Days remaining in session: 42

•Small is beautiful: The Senate Education Committee on Friday unanimously gave a do-pass recommendation to a bill designed to encourage school districts to build smaller schools.

Senate Bill 2, sponsored by Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, would give school districts an extra 10 percent state match if they build high schools with enrollments of 400-to-900 students or elementary and middle schools with enrollments of 200-to-400 students.

The bill was the brainchild of Think New Mexico. In 2008, the Santa Fe think tank published a policy report analyzing several decades of research on school size. The report concluded that smaller schools tend to have higher graduation rates, less student alienation and violence, and more parental involvement.

•Punish careless drivers: The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee this week gave a do-pass recommendation to a bill that that seeks to strengthen penalties for drivers guilty of careless driving when great bodily harm or death result.

House Bill 68, sponsored by Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque, would add increased penalties for those convicted of careless driving that results in death or serious bodily harm. The current maximum prison time would be increased from 90 days to 364 days, while the fine would go up from $300 to $1,000.

The crime would be a misdemeanor under the bill - though the attorney general and the Department of Public Safety have recommended

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that it be increased to a fourth-degree penalty, which would have greater penalties.

The New Mexico Motorcycle Rights Organization, Duke City Wheelmen Foundation and Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico have endorsed this bill.

Looking ahead

•Both the House and the Senate will reconvene Monday at 11 a.m.

•Why did the gas go off? The House Energy & Natural Resources Committee on Monday will ask this of the New Mexico Gas Co. and the Public Regulation Commission. Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said the committee wants to know the cause of the current gas shortage and how to prevent system failures in the future. The hearing starts at 8 a.m. Monday in the Capitol's Room 315.

•Monday is Culture Day at the Roundhouse. Performances during the lunch hour, noon-1 p.m., will include the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo Community School Dancers and Flamenco's Next Generation, under the direction of Maria Benitez. Also, throughout the day there will be informational exhibits focusing on state-run museums and historic monuments, as well as arts, historic preservation, archaeology and library programs.

•Monday also is Santa Fe Opera Day at the Legislature

•Only one event is on the official Social Calendar. There's a coffee reception sponsored by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Awareness. The even is at the New Mexico Finance Authority, 207 Shelby St.

Quote of the day

"Domestic partnerships could have passed if it went to the Senate floor but we honored the committee system."

- Sen. Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, speaking Friday in opposition to a request by Republicans to send a bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee straight to the Senate floor. Whether the domestic partnership bill actually would have passed is questionable. The previous year a similar bill failed on the Senate floor by eight votes.