In case you missed some of these pieces earlier in the week, here are some of my favorites:
- Albuquerque Police Chief Michael Geier basically showed that even an understaffed police department can can go after criminals if it has the proper leadership. On Tuesday, Geier announced that an auto theft sting netted 23 recovered stolen vehicles and 22 felony arrests.
- Violent crime rose by 18 percent in Albuquerque in 2017. Since 2012, violent crime in the city has skyrocketed by 77 percent.
- "The Memo" about the investigation to Donald Trunmp's alleged Russian ties was released on Friday by Congress. It says that a dossier paid for by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign was the basis for the FBI and the
DOJ to obtain a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign volunteer. Here's the story and the memo so you can read it yourself.
- On Wednesday morning there was a fatal car crash in Albuquerque at Central and Yucca along the ART line. ART haters quickly blamed the driver's death on the ART project itself because when his car was hit, it was slammed into the concrete ART station in the middle of Central. They fail to mention that the guy who was killed ran a red light and that is why he was hit. Here's my column calling out the ART haters as lunatics in this particular case.
- This was my favorite piece: a column saying that craft breweries and health clubs should be outlawed because they emit massive amounts of carbon dioxide. It drove some of the hyper-sensitive environmentalists crazy, and that's why it's so much fun.
- This was my second-favorite piece: A George Carlin routine about the self-important arrogance of people who believe they can save the planet. Hilarious!
- This is a column by retired APD Sgt. Dan Klein saying that in order to get more DWI convictions, ABD needs to junk its DWI unit and spread the workload around to all cops on the force.
- Here's a piece on the insanity of a bill in the state Legislature to boost the tax on a single cigar sold in the state to 76 percent of its wholesale value. That would be a $3.04 tax on a cigar with a wholesale value of $4. The bill by Sen. Howie Morales would probably put every cigar shop in the state out of business.
- Someone finally filed against the law license of former City Attorney Jessica Hernandez for attempting to mislead a federal court judge and for secretly recording the independent monitor in APD's reform case.