What's going on, Albuquerque?

Morning Fix: El "No Show" Sputters--but a Hiker Doubles Back

    •   El Niño craps out. John Fleck bemoans a sputtering winter forecast.

   •    Three APS bureaucrats, already making over $100K per year, get big raises for working harder. Teachers say, "I beg your pardon?"

   •   Busy crook who usually only robbed unhealthy eateries, gets nabbed holding up a Subway.

   •   Who knows what the Lovelace Insurance and ABQ Health Partners fight is all about. But the Open Enrollment period starts soon and my wife, a Lovelace customer, is heading for the door.

   •   ABQ Ride officials take junket to the good-times mecca of Cleveland looking for ideas about increasing bus ridership.

   •   Channel 4 turns its Eyewitness News spotlight on a poor mutt caught chewing on a car bumper.

   •   Cross-country walker Mike Weber doubles back to Albuquerque to be with family of sick baby.

1 member likes this

Comment by Kenny on October 19, 2012 at 7:06am: Re: Lovelace vs ABQ Health Partners

My wife has already changed Docs. The new Lovelace prices from her employer are published and the employee share dropped to half of last year. Can't ignore that. Meanwhile, an article in the Albuquerque Journal this morning says Lovelace has just purchased Southwest Medical Associates. Finally, that same article reports that Lovelace used to own ABQ Health but spun them off! Talk about the apple rolling down the hill after falling from the tree...

Comment by Adelita on October 19, 2012 at 7:30am: From the NOBigBoxWalMart on Coors and Montano Facebook page:

WE WON! After 11 hours of testimony the EPC voted 5-2 against approving a Walmart at Coors and Montano around 1 a.m. early this morning. Bravo to everyone, especially the Taylor Ranch Neighborhood Assoc. and the core group of neighbors who have been meeting for more than a year and who testified so eleoquently last night

Comment by abqmom on October 19, 2012 at 7:43am: thank you for posting that Adelita!!!!

Comment by RunLikeADog on October 19, 2012 at 8:12am: Thank you to all those that showed support and opposed the Walmart. The last thing this town needs is another freakin' Walmart.

Comment by Johnny_Mango on October 19, 2012 at 8:29am: Here's a link to the article that Kenny mentions. It does buy a little more time, but the future remains uncertain...and may mean finding a new doctor.

Comment by Stephanie James on October 19, 2012 at 8:32am: I'm never exactly sure why teachers here (or anywhere else) complain about "low pay." The lowest salary I can find on the teacher salary list is 30K, and I'm sure the average is higher. While I don't necessarily agree that admins deserve a raise, I don't necessarily think teachers do either.

Comment by Adelita on October 19, 2012 at 9:02am: Stephanie, spend an entire day in a classroom with 30 kids, then deal with their parents, then deal with APS administration. After that, then you can make a judgement call. I work as an administrative assisant at a school, I have a bachelor's degree and I don't make as much as teachers. Spend a day in my shoes as well. I'm tired of people slamming teachers and those of us "lowly" admins. We work hard and we do good work.

Comment by Hunter on October 19, 2012 at 9:06am: I'm still trying to understand how two people whose jobs justified $100,000+ salaries had such apparently light workloads that their responsibilities could be easily absorbed among three others. According to my math the three would now each have 1 2/3 jobs or 67 hours a week. Of course, we know from the Stapleton chronicles that highly paid APS administrators can disappear from their desks for weeks at a time without being missed or their job performance suffering.

Comment by once banned twice shy on October 19, 2012 at 9:30am: Not surprised in the least that El Nino crapped out or that this is the first time the climatologists have seen such a decrease in El Nino--this is what climate change is all about, people. It absolutely boggles the mind that nothing is being done to combat climate change when it is obvious to even the most dedicated Fox News channel viewer what is going on.

And, for Stephanie James: you think $30K is a great salary? Really? Then get yourself a teaching certificate and get rich, rich, RICH?

Comment by Granjero on October 19, 2012 at 9:56am: OBTS - Not for nothing, but I would kill for a 30,000 dollar job right now... its all about perspective.