TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Monsoons arrive and people cut water use.
After an extraordinarily dry spring, the summer monsoons have kicked in and in response, Albuquerque water customers have cut their use, reports the Albuquerque Journal. Before the rains started, the city was short of its conservation goals by 800 million gallons, but "If people continue to water in the way they've been, we could be back on track by the end of the month," Katherine Yuhas, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority's conservation officer, told the paper.
In today's Santa Fe Reporter, (and posted on the paper's new Web site ) Dave Maass follows up on a brouhaha between Green Party Public Regulation Commission candidate Rick Lass and Jerome Block, Sr., the father of Democratic candidate Jerome Block, Jr. In comments on the Reporter's site, and in e-mails to local bloggers, Block, Jr. has repeatedly brought up the fact that Lass was arrested in 1999 for "quarrelling," after a non-physical fight with his then-girlfriend.
According to the Reporter:
Unlike Block Jr., Lass disclosed the arrest and his subsequent guilty plea to the media in interviews and questionnaires. The arrest was brought up again in a story by Santa Fe New Mexican columnist Steve Terrell, which Block Sr. has used to attack Lass in the electronic press, calling him a “woman beater.”
In an interview with Maass, Lass explained:
“I pled guilty because I crossed a boundary and was very angry and threatening and I felt like I should just accept that I did something wrong and go through the system,” Lass tells SFR. “So, I took responsibility for over-reacting and I felt like [pleading guilty] was the right thing to do at the time and I still feel like it was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to deny that I crossed that boundary.”
But Block, Sr., wouldn't let it go. "Provided with the text of the police report via e-mail, Block Sr. declined to amend or retract his previous accusations. He writes: 'She was probably afraid he would hit her again!'”
Also today, The Daily Times of Farmington follows up on the controversy over the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant. The plant would be built on the Navajo Nation, in an area that already has two coal-fired plants. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue a decision on the plant's air permit in the next week. As the Daily Times reports, no matter what the decision is, somebody's going to sue. Read more here.
UNM School of Medicine researcher Dr. H. George Nurnberg was the leader of a study released yesterday showing that Viagra may help women overcome the sexual side-effects of antidepressants. According to the AP, Dr. Nurnberg's study of pre-menopausal women found that it helped them achieve orgasm.
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