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 House Republicans continue to complain about the slow pace of the special session so far, with one member asking on the floor whether legislators were there as part of an “economic stimulus for Santa Fe.”
According to legislative estimates, it costs about $50,000 per day for legislators to be in session, and they receive a $171 per diem stipend. Speaker Ben Luján said the top priority of the session was redistricting, while Gov. Susana Martinez added controversial items to the agenda. More from Republicans, via the Santa Fe New Mexican:
A resolution signed by nearly all GOP House members as well as Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch, complained that the House Voters and Elections Committee, which is handling redistricting, has met for only three hours in the last five days, while House floor sessions so far have lasted less than 10 hours. The nonbinding resolution implores the House to “work more diligently and expeditiously to consider legislation that has been introduced” in the special session.
Rep. Nate Gentry, R-Albuquerque, who co-sponsored the resolution with House Republican Leader Tom Taylor of Farmington, said on the House floor that if he only worked 13 hours in a week, “I’d be fired.”
Luján and House Democratic Leader Ken Martinez said most of the work of the session so far has not taken place at committee meetings or floor sessions.
