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 Rep. Dennis Kintigh says he’s interested in joining Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones in webcasting audio and video live from House committee meetings, but he’s not quite ready to commit to doing it.
Kintigh, a Republican from Roswell, says he has asked for some help with getting equipped to webcast and needs some training on how to do it. He’s also hoping it won’t be too distracting from his committee work.
“The engineer in me wants to test it out before I move forward or commit to doing this,” Kintigh said. “Also, I have not discussed this with the committee chairs, so I’m not sure if it will be permitted.”
On Wednesday the Santa Fe Reporter reported that Kintigh and Candy Spence Ezzell, another Roswell Republican, might start webcasting and that the tech guy who helped Arnold-Jones start the legislative webcasting revolution in Santa Fe had already equipped laptops for both.
Kintigh sits on the Health and Government Affairs and Judiciary committees. Ezzell sits on the House Energy and Natural Resources and Labor and Human Resources committees.
Kintigh said he wants to webcast committee meetings because he believes in transparency. He said that’s why he has sponsored House Bill 452, which would require all state and local government agencies in New Mexico develop a budget database on the Department of Finance and Administration’s Web site that would make all financial information about government in New Mexico easily accessible to the public.
He’s right about needing the permission of committee chairs. The House resolution approved earlier in the session allowing official audio webcasting from the House floor also gives committee chairs the discretion to decide whether to allow webcasting of their committee meetings.
By the way, you can view the Arnold-Jones webcasts right here.
