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.
The good folks at the Nieman Watchdog have come up with a great collection of 10 questions Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin ought to answer — if she ever answered questions.
Watchdogs of the public’s information often find themselves in an uncomfortable quandary. What’s the information’s value to the public vs. its cost to get it? In Alaska, those quandaries have now reached staggering levels — $15 million. Could it happen here?
Our quadrennial exercise in democracy has once again come down to this predictable predictor: sales of Halloween masks. John McCain or Barack Obama? Can $10 worth of latex foretell the victor?
In Las Cruces, sales of Barack Obama and…
Barack Obama is winning the presidential race, at least among U.S. newspapers. By the latest count, Obama has garnered the endorsement of 121 newspapers, compared to John McCain’s 42. Counting circulation, the Obama backers reach 13.5 million readers, to…
Today, Gov. Bill Richardson will join former presidential rival Sen. Hillary Clinton for the first time since he left the race in hopes of boosting Sen. Barack Obama’s chances in Florida. It’s part of a full-court press the Obama…
The Prophet Yahweh, aka Ramon Watkins, a Las Vegas resident with the self-proclaimed power to summon UFOs, was out last week with a new prediction: Spaceships will appear on Oct. 31 in support of Barack Obama. Or maybe on…
USA Today has a nifty campaign finance tracker that can beguile a geeked-out fundraiser for hours. (And it’s waaaaay simpler than the Federal Election Commission’s version.) You can click on each state, by candidate, party or independent groups…
The last time I saw Manny Aragon, we were at a backyard gathering of Democratic activists to honor women who’d stuck their necks out for the right reasons. It had been years since I’d seen him, and nothing was the same. He sat a patio table with other guests in a corner so secluded that it took awhile before I even noticed him.
The nonpartisan truth factory known as Factcheck.org is as good a place as any to get your Wednesday night debate-watching detectors in gear. (It’s also a decent tool for setting some ground rules for a debate-watching drinking game, but the New Mexico Independent isn’t outright endorsing such potentially irresponsible behavior.)
Climate change, hunger and poverty have yet to earn the presidential-campaign attention they deserve, but on Thursday, they’ll commandeer nearly a full day’s worth of discussion at the University of New Mexico’s Student Union Building.
Put a Rhodes Scholar, the former editor of the Harvard Law Review and the most popular guy at the neighborhood bar into an election, and who would win?
So you think New Mexico elections top the nation in oopsie-daisy mishaps? Check out New York’s Rensselaer County. According to The Albany Times Union, county elections officials mailed out hundreds of absentee ballots with this presidential candidate: Barack Osama.
She’s eternally young, wears a thousand hats and is kind of … plastic. But put 49-year-old Barbie on the campaign trail, and you just might have a winner. At least that’s the thought at Albuquerque’s Off Center Art Gallery. Under the direction of volunteer and abstract acrylic artist Barbara King, the gallery has unveiled its “Election Year Barbie” exhibit, an array of collages, paintings and one deliciously melted knock-off Barbie that puts America’s favorite icon into her political place.
Political commentator David Gergen, a longtime adviser to presidents of both parties, appeared on “The Colbert Report” Thursday, delivering a righteous Daddy’s-in-charge smackdown to Sarah Palin’s “rabble-rousing” campaign appearances and declaring that John McCain “is a better man…
Time magazine today published an interview with N.M. Sen. Pete Domenici on the historic passage of his mental-health parity bill last week. Part of the beyond-massive bailout bill, it culminated a 12-year quest on his part, along with becoming…
In its seeming never-ending quest to keep the alien myth alive, the Roswell Daily Record recently provided a breathless account of weird rock splatters found by a U.S. researcher and British writer near Socorro. Physicist R. Ronald Rau, one…
The goal is lofty and laudable: Preserve farm land in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, help growers reach promising markets and cut greenhouse gases according to Kyoto Protocols. But one question simmers: Would Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, widely regarded as the King of Sprawl, really defend small farmers against mega-builders?
Perhaps the most poetic definition of campaign politics was once offered up by former New Mexico Gov. Dave Cargo: “We see a lot of lightning, we hear a lot of thunder, but we feel very little rain.”
It’s time to…
According to information provided by U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici’s office, these are the major provisions of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act of 2008. The bill is part of the economic bailout bill passed…
U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici was packing his bags for New Mexico this morning, while still fielding calls from House leaders requesting help to persuade skeptics of the Senate’s economic bailout package. “They’re still calling around, so it makes me wonder,” Domenici said of House leaders in an interview with the New Mexico Independent today. “I thought they had it taken care of.”
