Courtesy/WAA
STATE News:
SANTA FE — Gov. Susana Martinez will honor fallen military members by delivering the keynote address at New Mexico’s Wreaths Across America ceremony at the New Mexico State Capitol.
The special event is at 10 a.m., today, Dec. 9 at the New Mexico State Capitol Rotunda, 490 Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe.
Wreaths Across America coordinates wreath-laying ceremonies all across the country to honor America’s fallen military members. Read More
Sen. Tom Udall, center, questions scientist Natalia Friedland, left, about her research on plants to be used as biofuel. Photo by Salvador Zapien/ladailypost.com 
Sen. Tom Udall addresses guests at a reception during his visit to the New Mexico Consortium’s Biological Laboratory and Greenhouse Friday. Photo by Salvador Zapien/ladailypost.com
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., visited the New Mexico Consortium’s Biological Research Laboratory and Greenhouse in Los Alamos Friday. The Senator toured the facility, talked with researchers and spoke to guests Read More
IRS News:
PHOENIX – The Internal Revenue Service has issued the 2014 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.
Beginning on Jan. 1, 2014, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:
The business, medical, and moving expense rates decrease one-half cent Read More
Sen. Tom Udall
U.S. SENATE News:
ALBUQUERQUE – Thursday, Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., welcomed the president’s “Presidential Memorandum,” challenging federal agencies to nearly triple their renewable energy consumption to 20 percent by 2020.
Udall, who has led the effort to set a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), requiring utilities to generate 25 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025, issued the following statement:
“The United States should lead the world in clean energy jobs, innovation and in efforts to fight global Read More
IRS News:
PHOENIX – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced a milestone for IRS e-file: more than 122 million returns were e-filed during 2013.
This year, the IRS received more than 45.2 million returns from those who prepared and e-filed their own returns on home computers, up from 43.2 million a year earlier, an increase of 4.6 percent. E-filed returns from tax professionals increased slightly, totaling more than 77 million returns. Whether they are self prepared or prepared by a tax return preparer, 91 percent of all tax returns filed by individuals are prepared on computers Read More
Artist Taylor Baldry created this Save the Waste watercolor for the PLACE efforts. Courtesy/PLACE
PLACE News:
PLACE, which gave presentations in Los Alamos over the last couple of years is now closer than ever to building the world’s first community powered by organic solid waste.
Imagine homes, makers’ spaces, and businesses being powered in a closed-loop system: waste makes power, community makes waste, which makes more power, and so on. No other municipality is using its organic waste in this way.
This first E-Generation project has the potential to truly change the Read More
U.S. SENATE News:
The following op-ed by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, Mark Udall, and Martin Heinrich about their fight for privacy rights, was published in The New York Times Nov. 26:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — THE framers of the Constitution declared that government officials had no power to seize the records of individual Americans without evidence of wrongdoing, and they embedded this principle in the Fourth Amendment. The bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records — so-called metadata — by the National Security Read More
USDA Rural Development State Director Terry Brunner. Courtesy
USDA News:
ALBUQUERQUE – USDA Rural Development State Director Terry Brunner is urging everyone to support local small businesses this Small Business Saturday celebration this week end.
“Please take time to thank the small business owners in your community for their contributions to the local economy by purchasing their products and services,” Brunner said.
His comments coincide with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) partnership with the White House and the Small Business Administration’s support of small businesses Read More
U.S. SENATE News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Tom Udall issued the following statement announcing his cosponsorship of a resolution to designate Nov. 30, 2013, as “Small Business Saturday” and to increase awareness of the importance of locally owned small businesses. On Saturday, Udall will visit Albuquerque small businesses to talk to owners and shoppers about the important role small business plays in our economy.
“Small businesses have been the economic foundation of communities across America Read More
NNSA News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently successfully recovered a disused, high-activity cesium-137 source from Massachusetts General Hospital in downtown Boston, Mass. and transported it for permanent disposition. Formerly used as a research irradiator for medical studies, the device contained cesium-137, which could be used in a dirty bomb. The removal was part of NNSA’s global campaign to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear and radiological material.
“This operation is a key part of Read More