Is It Time for the President to Close the Border?
by John Weckerle
In case nobody has noticed, concerns have been escalating regarding the influx of migrants from nations to our south. There has been a great deal of discussion around the subject of closing the southern border of the United States as a means of dealing with an upsurge in migrant arrivals there. Multiple sources have debated whether the President has the authority to do so, and under what conditions it should happen.
Here’s a question that should intrigue us all: What happened to the last U.S. President who closed the southern border, and given the results, just how kind will history be in viewing his actions?
History will treat this President with total disregard – because the person of record in fact has no record. He doesn’t exist. No President has ever fully closed the southern border – or, for that matter, the northern one.
It’s not really clear what “closing the border” would actually entail. The shutdown of official border crossings would involve closure of at least 50 recognized border crossings. These are the places where legitimate land transportation associated with commerce between the two nations is focused. In 2019, Moody’s estimated that a quarter of the nation’s produce came from Mexico. In the article The US Exports More to Mexico Than to all EU Countries Combined, the Congressionally chartered Wilson Center estimates that cross-border commerce at the southern border amounts to $1.8 billion per day; that approximately 1.5 million people cross the border each day in both directions; and that 90% of the people who cross the border into the U.S. each morning are American citizens who live in Mexico and work in the U.S. According to the 2018 report Port of Entry: El Paso (texas.gov) by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, “Of Texas’ total international trade, $408 billion, or 55.2 percent, traveled across the state’s border crossings with Mexico, with the El Paso port of entry accounting for 20.1 percent of land port trade, or about $81.9 billion” and that “trade through the El Paso port of entry in 2018 affected about 165,500 net jobs in Texas, and about $25 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) is related to trade through this port of entry.” And that’s just El Paso. The impact of closure on workers – and the businesses for which they work – would be immediate and severe.
Now, the current proposals largely do not involve the cessation of cross-border commerce. Rather, they tend to involve closing the border to migrants applying for asylum or other means of prolonged presence in the U.S. However, these are actually legal paths to entry into the country. It is unclear to what extent “closure” would decrease the rate of illegal crossings. And at the end of the day, at least some of the migrants and other entrants would likely find ways to enter the country anyway – by illicit crossings through ports of entry, unguarded remote portions of the southern border, by sea, or via the northern border.
H.L. Mencken once wrote “For every complex problem there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.” Closing the border is one of those solutions – and yet it is the primary focus of discussion on the subject of migrant issues at the border. We do not have any clear recommendations on solving those problems – we would love to hear from our readers on that – but it seems a waste of time to continue debating a solution that is nonviable and economically damaging.
Updates on the NM-Central Family
By John Weckerle
On October 4, senior correspondent Lucy passed away after a long illness. She had COVID in June of 2022, and was diagnosed three months later with pulmonary fibrosis, which has a known link to COVID in some cases. After being hospitalized 8 times in 3 months, she improved and lived courageously until August of 2023. She was immune-compromised due to medication, and contracted a severe infection. She improved again, but was struck by another infection, which took her life. Your editor will never be the same.
Senior Pretty-Much-Everything Correspondent Wilson remains on the job at nearly fifteen years old. He goes hiking regularly and runs flat-out a quarter mile or so several times a week. Other than a complete loss of hearing, he seems to be doing well.
With a little time on his hands and a whole lot of silliness in the world, your editor may be jumping in to try and shed a little light on this and that. Let’s see how it goes…
Alas, BJ’s – I Knew You, But I Don’t (and Won’t) Any More
by John Weckerle
The denizens of New Mexico Central have had some trying times of late, with one of our denizens experiencing some very serious medical issues. This has resulted to many hospital stays for one of us. During much of this, the others had a few “go-tos” in terms of dinner on the way home from the hospital, and one of them was the BJ’s restaurant at Winrock Center.
We had the very good fortune of no hospital stays for several months, but then one was necessary. We returned to BJ’s with some visiting relatives, as it turns out for the last time.
BJ’s has always had a multi-page, diverse menu with some great choices. Their vegetarian soups, appetizers, bowls, and especially the avocado egg roll alongside their meat and seafood options provided a variety that ensured everyone at the table would have a choice that would suit them. Unfortunately, those days are gone.
When we arrived, we were presented with the dreaded 11 x 17, laminated and folded-in-half menu that has become all too familiar. Gone are the vegetarian soups except for broccoli and cheese. Gone is the only non-meat flatbread, the Margarita Flatbread. Only one bowl remains. The avocado egg rolls are listed, but they were out of them. When I commented to the server that it was rather early to be out of them, he told me something interesting: as he related it, BJ’s only makes the egg rolls every two hours – and if they run out, they wait until the two hours are over and anyone who wants them before then is out of luck (great way to run a kitchen…). The server, who was not thrilled that a couple of his favorite items had been axed, ventured a guess that they had focused on the items that provided the greatest financial return. In all, the menu has been reduced to essentially pub grub.
We were tired and hungry, so we ordered. Two of us ordered the shrimp scampi at $22.45 – decent and plentiful, but the same item at Mario’s Pizzaria and Ristorante is a better value at $19.45, which includes soup or a salad (those are extra at BJ’s). I ordered a California Club Flatbread without bacon for the table, missing the fact that it has chicken on it. It’s listed as such on the menu, and the server assumed I was just avoiding bacon and not meat altogether – a little odd given our conversation about the missing vegetarian options, but in the end I take the blame. BJ’s let me have the blame, and I spent nearly $15 on an appetizer I couldn’t eat. I will say that the flatbread was not nearly as generously topped as that shown on the menu. A good portion of it went uneaten, even with four meat-eaters at the table. The Big Twist Pretzel was essentially flavorless, and most of it ended up in the trash.
Now, there will be those who will defend BJ’s and other restaurants on the grounds of supply chain issues, profitability, the purpose of simplifying the menu to make it easier to produce food, etc. To those people, and the restaurants themselves, I say this: I don’t care. Not one bit. I do not go out to a restaurant for the owners’ benefit. I go out to a restaurant to have an enjoyable experience. These vastly trimmed-down menus that have become all the rage do not, in general provide that experience, and I have voted with my feet many times in the past. When the now-defunct Standard Diner did so, removing several favorites, the denizens of New Mexico Central stopped eating there. When The Range and the Greenside Cafe in Cedar Crest followed this path, our visits went from weekly or biweekly to a very few times a year. When St. Clair Bistro (now D.H. Lescombes) removed key items from the menu, we removed it from our list of regularly visited restaurants. All the restaurants that were housed at the former location of Pete’s on Route 14 North (except for Pete’s itself) lost our business for the same or similar reasons (we haven’t tried Lantern Ridge yet). We’ve picked other, mostly locally owned substitutes (O’Neill’s, Flying Star, and Mario’s among others) who provide the food and service we value – and if they stop doing so, we’ll go searching for replacements again, regardless of how much we like the owners and the people who work there.
