Morning Word: Wait, I Thought We Were Done With Driver's Licenses

Driver's Licenses? Again?
Ha! Gotcha. This has nothing to do with immigrants getting driver's licenses. Or little to do with it. We think. A new proposal cruising around the Legislature would automatically register people to vote when they show up to get a driver's license. There's already a national law requiring the MVD to give you the chance to register to vote, but more states are considering some after-market mods to the "motor voter" law. It's a proposed constitutional amendment, meaning voters would have the final say on the measure. If only there were a way for your car to automatically drive you to the polling place...

Budget Spackling

The first order of business for lawmakers on day two of the legislative session was to

in this year's budget (the fiscal year ends June 30). Nearly $70 million may seem like a lot of spackle, but it's a workable proposition in a $6 billion budget. The fiscal touch-up is not pretty. The money comes from cash reserves held by public schools, from building-repair funds, wildlife protection plans and other things that were important enough to fund until now.

Thanks for the Work, Your Total Comes to [REDACTED]

That's actually a generous retelling of SFR's attempts to

Gov. Susana Martinez has paid attorney Paul Kennedy over the years. Jeff Proctor explains how the attorney general's office concluded the governor's stonewalling is a violation of New Mexico's public records law and why that doesn't seem to matter to the Martinez administration.

Antenora

So, some guy

from the Little Library of Barelas. Again. It's one of those free libraries that pops up on the street; a rich part of life as a kid in a part of Albuquerque that's rich in culture, but not so much in cash. You know, the kind of kids' library where if you steal all the books, you go straight to the

of Dante's hell.

Albuquerque and Santa Fe are

 high on a best-of list. If you're making movies and living where you do it, as many indie filmmakers and crew members do, 

 says the Duke City is the No. 8 large city to be in and the City Different ranks second among small cities.

The state went for Hillary Clinton in November, but hundreds of New Mexicans

to Washington DC for the swearing in of our nation's 45th president, Donald J Trump. Every New Mexico congressional representative and senator will be there, as will our governor and Albuquerque's mayor. Others are making the trip to join in planned protests of Trump's victory.

New Mexico is among 19 states

 for how it handles the reintroduction of endangered species. In 2015, Gov. Susana Martinez' administration refused to give the US Fish and Wildlife Service a permit to release Mexican gray wolves into part of their original range. The feds did it anyway, arguing the survival of a species trumps state concerns.

After a welcome whopper of a storm last weekend, Santa Fe and the rest of west and central New Mexico are 

snowy end to the week. The first chance of snow in our fair capital city is tonight, so make this the day you splurge and buy that fancy new ice scraper.

Santa Fe Reporter