess.

In May

Officers from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish investigators said they are now 90 percent sure that a Mountain Lion’ pounced on Jose Salazar Jr., 5, and was trying to drag him away as the boy's father gave chase.

Mostly Mountain Lion’s try to avoid humans and are probably pretty desperate if they attack a human. If you live near their habitat, I would keep your small dogs and cats inside.

What sounds like good news for my home town of Rio Rancho is bad new for Colorado Springs, CO. To open the new support center in Rio Rancho they are apparently closing one in Colorado Springs. 800 people have to move to Rio Rancho or lose their jobs.

HP told local workers that the Colorado Springs center is scheduled to close in the second half of next year, when the company plans to open a new center in the Albuquerque suburb that eventually will employ 1,200, said the sources, who said they were told not to disclose the information outside Hewlett-Packard.

I really feel for the people of Colorado Springs. In 2007 Intel announced they are closing their plant in Colorado Springs in which many of those people came to Rio Rancho. I checked out the Colorado Springs plant when they opened in 2000. It’s a beautiful town and I can imagine it will be tough for people to leave there.

HP is bringing 1300 jobs in the way of a support center to Rio Rancho. HP is receiving tax breaks and the 1300 jobs could be realized by 2012.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, it’s likely to be build near the new downtown in the same are where the Santa Anna Star Center is. Yet another building that can be added to the list of building to be built in the new downtown which actually are not.

In another example of crack reporting (or reporters on crack) at the Albuquerque Journal:

Jobs at Hewlett-Packard mostly would be in customer support and sales. They could help offset layoffs at Intel, which remains the state's largest private-sector employer despite cutting about 1,000 jobs during the last year.

I’m not sure how that works. The Intel layoffs were last year and new HP jobs are not likely to come for a while. A year or two at least. Maybe they will come in time for the next round of layoffs.

In any case based on what I read on the Consumerists, HP needs all the support center help it can get.

Note: I don’t actually know of a new round of layoffs at Intel. I’m mostly being sarcastic but I wouldn’t bet on anything in these times.

The next transformers movie has a name and guess where it’s filming?

ALAMOGORDO, New Mexico -DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Pictures and director Michael Bay will return to New Mexico to film major sequences for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Governor Richardson announced Monday. The next installment of the box office hit Transformers is expected to hit theaters next summer.

Some details of the next film are apparently known, check out slashfilm for spoilers.

Albuquerque only seems to get national attention when something bad happens. This time the local NBC affiliate KOB channel 4 had a cameraman who was arrested by a police. The “raw video” shows the cop gets into a scuffle with the cameraman while the cop tries to arrest the cameraman.

There’s something missing from this video, like what lead up to this indicent. KOB’s story only says:

The photographer says he was asked to leave the scene and go to a media staging area. However, he says officers did not tell him where that area was located.

I bet there’s more to it than that. The cops probably told the cameraman mutiple times what to do any he probably continued to mouth off to them and ignore their instruction. I’ve never heard of this sort of thing happening in Albuquerque before and I doubt the police officer just walked up to him decided to arrest him becasue he asked for his badge number.

My opinion of KOB is they like to sensationalize the news and this seems to be leading in this direction.

Update 6/12/08: Guess the cops did make a mistake.

The Chief of Police Ray Schultz has viewed a videotape of the confrontation and concluded that several mistakes were made during the confrontation.

Tonight the big guns started showing up. First one was a good sized, about silver dollar sized, wolf spider. This guy saw me coming but I was able to track him down with my vacuum. Right after I got that guy I went back down the hallway and saw this good sized black spider right where I was. Where the heck did this guy come from? What kind of spider is it? I have no idea but it got vacuumed up too.

I wouldn't say I'm afraid of spiders but as I've got little tolerance for them or bugs in general since I've moved into this house. I know they are harmless to people and they are good for the environment by eating other bugs but I don't like them scurrying around my house. With the scorpions and the spiders, I may just have to get out some insecticide.

Looks like I'm not the only one with gopher problems.

An irrigation ditch in the South Valley overflowed Friday morning flooding a residential neighborhood near Isleta and Rio Bravo. Officials are blaming the incident on damage caused by gophers. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District crews worked in the predawn hours to repair the damage and staunch the flooding.

