Morning Word: Super Last Ditch Effort

Governor orders schools to complete background checks

Follow the Law

Joey Peters, the New Mexico Political Report journalist who broke the original

that have sent the Albuquerque Public Schools district into a scandal-ridden tailspin, now has school officials scrambling to justify why they didn’t conduct a background check on suspected child predator Jason Martinez before hiring him for a six-figure deputy superintendent’s position.

, Peters reports that Gov. Susana Martinez is directing schools around the state to make sure they are

.

Last-Ditch Effort

After telling the Albuquerque Journal editors

, embattled APS Superintendent Luis Valentino tells KOB4 that he wants to “clean up his image, repair his relationship with the community and stay at his job as superintendent.” The television station says it will broadcast their

, but it might just be too late. School board members plan to meet tomorrow to decide whether to give him another chance or to terminate his contract before something else pops up. If the board does decide to fire Valentino,

like the

when he resigned under pressure.

Top Cop

Two former state police officers, including a retired deputy chief, and a child protection specialist working for the United Nations in Africa, want to be

. Interim chief Patrick Gallagher told the Santa Fe New Mexican he hasn’t decided if he’ll apply for the position, which opened after

this summer.

Push Back

Officials at the New Mexico Human Services Department say they’re going to delay new work requirements for adults receiving food stamps. People

have said there are not enough jobs “or meaningful training opportunities in the poverty-stricken state.” The delay may help 60,000 people find employment before the new rules are implemented Jan. 1.

Dirty Water

SFR reporter Elizabeth Miller, who traveled to the Animas River to check out the toxic spill, has a long cover story and reports that strict

from the Gold King Mine sludge. Back in Santa Fe, Miller also discovered the

compared to other New Mexico cities.

Information Pothole

The New Mexico Department of Health continues to shield information about the state's licensed medical marijuana growers. Hundreds of pages of

. We did learn that 10 of the 23 nonprofit growers have received approval to grow 450 plants at a time. Some producers say limiting the number plants is an outdated model.

Johnson Offended

Former New Mexico gov. Gary Johnson says he’s offended

He says what's “even more offensive is the absurdity of people named Bush, Trump and Clinton trying to decide what’s offensive to immigrants.” Johnson says voters should be focusing on the $18 trillion federal debt and “other real” issues.

Trapping Opposition Grows

Carol Clark reports that an overwhelming number of New Mexicans who value coyotes’ iconic wilderness status are expressing their opposition to coyote killing contests and unregulated trapping, especially since

in the same traps during family hikes along local mountain trails.

Show of Support

At Santa Fe’s Academy for Technology and the Classics charter school,

who is headed to Houston for cancer treatment for the second time. Jaiden Patel, who battled cancer as a toddler, says he’ll battle his disease “by thinking positive and thinking of all the things that I have ahead of me.”

Living Props

Seven large cypress trees that were used as props on the Independence Day sequel set here this summer will live on in New Mexico.

(worth about $10,000) to the Bernalillo County Parks and Recreation Department after production wrapped recently.

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