Tina Larkin

Albuquerque business the largest exporter of Mexican jumping beans in the world

Joseph Hindi was originally in the cloth bag-making business, but it wasn't going very well. "Some nuns in Texas were blowing us out of the water," he laughs. The nuns were able to make shopping bags a lot cheaper. So Hindi thought he needed a gimmick, something to help move his products. Someone suggested he throw in a few Mexican jumping beans.

Who made the corruption list? Who's in the hot seat if Councilor Harris loses? Who's going pro se? Does the state make any money from the movies it finances?

Free the News!

Last Wednesday was a historic day for the World Wide Web. It saw the keystone of pay-to-view Internet news pulled from its snug position on top, leaving the other bricks in the arch ready to tumble at any moment.

Mayor Martin Chavez decreed all outdoor city property off limits to smoking earlier this summer. At the Sept. 17 meeting, Councilor Ken Sanchez moved a bill that would allow smoking in certain outdoor areas of Isotopes Stadium, but it failed 3-4, Councilors Michael Cadigan, Sally Mayer, Isaac Benton and Martin Heinrich opposed. Councilor Brad Winter's bill giving a 5 percent to 10 percent break to small, local businesses on some city job bids passed 8-1, Mayer opposed.

City Hall tackles police misconduct against peace protesters

The eyewitness and news accounts of police misconduct against peace demonstrators on Sept. 15 triggered vivid flashbacks of police misconduct during the early stages of the Iraq War. My first drafts of this column began “Here we go again.”

The New Mexico Department of Health (DOH) is trying to keep its cool after a refrigerator malfunction in July that compromised $4.3 million worth of children’s vaccines. The DOH is still uncertain as to what caused the malfunction as well as precisely how and why the loss occurred. The malfunctioning refrigerator remains in use in the Immunization Department’s Santa Fe pharmacy, where the state’s vaccine supply is stored.

Eric J. Garcia

DATELINE: NEW JERSEY—A car crash may have saved the life of Vineland resident Bryan Rocco. “I was on my way back to the office and stopped at Burger King and bought a chicken sandwich and onion rings,” the 43-year-old foreman for DJ’s Painting told the Daily Journal. “I started to choke on one of the onion rings and then I guess I just blacked out.” Rocco’s company-owned Scion swerved across the road, hit a curb and then struck a tree. “Next thing I knew, when I came back to,” said Rocco. “I was on my side, facing the opposite direction.” Police speculate the vehicle’s air bag struck Rocco in the chest, dislodging the bite of onion ring stuck in his throat. Aside from a cut on his head, a few bumps and bruises and a swollen chin, Rocco was fine.

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