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.
Sen. Barack Obama’s visit to Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque’s South Valley got plenty of media attention in the traditional media and blogosphere today, including these stories in The Albuquerque Journal and The Santa Fe New Mexican. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee followed his script leading up to the Democratic National Convention that begins next week in Denver, tying Sen. John McCain at every turn to the Bush administration and GOP political operatives.
Gov. Bill Richardson gave Obama a warm introduction, and Obama returned the favor by gushing about Richardson, but of course there was no mention of a possible slot in the Obama Cabinet or White House.
Obama also met with Navajo and pueblo leaders during his South Valley visit, apparently trying to shore up support in the American Indian communities of New Mexico even as he sought to improve his relationship with the Hispanic community. There is concern that voters in those groups, particularly older voters, may be reluctant to support an African-American candidate. That was the message in the trip to Española on Monday by Sen. Hillary Clinton — bypassing the low-hanging fruit in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Los Alamos, and heading directly to the villages where it is hoped that locals will rally around Obama and spread the word to friends and relatives.
McCain on the way
John McCain brings his own version of the campaign to New Mexico on Wednesday and The Las Cruces Sun-News has a full report. Local Republicans see Doña Ana County as "ground zero" for a McCain victory in November, and he is hoping to convince undecided voters at one of his town hall meetings that he is the right man for the job.
"… (I)f you’re looking for an independent conservative, someone who has core values and an obvious willingness to reach across party lines and an ideology to do what’s best for America, I don’t think you could find a finer representation of that than John McCain," Mark Van Dyke, chairman of the Republican Party of Doña Ana County, told the Sun-News. "I think a town hall format is absolutely perfect for him to make his first visit to Las Cruces, get in front of the people taking questions."
Guess who’s coming for dinner?
Cats are missing in Farmington, and some believe the wily coyote may be responsible, The Farmington Daily News reports today.
Squirt, Phoebie and Alice are among the cats reported as missing in various Farmington neighborhoods, and a coyote was seen carrying what may have been one of the dead cats in its jaws. Coyotes also have been heard at night. "He was our baby," Liz Tafoya said of her 20-pound black-and-white cat Squirt. "It’s devastating."
Officials with the city animal control department and the state Game and Fish Department said the cat-snatchings by coyotes or foxes are possible, but that there was no way to confirm what was responsible for the missing cats. One warned residents to keep their pets inside, and not only for their own protection. Wandering cats kill birds, rabbits and other wild creatures, said Game and Fish spokesman Marty Frentzel.
Navajo water aid ‘drop in the bucket’
A long-struggling agricultural effort on the Navajo Nation will get federal help to conserve water, though nation officials say the aid is far from enough The Gallup Independent writes today.
The U.S. Department of the Interior has awarded $300,000 to Navajo Agricultural Products Industry (NAPI), a Navajo Nation farming enterprise, for irrigation technology that is expected to save 26,000 acre-feet of water a year — nearly 8.5 billion gallons. The entire project will cost $1 million, prompting Navajo Nation Resources Committee Chairman George Arthur to call the grant “just a drop in the bucket.”
Members of the NAPI board recently heard a report that the agricultural project outside Farmington needs up to $40 million to replace its aging irrigation infrastructure. NAPI was created in 1970 to provide employment opportunities on the Navajo Nation. Only 75,000 acres of the farm project have been completed to date.
