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Thursday, July 24, 2025Nukes On The Move From ABQ's KAFB To England; A Grim Reminder That City Is At Center Of International Uncertainity The U.S. military has moved nuclear weapons to British soil for the first time in close to two decades, new analysis indicates. Open-source analysts identified an aircraft taking off from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque bound for the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Lakenheath, in the east of England. Kirtland is the headquarters of the US Airforce Nuclear Weapons Center, a main storage site for nuclear weapons. . . Flight tracking data shows that a C-17 cargo plane departed from Albuquerque for a flight of just over 10 hours to Lakenheath on July 16 and left the U.K. two days later. "It looks like it went to England, dropped off those weapons and then it went back to regular operations in the U.S.," William Alberque, a former head of NATO's nuclear non-proliferation center, told Britain's The Times. Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow with the British think tank, the Royal United Services Institute, told The Times that the C-17 flight "could be the transport of B61s for potential use on RAF F-35As. "It represents a move towards the use of tactical nuclear weapons. It reintroduces a bit of flexibility in terms of how nuclear weapons are used." Public discussion of any form of nuclear war has traditionally been understated but that has changed in this new era of international uncertainty. The KAFB mission puts ABQ at the center of that uncertainty. Still. . .have a nice day. We're off to visit the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in the far ABQ NE Heights--while it's still there. THE BOTTOM LINES Senate Republicans come with a correction made by Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer regarding school voucher bill SB286. Sharer said the bill did not receive a hearing. The R's now say the bill did get a committee hearing but received "minimal consideration" and was tabled. This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.Wednesday, July 23, 2025Report On School Vouchers Draws Sharp Reactions; We Hear From Leading Republicans, A Veteran Teacher, A High School Executive Director And More On the supportive side, predictably, were Republicans who have long sought the program that would provide funding for public school parents--(disadvantaged ones in our view)--to send their kids to private schools. State Senate Minority leader Bill Sharer of Farmington came with this reaction: Joe, I wanted to comment on Tuesday’s blog: You’re right, we have to do something about improving educational outcomes for New Mexico students. I think you’re on the right track when proposing a limited school voucher program. Senate Republicans introduced the "Education Freedom Account Act" (SB286) during this year’s session which would have provided educational opportunities for low-income students in the form of school vouchers. Despite being endorsed by every member of our caucus, this bill was tabled with minimal consideration.Until lawmakers from the other side of the aisle have the courage to do something in the true interests of NM students, we will continue to be dead last in the nation and as you put: “lose another generation of young New Mexicans.” Sharer worked collaboratively with Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth last legislative session in crafting legislation to advance critical behavioral health reform. Is it out of the question that the pair could brainstorm the voucher issue as the state's public education decline continues? GOP Rep. Rebecca Dow wrote on social media: I don’t often cheer what Joe Monahan said, but school choice is right—let’s move it ahead! Red or blue, let’s do what’s right— Our kids need hope, and futures bright. The cheers died down quickly. Trey Smith, executive director of the East Mountain High School, wrote: Joe, you are absolutely correct that education outcomes have stalled in New Mexico and that some radical solutions are needed. However, the argument that a school voucher system, which assumes a school like Albuquerque Academy is somehow going to better serve students with disabilities than our public schools, is fallacious. New Mexico could learn from states that have experienced impressive turnaround. Mississippi adopted the science of reading and drastically turned around their reading scores. New Mexico could financially reward the schools that are demonstrating positive results with those Yazzie subgroups, like many charter schools are. Stop passing laws that make it harder for good charter schools to operate. New Mexico should also double down on its school accountability system, and expand/replicate the schools that are working. There are plenty of evidence-based solutions to turn this ship around before dismantling the entire public school system through vouchers. We just need an executive and a legislature with the political courage to get it done. Thanks, Trey. As you know the example of Mississippi has frequently been debated in Santa Fe with no action. Another reason why we were moved to change positions. TEACHER VIEW  Joe, Vouchers are death to public education. Period. In no way should public monies ever be used to fund private institutions. This state is plagued by generations of broken people. Poverty is the beast that plays a huge hand in situations that inflict childhood trauma. Poverty also serves as the breeding ground for depression which many think can be numbed by drugs and alcohol. Guess how many of these folks are parents of school-aged children? How exactly does public education address the problems that plague our students? How can we force families who are in survival mode to ensure their children are read to and/or read every night? How does the state ensure that children are receiving educational support at home? Teaching students is a joint effort. Public education teachers are not a child's first teacher, parents are. Ideally, an incoming kindergartener should be able to identify the letters of the alphabet, know their colors, numbers to at least 10, know how to hold a pencil/crayon, and how to write their name. How many do you think come in knowing all of that? Do you really think that allowing this same kindergartener to attend St. Mary's, Manzano Day School etc. is going to make this child more successful? Public education serves everyone who walks through the door, rich or poor. Public school educators pour their heart and soul into their vocation every single day. They teach the students who may not have had clean socks to wear or a warm breakfast from home. They do their very best to make up for what they can't or didn't receive at home. I assure you that those who are in favor of vouchers know very little about public education (aside from a newspaper article on school ranking), or have children already enrolled at a private school. MISSISSIPPI AND FINLAND From Rio Rancho Mitchell Freedman had these thoughts: Joe, I can't believe you are throwing in the towel. School vouchers for private schools? That just takes money from public schools, and it is worse than a mixed record--it primarily helps wealthier communities. I would rather see NM officials study Mississippi's reforms and even better, Finland's. The latter went from the bottom to the top with the the type of reforms that promoted public investment and public support. That tends to work much better than letting people fend for basic services in an environment where privateers gouge and rip off people who can't navigate complexities. I have been deeply disappointed with our leadership and their weird focus on things like number of school days that are insulting to smaller communities. They really need to get much more focused on the type of reforms Finland did for starters. Mississippi, too. Trey, Mitchell and Carolyn make excellent points and we thank them. But we are weary from years of waiting while so many public school students are failing. The current bureaucracy as well as the education establishment, including the teachers' unions that do much good, have stagnated along with the legislature. It's time for something new. A limited, experimental voucher program to test results is hardly revolutionary but it is a desperately needed step away from the status quo. THE BOTTOM LINES
