That is, 91° and 9% humidity.
Category: Albuquerque & New Mexico
Here’s another good revenue idea for Mayor Marty
Cite motorists for something bogus, then keep citing them even after the law gets changed, but before the change goes into effect.
Police in Houston, Texas issued $931,000 in tickets this year to motorists for the crime of using a frame on their license plate, often one supplied by a car dealer. Of this amount, $231,000 was raised after Governor Rick Perry (R) signed a law overturning a February Texas Appeals Court interpretation … of state law that gave police authority to issue the citations. Because the new law does not go into effect until September 1, Houston police believe that they have a green light to collect up until the deadline.
“It’s the law, and it’s our job not to interpret but to follow,” Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt told the Houston Chronicle newspaper. “When that law takes effect in September, then we will abide by the changes.”
At the current pace, Houston police expect to collect another $450,000 in revenue from the citations. A single officer, Matthew Davis, is responsible for a large share of the revenue. Davis this year issued 1216 license plate tickets at a rate of up to 30 a day. Police rewarded his ticket-writing skill with $162,000 in overtime bonuses since 2004.
Houston police cite motorists for other expired laws as well. Davis issued a ticket to Tammy Ayers, 38, for having a license plate frame as well as driving without corrective lenses. Ayers had laser eye surgery and has perfect vision.
Wait until Mayor Marty sees this
You may see Paris, you may see France, but in Delcambre, Lousiana, you won’t see underpants.
In an attack on baggy trousers, the Mayor is signing an ordinance that imposes a possible 6 month jail sentence and hefty fine for those who wear baggy pants that expose their underwear.
Albuquerque’s Mayor Marty just unilaterally prohibited smoking on all city property extended the no smoking ban to all city property — even outside (parks, bus stops). I’m no smoker and hate being around second-hand smoke, but I hate living in a nanny community more. Add the mayor’s smoking ban to redlight cameras, the APD party patrols, DUI roadblocks, cell phone bans and what do you have? When does nanny end and fascist begin?
How States Rank on Health Care
Hawaii leads and Oklahoma lags on a new state scorecard about health system performance.
The scorecard is the first of its kind from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation focused on health care.
The Commonwealth Fund rated states based on 32 indicators, including access, quality, cost, insurance, preventive care, potentially avoidable hospital visits, and premature death (death before age 75).
The top five states in order are Hawaii, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.
The bottom five states are Nevada, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.
New Mexico ranks 35th. Follow the link to see the complete list of states.
Cruise the Caldera
The The Bomb Town News Observer is unhappy with the Valles Caldera Trust, as we all should be with how they are managing our 89,000 acres. An excerpt:
Remember last year’s fiasco when 1,500 cars rushed into the Preserve, only to sit idle for hours, going nowhere? Remember how while you were sitting frustrated in your vehicle inhaling exhaust fumes and wondering what you were going to have to do if you needed to pee, Valles Caldera Trust board Chairwoman Tracy Hephner was dashing about on her horse in the meadow nearby, waving and smiling at trapped motorists like a giddy rodeo queen? Remember how afterward, Hephner and the rest of the board said “they got it” that people were just itching to get a chance to see the Preserve up close—thus the root cause for the traffic jam?
And now, here it is, less than a year later, and the Preserve is still charging people 20 bucks a head to hike or bike.
This is a good rant that all interested in the environment and public lands should read.
NewMexiKen isn’t opposed, by the way, to fees, but there needs to be some variation, some free public access, and some facilities.
It was a beautiful night for a ballgame
NewMexiKen attended the Albuquerque Isotopes – Memphis Redbirds game at Isotopes Park Friday evening. Temperature at game time, 80°. Temperature at game end, 69° and windy. Still it was a beautiful clear evening for the 8,298 people in attendance who saw Myron Noodleman and the ‘Topes beat the Redbirds 7-4 — and two hellacious homeruns over the 428 feet marker in left centerfield, one for each team.
Best yet, we walked up to the window a half-hour before game time and ended up in the seventh row behind the plate looking down the third base line for $11 apiece.
You may click on each of the images to see a larger version.
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In Albuquerque everyone stands at attention for the National Anthem. Players from little league teams joins Isotopes players on the field. |
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There’s a ball here some place. Good seats, eh? |
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And, of course, no game in Albuquerque is complete without the first-to-third dash by red, green and taco. Taco won. |
Of course, almosts don’t count, but we almost saw a 5-4-3 triple play. The ‘Topes batter beat it out for an expensive fielder’s choice.
