Longtime Navajo tribal worker remembered

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - A Navajo tribal worker of 27 years is being heralded as a champion for environmental issues.

The Navajo Nation says Arlene Luther died earlier this week after a brief illness.

Navajo President Joe Shirley Junior says Luther was among the first generation of environmental professions who has set an incredibly high standard for those who follow her.

Luther served as the department manager for the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency's Waste Regulatory Compliance Department.

Navajo EPA executive director Stephen Etsitty says Luther was instrumental in convincing the U.S. EPA that it had a responsibility to clean up radium-contaminated soil from the abandoned Northeast Church Rock Mine near Gallup.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

* Dine CARE offers its condolences to the Luther Family, Friends, and Kin. *

Richardson Expected to Give Up White House Bid

By Jeff Jones and Michael Coleman
Journal Staff Writers

Stung by dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, and scraping the bottom of his campaign war chest, Gov. Bill Richardson apparently is ending his bid for the presidency.

Richardson's national campaign finance chairman, Ed Romero of Albuquerque, told the Journal on Wednesday that he has been informed the governor will have a news conference today announcing his decision to withdraw from the race for the Democratic nomination.

Romero added that he is already making calls on behalf of Hillary Clinton, who won the New Hampshire primary election Tuesday.

"I have not spoken with the governor, but I do have information that he is to announce in the morning his withdrawal from the race," Romero said.

Although Richardson's campaign spokesman Tom Reynolds refused to confirm anything to the Journal— "The campaign has no comment," he said Wednesday— The Associated Press also reported late Wednesday that Richardson would throw in the towel.

The AP cited two unnamed people close to the governor in New Hampshire as its sources in reporting that Richardson would announce the decision today.

Richardson's results fell far short of his stated goals in both early states, despite having spent most of his time and money in Iowa and New Hampshire.

He apparently was unable to afford television advertising in the waning days of the New Hampshire campaign. But he said before leaving the Granite State that he would continue campaigning for the nomination in Nevada, where Democrats hold caucuses on Jan. 19.

Told by a Journal reporter late Tuesday as he was leaving New Hampshire that some people had suggested it was time to quit the race, Richardson said, with a hint of annoyance, "What people? Who's saying that?

"We're going to spend a couple days in New Mexico and then get ready for Nevada. I want to see how we do out West," he said.

No 'grand delusions'
Romero, former ambassador to Spain and longtime New Mexico political kingmaker, said he's proud of how Richardson ran his campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

"He was a long shot. We didn't go into this with any grand delusions," he said. "I'm very proud of the campaign he ran, how he ran it. It just wasn't in the cards."

The AP said the governor's decision was reached after a meeting with his top advisers Wednesday in New Mexico. But Governor's Office spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said in Santa Fe on Wednesday evening, "No decision has been made."

The report followed Richardson's 5 percent finish in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the second major voting event of the 2008 presidential season.

The New Hampshire performance was his second fourth-place finish in less than a week. Richardson won only 2 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3.

Richardson flew home to New Mexico on Tuesday night, but he remained out of reporters' view Wednesday.

'The right decision'
A 30-day session of the New Mexico Legislature convenes in Santa Fe on Tuesday.

"I think the governor is making the right decision," said Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff of Research and Polling Inc.

"He should be remembered as the candidate who for most of the race was at the top of the second tier," Sanderoff said. "He shouldn't be remembered as the candidate who stayed in too long."

Richardson formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in January 2007 and spent most of last year away from New Mexico on the campaign trail.

Richardson said in advance of both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary that he needed to finish in the top three of each contest, but he ran fourth in both events, with Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards continuing to dominate the race.

Richardson only briefly climbed out of the single digits in the polls and turned in uneven performances in televised debates.

He arrived in New Hampshire on Friday politically wounded from the distant fourth-place finish in Iowa. He was one of the four candidates in Saturday night's Democratic debate in New Hampshire, and many New Hampshire voters told him it was his best debate performance of the campaign.

Richardson spent the bulk of his time and money in Iowa, but he also invested heavily in New Hampshire, with a paid staff of more than 40 and eight field offices.

Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire seemed to enjoy the affable governor and spoke highly of his credentials as a governor, former congressman, U.N. ambassador, energy secretary and diplomatic troubleshooter.

It became clear quickly that candidates like Clinton and Obama were stirring more excitement, and Richardson often joked that "I'm not a rock star."

But Richardson, already well-known as a tireless campaigner, vowed to outwork the other candidates.

In the end, his personality, experience and plain old hard work couldn't trump the broad name recognition and well-honed messages of his better-funded Democratic rivals.

His presidential bid shortfalls in New Hampshire and Iowa were his first political losses since his very first race in New Mexico, when he lost the 1980 contest for the 1st Congressional District seat to longtime incumbent Rep. Manuel Lujan Jr., R-N.M.

Journal staff writer Trip Jennings contributed to this report.

Source: http://staci-on-water.livejournal.com/tag/desert+rock
____
A little caution

Dear water folks,

[EXCERPT -- CLIP]

Finally, I've been asked by someone close to the Navajo water rights settlement to reiterate that the settlement is not connected to the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant on Navajo land near Shiprock. They are two separate issues.
Each will be decided on its merits.

However....it is in the long run years ahead where they may be connected.

The Navajo-Gallup water pipeline, if it is ever built, will run down the road a few miles from the proposed power plant. If the power plant ever ran into water problems, it conceivably could lease water from the tribe, since the tribe will also own part of the power plant.

Desert Rock ostensibly, if it is every built, will derive its water from deep underground aquifers which are not hydrologically connected to the San Juan River. Supposedly. I'm not a hydrologist and I haven't looked at all the hydrology reports, but the word of caution here again is: San Luis Valley Closed Basin Project.

Sometimes it can take increased, long term use and a long term drought to show hydrologists best estimates were wrong. That's what happened in San Luis and now they have a mess.

Just pays to be super cautious when it comes to planning big water projects.

The list of "cancelled coal plant" articles on this page includes coal plant proposals that have been rejected by regulators, abandoned by utilities, switched to natural gas projects, or placed on hold due to regulatory, financial, or other problems.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Cancelled_coal_plants