Summer is here and it's time to jump in the water. Free swim lessons for low-income kids!

Unlicensed pilot busted at Double Eagle for flying too high. Or something. I'm not sure how to make this joke actually. He had a plane full of pot, is what I'm trying to say.

Under Susana Martinez, the New Mexico Environment Department isn't so worried about New Mexico's environment. Here's one more example.

Another U.S. Army official whose job is to stop sexual assault has been charged with sexual assault.

The media doesn't think the Obama administration's assault on civil liberties is so minor when it's happening to them.

Maybe those Benghazi emails were doctored?

And finally, visit Newfoundland. Because of this goat riding on a horse.

The next battle in the New Mexico water wars has begun: Carlsbad issues a "priority call" to stop Roswell and Artesia from pumping groundwater.

Round about we go, arguing about a roundabout. Perhaps some circular logic is in order?

The AP style book agrees: People aren't illegal.

The ACLU wants to make sure the Albuquerque Police Oversight Commission actually listens to its constituents.

The mean old Germans took Justin Bieber's monkey away!

C'mon guys, we ran out of "tickle-me-Elmo" jokes months ago. This stuff is just depressing now.

Now, let Yogi Okie Dokie entertain and unsettle you.

 

A group of political illustrators is coming to talk about process today at Small Engine Gallery at 6 p.m. Read up on the collective’s pollination of the grassroots and then head down there this evening. The talk is free. For more on the event, go to bit.ly/BeeMind. For more on the nonprofit, all-volunteer, art organization, check out beehivecollective.org.

• small engine gallery
• art
• politics
• environment

BP's looking at a $4.5 billion fine and criminal charges against staff members.

The gap between rich and poor in New Mexico is the widest in the nation.

Pit bull terriers killed a Chihuahua and sent her owner to the hospital.

Debbie O'Malley might remain on the Council and take a seat on the County Commission.

Remember when 48 women training for the military said they'd been sexually assaulted or harassed by their instructors? The Air Force has a weird solution: Trainees must have a wingman all the time.

Nonstop flights from Albuquerque to New York.

FBI investigates death threats against the guy holding the coyote-killing contest in Los Lunas.

The poorest president in the world. "If you don't have many possessions, then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them."

Violence escalates in Gaza and Israel. Rockets kill 15 Palestinians and three Israelis.

Louisiana governor is the first Republican to denounce Mitt Romney's notion that he lost the election because President Obama gave gifts to minorities and youth.

5-Hour Energy shot-like drink blamed for 13 deaths.

Colorado Visitors Bureau plans NOT to capitalize on legal recreational marijuana.

Science looks at rappers' brains to find the basis of improvisation.

Pong is 40-years-old and no one has topped it, says this guy.

How to become as observant as Sherlock Holmes. (Also, "Sherlock," the BBC miniseries available on Netflix instawatch, is dope.)

People in Santa Teresa, N.M., were told to stay inside and seal windows and vents. Turns out, 200 people got sick, and an unknown hazardous material caused it. The industrial park reopened yesterday.

Gary Johnson's campaign splices him into the presidential debates.

Guy rode his bike through Hurricane Sandy.

Back East, people are lined up for miles to get gas.

Former Penn State president charged with perjury in Sandusky scandal.

Gene Hackman knew the dude he slapped in Santa Fe.

Dr. Kevorkian's paintings.

City councilors lodge an ethics complaint against a pro-minimum wage hike group.

Campaign finance reports filed today. So, how much did those legislative campaigns blow?

Noam Chomsky Gangnam Style

10 election oddities explained. By the British.

Is America ready for a female president?

Supersonic human free fall has been rescheduled for Sunday due to weather.

Navajo Nation will put drone tech to good use by using an unmanned aircraft to monitor crops.

Soprano to take a Virgin Galactic flight into space and siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.

A diamond planet bigger than Earth.

Anarchist Peter Rabbit.

13 obscure punctuation symbols you might like to use, such as the authority point and the snark mark.

Lots of people are going to be sassy Big Bird for Halloween.

Do you guys care about the veep throwdown? Guardian says it's crucial. And USA Today breaks it down. All the way down. "Joe just needs to be Joe," says the prez.

