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.
First, Laura Paskus at Environmental News for New Mexicans points us to a study showing that residents of Rio Arriba County have some of the highest body levels of uranium on record in the United States — nine times higher than the national average. Yikes.
Let me back up to Jim Baca’s December 23 post about “Senate Confirmed Positions.” Baca says he knows “a couple of New Mexico people” who are considering taking jobs in the Obama administration that would require confirmation by the Senate (who could they be?). Baca then gives us two lists detailing the pros and cons of such jobs, that are both funny and interesting…coming from a former director of the Bureau of Land Management.
Over on ‘Burque Babble, Scot Key takes “Feudal Prince Marty” — also known as Albuquerque’s mayor — to task. Why? For comparing the test scores for AIMS (Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science) 11th graders to those of APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) high school juniors in general. As have APS administrators, Key notes that Mayor Martin Chavez is basically comparing apples and oranges:
…there’s no mystery, Marty, when you have 32, as you note, “motivated students,” willingly attending an “Institute for Math/Science” scoring better overall on standardized tests than 4,526 APS 11th graders with wide-ranging “motivations,” many of which do not include college, math, science or anything past struggling to graduate high school. How many identified “Special Education” students took the SBA at AIMS Marty? How many “English Language Learners”?
Mark Bralley has a great photo essay about the Rail Runner that you won’t want to miss. His pictures are great, and his discussion of the issues concerning the costs of the Rail Runner is interesting — including a comparison of Albuquerque in terms of mass transit to the cities that exceeded us on the Forbes ranking of the cities making the highest requests for infrastructure dollars from the Obama administration. Albuquerque was No. 5.
Finally, Mario Burgos notes that there don’t appear to be any Republicans on the list of potential candidates for lieutenant governor. So, he says, while he knows it’s a hard job, he’s willing to serve.
Add him to the list.
