Author: gregjsmith

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Miss Las Cruces Looks Good In her DWI Mugshot

20121217 052104 mug1217richardson GALLERY

From the Las Cruces Sun-News “Miss Las Cruces faces DWI charge after wreck causes power outage“.

The woman recently named Miss Las Cruces has been charged with aggravated DWI after allegedly hitting a light pole Sunday night, causing a power outage and disrupting traffic through this morning.
Just before 10 p.m., Sarah J. Richardson drove her Chrysler P.T. Cruiser into a light pole near the intersection of Avenida de Mesilla and Hickory Drive, according to a Las Cruces Police Department report. Investigators said the pole landed on a nearby traffic light. Falling wires and debris hit one car, became entangled beneath another car driving on Avenida de Mesilla then snagged a third car, the report said.
A spokeswoman for the local pageant, which is a preliminary for the Miss America competition, confirmed that Richardson, 22, is the 2013 title holder of Miss Las Cruces.

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Don't Hit A Cow In Rio Rancho

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There are too many issues with cows in northern Rio Rancho. It surprises me that the owners of the cows aren’t more concerned with where the cows are. If they don’t care about potential car accidents with someone being harmed or killed, I would expect they would be concerned about what is their lively hood. I’m afraid that someone will die before something is done about it.

This letter to the editor of the Rio Rancho observer “If you hit a cow, make sure you have NMLB phone number to verify owners” documents one persons attempt to hold someone accountable.

I want to share the following information with my fellow Rio Rancho residents. On Sept. 20, 2010, about 8 p.m., I slammed into a cow on Unser Boulevard near Progress Road.
In 2010, there were 10 accidents involving cows and, luckily, none of us was killed. I’ve spent the last 2 years working to hold someone accountable, including the City of Rio Rancho, to keep residents safe, but to no avail.
Also, I’ve also done lots of research to help us. I contacted the New Mexico Livestock Board (NMLB) after my incident and gave the NMLB administrator the cow’s ear tag number that the Rio Rancho police officer retrieved after my incident; the administrator told me it was a King Ranch cow and that the “family should be sued for negligence.”
I took the King Ranch brothers to court but the administrator testified that she never told me it was a King Ranch cow and that the cow’s ear tag is not the identifier. The case was dismissed on Sept. 20, 2012 with still no one held accountable.
If you or someone you know has an incident involving a cow, ask the officers to contact the NMLB at 841-6161 to identify the cow by its brand; the NMLB is the only entity that can identify cattle. Also, Rio Rancho is a “fence out” area meaning that cattle owners have the responsibility to keep their cattle fenced out of our highways.
We only have ourselves to help with the cow situations; let’s keep passing valuable information to each other.

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Kick Me Sign Get's Police Involved At Intel

From the KRQE story “Workplace prank no kicks for co-worker“

“This is definably a strange one,” Sgt. Nick Onken with Rio Rancho police said.

Onken said a man in his 40s filed a police report this week saying he had enough from his pranky co-workers at the plant in Rio Rancho.

“He stated that he is to the point with this tomfoolery that he doesn’t feel safe any longer in his work environment,” Onken said.

And the tomfoolery that pushed the man over the edge was a sign taped to his back that read “Kick me.”

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It's Scorpion Season

http://www.krqe.com/video_player/swf/EndPlayVideoPlayer_v1_4_FP10_2.swf?v=080912_0

I missed this KRQE news story last week “Scorpion season brings fright, stings” which indicates it’s the time of year to see scorpions.

Entomologist Alan Feuer says scorpions are born earlier in the year, and by now they have grown to 2 or 3 inches becoming much more aggressive, so people are seeing them now.

In the video they say that this year is not unusual for the number of scorpions.

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The Trestle At Kirtland Air Force Base

Boing Boing explains what The Trestle is at Kirtland Air Force Base. Further information is available at the wikipedia page for the the ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), along with some photos showing aircraft on the Trestle being tested. The Trestle is easily viewable when landing or taking off from the Albuquerque Sunport.

The Trestle, Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Constructed over four years in the late 1950s at a then-astronomical cost of $58 million, the Trestle is still the largest all-wooden structure in the world, comprising over 6 million feet of timber. Part of the Air Force’s research into the after effects of a nuclear blast, a range of aircraft, including huge B-52 bombers and Air Force One were hauled up onto the Trestle, where they would be bombarded with electromagnetic pulse waves (EMP) fired from an emitter on either side.

