This week, City Finance Director David Millican announced his resignation. Since Millican says an article in the New Mexican on his resignation “didn’t quite get the quote right,” we thought we’d let him offer some parting thoughts in his own words (edited a little, for clarity).

Without further ado, here’s David Millican on Santa Fe, the economy and the city’s plans to restructure itself:

When I got here in 2008, the real important issues then were getting oriented to the city, installing a new financial system and starting to work on finance department strategic planning, teamwork and customer service issues.

That shortly gave way to three big projects: dealing with the downturn and trying to come up with budget solutions that would minimize the impact on services, the community and on employees. The second one was the preservation of the College of Santa Fe, and the third one was getting a set of water rates passed that resulted in the city getting its first-ever AAA bond rating. Those all took a lot of time. Continue reading »

David Millican

Farewell: David Millican, whom SFR interviewed just last month, is reportedly stepping down from his post as Finance Director for the city of Santa Fe. From today’s New Mexican*:

[Millican] said his decision to leave is partly based on results of a peer review by top administrators preparing to restructure the city organization.

Not sure what that means, exactly, but SFR put a call in to Millican this morning.

Free Stuff: Santa Fe County reported last night that it has received “336 recycle bins from the Aluminum Company of America Recycle bin grant through the New Mexico Recycling Coalition.” Complicated syntax aside, YOU, yes you, can get a free bin! More after the jump. Continue reading »

The image is there, but the video's gone.

In last week’s paper, SFR spoke with Jason Brockhoft, a former contestant on the reality TV show “Bullrun” who wrecked his car and, by his account, nearly came to blows with pro wrestler Bill Goldberg at the old state penitentiary in Santa Fe. This week, Brockhoft posted three YouTube videos chronicling his side of the story.

As of today, all three show up in a YouTube search, but most copies of the videos—which Brockhoft says he’s uploaded repeatedly—yield the following response: This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by BULLRUN LLC.

Pro-choice advocates protesting in January.

This January, SFR reported on a rally for abortion rights. Pro-choice groups worried that with a federal health care bill could come a rollback in women’s right and access to abortion and reproductive health care—a possibility that seems to become more likely by the hour.

Yesterday, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., of the now-infamous Stupak Amendment to forbid federal funding for all insurance plans that allow abortion, said he and 11 other Dems won’t vote for health care unless the Senate bill is equally restrictive. Continue reading »

Dee Gragg, who teaches crop circles and extraterrestrial life at New Mexico State University, scoffs at news that the British government plans to destroy records of UFO sightings. Gragg says civilian databases are expansive enough to fill the void—and as for the things only governments know, “They’re never going to release that [anyway],” Gragg tells SFR.

In the absence of government’s admission that UFOs and ETs exist (what those in the know call “disclosure”), then, Gragg is writing a book on the subject, and he was kind enough to send us the Epilogue, which explains why extraterrestrials will keep coming to earth: They’re worried about our environment! Read excerpts after the jump.

Continue reading »