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A friend IM'ed me and asked if I heard about the bad gas. I said not really but I smelled and and had it all day long. That's not what they were talking about.

Inoue said the general managers at both Peerless Tyre and Costco told him that a Giant Industries tanker from a pipeline terminal in Moriarty on Tuesday delivered diesel to unleaded gasoline pumps at 10 stations in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and possibly points in between.

The screw up was actually by Western Refining Inc. The companies that gave out the bad gas are paying for repairs. I'm sure glad I didn't buy gas today.

To follow up on my last post where my friends were stranded in a Yurt a few extra days due to the storm, my friend Rick has posted photos from the trip on Flickr.

Now, what am I going to do about it (them)? I found a PDF from NMSU which describes various ways to kill them. This is a problem for me. I don't use pesticides on a regular basis, only in extreme circumstances. I don't use chemicals other than vinegar to kill weeds. I use chemical fertilizers to a minimum. I'm not against the nuclear option, but only if I absolutely have to.

The PDF from NMSU states that repellants don't work. I could try trapping them. Trapping or poising them requires me to find their tunnels and dig holes.

On the bright side, the PDF does indicate there are benefits of gophers.

Although, in many cases, the damage caused by pocket go-phers is the overriding factor, the benefits of pocket gophers should be recognized. Some of these are:

• increased soil fertility by adding organic matter such as buried vegetation and fecal wastes.
• increased soil aeration and decreased soil compaction.
• increased rate of soil formation by bringing sub-soil material to the surface of the ground, subjecting it to weatherization.
• increased water infiltration.

The Rio Rancho Observers "Letters to the Editors" section continues to entertain. I think this person was on drugs when they wrote it.

Drugs legalized?

Editor:

According to an article in the Albuquerque Journal, we should legalize and subsidize drugs in order to prevent drug addicts from being killed while in the felonious pursuit of stealing, or robbing, using weapons of minor destruction.

It’s about time someone came forward with a logical solution to this problem, gee golly gosh, all along we thought it insurmountable.

Well, it just goes to show if you think long enough about a problem a solution will present itself.

Well people, you can rest easy now, sell your handguns, get rid of that ball bat and start feeding your pit bull again. The world, well maybe New Mexico, is a safer place now thanks be to solid intelligence, not unmixed with a heavy dose of whatever it is in that pipe, has arrived.

Quis,quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo,quando?

(Who, what, where, with what, why, how, when?)

Bob Harpley

Rio Rancho

Gov. Bill Richardson chimed in Friday on the fight for red light camera revenue between the city of Albuquerque and the state. Comparing the program to “big-brother,” Richardson said he is leaning toward signing a bill that would claim camera revenue for the state.

What? If he doesn't like them then introduce a bill to ban them.

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I can't help be be amused that the Mayor of Albuquerque has suspended the red light camera program over money. According to him, the purpose of the program was not to make money, but was to increase safety at risky intersections. Its questionable if the data supports this, but the program did make money, like $10 million. Oops, that extra $10 million wasn't supposed to happen. Or was it?

Now the state wants a cut of it, or I guess all of it, so goodbye cash cow. I'm sure all interested parties will find a way so everyone can profit. except the citizens.

This weeks Photo Friday is "What Is That?" I submit this photo I took at the Very Large Array near Socorro New Mexico.

Search & Rescue could not reach them today. There are 3 parties stranded: 5, 4 & 2 people according to sherif's dpt (when I called this PM). Search called off for tonight. 2 snow cats being loaded for deployment in AM. Snow condition are severe... possibly record-breaking.

Hopefully, when they tried to leave the Yurt, they realized they couldn't make it out and went back. They will be warm and comfortable in the yurt but they are running out of food. I hope they get to them tomorrow.

Update 02/05/08 6:43 am: I'm happy to report that my friends are safe. Apparently, search and rescue wasn't able to make it to their yurt, equipment issues of some sort. When the owner of the yurt was contacted he said he could make it up, on skis. Which he did and guided them out. Impressive, no? Keep in mind this guy probably skis up to the yurt in between rentals with supplies to restock it. He could probably do it blindfolded. I now get to look forward to the stories.

