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.
O.K., we’re watching the early fireworks in the New Mexico gubernatorial race, which promises drama, election-year anger and all sorts of interesting factors. But out in California, the race to replace The Governator in Sacramento already is generating superlatives. Some folks expect it to become the most expensive non-federal election contest in U.S. history, reports the Washington Post. If that happens, it will have to top the $148 million spent eight years ago in New York’s gubernatorial race, the paper informs us.
Meanwhile, several states have begun releasing offenders early from prison to save money. But that has put many ex-felons on the street at a time where there are few jobs, meaning greater competition for those positions, reports the Wall Street Journal. The situation has people watching to see what happens as these offenders try to get jobs. More than half of offenders released from prison nationally return to prison within three years in what is known as the U.S. recidivism rate, according to a study by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. New Mexico hasn’t resorted to releasing prisoners early because of state budget problems. Also New Mexico’s recidivism rate is lower than the national average. Still it’s interesting to pay attention to what other states are doing in this bad economy.
My home state of Georgia is feeling the pain of the recession. Here’s an informative bird’s-eye view on what that pain looks like across the state and in communities thanks to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It means fewer buses in Atlanta for people who take public transit, fewer government planners in what once was one of the country’s fastest-growing counties and less money for college students who rely on financial aid.
Anyone who has followed the career of David Simon, the creator of The Wire, might be interested in his new HBO series, Treme, a show set in post-Katrina New Orleans. The New York Times magazine profiled Simon and the new series in Sunday’s edition. As a huge Simon fan dating back to his 1991 book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which later became an acclaimed NBC drama, I’m watching to see what new world Simon has dreamed up with Treme and am wondering if it gins up the same buzz as The Wire.
Here’s an interesting read on a legal tussle over who owns some Marvel Comic characters involving the children of legendary Jack Kirby and the Marvel Company itself that ran in Sunday edition of the New York Times.
