Category: Happening In The Desert

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Mcdonalds Sign Crushes Car In Window Rock Arizona

A couple driving from Tucson, Arizona to Chicago had their Chevy Trailblazer crushed when a Mcdonalds Golden Arches fell on it in Window Rock Arizona. 60MPH winds were apparently responsible for causing the sign to fall down. They were pretty seriously injured. This is probably part of the same storm that is in New Mexico now and I’ve had winds this fast at my house before. Imagine driving down the freeway with this kind of weather.

Window Rock is located on the Arizona and New Mexico border, north of Gallup New Mexico and north of Interstate 40. There’s a picture of Mcdonalds on Google Maps that could be the sign that crushed the car.

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Via Jalopnik

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Spring Snow In Rio Rancho New Mexico

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For the last month the weather has been mostly sunny and warm on the days I work and either windy, cold or rainy or all of the above on the days I’m off. I had a some sun and little wind yesterday but today it snowed.

Were not getting anything like Denver’s projected 20 inches of show. The lack of cooperation by the weather isn’t helping because I have a number of outdoor things to do around the house before I potentially go out of town for three months starting in May.

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Solar Array Ventures Inc. Is Moving To New Mexico

What’s good news for Albuquerque is bad news for Austin. New Mexico offered the Texas company Solar Array Ventures Inc. (SAVe)such good incentives that they are moving the whole company, headquarters and all, to New Mexico. They wont say exactly what New Mexico offered.

The City of Albuquerque website says the factory will be built on the west side on Cordero Mesa near I-40 on Paseo del Vulcan and could employ up to 1000 people in 5 years. Assuming Texas doesn’t pull a Tesla and manage to keep SAVe in Austin.

Oddly, not a single Albuquerque TV news site has an article on the company coming to Albuquerque that I can find.

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Weather Forecast: Blowing Dust

Does your city ever get a weather forecast of “blowing dust”? Mine does. I hope this is the end of it.

8F45E396-B5BA-4AFC-B150-10604F997CCC.jpgPoint Forecast: Rio Rancho NM. Areas of blowing dust. Mostly sunny, with a high near 57. Breezy, with a west wind between 20 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.

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Weather In Rio Rancho: WInd

So much for using my days off to work on the yard. The weather went from warm and sunny to cold and windy. The weather forecast for Rio Rancho is more wind. It’s also not helping my allergies.

SOUTHWEST WINDS WILL DECREASE GRADUALLY THROUGH LATE EVENING… WITH GUSTS TO 40 MPH CONTINUING PAST MIDNIGHT. STRONG WINDS WILL REDEVELOP SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT… AS WINDS SHIFT TO THE WEST AND INCREASE SPEED TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 50 MPH. EXPECT STRONGEST WINDS OVER SUMMITS AND HILLTOPS… AND THROUGH GAPS AND PASSES. VISIBILITIES WILL BE LOCALLY POOR IN BLOWING DUST.

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The Tesla Model S Coupe Previewed And Preorderd

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Tesla finally announced their new Model S Coupe last week. This is the car that Tesla was supposed to build in Albuquerque, but moved the manufacturing to San Jose California when they got a better deal. That didn’t work out either and it’s not clear to me exactly where they plan to build the Model S.

I lived in San Jose in 2001 and it’s a crazy place compared to Albuquerque. I’m still not sure how they ever thought it would be cheaper to produce the cars there rather in Albuquerque in the long term. It could end up being a good thing for Albuquerque if they go out of business like Eclipse Aviation did. I’m certainly not wishing for Tesla to go under but the times are tough and I’ve read some possible bad news in that regard. I would still like to see them have some manufacturing in Albuquerque.

At $40,000 over 500 sedans have already been pre ordered. It’s a good looking car but I won’t be on the buyers list anytime soon. Maybe if they came out with a pickup truck I might have to get out the credit card.

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13 Bodies Found On Albuquerque's West Side Amole Mesa

Victoria Chavez anbd Michelle Gina Valdez were identified as 2 of 13 bodies found at KB Home’s housing development on Albuquerque’s Amole mesa on the west side of town near 118th and Dennis Chavez SW. Police think that one person buried the bodies between 2001 and 2005.

The problem, as The New Mexico Independant points out, the police are treating this as if these are cold cases and the person who did it isn’t currently active. Yes, the two bodies that were identified had criminal pasts. That does not mean all of the bodies were those of criminals? What if there’s still a serial killer on the loose?

Does anyone else feel like we’re being told: Yes, we are still pulling bones from the ground but these people were drug users, prostitutes and transients (and not coincidentally, apparently all women) so… all you normal people out there in ABQ, sitting on the couch watching this on the news, you have nothing to worry about.

Jeremy Jojola, a reporter for Channel 4 KOB, has set up a blog called Mesa Mystery to track the largest crime sceen in Albuquerque’s history.

When the crime scene is gone the housing construction will continue. There are no state laws that the real estate agent or developer has to reveal the site was the location of a murder. Will people remember and still buy houses there?

The Albuquerque Police have set up a tip line at 1-877-SOLV-APD (1-877-765-8273)

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Ghost Shadow: Albuquerque's Real Life Superhero

Apparently Albuquerque has a super hero and his name might be Ghost Shadow. Might be because he (and I’m assuming he is a he) didn’t want to tell the Alibi what his real superhero name is.

According the email interview, Ghost Shadow is 42 years old, wears a kevlar suit and sometimes a mask and has been doing it since 911.

I don’t keep up with the superhero scene here in town or elsewhere, but I haven’t seen any reports that attribute crime fighting to any of these guys. You would think that if a mysterious hero saved someone from crime that it would be on KOB.

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Train Engine AT&SF 2926 Restoration In Albuquerque

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Johnny Mango has a terrific story on Duke City Fix about the restoration of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad locomotive 2926. The locomotive sat in Coronado Park in Albuquerque from 1956 to 2000 and was a jungle gym until they surrounded it with chain link fence and then finally moved it in 2000.

They are trying to get the train restored in time for the statehood centennial in 2012. They need another $500,000 to complete the project in time.

killbox has a number of pictures of this train on Flickr.