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.
New Hampshire may be the third state in a month to legalize gay marriage, the New York Times reports. That state’s Senate this afternoon passed a a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry; it will now go back to the New Hampshire House where it is expected to be approved. Gov. John Lynch has not said whether or not he will sign the bill.
According to The Times, the bill’s passage in the Senate was ensured by the addition of an amendment “strengthened language granting legal protections for religious groups and organizations that do not want to perform or otherwise help carry out same-sex marriages.”
Earlier this year in New Mexico, a bill that would have allowed domestic partnerships was defeated in the state Senate, in part due to religious objections.
But Gov. Bill Richardson has said he that the issue could be on the table again in a special session later this year. And as NMI’s David Alire Garcia has reported, supporters of domestic partnership are hopeful that a compromise can be worked out with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which had opposed the bill. Archbishop Michael Sheehan has appointed a committee charged with seeking out a potential compromise with supporters of the original bill.
Debate is still strong within the church, however.
“I think the whole solution on this is for the Catholic Church to get out of the civil marriage business,” Father Stephen Imbarrato of Roy told NMI last week.
