Ten Socorro city and county realtors have signed a petition in opposition to the drop zone proposed west of Socorro by EMRTC. The petition opposing the drop zone cites concerns about decreases in property values and the subsequent losses of property tax revenues by the county as the primary objection of the realtors. Full text posted.

At the recent Socorro City Council meeting on January 28th, Dr. Greg Miller of the local Socorro citizens group "The Drop Zone Group" presented a critique of EMRTC's proposed drop zone and the Environmental Assessment (EA) document that was funded by New Mexico Tech. The EA purported to find "no significant impact" on either the public or the environment, but Miller challenges that assertion.

The City Council meeting was standing room only for a discussion of the proposed EMRTC drop zone near Socorro, New Mexico. Some citizens were forced to stand in the outside hallway, because they were unable to get inside the council chambers due to the crowd size. New Mexico Tech's Van Romero presented the official EMRTC position, while Dr. Greg Miller from the Drop Zone Group (a group of concerned Socorro citizens) rebutted Romero's presentation with an opposing viewpoint.

New Mexico Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC) is hoping to have military aircraft performing air to ground gunnery in the Socorro vicinity in the future. Socorro News discovered this information when reading the recently released environmental impact statement for EMRTC's planned "drop zone" near Socorro. The proposed drop zone would allow U.S. Air Force planes and other "clients" to perform training on EMRTC property, initially involving the dropping of personnel and cargo for training purposes.

An old expression asserts that sometimes the only way to get the attention of even the most beloved family mule is to whack him up alongside the head with a board. I’m extending the adage to the mule’s sire, the donkey, and adding a dose of tough love to arrive at a message for that political party we Greens usually consider the lesser of two evils.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) wants to increase testing at White Sands Missile Range using chemical and biological "simulants" - agents which simulate the properties of more hazardous agents that might be involved in a WMD (chemical or biological) attack against the US. The DTRA has been on a whirlwind tour in support of its Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) which claims that the testing the agency proposes would have a negligible environmental impact.

A controversy has erupted over an article attributed to Congressman Steve Pearce, of New Mexico's district 2, which ran recently in Socorro's local paper, El Defensor Chieftain. The article also seems to have appeared in Socorro's other local paper, the Mountain Mail. Ironically entitled "Straight Talk", the article was found to be an almost word for word rip-off of a piece published on the web site of the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing "think tank" which espouses many anti-environmental and pro-business positions.

As part of our coverage of the plagiarism scandal involving Congressman Steve Pearce (Republican District 2), we provide links to citizens' comments on this issue. These are letters to the editor regarding Congressman Steve Pearce's plagiarism which appeared in El Defensor Chieftain around the time of the scandal.

Note: these are links to El Defensor Chieftain's editorial pages. In many cases, you will have to scroll through other (unrelated) letters to find the ones related to the plagiarism incident.

New Mexico's Representative for District 2, Congressman Steve Pearce, recently voted in favor of the controversial House energy bill. Critics of the bill argue that it puts too much emphasis on the production of fossil fuels and not enough emphasis on conservation and renewable energy, while proponents of the bill argue that the US should develop all available resources to offset the high price of gasoline. Correspondent S.L. Harrington caught up with Congressman Pearce recently for a phone interview, where they discussed energy policy.

New Mexico's Representative for District 2, Republican Congressman Steve Pearce, recently initiated a state-wide "listening tour" to gauge interest in his chosen stance in favor of President Bush's controversial initiative to privatize Social Security. Critics of the privatization argue that it is a dangerous proposal which will leave many citizens without a safety net when they retire, while proponents of the privatization idea suggest it is a way to alleviate fiscal problems looming on the horizon for the program. Correspondent S.L.