A pretty significant fire burning in Albuquerque late this afternoon — apparently spread from a structure into the grove (bosque) that lines both banks of the Rio Grande. The fire has jumped the river. One can never tell watching TV news how bad something is, as each event is treated as Armageddon, but at any rate this isn’t good. Homes have been burned, many more are in danger and the wind is gusting to 30 mph.
The last measurable rain in Albuquerque was in early April.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that, “The proposed rewrite of Santa Fe’s animal-control ordinance has been amended to remove the possibility that dogs would have to wear safety belts.”
Dogs, however, are no longer permitted to smoke in Santa Fe.
From the The Santa Fe New Mexican
A group considered one of the country’s largest factions of white separatists has brought its anti-immigration message to New Mexicans in recent days with a literature drop that hit some of the state’s cities, including Santa Fe.
Fliers from the West Virginia-based National Alliance tell residents “non-whites are turning America into a Third World slum. They come for welfare or to take our jobs. They bring crime. Let’s send them home now!”
Printed on yellow paper and placed in plastic bags weighted by rocks, they were left in driveways Sunday and Monday in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Cruces and other cities.
News report from The Albuquerque Tribune Tuesday afternoon.
Three of New Mexico’s five national forests have imposed Level One fire restrictions, and Gov. Bill Richardson has declared a state of emergency as the state’s fire season blazed to a roaring start.
The lightning-sparked Peppin Fire in the Capitan Mountains destroyed at least one summer cabin as it continued to race across about 20,000 acres of rugged territory in the Lincoln National Forest today.
Westerners know all about the dangers of fire this year. This is posted to emphasize the seriousness of the situation for NewMexiKen’s readers in other parts of the U.S., and in 39 other countries (so far in May).
From American Heritage, a modern tour of America’s oldest highway.
In 1598 Oñate blazed the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, a trail that became the most used and most significant route of commerce and culture for 300 years. At its peak the Camino Real ran 1,800 miles from Mexico City north to Santa Fe. Spaniards used the trail to settle towns and villages all along the way, Franciscans used it to spread their gospel, troops from the United States and Mexico used it for waging battles and building forts, Indians used it to fight the swelling tide of foreigners, and traders used it for commerce.
From the Los Angeles Times, a report on the first State of the Rockies Conference, held this week at Colorado College:
The myths and paradoxes of the new American West were explored Tuesday as experts here released a comprehensive report highlighting sweeping changes in population, growth and the environment across the Rocky Mountain region.
Most Westerners don’t live off the land, aren’t especially rugged and like big-box stores and lattes as much as anyone else, the statistics show.
They are, however, better educated than most Americans, younger and living in a beautiful region that’s become the fastest growing in the country.
Ask many native Santa Feans about themselves and they’ll tell you something like this:
“I am a life-long resident of Santa Fe. My mother, Vivian Romero Naranjo, was from Taos. My father, Gaspar O. Naranjo, was from Chimayó. I was born in Río Arriba County. My family moved to Santa Fe and to this location on July 9, 1946, on my first birthday. I have lived in this home for 57-plus years. Our home is on Staab Street, three blocks northwest of the Plaza. My mom and dad built this house in 1940 … .”
Just like María Encarnación Naranjo, a La Herencia reader and contributor who sprinkles her sing-song English with phrases in Spanish, la herencia (heritage) plays a central role in the lives of New Mexico’s Hispanics.
The Santa Fe New Mexican tells us about La Herencia magazine:
What makes the magazine special, says Pacheco, is that it is an authentic record of the local community “before it was Disneyized — the real deal.”
The Albuquerque City Council votes Monday on whether to extend a major thoroughfare through a national monument. This report is from The Albuquerque Tribune.
Like most islands, the hotly contested patch of the Petroglyph National Monument is never free of what surrounds it.
Though birdsong is audible and jack rabbits flit between shrubs, the sounds and sights of New Mexico’s biggest city are never far away.
The rooftops of Ventana Ranch, advancing closer every day, are to the northwest.
To the northeast are the top windows of houses in Paradise Hills.
Off the escarpment, commuters motor on Golf Course Road, some turning in to Petroglyph Plaza for coffee, groceries or gasoline. If it’s rush hour, they might need all three before committing to the stop-and-go drive they’ll confront.
But in the midst of all this, directly underfoot, are barely-visible etchings, scratched there by American Indians, the National Park Service says. About 50 previously unknown works were found on the site in early April.
It’s just 8 acres. Federal legislation pushed by U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, carved it out of the 7,244-acre park to make way for extending Paseo del Norte to the west.
