City, county and state officials held a news conference last week to announce the development of a multi-agency Regional Traffic Management Center to help manage traffic congestion resulting from accidents, construction or inclement weather.Officials hope the RTMC—which will consolidate four command centers operated by different agencies around the city—will make communications between law enforcement and transportation agencies simpler and streamline emergency response time. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office traffic and DWI units will be located in the RTMC building, as well as the county’s Traffic Operations Group. The city plans to convert the US Armed Forces Reserve Center on Wyoming to house the RTMC by 2019. The project will reportedly open for bids later this summer with construction possibly beginning in fall of 2019.Mayor Tim Keller also announced a new orange barrel policy at the conference which will require construction firms to only put up barricades an hour before construction and remove them immediately after. Barricades will also be required to move during rush hour for projects lasting more than one day.
Newscity: Radioactive Contamination Found
In developing news, sources close to the US government informed the media on late Monday about the latest possible radioactive contamination of a worker at a weapons development facility.The Associated Press and Santa Fe New Mexican report that a non-government, but DOE authorized safety panel found that radioactive contamination on worker body parts, as well as at select locations throughout the facility, had been detected.In May a troubling incident at the labs occurred when contamination resulting in the mass decontamination of a work crew tasked with pipe-building at the New Mexico facility was reported.Further, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety board found that another work crew at the nuclear lab wrongly and dangerously moved highly poisonous plutonium salts from one location to another.In this year alone, there have already been six such incidents noted by the board, but lab spokespeople maintain that no health hazard to workers or the public has developed.
Newscity: Secretary Of State Candidate Drops Out Of Race
Republican nominee for Secretary of State JoHanna Cox announced last week that she was withdrawing from the race. In a statement, Cox said she was ending her campaign because her family requires her full attention at the moment. She also said she would fully support whatever candidate takes her place as GOP nominee.According to NM Political Report, Cox’s campaign was suffering from funding problems—she reportedly only had $1,300 cash on hand in the final pre-primary campaign finance reports. Earlier this month, the Albuquerque Journal reported that Cox, formerly a prosecutor and currently working as civil lawyer, was sued for legal malpractice three times in the past six years. The most recent lawsuit, filed in May, the New Mexico Coalition of Public Safety Officers accuses Cox of committing fraud and taking actions that went against her client’s best interest.The state’s Republicans will now have to find a replacement candidate to face Democratic incumbent Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Libertarian nominee Sandra Jeff.
