Here’s a look at today’s headlines:
It has been about one month since Town of Silver City ordinance 1231 went into effect. This ordinance restricts the use of single-use plastic carryout bags at retail merchants within town limits. All of the major retailers are complying with the ordinance by providing paper bags, boxes, heavyweight reusable plastic bags, or eliminating bags altogether. There are some stores that in the past provided used plastic bags to their customers. To fully comply with the ordinance these stores should not continue to hand out the single-use plastic bags but they can have a bin in the store for customers to leave such bags for other customers to use. For additional information contact the Office of Sustainability at 519-8987.
Luna County Farm Bureau and Lune County 4-H clubs, along with the Deming-Luna County BorderBelles, went on a benefit shopping spree last week thanks to discount shopping at Peppers Supermarket. The shopping carts were filled with food and household items that were then donated to the Healing House, Luna County’s shelter for survivors of domestic violence. Luna County Farm Bureau and 4-H councils both donated $500 to the cause, and the BorderBelles donated $200 worth of beef for the pantry.
In legislative action:
The right-to-work bill was amended on Friday to increase the minimum wage to $8 an hour in order to promote job-creating legislation. The compromise legislation cleared the House Judiciary Committee and will now head to the House floor. Raising the minimum wage to $8 an hour will make New Mexico’s minimum wage the third highest in the region. In addition to giving workers the freedom to choose whether they join a union or financially contribute to one, the legislation would also make New Mexico’s business climate more competitive. States with similar protections are doing better than states without them.
Senator Sue Wilson Beffort of Sandia Park has introduced a bill aimed at saving lives by removing the fear businesses have of placing heart defibrillators in their shops over the threat of being sued. The hope of the legislation is to eliminate such fear and lead to more widespread placement of the life-saving devices. 400-thousand people suffer an out of hospital cardiac arrest every year in the United States. The survival from such an incident in most cities across the country is less than 10-percent. However, in cities like Seattle where there is widespread placement of defibrillators, survival is more than 50-percent. Currently businesses, educational institutions, religious organizations and others are not willing to have the automated external defibrillator or AED because of the fear of being sued.
