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Great Streets" Plan Makes Stop at Duke City Planning Commission Today

from the NEW MEXICO NEWS CONNECTION - A statewide news service for New Mexico
Albuquerque - The Duke City's 'Great Streets' plan goes before the Environmental Planning Commission today. Manjeet Tangri, urban design planner for Albuquerque's planning department, says the plan will help make Albuquerque safer and create a unique sense of place.

A great state deserves great streets, and Albuquerque is hoping to lead the way in New Mexico. The city will hold a hearing today on its "Great Streets" plan to give the Duke City's roadways a unique sense of place with an emphasis on modes of transportation besides driving, like walking and biking. According to Tangri "People forget that even the people who drive, they have to walk, you have to walk from your car and to you car. Walking is the basic fundamental need of everyone. And yet our streets don't accommodate them."

Tangri added that the plan would help make walkways and sidewalks safer and more accessible, with improvements like more shade for the hot climate. She says the plan still needs approval from the city council, and if all goes well, Central Avenue in the Nob Hill neighborhood could become one of the first 'Great Street' prototypes in the state.

She says it's important that streets be designed to serve everyone from children to baby boomers - a diverse population that does more than just drive, "We walk, we take a bus, we bicycle, we drive - it's really important that our streets accommodate all the people."  The hearing is at 3:30 at Plaza del Sol in the basement hearing room of the Environmental Planning Commission.

A "GrandRally" for NM Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

from the NEW MEXICO NEWS CONNECTION - A statewide news service for New Mexico
Albuquerque - More than 41,000 kids are being raised by grandparents in New Mexico, according to the latest Census figures. A group of grandparents, including several from the Land of Enchantment, who have taken on the parenting role are in Washington, D.C. for the National GrandRally on May 7.

Retirement planning doesn't usually include raising children again, but it's a reality for thousands of New Mexico grandparents. More than 41 thousand kids in the state are being raised by grandparents, according to the latest Census, and 10 thousand more are being raised by other family members. A group of New Mexico grandparents are joining hundreds of others in Washington, D.C. tomorrow for the National GrandRally. Brigitte Castellano with the National Committee of Grandparents for Children's Rights says a second round of parenting is not an easy role to take on, "We need some recognition for the fine work that relatives do raising these children. Picture all of these children if we were not there, they would be in foster care."

Castellano says there are legal twists and turns, as well as money issues, for relatives raising children - and they're calling on states to make sure laws are in the best interests of the child. And Dr. David Rubin with Safe Place: Center for Child Protection and Health, says he's working on a study that will be released next month that shows that in most cases, the best place for kids displaced from their families is with relatives, "Major differences in terms of the risk of behavioral problems. Children in kinship care, a third of the children have behavioral problems, nearly half of the kids who are in foster care have behavioral problems three years later."  For more information visit www.grandrally.org  .

NM to lose hundreds of millions in Medicaid dollars

Medicaid regulations will weaken NM economy if Congress does not act.

ALBUQUERQUE-A new report from Families USA estimates that New Mexico will lose $183.2 million in federal Medicaid funding in just the first year if rules issued by the Bush Administration go into effect. The report, "Bad Medicine: The President's Medicaid Regulations Will Weaken New Mexico's Economy," concludes that the regulations would result in the loss of $364.7 million in related business activity, $134.6 million in lost wages, and 4,000 lost jobs in one year.

"The federal Medicaid money that is injected into the state's economy is spent on salaries, which are spent, in turn, on living expenses and other goods and services," said NM Voices for Children Research Director Gerry Bradley. "Given the slowdown in the national economy, these regulations were the absolute wrong thing to do," he added. The total cost will be $1.5 billion over five years. The report also concludes that those hardest hit are likely to be children and people with disabilities.

The U.S. House recently passed the Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008 on a 349-62 vote, which would place a moratorium on the regulations until March 2009. Of New Mexico's representatives, Udall and Wilson voted in favor of the bill, Pearce voted against. The Senate has not yet taken final action.

Families USA is a Washington, D.C.-based group advocating for quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Get the report here   http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/bad-medicine/new-mexico.pdf

'Water Speculation' Pushes Gila River on to 'Most Endangered' List

from the NEW MEXICO NEWS CONNECTION - A statewide news service for New Mexico

Datil, NM - A new report (from the group American Rivers) names the Gila River as one of the nation's 'Ten Most Endangered,' citing a massive water diversion project that has met local opposition. A new report finds the Gila River is being endangered by out-of-state speculators, but not the kind you might expect. A New York company hopes to pump billions of gallons of groundwater from the San Augustine Basin and pipe it to the Rio Grande to help the state meet its water compact obligations to Texas. A report from the group American Rivers finds the plan could impact the flows of the Gila River, which it lists as one of the country's 'Ten Most Endangered Rivers.' Bruce Frederick with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center calls it 'water speculation' that is contrary to the public welfare, saying "And that's not allowed under New Mexico water law, you can't speculate in water, you have to put water to beneficial use within a reasonable amount of time."

The company, Augustin Plains Ranch LLC, says the plan could create a new source of water for cities along the Rio Grande - but several opponents say it amounts to a water grab that could pit bigger cities against rural areas.  Andrew Fahlund with American Rivers says the state should look to conservation measures to meet its obligations and make it a priority to protect the Gila, "The Gila in its natural state is one of the great rivers in the nation, and in fact is the place where we founded the Wilderness Act in this country and it would be a tragedy to move forward with this project." The report is online at americanrivers.org .

US Hits Record Low Federal Spending on Kids

Programs serving children only receiving one penny of every federal dollar spent

ALBUQUERQUE, NM - Over the past five years only one penny of every new, real non-defense dollar spent by the federal government has gone to children, a new publication revealed today. The report, "Children's Budget 2008," was released by First Focus, a bipartisan children's advocacy organization.

The report looks at the more than 180 federally funded programs that are aimed at enhancing the well-being of our nation's children, and how those programs' appropriations levels have changed over the past five years. After adjusting for inflation, "Children's Budget 2008" finds that just 1 percent of all new spending since fiscal year 2004 is helping America's kids. 

Over the past five years, spending on children's education has been stagnant, resulting in a real decrease in the value of education funding, the report concludes. Nearly 70 education programs have suffered real cuts in funding over the past five years, leading to a 10 percent inflation-adjusted funding decrease.

"The report's findings are deeply disturbing," said Bill Jordan, Policy Director for New Mexico Voices for Children. "Not only is investing in our children the right thing to do by them, it's the right thing to do by our country and economy. We're not giving our children the best chance at succeeding when we're pulling the plug on their education and health care. We should be investing more in education in the 21st century, not less."

"In the past few years we've heard a lot of lip service about family values. This study shows how empty that talk has been," he added. "If our federal budget is a moral document, this shows a great moral deficiency."

Based in Washington, D.C., First Focus is part of America's Promise Alliance, which was founded, in part, by Colin Powell.  The report is posted online at http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3391/