Larry Whitten was brought in to reverse the fortunes of a hotel in Taos, New Mexico.

So he did what any smart businessman would do- he started by pissing off and alienating the heavily-Hispanic staff. Whitten has been successful at turning around other run-down, money bleeding hotels before, but it’s unclear whether obliterating cultural identity among staff has been a winning strategy in the past.

First order of business- staff were forbidden to speak Spanish in his presence. As Whitten doesn’t speak Spanish, he insisted that he was unable to tell if staff were speaking ill of him in their native tongue. Okay, minorly offensive. While not having sufficient English is certainly a difficulty for some people, and Whitten could be painted merely by that as insensitive, it wasn’t the most offensive thing he did.

Next up- your Spanish name is unacceptable. Whitten actually insisted that hotel staff, many of whom had long careers successfully serving guests- “change” their names to suit his idea of a better, whiter staff. Marcos, not a difficult name to pronounce for anyone, would have to be called “Mark” at work. And Martin (pronounced mar-TEEN), would have to defer to plain old Martin during work hours.

Surprisingly, the strict zero-tolerance Latino policy didn’t go over very well. The uber-sensitive staff didn’t like having to hide their country of birth like a prosthetic limb in an Abercrombie & Fitch store. Some employees were fired for- well, it looks like perhaps they were fired for being Hispanic, and Whitten doesn’t get the controversy. He feels he just was plopped down into a “landmine of Anglos versus Spanish versus Mexicans versus Indians versus everybody” and is “doing what he’s always done.”

But fired employee Martin Gutierrez told press that he doesn’t need to “change (his) name and language or heritage,” adding that he’s “professional the way I am.” But as Whitten seems to wonder, is it possible to be both of Hispanic heritage and professional? The mind boggles.

[Source: Star Tribune]

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Yes folks space travel is coming to New Mexico U.S.A. at $200,000 a pop for at best five minutes of free fall in the middle of a two hour flight. As hard as it is to believe there are already 250 people signed up for a trip that is hoped to take place as soon as next year.

That is if construction goes ahead as planned after Gov. Bill Richardson breaks ground on what will become Spaceport America. The construction will include the terminal, hangar facility and a 10,000 foot runway from which the spacecraft will take flight attached to an airplane. Then once airborne it will break away from the aircraft and rocket 62 miles into space before returning to the shiny new terminal.

"It’s real," said Steve Landeene, the spaceport’s executive director. "You’re not talking about things drawn on paper anymore. The boondoggle factor has started to disappear."

The spaceport will operate like an airport, offering a location where aerospace companies can lease building and hangar space. Virgin Galactic, a company owned by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, will be the spaceport’s anchor tenant.

Competitors such as XCOR Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace are developing spacecraft for $95,000 flights. And as flights become more routine, costs should drop.

Similar spaceport ventures are proposed in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and elsewhere. Besides New Mexico, Virgin Galactic also hopes to ferry tourists to space from northern Sweden.

Source: MNN

$200,000 for five minutes of freefall – wow – who said we were in the middle of a recession.

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A New Mexico man pulled over by police for erratic driving apologized by telling officers that he had spilled his beer, and that’s why he was driving the way he was.

The man, who has four previous drink driving convictions was arrested on aggravated drunken driving charges after failing a sobriety test. Officers found four opened bottles of beer in the car.

At least he was honest.

(via)

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