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.
Theresa Becenti-Aguilar is scheduled to be sworn in Tuesday morning as New Mexico’s newest Public Regulation Commission (PRC) commissioner.
Becenti-Aguilar will replace outgoing commissioner Carol Sloan as the district 4 representative of northern and northwestern New Mexico on the powerful commission, which regulates the state’s electrical, natural gas, and water utilities, insurance industry, and administers the state Fire Marshal’s office.
Becenti-Aguilar’s stance on health insurance oversight will be closely watched, as she is arriving on the commission in the midst of a power struggle between other commissioners and the state Insurance Division over health insurance rate setting.
The Commission has been rocked by scandals and controversies over recent years, including the felony convictions of Becenti-Aguilar’s predecessor Carol Sloan earlier this year for assaulting a woman she believed to be having an affair with her husband.
Convicted felons are not allowed to hold elected office in New Mexico, so Gov. Bill Richardson appointed Becenti-Aguilar, the democratic candidate in November’s election to replace Sloan, as interim commissioner.
Becenti-Aguilar is expected to defeat Republican rival Gary Montoya in the November general election for what is now her seat on the commission.
Prior to her work with the PRC, Becenti-Aguilar served seven years as a constituent services representative focusing on tribal relations from then U.S. Representative Tom Udall. She also spent eight years as an executive assistant in the litigation division of the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, according to the governor’s office.
