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.
Businesses with federal stimulus contracts have created few jobs in states with the worst unemployment rates, according to data released Thursday by the federal government, reports the New York Times.
As if it weren’t enough to have a governor admit a scandalous affair, thousands of out-of-work South Carolinians will miss out on five months of unemployment checks because state officials failed to tweak a rule enabling them to tap into federal stimulus money, The Greenville News reports.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels on Thursday canceled Indiana’s 10-year, $1.34 billion contract with IBM for delivery of welfare services, the Indianapolis Star reports.
According to The Star:
The decision marked a major setback for the governor, who has championed efforts to privatize some areas of state government, and a rare admission that — this time — his critics were right. As he announced his decision, Daniels thanked those who had raised concerns that the system resulted in too many errors and too many people waiting too long for help they desperately needed.
If you recognize Mitch Daniels’ name, it’s because he was Office of Management and Budget director under President George W. Bush. I’ve only seen Daniels up close and personal once, and he impressed me as a seriously smart guy regardless of where you come down on the issues. For him to cancel this contract, given his philosophical leanings vis a vis government and the private sector, is definitely noteworthy. Daniels says his decision to cancel the IBM contract says nothing about the capacity for the private sector to run public programs, but rather with the particular concept IBM used in this specific case. Critics, however, say the cancellation strikes a blow against efforts to expand privatization of public programs in Indiana. You won’t resolve the privatization debate here in this post. It’s a big-picture, sometimes emotional, debate that’s been going on for years in some states.
Militants in Pakistan are flexing their muscles, as evidenced by a wave of attacks against top security installations in that country, reports the New York Times. The debate in the U.S. may focus on the war in Afghanistan, but next door a war is on between a coalition of Pakistan’s Taliban and Al Queda and Pakistan’s government. And it’s very serious.
The Times notes:
In a rare acknowledgment of the lethal combination of forces, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that a “syndicate” of militant groups wanted to see “Pakistan as a failed state.”
The New York Times started a metro edition for the San Francisco Bay Area today, reports Baynewser.
The site reports:
It will start with content written by Times’ staffers and assorted contributors, and will focus on public affairs, culture and Bay Area lifestyles. The Times already has a 10-person San Francisco news bureau.
It will really get interesting when the paper fulfills its goal of partnering with one or more local journalism organizations in an effort to build a cooperative news outlet, something that will likely happen within the year. Warren Hellman’s Bay Area News Project has been one of those organizations rumored to be in the mix.
This may not mean much to many folks. But it’s a big deal in the newspaper world. I know of only one area where the New York Times has a Metro edition, and that’s in the Tri-State area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut). For fans of the Times, it’d be the equivalent of waking up every morning and reading New Mexico news in the New York Times. The Times’ foray into the Bay Area reveals something of the Times’ longtime strategy to strengthen its circulation numbers but also to bolster its position as a national newspaper. The Bay Area has been especially hard hit when it comes to newspapers. The San Francisco Chronicle has suffered through layoffs.
Ted Turner wants to run CNN again? That’s what the cable news network’s founder told Bloomberg TV in an interview scheduled to run today. Turner is big news where I’m originally from– Georgia. Don’t know if Turner’s serious about CNN, but if he ever took control back, CNN would be a different network, that’s for sure.
In a sign of the times, Huffington Post beat washingtonpost.com in the number of unique visitors to their respective sites in September, Editor & Publisher reports. Citing Nielsen Online data, E&P says “The Huff Post was up 26% year-over-year to 9.4 million uniques, while uniques at the Washingtonpost.com dropped almost 30% to 9.2 million.”
