Homeowners who want to install solar panels on their homes, regulated by HOV covenants, are lining up in support of Rep. Mimi Stewart's HB-9, which would prohibit cities from restricting their use.
And, a legal opinion issued today by New Mexico Attorney General Gary King could also help.
King's opinion clarifies a 2007 state law allowing homeowners associations to regulate the installation or use of solar panels-- so long as the regulations do not “effectively prohibit” their installation or use.
Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who is sponsoring the 2011 Home Owners Association Act, asked the AG's office for an official opinion on whether or not a homeowners association can require that members seek its approval before installing solar panels?
King's opinion allows homeowners associations to continue to require homeowners to obtain the prior approval of the associations before placing solar collectors on rooftops as long as restrictions on the installation, or use of solar panels, does not make installations unreasonably difficult or costly.
If approved,, Stewart's HB9 would not allow any municipality to restrict the installation of a solar collector as defined pursuant to the Solar Rights Act, except that placement of solar collectors in historic districts.
Sen. Sander Rue Embracing new crime fighting technology, Sen. Sander Rue, R-Rio Rancho is sponsoring a measure requested by law enforcement agencies to help them catch and arrest more criminals.
SB 102, which has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, requires anyone who is arrested to submit to having their palm print impression recorded in addition to being fingerprinted during jail booking.
“Everyone seems to be fascinated with Criminal Scene Investigations (CSI) that use the latest and greatest to solve crimes,” Sen. Rue said. “Let’s use more of it to solve crimes in New Mexico.”
The bill requires anyone arrested to have their palm print impressions taken in addition to being fingerprinted when they are booked into jail.
“By using the latest technology at crime scenes, a lot of good palm prints can be lifted while only partial fingerprints might be detected and might not be readable,” Senator Rue said. “This bill requires that palm prints are also taken at the time of booking an alleged criminal so they can be stored digitally and used to crack more crimes. Having digital palm prints on file increases the odds of tying a particular person to the crime scene.”
Since the digital palm prints would remain on file, along with the booking sheet, they can be used to match against latent or hidden prints left at crime scenes, thus giving investigators an increased chance of matching ‘latent’ against existing digital fingerprint/palm print files.
The legislation seeks to amends 29-3-8 NMSA 1978 to add palm printing to the fingerprinting process conducted by law enforcement agencies as a part of a booking subsequent to a felony arrest. The bill adds “palm print” or “palm printing” to every mention of fingerprint or fingerprinting in 29-3-8 NMSA 1978.
The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) indicates that the requirement of palm printing in addition to fingerprinting in association with arrests is a trend throughout the country and simply requires that a palm print impression of each hand be added to the 10-print fingerprinting process.
Senator Rue said because DPS is now gathering and storing palm prints, DPS processes will not change. Many law enforcement agencies are already collecting palm prints so impact on law enforcement should be minimal since palm printing as an adjunct to fingerprinting takes very little time, and requires less expertise than fingerprinting.”
After last week's gas outages in New Mexico, U.S. Rep. Ben Lujan, Jr is urging Gov. Susana Martinez to quickly request assistance from FEMA's Region Six. He says federal money may be able to assist individuals and small businesses.
Lujan, who spent the weekend touring his hard hit congressional district, says he saw elderly people shivering in their homes -- in Northern Taos County -- without heat waiting for crews to relight their furnaces.
At a VFW Post in Questa, he talked to veterans about their concerns regarding frozen water pipes.
Lujan told us Martinez’ State of Emergency declaration doesn’t go far enough and he's urging her administration to ask for federal aid now.
He spent the morning in the New Mexico House Energy and Natural Resources committee listening to testimony from New Mexico and El Paso Corp. officials and Martinez’ Homeland Security Secretary designate Michael Duvall and Martinez Chief of Staff Keith Gardner.
Duvall says the state is still assessing whether it has met the monetary threshold needed to request FEMA assistance.
Gardner said the administration's first priority is getting every furnace relighted and getting the New Mexico National Guard into the field to assist technicians.
Gas utility officials told committee members they cut off service to portions of New Mexico last week because they feared of losing control over their distribution system and having uncontrolled outages across the state.
New Mexico Gas Co. Vice President Ken Oostman said customers in northern New Mexico and parts of southern New Mexico were cut off when the utility faced a rapid drop in gas pressure in its lines.
Without that, he told lawmakers, pressure would have continued to drop and uncontrolled outages would have happened in homes and businesses.
Shortly after the cutoff, Martinez declared Taos County, Santa Clara Indian Pueblo and Taos Pueblo have all officially declared a State of Emergency due to the disruption in natural gas service in Northern New Mexico that occurred on February 3, 2011.
Lujan, Jr., said FEMA can provide mobile telecommunications, operational support, life support, and power generation assets allowing on-site management of disaster and all-hazard activities.
New Mexico Gas company officials told state reps that they have pre-ordered enough gas for a new storm expected to hit the state on Tuesday and Wednesday and hope to have all remaining 21-Thousands homes without supply relight by late today or tomorrow.
