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.
American Insurance Group (AIG) has not gotten a lot of good press or goodwill from Washington, D.C., these past couple of days.
AIG received billions of dollars in a bailout money late last year. Now, they are giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to employees, including to those in the divisions that caused the insurance company to fail.
Earlier today, President Barack Obama said he would pursue “every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.” This seems to be something that U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich would wholeheartedly endorse, according to a statement released by his office.
“I am outraged to learn that AIG would go forward with such extravagant bonuses for its executives at taxpayer expense,” Heinrich said. “I urge the AIG executives to reject these bonuses, and I will work with my colleagues, and the Congressional Leadership, to pursue any available legal options to recover taxpayer funds from companies that abuse taxpayer assistance in this manner.”
And Heinrich isn’t alone. From an Associated Press story:
Leaders of the White House economic team and the Senate’s top Republican bellowed about bonuses at a bailed-out insurance giant and pledged to prevent such payments in the future. From one Sunday talk show to the next, they tore into the contracts that American International Group asserted had to be honored, to the tune of about $165 million and payable to executives by Sunday — part of a larger total payout reportedly valued at $450 million. The company has benefited from more than $170 billion in a federal rescue.
But as Talking Points Memo reported before Obama’s remarks earlier today, AIG CEO Edward Libby was standing firm.
