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.
In an early morning letter, Common Cause New Mexico Executive Director Steve Allen lamented the fact that no ethics reform legislation was discussed “at all” in the state Senate Rules Committee Monday morning, and he speculated that it was because the Independent’s “webcast camera crew” wasn’t present. He wrote:
During the Senate Rules Committee meeting on Monday no ethics reform legislation was discussed at all.
Is it a coincidence that this was the one Rules meeting during the past couple weeks in which the webcast camera crew from the New Mexico Independent wasn’t present?
Hard to say. Today, though, I’m happy to note that the NMI webcast of Senate Rules resumes along with a live blog of the proceedings.
He’s correct, the webcast is under way this very moment. Allen also noted that KUNM would have an audio recording of the committee on its Web site later today.
Webcast or no webcast, Allen goes on to say he can “almost hear the crickets chirping” in Senate Rules these days. The legislators have yet to pass through any major ethics reform bill:
Of course, from our standpoint, watching “the action” in this committee has been roughly analogous to watching grass grow. (I can almost hear the crickets chirping!)
No major ethics reform bill has yet made it out of Senate Rules.
We’ll see what happens today with numerous bills addressing a state contractor contribution ban, general campaign contribution limits, and creation of an independent state ethics commission all on the schedule.
Allen noted that this morning’s list to be heard by Senate Rules contained 28 bills, of which 11 are ethics-related. That’s a lot of ground to cover, he said, in a two-hour meeting that is already starting late.
