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.
Yesterday we wrote about competing bills to create a State Ethics Commission. Well, there’s a third sponsored by Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque.
It’s different in that it would remove ethics enforcement from the Secretary of State’s office and give it to the proposed ethics commission. That would take care of the funding question — many state lawmakers wonder where the state would get the money to pay for ethics enforcement.
Funds already exist for enforcement, so you would just be moving it to a new agency, Feldman said Wednesday.
But like the other two ethics commission bills, Feldman’s legislation faces several challenges.
It has three committee referrals in the Senate, usually the kiss of death during a 30-day session.
Feldman’s bill goes before the Senate Rules Committee first. If that committee passes it, it must go before two more committees. If those two committees pass it, then it goes to the Senate floor. If the Senate approves the measure, it then heads to the state House, which must also vote on it.That’s a lot of movement in the next three weeks.The prospect of a state ethics commission is not particularly popular among state lawmakers. But stranger things have happened.
