National Stories (and not)

Yesterday, May 21, New Mexico made the page one of the Wall Street Journal. The story was about the military "turning into an alternative fuels pioneer." The anecdote starting the story was about Air Force Captain Rick Fournier flying a B-1 stealth bomber over White Sands Missile Range faster than the speed of sound for the first time using fuel that was a mix of a synthetic fuel and regular petroleum fuel. The big news was the "unremarkable" nature of the flight. The military uses 1.5% of the fuel the nation consumes. The push for alternatives is obvious. And there is tax money to spend.

A sidenote, not mentioned in the story, is that Navajo Refining's Artesia facility, not mentioned in the story, is very big on producing jet fuel.

Today, May 20, New Mexico did not make page A4 of the Wall Street Journal. This is curious because the page A4 story was about the race between states to offer ever more generous movie making subsidies. Under the Richardson administration, New Mexico has been a leader in such subsidies. The story was based on a report from Entertainment Partners, which, on it's Web site (www.entertainmentpartners.com), says it is the "largest provider of production management services in the entertainment industry." Though the Wall Street report, headlined "States Race to Woo Producers," EP's did, noting our 25% benefit, er...., kickback, of 25% of qualifying local spending. A bunch of states are kicking up the kickbacks. Michigan was featured. Unable to get attention with a previous set of subsidies, Michigan has upped its ante.