More on the winds that knocked out PNM power lines, causing thousands of blackouts.

Jobless rate falls to 8.6 percent; best since 2009.

More than 100 people in Ohio responded to a Craigslist ad asking them to "watch over a 688 acre patch of hilly farmland and feed a few cows." Some of them are buried in shallow graves.

Winds tear off part of a roof at Valencia high school. School's out for ... Friday.

Romney's case for GOP front runner.

This is a perfectly acceptable gallery of Santa photos for your children. If your name is Rob Zombie.

Weather closes I-40 in eastern New Mexico.

Grammy—"I'ma Let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time!"—nominations released.

Guy wearing Gorilla suit dumps sand all over a Little Caesars. Kids these days.

Unidentified flying object crashes through Massachusetts warehouse.

Britney's 30, bitch.

Hallucinogens: coming to a Walgreens near you?

"The black Bernie Madoff."

Pakistani text crackdown censors the term "monkey crotch."

Flickr: fun3MD

 

Residents along the North Valley's Fourth Street corridor aren't in the dark any more. But Albuquerque customers are still without power at about 50 other outage sites.
From a PNM news blast:

Crews are working to restore power to those customers. The other outages affect less than 300 people, mostly single homes at this point. An additional 100 +/- customers are affected by 9 outages in the Valencia area.

The utility says extra workers are responding to the outages, and that they'll work through the night if necessary. PNM says that it could take "several hours" for some customers to get their power back.

Earlier this evening, PNM says about 5,300 customers, the largest group affected in the city, lost power because of an equipment failure at their Montano substation. The failure was caused by strong winds.

PNM advises people to avoid downed power lines.

Call (888) DIAL-PNM (888-342-5766) and say "Outage" to report an outage or downed line. To stay current on outage updates, follow "PNMtalk" on Twitter or find them on Facebook. There's also an outage map with estimated restoration times at PNM.com/outage.

Occupy Santa Fe is no longer divided nor are they being shut down.

PNM is closing the last eight of its pay centers....

November 18th was the 33rd anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre. Sex, Corruption and the Kool Aid Massacre by Paul Krassner.

I hope they make the Jonestown site a tourist destination.

One and only timecube knows everything.

Is the world running out of coffee?

Dali does Alice in Wonderland.

Ten Coca-Cola products you've never heard of.

Hear every Beatles song at the same time, including Paul songs unfortunately.

The secret $850k plan by lobbyists to undermine the Occupy movement.

Gallery of cow, er I mean Fukishima photos.

$300.00 Beats headphones by Dr. Dre.

On this day in 1947, Joe Walsh was born.

The Bob Costas/Jerry Sandusky interview was one of the creepiest things I’ve ever heard. Sandusky says he showered with boys, but claims he is not a pedophile.

When Disneyland is old-hat; a Singapore family drops $1 million to take the Virgin Galactic space flight.

More than 80,000 people have signed a petition for Target to close its doors on Thanksgiving.

This woman bit her boyfriend’s arm and tore off his shirt after she discovered McDonald’s had switched over to breakfast.

Vodka-soaked tampons are all the rage. And yes, they still go exactly where you’d expect them to.

Mongolia’s capitol Ulan Bator bids on an ice shield experiment, designed to store winter temperatures in a giant brick of ice.

An Albuquerque toddler is going to live after her father cut her throat.

PNM is shutting down all of its payment centers next month.

This South Carolina teacher was accused of making students rub her feet.

The visual imagery of a naked runner colliding with barbed wire is too much to bear.

Take a look at FastRunner, a robot ostrich that’s quickly going viral.

Thanks to Constance Moss and Emily Anderson for some of today’s fun-filled links.

• Ostrich legs my ass (Madmammajamma) [ Tue Nov 15 2011 12:54 PM ]
  
• Your punctuation is KILLING ME. (GardenGnome) [ Tue Nov 15 2011 3:40 PM ]
  

NPR reported earlier today that the fire in Arizona is nearing a power grid that could cause rolling blackouts for hundreds of thousands of people in New Mexico and Texas. The article said officials thought the fire could reach the grid tomorrow.

Now NPR is reporting that the grid is no longer in danger.

Either way, PNM spokesperson Kevin Fuller said in an interview this afternoon that the electric company has it under control. "With the situation as it is, we are confident, given the information we have right now and the tools we have at hand." Electricity will stay on for PNM customers, he says. The Afton and Lordsburg generating stations in southern New Mexico will be able to fill the gap, should the Arizona fire reach the grid.

If the fire were to move North and East, "that would force us to change our plan a little bit," he speculates. PNM does get electricity from the Farmington area, as well as a plant in Palo Verde.

Fuller says PNM has been in contact with other utilities in the state because if anything happens, PNM should be able to share its excess load. "They would do the same for us if we needed it."

State Supreme Court tells Gov. Martinez to quit blocking eco rules. (Read about the regulation halting here.)

PNM wants to raise prices 25 percent. Its executives make millions.

3-year-old dies in Albuquerque. Police say he was beaten by his mom and her boyfriend. The boy's father says he tried to get custody for months.

Body found in a freezer in a Carlsbad-area home.

Hundreds of YouTube viewers want to ask the president about marijuana.

TV star from Albuquerque talks about being gay.

Would-be victim helps would-be mugger.

Sexy times at the FBI.

The Army lost a little bit of nerve agent in Salt Lake City, forcing the lockdown of a military weapons testing ground.

Bush and co. violated election law, report says.

O author revealed.

The Packer from Pittsburgh.

Facebook founder's Facebook page hacked.

The diversion memo that tricked Hitler.

Women are better with money than men, says WSJ article.