Posts by David Alire Garcia

In his latest TV ad, Albuquerque mayoral candidate Richard Berry labels himself “impeccably honest,” but a photographic sleight of hand in the ad appears to exaggerate the length of time Chavez has spent as mayor.
In the ad, a book is opened to a page with a photo of a much younger Mayor Martin Chavez, next to  “12 years as [...]

Gov. Bill Richardson admitted early on in his free-wheeling lecture to students at the University of New Mexico that it was his idea to talk to them about U.S.-Cuba relations.
“I actually organized this talk,” the ex-United Nations ambassador fessed up.
But did that admission mean that Richardson is eager to resume a leading role in international [...]

Shortly after President Obama finished his major health care reform address to a rare joint session of Congress, U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich sounded an optimistic note in an interview with the Independent.

Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias made some news over the weekend calling for overlapping terms of office for federal prosecutors from one presidential administration to the next.

The top story in today’s Albuquerque Journal (competing with a story about the adorable newborn Asian elephant at the Rio Grande zoo) is about natural gas prices. Specifically, that natural gas prices dropped this week to a seven-year-low.

Budget woes keep growing. According to the Associated Press, Farmington has cut city spending by $3.3 million.
On the positive side, the cuts do not include furloughs, pay cuts or layoffs. Instead, the cuts focus on road work, park improvements, police and fire departments funding.

Here’s a video report I put together for KNME’s New Mexico In Focus this past weekend.

The once-flying-high light-jet manufacturer Eclipse Aviation — or more precisely, its remnants — is aiming for a relaunch.
After Eclipse Aerospace bought up all of the assets and buildings of the bankrupt Eclipse Aviation, the South Carolina-based company is set to open its doors on Sept. 1, so reports the Albuquerque Journal. The new company will [...]

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government — ally to advocates of transparent government, bane of secretive politicans — has a new leader.
Sarah Welch, a 31-year-old ex-newspaper editor in northern New Mexico, was named as FOG’s new executive director earlier today.

I caught up with first-term state Sen. Eric Griego this past weekend about the state’s burgeoning budget shortfall. As news of an October special legislative session to address the $433 million budget gap took shape last week, the battle lines over how to bridge that gap are now being drawn.
And Griego, an Albuquerque Democrat, is [...]

The League of United Latin American Citizens is urging New Mexico law enforcement agencies to give up their tasers. The group suggests that tasers are used on racial and ethnic minorities more often than non-Hispanic whites.
But meanwhile, an Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman argues that taser guns are needed to protect citizens, according to the Associated [...]

Let the great DWI debate begin! Today’s all-caps front-page headline in the Albuquerque Journal pretty much says it all — “GOV. WANTS MANDATORY JAIL TIME FOR DWI.”
The story by the Journal’s intrepid crime reporter T.J. Wilham makes clear that the governor is proposing a mandatory three-day jail sentence — plus a $2,500 fine — for [...]

In an interview, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman was far from confident that major bipartisan health care reform will prevail when Congress reconvenes after its August recess. “It may work, it may not,” Bingaman said. “It’s possible we get to September and find we can’t agree.”

And now it’s official.
Earlier today, Sonia Sotomayor took the oath of office as the nation’s 111th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
But it was this past Thursday when the nation’s first Hispanic member of the high court was confirmed by the Senate by a 68-31 vote.

File this away in today’s good news slot.
Stories written for the New Mexico Independent will nab three national first-place awards when the National Federation of Press Women holds its annual conference in San Antonio, Texas next month.