New Mexico Mercury

Again, U.S. Supreme Court Decides Against Democracy

The Roberts Court today continued its drive to give Americans a government of, by and for big money. As you probably know by now, the US Supreme Court went mucking around in politics again this morning. Its decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission struck another blow on behalf of the powerful and against the hundreds of millions of Americans whose voices can now be drowned out by the wealthiest 1 percent.

The high court interprets and enforces the law. But we the people can still change it...

Cesar is not a Museum Piece

As the life of Cesar Chavez hit the big screen in recent days, the media rediscovered the man who has become a symbol for the Chicano movement, non-violence and labor rights.  And while the complexities of Chavez’s celebrated life were revisited by the pundits, the annual Cesar Chavez day events began unfolding across the land.

At a well-attended March 29 gathering in Albuquerque, New Mexico, another legendary farm labor leader and former colleague of Chavez had a message:

“Don’t put that cause in the museum. It doesn’t belong there. It belongs on the streets"...

Is Albuquerque Dying?

Cities, like people, are works in progress. They have life cycles. As Jane Jacobs elucidated in her path-breaking book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, they may fail or succeed. They are born and grow and thrive. And they shrink and wither and die. Once the process of disintegration gains momentum, a city may reach a turning point and its fate may become irreversible.

Has Albuquerque reached that turning point? Has it arrived at an irreversible point of disintegration? Is it dying? It is almost impossible to be certain of a turning point until it is in the rearview mirror. There are ample signs, however, that Albuquerque may be there...

Albuquerque Erupts

Frontera Norte Sur's on-the-ground account of Sunday's Albuquerque APD protests.

Humphrey’s World: APD Killing

APD Killing

Section K: Another Coaching Change?

After a devastating end to the basketball season, the last thing we need is another emotional roller coaster, but here we are.

On Thursday, CBS Sports columnist Gary Parrish reported that Craig Neal had emerged as a “legitimate target of South Florida’s ongoing coaching search.” While only citing “multiple sources” as evidence, Parrish connected the dots: USF’s new athletic director, Mark Harlan, was hired this March from UCLA where he was the associate athletic director; Harlan’s interest in hiring Neal comes from Steve Alford’s recommendation...

Provincial Matters, 3-31-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

Uniting Frontiers: The Cabalgata Binaciónal Villista

It’s early morning on March 8 and some thirty or forty Mexican riders and horses are working their way through US Customs at Palomas, Mexico. This is the fifteenth annual Cabalgata Binaciónal Villista or Binational Villa Cavalcade, an effort to unify a border that has often been in conflict, no more so than on March 9, 1916 when General José Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known as Pancho Villa – ordered about 100 of his soldiers to cross the border and raid Columbus, New Mexico...

Driving on Alternating Current

I have been reading about the new Tesla Model S electric car, and its $62,400 price tag and I was drawn back to 1931 when Nikola Tesla, the man whose name adorns their car, took the gasoline engine out of a Pierce-Arrow and replaced it with an 80-horsepower alternating current (A.C.) air-cooled motor with no obvious external source of power.

At a local radio shop he bought twelve vacuum tubes, some wires and assorted resistors, and assembled them in a circuit box 24-inches long, 12-inches wide and 6-inches high, with a pair of 3-inch rods sticking out. Getting into the car with the circuit box in the front seat beside him, he pushed the rods in, and announced, “We now have power,” and proceeded to test drive the car for a week, often at speeds of up to 90 mph...

Insight New Mexico - Dr. Jose Armas

V.B. Price talks with Dr. Jose Armas, longtime journalist and expert on Latino Affairs, about the Martinez administration's track record on public education, immigration policy, local business investment, Tesla and more.