Santa Fe shoppers who don’t bring their own bags will soon be hit with a charge of a dime per paper shopping bag. The New Mexican reporting that the Santa Fe City Council on Wednesday approved an amendment to the city’s ordinance banning the use of plastic bags. The new fee takes effect in 60-days. It’s part of an environmentally friendly effort to change consumer behavior. The Council voted seven-to-two to okay the amendment, with Councilors Bill Dimas and Ron Trujillo voting against. But don’t call the fee a “tax, as the Council revamped the legal terminology, and the new law is called an “environmental service fee.”
New Mexico’s top cop says drivers of ride-sharing services Lyft and Uber in the state should face drug testing requirements like taxi drivers. Attorney General Hector Balderas sent state regulators a letter Wednesday and asked them to strengthen public safety standards around ride-booking services. Last week, the state's Public Regulation Commission voted 4-1 on new regulations clearing way for the companies to function under guidelines separate from those that govern traditional taxi services. But drug testing requirements were dropped. The San Francisco-based Lyft and Uber use smartphone programs to connect people seeking rides with people who have cars. Both had been operating in New Mexico despite complaints for taxi companies. Spokeswomen for Lyft and Uber did not immediately return emails from The Associated Press.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators say a freight train crew member might have survived a crash if he had not jumped from the moving train just before impact. A second crew member on the Southwestern Railroad train was injured, but survived the crash Tuesday near Roswell.
Two counties in southeastern New Mexico have joined the race to build an interim storage site to house spent nuclear fuel from the nation's reactors. Officials from Lea and Eddy counties and Holtec International gathered Wednesday at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque to outline their plans. The agreement between Holtec and the Eddy Lea Energy Alliance addresses the design, licensing, construction and operation of an underground storage site on 32 acres between the communities of Carlsbad and Hobbs. Holtec President and CEO Kris Singh says the company expects to apply for a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission within a year. Some members of Congress have shown renewed interested in the mothballed Yucca Mountain project in Nevada. In West Texas, a private firm also has plans to build a temporary storage facility.
The bulk of the New Mexico Tourism Department’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July first will go towards advertising the Land of Enchantment. The Albuquerque Journal reports Governor Susana Martinez touted this and other ways the state is seeking to boost its tourism industry at a meeting this week with industry representatives. Tourism officials say the total budget for the coming year is at more than 13-and-a-half million, including the governor's $1.25 million boost in advertising dollars. In total, the state will be able to spend more than nine-million on advertising to bring visitors to the state. A record 32 million people visited New Mexico in 2013.
New Mexico resident Caroline Rotich may have won the 2015 Boston Marathon elite women's division and the hearts of Santa Fe citizens. But apparently she lost her purse to a thief. The New Mexican reports a car belonging to the Kenyan-born Santa Fe resident was vandalized during a Santa Fe parade in her honor Monday. Police spokeswoman Lt. Andrea Dobyns said the thief smashed a window and stole her purse sometime between 4 and 5:30 p.m. The official parade schedule had called for the event to end at 6 p.m. at the Plaza. Rotich for the past eight years has lived and trained in Santa Fe, where she has taken time to help encourage young people in the area to get out and run.
The dean of the University of New Mexico's law school will be stepping down this summer after taking over just two years ago. David Herring's resignation was announced Tuesday by Provost ChaoukiAbdallah in a letter to the law school community. The university made the news public Wednesday. Abdallah says Herring will remain at UNM as a tenured member of the law school faculty when his term as dean ends on July first. The Albuquerque Journal reports Herring's resignation stems from policy disagreements with some faculty members. Herring told the newspaper he came in with clear goals but it ended up not being a good fit for him to lead the law school. There are no plans for a national search for Herring's replacement.
Santa Fe Weather: Mostly sunny, with a high near 76. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 43. Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77, with a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon.