Albuquerque news

• Governor Martinez appoints Judge Nakamura to New Mexico Supreme Court

  12-11-2015 23:46 via krqe.com
  
  SANTA FE (KRQE) – Governor Martinez announced the appointment of Second Judicial District Court Judge, Judith Nakamura, to the New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon.
  Nakumura was elected to the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court in 1998 where she served as a chief judge from 2002 until 2013.
  She has served on committees that advise the Supreme Court on issues such as budgeting.
  She was also named Outstanding Judge of the Year by the Albuquerque Bar Association in 2004.
  
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• Company to explore for oil near Rio Rancho

  12-11-2015 23:43
  
  An Oklahoma-based energy company has received a state permit to drill an exploratory well in Sandoval County, about four miles outside the Rio Rancho city limits. The company, SandRidge Energy, Inc., still must receive approval from Sandoval County for drilling at the site. The location is west of Rio Rancho and north of Northern and […]
  
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• Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey creates state police border force

  12-11-2015 23:36
  
  PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey has ordered the Arizona Department of Public Safety to create a border strike force comprised of state troopers who will help law enforcement agencies along the Mexican border respond to crimes. The strike force hasn’t been formally announced, but The Associated Press confirmed its existence Thursday after obtaining a letter […]
  
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• Entrepreneurship Week gears up this weekend

  12-11-2015 23:28
  
  Global Entrepreneurship Week is here again, and Albuquerque has planned a broad slate of startup-related events and activities in the Downtown Innovation District to run through next weekend. The annual event, which takes place in cities throughout the U.S. and other countries, aims to celebrate technology, innovation and entrepreneurship with workshops, networking events, startup pitch […]
  
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• Updated: Gov. Martinez picks Nakamura for NM Supreme Court

  12-11-2015 23:23
  
  District Judge Judith Nakamura’s cellphone began buzzing within minutes of the announcement by Gov. Susana Martinez of Nakamura’s appointment to the New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Richard C. Bosson. It has been a whirlwind few weeks for the Albuquerque jurist, with the funeral […]
  
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• Breaking: Gov. Martinez picks Nakamura for NM Supreme Court

  12-11-2015 23:23
  
  Gov. Susana Martinez named Second Judicial District Court Judge Judith Nakamura to the New Mexico Su ...
  
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• Rubio and Cruz in fight over their records on immigration

  12-11-2015 22:57
  
  WASHINGTON — Republican presidential rivals Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are backpedaling furiously as they try to outmaneuver each other on immigration. Rubio co-wrote a massive 2013 immigration bill that passed the Senate. He disavows it now, but Cruz won’t stop talking about it. Cruz opposed the bill, but he offered amendments to massively […]
  
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• Court mulls having grand jury rehear case of 21 dog deaths

  12-11-2015 22:57
  
  PHOENIX — A judge is weighing whether to send the case against the owners of a suburban Phoenix kennel where 21 dogs died of heat exhaustion and four others were injured back to a grand jury. Defense attorneys argued in Maricopa County Superior Court on Thursday for a motion to remand the case involving the […]
  
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• Supreme Court halts state funding for private school texts

  12-11-2015 22:53
  
  The New Mexico Supreme Court, in a decision released today, has overturned two lower court rulings in finding that a state law that allows private schools to receive public funding to purchase textbooks and other instructional materials is unconstitutional. The unanimous ruling came four years after two parents of children who attend public schools — […]
  
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• Feds nab sex traffickers in SD: ‘catching awful lot of them’

  12-11-2015 22:42
  
  SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — It was an anonymous two-story house with an outdoor side staircase, nothing that looked ominous to Kevin Koliner when he passed by going to and from work. On one evening stroll, the federal prosecutor heard loud noises but figured it was just a party. Later, he’d discover the ugly truth. In […]
  
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• Anti-Defamation League leader to speak tonight at JCC

  12-11-2015 22:36
  
  Social media platform providers can play a key role in blunting extremist messages used by groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda to recruit young people in the United States and around the world, Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, said in a meeting today with Albuquerque Journal staff. Segal will […]
  
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• Albuquerque kindergarten teacher accused in child porn case

  12-11-2015 21:56 via krqe.com
  
  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities say a suspended Albuquerque Public Schools kindergarten teacher who’s accused of possessing child pornography has been arrested again on federal charges.
  Joshua Weitz was arrested Nov. 4 on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a child and 25 counts of intent to distribute child pornography.
  The 30-year-old Albuquerque resident bonded out of jail two days later.
  Federal prosecutors say Weitz was arrested again Wednesday night on a federal criminal c
  
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• Tempest in a coffee cup: What’s Starbucks flap all about?

  12-11-2015 21:50
  
  In the beginning, there was a paper coffee cup — bright red on top, shading to a darker cranberry below. That much seems beyond doubt. But the brew-haha of supposed outrage that has spilled from it since the Starbucks coffee chain served up what looked, at first glance, like a seasonal throwaway, is increasingly hard […]
  
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• Sony tries to make its pricy Vue TV service more popular

  12-11-2015 21:50
  
  NEW YORK — Sony is trying to get more people on its TV service by allowing customers to sign up without a PlayStation. Its service, Vue, was launched in March, but has been limited. It’s available in a few big U.S. cities, you needed a PlayStation, it didn’t have channels owned by Disney, like ABC […]
  
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• More than 540k sign up for health overhaul plans

  12-11-2015 21:48
  
  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration says more than 543,000 people signed up for coverage last week under the president’s health care law, as the 2016 enrollment season got underway. Premiums are going up for many plans, and consumers are being urged to shop around. The health care law offers subsidized private insurance for those who […]
  
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• Rings and pacifiers: Health gadgets get sophisticated

  12-11-2015 21:47
  
  HELSINKI — After the smartphone and fitness bracelet, here comes the smart ring. And the smart pacifier, and smart rollator. “Wellness” computers that monitor your pulse, temperature and other health indicators are becoming increasingly sophisticated and varied to cover every aspect — and age — of human life. Some products, like the ring by Finnish […]
  
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• HUD seeks smoking ban in public housing

  12-11-2015 21:38
  
  WASHINGTON — Smoking could soon be banned in public housing nationwide — even inside people’s apartments. The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a rule Thursday that would require the more than 3,100 public housing agencies across the country to make their properties smoke-free. “We have a responsibility to protect public housing residents from […]
  
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• Cruz says he, not Trump, is race’s true conservative

  12-11-2015 21:35
  
  CONCORD, N.H. — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is making a more forceful case that he — not Donald Trump — is the candidate true conservative voters will coalesce behind in the 2016 presidential race. Cruz worked to align himself with Trump earlier in the campaign and isn’t smacking the billionaire with insults now. But in […]
  
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• Texan convicted of enticement, asked if ‘boy’ was officer

  12-11-2015 21:32
  
  DALLAS — A 60-year-old Dallas man faces up to life in prison for months of texting a person he thought was a 14-year-old boy in an attempt to meet and have sex. Jack Marty Taylor was convicted Thursday in Dallas of attempted enticement of minor. The person communicating with Taylor, since September 2014, is a […]
  
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• Reward for information on Commerce City officer’s shooting

  12-11-2015 21:32
  
  COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Authorities are offering a reward for information that can solve the shooting of a Denver area police officer during a traffic stop. Commerce City police and federal authorities on Thursday announced the reward of up to $20,000 for clues about the Sunday shooting of Officer Kevin Lord. Authorities say Lord was […]
  
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• Posse leader confronted about email in secret investigation

  12-11-2015 21:31
  
  PHOENIX — A posse leader for an Arizona sheriff’s office accused of launching a secret investigation against a federal judge was confronted in court Thursday with an email he received from a confidential informant who said the agency had sought information on the judge. The statement undercuts a claim by Sheriff Joe Arpaio that his […]
  
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• Aging mobster acquitted in 1978 heist retold in ‘Goodfellas’

  12-11-2015 21:30
  
  NEW YORK — An aging mobster who stayed mostly in the shadows for decades by adhering to the Mafia’s strict code of silence was acquitted Thursday of charges he helped plan a legendary 1978 Lufthansa heist retold in the hit film “Goodfellas.” A federal jury reached the verdict at a Brooklyn racketeering trial where it […]
  
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• Kindergarten teacher accused in child porn case faces federal charges

  12-11-2015 20:48
  
  The Albuquerque kindergarten teacher accused of downloading and sharing child pornography is now facing federal charges in the incident. Whittier Elementary School teacher Joshua Weitz, 39, was arrested by Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputies Nov. 4, accused of 25 counts of distributing child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. On Wednesday, federal authorities charged […]
  
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• Suspended teacher faces federal child porn charges

  12-11-2015 20:35
  
  A suspended kindergarten teacher now faces federal child pornography charges.
  
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• Feds arrest Albuquerque kindergarten teacher facing child porn charges

  12-11-2015 20:07 via krqe.com
  
  ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The Albuquerque kindergarten teacher who was arrested earlier this month on child porn charges has now been arrested by the feds.
  Joshua Weitz, 39, was arrested on November 4th at his apartment on Comanche and Carlisle on 26 counts of child pornography.
  Officials say Weitz is suspected of sharing child porn with an investigator two months ago. When he was arrested, investigators say they found 40 child porn files in the “downloads” folder on his desktop.
  La
  
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• Judge lowers bond for teen charged in Albuquerque man’s death

  12-11-2015 20:04 via krqe.com
  
  ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – One of the teens accused of going on a crime spree and murdering an Albuquerque bartender in his own driveway just got a big break from a judge.
  The judge decided to make it a lot easier for the teen to get out of jail. While only one of the six teens is actually accused of shooting bartender Steven Gerecke back in June, they were all charged with murder and held on $250,000 cash-only bond.
  But Thursday Judge Brett Loveless lowered the bond for 17-year-old Ryan Archib
  
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• Kentucky’s 1st black statewide official touts outsider story

  12-11-2015 19:34
  
  FRANKFORT, Ky. — Growing up in Detroit, in the years when she had a television, Jenean Hampton would use pancakes to bribe her friends to watch NASA astronauts leave this fuzzy black-and-white earth behind. The near-sighted kid of divorced parents in one of the country’s largest cities buried herself in science fiction books and dreamed […]
  
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• Santa Fe nears zero homeless veterans

  12-11-2015 19:32
  
  A non-profit group has helped Santa Fe effectively put an end to veteran homelessness, and it hopes the model it used to achieve that goal will lead to ending all homelessness in the state. The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness will submit data to federal authorities this week on Santa Fe’s effort to reach […]
  
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• Big beer merger leaves future uncertain for competitors

  12-11-2015 19:30
  
  LONDON — It’s no fun being in the middle. Heineken, Molson Coors and Carlsberg are storied brewers that trace their roots back hundreds of years and have loyal drinkers around the world. But the merger of their two biggest competitors leaves such mid-size competitors without a clear way forward. They find themselves squeezed between a […]
  
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• Truck driver charged with kidnapping

  12-11-2015 19:27
  
  MORIARTY — A California truck driver is accused of kidnapping a former girlfriend in California and holding her in his truck as he drove through Arizona and New Mexico. It was in Moriarty where the woman was able to tell a TA Travel Center employee that she was being held against her will. On the […]
  
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• Video captures skier’s 1,600-foot fall down Alaska mountain

  12-11-2015 19:17
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A professional skier who walked away after falling 1,600 feet down an Alaska mountain says the experience was “gnarly.” Video of Canadian skier Ian McIntosh cartwheeling down a near vertical mountain has gone viral this week. The fall happened last April in the Neacola Mountains, about 125 miles southwest of Anchorage. McIntosh […]
  
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• EU free travel zone in danger as nations fence out migrants

  12-11-2015 19:16
  
  VALLETTA, Malta — European leaders scrambled Thursday to keep their passport-free travel zone from collapsing, after Germany, Sweden and Slovenia acted on their own to tighten borders or erect fences to slow the relentless influx of people marching into Europe. A two-day summit held on the Mediterranean island of Malta was meant to focus on […]
  
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• Justices’ decision imminent on whether to hear abortion case

  12-11-2015 19:10
  
  WASHINGTON — Conflicting rulings about whether women should have to cross state lines to obtain an abortion could prompt the Supreme Court to take up its first case on the hot-button social issue since 2007. The justices could say as soon as Friday whether they will hear cases from Texas and Mississippi that examine how […]
  
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• Olympic boycott ruled out, Russians to admit some wrongdoing

  12-11-2015 19:09
  
  MOSCOW — With an Olympic boycott ruled out, Russia is planning to at least partially admit it has a doping problem. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told The Associated Press on Thursday that there will “not in any case” be a boycott of next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. A short time later in […]
  
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• Santa Fe Archbishop: ‘Spotlight’ to bring up ‘horrific’ past

  12-11-2015 18:59 via krqe.com
  
  SANTA FE (AP) – Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester says the upcoming release a movie detailing the Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation into the church’s cover-up of clergy abuse may bring up “horrific memories” for New Mexico victims.
  In a recent letter to Archdiocese of Santa Fe priests and parishioners, Wester says the movie “Spotlight” is a chance for the faithful to pray for abuse victims.
  New Mexico was at the center of similar scandals years before the
  
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• Hospitals see lower costs since insurance expansion

  12-11-2015 18:56 via krqe.com
  
  SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – Hospitals in New Mexico are reporting lower costs for providing care to patients without insurance since the state expanded Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s health care law.
  The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that a report by the Legislative Finance Committee shows more patients are covered with some type of private insurance or government-issued Medicaid coverage, lowering the cost of indigent care for hospitals across the state.
  The report shows that the
  
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• Albuquerque parents brawl at elementary school during lunch

  12-11-2015 18:35
  
  Albuquerque police are investigating a dispute between parents that came to blows at Zuni Elementary School. KOAT-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1Qy05WF ) that officers were called to school Friday after two mothers started throwing punches in a fourth-grade classroom. Investigators say one mother was attending a Thanksgiving luncheon with her daughter when she noticed a group of […]
  
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• From Australia to Zambia, slowing China economy causes pain

  12-11-2015 18:34
  
  China’s economic troubles have dropped on the doorstep of a sun-weathered house at 18 Edgar St. in Port Hedland on Australia’s northwest coast. Four years ago, the 50-year-old home, fabricated from cheap asbestos cement, sold for the equivalent of $1.3 million. It’s now for sale again — recently priced at $310,000. What happened to $1 […]
  
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• 2nd heavy transformer being moved on New Mexico highways

  12-11-2015 18:25
  
  SANTE FE — Travelers are being warned to expect delays on several northwestern New Mexico highways as trucks continue hauling extremely heavy loads of electrical transformers headed for Utah. One transformer weighing more than 1.7 million pounds completed its route through New Mexico on Oct. 30, setting the stage for movement of a second one. […]
  
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• Updated: Xbox One update plays up the ‘game’ part of console

  12-11-2015 18:17
  
  SEATTLE — Microsoft is giving the Xbox One a new look as the company tries to focus its video-game console on its main function: gaming. On Thursday, Microsoft will start rolling out the biggest software update for the device since its launch two years ago. Most people will notice the change as a visual face-lift […]
  
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• Updated: ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops III’ racks up big sales

  12-11-2015 18:13
  
  The biggest weekend blockbuster of the year was a video game. “Call of Duty: Black Ops III” reached $550 million in worldwide sales the first three days after its launch Friday, according to Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard Inc. That’s more than double Hollywood’s biggest weekend winner, “Jurassic World,” which scored $209 million when it opened […]
  
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• Tensions over whether Paris climate deal can be binding

  12-11-2015 17:55
  
  PARIS — France’s leadership is bristling at U.S. resistance to making a global climate accord under negotiation in Paris next month legally binding. French President Francois Hollande, whose country is hosting U.N. climate talks Nov. 30-Dec. 11, told reporters in Malta on Thursday that “if the deal is not legally binding, there is no accord.” […]
  
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• Obama awards Medal of Honor to Army captain

  12-11-2015 17:55
  
  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Thursday that a young Army captain who is the newest Medal of Honor recipient had the instincts and the courage to tackle a suicide bomber in Afghanistan during a moment of selfless bravery, saving the lives of many comrades. Four people were still killed, and Florent Groberg suffered a […]
  
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• Will more college athletes take on the establishment?

  12-11-2015 17:53 via krqe.com
  
  College athletes have more power than ever before, almost everyone can agree on that. What is up for debate is whether that will lead to overdue change, or whether it will throw programs into turmoil.
  Protests have been rare during the college athletes’ eight-decades and counting campaign for a bigger piece of the pie — and successful protests have been rarer still.
  But the winds of change buffeting the power structure of college sports are stronger than at any time since the mini-re
  
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• Two new VPs join First National

  12-11-2015 17:43
  
  First National Rio Grande, a division of First National Bank of Santa Fe, has named two new vice presidents to its retail banking and operations teams. James Kitzmiller has joined First National as vice president and senior retail operations officer, bringing 30 years of experience in retail banking operations and procedures.  In this role he […]
  
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• Waco benefits from creative energy of HGTV’s ‘Fixer Upper’ couple

  12-11-2015 17:22
  
  WACO, Texas — Chip and Joanna Gaines have put their stamp on Waco forever. This talented, driven couple and their cable TV show have harnessed the good life in this Central Texas college town and presented it to a national audience. They’re an economic boom that’s better than an oil gusher, rippling through the town […]
  
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• How and why Myanmar’s Suu Kyi plans to be ‘above president’

  12-11-2015 17:21
  
  YANGON, Myanmar — Coming from a politician who has spent her career fighting military rule, the statements seem rather authoritarian: “I’ll be above the president,” who “will be told exactly what he can do.” Though officially barred from the presidency, Aung San Suu Kyi says she will effectively lead Myanmar if her party wins elections […]
  
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• Iraqi Kurds reach Sinjar road, cutting IS supply line

  12-11-2015 17:20
  
  SINJAR, Iraq — Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, launched a major assault Thursday aiming to retake the strategic town of Sinjar, which the Islamic State group overran last year in an onslaught that caused the flight of tens of thousands of Yazidis and first prompted the United States to launch the air campaign […]
  
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• The Mortgage Professor: Homeownership is not for everyone

  12-11-2015 17:19
  
  Some people are not cut out for homeownership. I call them NOHOs. What distinguishes them is not their income, their family structure, their mobility, or where they live — rather, it is how they live. Homeowners live with at least one foot in the future, and have learned how to delay some gratifications for future […]
  
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• Real estate Q&A: Tenant should negotiate rent increase

  12-11-2015 17:19
  
  Q: We have been renting a single-family home for two years. Last year, the $2,600-a-month rent increased to $2,691. This year we received a letter stating that the rent now will jump to $2,880 a month — an 11 percent hike in two years. We take care of the place and pay on time. Do […]
  
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