Morning Word: 5K for Boston

Albuquerque mayoral candidates Pete Dinelli and Richard Berry

over campaign donations. --- Dinelli's is from $200 in donations, while Berry's is from $17,000 in donations.

• NM Telegram contributor Peter St. Cyr
• spoke to the Working America woman who was called a "radical bitch" by a Republican county official
• .
• Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is
• blocking the confirmation of Ernest Moniz to the Department of Energy over the loss of funding for nuclear programs in his state the Associated Press reports
• .
• Joline Gutierrez Krueger
• writes about an upcoming 5K to raise money for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings
• .
• The Rio Grande Sun
• covers the practice of Rio Arriba County officials dropping charges in exchange for a "donation" to charity
• .

• Of the four charities defendants can donate to, all have donated to the Rio Arriba Sheriff’s Office Scholarship Fund, established in November by Sheriff Tommy Rodella and Arnold, both of whom are named on government filings as board members.
  
  Richard Guillen, the third board member, is a former Española police chief and contract consultant Rodella has hired in the past.

• Preschool funding will get an additional $4.5 million
• , the Albuquerque Journal reports. This brings the preschool funding to nearly $14 million.
• Santa Fe
• joined in a lawsuit to stop the shutting down of towers
• , including Santa Fe's, because of sequestration. The Santa Fe New Mexican:

• The City Council decided late Wednesday to pay $3,200 to join a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the American Association of Airport Executives and the U.S. Contract Tower Association, and to make a donation to the groups' legal fund. “We are officially joining the national litigation to restore funding of control towers at small airports, and specifically ours here in Santa Fe,” said City Attorney Geno Zamora in an interview Thursday. “We will be a named plaintiff in this.”

• Secretary-designate
• Hanna Skandera has decided to drop the "designate" part of her title
• . NM Capitol Report notes that, despite not being confirmed by the Senate, she is just going by "secretary."

• Skandera has since bestowed a new title on herself. On the state Public Education Department website, she says: “As the secretary of education, I call on every educator, student, parent, community member and public servant to share in the responsibility for the success of our children...”
  
  Skandera formerly listed herself as the department’s designated leader, pending Senate confirmation.

• Residents of the
• Mariposa subdivision in Rio Rancho are happy with a bond restructuring plan
• that will shield them from sticker shock on taxes.
• The city of Alamogordo
• formed a housing advisory board
• .
• Susana Martinez picked Gerald E. Baca to be the judge in the 4th Judicial District. The
• Las Vegas Optic
• :

• Baca, who has been an attorney for more than 26 years, said he would begin his new job on May 13. Between now and then, he will be shutting down his practice and handing his open cases off to other attorneys.

• NM Telegram
• spoke to Fred Nathan of Think New Mexico
• about the group's push to have state parties allows independents to vote in their primaries.
• Heather Wilson
• will be president of hte South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
• .
• Oil and gas drilling rules are being proposed
• in Colfax County, the Raton Range reports
• .

• The committee’s recommendations include development of a county-wide road standard for all development, from oil and gas drilling operations to things such as housing and commercial developments. In addition, setbacks should be defined to keep oil and gas drilling operations an adequate distance from things such as habitable structures, surface water and wetlands, the committee found. The committee noted the New Mexico Oil and Gas Conservation Division has setback rules that could be adopted.

• New Mexico Mercury
• looks at the troubles on the "other border" of New Mexico
• -- that is the areas in New Mexico near the Navajo Nation.
• The Las Cruces Sun-News
• speaks to NMSU presidential finalist David Ashley
• .
• Good news for Ruidoso
• .

• The peculiarities of a financial grant prompted Ruidoso village councilors Tuesday to approve more work than originally planned on a project designed to harden Alto Dam and a reservoir bypass channel.

• Farmington's city council
• examined the practices at San Juan Regional Medical Center
• over allegations the council they would not let independent doctors see patients at the facility.
• The Clovis News Journal
• highlights the debate over genetically modified organisms
• . On one side is the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau Executive Vice President Matt Rush, who says GMOs are necessary, and on the other is business owner Chuck Abbott, who says the effects have not been fully researched yet.
• KOB found
• found food stamp fraud in Farmington
• .
• One of the members that Susana Martinez appointed to the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange is a fierce opponent of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
• The
• Board will start getting work done next week
• , Albuquerque Business First says.
• The Joint Land Use Study committee
• believes there is a good outlook for relationships between Cannon Air Force Base and the neighboring areas
• .
• Deming officials scrapped a
• potential ordinance change that would have stopped people from feeding feral cats
• .

Santa Fe Reporter