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.
New Mexico is a target in the NRA’s national campaign to paint Barack Obama as a threat to gun owners. John McCain appears to be losing the battle for Hispanics, or it would seem that way in Española. The embattled PRC candidate Jerome Block Jr. is running into more headwinds, this time from the League of United Latin American Citizens. And the Otero County woman who called Obama a “Muslim socialist” made it onto the Drudge Report today. Can you tell we’re 12 days from the election? For variety’s sake, did you know New Mexico is home to the hunt for the weight of one of the most mysterious of the tiny subatomic particles that make up all matter in our universe? Near Las Cruces, a massive explosion levels the home of a reported former DEA agent.
NRA targets Obama
The Albuquerque Journal reports that NRA has spent money in New Mexico to take on Obama.
According to the story:
A spokesman for the NRA, Andrew Arulanandam, whose group has aired cable TV ads and sent out mailers in New Mexico, maintained that Obama has a long record of siding against gun owners.
“Guns rights matter to the people of New Mexico. They value their Western way of life, and it is clear Barack Obama looks at them with contempt,” said Arulanandam, whose group is backing Republican presidential candidate John McCain — who himself has taken some positions opposed by the giant gun rights organization.
Hispanics appear to be migrating away from McCain — or it would seem in Española
The New York Times visited Espanola to see how McCain is doing among Hispanics.
According to the paper:
In the early days of the presidential campaign, Senator John McCain seemed to be in a good position to win support among Hispanic voters. He had sponsored legislation for comprehensive immigration overhaul in Congress, made a point of speaking warmly about the contributions of immigrants and was popular among Latinos in Arizona, his home state, which borders three battleground states here in the Southwest: New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.
But less than two weeks before Election Day, those advantages appear to have evaporated. Recent Gallup polls show Mr. McCain running far behind Senator Barack Obama among Hispanic voters nationwide, only 26 percent of whom favor the Republican. The possibility that Mr. McCain can duplicate George W. Bush’s performance among Latinos in 2004, when Republicans won 44 percent of the vote, now seems remote.
Block faces another challenge
Embattled PRC candidate Jerome Block Jr. is hearing from League of United Latin American Citizens for saying he has the organization’s endorsement.
The Santa Fe New Mexican writes:
Jerome Block Jr. has claimed he has the endorsement of the country’s largest Hispanic organization.
The League of United Latin American Citizens gets top billing on the Public Regulation Commission candidate’s Web site, and Block said at this week’s forum that the group is backing him.
One problem: LULAC doesn’t do endorsements, and both its state director and headquarters in Washington, D.C., want the group’s name off the campaign’s Web site.
Otero County GOP leader makes it to Drudge Report
Drudge Report is carrying the latest on Marcia Stirman, the chairwoman of an Otero County GOP women’s group.
Here is the rundown from the AP:
The chairwoman of an Otero County Republican women’s group on Tuesday defended a letter to the editor in which she wrote, ”I believe Muslims are our enemies.”
Marcia Stirman, a 56-year-old interior decorator, also called Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama ”a Muslim socialist.”
A national Islamic group expressed outrage over Stirman’s letter and called on state and national Republican Party officials to repudiate the publication of ”anti-Muslim comments.”
N.M. participates in hunt for elusive subatomic particle
The Albuquerque Journal reports that scientists here in New Mexico are participating in a scientific search of great import.
The paper reports:
A scientific hunt to measure the elusive neutrino is about to get under way deep beneath the southeastern New Mexico desert.
In an unused alcove at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Stanford physicist Giorgio Gratta and his colleagues have built a high-tech lab to try to measure the weight of what scientists call “the little neutral one,” one of the most mysterious of the tiny subatomic particles that make up all matter in our universe.
“The mass of the neutrino is something we don’t know,” said Roger Nelson, chief scientist at the Department of Energy-run WIPP.
WIPP’s primary job is nuclear waste disposal. But a team of scientists including Nelson has been pushing for the past six years to take advantage of its deep underground location to do basic physics research.
Massive explosion levels home near Las Cruces
The Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting that an explosion has leveled the home of a reported former DEA agent.
The paper reports:
An early morning explosion leveled a home near “A” Mountain Thursday. The home, according to sources who spoke to the Sun-News on condition of anonymity, is owned by a former Drug Enforcement Agency officer.
No injuries are reported, but the home is a total loss and federal investigators have been called in.
The Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department and the Doña Ana County Fire and Emergency Services Department are on scene and waiting for daybreak to beging investigating the massive home explosion in the Talavera area east of Las Cruces.
