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.
So how does Stephen Flance, the chairman of the New Mexico Finance Authority, know that the FBI has completed its investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the state agency’s deals?
Flance told state lawmakers that the FBI had completed its investigation and that the findings were with the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington. Flance later said Wednesday afternoon that the agency’s general counsel, Rey Romero, had informed him of the news.
Romero, standing next to Flance in a Roundhouse hallway, wouldn’t say who he had talked to or how he had gotten the information. But when asked if he trusted the source and the information that person was telling him, Romero said, “Yes.”
Federal prosecutors have been looking into a lucrative contract that the New Mexico Finance Authority awarded to the California company — CDR Financial Inc. — that made big contributions to political action committees formed by Gov. Bill Richardson.
Flance told lawmakers Wednesday that FBI agents had interviewed several staff and board members affiliated with NMFA. He said later that no one currently associated with NMFA had been asked to testify before the grand jury.
During the course of the federal investigation the state finance authority has turned over reams and reams of information to the grand jury, Flance said.
During his testimony before lawmakers, Flance said “With some level of confidence, I can say no one who is currently with the authority is under any suspicion … of being involved in wrongdoing.”
The names of Dave Contarino, Gov. Bill Richardson’s former chief of staff, and David Harris have come up in media reports about the investigation.
Harris worked at NMFA until 2004.
In January, the investigation into CDR’s contract forced Richardson to withdraw as President Obama’s nominee for U.S. commerce secretary.
