Morning Word: SFR Ranks Top 10 Selling Medical Cannabis Producers

New Mexico Health Department under-reports first quarter receipts

Wildfire News   

Two fires broke out near Santa Fe’s watershed on Thursday. SFR’s Elizabeth Miller reports, “Because the area has not yet been thinned or treated with prescribed burns, the fire is considered at high risk of growing. 

Meanwhile, the huge Dog Head Fire is now more than 80 percent contained, but officials are worried about flood damage ahead of this summer's monsoon season.

Health Department Posted Inaccurate Medical Cannabis Sales Numbers

The New Mexico Department of Health under-reported medical cannabis sales numbers for the first three months of 2016. SFR discovered the error during a review of individual producers’ sales, gross profits, net earnings and harvest yields. See who the Top 10 sellers are and which growers are making and losing the most money here.

Immigrants on Edge

A tie vote at the US Supreme Court means a lower federal court’s decision halting the president’s executive order shielding most undocumented immigrants from deportation will stay in place.  For now, Uriel  J Garcia reports, the decision has immigrants in Santa Fe on edge.

Public Official Drives Away from DWI Stop 

KOB obtained and broadcast body camera video of Francesca Estevez, the newly re-elected district attorney for Grant, Luna and Hidalgo counties, that appears to show her drunk.  No arrest was made during the traffic stop. New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas has launched an investigation.

Kubiak Drops Out 

Simon Kubiak, the Bernalillo County Republican Party’s candidate for district attorney, dropped out of the race on Thursday.  Kubiak told Andy Lyman he’s getting out for “personal reasons” but also cited his opponent’s huge campaign cash advantage.

Cash Payouts to Cops Still Controversial 

Joey Peters report the Albuquerque Police Officers Association is still giving officers up to $500 cash after a shooting.

Officials Urge SNAP Investigation 

“The New Mexico congressional delegation and a high-ranking USDA official want a federal investigation into the state’s handling of food benefit applications,” reports New Mexico Political Report editor Matthew Reichbach.

The calls for an investigation from all five members of the delegation and the USDA Undersecretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services comes after a federal court case included allegations of the department changing applications and adding assets so the applicant no longer qualified for emergency food aid benefits.

Cameron Resigns 

So this happened while you were sleeping: British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned after voters approved a referendum mandating the country leave the European Union.

The prime minister campaigned hard in the divisive referendum on Britain’s relationship with the EU, appearing at hundreds of public events up and down the country to argue that Brexit would be an act of “economic self-harm.”

But a frustrated electorate used the poll to reject the status quo, and, as the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, described it, “stick two fingers up” at Britain’s politicians.

Hawks Get Attention at NMSU 

Birdwatchers will love this story out of Las Cruces, where a pair of Swainson's hawks appear to have built a nest and welcomed hatchlings, on New Mexico State University’s campus. The birds are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, “but in the past two years at least 18 people at NMSU have been injured by swooping hawks trying to protect their nests, causing a safety conundrum for the campus.

Haussamen Top Investigative Reporter

A big shout-out to Heath Haussamen for winning the National Federation of Press Women’s investigative reporting award for his stories about “a possible conflict of interest current N.M. State Auditor Tim Keller had when he was a state senator.

And not to toot our own horn, but the same group awarded us its top award for news reporting for "War on Sentences," a story about advocates who want to reform mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.

Santa Fe Prepares to Celebrates Gay Pride 

It’s gay pride weekend in Santa Fe, and Julie Ann Grimm’s got the preview on all the glitz and glamour, and an interview with organizer Richard Brethour-Bell, former board president for the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance and also a regional director of InterPride, an international organization of Pride organizers that helped him visit Pride parties in other communities. 

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