Morning Word: Oil Bubbles Up Again in NM

Not a boom ... not a bust
There's a lot of investment happening in New Mexico's part of the Permian Basin. The southeastern corner of the state is fresh off a serious slump in activity following a massive boom that pushed hotel prices in Carlsbad into the $300-a-night range. Now, larger companies are once again ramping up production. New Mexico politicians generally say they'd love to wean the state off mineral extraction and government jobs, but that's still a long way off.

Take care of yourselves for a minute
New Mexico has the eighth-highest rate of funding decreases to its colleges and universities, according to a new national survey. The state's schools have long been considered a bargain for students, but there's less money flowing into the schools and the vaunted lottery scholarships will pay only 60 percent of tuition.

How much to tell
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe is facing something akin to a crisis of conscience. After decades of priests having been involved in child sex abuse, the archdiocese has yet to publicly release a list of priests it has deemed credibly accused or church records that detail how the archdiocese dealt with those allegations. As SFR told you earlier this month, the church is fighting a motion by KOB-TV that asks a judge to allow attorneys to share those records.

'Illness was treated as a sin'
The sister of one of the people who died at the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps compound in Fence Lake says she has more questions than answers about the death. So far, police have arrested eight people and taken 11 children into protective custody.

Albuquerque Iraqi man still in custody
Abbas Al-Sokaini is still in an immigration detention center in El Paso, wondering if he'll soon find himself in his native Iraq, where he hasn't lived for two decades. Al-Sokaini is part of a group of Iraqis who face deportation for older criminal charges here in the US. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a class-action lawsuit on their behalf.

Capital High coach on the bench
Jonathan Salazar, the newly hired girls basketball coach at Santa Fe's Capital High, is sitting out preseason activities while he awaits a court hearing on a felony domestic violence charge. Salazar told the district of his legal situation a couple weeks ago, and officials say they decided to keep him off the court.

Your weather week
Looks like it'll be a pretty decent week for late August. We still have monsoonal moisture patterns sticking around, and they'll ramp up Tuesday. The rest of the week looks lovely and New Mexico doesn't expect any large weather impact from Tropical Storm Harvey to our southeast.

Thanks for reading! The Word had to wear its fuzzy slippers this morning. Does Dunkin have Pumpkin Spice yet?

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Santa Fe Reporter