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.
Readers of my blog might recall that in 2007 I wrote about the death of Bob Johnson, who was then the head of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG). He was a tireless supporter of opening legislative conference committees to the public and was once berated on the New Mexico Senate floor by an opponent of opening the meetings.
“Bob Johnson, thou art avenged!” was what The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Steve Terrell wrote on his blog last week, after the Legislature, following years and years of debate, approved a bill that would open conference committees and most other legislative meetings to the public.
But Gov. Bill Richardson announced earlier this week that, despite saying for years that he would sign such a bill, he might not sign the bill the Legislature approved this year. So, referring to his prior statement about Johnson, Terrell slammed on the brakes in a column published today in the newspaper and on his own blog.
But first the context, from Terrell:
“Like I said, Johnson fought hard to open the meetings. And sometimes he got kicked in the teeth for his efforts. During his last session, some senators, in defending secret meetings, bashed Johnson, pointing out that FOG was funded by (gasp) newspapers, using a tone of voice as if they were revealing the organization was a front for the Communist Party or something nefarious,” Terrell’s column states. “As I’ve noted before, lawmakers never do this to lobbyists for drug companies, oil companies or developers.”
“But Johnson might not be completely avenged yet. There’s still an opportunity to kick him in the teeth. And the person in the position to do that is Gov. Bill Richardson,” Terrell wrote.
Terrell pointed out, as I just did earlier in this posting, that Richardson has “for years given lip service to open conference committees.”
But now the governor is “backpedaling,” Terrell wrote.
Look for that to be one of the milder things the media says about Richardson if he doesn’t sign the bill.