Loyalty is a two way street – when restaurant owners put their interests above those of their patrons, their patrons will respond in kind. We regret the loss of a favorite eatery, even as it continues to operate, but when we’re spending money for a dining experience, it needs to be money well spent, and the BJ’s experience no longer meets that criterion.
When We Take One, Maybe We Should Give One
By John Weckerle
There are things in life that are inevitable, or perhaps inexhorable. Time will pass. All things must pass. And some things, if we are fortunate enough to be healthy, must pass more or less on a daily basis. From time to time, each of us must adjourn to what is, for most of us, one of the smallest rooms in the home, assume a posture similar to that seen in Auguste Rodin’s most well-recognized sculptures and, er… “think.”
Now, we may engage in a variety of mental activities in this pose. Daydreaming is likely a favorite for many. Reading comes to mind, though in the modern age we may turn to devices that also allow us to play games, send text messages, or even talk on the phone. But when the deed is done, so to speak, is the time for thinking over? We here at New Mexico Central say not, because there is one last action to be taken before returning to full verticality – and thence the world at large. This last act involves a critical material, and as it turns out this material may well affect the world more than any idea we likely had while in the pose…
We are talking, of course, about toilet paper.
Each year (the most recent publication is from September 2022), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) issues a report on the sustainability of certain paper products based on their benefits or detriments to the environment. This includes their Issue with Tissue Scorecard, which evaluates a variety of factors (where the material is sourced, whether it uses a bleaching process, etc.). We were extraordinarily disappointed to find that one of our longstanding “weapons of choice,” the Kirkland brand sold by Costco (and some of their other listed household tissue/paper towel products), received a grade of F. Costco often crows about its offering of sustainable products, so it was a bit of a shocker to find that some of their own in-house, home-use paper products may be, at least in the NRDC’s view, one of the worst investments one can make in the health of the planet.
We decided to do a little research to look for alternatives. We’ve begun with the product euphemistically referred to as “bath tissue” (right – try involving that with anything to do with a bath and see where it gets you). Given that cost is a tissue issue for most people, we chose to test the fully recycled 365 by Whole Foods Market brand, which was more or less comparably priced to the Kirkland brand on Amazon. Our initial findings are that the product is comfortable, is not prone to shredding, separates consistently at the perforations, and overall performs very well in its intended function. So, at the end of the – well, you know – we find that there is at least one viable alternative to F-rated products in the toilet paper genre. If our readers find others, we encourage them to comment here and let us all know.
Finding comparably priced facial tissue is a bit more of a challenge, and we’re working on that. Because the denizens of New Mexico Central headquarters don’t use paper towels to the same extent of the other products, we’ll be researching those last. While still fully functional, Senior Environmental Correspondent Wilson doesn’t use any of them and has not thus far contributed to the assessment, but we’ll relay his opinion if he expresses one. We’ll report back as we learn more!
Fire Not On the Mountain – 4/11/22
by John Weckerle
East Mountain residents may well be concerned about the source of the intense smell of smoke permeating the area. We have checked with the Santa Fe County Fire Department in Edgewood. They have received over 50 inquiries today. The smokey smell we are experiencing is from the Big Hole fire near Los Lunas, and weather conditions have been just right to bring us the aroma. According to InciWeb:
The Big Hole Fire is located in the community of Belen in Valencia County. The fire is burning on both sides of the Rio Grande north of River Road and threatening homes according to the Valencia County Fire Department. An unknown number of structures have been reported as lost. Evacuations have been ordered by local law enforcement for Blue Sky Road, Las Chapulinas, and Nighthawk Road. Evacuees should report to the Belen Recreation Center at 305 Eagle Ln. The Big Hole Fire was first reported at about 1:30 p.m. this afternoon. It is currently estimated at 60 acres and 0% contained. Gusting winds, low humidity, and drought conditions are impacting fire activity. Numerous resources are at the scene with more crews on the way. This is an evolving incident and more information will be provided as it becomes available. Individuals sensitive to wildfire smoke should take precautions and use the New Mexico Department of Health 5-3-1 Visibility Method to determine if it’s safe to be outside. Learn more at https://nmtracking.org/environment/air/FireAndSmoke.html.
There is no imminent danger to the East Mountain/Estancia Valley area. For information on wildfires throughout the nation, consult InciWeb.
Happy Easter to (Most of) You!
Editor’s note: A very small percentage of the population will likely find this post offensive.
by John Weckerle
Tomorrow, the denizens of New Mexico Central will be celebrating Easter in the same way we (and most of the nation) do pretty much everything these days – just us, at home. Normally we’d be visiting friends for dinner, or something along that line. We’ll be giving that up, as we have many other things, along with the good people of this nation who care enough about their fellow humans to stay away from them until this pandemic crisis can be managed. To all of you who are doing this: you have our thanks and our wishes for health, happiness, and a whole lot of satisfaction with the hobbies you’re either discovering or rediscovering.
There’s an old saying, however: there’s one in every crowd – and when you apply that to 300-plus million people, that can add up to quite a few. Tomorrow, tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousand or millions – of covidiots (we thought we had coined this term, but apparently that is not the case) will defy science and the advice of essentially every credible medical professional on the planet and attend mass gatherings – despite the fact that it’s already been shown that such gatherings have resulted in illness and death (here, here, here, and here, for a very few among many examples).
In nearly every interview we’ve read, those engaging in this practice have said more or less the same things, referring to “my religious practice,” “my religious freedom,” “my beliefs,“ “my rights,” and similar sentiments. To quote the Beatles: I, Me, Mine. We find it unfortunate that some people who profess to love their neighbor are willing to endanger their neighbors’ health and lives because they are so selfish and self-centered that they are unwilling to miss one – that’s right, ONE – Easter Sunday service to protect their fellow citizens. And the gigantic irony in all this is that the people who struggle to save these attendees’ lives when they get sick, some of whom will die as a result, will be people who had the sense to stay at home as much as possible and do what they could to serve the community and protect it from harm.
For the most part, however, religious people of all faiths have been responsible and responsive to this crisis, and we are giving a hearty “shout out” to those many, many people who have been innovative, understanding, and willing to make sacrifices in a very important part of their lives to protect all of us. Thank you very much for being the kind, intelligent, and compassionate people you are. We salute you, and wish you the best and, as always, a wonderful holiday. Stay well, stay safe, stay home as much as you can, and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible when we can.
