KSFR Local
(2012-04-05)
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SANTA FE
(KSFR) -
Members of Santa Fe's school board have agreed that they need state approval of the plan to find a new superintendent before they can move ahead officially. They voted to choose an Iowa-based search firm but decided not to formally sign a $30,000 contract until the state education department signs off on the plan. Outgoing superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez says the state's delay in approving her buyout is affecting her plans to look for a new job. *** The board decided earlier not to renew Gutierrez' contract and give her a buyout package of $168,000.
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Reacting to a lawsuit filed by a nuclear watchdog group, the federal government has released the performance report it developed to award an ongoing contract to the private corporation that runs the Los Alamos national lab. The release of the document comes just days after Nuclear Watch New Mexico filed a lawsuit to get a copy of it. Jay Coghlan is head of Nuclear Watch. He says the report authorizes an $83 million payment to the lab's parent company despite criticism that the lab has mismanaged the construction of a new research facility. *** Cost overruns put the price tag of the lab's new facility at some $6 billion.
The state supreme court is set to hear arguments next week over the question of voter-signature petitions. A number of complaints and lawsuits have come up, alleging that some candidates did not identify on their petition forms which district races they intended to enter. The attorney general advised Secretary of State Diana Duran that the candidates and the petitions were legitimate. But the Albuquerque Journal reports that Duran has asked the high court to rule on the issue.
A trial is underway in a Santa Fe state district court involving payday loan company, Fastbucks, charged with violations of numerous state laws. Judge Michael Vigil is presiding over the case which opened Wednesday and is expected to last seven days. Numerous witnesses for the prosecution are prepared to testify they were given loans by Fastbucks that carried interest rates exceeding 500%. The Attorney General's Office says Texas-based Fastbucks business practices are in direct contradiction of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act.
A University of Wisconsin study has cited Los Alamos county as the healthiest in the nation. The study, co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, correlates health with income and notes that Los Alamos boasts an annual median income of approximately $104,000 with only 2.4% of its population living in poverty. Los Alamos County has the lowest rate of premature death that is, death before age 75-- with less than 3 years lost per 100 people. In contrast, the least healthy area is the Standing Rock Sioux Nation of the Dakotas with almost 24 years of potential life lost per 100 residents.
Weather for Santa Fe - a string of seasonably warm and sunny days in store for us through the Easter holiday weekend. Highs today near 70 with lows tonight in the upper 30s. Breezy tomorrow with west winds to 25 miles per hour and highs in the mid 60s. © Copyright 2013, KSFR
