ksl.com – Utah’s Online Source for Local News & Information
Keith McCord Reporting

The town of

Bluff, Utah is considering a rather interesting proposal: would it be willing to change its name?

For those who don’t know where

Bluff is, it’s in the four-corners area. From Moab drive south on Highway 191, go thru Monticello, then thru Blanding, then you come to

Bluff.

Bluff, Utah, population 280, give or take a few, located on the San Juan River in southeastern Utah. The folks here have

received an unusual proposition from the online website [removed].

Seeing a marketing opportunity in the poker term “bluff”, the

website has offered the town $100,000 if it will change its name to [removed], Utah.

The News-Bulletin: Commuter van halts rides to

Albuquerque by Jane Moorman News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jmoorman@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas Commuters using the Village of

Los Lunas’ transportation van to travel to jobs or school in Albuquerque each day are having to scramble to find rides. …

The

commuter van had a limited route into Albuquerque with stops at the University of New Mexico and the hospitals.

Otero said there

was light use by area residents but there were several established riders who depended upon it. …

“We are working as hard as we

can to get the Rail Runner up and running,” said Chris Blewett, director of transportation and planning services for Mid-Region Council

of Governments, which is coordinating the commuter rail project.

Originally Gov. Bill Richardson set the start-up date as November

of this year, but now that date has been moved to late 2005 or early 2006.

Work on the rail platforms in Los Lunas and Belen has

not begun. Blewett said construction should begin in early October in Los Lunas for sure, but negotiation with the Burlington Northern

Santa Fe Railroad could delay the Belen construction.

Meanwhile, Otero said his department is canceling the commuter van in

preparation for developing additional routes within the Los Lunas area to take commuters to the rail station, which will be

located at Courthouse Road and the railroad tracks.
—–
RailRunner Home Page

Los Lunas Station

Google Maps – Courthouse Road and N.M. 314, Los Lunas, New Mexico

Some good news regarding the impact of

“Healthy Forests” in the East Mountains. mjh

ABQjournal: Thinning Cut Back In Cibola Forest
Journal Staff

Report

The Cibola National Forest has scaled back a planned project to reduce fire danger and improve forest health by

thinning thousands of acres west of Tajique in the mountains southeast of Albuquerque.

The changes will be the topic of a

meeting at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Torreon Community Center.

A proposal to build 28 miles of new roads was eliminated, and the

project will be reduced from 17,000 to about 13,500 acres, said Mountainair District Ranger Vicky Estrada.

“We’re going to

use existing roads only,” she said. “That’s a big change.”

The change was made partly in response to concerns raised by the

environmental group Forest Guardians of Santa Fe and by some local residents.

In addition, the Forest Service now has more

information about its road network and has determined it can get farther into the forest from existing roads, Estrada said.

“No new roads is definitely an improvement but as far as we’re concerned I think that’s only half the battle,” said John Horning,

executive director of Forest Guardians.

“We still believe the real focus of all these projects should be a quarter mile at

most around people’s homes and fireproofing people’s homes, not fireproofing the forest because we can’t fireproof the forest.”

—–

ABQjournal: Bandelier Burn Set For This Fall By

Russell Max Simon, Journal Staff Writer

The first prescribed burn in Bandelier National Monument since the devastating Cerro

Grande Fire in 2000 will be performed late this fall, Bandelier officials announced Wednesday. …

Bandelier staff members pointed

to vastly improved inter-agency cooperation and communication as among the biggest changes since the Cerro Grande Fire. The Inter-Agency

Fire Center, where National Park Service and Forest Service employees, among others, train together, is one example Koontz mentioned.

“There’s a lot more communication and collaboration on all levels,” Koontz said.

The burn will

take place along N.M. 4 near the head of Frijoles Canyon. Staff members will wait for an appropriate weather window sometime from mid-

October through December in which to perform the burn.

I really want to have faith in this process, but

Katrina is on my mind. mjh

In the dream, I was moving about

a 4-story house. People were on each floor. I was looking for pen & paper to write down a poem.

As I moved up the stairs, the

situation seemed to become more frantic. Now I had 2 — 3 — no, 4! — poems in mind. And no pants.

At the highest level, mind

whirling, I passed a man, played by William Shatner, who called out a lament. His wife sobbed, “why are you doing this to yourself?” His

son grabbed me and said, “this isn’t at all like you said it would be.”

Make the people disappear and give me a pen! Just then

the alarm sounded.

What follows is the only remotely poetic fragment to survive the chaos. I offer it as evidence of how much

better dreams are than reality. Still, it has some humor and a complex touch; somehow, it involves 5 people in 5 lines.

When I met

my brother’s
ex-girlfriend’s husband,
I said,
“oh, brother,
are you lucky.” mjh

The Raw Story |

National Rifle Association slams New Orleans for confiscating guns

The National Rifle Association slammed New Orleans

authorities Monday for seizing firearms in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, saying that citizens must be able to “protect themselves”

during a time where there is “breadown of law and order,” RAW STORY has learned.

The release was issued on their website Monday.

“What we’ve seen in Louisiana – the breakdown of law and order in the aftermath of disaster – is exactly the kind of situation

where the second amendment was intended to allow citizens to protect themselves,” NRA chief Wayne LaPierre said in a statement.

“When law enforcement isn’t available, Americans turn to the one right that protects all the others – the right to

keep and bear arms,” LaPierre added. “This attempt to repeal the Second Amendment should be condemned.”

A Louisiana state

statute allows the chief law enforcement officer to “regulate possession” of firearms during declared emergencies, the NRA notes.

But, quipped the NRA’s chief lobbyist, Chris Cox, “regulate doesn’t mean confiscate.”

“The NRA will not stand idly

by while guns are confiscated from law-abiding people who’re trying to defend themselves,” he said.

“Local

authorities in New Orleans are turning nature’s assault on human life into man’s assault on human rights,” LaPierre added. “Four million

NRA members intend to stop this unconstitutional power grab.”

I wondered days ago what the NRA thought

about this. Why did it take them so long to react?

“The one right that protects all the others”? These guys really believe that,

don’t you know. So, instead of standing idly by, what are they going to do — shoot someone? No, they’re going to use the Media and the

Courts — the real tools for defending freedom, not your gun. mjh

mjh’s blog — What Does the NRA Think? (Friday 9/9/05)