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.
Albuquerque police arrested F. Chris Garcia, 71, a University of New Mexico professor of political science who formerly served as its president from 2002 to 2003, for promoting prostitution, conspiracy, and tampering with evidence Thursday. He is alleged to be part of the same prostitution website, Southwest Companions, led by physics professor David C. Flory of New York City.
More on Garcia from Reuters:
Garcia, who remains in custody, was identified as part of a group described as the “hunt club”, which Schultz said was “a group of male clients that would help procure additional clients from outside of the state and from other websites and bring them into the Southwest Companions group.”
And the website:
Southwest Companions differed from “community services” sites like Craigslist or Backpage, which offer individual postings for everything from furniture to escort ads, because “this one was moderated and organized” for sexual hook-ups, Lt. William Roseman, a special investigations officer with the Albuquerque Police Department, said on Sunday.
The site included a three-tiered hierarchy system, whereby trusted “johns” could move up in status through certain acts with prostitutes, he said. The highest level of access included a rating system for prostitutes, as well as detailed information about prostitution stings, with the names of arresting officers and other operation aspects, Roseman said.
“They thought they could never be infiltrated because of the levels of security they tried to build into it,” he said.
