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.
Next door in Arizona, the state’s elected leaders agree making the state’s disintegrating budget whole again won’t be easy, and however they do it will be painful, according to the Arizona Daily Star. What they don’t agree on is what to do. Gov. Jan Brewer appears to want a temporary increase to the state sales tax, but some legislative leaders say that isn’t the way to go, the paper reports.
Meanwhile in Colorado, a law says boaters have a right to navigate rivers and streams crossing private land — as long as they don’t touch the riverbank — but some landowners have interpreted a 1979 Colorado Supreme Court ruling to mean land rights extend to the river itself. Others have simply taken the law into their own hands. A Colorado state lawmaker will sponsor a bill that would allow licensed outfitters to not only raft, kayak or fish on rivers and streams crossing private property, but also make contact with the riverbank without trespassing, according to the Colorado Independent.
On the other side of the country, the Florida Republican Party is about to experience a crucible of identity in this year’s GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat. Some wonder if Marco Rubio, a former House speaker popular with the Tea Party movement, can knock off Gov. Charlie Crist, an amenable pol who is viewed as more moderate, reports the New York Times magazine. The national Republican party is undergoing what many call a battle for its soul between hardcore conservatives — many who are not part of the party structure and view themselves as outsiders — and the party establishment, which includes pragmatic politicians like Crist. In that context many commentators say the outcome of the Florida Senate primary could signal which faction has gained the advantage, at least in the nation’s fourth-most populous state.
From the media world, here’s a provocative question set forth in a Politics Daily column: Does the National Enquirer deserve a Pulitzer for its reporting on John Edwards’ extra-marital affair?
As the media world undergoes a significant transformation with blogs and Web sites proliferating while more traditional news outlet lose resources, a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that most original reporting still comes from newspapers, television and radio, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In the nation’s capital, Monday’s first edition of the slimmed-down Washington Times boasted that the paper “has undergone significant changes to make this newspaper THE source for news about Washington, DC, our country and the world,” writes Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post. But with about 60 percent of its editorial staff gone — not the 40 percent cut initially announced — it would be hard to describe the revamped Times as anything other than a bare-bones publication. The Times suffered through a very public bloodletting late last year that saw the newsroom staff eviscerated because of a family squabble between members of the family that owns the publication.
From the tech world, the geeks over at ReadWriteWeb report that while Google continues to digitize everything from the view from the driver’s seat to the contents of your appointment book, its largest effort, Google Books, has run into a snag in the most ironic of places – China.