Editor’s other note: New Mexico Central acknowledges that regardless of the current situation, even those behaving responsibly may have to drive tonight or early tomorrow morning. To those who must do so: please keep a watchful eye for rabbits. One of them may be a bit distracted and not watching the traffic.
Grow Your Own: Time to Get (Seeds) Started!
by John Weckerle
As we all hunker down and practice a little social distancing, most people are probably looking for things to occupy the time we used to occupy with things like dining out, going to school, driving to work (at least those of us who are able to telework), and gathering with friends. Here at New Mexico Central headquarters, we are finding the time for things like home improvement/maintenance, art projects, cooking, and – of course – gardening.
That’s right, gardening – because even if the weather isn’t quite right yet for tilling the soil, there are things that must be done early anyway, and that includes getting seeds started for eventual planting in beds and containers.
Our seed starting setup involves a wire rack and lights. These are LED shop lights purchased at Costco. The lights on the lower rack are standard fluorescent lights. Both seem to work very well for starting seeds.
This year we are focusing heavily on heirloom varieties. We’ll begin with the tomatoes:
- Brandywine (red/yellow blend) – These tend to be large, up to 2 pounds. In prior years, we’ve had them reach 1 1/2 pounds. They are an extremely tasty tomato good for a lot of uses.
- Moneymaker – Medium-sized, sweet, meaty fruits.
- Ace 55 – A bush type, 1950s heirloom and our only determinate variety this year. (“Determinate” means that the plant produces all its fruit in a short period, rather than throughout the season). Typically coming in at 6 to 8 ounces, they are a favorite for canning.
- Gardener’s Delight – A sweet, 1950s German heirloom cherry tomato.
- Principe Borghese – A small, plum tomato, popular in Italy, often used for drying or roasting or in sauces.
Of course, we’re not just doing tomatoes! We’re also starting poblano chiles; California Wonder bell peppers; Early Prolific Straightneck summer squash; and Cocozelle (aka Cocozella di Napoli), a zucchini-like, striped, 1800s Italian heirloom. In-ground, outdoor started crops will include All American parsnip; Sugar Magnolia snap peas (purple); and Carnival Blend carrots (orange, red, purple, white, and yellow). We also have orders in for other goodies:
- Delicata squash (Delicata is a winter squash that has a thin skin that can remain on the fruit when cooked and eaten).
- Redbor Kale (a personal favorite)
- Nero Toscana kale – a “dinosaur” type kale, often used for
- Millenium asparagus – cold-hardy and high-yield, this tolerates soils many asparagus varieties can’t. This is our first experiment with asparagus!
We’ve had so much success growing kale and chard in containers year-round indoors that we may elect to continue that practice to make room for all the other vegetables.
With schools closed, kids at home, and a lot of “together time” available, vegetable gardening is something that provides an opportunity to have fun, see something other than the inside of the house, learn some science (soil chemistry, biology, etc.), and enjoy the benefit of fresh produce. Happy growing, everyone!
Public Urged To Catch Fish in Estancia Park Pond As Water Level Drops
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Nov. 1, 2017:
SANTA FE – The Department of Game and Fish has issued an emergency salvage order allowing the public to harvest an unlimited amount of fish by any means through Nov. 10 from Estancia Park Pond.
The salvage order was requested by the Town of Estancia as one of the town’s wells that supplies the pond is currently out of service and fish soon may begin dying as the water level drops.
Tackle regulations will be suspended during the salvage period that runs through 11:59 p.m. Nov. 10. The salvage order will allow anglers to use nets or other means to remove fish from the pond.
Anglers ages 12 and older are required to have a state fishing license.
For more information about the state’s fishing regulations, please visit www.wildlife.state.nm.us.
New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
Public contact, Information Center: (888) 248-6866
Media contact: Dan Williams, (505) 476-8004
dan.williams@state.nm.us
Science Is As Science Does
by John Weckerle
Having reviewed the proposed changes to the New Mexico Public Education Department science standards, we join with scientists from numerous organizations and New Mexico’s most influential school districts (among others) in opposing the enactment of these regressive, anti-science revisions to the standards.
We’ll to take just a few lines here (an attempt at humor: no one can ever accuse of us taking “just a few lines”) to at least provide a little information on some topics relevant to this subject and (of course) some links to information that may provide further clarification. First, we’d like to dispense with any argument that ends with the phrase “is just a theory.” Arguments of this nature are misleading (in our opinion, deliberately and dishonestly so, and intended to play on the fact that most people do not recognize that there is a difference between the meaning of “theory” in science as opposed to what it means in common usage). In science, the word “theory” is in no way equivalent to “conjecture.” Theories, in science, are actually well-demonstrated explanations of how things work. We provide examples of some well-expressed explanations of the concept of scientific theory (we suggest “clicking through” to the links to access some interesting information on the subjects):
- From a presentation by Dr. Paul Narguizian at California State University of Los Angeles and the National History Museum of Los Angeles:
- Theory: A well-substantiated explanation/mechanism of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses (NRC, 1998). Theories explain how the law works (McComas, 2003).
- Scientific theories are explanations that are based on lines of evidence, enable valid predictions, and have been scientifically tested in many ways.
- From Wikipedia
- A scientific theory is an explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can be repeatedly tested, in accordance with the scientific method, by using a predefined protocol of observations and experiments.[1][2]Established scientific theories have withstood rigorous scrutiny and are a comprehensive form of scientific knowledge.
- From Scientific American (This is a really worthwhile article for many of our readers on the topic of misused science terms):
Climate-change deniers and creationists have deployed the word “theory” to cast doubt on climate change and evolution.
“It’s as though it weren’t true because it’s just a theory,” Allain said.
That’s despite the fact that an overwhelming amount of evidence supports both human-caused climate change and Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Part of the problem is that the word “theory” means something very different in lay language than it does in science: A scientific theory is an explanation of some aspect of the natural world that has been substantiated through repeated experiments or testing. But to the average Jane or Joe, a theory is just an idea that lives in someone’s head, rather than an explanation rooted in experiment and testing.
Scientific theories are rigorously demonstrated. It is important to note, however, that while scientific theories may explain laws, and often incorporate laws as part of the associated analysis, they do not, as a rule, eventually “graduate” to the status of scientific laws.
We move on, now, to the subject of skepticism as opposed to contrarianism/denialism. The idea that those who are willing to lend credence to scientifically demonstrated concepts are somehow “thoughtbound” – locked into a dogmatic adherence to some vaguely defined, poorly demonstrated explanation of “how the world works” – is patently ridiculous. Many critics of widely accepted, scientifically supported explanations of topics such as those associated with evolution and climate change are inclined to present themselves as “skeptics,” “free thinkers,” and so on – while providing no technically credible arguments to contravene the concepts to which they state opposition.
