No penalties for understaffed private prisons

The New Mexico Corrections Department has not fined two private prison operators for years despite repeated contract violations, costing the state potentially millions of dollars in uncollected penalties, state officials have told The Independent. That has put New Mexico Corrections Secretary Joe Williams on a collision course with state lawmakers. Some legislators say the issue of uncollected penalties is finally coming to a head as New Mexico faces economic difficulties.

Independent Forum:

Primary 2010: winners and losers

According to our panelists, winners include women and Hispanic Republicans. Losers include Libertarian Republicans and policy wonks.

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Barela, Heinrich meet at westside forum

At a forum in Taylor Ranch Wednesday night, Albuquerque’s two congressional candidates met in a community center packed with cheering supporters, but few sparks flew. The two candidates didn’t even directly address each other.


American Cement, residents to form community advisory panels across N.M.

American Cement officials and the Greater Gardner Neighborhood Association met Tuesday night to create a community advisory panel (CAP) to foster communication between the company and neighbors of its cement transfer facility in Albuquerque’s North Valley. The group is to be the first of three in New Mexico and at least five nationwide, company officials said. Some residents expressed optimism that they will now directly engage the company, rather than relying on the City of Albuquerque Air Quality Division to address their community’s needs.


Martinez has high hopes for repeal of medical marijuana

Republican Susana Martinez has said she would work to repeal New Mexico’s medical marijuana program if she’s elected governor. But undoing the state’s three-year-old medical marijuana law would represent a major undertaking. There are only two routes — through the Legislature or voter referendum — and neither would be easy.


Rep. Teague pledges deeper inquiry into treatment for brain-injured soldiers

After conducting his own investigation into medical care at one of America’s largest Army bases, Rep. Harry Teague promised to dramatically expand an inquiry into the treatment of soldiers who have suffered mild traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a letter to medical commanders at Fort Bliss, the third-largest Army base in the country, Teague wrote that he had turned up troubling evidence of systemic problems across the military in the treatment of soldiers suffering lingering cognitive difficulties as a result of roadside blasts.


Martinez would sell the jet, but use the other state planes

Susana Martinez has pledged to sell New Mexico’s state jet if elected—but she told The Independent she would not sell two other aircraft that cost almost as much to operate. Martinez would use the other planes for “emergency situations or official state business that is a priority,” according to her campaign. Flying the jet—a Cessna Citation Bravo—costs $2,852 per hour, compared to $2,346 per hour for the state’s King Air and $2,347 for an older Turbo Commander.


King attempted cover up of allegations against Herrera, attorney says

Attorney General Gary King attempted to cover up allegations of wrongdoing by Secretary of State Mary Herrera to protect Democrats during an election year, an Española attorney charged Thursday. A spokesman for King said the charges amount to election-year mudslinging and are a product of the attorney’s imagination.


Blue Cross customers protest rate hike at hearing in Santa Fe

A contentious all-day hearing Wednesday left many Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico customers saying they see little hope for relief from a controversial 21.3 percent increase in their health insurance premiums. Even though the company’s cash reserves have now reached $7.2 billion, an expert witness for the Attorney General’s office’s, who reiterated earlier testimony that Blue Cross had not sufficiently documented its claimed cost figures, and whose analysis found the insurer’s rate filing had exaggerated company losses, said the 21 percent increase was “reasonable, given the circumstances.”


Social Security cuts threaten low-income seniors more

Raising the retirement age to 70 would disproportionately affect lower income seniors who work in physically demanding jobs they likely wouldn’t be able to continue through their 60s. Already, two-thirds of non-disabled workers choose to start getting lower benefits at 62 instead of waiting for full benefits at 65. And although the average lifespan has increased by about seven years since Social Security’s creation, the poorest 20 percent of Americans are living just two years longer


King, Chandler tangle over driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants

New Mexico should create two types of drivers’ licenses – one for American citizens and another for non-citizens, Attorney General Gary King said Wednesday. King’s Republican opponent, Matt Chandler, the district attorney in the 9th Judicial District, says the law creates a breeding ground for crime and he’d work to repeal it if elected.