Chama, by the way, has been declared a disaster area and I don't think they have figured out how they are going to get back there to pick up their vehicles.

There's a giant sink hole on Paseo Del Norte, a major artery through the west side of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. The following comment was posted on the KOBTV's article on the road closure.

Well, those crews had better get busy! I need to use that road to get to TD's every day for my daily fix of skin and wiggles!

TD's is a strip club in Albuquerque.

This story from New Mexico is getting a lot of attention on the internets. Here's the original source.

She said the image appeared during a home construction mishap. Quintana said her husband was putting a special texture on the wall. The spray bottle he was using broke twice, which meant the texture couldn't be wiped off fast enough. This is how it dried.

This is a great way to end 2007, if your a moron in New Mexico.

Two southern New Mexico men are recovering after accidentally shooting themselves while trying to trace a loaded .357-caliber Magnum as a pattern for a tattoo.

For a long time the discussion has been more focused on when we would open, and we feel like now is the right time. Taos has a long-standing tradition of being family oriented, and now with so many young people snowboarding, we are turning away more and more families, particularly families that traditionally come to Taos. Opening to snowboarding allows us to refocus on being a family oriented mountain.

I wasn't expecting this. Snowboards are designed in such a way that it's easy to sit on your ass or your knees from an upright position. It's those snowboarders that use this capability and stop right at unloading area of a lift or on a run, right where a skier is going and cannot stop quite so easily, that make them all look bad. Most ski lifts are designed for skiers, not boarders, which doesn't help things either.

About half the people I know use snowboards, at least I can go to Taos with them now. I will never forget the last time I was there, I lost my very favorite Canon S500 digital camera somewhere on the slopes.

The Department of the Treasury approved the design on May 25, 2007. The other three designs considered were "Zia Symbol over Textured State Outline," "Textured Zia Symbol over State Outline," and "Zia Symbol over Textured State Outline," with the Zia symbol marking the location of the capital, Santa Fe.

From the department of "one thing inevitably leads to another," we present Laboratory Conditions, a film we made on the way to making another film. Scouting for props and locations for our current film project, 72° led us to Los Alamos, New Mexico. We found a lot more there than we bargained for.

Laboratory Conditions

It was in the high 70's earlier this week. Now it's snowing. Only in New Mexico.

I didn't have my camera with me tonight so I borrowed this creative commons licensed photo from flickr.

[Update 11/23/07 2:34PM]: I've replaced the original photo with one of my own backyard.

A suspicious device was found at a Rail Runner train stop in Albuquerque.

Bernalillo County Sheriff's Lt. Duncan Sanchez said the device consisted of two white cylinders attached to a base with protruding wires. The Albuquerque police bomb squad used a robot to disable the device... Authorities declined to say what the device was.

Uh... yeah, I would call that suspicious. It was plugged into a outlet at the train station. Does this mean that power outlets will be banned next?

I'm really interested to hear what this thing is.

I actually saw snow this evening at my house, though it could barely be called snow. None the less I am calling it snow. It was very very light, but they were flakes. It just left the cement a little wet. It was pretty darned cold out, about 20 degrees less than the normals for this time of year. So much for global warming.

I chose to contribute to the green house effect by running a fire in the fireplace for most of the evening.

The metal duct work is mostly rusted away. I would expect that the ducting would be incased in concrete, which it appears there was an attempt to do so. Except only 50% of the ducting had concrete surrounding it, the rest was up against dirt. Damp dirt, which led to the rusting and the mud which penetrated the ducting.

I pulled up the majority of rusted mess out. I allowed the pit to dry out then vacuumed up as much of the dirt with a shop vac as I could. I also found a layer of dirt in the 18 inch duct that leads to the main distribution center under the forced air heater. Thankfully that where the dirt stops.

If your interested in following the progress, you can view pictures at a flickr set.

Check out this local news report of a balloon crash in Rio Rancho with some pretty graphic video. This balloon was taking part in the Balloon Fiesta this week. Overall, I believe the safety record of the Balloon Fiesta is pretty good but these crashes highlight just how little control the balloon pilots have compared to a plane.

I took a early morning trip to the Balloon Fiasco as we often call it. I would have probably had four times as photos if I didn't run out of battery power. You can view the flickr set or watch the slide show below.