We again quote the aforementioned Scientific American article:
When people don’t accept human-caused climate change, the media often describes those individuals as “climate skeptics.” But that may give them too much credit, Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, wrote in an email.
“Simply denying mainstream science based on flimsy, invalid and too-often agenda-driven critiques of science is not skepticism at all. It is contrarianism … or denial,” Mann told LiveScience.
Instead, true skeptics are open to scientific evidence and are willing to evenly assess it.
“All scientists should be skeptics. True skepticism is, as [Carl] Sagan described it, the ‘self-correcting machinery’ of science,” Mann said.
We add this excerpt from a letter on the subject written earlier this year by the American Meteorological Society:
Skepticism that fails to account for evidence is no virtue.
We wish to be clear (and your editor has the scientific background to understand the relevant issues) that we have yet to be presented with any credible, scientifically supported alternatives to the concepts of either evolution or climate change. Both are well-demonstrated by substantial and widely accepted analyses, and while there are – and should be – discussions regarding specific elements of the theories, these do not invalidate them as a whole. So-called “alternative theories” and “other ways of thinking” that lack any vestige of experimental or true empirical demonstration do not rise to the challenge of invalidating them, either. Similarly, the practice of examining elements of complex systems and their components, and working backward to a foregone “logical” conclusion is philosophical at best, but not scientific at all in any case.
Whether these criticisms arise from ignorance; self-interest; greed; an inability to adjust ingrained beliefs in the presence of overwhelming, contravening fact; just-plain, garden-variety intransigence; or other factors is perhaps, itself, a matter for future examination. What we find of special importance to the current discussion is that those who clearly reject scientifically based concepts are becoming more and more influential – and that this influence is now extending into the teaching of science itself. We find ourselves wondering whether out-of-state interests – the American Legislative Exchange Council, the State Policy Network and similar entities – are once again attempting to insert “model” legislation and rule-making into New Mexico’s governmental processes. That these propositions seem always to serve corporate interests, religious positions, or some combination of the two, without any real demonstrable evidence to support their claims and/or criticisms suggests that they represent an essentially worthless, questionable, and potentially very damaging enterprise.
This tide – whether it is fueled by religious fundamentalists seeking to combat perceived science-based threats to their cosmological beliefs, corporate interests seeking to enrich the shareholders just a bit more, or some combination of the two – must be turned. The idea that science, which has taught and brought us so much, should be suborned in its own venue, in our time, to corporate interests and religious fundamentalism is nothing less than alarming. Science education should be about science, and nothing more. Other issues should addressed in other areas of the adacemic curriculum.
Again: New Mexico Central emphatically joins those scientifically credible groups who have objected to the proposed revisions. Given that the proposed standards have been developed quietly and that the New Mexico Public Education Department has declined to disclose the identities of those who contributed to the standards (we are working on a New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act request to gain insight into the process), we see no reason that any credible scientific or academic organization would do otherwise.
Older, somewhat-related, and local articles New Mexico Central articles include:
- Monkeys On Trial In The Estancia Valley?
- An Article About Articles
- Politics, “Media” Accuracy And Global Climate Change
On Electricity and Communications
By John Weckerle
We join you after a bit of a hiatus (nearly four months) from New Mexico Central Headquarters, which has now been without electricity for something on the order of 29 hours, give or take a few. This has been one of the longest outages in recent memory – we recall one some years ago that made it to about 30 hours – and it is beginning to take its toll on some of the frozen food, at least; there’s only so much ice can do.
We write, though, not so much to lament the loss of foodstuffs as to express deep concern as to how the communications have been handled by our friends at the New Mexico Central Electric Cooperative (NMCEC). We’re seeing a pattern here with respect to getting information out during outages, and we respectfully suggest that there is room for improvement.
Consider this: Several hours after the outage began on Friday, a call to CNMEC led to a recording that 13 transmission-line poles had been blown down by a weather event, and that restoration of power was anticipated sometime Saturday. Another call on Saturday morning brought us to a message that the damage had now reached 18 poles, and that no estimate for restoration was available. And shortly after that, any meaningful channel for obtaining information on the situation simply went dark. We attempted all options on the CNMEC phone system. All went unanswered – even the dispatch line that includes reporting emergencies. That’s right – CNMEC had essentially shut itself off from the world, and had another part of the grid experienced a problem (perhaps in Torrance County, which was essentially unaffected by the situation according to the cooperative’s website), there was no way CNMEC could have received the report.
It was not until 6:40 p.m. Saturday that the following message appeared on the CNMEC site:
We had reports of a Funnel Cloud that hit in the area and with it a roof of a building and it tore down 16 transmission poles. These are 80 feet tall transmission poles with distribution line built under.
Along with the mud and all the debris, it can cause a small army to descend down on the scene to clean up and then put back up the power line.
We apologize for the extended time with out power but our men and women are working tirelessly and some with out time off to get the lights back on.
Estimated time of power to come back in is the evening.
We suggest that this is rather too little information, too late, and as we are now well past “the evening” for most purposes we are beginning to wonder just which evening to which the cooperative was referring. We digress, however, because the main issue here is that CNMEC is missing – and has been missing for some time – the boat in terms of communicating with its members during extended outages.
First, regardless of call-in volume, there should always be some way to report additional outages and emergency conditions. The idea that there is simply nobody picking up the phone – we let it ring several times for five to ten minutes – is entirely unacceptable. There are any number of emergencies that can arise from electrical power or the lack thereof, and the fact that the cooperative was unreachable during this outage is of serious concern.
Second, members should always be able to get reasonably up-to-date information on extended outages so that they may prepare to deal with them. We understand that, while websites based on older technologies may be difficult to update “on the fly,” there are options that allow this – for example, WordPress-based sites (essentially free) or establishing a Facebook page (absolutely free) linked from the CNMEC website that would allow more-or-less real-time updates on outages that members could easily access from cell phones, tablets, etc. even while without power.
We strongly recommend that CNMEC develop a strategy for bringing its communications with its members during outages into the twenty-first century, and do it quickly. It seems absurd that an organization that seeks to sell Internet services to its members would delay in doing otherwise.
Happy About Keystone? Have A Look At What Makes You Happy
by John Weckerle
The recent revival of the Keystone pipeline has been celebrated by a wide variety of people, largely on the bases of the supposed jobs that it would somehow magically create, and the benefits that it would somehow mystically bestow on – well, the good, hard-working people who get those jobs. The claims of job creation have been debated ad-infinitum and, for all intents and purposes, it’s fairly apparent that the jobs in question would be short-term construction jobs associated with installing the pipeline, and a small number of pipeline maintenance positions. Given that the oil transferred from Canada would be processed using existing refinery capacity in the southern U.S., job growth in the U.S. as a result of the pipeline would appear relatively small and relatively short-term. Of course, jobs associated with extraction would be located at the tar sands deposit that would feed the pipeline, and those tar sands are located in Alberta, Canada.
