Answer Me This

\ Aug 16, 2007

3 min read

The news just keeps on coming. Some days you pay attention. Some days you don’t. Look here in every Alibi to refresh your memory about what’s going on in your community. Don’t worry if you don’t know all the answers—there’s a cheat sheet at the end.

1) Who did Santa Fe police call after discovering a 100-pound cougar had broken into a Plaza jewelry store at about 1 a.m. Saturday morning?

a. Zoologists from the Rio Grande Zoo

b. The Albuquerque Police Department

c. The Department of Game and Fish

d. Mayor Martin Chavez, who tried to heal his relationship with the cougar by offering it lunch.

2) Sixteen-hundred members of New Mexico’s National Guard will be in Iraq by 2010. This makes up what percentage of the state’s Guard?

a. 25 percent

b. 50 percent

c. 15 percent

d. 75 percent

3) The state Attorney General‘s office issued an opinion on the Department of Health’s new medical marijuana program. It said:

a. Department of Health employees could face federal prosecution for implementing the new law.

b. Patients and employees alike are protected because of the way cases have played out in other parts of the country.

c. Law enforcement should begin actively seeking patients using medical marijuana and turning them over to the feds.

d. Marijuana can be prescribed, but the state shouldn’t concern itself with distribution.

4) The city of Albuquerque owes how many employees in back pay after miscalculating overtime for those covered by union contracts?

a. About 200

b. 50 or so

c. 500

d. Almost 800

Answer Me This

Answers

1) C. A valiant officer of the Department of Game and Fish, John Zamora, found the jewel thief/mountain lion in a bathroom stall. He crawled in on his belly and shot a tranquilizer dart under the stall. The cougar was released into the Chama area.

2) B. 50 percent. Guard Adjutant Gen. Kenny Montoya and Bill Richardson agreed in the past that only 25 percent of the Guard should go overseas. The rest would have remained here to deal with natural disasters. The Department of the Army planned otherwise.

3) A. The state AG issued a warning: Department of Health employees could face federal prosecution—and the Attorney General’s office wouldn’t help. It can’t defend state workers in criminal cases.

4) D. About 780 workers are owed backpay, and although damages haven’t been calculated, it will cost the city millions. U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera ruled the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. Employees could receive between $2,000 and $25,000.