I watched this same freaking show and did nothing with the information

DeShundra Jackson and her mother watched the TLC network’s broadcast of How the Lottery Changed My Life on Sunday evening and learned that the most frequently drawn lotto numbers according to the show are 8, 25, 31, 44, 50 and 54. It turned out Jackson matched four white numbers and the red number in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing. With her Power Play option, her prize was doubled to $20,000.

Lucky numbers to win lottery

A bear was sighted near North Hills in Rio Rancho. So far I find no reports that it was found.

A black bear weighing 90 to 100 pounds was spotted this morning around 8 a.m. near Unser and Cherry Road and was last seen heading in a northwesterly direction around 8:30 this morning heading in the direction of Colinas del Norte Elementary School on 23rd Avenue, Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety spokesman John Francis tells us.

I'm sure it was heading toward the school to eat the children. Isn't that what bears do?

There's been quite a few bomb threats around town lately.

• 08/31/07 - I believe there have been several of these bank related bomb threats.

  Police are searching for a white male, about 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, who touched off the bomb scare shortly after 4 p.m. The suspect walked into a doctor's office on Juan Tabo, strapped "suspicious devices" onto a doctor and the doctor's assistant, then marched the two into the bank, Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said.

• 09/07/07 - Rio Rancho High School.

  Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety Spokesman John Francis said the bomb threat was called in to Rio Rancho’s 911 emergency line at about 7:40 a.m.

• 09/09/07 -

  A bomb threat called into the Sandia Peak tram closed business for about an hour on Saturday as authorities searched the restaurant located at the bottom of the mountain for explosives. After an investigation of the building, no explosives were found. However, authorities now have the phone number used to make the bomb threat because the Tram had caller ID.

Wikiscanner is a tool to determine who is anonymously editing Wikipedia. Well, not the specific person but what organization the IP address belongs to. For example, the tool shows that some one from Exxon made favorable edits to a entry about the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Santa Fe New Mexican checked to see what edits were being made by state employees.

But I was disappointed. Doing a WikiScanner search of the name ``State of New Mexico,'' with the location of Santa Fe, I found relatively little activity from state computers related to politicos.

Most of the edits by state employees appear to be unrelated to politics. No scandal here, move along.

Good news if you live in Sandoval County, crime is down 30% according to KOB TV. Sandoval county is where Rio Rancho resides. Albuquerque resides in Bernalillo County. In a unrelated note, the Town of Bernalillo is also in Sandoval county.

Speaking of crime, areaconnect.com has a nifty city crime rate comparison tool. Holy crap if Albuquerque doesn't have a severely high crime rate. It's not just higher than Rio Rancho but higher than just about every city I compare it to.

Last October, New Mexico made the news when officers in Los Lunas received burgers from Burger King laced with Pot. The employee that did it blames the manager

“The manager had told me to put weed on the burgers,” said Robert Nuckols. “He didn’t tell me who it was for, didn’t bother telling me at all. His friends were there that night helping us clean.”

So... that makes it OK?

The APS Police (they call them police not security?) had a sick out today because they APS policy committee recommended that they not get to carry around guns. So, they all felt that Albuquerque school children would be much safer if the people who are suppose to protect them were all home sick, or if they had guns.

nice

Update: Here's a post on Duke City Fix from Johnny Mango on this subject.

I was prepared both mentally and financially to be laid off. My years of employment at Intel would have provided me with several months of pay. The state is helping everyone find jobs (you know, our Governor is running for President). There was also the chance of going to school. I know, I should be grateful that I have a job particularly since Intel pays so well. Especially for New Mexico. But there were some benefits to being laid off and I am ready for a new career. Or that's what I have convinced myself leading up to last week. Not to mention that the whole process left a bad taste in my mouth.

There is no good way to do a layoff. There seems to be bad ways to do layoffs. The common way, it seems to me from talking with others who have gone through layoffs at other companies, is that people are suddenly missing one day without warning. You show up to work and a bunch of people are no longer there. Intel's way was different, it was a process. I could go on and on and on about this, but I will leave it at this for now. Since I still have a job, I want to keep it and stay out of trouble.