According to this MSN photojournalistic article (and we very strongly suggest that our readers read the article and go through all the stunning images), Canada’s little operation is likely to consume up to 54,000 square miles of pristine wilderness, and the photography in the article gives a very good depiction of what the area will be turned into. For perspective, 54,000 square miles equates roughly to the size of the States of New York and North Carolina. Not only would the scar left behind by this profit-inspired effort be visible from space, it would likely be visible from the moon, Mars, Krypton, and Vulcan.
We will leave our readers the space to consider their support (or the opposite) for this pipeline, but we will say this: the idea of leaving a large-state-sized hole in Nature for the purpose of lining a relatively small number of people’s pockets seems repugnant to us. Congratulations to all those who have supported the Keystone Pipeline – at least now you have had a good look at what you supported.
A Stocking No Longer Full Of Coal
by John Weckerle
It has been some time since we published an article. There is a reason for this. After reading an article in which a West Virginia interviewee stated that he voted for Donald Trump because he believed that his state’s coal economy had been decimated under the Obama administration, we decided to dive into some research on the coal industry, what makes it tick, and what’s making it wind down. We downloaded production statistics, read dozens of articles and government publications, created some fairly complex spreadsheets, and generated a couple of dozen graphs, looking at trends at the national, regional, and state levels, finding some things we didn’t expect and that we found very interesting.
Then, earlier this week – just after we began writing the actual article – somebody (ahem) decided to sign an executive order. The national media pounced, and suddenly nearly all the results and findings we had generated – that the decline of the industry has been going on for decades; that it is the result of market forces such as decreased demand, ascendancy of competing products (natural gas, renewables, etc.) to a much greater extend than regulatory pressures; and that the jobs are never coming back – were suddenly all over the airwaves and the web. As recently as this morning, MSN Money reported that the entire coal industry employs fewer people nationwide than the Arby’s fast food chain.
This was a bit discouraging, and highlights the challenges faced by those of us with very small writing staffs. Nevertheless, we did gain one insight that we haven’t seen prominently discussed in the national media: even if the coal industry does rebound nationally, West Virginia’s likely won’t, nor will most of the eastern U.S. coal industry.
Our first major source was the United States Energy Adminstration’s (EIA’s) Coal Data Browser which, among other things, provided us with coal production data from 25 coal producing states spanning 15 years (2001 through 2015). We saw this as a promising range of data, because it incorporates nearly equivalent segments (in terms of years) from two Presidential administrations – eight years from the administration of George W. Bush (2001 through 2008) and seven years from Barak H. Obama’s administration (2009 through 2015). As most would expect – at least those who pop in and read our articles once in a while – we were delighted to find that we could download the data, load it into a spreadsheet, and see where the information might lead us.
To understand the market trends within the United States, it is important to know how the EIA defined (at least until recently) coal producing regions (we’ve added the 2015 coal production to give a sense of scale):
- Middle Atlantic – Pennsylvania; 50,030,833 tons
- East North Central – Illinois, Indiana, Ohio; 107,437,449 tons
- West North Central – Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota; 29,139,231 tons
- South Atlantic – Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia; 111, 469,038 tons
- East South Central – Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee; 78,656,669 tons
- West South Central – Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas; 40,228,355 tons
- Mountain – Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming; 477,417,852 tons
- Pacific Contiguous – Washington; no data
- Pacific Noncontiguous – Alaska; 1,177,390 tons
One thing that surprised us was the prominence of the Mountain region in terms of overall production. Previously, when we thought of coal, we thought of Eastern states, especially West Virginia and Pennsylvania. In fact, the Mountain region accounts for more than half the nation’s coal production, and Wyoming alone produced nearly 42% of the nation’s coal in 2016. The next largest output does come from West Virginia, which in 2015 commanded just under 11% of U.S. production.
We examined the data from a variety of angles, and fairly quickly determined that where declining coal production is concerned, all regions – and all states – are not necessarily created equal. Overall, production in 2015 nationwide was about 231 million tons less than it was in 2001. Of this, 88 million tons of production were lost in the South Atlantic region (including West Virginia, whose production decreased by about 67 million tons), and the East South Central region was right behind, losing about 78 million tons of production (the lion’s share of which was lost by Kentucky at 72 million tons). The Mountain region was next, with production dropping by about 34 million tons, and the Middle Atlantic region, containing only Pennsylvania, saw production decrease by 24 million tons. Following were the West South Central region (decrease of 10 million tons), West North Central region (decrease of just over 1 million tons), and Pacific Noncontiguous region (decrease of about 337,000 tons). The East North Central region saw an increase of nearly 12 million tons, with Illinois’s gain of 22 million tons (a 66% gain compared to 2010) offsetting Indiana’s and Ohio’s losses.
Wait a minute…gains? If, as some people assert, Federal policy was responsible for the decline of the coal industry, one would expect that the industry would decline evenly, with perhaps a greater impact being seen in Western states where there might be more impact from banning coal mining from Federal lands. However, during the 15-year period, Wyoming’s production actually increased by 7 million tons, and its market share grew from 32.7% to 41.9%. During the same period, West Virginia slid from 14.4% to 10.7% of the market; Kentucky’s market share plunged from 11.9% to 6.8%; and Pennsylvania dropped from 6.6% to 5.6%. At the same time, Illinois’s share of the market grew from 3.0% to 6.3%; Montana picked up a little over a percent with an increase in production of 2.7 million tons; North Dakota picked up half a percent; several other states saw smaller gains in terms of market share even with production decreases; and Mississippi and Montana reaped smaller percentage gains with production increases of about 2.5 million tons each.
What gives? Why are some states faring better than others? To our eyes, it looked as if there might be an issue of variations in cost, so we decided to go hunting among the coal price data. There we found some interesting trends – while coal prices have fluctuated substantially even over the last few years, in every data set we examined, there was a substantial difference in price, and for the most part the hardest-hit states were those with the most expensive coal. In all cases, for example, the cost of West Virginia’s coal was 4 to 5 times higher than Wyoming’s and North Dakota’s, 3-4 times the cost of Montana’s, and in 2015 was nearly twice the cost of coal from Illinois.
