Roadrunner Food Bank's upcoming Mobile Food Pantry will focus on staples such as break, eggs and milk as well as fresh produce. (Illustration By H. Wren)
Roadrunner Food Bank's upcoming Mobile Food Pantry will focus on staples such as break, eggs and milk as well as fresh produce. (Illustration By H. Wren)

A drive to end hunger

Food bank director says rural New Mexico is facing a "perfect storm."

By Denise Tessier 05/16/2008

A sobering fact to come out of a recent report is that there is one grocery store for every 480 square miles in New Mexico. In fact, many rural communities in the Land of Enchantment don't have a grocery. That's why the Roadrunner Food Bank is launching the state's first ever Mobile Food Pantry next month.

Commentary

Do-little ideas no cure for oil addiction

By Heath Haussamen 05/14/2008

Ninety-seven U.S. senators voted on Tuesday to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for six months. The vast majority of House members later followed suit in approving the proposal. But the reality is that this was a do-nothing vote to make it look, in this election year, like Congress is doing something to allay the concerns of angry Americans who are watching gas and food prices skyrocket. What's really needed is a substantive debate with long-term solutions.

Gas tax politics

Contact Rio Rancho, N.M.-based artist Keith Lewis at Bat2u@cs.com. By Keith Lewis 05/10/2008

Investigation procrastination?

Attorney General Gary King's investigation into one of New Mexico's most serious affordable housing scandals ever isn't going anywhere fast. By Heath Haussamen 05/07/2008

Sixteen months have come and gone since Attorney General Gary King declared an investigation into the scandal that toppled most of New Mexico's affordable housing system a top priority. Now some are beginning to wonder. There's been some action. But no resolution. And so we wait.

Dire revenue picture

By Gerry Bradley 05/02/2008

Progressives have given the Richardson administration a free pass when it comes to tax policy. Leading progressive causes such as health care reform and funding public education depend on a healthy revenue stream, but that revenue stream will not be there in the next several years. The reason is barely noticed policy decisions taken by the Richardson administration, not the economic slowdown that has taken hold in New Mexico this year.

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Top News

White's words under the microscope

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White. By Matthew Reichbach 05/15/2008

Neither one has won their respective party nominations, but that didn't stop Heinrich's campaign from questioning White's past comment that pro-drug decriminalization ex-Gov. Gary Johnson was "absolutely right" in describing a failing war on drugs when Johnson was advocating sweeping reform in the late 1990s. White's campaign, in turn, dismissed the suggestion that he really supported Johnson's cause.

Sustainability summit

How to battle climate change is a hot topic in Albuquerque this week as local government officials gather here to compare ideas By Joel Gay 05/15/2008

Local government officials from the United States and elsewhere meet in Albuquerque this week to discuss their efforts to battle climate change. They banded together, in part, because of federal inaction.

Congress passes stopgap oil plan

By Marjorie Childress 05/14/2008

The U.S. Congress made a rare display of bi-partisan muscle Tuesday when it overwhelmingly voted to suspend shipments of roughly 70,000 barrels of oil a day into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The decision by federal lawmakers set aside for a moment the partisan bickering in Washington over how best to respond to rising oil prices. One federal lawmaker, however, doesn't hold out too much hope for a substantive solution to emerge from that ongoing debate. He said what many think: that the ongoing debate is nothing more than a lot of election year speechifying.

Audit raises (millions of) questions

By Trip Jennings 05/14/2008

A Democratic party media consultant received an unauthorized fee of $1 million in 2004 and more than $2 million of the contract that produced thousands of TV and radio ads prominently featuring Vigil-Giron in '04 and '06 can't be accounted for.

The federal farm bill confuses left and right

The politics surrounding the U.S. farm bill this year has left many scratching their heads. By Gwyneth Doland 05/13/2008

All the recent wrasslin’ over the farm bill has had at least one curious result: It’s put left-leaning reform activists in the novel position of agreeing with President Bush. Both want Congress to do more to change the farm subsidy structure. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported on May4:
It is the rarest of moments: President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are on a collision course over a giant farm bill, but it is Bush who is broadly aligned with liberal Bay Area activists pushing for reform, while the San Francisco Democrat is protecting billions of dollars in subsidies to the richest farmers.

Marc Schiff, Part II

(Photo by Rich Brown) By Barbara Armijo 05/13/2008

Albuquerque City Councilor Michael Cadigan sees some eerie similarities between cost-overruns at the new Fire Department training academy under construction and the city's budget-bloating balloon park and museum.

Shortchanging our infrastructure

Will we be seeing less of this? Construction continues along I-25 for the Rail Runner extension to Santa Fe. But if funding doesn't keep pace with the state's needs, many future projects could come to a screeching halt. (Photo by Denise Avila) By Joel Gay 05/13/2008

Six months after a state task force identified various ways to help pay for New Mexico's roads, including tax and fee increases, state politicians and lawmakers still haven't made a decision how to fund roads and other transit projects. Meanwhile, the state's list of needed infrastructure is expected to grow longer with potentially dire consequences for the state's economy. And Lt. Gov. Diane Denish says potential solutions likely won't come until after this year's elections.

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