The whole reason for these layoffs, which has been widely reported, is that Intel is moving from 200mm to 300mm wafer sizes. There are two factories here, a 200 and 300 one. Merging them together with all the wonders of automation in the 300mm factory means you need less people to run it. New Mexico didn't have the only 200mm factory, all other factories like this should pay attention to what happened here.

It's good that I have a job, at least I can focus on other things that don't involve looking for a job. I paid off my debt in preparation, that was also a good thing. This next year should bring along some changes, time to hold on for the ride.

Related: June 30, 2006: Intel -- will it, or won't it?

Lisa Ayres, founder of Arid Solutions Inc., has been asked by Joe Lamp'l, host of "Fresh From the Garden" on the DIY Network to send some of her rain barrels to the set of the weekend edition of the Today Show for a segment he is doing on eco-friendly gardening. The segment is slated to run nationally on July 8. Programming information for the local NBC television affiliate, KOB-TV, Channel 4, indicates the broadcast of the Today Show in KOB's New Mexico markets might be pre-empted by coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Link

The company that has supplied concession services at Carlsbad Caverns National Park for nearly 80 years has lost the contract. Cavern Supply Co. will be replaced next year by Carlsbad Cavern Trading, owned by Santa Fe-based businessman Armand Ortega, to supply food, drinks, retail, kennel and vending services at the park. The new vendor was chosen after competitive bids, said Michael Snyder, National Park Service Intermountain regional director. Five companies bid. Carlsbad Cavern Trading will begin operations once a project to renovate the park’s visitor center is completed, expected next March. Cavern Supply president Frank Hodnett said it was a shock when the National Park Service chose another vendor. His Carlsbad company was specifically incorporated in 1927 to provide concession services at the park, he said. “We have no other business except the concession,” Hodnett said. “There is a very good possibility that we will close, but at this time, I can’t say for sure.” Cavern Supply sold its first meal in the cavern’s famed underground lunch room in 1927 and opened a surface restaurant the next year.

National Park Service is trying to choose service contracts based on merit and not senority. A good thing in my opinion.

I was at carlsbad caverns several years ago (pre digital cameras). The food was pre prepared sandwiches that came in boxes. The boxes looked like they were from 1927.

The Los Alamos Labs are probably going to be having their own lay offs of a similar size to Intels. Yes they have a much smaller town and it will be difficult for them to absorb all the out of work people. This article in the Los Alamos Monitor highlights several issue with the new management that makes is sound even more bleak.

"LANS management isn't vested in local community/most live elsewhere"; "they aren't seen in local stores or restaurants"; "too many Bechtel employees brought in - leaving LANL employees without enough work"; "an ever-looming threat of layoffs is killing local business"; "LANS officials have bloated salaries;" "management arrogance"; "LANS is sucking the community dry"; and "it's all about profits now."

This is via the Los Alamos Blog (with a freaking long name) which also has this disclaimer

To put this story into a bit of perspective, the Los Alamos Monitor is the local company town rag. The editor of the paper, Ralph Damiani has traditionally been a complete toady when it came to publishing stories that even hinted at a point of view less than totally complementary towards LANL. He would spike any story that did not deliver glowing positive things to say about LANL and its management. That fact that this story ran is an indication of how complete the unhappiness with LANS is at Los Alamos.

Picture from Flickr of Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones 4 movie. It's being filmed in Deming, New Mexico. From the picture page:

FIrst glimpse of Indy since 1989.

Photo shot on set by Stephen Spielberg. uploaded to flicr for use in a danish langauge blog post :) More info about the shot here: indianajones.com/community/news/news20070621.html

A federal judge in New Mexico has put the brakes on the RIAA's lawsuit train, at least in the US District Court for New Mexico. The case in question is part of the RIAA's campaign against file-sharing on college campuses and names "Does 1-16," who allegedly engaged in copyright infringement using the University of New Mexico's network. In a ruling issued last month but disclosed today by file-sharing attorney Ray Beckerman, Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia denied the RIAA's motion to engage in discovery. This means that the RIAA will not be able to easily get subpoenas to obtain identifying information from the University.

Link to Ars Technica.

