Sergio Salvador salvadorphoto.com

The affordable housing crisis in New Mexico

Michelle knew she was close to the edge, but she didn’t realize how close until her fiancé found himself out of work. He had been employed as an electrician on a construction site. When the project finished, he didn’t have another gig lined up. He searched, but two years ago during the height of recession phobia, no one was hiring. Suddenly Michelle’s waitressing income was the only thing supporting the two of them and her five girls, ages 4 months to 14 years old. A few months later, after falling behind on rent, they were evicted.

This state’s in the hole to the tune of about $450 million. That’s bad.

About 9,000 percent of our budget goes toward a school system that churns out meth-caked, texting-and-driving baby factories who can’t read. That’s bad, too.

Furthermore, our intrepid guv-elect has promised to balance the budget without cutting education or raising taxes. That leaves only one solution: We need our sorry little schools to start making money for us.

Dateline: India—A village council in the northern district of Muzaffarnagar has ordered all unmarried girls to stop carrying or using cell phones. It is believed this move will prevent local girls from running away with their boyfriends and getting married. Spokesperson Rajender Malick told the Indian media that the village council in Lank “imposed a ban on the usage of mobile phones by unmarried girls to prevent them from eloping with young boys against the wishes of their parents.” The Lank village council decided unmarried boys could use mobile phones, but only under parental supervision. According to police, 34 couples in the Muzaffarnagar district eloped last month. Among those who eloped, eight were reported beheaded by their families in “honor” killings. In some cases, it is the village councils themselves who have ordered the punishments. The local women’s rights group Disha said banning cell phones for unmarried females demonstrated the council’s archaic mindset, and warned it could put girls at a disadvantage. “These help in easy communication, which in turn help these youth to get jobs. One cannot discriminate use of these contraptions on basis of sex,” Disha president K.N. Tiwari told reporters.

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