Most NM congressional candidates say no to raising social security age

House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner said earlier this summer that if the Republicans regain control of the House this year, among the initiatives they would likely consider would be raising the age of social security retirement to 70. Most New Mexico congressional candidates, including incumbent Democrats Martin Heinrich and Harry Teague, as well as Republican challengers Jon Barela and Steve Pearce, offered varying degrees of resistance to that idea. Democrat Ben Ray Lujan was vague in his answer, while his challenger, Tom Mullins, said the retirement age will “undoubtedly” be raised.


Denish, Martinez support more funding for state auditor

Democrat Diane Denish and Republican Susana Martinez both say if elected governor they would support sending more money to the agency, which despite its oversight role and several high-profile corruption scandals, has endured deep budget cuts in recent years. The New Mexico Livestock Board and the Gaming Control Board work with annual budgets nearly double the size of the State Auditor’s office. Even Legislative Building Services at the State Capitol, at $4 million, gets more money.


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SOS: Is Mary Herrera’s ship sinking?

Things just keep getting worse for embattled New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera. Last night, in an incredible report, KUNM’s Jim Williams talked to current and former employees who describe the office as “dysfunctional.” And that was the nicest thing they could say. The employees—and Democratic county clerks—eviscerate her. I can’t even pull a quote from the story—every line is devastating. You can read it or listen to it here.

Meanwhile, a story published today in the Rio Grande Sun details nearly 200 pages of Secretary of State’s office e-mails anonymously leaked to the paper. (Spoiler alert!) Here’s a taste: “Office email shows Administrator Manny Vildasol caught resistance from other staff in April as he verified Office employees were on the clock while they prepared for Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s past campaign events. He also complained in later emails that the Office’s formal inquiries into election law violations were handled out of order, giving the appearance that certain cases were given priority for political reasons.”


National debt: cuts, tax increases must be considered, Domenici says

Speaking at the Domenici Public Policy Conference at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, Former New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici said the federal deficit is the most important issue facing the country today, according to NMPolitics.net.

Saying the national debt must be faced like a war, Domenici insisted that the country must consider all options, including cuts to existing spending—and tax increases.
More »


Denish: Malott ’should have resigned a long time ago’

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, said in a statement released Thursday morning that she was “angry and disappointed” upon learning of Bruce Malott’s decision to borrow money from Anthony Correra. Here’s the whole statement:

“When I learned about this loan in today’s paper, it made me angry and disappointed — and New Mexicans have every right to be angry about this as well,” said Denish. “Obviously Mr. Malott knew this was a clear conflict that should have been disclosed. He should have disclosed it and resigned a long time ago.”

We’ll post Republican gubernatorial nominee Susana Martinez’s statement regarding the situation when we get it.


Bruce Malott quits ERB, citing loan from Correra

Bruce Malott, chairman of the Educational Retirement Board (ERB), abruptly resigned his post Wednesday after media inquiries from the Albuquerque Journal about a loan he received from the father of a man who received $22 million in so-called third-party marketing fees, The Journal reports in a blockbuster story.

Malott acknowledged to the Journal receiving a $350,000 loan from Anthony Correra, father of Marc Correra who shared in the fees paid out from dozens of investment deals involving the ERB and the State Investment Council.

Malott told the Journal he had no idea at the time that Marc Correra was receiving the fees from the ERB, an agency he was charged with helping to oversee. More »


Heinrich leads Barela in American Action Forum poll

Freshman Democrat Martin Heinrich leads Jon Barela, his Republican challenger, by 49-42 percent, according to a poll of 400 voters released today by the conservative group American Action Forum. The poll (pdf) was conducted from August 23-26 and August 29, with a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent.

The poll also shows that a Democrat leads the “generic ballot” in the district 40-36 percent, despite a historic lead by Republicans on the Gallup generic ballot nationwide.

The results indicate that Barela is less well known than Heinrich, who was elected in 2008;  52 percent of those polled had never heard of Barela, while an additional 17 percent had no opinion of him. Meanwhile, just 3 percent had never heard of Heinrich, with 46 percent had a favorable opinion of him and 39 percent had an unfavorable opinion. More »


Illegal immigration drops by 57%

The flow of unauthorized immigration slowed by nearly two-thirds between 2007 and 2009, according a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. The slowdown is the first significant dip in immigration over the past 20 years.

