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.
Lt. Gov. candidate Lawrence Rael, who is also executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG), told the Albuquerque Journal that he plans to retire from MRCOG before the end of the year. Rael had planned to take a leave of absence to campaign, but decided to retire after a question arose about whether or not his campaign violates the Hatch Act, Thomas Cole wrote. The Hatch Act clearly prohibits “employees who are principally employed in connection with programs financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States or a federal agency” from running as “candidates for public office in a partisan election.” As Cole notes, MRCOG is funded in part by federal grant money.
Also in the Journal today, Dan McKay reports that “Bernalillo County’s Sheriff Search ‘Wide Open.’” About 15 people have applied for Darren White’s old job; the replacement would only serve until next year, when White’s term is up. Commissioner Alan Armijo told McKay that he plans to hold a special meeting on the issue after White officially resigns, perhaps at the end of November.
In other news, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced seven hydropower projects that will receive stimulus funding, including one in New Mexico. The feds have allocated up to $4.56 million to add a low flow turbine/generator to the hydroelectric plant in Abiquiu. The turbine will allow the plant to operate when water is really low, or produce more when the water is high. Overall the DOE expects it will provide a 22 percent increase in power output.
The Farmington Daily Times reports that the “Farmington mayor’s race is open,” because the current mayor, Bill Standley, has announced he will not run for re-election. His reason: He told himself he’d leave office if he began to see grey hair on his head.
Jill Cooper Udall, Sen. Tom Udall’s wife, has been named to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. One out of 25 people named by President Obama, she is currently working with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.
The Valles Caldera Trust is more than five years late in becoming financially self-sustaining, The Los Alamos Monitor notes. Based on a Government Accountability Office report, officials from Valles Caldera acknowledge the problems in question and are currently working to better manage the project.
And in this week’s Santa Fe Reporter, see why reporter Zane Fischer states, “No one who is against the living wage would ever agree to work for a rate as low as the living wage. They’ll say it’s economics. But we can go ahead and call it hypocrisy.”
And finally, it appears that the U.S. flag was flown upside-down in front of Alamogordo’s City Hall. Someone eventually realized the mistake and the flag is flying back to etiquette standards.
