New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas is calling on the federal government to speed-up the process of adopting new rules to curb the waste of natural gas and the resulting loss of millions of dollars in royalties that could benefit education and other public programs. Balderas sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell this week, saying New Mexico has lost nearly 43-million dollars’ in royalties since 2009 because of leaks and the venting and flaring of gas wells on federal lands. Balderas says the technology is available and both industry and states stand to benefit. The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees oil and gas development on federal and Indian lands, has indicated that a proposed rule to address the issue will be released later this year.
Federal forecasters upgraded this year's El Nino to an unusual strong status, but said it's probably not a record breaker or drought buster. Mike Halpert, deputy director of the federal Climate Prediction Center, said the current worldwide weather shifting event doesn't match the monster El Nino of 1997-1998, nor is it likely to. With even warmer waters in the central Pacific in August, the hottest in more than 17 years, the prediction center moved the El Nino up from moderate status. So far the El Nino is the third strongest on record, behind 1997-98 and a weird one in 1987-88 that peaked early. In New Mexico, El Nino typically results precipitation ranging from 141-percent of normal in the northwest to over 200-percent in the Southeast. Meteorologists said strong El Nino’s usually dump heavy rains on southern California, but its four-year water deficit is too big to be erased in one wet winter.
An Albuquerque police officer and retired detective are expected to be arraigned today on second-degree murder charges in the on-duty shooting death of a knife-wielding homeless man. The 2014 shooting of 38-year-old James Boyd in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains prompted protest in New Mexico's largest city, and it led to reforms within the Albuquerque Police Department. In a police video, Boyd is shown turning away as officers detonate a flash bomb. He then pulls two knives before authorities say Officer Dominique Perez and former Detective Keith Sandy shoot him. Defense attorneys say the officers shot Boyd, who suffered from mental illness, because he posed a danger to police and had threatened officers. A judge has ruled there is probable cause for Perez and Sandy to stand trial.
Also on APD violence--an Albuquerque police officer accused of kneeing a University of New Mexico law school student in the groin and deleting a cellphone video of the incident will stand trial. KRQE-TV reports a judge made that decision Thursday in the case against 39-year-old Pablo Padilla. Padilla is charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and tampering with evidence in connection with the April 2014 traffic stop. The incident drew international attention after an attorney for the student, Jeremy Martin, said his client was forced to under emergency surgery to remove a testicle after Padilla kneed him. Padilla says deleting the video was a mistake and poor judgment. He says he turned in other videos of the incident, wasn't trying to cover anything up and meant to hit Martin's inner thigh.
A panel of judges, attorneys and others is seeking applicants to fill the vacancy that will be left on the New Mexico Supreme Court with the retirement of Justice Richard Bosson. The Judicial Nominating Commission has set an October ninth deadline for applications. A public meeting will follow on October 19th. The commission will forward a list of finalists to Governor Susana Martinez, who will choose a replacement. That person would have to run for election in 2016. Bosson first announced plans to retire in June, saying it was time for him to leave and allow "younger blood" to take over. He has been practicing law in the state since 1970. Before being elected to the Supreme Court in 2002, he served on the state Court of Appeals.
A computer malfunction at the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department including the Motor Vehicle Division has been resolved. The agency announced Thursday that technical difficulties had left field offices statewide unable to process tax or motor vehicle computer-based transactions. Websites operated by TRD and MVD were also down, and the outage hit other independent providers that process MVD business. The hardware issue was resolved Thursday afternoon, with implementation of a further failsafe system promised.
A woman is in custody for allegedly assaulting an Albuquerque taxi driver with a cast iron pan and then stealing the vehicle. Albuquerque police say Antoinette Padilla has been booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on suspicion of armed robbery. Her age isn't immediately available
Santa Fe Weather: Mostly sunny today with the high reaching 76. Tonight: Partly cloudy with the overnight low dipping to 58. Tomorrow: Partly sunny with the high topping-out at 77. There’s a 20-percent chance for showers and thunderstorms today through tomorrow.