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.
“If I put $4 million into this ranch and I want to give it away, that doesn’t sound too selfish, does it?” he said.
That’s how former game commissioner Leo V. Sims responded Friday to accusations from the New Mexico Wildlife Federation that Sims used his connections, and large donations to Gov. Bill Richardson, to influence the transfer of 61 bighorn sheep to state land he leases.
Sims said he is considering a conservation easement that would transfer management and use of the property to a nonprofit childrens’ group. He said he would take no money for such a deal and that it would be considered a charitable contribution.
“This is pay-to-play pure and simple,” NMWF Executive Director Jeremy Vesbach said in a press release sent out Thursday morning. “You’ve got a major political donor secretly reaping the benefits when public animals were moved to public lands using public resources.”
Sims gave $52,000 to Richardson’s 2006 campaign and $25,000 to Richardson’s 2002 election campaign.(In 2010, Sims gave $10,000 to Susana Martinez—and $8,500 to Diane Denish.)
But Sims denied that the deal was secret, saying parts of the process were advertised on the commission’s website and official notifications were posted in The Albuquerque Journal and the newspaper in Clayton.
