Me too.

Provided I don’t oversleep, I’ll be on the Stuart Stein Show, 1550AM Albuquerque, tomorrow at 7 a.m. to talk about this week’s SFR cover story on “pay to play” in New Mexico.

It can be “a challenge to get up that early. But there are some benefits,” Stein writes. “The personnel at Starbucks on San Mateo & I-25 know my car and get my triple shot Venti non-fat latte ready as I drive into their parking lot at 5:45 am. Early risers have a special connection to each other.”

Tonight is the big night for Albuquerque’s Felix y Gatos. The band is one of the most solid acts that plays around town, the kind of group I never go out my way to see live but have stopped dead in my tracks to listen to as they rocked their funky zydeco, Americana, polka-tinges swing. But tonight at the Cowgirl the dance party will be even more hoppin’ as the band releases its demo CD into the world and is joined by Sharon Gilchrist.

The show starts around 8 and costs a well-worth it $5!

The demo is a solid effort from a band that has managed to capture its fun improvisational style without losing an ounce of spontenaety. Felix y Gatos will have you dancing and purring into the night.

This just in from the attorney for Frank Foy, the former investment officer with the state Educational Retirement Board who sued the state for allegedly making a bad investment with a campaign donor to Gov. Bill Richardson: A supboena.

“The subpoena seeks to discover who contributed to Moving America Forward Foundation (MAFF), a purported nonprofit organization that has been linked to Gov. Richardson and his political campaigns. MAFF has not disclosed its contributors,” the press release states.

Specifically, the subpoena demands:

* Names of foundation directors and managers, and copies of any minutes or notes of any meetings.

* Contributions and expenditures, receipts and disbursements, including contributions “discussed but never made.”

* All employee records, plus financial or tax records.

* Any contracts in excess of $1,000.

More after the cut.

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Gov. Bill Richardson’s office just announced that he’ll be cutting pay for 470 top-level state workers, reducing his own security detail (beyond the guard who resigned after getting involved in that nasty hit-and-run case) and limiting the use of state-owned aircraft.

Also, fewer parties at the Guv’s Mansion.

Full press release after the cut.
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They were there to roll out some details on New Mexico’s share of the $800 billion-jillion federal stimulus package, which passed the House yesterday, and may pass the Senate within a couple of weeks.
“Details” isn’t the right word. Mostly, they had a list of numbers.
Here are some of them:

Transportation: $334 million, including $281 million for highways and bridges, and $24 million for transit projects.
K-12 education: $329 million, including $114 million for “modernization, renovation and repair.”
Higher ed: $40 million.
Early childhood programs: $23 million, including $6 million for Head Start.
Community services: $6 million.
Seniors: $7 million.
Health care: $5 million.
State fiscal stabilization: $419 million.
Employment and training: $16 million.
Justice Assistance Grant funding: $46 million.
Relief for jobless workers: $25 a week increase in unemployment benefits (70,000 workers eligible); plus the emergency unemployment compensation program (14,000 workers eligible).

Those categories are a little vague, eh?

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