The report, released Wednesday, also showed that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the Mountain states (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) declined by 160,000, to 1 million, from 2008 to 2009.

More »


GOP takes historic lead in generic ballot polling

A major national poll revealed on Monday that right now, Republicans have a major national advantage over Democrats. According to the Gallup “generic ballot” poll asks respondents if they would rather vote for an unnamed Democrat or Republican for Congress. The latest results, released Monday, showed that Republicans lead by 51 to 41 percent. That 10-point lead is the largest since Gallup has been asking the question.

Whether that sounds to you like good news or bad news, it’s best not to take the numbers for granted, says Fox News commentator (and Democrat) Susan Estrich. More »


Richardson uses stimulus money to prevent furloughs in executive branch, courts

Gov. Richardson announced today that he will allocate $1.4 million in federal stimulus money to prevent furloughs in some courts and state agencies in the executive branch.

About a third of the money, $450,000, will go to prevent layoffs and furloughs at Magistrate Courts; District Courts Bernalillo County, Curry County and San Juan County; and Metro Court in Albuquerque.

The other two-thirds, $925,000, will be used to avoid furloughs or layoffs at state agencies in the executive branch, including state museums and monuments and the Alcohol and Gaming Division.


News from around New Mexico

Heath Haussamen has an excellent rundown on the Baby Brianna brouhaha today. (Spoiler: He says Sen. Garcia is full of it.)

Democrats will be listed first and Republicans second on the Nov. 2 ballot after positions were determined by a drawing, the AP reports.

Gov. Richardson announced today that an 82 more National Guard soldiers have been posted to the border.

Employee tips on wasteful spending at the City of Albuquerque are up by more than 1,000 percent, KOAT reports.

The DOT removed another “ghost bike,” erected to memorialize a 19-year-old bicyclist killed on Laguna Pueblo in June.


American Cement, residents to form community advisory panels across N.M.

Home video taken by a resident in 2008 showed fugitive dust at the cement transfer station.

American Cement officials and the Greater Gardner Neighborhood Association met Tuesday night to create a community advisory panel (CAP) to help the company minimize neighborhood impacts from the company’s transfer facility in Albuquerque’s North Valley.

The North Valley group will be just one of three CAPs planned for New Mexico and at least five nationwide, parent company Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) Environment Manager Kevin M. Adams told The Independent — part of the company’s new push to build community trust and good will in the face of new federal restrictions on pollution from cement facilities.

The groups will cut out regulators and allow residents and company officials to communicate directly and regularly — a welcome development, according to several residents who attended the meeting.

“We’re working on a corporate sustainability plan on social, economic and environmental sustainability,” Adams said. “Being a good neighbor affects the business. Right now if we asked to expand operations, the community would say no. But if two years from now, if we’ve earned their trust, the answer might be different.”

The other community groups will be established in Tijeras – home to GCC’s cement kiln — and Elida, N.M., home of another cement transfer facility. CAPs are being organized in Colorado and South Dakota, Adams said.

Residents and state lawmakers said they were cautiously optimistic about the CAP’s prospects after Wednesday’s meeting, the creation of which follows a series of contentious meetings last year over the company’s operations schedule, air pollution and asthma rates that pitted residents against company officials and City of Albuquerque Air Quality Division staffers.

“I can’t speak for everybody here, but speaking for myself, this is empowering for people in the community,” resident Byron Gatwood said after the meeting. “We’re dealing directly with the company now. This came about as a result of our feeling the (Albuquerque) Air Quality Division was not advocating for the community.”

Air Quality Division officials did not attend the meeting.

“I came to see how the process is going,” state Rep. Ed Sandoval, D-Albuquerque, said. “I think it’s a good starting point — a good first step.”

The CAP is the first such group since a 1970s partnership between area residents and a sawmill, Sen. Dede Feldman told The Independent.

