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.
At a forum in Santa Fe on Wednesday night, several candidates for Lt. Governor criticized the chair of the Senate Rules Committee for failing to pass a bill that would have established an independent ethics committee, reports Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican.
“Lopez said ‘You have to be careful,’ because such a group would have so much power. [Sen.] Ortiz y Pino said, ‘How long do we have to be careful? We could have passed this three years ago,’” according to Terrell.
During the 2008 legislative session, “There’s a lot of frustration among legislators who have been supporting these reforms for years, as well as advocates who have been working on this for years. We have Common Cause members who have been working these same bills session after session, and we’ve had all of these debates before,” Steven Robert Allen, Executive Director of Common Cause of New Mexico, told NMI in March.
At the time, there were several ethics commission bills waiting in Lopez’ committee. None was passed, but the Legislature is again considering a commission. The draft of a bill written by Lt. Governor Diane Denish is currently being considered by a subcommittee of the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee.
That committee will meet again to discuss the bill on Wednesday, Sept. 30 in Las Cruces.
