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.
The Washington D.C.-based Sunlight Foundation, an open-government group, took a look at New Mexico’s new campaign finance website and declared that “it looks pretty good and works even better.” Citing a study by The Independent, however, the Sunlight Foundation said that violations of the Open Meetings Act may be more widespread than even the study found.
The Secretary of State’s new campaign finance website received a generally positive review from the Sunlight Foundation. One part pointed out was the ability to export the information to a number of formats; from PDFs to XML to Excel format.
“The only real drawback I’ve found is the lack of a bulk download option or an API,” Avelino Maestas, a former reporter for the Silver City Daily Press, wrote. “Unless I’m missing something, at the moment it’s very time-consuming to locate and then compile data from more than one report.”
As for the Open Meetings Act violations, Maestas wrote, “If my experience as a reporter in New Mexico is any indication, the problem is even more systemic than described in the report, as officials will often live up to the letter of the law but not the spirit.”
The violations had to do with governmental entities going into “executive session” where the public is asked to leave while the board or other governmental group meets in private. While there are specific rules in place of how and when this can happen, The Independent found that violations of the letter of the law were widespread.
