Morning Word: APD Officer Dies

Albuquerque Police Officer Daniel Webster died a week after being gunned down after making a traffic stop. Friends and fellow officers are reporting the sad news on their Facebook pages this morning, and KOAT just posted the

. The suspect in the case, Davon Lymon, remains locked up on federal gun charges. No word if the feds will prosecute him on the murder charges or if they'll be heard in state court.

Former state Sen. Phil Griego is continuing to defend spending

after he resigned his seat. He says he spent some of the money on office space after he signed a lease while he was still in the Legislature. Dan Boyd reports interim Secretary of State Mary Quintana has given the former lawmaker until Nov. 9 to send her a written explanation.

Another letter from Amy Bailey, general counsel at the secretary of state’s office, has cleared Stand4Kids. Bailey says

when it didn’t register as a political action committee.

A controversial proposal to build a senior living facility in Santa Fe has been rejected. Mayor Javier Gonzales cast the tie-breaking vote against MorningStar’s development plan, effectively ending the project. SFR’s

and was there for last night’s pivotal decision.

Marisa Demarco at KUNM reports that phone rates prison and jail inmates pay in New Mexico might increase next year. A new FCC decision last week standardized rates across the country, but that rate is higher than what inmates here have been paying, after

.

Incumbent Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima, who is essentially self-financing his campaign, is still outspending his opponents, even though it’s

, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News .

US Rep. Ben Ray Luján paid tribute to Air Force Major Phyllis Pelky on the House floor yesterday. The former Rio Rancho schoolteacher

, Afghanistan.

Officials at US Homeland Security say they

for New Mexico to comply with their Real ID Act, and that could make it difficult to get on flights out of the Sunport, but

. Still, it could put pressure on lawmakers to make changes to the way driver’s licenses are issued here. The news could make lines to get a passport even longer.

Student math and reading scores in New Mexico and around the nation continue to drop to levels last seen in the 1990s. Kim Burgesss reports that New Mexico Public Education Department spokesman Robert McEntyre said the scores “punctuate the

, including ending the failed practice of social promotion, which passes our kids onto the next grade even when they cannot read.”

A jury has determined that Jemez Electrical Co-op and Tri State Generation are 95 percent responsible for causing the state’s worst wildfire. The blaze started when

that stretched through national forest land in the Jemez Mountains. Financial responsibility will, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican , be determined during another trial.

Steve Terrell reports that the state Public Regulation Commission has approved

to represent four commission members an alternative-energy advocacy group is trying to have removed from deliberations over the aging San Juan Generating Station.

New Mexico In Depth’s Sandra Fish continues to do stellar work figuring out structural problems with the way the state handles capital outlay money. Lawmakers want to know why $1 billion they allocated for various projects over the years

. In Santa Fe County, for instance, 83 percent of the money for projects budgeted for $300,000 to $1 million between 2012 and 2014 is still unspent.

Santa Fe Reporter