A little more searching turned up some interesting sources of information, including a year-old USA Today article that outlines some of the factors contributing to the decline of the coal industry: lower costs in the West, the decline in exports, slowing of the Chinese economy, the decline in use for energy production (with an attendant increase in natural gas use), liabilities associated with restoration, bankruptcies, and more. An article by ClimateNexus.org provides a graphic depicting reported coal-fired generator retirements from 2012 to 2016, showing a major cluster of shutdowns surrounding those states with the greatest losses in coal production and market share. That article also discusses a variety of other industry-related trends that are of interest: China’s pledge to end the growth in carbon output, India’s strategy to increase its domestic coal production, and continued expansion of competing industries, including natural gas, solar energy, and wind energy. The article also discusses investor risk and divestiture, and discloses that the losses of large mining companies (including coal and oil drillers with assets of $50 million or more) in 2015 were greater than the profits made by the industry since 2007. Health costs and issues associated with high executive compensation are also discussed, as is the Miners’ Protection Act introduced by Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
The mediocre news is that domestic coal production has been more or less stable over about the last year. Projections for the next year, depending on the source, run from small decreases to small increases, based on speculation that natural gas prices will experience a moderate increase. We’ll see how this plays out.
The future of the coal industry does not seem to be in doubt – it seems certain that the decline will continue, and economies in the eastern United States will be the hardest hit. The future of coal country is far less certain. On the one hand, the current administration seems focused on perpetuating the illusion that coal jobs will return someday despite the obvious reality that they will not. At the same time, the administration – and Congress – appear bent on dismantling the programs currently benefiting those hit hardest by reversals in the coal industries, and in other industries nationwide. On the other hand, coal country, like other areas affected by shifts in the economy, is populated by hard-working people with hopes, ideas, and passions of their own, and these are the best hope for creating new enterprises and renewed growth. What should the people of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and elsewhere do? Having been on the wrong side of economic development, your editor hesitates to offer any suggestions – because in the end ideas that come from the outside of a community are perhaps of less value of those that come from within. That having been said, we’ll close with a link to a TED talk by someone who, by his own account, also started off on on the wrong side of the subject, but learned from that experience and developed a different way of helping people pursue their passions in business – Dr. Ernesto Sirolli.
ALEC and US, Part V: A Tale Of Two Legislators
by John Weckerle
In our most recent American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) article, we indicated that we had sent an e-mail to our local State Representative, Jim Smith, and Senator, James White, containing several questions inquiring into whether they had ties to ALEC and, if so, what those ties involved. Not surprisingly, we received a response from Mr. Smith the following day, and are providing his answers verbatim here:
- Are you a current or former member of ALEC? “No, I’m not now or a former member of ALEC. I will go further to say that I will never be a member.”
- Have you attended any ALEC-sponsored meetings or events? If so, when, how many and what was the focus of the meeting (s) or event(s)? “I told you years ago (probably 5 or 6) that I attended a dinner during the legislative session that was sponsored by ALEC. I remember numerous legislators from both sides of the aisle being present and don’t recall any particular legislation being discussed. That was the only ALEC-sponsored event that I’ve ever attended.”
- Have you participated in any of ALEC’s task force activities? “No, I’ve never attended any ALEC task force activities.”
- Have you introduced, sponsored, co-sponsored, voted for, or otherwise supported legislation resulting from ALEC’s activities? “I’ve never introduced, sponsored or co-sponsored any legislation that resulted from ALEC activities. I can’t say that I’ve never voted for any that ALEC supported because my limited understanding of ALEC is that they support some things that fiscal conservatives may vote for. But, I’ve never been asked by anyone to vote for a particular bill on behalf of ALEC.”
- Have you received campaign contributions or other support from ALEC, its members, or its supporters? “I’ve never received a campaign contribution from ALEC. However, I’m sure that some businesses that are members of ALEC may have contributed to my campaigns. However, none of those contributors have ever asked me to support a particular ALEC-endorsed legislation.”
We appreciate the forthrightness in Mr. Smith’s response, as well as the brevity, as these articles go a bit long as it is. In terms of brevity, however, Mr. Smith has nothing on Mr. White who, like his predecessor and ALEC member Sue Wilson Beffort in 2012, provided no response at all to our questions. You just can’t get any more brief than that.
Having known Mr. Smith for years, we take him at his word with respect to a direct relationship with ALEC. He does raise some interesting points, though, in his responses to the last two questions. Mr. White’s non-responses may not indicate anything, although we’ll note that one out of two State Senators who did not respond to our ALEC questions was listed as an ALEC member – perhaps not a statistically significant sample, but it certainly gives us pause for thought. With that in mind, we ask the question – just how much interest are ALEC and its allies taking in our legislators, whether they themselves are interested or not?
In researching this article, we reviewed dozens of sources (in addition to those used in our previous article) in an attempt to track down information on ALEC member status of contributors :
- ALEC Corporations – Sourcewatch
- ALEC Trade Groups – Sourcewatch
- ALEC Law Firms – Sourcewatch
- ALEC Non-Profits – Sourcewatch
- ALEC Governmental Groups – Sourcewatch
- List of Members of the American Legislative Exchange Council – Wikipedia
- FollowTheMoney.org – The National Institute on Money in State Politics (NIMSP)
We began by using the NIMSP database to gather information on the legislators’ campaign contributions beginning in 2010. We copied the information into series of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and sorted it in a variety of ways to get a feel for patterns in the contributions, noting a substantial number of donations to both candidates from fossil energy and electricity interests, lobbyists, political action committees, and other candidates. We then used the sources above and dozens of others to assess which contributors could be reasonably reliably linked to ALEC. These are color coded in two spreadsheets, one for Mr. Smith and one for Mr. White, with yellow denoting corporate contributors listed in one or more sources as affiliated with ALEC, and salmon-color denoting corporate contributors that claim to have discontinued their relationship with ALEC but were members at the time the contribution was made. Legislators associated with ALEC were colored yellow. Note that these are just the contributors that were listed in the sources we reviewed as directly linked to ALEC, or linked to ALEC through their national organizations; we cannot state as an absolute fact that any of them is a member, except for those listed on ALEC’s web site as listed in last week’s article. We caution our readers, however, that the list may be incomplete, and that there is a substantial similarity between the purported ALEC members and many of the other contributors on the two lists of contributors. We did not count the contributions of members’ spouses, although there were quite a few of those. As the spreadsheets show: of the $107,813 in contributions listed for Mr. Smith, $26,225 came from ALEC contributors; of the $136,954 listed for Mr. White, $22,400 came from ALEC supporters. We again take Mr. Smith at his word, and have received none from Mr. White, but regardless of either gentleman’s interest in ALEC, ALEC appears very interested in them – as do people doing business in the same areas as the ALEC-related entities. Mr. White, for example, received $15,500 from the Oil and Gas general industry sector, including $7,250 from major multinational producers, the overwhelming majority of which came from out-of-state contributors. Similarly, Mr. Smith received $15,300 from the Oil and Gas sector, again nearly all of which came from outside the state, with $5,150 coming from the major multinationals. Mr. Smith and Mr. White received $6,850 and $4,125 from the Lobbyists & Public Relations business sector, respectively (we did not investigate the source of the money due in part to the sheer number of contributions and in part to difficulty using the NM Secretary of State’s web site, which appears to be having some problems running queries). Mr. White received 51 contributions valued at $38,100 from outside the state (out of a total of 317), with Mr. Smith receiving 70 out-of-state contributions valued at $29,475 out of 334 total contributions. Mr. Smith fared better with the tobacco industry, collecting $2,050 to Mr. White’s $850, but trailed Mr. White in the Beer, Wine & Liquor sector – $1,600 to $2,248. Oddly, between the two legislators, we found only one $250 contribution from the Agriculture broad industry sector. Both gentlemen were also generously supported by the Gas & Electric Utilities sector, received contributions from the National Rifle Association, and were supported by Big Pharma, including Pfizer (both), Merck (Mr. Smith), and Abbott Laboratories (Mr. White) – all ALEC members.
