Culture

Count one more superdelegate for Barack Obama

Laurie Weahkee, the recently elected Democratic Party of New Mexico superdelegate, has decided to throw her influential vote to the presidential candidacy of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. In a wide-ranging interview with NMI, the long-time Native American activist says that last Tuesday's primary results in North Carolina and Indiana sealed the deal for her. She says she's eager for the party to unite around Obama and begin to focus on presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

The politics of beer

John McCain's wife, as you all know by now, is beer heiress Cindy Hensley McCain. What you may not know (or remember) is that Cindy McCain's father and uncle — former bootleggers — owned the Ruidoso Downs racetrack in the 1950s.

Swinging for Latinos

As New Mexico emerges as a key swing state, the two parties are increasingly focusing on the state's Latino voters as a key demographic. It’s not unusual for Democrats to win big statewide with New Mexico Latinos. But George Bush received about 40 percent of the Latino vote nationally in 2004, and maybe 37 percent in New Mexico. The big question now is was 2004 was a flash in the pan?

The big H2O transfer

The demand for water has driven up the value of Middle Rio Grande water rights more than tenfold in the last 20 years, and landowners are cashing out in what appear to be record numbers. But even as water transfers speed up, so has opposition from farmers and pueblos alike. In recent months the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has chimed in over concern for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow.

Honeybees at risk

New Mexico’s bees are faring better than in most places around the world, including the neighboring states of Colorado and Texas, where instances of the phenomenon known as bee colony collapse are decimating hives and putting beekeepers out of business. But that’s not to say bees are not threatened. “All of our pollinators are in trouble, including hummingbirds,” one expert says.

'Post-racial' triumph hits home

My son Gabriel didn’t care one bit about politics—until the day he first caught sight of a tall brown brother named Barack Obama. “Mom, he looks just like me!” Gabriel said excitedly as he watched him on TV. “And he’s running for president?”

CD3: Lujan camp attacks Shendo

The question of frontrunner Ben Ray Lujan's sexual orientation in the Democratic 3rd Congressional District contest transfixed politicians, bloggers and others Wednesday. It also forced campaigns -- and news outlets -- to confront an issue that rarely surfaces in even the most vigorous political contests -- the relevance or lack thereof of a candidate's sexual orientation.

Historic Santa Fe Indian School in ruins

The turn-of-the-century buildings at the Santa Fe Indian School have been a part of the drive along Santa Fe's Cerrillos Road for the duration of the lifetime of virtually everyone alive in Santa Fe today.

So it's easy to relate to the shock described by those who witnessed their demolition without warning over several days last week. I felt it just seeing the pictures, several of which were posted by George Johnson on his blog, The Santa Fe Review, under the apt title "Indian Ruins."

Southern NM developer stands to make millions from controversial lease

You know those controversial leases the State Land Office has been routinely entering into over the past few years? Well, planning work under one was recently completed by Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou and the land is now up for sale. When you crunch the numbers based on the minimum acceptable bids for the parcels, Philippou stands to make several million dollars. The original appraised value of the land was $8,000 per acre, or $1,968,000 given the total of 246 acres up for sale. If the land office receives bids for each of the 13 parcels offered that Philippou did work on, the minimum required bid amounts will total $17,180,000, or $15.2 million over the original appraisal. Philippou will get a majo cut of that.

Survey: Many want wolves to thrive

A large majority of New Mexico voters support reintroducing the Mexican gray wolf, according to a statewide poll released Monday. Conservationists hope the survey results will give them ammunition to persuade elected officials to work harder to protect the wolves—even if lawsuits filed earlier this year fail.

Smart growth?

A proposed infill development in the heart of Albuquerque named 2000 Gold is strongly opposed by neighbors due primarily to its size. So the question before city councilors on Monday is -- what do we value more? Certain neighbors' perception that the quality of their life will be disturbed or an environmentally laudable project that many see as the future of how growth should happen in the city.

No slam dunk

In April 2007, just a few months after a hard-fought and ultimately successful battle to ban energy development in northern New Mexico's pristine Valle Vidal, local conservationists were brimming with confidence and had their sights set on another chunk of rugged beauty near the Colorado border. A year later, conservationists are still waiting.

Impeach John Paul Stevens

I was reading with much enjoyment the recent decision by the United States Supreme Court to uphold the Constitution with regard to the Second Amendment. But then my blood ran cold when it dawned on me that the case was decided by a 5-4 margin. My mind quickly moved from enjoyment to complete and total fear -- fear that we actually have four nimrods who for some reason can find a way to limit my ownership of guns, despite the clear language of the Bill of Rights...

Shadow over solar

Large-scale solar power plants -- ideally suited for states like New Mexico -- are "straining to burst onto the Southwest utility scene," in the words of one expert testifying at a U.S. Senate hearing on solar energy Wednesday. But without an immediate eight-year extension of the 30 percent federal investment tax credit, the concentrating solar power industry, or CSP, will be "stopped dead in its tracks."

BBC: N.M. GOP leader says Hispanics 'won't vote for a black president'

A BBC reporter tooling through the state fair Thursday -- the same day that Democrat Barack Obama was in New Mexico -- was asking Hispanics their views on Barack Obama's presidential bid. Reporter Jon Kelly talked first to a young graduate student who said he was going to vote for Obama.

Then Kelly stumbled upon Fernando C de Baca, chairman of  the Bernalillo County Republicans. According to Kelly, C de Baca said Hispanics were a naturally conservative group.

Then C de Baca offered Kelly a blunt assessment on why Hispanics wouldn't vote for Obama.

The reporter, John Kelly, quotes C de Baca as saying:
 

"The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors," he said. "African-Americans came here as slaves.

"Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."

Curbing big pharma

Students at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center helped the facility join a national movement to keep pharmaceutical salesmen at arms-length. The conflict of interest policy approved last month means no more free lunches or tickets to a baseball game, no more T-shirts or ball caps emblazoned with "Lipitor" or "Viagra." And now the students are talking about having an "amnesty day," when they can return all the schwag they've accepted in the past.

Obama right on Cherokee Freedmen controversy

Race has been and will continue to be an issue in this year’s national elections. But now it seems tribal affiliation can be added to the list of campaign issues. Last month, Sen. Barack Obama outlined his position on the rights and affiliation of Cherokee Freedmen. It's a position that strikes the right note on the specific controversy as well as the larger issue of tribal sovereignty.

McCain talks wilderness, economy, immigration

McCain granted an approximately 25-minute interview today to five New Mexico reporters -- including NMI's Heath Haussamen -- who rode with him on the Straight Talk Express, his campaign bus, from the Albuquerque International Airport to a campaign fundraiser at the Hilton Albuquerque.

'Body of War' hits Albuquerque

A film shown in Albuquerque, a new tell-all book and morning TV show interview all converged this week to cast light on the run up to the Iraq war -- a struggle that still rages five years after the 2003 invasion at a cost of thousands of lives.

Home Hiving

Backyard beekeeping makes sense in light of widespread reports of "mysterious" bee colony collapse. It makes just as much sense as it does to grow one's own vegetables and fruits. And because pollinators of all types are threatened by pesticides, genetically modified crops and other industrial farming methods, "we as members of the community need to pick up the slack," says one local expert.