A surveillance camera at the First Judicial District courthouse downtown captured a strange image Friday morning that left sheriff’s deputies, lawyers, clerks and judges scratching their heads as to what it might have been.
Some thought it was the ghost of a man killed at the courthouse more than 20 years ago after bringing a rifle to the building and taking several people hostage. Others felt it had to be a reflection from a passing car or a piece of cottonwood tree fluff. Still others threw their hands in the air, but somehow liked the image anyway or at least the hullabaloo it prompted.

Video available with the article. It's low quality video with a dirty camera lens. It could be a bug, a reflection. I don't know. I know it's not a ghost. People see what they want to see.

Update 06/19/07: A follow up article at Free New Mexican.

Finally, another woman asked, “Have you consulted a reputable channeler? If you need help let me know.”

Give me a break!

Update 06/21/07: Here's the security camera video via YouTube.

The Rio Rancho City Council unanimously voted no confidence in Mayor Kevin Jackson. The Mayor position is apparently more of a figure head and the council cannot force him out. They would have to take him to court to get him out, which doesn't seem likely.

He wasn't in town for the vote, he was in Taos for a conference and lost his cell phone. How convenient. Every one seems to think he has no choice but to resign.

People living in Madrid, NM have prevented AT&T (formerly Cingular) from building a cell tower on a ridge overlooking the town. AT&T is, of course, the provider of the Apple iPhone. Personally i'd rather see Madrid get some public toilets before they worry about the cell towers.

They don't seem like the iPhone types anyhow.

When I wrote about Albuquerque's (or just the Mayors) desire to have city wide WiFi, I was wondering why Rio Rancho's efforts were considered to be a bad thing. Apparently the city feels the contract with Azulstar is in breach.

According to the letter, the breaches include incomplete installation of equipment, inconsistent coverage, minimal customer service, improperly installed equipment, nonpayment of PNM electricity bills and nonpayment of a bond for almost $30,000 owed to the city.Azulstar cancelled the insurance on its equipment on April 19, which violates the contract. The company also did not complete an application for a permit required to install the equipment.

There's some other interesting tidbits in that article as well, like residents of the city are suppose to get 8 hours of free service a month. I wonder how that works

There is competiton. Roadrunner Wireless Services, Inc. has antennas up all over the city. I get a strong signal at my house from their various access points and pretty much everywhere I go in the city. Yet I have some reservations about a company that's about the latest technologies, yet their website looks like it was designed in 1995. It doesn't load properly when viewed on the internet. When viewed from their access point, your treated to layout done in tables, a starry background and animated gifs.

It also says something about my driving record as I've never had a speeding ticket in the 10 years I've lived here. Doesn't mean I haven't been lucky. I've been pulled over twice for not stopping at a stop sign. When I first moved here I had long hair and was driving around in the Maverick. I was pulled over by a cop that was two cars ahead of me for not wearing my seat belt. The Maverick only had lap belts and how could he see when he was two cars ahead of me? I never got a ticket for any of these incidences. I did have two speeding tickets when I lived in Arizona.

I've often thought there is a lot of corruption and ego in New Mexico politics. I should say, what seems like more than a normal amount of corruption and ego in New Mexico politics. Kind of a "god-old-boys network" that exists. The Mayor of Albuquerque seems to like to promote himself a lot more than I would expect, for example.

I didn't expect it from Kevin Jackson, Rio Rancho's new mayor. he campaigned on being different and trustworthy and I mostly bought into it. Now he's almost blown any trust I had, since he's had his credit card revoked from the city for spending $8000 at Scorpion games that wasn't authorized. The non profit New Mexico Family Council-Best Choice has recently fired Jackson for mismanaging money too.

The Rio Rancho Mayor position is part time, and pays about $12,000 a year. Mayor Jackson said he was giving that money back to the city. Perhaps he thinks he was justified?

Update 10:54 PM: According to KRQE, Mayor Jackson is accused of double billing some trips to the city and his non profit foundation.

Update 6/5/07 6:18 PM:Oh come on now. This is just sour grapes, "Not only is former Mayor Jim Owen calling for Jackson's resignation, he is also saying the council should name the second place finisher in the last mayoral election to take his place. That person would be Owen.". Jackson can't be as bad as this guy.

