TODAY'S TOP STORIES: The fight over food, pollution and plutonium pits
The Associated Press reported over the weekend about the opposing viewpoints regarding a Department of Energy proposal that would expand the making of plutonium pits, which are the core of nuclear weapons, from just a few to 80 per year at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The lab is currently the only place pits are made, so this would also represent a national increase in pit production overall. But farmers and community residents in the Embudo Valley about 40 miles downwind of the lab say it threatens to pollute the "food basket of Northern New Mexico" and point to already high levels of pollutants at a site above the valley, near the top of the watershed. The lab says that pollution is due to acid rain, which gets concentrated at high elevations. The Environment Department says it could also come from routine or accidental releases from the lab over the decades, and says the first priority should be the clean up of the lab's "legacy of pollution."
The Albuquerque Police Department's party patrol got taken to task, after the ABQ Journal looked at the 70% dismissal rate in 2007 of "refusing to obey" arrests in the city. In other ABQ metro news, City Hall and Bernalillo County have teamed up to create a Climate Task Force.
The Sandia Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest has essentially been shut-down due to fire danger, as of today. This means residents of Albuquerque and surrounding areas can't go for a day hike in the Sandia's. If you want to hike you can still go to the ski area and a few picnic areas remain open but that's about it.
The New Mexico Business Weekly reports that VISA credit card company is making changes to how fuel purchases on its credit cards is processed at the pump. The changes will cap the fees that station owners pay for processing purchases of fuel on VISA credit cards, and in the Fall will start processing credit card transactions in real time so that consumers of fuel don't have a hold placed on their cards. The Biz Weekly quoted Bill Sheedy of VISA: "While Visa cannot lower the price of crude oil, there are things we can do to help make the process of buying gas easier for our cardholders. And by lowering our rates, we hope to see oil companies pass these savings along to their stations and ultimately to consumers."
It may be a free country, but you can't change your name to anything you want, officially anyway. The AP reports that a New Mexico Appeals Court in Bernalillo County refused to change a man's name to incorporate a commonly used swear word. The law allows the denial of name changes that would offend "common decency and good taste," the judges ruled. The same petitioner had his name changed from Snaphappy Fishsuit Mokiligon to Variable in 2004, at which time the law was clarified. This go round he wanted to change it to "F*** Censorship!"
Veteran's in Rio Rancho are getting a VA clinic closer to home, which will hopefully encourage more vets to get health care. Currently, they have to drive to Albuquerque and some say that once there they have long waits for even simple things.
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