Advice from Miami stripper Skrawberry. (Warning: Kinda raw.)

America is not mostly Protestant anymore.

How to find truth on the Internet.

In today's so-obvious-maybe-it's-not-news news: NRA backs Heather Wilson.

Some pop stars to be naked on their album covers.

Gov. Martinez wants to evict the Mexican gray wolf pack.

And she's talking about driver's licenses some more.

An inmate work crew in Las Cruces saved a man’s life.

Someone won $1 million in New Mexico but might not know it yet.

A judge told Gov. Martinez she couldn’t publish the salaries of some state workers on the Sunshine Portal. So she put them on the New Mexico home page.

Megadeth singer blames President Obama for mass shootings. And if you can’t trust Dave Mustaine about politics ...

Brits are pissed that Ecuador granted Julian Assange asylum.

Can’t hang with the footage of mosquitos biting people in this story about West Nile being on the rise. Stupid nature’s vampires.

Gov. Jan Brewer signed an executive order to deny Arizonans benefits from the new federal Dream Act-esque immigration program.

This month in free speech.

The stoner Olympics.

Anti-Semitic jerk in Hungary finds out he’s Jewish.

These gorillas are all happy to see each other.

Where does all that aid money go? Haiti’s still without safe housing for most people.

How to shop for groceries when you hate shopping for groceries. (Step One: Realize that your problem is not really a problem. After all, you could be living in a tent in an earthquake-ravaged country.)

Coffee shop bans people from talking about annoying hipster stuff like denim, left-handedness and anything that happened before 2000.

Best gravel voices in movie/TV history.

Rhys Asplundh / CC BY-SA 2.0

 

Jerry Ortiz y Pino opines that Gov. Susana Martinez is on a neocon crusade of destruction. But the public can’t see it yet, he writes, because the media fawns over her so.

Most voters’ impressions of a governor are shaped by media coverage. On TV, we get split-second footage: She's cutting ribbons, smiling at children, waving to crowds, and looking perky at a rally or solemn at a memorial. ... The honeymoon ain't over yet, even after 18 months.

 

He’s all: Congress, I’ll see your “failure to fix a broken system” and raise you one “executive order that resembles the Dream Act.” Some op-ed writers are seeing the move as a challenge to the GOP.

This morning, President Obama announced a policy—effective today—that will protect people from deportation who came to the States as kids. The executive order applies to folks who are under 30, got here before they turned 16 and have lived in the country for more than five years. Immigrants also must have finished high school, and be in college or the military. A criminal record disqualifies you.

I wonder how the news will affect a student we wrote about in 2010, who was slated to graduate a couple weeks ago from a graduate program at UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning. She came to the U.S. when she was 7.

Or Ramon Eduardo Dorado Mendoza, who was stopped by Albuquerque airport police for speeding in 2010 when he was driving down I-25 near the Lead and Coal exit. He was escorted to the border, along with his father, and separated from his mom and sister. Mendoza had been in the country since he was 4. He had no criminal history.

Folks say Obama’s move was calculated to garner Hispanic votes around the country. Mitt Romney advocates “self-deportation,” which even Gov. Susana Martinez doesn’t like. Romney hasn’t yet responded to the president’s executive order.

The Obama administration has been criticized for holding the record for deportations, though, the president says, those numbers may be deceptive.

Obama is scheduled to speak about the announcement in the Rose Garden today. There’s a live feed here.

Courtesy of Red Rock Pictures

Larry J. King stands behind his house in Church Rock, N.M., and talks about the site where Hydro Resources, Inc. intends to mine.

Reporter Christie Chisholm spoke with Larry J. King, a Navajo man who’s fighting Hydro Resources, Inc. The company wants to mine an aquifer under Church Rock, N.M.

Rooting around in the aquifer for uranium will make the water in it undrinkable, says Rich Abitz, a geochemist, in the story. The EPA has agreed to look into the company’s permit.

King has also started a campaign on Change.org that asks people to sign a petition to prevent the mining.

“Being in the Southwest, and being where every drop of water is precious—and where water is sacred, too—we need to preserve the water not only for ourselves but for future generations,” says King. “Without water, there is nothing.”