Mr. Smith has received a total of $4,375 from ALEC-related New Mexico politicians, somewhat behind Mr. White’s $6,050. In terms of their own contributions to other candidates affilliated with ALEC, Mr Smith has made a total of two contributions to two identified candidates, Nora Lee Espinoza and Janice Arnold-Jones, totaling $400. Mr. White has made six contributions to three such candidates, totaling $2,150.
There are a number of reasons that ALEC members – and those who perhaps share their interests – would invest in our local legislators. Perhaps they are members of ALEC, or perhaps not. Whether they are seeking to directly influence them, supporting candidates who may be generally more friendly to their agendas and therefore more likely to vote for legislation favorable to their industry, or just seeking to maintain or expand the influence of a given political party, the fact remains that these entities are likely to be most concerned with their own interests and far less with those of New Mexicans. Mr. Smith has been up front about his non-involvement with ALEC. Mr. White, on the other hand, apparently chose to follow the lead of his predecessor, ALEC member Sue Wilson-Beffort, and provide no response to our inquiry – and we suspect that this is likely somewhere in the ALEC member playbook, as it were. While we can make no statement of fact on the issue, it is hard to escape the impression that Mr. White is up to his armpits in ALEC. Absent any statement on his part, we see no reason to think otherwise.
Given ALEC’s history of developing and disseminating self-serving legislation, we should be cautious, and vigilant, in knowing what we can about our legislators, the sources of their campaign funding, and how this may affect the future of our State. The denizens of New Mexico Central take a dim view of corporations and out-of-state politicians writing our laws for us, ESPECIALLY without the disclosure requirements that apply to lobbyists, and those who feel the same may wish to take a hard look at those who have been elected to serve them – as opposed to serving those who serve themselves.
The question then arises: how does one take that hard look? In our next ALEC-related article, we will provide a step-by-step description of how we gathered the information we needed to assess the issue. It took a long time to figure out – but once known, the process doesn’t take long.
ALEC And Us, Part IV: Corporate Influence In State and Local Politics
Editor’s note: This is the most recent in what is now an ongoing series regarding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its influence of State – and now local – legislation and decision making. A list of web resources used to prepare this article, and two tables containing associated information, are presented at the end of the article.
by John Weckerle
Back in 2012, New Mexico Central ran several articles on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC):
- ALEC and Us
- ALEC and Us – IRS Complaint and Lobbying Issues
- East Mountain Representative Smith Reveals sordid ALEC Past
As the ALEC and Us article notes, ALEC was the involved in the drafting and passage of “Florida’s now-infamous ‘Stand Your Ground'” law. Further research into ALEC at the time revealed that the organization, which has often been described as a corporate-sponsored “bill mill,” is an association of industry associations, corporate entities, and State legislators that drafts industry-friendly legislation, then sending it to State legislatures via its legislative members and supporters for introduction, sponsorship, or other support. The Nonprofit Information Networking Association article describes ALEC’s activities as follows:
ALEC drafts “model” state legislation for conservative members of state legislatures. The model legislation sometimes becomes law, such as Arizona’s infamous immigration law. ALEC has also generated state resolutions against EPA regulation of greenhouse gasses, bills on privatizing public education, restricting public employee unions, and opposing state aspects of President Obama’s national health care reform. Many of the ALEC-generated model bills are seen as industry-friendly, in part because corporations pay well for participation at ALEC conferences giving them access to state legislators. However, despite its influence with many model bills, ALEC’s visibility with the public is limited and legislators often don’t disclose that the bills they are introducing come from ALEC.
In our 2012 article, we listed New Mexico State legislators in the House and Senate who were identified by Sourcewatch as members of ALEC’s various task forces. For some time after these articles were published (and certainly not as a result of those articles, as bigger fish were targeting ALEC), ALEC seemed to fall on hard times. The organization’s web site was static for some time, and it seems that corporations were abandoning it in droves (last year, Enterprise Rent-A-Car joined and rapidly left ALEC following an outcry from its customers). ALEC has been accused in many articles as essentially being a lobbying organization masquerading as a charity (the entity is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization), and its tax-exempt status has been challenged.
Since 2012, ALEC has reasserted itself as a force to be reckoned with, and seems as influential as ever. As always, the organization seems reticent to publish its list of members; however, some information can be gleaned from its website, and we can now at least begin to identify its supporters. One of the most likely suspects is…
…You.
If you enjoy wine by Chateau Ste. Michelle, or smoke tobacco produced by Phillip Morris (both owned by Altria), buy your insurance from State Farm Insurance Companies, acquire cell phone services from AT&T, send packages or otherwise pay for shipping via UPS, purchase electricity through any of the nation’s rural electric cooperatives, or spend money in any number of states and municipalities, some amount of your expenditures is probably headed for ALEC.
At the end of this article, we are providing two tables we have compiled from information on the ALEC web site regarding the membership in its committees. Note that this is not the entire membership; again, the organization does not publish a comprehensive membership list, and it is likely that the majority of its members cannot be easily identified.
We believe that citizens have a right to know where the bills being introduced in their legislatures originate. Accordingly, we have sent the following questions to our State Representative, Jim Smith, and our State Senator, James B. White:
- Are you a current or former member of ALEC?
- Have you attended any ALEC-sponsored meetings or events? If so, when, how many and what was the focus of the meeting (s) or event(s)?
- Have you participated in any of ALEC’s task force activities?
- Have you introduced, sponsored, co-sponsored, voted for, or otherwise supported legislation resulting from ALEC’s activities?
- Have you received campaign contributions or other support from ALEC, its members, or its supporters?
We’ve requested responses by January 28, 2017, and will share what we receive with our readers – as well as the results of other research we are conducting into the matter. We also encourage our readers to pose these questions to their State and local legislators (ALEC has created a subsidiary organization focusing on local government, the American City County Exchange (ACCE)).
