NewMexicoMatters.com

Internet shutdown frustrates Navajo Nation - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Link: Internet shutdown frustrates Navajo Nation - SantaFeNewMexican.com.

All of seventh-grader Nikkolas Page's school assignments are done on the Internet.

He logs on to a computer each day at 1 p.m. at the Inscription House Chapter on the northwestern side of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, downloads his assignments, and when he's done, submits the answers online.

Twice a week, he's required to attend live sessions with other students and teachers.

The 12-year-old was in Flagstaff this past week doing standardized tests required of all Arizona public-school students, but he might find his online schooling is not as easy to do this week.

The chapter house, which operates like a city government, was one of about 70 where Internet service was shuttered a week ago. OnSat Network Communications Inc., the company that had provided the service, said that's because it has not received $2.1 million in federal funds needed to pay a subcontractor for satellite time.

The Universal Service Administration Co., which administers the E-rate program, is withholding the funding because of a tribal audit that showed OnSat may have double-billed the tribe. The audit also raised questions about how the tribe requested bids for the Internet contract.

Mortgage Broker Association Having Problems Paying Mortgage

Link: Housing Crisis Hits Its Own.

A year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association was thrilled to sign a contract to buy a fancy new headquarters building in downtown Washington. Interest rates were low, the group's revenues were steady and the prospects for quickly renting out part of the structure were strong.

But since then, the association has fallen on tough times as many of the subprime mortgages dispensed by some of its members proved dicey. Borrowers discovered the loans were more costly than they had anticipated. Foreclosures soared, and cheap, inexpensive credit dried up, slowing the economy.

The result: The trade group is about to find it harder than it imagined to pay its own mortgage.

Scheduled to close on the building in the coming weeks, the association will have to pay millions of dollars more than it would have a year ago when it contracted to buy the 160,000-square-foot structure -- millions of dollars it is now less able to afford.

The group's leaders defend the transaction as prudent and, in the long run, wise. "Anytime is the best time to buy," said Kieran P. Quinn, chairman of the association. "Over a 10-year horizon, [the purchase] looks great."

But the short run looks a little bumpy. "The association's timing is not good, to say the least," said John E. "Chip" Akridge, a local developer. "I'm sure a year ago they would have rethought their decision if they knew what was going to happen."

Critics also see irony -- and some justice -- in this predicament. "They are certainly getting what they deserve," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal research group. "Mortgage bankers encouraged people to take out mortgages that were very risky, and the result of that was a large number of the mortgages went bad and caused mortgage interest rates to soar. Now they are the victims of high mortgage rates and chaos in the market more generally."

Oil, gas officials voice concern on possible drilling halt - Farmington Daily Times

Link: Oil, gas officials voice concern on possible drilling halt - Farmington Daily Times.

Lines are drawn in a classic northern New Mexico land-use battle as Rio Arriba County Commissioners move to impose a six-month moratorium on new oil and gas drilling. Meanwhile, the Texas company poised to drill in the Tierra Amarilla region of the county is pleading ignorance of the county's environmental concerns.

Rio Arriba County is rooted deeply in land-use issues. It was in Tierra Amarilla that a group of Spanish land grant protesters seized control of the county courthouse June 3, 1967, to focus attention on land-use matters.

If county commissioners follow through with plans to slap a six-month countywide moratorium on oil and gas drilling later this month, oil and natural gas workers in San Juan County stand to take a significant hit, local industry officials claim.

That's because although both counties produce natural gas in the northwest part of New Mexico, only San Juan County is home to the workers whose jobs are in the San Juan Basin's oil and gas patch.