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.
President Obama’s 2010 budget proposes an end to the era of abstinence-only sex ed in America. If adopted by Congress, his plan would eliminate nearly all federal funding for abstinence-only, and replace it with a $110 million teen pregnancy prevention initiative using “evidence-based” programming.
President Obama’s 2010 budget would end nearly all federal funding for abstinence-only sex-ed, and launch a new teen pregnancy prevention initiative using “evidence-based” programs. The full details of the budget were released today and teen pregnancy groups quickly siezed…
The Washington, D.C. City Council voted this morning to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. The Washington City Paper provided live updates from the meeting where former mayor and current councilor Marion Barry spoke out against the resolution, only to…
The State of New Mexico will soon be offering retirement health benefits to domestic partners of state employees, both straight and gay. The move is part of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union…
The federal Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it would allow 17-year-olds to buy emergency contraception pills (called Plan B) over the counter.
President Obama has moved to rescind a Bush administration “midnight regulation” that would make it much more difficult for women to get information about and access to birth control, abortion and sterilization. As NMI reported, the rule had been opposed…
The Obama administration is now accepting public comments on a plan to ditch a Bush administration rule (pdf) that would have severely limited access to women’s reproductive health services.
In San Francisco today, the California Supreme Court will consider arguments for overturning Proposition 8, the ballot initiative passed last year redefining marriage as between one man and one woman.
It was the state Supreme Court that had previously declared…
Domestic partnership legislation failed in the Senate today, by a vote of 17 to 25. Click below to read the (very, very long) transcript of our live blog, and to watch a video of the proceedings.
Publicly funded family planning services save $4 for every dollar spent, says a report released Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute.
Public funds also prevent nearly 2 million unintended pregnancies and they prevent more than 800,000 abortions every year.
The vote may come in the State Senate as early as Monday, and supporters and opponents alike say that while they’re hopeful they’ll emerge victorious, nothing is certain.
After a dramatic set of votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday afternoon, domestic partnership legislation moved toward consideration by the full Senate. And state Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, who only two weeks ago said she didn’t support the legislation, cast the critical vote allowing the bill to proceed.
The New Mexico Independent live blogged the proceedings along with staff writers from the Santa Fe Reporter and several guests!
A voluntary decision by pharmaceutical companies to stop giving doctors gifts branded with drug names could save the state millions; critics say the free stuff encourages docs to prescribe more expensive drugs.
CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for surgeon general, The Washington Post is reporting. Gupta, an Atlanta-based neurosurgeon, is said to be interested in the job and he is being vetted now. “I was hoping for Marcus Welby, but if he’s not available, Dr. Gupta’s pretty good!” Dr. Alfredo Vigil, New Mexico’s secretary of health, tells the Independent.
Democratic policymakers vowing to overturn a controversial new Bush administration rule that could limit women’s reproductive health options have several tools at their disposal to do so — but party leaders aren’t revealing which they favor. The new regulation — unveiled by the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this month — expands the rights of some healthcare workers to withhold treatments and counseling services, possibly including contraception, based on their moral or religious sentiments.
A last-minute rule on women’s health care sailed through one last barrier this week, and unless Congress makes an unexpected move, it will become law before Bush leaves office. New Mexico officials say they hope the rule will be changed but in the meantime, New Mexico women could be denied care.
Advocates for reproductive freedom say they plan to push again this year for passage of a state Freedom of Choice Act that would repeal an old abortion ban and cement decades worth of laws protecting access to contraception and abortion.
