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 California Democratic Party for the first time formalized its opposition to the death penalty by writing it into its platform last month, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The position defies conventional wisdom and has raised questions about how the Democrats’ presumptive gubernatorial nominee, California Attorney General Jerry Brown, will handle the issue in an election year, according to the paper. So far, his campaign has been quiet.
Republicans likely will raise the capital punishment question this fall against Brown, the Chronicle tells us.
The Chronicle’s story puts the Democrats’ action in national context, pointing out that New Mexico and a small group of states have abolished the death penalty in recent years.
But New Mexico’s death row is small compared to California’s, which has the nation’s largest death row, with more than 700 inmates.
Lest anyone think that abolishing the death penalty is a slam dunk in California, the Chronicle reminds readers that support for the death penalty “has helped past Republican candidates such as George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson, both elected twice as governor.” And don’t forget, the paper says, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis said he would “choose only judges who favored the death penalty.”