Update 07/06/07 10:03 PM: It just keeps getting worse. KRQE is now saying that the Rio Rancho city council may have a vote of no confidence at the next meeting (June 13th?).

Also, some of the Santa Anna Star Center receipts list "Mayor Chavez", yet Albuquerque's mayor says he's never been to the center and doesn't want his ass dragged into it.

Update 6/9/07 8:38 AM: Kevin Jackson has made an official statement saying he will pay back any charges but not admitting any wrong doing. Also saying something about others making charges. New Mexico FBIHOP suggests it's his brothers that made the other charges. Very interesting.

Kevin Jackson has sent the following "letter to the editor".

I do not believe in attacking others. When there are challenges and mistakes, we need to learn from them and grow through them.There are certain new issues that we have had to grow through. We can either grow through them professionally or destructively.

Also the Observer thinks the Mayor should resign and suggests alternatives. I say lets not be premature.

In 15 square miles of abandoned land, about 400 misfits—aging hippies, disillusioned veterans, teenage runaways—have built a community where no one cares if you smoke pot, fire your rifle all day, let your kids drive your car, or walk around naked in the desert heat. It's a landscape of beat-up old trailers, shacks jerry-rigged from recycled materials, solar panels, little farms, greenhouses, and at least one tipi. "Where I live is the last remaining land of America that is left," says Dreadie Jeff, another Mesa resident. "You can do what you fucking want there."

link

The Mayor of Albuquerque wants free WiFi for everyone in the city.

a two-tiered wireless Internet signal covering the entire city that will support not just the basics of Web surfing, e-mail and the like, but phone service and video. Those two tiers are a free, 1 megabit signal for anyone and a premium service at 3 Mb for a "reasonable" cost.

Of course Comcast and Qwest don't like it. I say screw 'em. Qwest especially doesn't seem interested in offering extra services and Comcast would probably force everyone to pay $10/month for cable before you can use it. It's the technical issues and money that will keep this from happening.

One wireless provider estimates it would cost $25 million and would require a access point on every building in the city, I think that's overblown. They cite the problems that Rio Rancho has had completing it's network. I thought Rio Rancho had completed it's network.

I hope they try it anyways. I could use some free wifi when I have to drive into Albuquerque

While I snoozed away this morning, a bear was on my street. They eventually caught up to him in a doctors office a few miles down Southern Ave. KOB has video and the Albuquerque Journal has an article.

New Mexico Govenor Bill Richardson, who is running for president, has a kinda humorus ad for people in Iowa.

An Albuquerque Tribune article discusses how the Scorpions didn't make enough money during their first season in Rio Rancho to cover costs. They didn't make enough money when they were in Albuquerque, either.

I can certainly see why they would thing the grass will be greener here in Rio Rancho, really what did they have to loose? I'm still concerned, how long will they continue to loose money? What if Rio Rancho's growth doesn't happen as fast as it needs to? Real fans are already driving to Rio Rancho to watch the games, what else will be done to attract new fans?

I'm still surprised to hear people complain about the drive to the Arena. Unser Road did suck, but it's mostly better now. Any major city with major league sports have much worse traffic problems than Rio Rancho. I don't think people know how good they have it.

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) -- Intel Corp. said Tuesday that it expects to cut more than 1,000 jobs at its Rio Rancho plant as the company ends production of an older silicon wafer technology. Intel will stop making the 200-millimeter wafers at the plant by the end of August, and affected employees will be offered severance packages or can apply for other jobs within the company, spokesman Jami Grindatto said.

Anyone who works at the Intel Rio Rancho plant knew this was coming. I know a large number of people that have been waiting to for a chance to get out with a severance package. Still, this sucks. One fifth (20%) of the people that work at this plant will be gone wether they like it or not.

The AP article doesn't mention when Intel expect to have everyone out but this KOB article say they start in August.