It is easy to confuse the words founder and flounder, not only because they sound similar but also because the contexts in which they are used overlap. Founder means, in its general and extended use, ‘fail or come to nothing, sink out of sight’ (‘the scheme foundered because of lack of organizational backing’). Flounder, on the other hand, means ‘struggle, move clumsily, be in a state of confusion’ (‘new recruits floundering about in their first week’) All right, class dismissed. If you read this far, you get an A. This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. Tuesday, July 22, 2025State Continues To Founder In Enforcing Court Ruling To Improve Public Ed Seven Years After The Fact; New Approach Offered, Plus: Reader React On NM Film Decline Seven years is the entire lifespan of the MLG administration. The state continues to rank 50th in the nation in public education. We've reported on Yazzie since the beginning and have not wavered in our belief that the state and PED can do a turnaround. But we're throwing in the towel now because we're losing another generation of young New Mexicans. The time has arrived to inject competition into the system. The Legislature should authorize a limited school voucher program that would allow parents to choose a private school to send their kids to. Voucher programs vary by state. For ours, targeting low-income families. students with disabilities and those in under performing schools seems to make the most sense. Not that vouchers are a a panacea. Reviews are mixed. But at this point in the state's history something must change. All the money pumped into the system during this long oil boom has not done the trick. Alternatives now demand legislators full attention. Republicans have been pushing vouchers for years. Their time has finally come. SHRINKING FILMS ABQ reader Cheryl Haaker has this on our Monday blog detailing the recent decline in film production in the state: I appreciated your discussion of the shrinking film presence here in New Mexico. A factor that I suspect contributed significantly to New Mexico falling out of favor is the prosecutorial circus in the Alec Baldwin "Rust" shooting case. Not only was Mr. Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter for what was an accident but it was over a year after the event before the person actually responsible for preparing (and providing security) for the guns was charged. Misjudgement? Incompetence? Publicity seeking? Any way you stack it, it doesn't look good for the judicial system in Santa Fe. So any movie involving the reckless and excessive use of firearms (that's nearly 100% of 'em) would think twice about filming in New Mexico, particularly in the Santa Fe area.
And along those same lines from reader Ron Nelson:
Maybe if New Mexico didn’t have such an over zealous prosecutor that went after the key players in the Rust production, things would be different. You don’t think Hollywood wasn’t watching? We can’t keep blaming COVID for systemic failures.
On a different note, reader David Buchholtz writes: Your story on the state of the film industry here resonated. You might want to check out Eddington, filmed primarily in T or C, which opened this weekend. It is a neo-noir, Western, political satire, among other things, getting a great deal of national publicity and has significant New Mexico overtones.
This is the Home of New Mexico Politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. Monday, July 21, 2025Glamour Deficit: Film Productions In State Sliced In Half As Industry Wrestles With Ever Changing Media Landscape; Even Big Incentives Don't Stop The Dive; That Story And A Proposal To Reshape The Biz Here New Mexicans are spoiled by the glamorous industry as the state has some of the most generous film incentives in the nation. But even that can not stop the decline. From the NM Film Office: In fiscal year 2025, output economic impact of the state’s film tax credit dropped to $475.5 million while gross value added (GVA) dropped to $348.2 million. The year before, the output was at $1.089 billion and the GVA was at $797.9 million. In fiscal year 2022, the output peaked at $1.258 billion and the GVA peaked at $921.7 million. That's an awful lot of dollars streaming out of here and Film Office Director Steve Graham explains: (He) cited contraction in the industry after double strikes, slow COVID-19 recovery and mergers and acquisitions across the entertainment industry as primary indicators for the slump in production. He noted that his state is currently shooting 10 projects – film and series alike – down from 20 last spring. That reality has apparently hit Santa Fe Film Studios which has been put up for sale. The state's film incentives have a $130 million annual cap for fiscal year 2025, with $101 million remaining as of the latest update. Netflix and NBCUniversal, called Film Partners for their lomg-term commitments to the state, are not subject to the cap so the actual amount going out the door is millions more. WHAT TO DO? Other states are now ramping up their incentives and giving New Mexico more competition. That adds to the reasons why the heyday may have been seen here for film production. That leads us to one of our industry experts who speaks off the record about a new direction the state may want to take: The slowdown isn’t just here but nationwide. Texas, California, Louisiana and others have responded by upping their incentives. I wouldn’t recommend that for New Mexico. We’ve gone as far as we should with the “partners” and it’s time to get back to what made us number one in the first place.  Let’s not go further down the rabbit hole to compete with the bigger states. We invented film incentives. We can reinvent them to work better for us at a lower cost. We’ve reached the tipping point. We can do this ourselves and say thanks to our Film Partners for the boost but we'll take it from here. A longer term issue is the overall state budget--specifically federal funding for Medicaid and food stamps. If those items start eating away at the big surpluses, the film incentives could look like a luxury. All the more reason perhaps to reshape the industry now rather that losing an even larger piece of Hollywood down the road. (A complete list of movies shot in the state since 1897 is here.) Covering the campaigns, politics and government of New Mexico and generating new ideas for the future. This is the Home of New Mexico Politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. |
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