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.
Immediately after President Obama wrapped up his town hall meeting on credit card reform last Thursday, I interviewed a random sample of attendees.
The sample included a group of giddy Rio Rancho High School students as well as the smiling 80-year-old Catholic priest from Santa Fe who was picked to give the invocation.
The segment, part of this past weekend’s New Mexico In Focus episode, begins with an excerpt of President Obama’s speech to the packed high school gymnasium.
The new president began by saying how happy he was to be in Rio Rancho — even going so far as to give the so-called City of Vision his best effort at Spanish pronunciation.
While Obama noted that economically ”New Mexico is doing better than many states” — the state has a long history of avoiding both the highs and lows of the national economy — “but it’s tough out there,” he added.
The day’s central message, of course, was the need to reform the way the credit card industry does its business. Obama stated that Americans are putting too many expenses on credit cards nowadays.
“They can’t dig their way out of debt because of unfair practices,” he said. “That’s what I want to talk about today. ”
Talk about it he did. Check out NMI’s wrap-up of the event here.
All in all, it was quite the eloquent — and decidedly populist – dissection of the problem plus an outline for reform.
“These pratices have only grown worse in the midst of this recession,” Obama declared at one point, citing truly egregious practices like hiking your interest rate when you’re late on a payment to a different creditor — or even when you pay your bills on time.
“It’s time for reform,” he added.
KNME’s Kevin McDonald provided the fine camerawork and editing, and the names of the interview subjects at the end of the segment (in order of appearance) are as follows:
Fr. Jim Wolff, pastor of Santa Fe’s Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Community
Darisa Chino, Acoma Pueblo
Debra Lujan, Albuquerque
Shelby Mangin, RRHS
Katie Scheffield, RRHS
Sara Larios, RRHS
Shantel Latham, RRHS
Jerry Skinner, Rio Rancho
Joe Garcia, All Indian Pueblo Council chairman
Vincent Martinez, Santa Fe
Kristina Kershner, Santa Fe