A article from the Albuquerque Tribune says:

Larry Waldman, a senior economist with the University of New Mexico's Bureau of Business and Economic Research, projects the layoffs expected to come in August could cause the loss of another 1,000 jobs in places such as the retail and service sectors. "It's not going to be just 1,000 jobs when you look at effects on other parts of the economy," said Waldman, referring to retail and service jobs that might supplement Intel workers. While that may not be the rosiest picture, Waldman said the losses will have only a minor impact on the economies of both the state and Albuquerque metro

Update 5/7/07: From the Trib:

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici has asked Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to assign staff from her agency's Dallas office to coordinate job placement programs for the 1,000-plus workers expected to lose their jobs at Intel Corp.'s Rio Rancho plant.

The declines were greatest in the cities of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. In the Duke City, 223 permits were issued in March compared with 524 in March 2006. For Rio Rancho, just 124 permits were obtained this March compared to 336 a year ago.

New home permits plunge by more than 50 percent - New Mexico Business Weekly.

The first successful launch from spaceport america occurred today.

The rocket launched amid clear weather conditions from Upland, between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences. The rocket contained the ashes of hundreds of people, among them, James Doohan, the actor who played "scotty" in the popular "Star Trek" series. Also on board were the ashes of L. Gordon Cooper, who was one of NASA's original Mercury astronauts.

The first launch was a failure, this one had to be successful since it carried the remains of lots of people, including James Doohan "Scotty" from Star Trek.

A toilet painted bright green and a pirate flag adorned the clock tower over Joseph Skeen Library at New Mexico Tech in Socorro until crews took it down Monday. Crews noticed the commode Sunday morning and taped off the area so nobody would get hit if the lime porcelain fell.
A prankster had apparently placed the commode on the top of the vertical tower, but crews are still trying to figure out how & and who.

KOB.com - N.M. Tech takes lime green toilet off clock tower . Video and pictures at KOB's website.

Yet another classic car shows up on craigslist. $9000 for a 1922 R23 Speedster in Grants, NM. Poster states it has it has new top and upholstery. Not sure who originally made them but looks nice.

The same poster also seems to have other cars like a 1923 Model "T" Touring Car - $13000 and a 1929 Roadster Pickup - $13000.

On Craigslist from Carlsbad, NM. Listed as "Very rare 1928 Studebaker Dictator. Partially restored, original 1928 upholstery. Does run! $7,500 obo." Looks great!

After a spring winter storm, blue skies are back. This is the view from my front window. This week's Photo Friday, "The Blues".

I'm trying to think back to my own graduation 15 years ago. It was held at the high school football field and I think there was a limit of how many people I could attend, something like 5 people (the class was 2000 people (update: 2000 is the total number of students in the school that year)). The Rio Rancho High School graduation is in some controversy due to the 8 person limit imposed when the school moved the ceremony to the Santa Anna Star Center. It was previously held at the "Pit" in Albuquerque.

The Santa Ana Star Center, which opened in November, will hold 5,500 of the graduates' family and friends, while the The Pit held 11,000 for the ceremony last year, said Bill Duncan, Rio Rancho High activities director.

One thing that is annoying me is the woman I've seen on the news several times who complains that she cannot take all 50 of her relatives (she has a blog rioranchogradsunite.blogspot.com) to see her kid graduate. The Albuquerque Tribune says another person is upset because she ordered 40 invitations. Even if it was held at the Pit, there isn't enough room for every kid to take that many people.

I know this is important to a lot of people and I don't have a kid who is graduating nor 50 relatives that would come out for it even if I did. It appears that the school is willing to accommodate a reasonable amount of people (this problem isn't unique to Rio Rancho High School). I feel it's better to have the graduation in Rio Rancho, where the school is. I also feel that parents should be reasonable.

What a better way to start spring in New Mexico than with a snow storm. It's actually coming down pretty good right now. It's not sticking though, and it's barley making the ground wet.

Talk about bizarre weather.

New Mexico tax payers want to pay for Spaceport America. Las Cruces Sun-News - All votes are tallied, but still unofficial

LAS CRUCES — All votes have now been tallied in this week's spaceport tax election. Doña Ana County voters approved the tax, with 9,020 voting in favor and 8,750 against. With almost 18,000 taking part in the election, 50.7 percent of voters were in favor of the tax while 49.3 were against. The vote count is unofficial until certified by county commissioners next Tuesday. The one-quarter of 1 percent increase in gross receipts tax will take effect Jan. 1. Proceeds from the tax will be used to help pay for construction of Spaceport Am