It’s a great place for a walk, maybe to explore the fingerprints of a long-gone people.
It’s a great place to put a road, cresting the hill before sweeping down to Albuquerque’s East Side.
From an article in The Albuquerque Tribune about the $7 million expansion at the Rio Grande Zoo:
While the new chimpanzee area will be closed off from the public, visitors can peer in through large windows.
“We have to keep the chimps isolated from the public. They tend to throw things,” Morin said.
But the chimps will have one of the more interactive exhibits in their post-renovation digs. Visitors can test their strength against the chimps by pulling on a rope that will go through a hole into the exhibit wall.
“There could be three or four of us on the rope and we still probably couldn’t pull a chimp over,” Morin said.
The Albuquerque Tribune supports the preservation of Otero Mesa:
Earlier this month, a watershed event in Western wilderness protection occurred in Idaho, where a coalition of competing interests announced a surprise proposal to protect the stunning Owyhee Canyonlands, long recognized as the largest unprotected potential wild area in the country outside of Alaska.
The proposal still is generating significant debate two weeks later and may or may not succeed politically. But it represents a collaborative model that could provide a solution in New Mexico to the increasingly contentious fight over the equally precious Otero Mesa.
There are many similarities between the Owyhee Canyonlands and Otero Mesa, with hundreds of thousands of natural and unique acres at stake in each. In fact, many conservation organizations consider the two tracts among the most important large federal land areas left worthy of massive wilderness and biodiversity protection.
According to the Albuquerque Journal, this billboard will be “unveiled Sunday in Austin, Colorado Springs, Dallas and Tucson as part of a state Tourism campaign to attract visitors from neighboring states.”
It’s a great sign, but strictly speaking aren’t Austin and Dallas in another time zone. Tucson for that matter is in a different time zone, Mountain Standard Time, while New Mexico is on Mountain Daylight Time. Oh, well.
Update: NewMexiKen suggests this slogan instead — New Mexico. Set your clocks back 500 years.
The Albuquerque Tribune continues its coverage of the wrongful-death lawsuit involving an intoxicated government employee in a government-owned vehicle. Four people were killed in the accident that resulted when the truck driven by the employee went east on westbound I-40. Testimony in the trial is nearing completion.
(The employee is already serving a 20-year prison term; this case is an attempt to recover damages from the government.)
According to the Tribune report, the government’s attorneys claim that the employee avoided work the day of the accident because he knew the penalty if he showed up intoxicated. Here is what he did instead that day (January 25, 2002):
6:55 a.m.: Lloyd Larson checks out of Super 8 Motel at I-40 and Coors exit. Calls in sick; work begins at 7 a.m.
7 a.m.: Calls Albuquerque girlfriend Lucy Apache.
7:30 a.m.: Arrives at Apache’s daughter’s home near Marquette Avenue and Tennessee Street Northeast. Uses Apache’s cell phone to call job site to say he’s sick and won’t be in. Plaintiff’s attorneys say he may have added he’d be in later.
10 a.m.: Apache leaves; Larson sleeps in his government truck outside her apartment.
11 a.m.: Calls Apache.
11:24 a.m.: Gets cash from ATM at 5600 Lomas Blvd. N.E.
11:55 a.m.: Purchases 12-pack of Bud Light at Smith’s on Coors Boulevard. Clerk reports he does not appear intoxicated.
Noon hour: Orders food to go at Laguna Travel Center Dairy Queen. Cashier says he smells of alcohol and is staggering.
12:30 p.m.: Arrives at To’hajiilee home of Martin Yazzie, asks for home of “Alonzo.” Yazzie gives directions.
After 12:30 p.m.: Leonard Platero Jr. veers off to miss Larson driving in center of road in To’hajiilee, attempts to report to local police. No one is at substation.
1:45 p.m.: Platero sees Larson at Canoncito Grocery Store in To’hajiilee. Larson appears “wobbly” and smells of alcohol, he says. Platero tries again to report Larson to police – again, no one is there.
1:53 p.m.: Larson drives west on eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 near Laguna Pueblo, nearly hitting 37 oncoming vehicles before slamming head-on into Cadillac containing Edward “Bud” and Alice Ramaekers and Larry and Rita Beller.
Source: Testimony, court records in Ramaekers wrongful death lawsuit.
Look here to see what Larson and his bosses had been up to for the preceding 16 years.
This year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is October 2-10. 
From the Albuquerque Tribune
Mayor Martin Chavez said he wants a massive theme park as part of a plan to spiff up the West Central area. …
“Envision, if you will, something to the magnitude of Disneyland right here,” he said.
