Border Morals

Border protest

At the US border crossing in Tornillo, Texas, an hour or so east of Las Cruces, hundreds of people gathered for a Father's Day protest of the US policy ($) of separating children from parents who arrive at the United States border seeking asylum and entry to the country. US Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat challenging Republican Ted Cruz for a Senate seat, said the country's decision between detention camps and walls or trying "to be better than that" hasn't been made and mid-term elections will speak loudly on the issue.

Moral showdown

Over at NM Political Report, Laura Paskus checks in with New Mexico's congressional delegation on the issue, finding none of the four Democrats and one Republican believes separation is the right thing to do. Gubernatorial caniddates Steve Pearce and Michelle Lujan Grisham differ, though, in their assessment of the federal government's ability to care for the children it has taken into custody, with Pearce saying workers are well-qualified and Lujan Grisham maintaining they're ill-equipped.

The resource curse

San Juan County has been hurting for a decade. In just the past four years, about 4,500 people have left the workforce, many by leaving the Four Corners county altogether. Dependence on extractive industries has provided enough booms to make weathering the busts worthwhile, but that cycle seems to be ending, as the San Juan Generating Station is on track to close in a few years and the mine that serves it will likely close along with it. Thom Cole at The New Mexican reports the county is trying to remake itself, but it's a monumental task ($).

First in disappointment

The Word's editor sent this link, accompanied by the message, "We're first in something." She's right. New Mexico leads the country in the decline in the popularity of the president. In January 2017, Donald Trump's net approval rating (approve minus disapprove) was +17 percent. Last month, it was -14 percent. That's a stunning 31 percent tanking in less than 18 months. In no state has the president's net approval rating risen.

The catch

The state Legislature approved $40 million for improvements in school security in February, trumpeting its dedication to the cause in the wake of school shootings in Aztec and across the country in places like Parkland, Florida. But the money requires matching funds from school districts that just a year or so ago were being pilfered by those same lawmakers as they tried to patch a budget hole. Not much of that money has been replaced, leaving schools scrambling if they want to boost security.

Dog-damn hot

The last two weeks of June are often the hottest in New Mexico, something that, unless you grew up here, can seem counterintuitive with July and August still to come. Dogs along for an early summer cruise can get hurt or killed by temperatures inside a car, which can rise 30 degrees in 10 minutes. Once again, there's a summer campaign to raise awareness of dogs trapped in hot cars.

Mr. Smith goes to Ruidoso Downs

Jockey Mike Smith, who recently rode Justify to an historic Triple Crown series of victories, will return to his native New Mexico early next month for a publicity stop ($) at Ruidoso Downs. Smith is a Roswell native who gave Ruidoso a shout-out in postrace coverage of the Belmont Stakes earlier this month. Smith apparently joked to track promoters that his family would fill half the stands at Ruidoso.

It (technically) rained!

Santa Fe missed out on most of the good stuff when it came to precipitation over the weekend. The real action was in Albuquerque and spots to the southwest, as well as over in the Permian Basin. Expect it to return to warm this week, with downright hot temperatures creeping in by the weekend.
 
Thanks for reading! The Word is in that weird no-man's land with about 80 pages left of the latest read and so much is happening that it hardly feels like pages are turning at all, even though they are.

Spread the Word! Forward this and subscribe to our other newsletters at sfreportercom/signup.

The dollar signs ($) are links that require a paid subscription to the news source.