Among the articles and resources we reviewed on this issue include (but are certainly not limited to):
- The American Legislative Exchange Council
- ALEC Corporations – Sourcewatch.org
- American Legislative Exchange Council – Guidestar.org
- List of membes of the American Legislative Exchange Council – Wikipedia.org
- ALEC Energy, Environment and Agricultural Task Force – Sourcewatch.org
- ALEC Exposed – Center for Media and Democracy
- Exxon Illegally Funded ALEC under Tillerson’s Tenure, CMD Tells Committee – Center for Media and Democracy
- ALEC Pay to Play on Display in Washington, DC – Steve Arnold, Mayor of Fitchburg, Wisconsin via Center for Media and Democracy
- American Legislative Exchange Council – Sourcewatch.org
- American Legislative Exchange Council – Wikipedia
- Fact Sheet on the IRS Whistleblower Complaint against ALEC – Common Cause via PRWatch.org
- Groups File IRS Complaint Alleging ALEC is a Lobbying Vehicle, Not A Charity – DESMOG
- Exxon and ALEC Running Illegal Lobbying Scheme, Watchdog Groups Charge In IRS Complaint – Center for Media and Democracy
- List of members of the American Legislative Exchange Council – Wikipedia
- The Hidden Influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council – Nonprofit Information Networking Association
- American Legislative Exchange Council – Guidestar.org
- ALEC Corporations – Sourcewatch.org
| ALEC Private Enterprise Advisory Council | |
| Affiliation | Member |
| American Bail Coalition | Bill Carmichael |
| Exxon Mobil Corporation | Cynthia Bergman |
| Peabody Energy | Michael Blank |
| VISTRA Energy | Sano Blocker |
| PhRMA | Jeff Bond |
| Pfizer, Inc. | Josh Brown |
| NetChoice | Steve DelBianco |
| Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Company | Marianne Eterno |
| UPS | Mike Kiely |
| AT&T | Bill Leahy |
| K12 Inc. | Don Lee |
| Not specified (Americans For Prosperity) | Frayda Levin |
| Not specified (Heritage Foundation) | Stephen Moore |
| Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC | Michael Morgan |
| Asian American Hotel Owners Association | Chip Rogers |
| Altria Client Services | Daniel Smith |
| State Farm Insurance Companies | Roland Spies |
| National Federation of Independent Business | Steve Woods |
| State Budget Solutions (ALEC) | Bob Williams |
| Automotive Trade Association Executives | Jennifer Colman |
| ALEC Task Forces | ||
| Affiliation | Member | Role |
| American City Council Exchange (ACCE) | ||
| Mayor, Gulfport, Mississippi; Capitol Gain, LLC; Billy Hewes Real Estate; Former State Senator/Senate President Pro Tempore | Billy Hewes | Public Chair |
| Not Sepcified (formerly of American Bail Coalition | Nick Wachinski | Private Chair |
| ACCE | Jon Russell | Director |
| Civil Justice | ||
| Tennessee State Senate | Brian Kelsey | Public Chair |
| Shook, Hardy and Bacon LLP | Mark Behrens | Private Chair |
| ALEC | Amy Kjose Anderson | Director |
| Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development | ||
| Iowa House of Representatives | Dawn Pettengill | Public Chair |
| United Parcel Service | Frank Morris | Private Chair |
| ALEC | Ben Wilterdink | Director |
| Communications and Technology | ||
| South Carolina House of Representatives | Garry Smith | Public Chair |
| National Cable and Telecommunications | Rick Cimerman | Private Chair |
| ALEC | Jonathon Hauenschild | Director |
| Criminal Justice Reform | ||
| Oklahoma Legislature | Lisa Billy | Public Chair |
| Stop Child Predators | Stacie Rumenap | Private Chair |
| ALEC | Ronald J. Lampard | Director |
| Education and Workforce Development | ||
| Utah State Senate | Howard Stephenson | Public Chair |
| Goldwater Institute | Jonathan Butcher | Private Chair |
| ALEC | Inez Feltcher | Director |
| Energy, Environment, and Agriculture | ||
| Illinois House of Representatives | David B. Reis | Public Chair |
| National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association | Jennifer Jura | Private Chair |
| ALEC | John Eick | Director |
| Federalism and International Relations | ||
| Oregon House Public Chair | C. Gene Whisnant | Public Chair |
| Americans for Tax Reform | Lorenzo Montanari | Private Chair |
| ALEC | Karla Jones | Director |
| Health and Human Services | ||
| Georgia Senate | Judson Hill | Public Chair |
| Takeda Pharmeceuticals, U.S.A. | John Schlatter | Private Chair |
| ALEC | Mia Heck | Director |
| Tax and Fiscal Policy | ||
| New Hampshire House of Representatives | Ken Weyler | Public Chair |
| Altria Client Services | Amanda Klump | Private Chair |
| ALEC | Joel Griffith | Director |
| ALEC | Elliot Young | Staff |
| ALEC | Chritine Smith | Staff |
| ALEC | Ted Lafferty | Staff |
| ALEC | Kati Siconolfi | Staff |
| ALEC/Center for State Fiscal Reform | Jonathan Williams | Director |
Something Different In The City Different
by John Weckerle
Once in a while life provides an extraordinarily pleasant surprise, and we had such an experience last Friday while visiting friends in Santa Fe. Our friends had heard of an art exhibition called Meow Wolf, and we all decided to pay it a visit.
Meow Wolf is less an art exhibition than an immersive art environment. It is difficult to explain or describe. The experience is called the House of Eternal Return, and it consists of numerous environments (“rooms”) created by artists. There are places to walk, crawl, climb, sit and observe, lie down and contemplate, and throughout there seems little or no prohibition against touching and otherwise experiencing the art. The experience is surreal, exhilarating, relaxing, and stimulating all at once.
Unfortunately, we found ourselves caught without a camera because art exhibitions rarely allow photography, and the Meow Wolf website doesn’t come close to capturing the experience (in its defense, we’re not sure it would be possible to do so). As it turns out, this is not the case at Meow Wolf. Those wishing a sneak peak might consider taking a look at the photos on the Wikipedia page, but even these don’t truly communicate the experience. This is an awe-inspiring, wonderfully immersive art experience, and we see it as perhaps one of the best things to do in Santa Fe and a reason in and of itself to visit the City Different. Meow Wolf is closing from January 17 to February 2 for upgrades and “refreshing,” and we suspect we’ll be visiting soon after to immerse ourselves once again. We strongly recommend that our readers pay a visit, and make sure to give themselves at least a couple of hours to enjoy all that Meow Wolf has to offer.