So far, the city has purchased 2 acres of land, city Senior Project Manager Al Soto said. It needs another 55 acres for the project, Soto said.
The estimated project cost is $50 million dollars; so far, the city has spent about $300,000, Soto said.
Beats building schools.
The Denver Post reports:
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation’s highest-ranking elected Hispanic official, threw his support Saturday behind Attorney General Ken Salazar – and Colorado Hispanics – vowing to funnel money into the state to increase Hispanic voter registration and turnout.
“As of today, Colorado will get financial support to turn out more Hispanics in November,” Richardson said in an interview.
The governor, who is also chairman of the Democratic National Convention, was the keynote speaker at the Colorado Democrats’ annual Jefferson Jackson dinner.
The emergence of Salazar as the Democrats’ highest profile candidate for U.S. Senate is a “thunderbolt” not only for the state but also for the nation, Richardson said.
“Colorado is now targeted as a possible pickup state for the Democrats in the presidential election,” Richardson said. …
Sitting back in an overstuffed chair in his hotel room, white smoke rising from his cigar, Richardson said he was flattered by being mentioned.
“But I have the best job I’ve ever had,” he said about being governor, noting that his first term doesn’t expire until 2006. “I’ve committed myself.”
Yes, there are lots of nice places in the world. I could live with considerable pleasure in the Pacific Northwest, or in New England, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, or in Key West or California or Honolulu. But there is only one of me, and I can’t live in all those places. So if we can have only one house — and that’s all we want — then it has to be in New Mexico, and preferably right at the edge of Albuquerque where it is now.
Ernie Pyle, January 1942
Not many birthdays today (one-fourth the norm one assumes).
Two famous entertainers — Bandleader Jimmy Dorsey (1904) had 12 number one hits with his own band, and two before that with his brother, Tommy. (The two brothers split in 1935, but reunited in 1953.) Jimmy played saxaphone. He died in 1957.
And singer, radio-TV star Dinah Shore (1916). Miss Shore had four number one hits in the 1940s, including Buttons and Bows, which was at the top for 10 weeks. She had a popular TV variety show and then a talk show, and a fling with Burt Reynolds, 19 years her junior. Dinah Shore died in 1994.
Throw us a kiss, Dinah.
And two famous athletes — Al Rosen (1924), four-time American League All-star and 1953 MVP with the Cleveland Indians (and someone NewMexiKen chatted with once upon a time). Rosen lead the AL in home runs (43), RBIs (145) and was second in batting (.336) in ’53. He lost the triple crown by one point (Mickey Vernon batted .337).
And Henri Richard (1936), the Pocket Rocket, brother of the even greater NHL player Maurice “The Rocket” Richard. Henri hated the nickname Pocket Rocket (he was 5-foot-7). One supposes that helped drive him to be part of 11 Stanley Cup champion teams, more than any other player.
Earlier, and very briefly, NewMexiKen posted a link to a website, currently popular among blogs, where several photos of the President can be morphed into photos of apes with similar facial expressions. It’s moderately clever and somewhat amusing. After some reflection however, I decided the ape site was in poor taste and removed the link.
Now NewMexiKen is no admirer of Mr. Bush, as numerous posts elsewhere on this site make abundantly clear. However, I am an admirer of the office of President of the United States and I do believe its occupants, past and present, deserve respect. Criticize his actions, call him a liar if that’s what you believe, but let’s leave the apes out of it.
After one day, Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke is all excited about the Angels: “Baseball in the Southland officially began Wednesday with a thwack, a whoosh and a whizzzz!”
Channel 4’s speeding survey continues. Tonight they showed a Bernalillo county sheriff’s detective doing 66 in a 35 zone. He was on duty, but in an unmarked car and not in a emergency situation. NewMexiKen has long contended that Albuquerque-area law enforcement vehicles are rarely seen not exceeding the posted speed limit.
In its story on marriages in Sandoval Country today, Reuters identifies Sandoval as “a New Mexico county next to Santa Fe” and “rural Sandoval County, which is southwest of Santa Fe.”
Excuse me, most of the people in Sandoval Country live in the Albuquerque suburbs of Rio Rancho, Placitas and Bernalillo.
Ah, 64° yesterday, snow flurries this morning and wind advisories all night. It must be spring in Albuquerque.
Channel 4 News in Albuquerque has been running a series on speeding where they actually go out on the streets and clock cars with a radar gun. Tonight they showed a car doing 67 in a 20 mph school zone. Another was doing 46 in a 25 mph school zone and smiled for the news crew without so much as tapping the brake.
My favorites though were last week when they clocked two Albuquerque police vehicles at more than 15 over the limit.