Posts by Marjorie Childress

New Mexico’s House delegation has identified a potential way to free up funds for cleaning up abandoned uranium mine sites in New Mexico. Congressmen Harry Teague, Ben Ray Luján, and Martin Heinrich introduced legislation Friday that would make available Surface Mine and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) funds that currently can’t be used for uranium mine remediation [...]

A federal court this week gave a uranium company the green light to move forward with mining operations in Churchrock, a Navajo community just east of Gallup, New Mexico. Opponents had argued that since the site already emits more radiation than regulations allow, a license for a new operation can’t be given because any new radiation emitted, no matter how small, would compound the problem.

The rate hikes planned for individual policy holders of Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico health insurance  are on hold pending a public hearing. The hearing was ordered by New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission after it received “numerous complaints,” the Albuquerque Journal reported today.

Gov. Bill Richardson hates the food tax, and is going to see what he “can do about it,” he told KOAT on Sunday. The tax is one of several measures passed last week by the state Legislature, but it’s unclear what Richardson can do about the tax, considering the state’s budget shortfall. If he were [...]

Part of the state budget package sent by the Legislature to the governor this week includes a food tax provision that will exacerbate Albuquerque’s budget woes.

A revenue package that is a cornerstone of a proposed 2011 New Mexico state budget passed the House Wednesday night by a vote of 38-28; it now goes to the governor’s desk. The measure raises about $240 million in taxes through various measures. But it also may create extra pain for some local governments.

A report by payroll processor ADP shows there were only 20,000 private sector job losses in February, whereas there were 60,000 in January. Another report shows planned lay-offs by U.S. firms declined in February to the lowest level seen since July 2006. These numbers are in advance of Friday’s non-farm labor report, which analysts predict [...]

About 18,000 New Mexicans who purchase individual Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance plans are about to see a 29.5  percent increase in their payments.  Another 2,700 individuals will see a 10 percent increase, and “a handful” in a couple of other plans won’t have an increase. Another individual insurance plan provider, Presbyterian Health Plan, will [...]

The Internet is now the third most popular source of news, behind local and television national news, says a new report by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press. Loyalty to one particular news organization is a thing of the past, as 92 percent of Americans told Pew they use multiple news platforms [...]

“The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second),” Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told Bloomberg.com. “The axis about which the Earth’s mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches).”

Actor and filmmaker Robert Redford announced today that he is kicking off a new program in Northern New Mexico focused on creating and expanding training programs in film, arts, and the environment, with a particular focus on Native American and Hispanic filmmaking. The effort is named “Milagro at Los Luceros,” and will include a series [...]

“We aren’t aware of any efforts by the state or the San Juan Coal Company to address any of the pollution caused by the dumping of 40 million tons of coal ash at the mine,” David Graham-Caso of the Sierra Club told The Independent yesterday, “so it looks like we will be filing a lawsuit.”

Want to meet Albuquerque’s new mayor, Richard Berry? Now’s your chance–he’s holding open office hours Thursday  for city residents, no reservation required. According to a statement, this is the first of several “office hours” he’ll hold this year, rotating through different quadrants of the city.

While he hasn’t signed on to a letter being circulated in the Senate urging the use of reconciliation to include the public option in a health care bill,  Sen. Jeff Bingaman told radio reporters yesterday that the public option “should definitely” be included in a health care reconciliation package, if it could get the votes.

The largest group of patients enrolled in New Mexico’s medical marijuana program are those who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, according to the most recent New Mexico Department of Health data. But Albuquerque’s Veteran’s Administration hospital–which many veterans rely on as their only source of health care–doesn’t allow its physicians to recommend the use of marijuana to patients.