The Blue Spruce Lounge was an Albuquerque landmark, its name synonymous with fun.

If that description doesn’t arouse your sense of nostalgia, then may I suggest: The Blue Spruce Lounge was an Albuquerque cesspool, its name synonymous with pedestrian fatalities.

The latter description is probably more on point. According to City Councilor Martin Heinrich, the area immediately surrounding the notorious watering hole once held the dubious honor of having one of the highest pedestrian fatality rates in the nation.

“[The Blue Spruce] was one of the reasons that led to this,” he says. “That was happening way too regularly.”

Mayor Martin Chavez has proposed a plan to build a new park Downtown between Third and Fourth Street and Roma and Marquette on a site that is currently used as a parking lot.

The changes came suddenly. White notices atop the familiar one-hour parking signs gave Downtown parkers and patrons insight into what was to come. Letters were passed out to local businesses alerting them of the change: No more free parking Downtown along Central.

It's a significant figure: 1,410. That's how many dispenser liquor licenses there are in New Mexico. None have been added since 1981.

There stood John Dendahl, in front of television cameras, making his martyrdom video before he blows himself up.

Dateline: The Philippines--Six police officers may lose their jobs for pawning their pistols in the cash-strapped southern Philippines. German Doria, police chief of the central region of Mindano Island, said Wednesday the incidents of government-issue guns being pawned came to light after the National Bureau of Investigation raided shops selling stolen goods in the town of Tupi. Six police handguns were recovered in the raid. “How can police officers carry out their missions if they don’t have guns?” asked Doria. Severely underfunded and poorly paid Philippine security forces have been battling Muslim and communist insurgents for nearly 40 years. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has promised to release 30 percent of a proposed 1 billion peso ($18.7 million) budget increase this month to help defeat Maoist-led rebels.

[RE: Letters, “Round ’em Up,” et al.]

I'm getting tired of all these letters from friends of the cattle industry criticizing Forest Guardians.

I have seen the part of the Santa Fe River which Forest Guardians has replanted with native cottonwoods and willows and fenced off from cattle. Allowed to grow without heavy hoofing and grazing, the Bosque there is thriving as it once did when only buffalo and pronghorn roamed in widely spaced herds. On the other side of the fence, the banks of the river are barely alive. Forest Guardians knows the science of ecology and is a nonprofit. The cattle industry is in it for the money and is subsidized by the feds with cheap grazing fees. Drought and global warming make it even harder on the cows and the land.

Thankfully, there are watchdogs like Forest Guardians.