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.
Newly elected state Public Regulation Commission member Jerome Block Jr. may be facing an impeachment effort by New Mexico’s House of Representatives when the state Legislature convenes in January. This is according to “rumors” heard at the Santa Fe Reporter, which dubbed one scandal after another related to Block during the campaign as “Blockgate.”
But it sounds a little more solid than rumors. SFR’s Dave Maass reports that state Rep. Larry Larrañaga may lead the effort, if a conversation with Larrañaga is any indication:
“I’m really concerned about somebody doing something that might be, if not illegal, then far out from correct,” Larrañaga says. “By the time the session comes [in January], I will be looking at that and what more violations [may have occurred] with fundraising, expenditures and whether they stayed within the law.
But, Maass continues, that’s “assuming Attorney General Gary King doesn’t get to Block first”:
The Voter Action Act states that knowingly filing false campaign finance reports is a fourth-degree felony; the secretary of state issued a final determination to that effect Nov. 3, requiring Block to pay $11,000 in fines and return $10,700 in campaign money for paying San Miguel County Clerk Paul Maez $2,500 for a band performance that never actually happened and for using public money to help Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, pay off her presidential campaign debt. Block can pay up or appeal to an arbitrator.
