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.
If the prospect that legislators will really throw down with the nonprofit sector this year is keeping you up at night, you might want to head over to Clearly New Mexico for some excellent blogging by Eli Il Young Lee. At the center of the controversy, Lee is also a longtime analyst of how power really works at the Roundhouse. His collection of blogs about the nonprofit sector offers not only a stringent defense, but a glimpse of how leadership at the Roundhouse goes about it’s business.
Lee kicked off musings about bills targeting nonprofit speech on March 5 when he dubbed one effort the “politician protection act of 2009.” He then explained how the “hidden hand of leadership” at the state Legislature works — aka “manipulation, maneuvers, and Manny.” By Monday Lee had really found his blogging chops, spelling out for us that “free speech means the right to criticize politicians — and NM politicians don’t like it.” Finally, after the seeming demise of HB 808, Lee couldn’t help but wonder if the “Leprechauns in the Roundhouse” will “have a treasure crock buried somewhere in the form of a dummy bill or floor amendment to bring back the Politician Protection Act? We have 5 days to find out.”
Moving along. …
In light of the sentencing of former state Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon for corruption this week, I thought I’d revisit a blog from one of my favorite Albuquerque bloggers — Scot Key — who had a FIT when Aragon confessed:
“Manny, your trial was going to be that diversion … and now …. nothing.
“And all just because of some frivolous facts like you were quite obviously guilty as Hell, and just about every other defendant had flipped to testify against you. So what? Like some great new Broadway show canceled at the last minute because the play sucked, we the clamoring public are left empty, catharsis-less, deprived of schadenfreude.”
Sorry. I know it isn’t funny, but sometimes a little humor is necessary. I recommend you click over for the entire absurdity.
By the way, there are a couple new blogs you might want to check out.
First, former NMI writer Benito Aragon has a new site called Local Dialogue. It’s actually more than a blog, but has some excellent blogging by Aragon already. The site is really inviting, I think, and mixes politics, art and culture nicely.
Also, Winthrop Quigley, business writer at the Albuquerque Journal, is now blogging on that paper’s Web site. All you nerdy economists and tax policy junkies will for sure want to check it out.
