What's Going On?

Politically, quite a bit, considering the season. But it's this very season that has me drifting off into winter solstice reveries as I ponder trying to write something about politics today. I'm feeling especially corny this holiday season, and grateful to be here in the midst of the peaceful, loving celebration that has evolved from the bustle and chaos of some Christmases past. Funny, this year I'm less connected to the holiday routines of the season, but more connected to the underlying human emotions that originally created the rituals. It feels freeing, and good.

Anyway, instead of trying to write about reality when my heart isn't in it, I thought I'd catch up a bit and give you a compact rundown from the past few days, links and all:

• Democratic NM-01 candidate Jason Call dropped out of the race after AFSCME unanimously voted to endorse Martin Heinrich.

• Democrat John Adams also withdrew from the NM-01 Congressional race, but he's decided to run in NM-03 instead. Former Indian Affairs Secretary Benny Shendo of Jemez Pueblo has officially entered the NM-03 Dem primary race.

• Check out A Swirl of Solstice at the Santa Fe Children's Museum on December 22nd from 5:00-7:00 PM, including their luminaria labyrinth, and what's happening during .

• The Santa Fe New Mexican has hired two reporters -- Kate Nash and Sue Vorenberg -- from the soon-to-be-gone (maybe) Albuquerque Tribune.

• Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) and mainstream Americans want Cheney impeached.

•The EPA rejected California's Clean Car auto emission standards, which means New Mexico's recently adopted version also will be disallowed. Gov. Bill Richardson issued a statement that says, in part, "The Bush Administration's rejection of the California Clean Cars program shows a complete lack of legal, moral and policy leadership on climate change and threatens to close the door on the single most aggressive and effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

•1000 Friends of New Mexico and others are questioning the propriety of Bernalillo County Commissioner Tim Cummins' vote to adopt TIDDs for SunCal development because he's developing an industrial park bordered on three sides by SunCal land.

• Nambe Pueblo is studying a wind power project that would be the largest in New Mexico, producing up to 300 megawatts of electricity

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may ask for a one-month FISA act extension so our sloganeering presidential candidates don't have to deal with it during the height of the early primary season.

• The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) will be in both NM-01 and NM-02 this election cycle. They're outraising their Repub counterpart by a large margin.

• PNM's credit rating was lowered on the last day of the utility's PRC hearing on a request for a monthly fuel adjustment clause and a $77.3 million increase in electric rates.

• Governor Bill Richardson has expressed his skepticism about the wisdom of allowing proposed oil and gas drilling in the Galisteo Basin.

• The New Mexico Court of Appeals has ruled against Citizen Action's suit to force the removal of Sandia Lab's mixed waste landfill. Activists may appeal to the NM Supreme Court.

• The State of New Mexico won't seek federal funding, if any is offered this fiscal year, for abstinence only sex education programs.

• Bush got his blank check on war funding to the tune of $70 billion in the $555 billion government spending bill, when the House approved the Senate's version of the legislation by a margin of 272-142. Voting for the measure were 78 House Dems, while 41 Dems voted no, including Rep. Tom Udall (NM-03). On the Senate side, the timelines for Iraq withdrawal were stripped out of the main bill by a margin of 70-25, with Sen. Jeff Bingaman voting against it.

• Frank G. Hesse, M.D., raised the issue of provider shortages as the New Mexico Legislature gears up to dealing with health care reform in January.

• The Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority's tumbleweed snowman alongside I-40 gained national recognition in a new book about the history of the snowman.

Phew. That's a whole lotta news ....