EMP waves travel long distances in a very short amount of time and can seriously disrupt electronic systems, as we also know from powerful solar emissions. Understanding how EMP might affect the functioning of retaliatory nukes, bombers or command and control aircraft was therefore an essential part of post-apocalyptic preparations.

Every element of the Trestle, right down to its oversized nuts and bolts, had to be wooden so that none of its own components would interfere with the effects of the EMP wave on the aircraft being tested (though apparently there are some small metal o-ring components deep in the mix). Inspecting all the joints took a dedicated team a whole year; as soon as they had finished it was time to start again.

A unique monument to Cold War rigor and ingenuity, reminiscent of a huge fairground ride, perhaps the Cyclone, Coney Island’s wooden roller coaster, or a wooden labyrinth, the Trestle is now a condemned structure, too unstable to use, too expensive to dismantle. Today it provides a home to local wildlife, including a colony of great horned owls who can be heard screeching from within its depths. Our guide tells us that she likes to collect the skulls of their prey, which they leave scattered around the base of the structure.

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No Place For Something Obscene Or Profanity In New Mexico

A man in Santa Fe had a New Mexico license plate that says IB6UB9 since 2009 according to KOAT “Man fights for controversial license plate back“. It seems to translate to “I will be 6 and you be 9 in a 69 sexual configuration” however the owner says it does not. The state has said it received an unspecified number of complaints that is has no proof of.

Robert Anaya’s vanity license plate was initially approved back in 2009, but he just got a letter from the Motor Vehicle Division saying it’s revoked because it’s considered obscene. The plate in question reads IB6UB9.

“If something is obscene or profanity, we have no place for it in New Mexico,” Taxation and Revenue Department Secretary Demesia Padilla said.

Anaya said his plate is not a sexual reference, but an inside joke with a friend from a night at a casino.

However, the state said it’s gotten enough complaints to cancel the plate. The state can’t provide those complaints because officials say they weren’t written or recorded.

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"Breaking Bad" Style Meth Candy In The News

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports “NM shop sells ‘meth candy’ to honor ‘Breaking Bad’“. Prepare for complaints about how this candy shop is glorifying drug use meanwhile the TV show isn’t.

The owner of an Albuquerque candy store is selling a product she’s calling “meth candy” and is playing off the popularity of the hit TV-show “Breaking Bad.”

Debbie Hall, owner of The Candy Lady, said Monday that the blue-colored snack is merely sugar blocks, though it bears a close resemblance to the blue crystal causing havoc on the Albuquerque-based TV drama.

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Horses Being Abandoned Due To The High Costs Of The Drought

From the NYTimes article “Horses Fall Victim to Hard Times and Dry Times on the Range“

AZTEC, N.M. — The land is parched, the fields are withering and thousands of the nation’s horses are being left to fend for themselves on the dried range, abandoned by people who can no longer afford to feed them.

They have been dropping dead in the Navajo reservation in the Southwest, where neighbors are battling neighbors and livestock for water, an inherently scant resource on tribal land. They have been found stumbling through state parks in Missouri, in backyards and along country roads in Illinois, and among ranch herds in Texas where they do not belong.

Some are taken to rescue farms or foster homes — lifelines that are also buckling under the pressure of the nation’s worst drought in half a century, which has pushed the price of grain and hay needed to feed the animals beyond the reach of many families already struggling in the tight economy

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Intel Sends Scary Letter About Hydrogen Fluoride Emissions

From KOB.com “Rio Rancho residents concerned over Intel emissions“

Rio Rancho residents said they are worried about breathing toxic fumes after receiving a letter from Intel on Wednesday.

Thousands of residents found a monthly update from Intel in their mailbox, mentioning hydrogen fluoride emissions.

David and Aimee Thurlo said Intel has been a good neighbor, but the letter has them questioning their safety.

“The letter has absolutely no information on there. It is, to me, ambiguous,” Aimee Thurlo stated.

Good Job Intel. Send out a ambiguous letter about a chemical you have been emitting for years and freak every one out. No mention if it was also sent to residents of Corrales, who really hate Intel.

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Holloman Drones Demoed On Civilian Vehicles

In the New York Times article ““The Drone Zone“, Drone aircraft from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico were demoed for the press by targeting (but not firing on) civilian vehicles on the highway.

Holloman sits on almost 60,000 acres of desert badlands, near jagged hills that are frosted with snow for several months of the year — a perfect training ground for pilots who will fly Predators and Reapers over the similarly hostile terrain of Afghanistan. When I visited the base earlier this year with a small group of reporters, we were taken into a command post where a large flat-screen television was broadcasting a video feed from a drone flying overhead. It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at. A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.

“Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?” a reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room.