I apologize for not getting this bit of news out until now when it is no longer new. Texas's lawsuit against New Mexico for allowing groundwater wells in our area to syphon off water in the Rio Grande that belongs to Texas may end in a settlement.
270 jobs for maybe 20 years if copper prices don't fall in exchange for a polluted site for 100 or more years that will repel tourists and recreation seekers? Sounds like a trade-off a desperate third-world country would make.
The West Texas/New Mexico measles outbreak continues of grow as the virus works its way through bodies not immune to it from vaccination or natural immunity. As people give up vaccination for one reason or another or no reason at all, there are more and more bodies available to it.
Continuing my thoughts on equitable justice, I ask why our national business/government is so intent on stonewalling the courts in a few deportation cases. What's the big deal? Why don't they just bring these few individuals that were wrongly deported back? My answer leads to other issues of equity.
Our president's Big Beautiful Bill hides a small passage which makes contempt of court decisions of federal courts completely meaningless. To explain the importance of this new rule, I go back to my earlier discussion of justice and focus on the type of justice called "equity." It's a big deal.
The usual passivity from T or C city commissioners when the electric department director reported the solar farm hasn't operated for two years. We're just hearing about it now? Cancel the stupid contract for nonperformance while you can!
How many voters understood they were raising taxes when they approved the new flood control taxing district on the November 2024 ballot? How many voters understood there was already a 1.50 mill levy for flood control?
Sixty years of neglect of city infrastructure on top of yearly operations makes for a swollen budget. New City Manager Gary Whitehead and staff have a very good handle on the issues and on the finances, which shows in the budget document.
Yesterday, Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, reported that two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza. That makes eight soldiers killed in the last two months. I try to think about what that means, especially since now that the military situation in Gaza gets less and less coverage in the media.
Riverbend's glacial slow-walk as a legal strategy paid off, scrapping off all but one protestant. It has cornered the market on commercial hot springs, maybe to the detriment of the whole system, with the city and Office of the State Engineer looking away.
The past winter was not kind to us, and we are faced with water shortage in the Rio Grande this summer. I link to several descriptions of where we are and what is predicted. Impacts will be important for farmers, ranchers, recreational businesses. We might get sued again by Texas.
The reverberations of this child's death are still rippling outward, with accountability for child abuse and neglect extending from the father to the city, city police and CYFD.