They said crews have been authorized to relight substandard furnaces if they can get them to a minimum “safe state.”
Vice President and Chief Legal Council for the New Mexico Gas Company Thomas Domme told committee members that the company is setting up phone lines to expedite customer claims for damages they incurred after the supply shortage -- mostly for frozen pipes. He said he claim will have to be individually analyzed.
Domme said no serious injuries have been reported.
Sen. David Ulibarri Online technology is driving a proposal in this year's legislature which could authorize state broadcasters to publish legal ads and notices on their websites -- but not everyone is sure it’s a good idea.
State law currently only permits the legal material to be published in newspapers.
NMBA President Paula Maes says her organization was asked by various municipalities to provide an alternative posting site for legal notices, because of declining newspaper circulations, and the fact that some rural newspapers only publish once a week.
The state’s open meeting act requires agendas be posted at least 24 hours before an official meeting, so supporter's of the measure suggest that government entities need an alternative posting site.
“With our site, people in towns like Taos, will be able to find their school board meeting agendas online,” Maes said.
“The Journal’s circulation is down 21 percent, and, people have to buy subscriptions to read the legal ads. This leaves many people in the dark,” Maes said. “Checking notices on a broadcaster’s site will be free.”
According to Maes, broadcasters in Illinois have already started publishing the legal ads on their website, and states like Rhode Island and Maine are watching what happens in Santa Fe this month before they roll out similar programs.
Maes said NM Legal Notices would charge about the same rate as newspapers and any money raised will be used to fund high school scholarships and intern programs.
While newspaper sales executives may be resisting the measure because it will dampen their ad revenues, a special interest group is opposing the alternative site claiming it will “keep the public in the dark.”
This change would mean that New Mexicans would no longer be able to learn about government notices or issues that may affect their community by reading the local paper. Any notice of hearings for permitting dairy farms, power plants, regulatory hearings, or many other issues would no longer be published in the affected communities. Residents would need to seek out this information on the internet.
The NMBA counters that assertion and claims radio stations in small towns will be able to publish the ads more quickly on their website and residents won’t have to wait for a weekly or bi-weekly newspaper to be published.
Citadel New Mexico General Manager Milt McConnell says the majority of people in his audience get their information online. And, he wants public information to be publicly available on the internet.
“We believe it is past time to be able to have municipalities, school districts, county commissions etc to post their public notices on NMLegalNotices.com and have the electronic media be able to drive the message home,” McConnell, who oversees 770KKOB News Radio, said.
Both McConnell and Maes believe placing ads exclusively in print is not the answer going forward and say now is the time to insure an alternative delivery system.
For years broadcasters have aired free public service announcements, or PSA's, and worked closely with state and federal government agencies to disseminate valuable information to the public.
Opponents don't like the bill because they say 32 percent of residents have no access to the internet.
Members of the Senate Corporations Committee will consider the measure today at 2p in Santa Fe.
Disclosure: This reporter has worked for various broadcast outlets since 1980, including: Citadel Broadcasting, Hearst Television Inc, Hubbard Broadcasting and American General media.
As the number of copper thefts increase -- often to fund drug addictions -- so could the penalties.
Sen. Steve Neville, R-Aztec, wants wants to send a message to thieves and vandals who steal copper from or damage energy production facilities.
He’s sponsoring a Senate Bill 240, which could make ripping off $50 worth of the metal a felony with a large fine or even imprisonment.
A vandal who rips off a $50 dollar piece of copper from a gas well to sell it as scrap metal, potentially causing an explosion and costing thousands of dollars in lost production time would only be slapped with a misdemeanor. But, Neville says the real cost of the crimes need to be taken into account before a suspect is charged.
“The law should take into consider the true costs of the crime to utility plants, not the value of a piece of metal.”
Last October Albuquerque police cracked down on copper thieves after they targeted recycling centers to find out who was committing the crimes. Police said then they recognized the steep increase in thefts.
The main purpose of APD's tactical plan was to educate recycling centers about a 2009 state law which mandates recyclers set aside items for five days and document who sold it to them. Many recyclers had not been reporting the names of people selling the metal.
Sen. Steven P. Neville In this morning's news release Neville said the ramifications of power plant strikes are deep.
“Ripping off what is essentially to them scrap metal could cost thousands of dollars worth of damage and could even cause an explosion, shutting down production for days.” Neville said.
His bill would make it a felony crime to intentionally and without authorization vandalize, destroy or remove from an energy production facility any property of value, including tools, scrap metal, parts and petroleum products.
An energy production facility could be a power plant, storage or transmission facility or even oil rigs, regardless of whether such facility is still under construction or is otherwise not functioning."
If approved the bill would make it a fourth degree felony for property damage of $2,500 or less, a third degree felony if the value of property vandalized, destroyed or stolen over a six-month period has a value of over $2,500, but not more than $20,000, and a second degree felony if the value of property vandalized, destroyed or stolen over a six-month period has a value of over $20,000.
Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who is sponsoring the 2011 Home Owners Association Act, asked the AG's office for an official opinion on whether or not a homeowners association can require that members seek its approval before installing solar panels?