The meeting was first of several planned for the creation of the CAP, and focused on a draft charter and discussions about the reporting to neighbors and city air quality officials of pollution events at the transfer station. After residents have read and responded to the draft charter, the group will meet again to agree on a final structure for the group.

The CAP should have a formal mechanism for conflict resolution between residents and the company, Feldman and some residents said. When conflicts on the CAP cannot be resolved, residents may have no recourse other than to attend public permit hearings to lodge their complaints, Adams acknowledged.

Part of the mission of the CAP was to improve company transparency and communication with the community, Adams and spokesman José Madera said.

Madera presented the latest chemical analyses of heavy metals in the cement and fly ash transported at the facility. The data indicated an increased concentration of lead and arsenic over previous months’ lab tests, but company officials said they would discuss the lab tests in detail at a future meeting.

Asked about the volume of material handled at the transfer station, Madera said that information is “proprietary” and the company would hesitate to release it.

“That information would be useful to our competitors,” Madera said. “We’d hesitate because of the competitive disadvantage in these hard economic times.”

“Industrial spying does happen,” Adams added. “I’ve had a competitor hire a law firm to check on our air permit filings each month just in case we let some confidential business information slip.”

Asked by North Valley Coalition president Chris Catechis if company representatives on the CAP would have “full authority and backing to reach agreements,” Adams said that “really important” decisions will require company approval.

The company is installing fugitive dust detectors on its storage silos, Madera said.

“We hope to have that done by the end of this week,” Madera said.

But the company has no plans to install dust detectors on the facility’s perimeter fence, as some residents had asked, he said to the frustration of some in the audience.

“If we had a fence-line monitor, we’d have a better idea of what gets out when ‘exceedence’ events occur,” said Kristine Suozzi of the New Mexico Health Equity Working Group. But the company’s current agreement with the neighborhood association only requires monitors on the silos, Adams said.

Such an “exceedance” occurred Aug. 4, when employees created a plume of cement dust while cleaning a truck at the transfer facility, Madera acknowledged.

Greater Gardner Neighborhood Association board member Kyle Silfer played a videotape for the audience, showing a thick plume of dust drifting across the facility.

The neighborhood association told plant officials about the event Aug. 25, and the company had notified the Air Quality Division by Aug. 26, Madera said.

“These events occurred at a higher rate two or three years ago,” Madera said. “Now it’s becoming more sporadic. GCC’s working toward zero emissions. We want to be good corporate citizens. These events cost us money.”

“The Aug. 4 emissions event recorded on video would not have been mitigated by the new bag leak detectors,” Silfer noted. “Just more evidence that this facility’s location near so many residences is inherently problematic.”

North Valley residents would like to coordinate with the other CAPs, Silfer said.

Tijeras and Elida residents may contact Silfer at ggna@macmountain.org or GCC Environmental Manager Kevin Adams at kadams@gcc.com or (303) 359-8071.


Man who threatened judge could have faced a stiffer sentence

A Chimayó man who admitted to threatening a state court judge would have faced felony charges, and more time behind bars if convicted, had the Legislature passed legislation earlier this year raising the punishment for such threats, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.

Instead, Steven Anthony Martinez, who admitted late Monday to making a pair of threatening phone calls directed at state District Judge Michael Vigil, faces misdemeanor charges, according to the paper. More »


No medical pot at two dozen ABQ apartment complexes?

Renters at 23 apartment complexes in Albuquerque must sign agreements by today to not grow or use medical marijuana where they live or face eviction according to a memo from the manager of the complexes, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting.

Monarch Properties Inc., the management company, is pushing the agreements because many of the complexes it oversees are federally financed or subsidized, the Journal quotes the company’s attorney as saying. Growing or using marijuana, for any purpose, is still illegal under federal law.

It is unclear how many renters living in complexes managed by Monarch have signed the agreements, the paper reports.

The firm’s ultimatum exposes the tension between a 2007 New Mexico law that allows patients with certain illnesses to use medical marijuana as a way to dull pain often associated with the diseases and federal law, which still outlaws the use of cannabis despite 14 states passing laws allowing for its medicinal use. More »


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