‘Cuz I like ‘splosions as much as the next little kid
Phelps Dodge footage of the Hurley, New Mexico, smokestacks demolition.
Thanks to Live from Silver City.
[Note: Keep your cursor away from the video until YouTube finds out no one likes the new feature.]
Truck, car, they all look alike to me
A red light camera in Knoxville, Tennessee claimed a white Toyota pickup truck photographed running a red light was actually a silver BMW convertible. . . .
A closer look at the photo showed the optical character recognition software used by the Australian red light camera operator Redflex had mistaken the number “2” on the pickup truck’s license plate for the “3” that appears on the BMW’s plate. Knoxville police insist that each violation is carefully scrutinized by two human beings . . . Neither noticed that the description of a “BMW convertible” on the citation in no way matched the Toyota Tacoma shown in the photo.
“But instead of some public servant reading this and calling me on the phone with a ‘Whoops! We screwed up! Sorry!’ I will have to go downtown and perform my obeisances in an orgy of forelock tugging, curtsying, and groveling, and beg my betters to please let me go about my business unmolested,” Tamara wrote.
Read Any Good Books Lately?
Several well-known writers tell The New York Times what they’re reading.
How about you? Anything you can recommend?
Update: At Duke City Fix, Coco has superb introduction to some Albuquerque books, fiction and non.
For all the talk about global warming
It hasn’t hit 100° F. in Albuquerque officially since July 15, 2003.
Think we’ll hit triple digits this year?
An aside: In Tucson, when it first hits 100° each spring they say, “The ice has broken on the Santa Cruz [River].” (Made all the funnier by the fact that there is seldom water in most of the Santa Cruz, let alone ice.) The ice broke on the Santa Cruz this year on May 11th.
100° Fahrenheit = 37.7777778° Celsius
Speed cameras banned statewide
In Texas, not here.
Famous for liking things big, Texas lawmakers have laid the smackdown on red light and speed cameras in a large manner. HB.922 states “A municipality may not implement or operate an automated traffic control system with respect to a highway under its jurisdiction,” which means that cameras, automated radar or laser, or anything else designed to snag an image of a car, driver, or license plate and record its speed is now forbidden. The even larger racket of red-light cameras have had the brakes applied by HB.1052, which requires giving motorists notice of the devices at least 100 feet out.
These bills have passed through the legislature and are awaiting Governor Rick Perry’s inscription. If the measures do make it into law, we hope that other states follow suit. Ticketing egregious speeders and actual red-light scofflaws is one thing, but the systems have been calibrated in a cynical manner to generate loads of revenue (and kickbacks) for the companies that sell and administrate the systems for municipalities. Rather than keeping people safe, random ticketing amounts to a tax….
What Albuquerque is he talking about?
ALBUQUERQUE
At 9 a.m. on the very edge of the dusty, desolate collection of adobe homes and Vietnamese restaurants that seem to form this city, David Iglesias begins his run through the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. This is not easy terrain. The footing is terribly uneven. The altitude can be unbearable. At certain times one can hear the grumbling of mountain lions and the feasting of coyotes.
How many things can we find wrong with that paragraph from an article by Sridhar Pappu in The Washington Post — The Next Best Path? Would you believe anything that followed in that article?
Hat tip to John Fleck for the link.
And, with apologies to John and other reporters I respect, I am reminded of a quote I posted here three years ago today from Susan DuQuesnay Bankston:
As a general rule, I don’t like reporters. They go to meetings. I go to meetings. I come home and think about the meeting. They go home and write about the meeting. The next day when I read about the meeting in the newspaper, I wonder where I was yesterday when I thought I was at the meeting. This can be disconcerting.
Unusual Weather We’re Having, Ain’t It?
Yes Albuquerqueans, the weather is a bit unusual.
Last May, we had no measurable precipitation. In 2005, we had just 4/10th of an inch of precip in May. In May 2004, just an unmeasurable trace.
This month there’s been 1.68 inches in 19 days.
And the high, so far this month, has been just 84.
Iglesias recounts a lunch with politics on the menu
WASHINGTON — Weeks before the 2006 midterm election, then-New Mexico U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias was invited to dine with a well-connected Republican lawyer in Albuquerque who had been after him for years to prosecute allegations of voter fraud.
