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.
Gov. Bill Richardson is creating an Office of Health Care Reform that would coordinate the state’s efforts to prepare for 2014, when the new federal health care reform law goes into effect. The agency wouldn’t have its own designated staff, but would borrow state workers from across state government.
The new office came out of a months-long brainstorming session by top administration officials who met regularly to come up with recommendations on how New Mexico can prepare for the nation’s new health care law.
Judging from today’s news release, the governor has taken many of the recommendations from his planning team. The office will use existing staff resources and expand the planning team by adding six new members.
According to the news release, they are:
· The Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration,
· The Secretary of the Public Education Department,
· The Secretary of the Higher Education Department,
· The Director of the Risk Management Division of the General Services Department,
· The Director of the Workers’ Compensation Administration, and
· The Director of the Women’s Health Advisory Council.
The new Office of Health Care Reform must report to Richardson no later than Nov. 1 on various proposals that must go before the New Mexico Legislature in 2011 for state lawmakers’ approval to help implement health care reform in New Mexico.
The new planning team has scheduled its first meeting for Aug. 18 in Santa Fe. from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., at 37 Plaza la Prensa. The public is welcome.
