Oil and gas pipeline fatalities peak in NM, Tex., study finds

Diane Denish would not sell the New Mexico state jet if she’s elected governor, her campaign told The Independent Thursday.

“Because of the sheer number of similar jets that are currently on the market, Diane does not believe now is a good time to sell the jet,” Denish said in a statement released by her campaign.

The lieutenant governor also defended her use of the jet, saying, “New Mexico is more than just Santa Fe and Albuquerque, …Many of the trips I have taken were small business forums to bring small businesses together and help them find access to capital and cut red tape. I will never stop advocating for rural New Mexico — and to advocate for rural New Mexico, sometimes you have to get out to rural New Mexico.”

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New Mexico should shift its state fleet to high-efficiency vehicles, increase the number of tax credits available to clean energy companies and make a priority out of starting a green-job business incubator, according to a green jobs plan Lt. Gov. Diane Denish laid out Thursday.

Denish also advocated using a portion of tax revenue to pay for incentives and programs focused on helping to fund renewable-energy products and creating “centers of excellence” for green-energy development at the state’s research universities. More »

Planned Parenthood is organizing a rally of abortion rights supporters in Albuquerque this Friday. The rally comes after a controversial anti-abortion rights group, Operation Rescue, moved into Albuquerque and ramped up protests at local clinics.

After Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered at his church, two of the doctors who worked with him began working with Dr. Curtis Boyd in Albuquerque. Subsequently, Operation Rescue announced it was sending two “missionaries” to set up a satellite office in Albuquerque.

New Mexico Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Lujan has co-signed a House Bill that would add a public option to the recently passed health care reform bill.

As The Washington Independent reported today, House Democrats have returned to a top liberal priority that didn’t make it into the final health care reform bill.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that offering a public option alongside private plans in states’ health care exchanges would reduce the federal deficit by $68 billion between 2014 and 2020.

Public support for federal health care reform, passed this year by Congress, has remained stable and opposition has dipped slightly over the past month.

That’s according to a tracking poll released this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit focused on health care, showing the percentage of people who view the law unfavorably decreased by 6 points to 35 percent over the past month, while support remained stable at around 50 percent. More »

New Mexico Republican gubernatorial candidate  Susana Martinez told The Independent Wednesday that she’d sell the state jet. Her remarks came after KRQE-TV investigative reporter Larry Barker’s report earlier this week that since 2006, the bill for Democrat Lt. Gov. Diane Denish’s state aircraft usage was $367,236. Barker also she he had found that Denish had flown on state planes 39 times in violation of state regulations requiring cost-efficient use of aircraft.

But the Denish campaign won’t say what kind of policy she’d have for the state if she becomes governor. The Independent twice posed the question to a campaign spokesman Wednesday. Both times he ignored the query.

The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission has published a report about race relations in towns bordering the reservation. The commission conducted 25 listening sessions over the course of a year, hearing from anyone who chose to speak about racism and discrimination. Of the 25 towns highlighted in the report, 12 are in New Mexico. The process was described as an opening of “forbidden doors” against candid discussions of racism and discrimination, which the commission says will thrive among mankind until it’s collectively acknowledged and eliminated.

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KOB-TV reports the union workers of the Bernalillo Counter Water Utility Authority are suing the Water Utility Authority in hopes to prevent their contracts from expiring before they finish negotiating pay raises.

According to an analysis by RealtyTrac, home foreclosures in Santa Fe have skyrocketed in the first half of 2010 with an increase of more than than 200 percent in total foreclosure activity. That’s in today’s Santa Fe New Mexican.

The Las Vegas Optic has a story about Mayor Alfonso Ortiz, who has announced he won’t run for a second term after feeling satisfied that he made positive change in the city such as raising taxes and utilities fees.

In a meeting last night, the Socorro Electric Cooperative’s Board of Trustees discussed dropping the co-op’s lawsuit against its member-owners who demanded the board adhere to new transparency bylwas, reports El Defensor Chieftain.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will co-host a Border Governors Conference on September 19-20 in Santa Fe. Leaders from Mexico and U.S. border states will discuss border security, economic development and energy.

The meeting will be paid for by Govs. Richardson and Schwarzenegger, but mostly the money will come from private sponsors, according a press release from Richardson’s office. It was originally scheduled to be held in Arizona, but Gov. Jan Brewer canceled the meeting after several officials said they would boycott because of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

A federal judge in Arizona has blocked some of the most controversial elements of an immigration law that goes into effect tomorrow.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the state from requiring that people carry proof of their immigration status and to prevent law enforcement officers from being required to ask about immigration status when they stop people.

Susana Martinez, GOP nominee for governor, said Wednesday that she’d sell New Mexico’s state jet.

“The jet will be sold,” Martinez said at a late morning press conference. “No one in state government is above the law. It’s this attitude of being above the law that we need to get rid of in state government.”

Martinez made the statement following the disclosure that the bill for Lt.Gov.  Diane Denish’s use of the state’s fleet of aircraft since 2006 was $367,236, according to a report by KRQE-TV.

The New Mexico governor’s race has gotten more competitive lately, according to Washington Post political writers Chris Cilizza and Dan Balz, who today moved it from “lean Democratic” to “toss-up.”

The paper rates Senate and governor’s races across the country. Here’s their take on New Mexico: “National Republicans did everything they could to ensure that Dona Ana District Attorney Susana Martinez won the June Republican primary. And, for good reason. Even Democrats acknowledge that Martinez is a quality candidate against Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.”