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.
Gov. Susana Martinez has promised to keep up the pressure on barring undocumented immigrants from receiving driver’s licenses despite the state House and Senate being unable to come to a compromise on legislation over the next two years.
Two bills that get a lot of attention and the capital outlay bill failed to pass the state legislature this year as they failed to gain approval from both chambers in the final hours of the state legislative session on Saturday.
The House stayed past midnight at the Roundhouse early Thursday morning to concur with changes that the Senate made to the budget and the film incentive cap, but the body failed to concur on the changes the Senate made on the retirement “swaps” legislation. The House will ask the Senate to recede from their amendments, and if the Senate doesn’t, the two houses would have a conference committee to iron out their differences.
The New Mexico House passed a bill Tuesday afternoon that would change the retirement fund for state workers who have been working for five years or less. The bill, which failed to pass the House this weekend, was brought back to life by Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque.
The New Mexico House failed to concur on Senate amendment to the controversial immigrant driver’s license bill Tuesday evening, likely setting the table for a conference committee. This could be the death knell for any attempt to bar illegal immigrants from receiving driver’s licenses in this year’s session.
The Senate intends to hear the budget bill today but other controversial bills, including the film tax credit legislation, will have to be heard first, perhaps signaling a long night in the Senate as time runs out in the 60-day session.
The New Mexico Independen is now participating in a liveblog with the KUNM Government Project to cover the action in the final days of the legislative session.
The Senate amended another of Gov. Susana Martinez’s legislative priorities on Saturday, this time a law that would have required all those arrested for felonies to have their DNA put into a crime database. The amending of the expansion of an already existing law, known was “Katie’s Law,” shows another rift between the governor’s desires and that of the state Senate.
Gov. Susana Martinez said at a press conference Friday morning that she would veto the Senate’s driver’s license bill that would still allow illegal immigrants to receive licenses but tightened restrictions on the licenses while also increasing penalties for fraud.
Speaking to reporters at the Roundhouse Thursday, former Gov. Bill Richardson said that he believes Gov. Susana Martinez has not respected him in her time in office.
The New Mexico Senate passed a bill Wednesday night that would still allow undocumented immigrants to receive driver’s licenses, but stiffened some restrictions on provisions made by the Senate Judiciary Committee. An amendment that would have reverted the language of the bill to match what passed the House failed in the chamber.
The bill to revoke driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants was changed substantially in a Senate committee Tuesday night. The amendments were enough to have the bill’s sponsor say that the bill was “eviscerated.”
Two different bids to bring back the death penalty in New Mexico were tabled in a House committee Tuesday night on party-line votes.
A bill to repeal New Mexico’s medical marijuana bill will not receive a vote this year as the sponsor of the bill has reportedly pulled the legislation.
A bill that would bar illegal immigrants from obtaining New Mexico driver’s licenses passed the state House today after hours of debate.
The bill passed on a 42-28 vote.
The House voted to “blast” a bill that would bar illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses from committees to the House floor on two 36-34 votes on Thursday. The votes came after hours of debate on parliamentary questions, concerns about precedent and other legislative wrangling that frayed nerves and led to some testy exchanges on the House floor.
A Senate committee tabled a bill that would have taken aways drivers licenses from illegal immigrants on Thursday morning. The Senate Public Affairs Committee voted 4-2 on a party line vote to table the legislation. Similar legislation is currently the topic of much discussion in the House.
An attempt to “blast” through controversial legislation led to Republicans crying foul and Gov. Susana Martinez and Speaker of the House Ben Luján issuing releases on the controversial end to a long Wednesday session that passed two important bills.
A bill that would cap the film subsidy program at $45 million cleared the House on a 53-17 vote despite three hours of debate and a number of amendments put forward by Democrats to alter the bill. The debate on the amendments took the full time allowed by House rules.
The House passed the 2012 budget Wednesday afternoon on a 35-34 vote after the passage of just one amendment and the discussion of just two. Much of the time was spent discussing the second amendment, which eventually failed, and left the Republicans complaining that Democrats had wasted time to prevent amendments.