“I had a bad feeling about that lunch,” said Iglesias, describing his meeting at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen with Patrick Rogers, a lawyer who provided occasional counsel to the New Mexico Republican Party.
When the voter fraud issue came up, Iglesias said, he explained to Rogers that in reviewing more than 100 complaints, he hadn’t found any solid enough to justify criminal charges.
Iglesias recounted the episode in an interview with The Times after meeting behind closed doors with federal investigators this week to provide new details of the events leading up to his termination as U.S. attorney. He said he now believed he was targeted because he was seen as slow to bring criminal charges that would have helped GOP election prospects.
Bear down
A hard-traveling black bear found its way into a Rio Rancho health clinic this morning, terrifying the few workers inside before being tranquilized by state Game and Fish Department officials.
Around 7:30 a.m., the wandering, 125-pound male bear somehow triggered the automatic doors at the Presbyterian Medical Group building … just west of the busy intersection with Rio Rancho Boulevard.
The bear, estimated to be 2 to 3 years old, retreated into a side room while Rio Rancho Police and animal control officers evacuated the area, according to a news release from the game and fish department.
The bear then retreated further, into a restroom, where Game and Fish officers Darrell Cole and John Martsch sedated it with a tranquilizer dart.
It went down within a minute.
Rio Rancho is an Albuquerque suburb.
How average is your state?
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AP did a study of recently released census data and ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia on how closely they resemble the country as a whole. AP provides this interactive chart. Illinois is most like the rest of the U.S., West Virginia the least (51st). New Mexico ranks 28th. |
How to impeach Gonzales
Frank Bowman, writing at Slate Magazine, tells how and why:
But if Congress wants more, it need look no further than the firing of David Iglesias, former U.S. attorney in New Mexico. The evidence uncovered in Gonzales’ Senate and House testimony demonstrates that he fired Iglesias not because of a policy disagreement or a management failure, but because Iglesias would not misuse the power of the Department of Justice in the service of the Republican Party. To fire a U.S. attorney for refusing to abuse his power is the essence of an impeachable offense.
Factoid of the day
“Minorities constitute a majority in four states: Hawaii 75 percent, New Mexico 57 percent, California 57 percent and Texas 52 percent.”
From a New York Times report on new census information.
Nationwide, individuals defined as part of a minority make up about one-third of the population.
Bet Your Police Department Can’t Recruit Like This
Photo via Sheriff Greg Solano Blog who writes about Santa Fe’s proposal to hire immigrants as police officers.
Click photo for larger version.
[The poster is a reference to 2005 Runaway Bride Jennifer Wilbanks who was found in Albuquerque.]
Red light district
There’s an interesting a discussion of red light cameras here on NewMexiKen.
Yeah! Texas
The Texas House of Representatives yesterday crafted a compromise measure aimed at eliminating red light cameras in the state. The legislative body adopted a series of amendments to Senate Bill 1119 requiring cities to produce concrete evidence whether the devices reduce accidents or merely are revenue raisers. Unless the legislature is convinced of the latter by September 1, 2009, the cameras would be unplugged.
Oh, yeah, and Nevada:
The Nevada state Senate overwhelmingly rejected red light cameras by a 15-6 vote last month. Nevada is one of a growing number of jurisdictions with a specific statute banning automated photo ticketing.
So, then, how WOULD you end the war Senator?
Both New Mexico senators — Domenici, of course, and Bingaman, sadly — voted against the amendment to end money for combat operations in Iraq after March 2008.
Senators Clinton, Obama and Biden voted for the amendment.
Deputy Caught with Photo Blocker on License Plate
Sheriff Greg Solano has this item this morning:
Fear of getting a Red Light Camera citation led at least one Bernalillo County Deputy to put a Photo Blocker cover on the license plate of his squad car. Unfortunately he parked his car near a news conference and was caught by none other than City of Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz.
Sheriff Solano is sheriff of Santa Fe, not Bernalillo County. The sheriff has a cool “bad day at the office” photo with the post.
Rearranging the Red-Light Camera Deck Chairs
Eye On Albuquerque has a good rant on Albuquerque city hall’s inability to sort out the red-light camera fiasco they’ve created.
Boulder
Garret of dangerousmeta! and Santa Fe spent the weekend in Boulder and tells the tale of two cities. Interesting.