I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
State Sen. Shannon Robinson is the volunteer coach of the UNM rugby team. The team is not officially part of the UNM Athletic Department.
And the UNM rugby club has received more than 
$450,000 in the past three years, according to the Sunday Albuquerque Journal.
This isn’t the first time Robinson’s propensity for pushing state funds to the UNM Rugby club have been noticed. Earlier this year, Clearly New Mexico’s Parnelli Gonzales wrote about it. Gonzales cited Albuquerque Journal articles here and here from January of this year on a similar subject.
The former begins:
More than $350,000 in state money appropriated for a Southwest studies think tank at the University of New Mexico was funneled to the UNM women’s rugby club to pay for tuition and travel, auditors say.
The team’s coach?
State Sen. Shannon Robinson of Albuquerque, a 19-year Senate veteran, who has also been a strong legislative supporter of the think tank, the Center for Regional Studies.
On a report that aired Sept. 18, 2006, Jeremy Jojola of KOB-TV confronted Robinson about a similar issue. Robinson has apparently not changed his ways since then.
In Jojola’s report, he noted the New Mexico Sports Authority spent $70,000 of $150,000 earmarked for the New Mexico Sports Authority to promote the rugby club for television. The Sports Authority was created to bring big-name sports events to New Mexico.
According to the KOB-TV report, the next-highest expenditure by the New Mexico Sports Authority that year was $10,000 for the Tour de Gila bicycle race.
Robinson is facing a Democratic primary election against Tim Keller for Robinson’s Senate seat.
