Lorrie Latham

Mobile home park residents rally for affordable housing in the Northeast Heights.

After three months, dozens of letters and hundreds of phone calls, Amy Whitling, along with 10 other Del Rey Manufactured Home Community residents, has saved her neighborhood.

Gag. Last week marked the first presidential press conference in more than a month. It was the day after Memorial Day and it was also Bush's first press conference since news of "the Downing Street memo" broke on May 5 in the London Observer.

But don't tell that to Bush and the supporters of his war

Uncle Sam needs you. He really does. After two years of seemingly endless and pointless blood and death in Iraq, Army recruiting, Reserve enlistment and ROTC enrollment are all down—way down.

Photo courtesy Rio Rancho Observer

An interview with former Sandoval County Clerk Victoria Dunlap

On Feb 20, 2004, Sandoval County Clerk Victoria Dunlap became a local legend of sorts, kind of like Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett rolled into one. She was the public official who was acting, in some people's minds, like an outlaw, going against conventional attitudes in an effort to—here's where it gets tricky— uphold the law. On that day, Dunlap issued marriage licenses, 64 in all, to gay and lesbian couples, because, she said, there was no law forbidding her from doing so. The move added fuel to an election year firestorm that was brewing in Washington, D.C., and three days later, President George W. Bush announced: "A county in New Mexico has also issued marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender. And unless action is taken, we can expect more arbitrary court decisions, more litigation, more defiance of the law by local officials, all of which adds to uncertainty."

Bitter lessons spark city politics

Both the City Council and Mayor Martin Chavez learned bitter lessons last week. Which lesson turns out to be the more painful of the two won't be known for sure until the October elections are completed.

Dateline: Germany—A 27-year-old man was mugged three times in one night--two of those while waiting for police to arrive. Reiner Hamer, from Oberhausen, lost his wallet containing $200 and his cell phone when three men attacked him in the bathroom of a local nightclub. Hamer called police from outside the club using a friend's mobile phone. While he waited for officers to arrive, he was approached by three other men who stole his watch and cigarettes. As he leaned back against a wall to recover, another five men came up to him and threatened him, eventually making off with his jacket and the last of his spare change.

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