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 mood to elect a woman as head of state isn’t reserved for just New Mexico. In the Navajo Nation primary election yesterday, New Mexico State Senator Lynda Lovejoy left the crowded field of twelve contenders in the dust. If…
It’s unclear whether Robert Reza, the shooter in last week’s rampage that left two dead in Albuquerque, was one of the more than 17,000 individuals in New Mexico permitted to carry a concealed weapon. And you likely won’t ever know. Information about who can legally carry a concealed weapon in the state, including names, is confidential under state law (29-19-6, Subsection B). While New Mexico’s decision to make information on concealed-carry applications confidential appears in line with many surrounding states, it is by no means universal, a survey by The Independent has found.
The federal government sued Arizona this week for its recently passed immigration law, a seeming deterrent to other states looking to try the same thing. But the feds’ action isn’t stopping supporters of the legislation from pushing to pass…
Citing a 2008 study of New Mexico’s film industry subsidies, Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik Friday questioned California’s own $100 million-a-year tax credits for Hollywood film productions, calling them “corporate welfare.”
The study showed that New Mexico saw…
There’s a new emergency contraceptive pill on the horizon. “Ella” is available in 22 countries, is twice as effective as Plan B (the drug that’s now available over the counter) and it works for at least 120 hours, compared to…
Swastika branded into arm of young Navajo against his will. Photo from a KRQE Channel 13 newscast.
In April, three Farmington men used a heated coat hanger to brand a swastika into the arm of a mentally challenged Navajo man. The community was shocked, but the branding was part of a recent spate of violence against Navajos that began in 2006, just a few years after the New Mexico Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights returned to the city to assess how things have changed since another violent incident 30 years ago.
Farmington has struggled with racial violence
In the mid-1970s, an economic boycott and weekly protests by Navajos brought attention to the city after three young Anglos were sent to reform school rather than jail after torturing and killing three Navajo men.
In 1975, the Commission on Civil Rights produced The Farmington Report: A Conflict of Cultures, which described a city ill-equipped to handle a “crisis in race in relations” and detailed the discrimination faced by Navajos. In its 2005 follow-up, The Farmington Report: Civil Rights for Native Americans 30 Years Later, the commission noted continued discrimination in the city but also said significant progress had been made.
But then, in 2006, two brutal incidents in Farmington led the Navajo Nation to create an official human rights commission. First, a young Navajo, Clint John was killed, shot four times by a police officer in Farmington. The police officer was cleared of wrongdoing in the case, but many thought the officer had used excessive force. A few days later, three white youths beat and robbed a middle-aged Navajo man. They were convicted under New Mexico’s 2003 hate crimes law after admitting they intentionally targeted a Navajo.
Now, there is the branding of the 22 year old man—who has the mental capacity of a 12-year old—with a swastika; the three perpetrators also shaved a swastika into his hair and wrote racial epithets on his body. The victim said he felt treated like an animal. Authorities haven’t released all of the evidence found at the crime scene, but they told The Navajo Times that they found memorabilia and items associated with white supremacists.
Authorities have indicated they will charge the three perpetrators under New Mexico’s hate crimes statute, which allows for stronger sentencing when a jury finds that a criminal act was motivated by bias. In this case, while two of the perpetrators are white, defense attorneys have pointed out that the third is American Indian—part Navajo and part Sioux. One of the white perpetrators told authorities that the victim wanted to be branded with the swastika because it’s a tribal symbol, which the victim disputes.
Duane “Chili” Yazzie, Chairman of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, believes the act is a hate crime regardless of the ethnicity of one of the perpetrators.
“Whether or not he’s a young native person is beside the point,” Yazzie said in an interview with The Independent. “He participated and therefore he’s a perpetrator of a hate crime.”
Yazzie swiftly dismissed the idea that the victim would want to be branded with a swastika.
“The idea that it isn’t a Nazi symbol, but more of a Navajo symbol, is an excuse to minimize that it’s a Nazi symbol,” Yazzie continued. “It doesn’t explain away what they did. They had no thought that it was a Navajo symbol when they branded the young man.”
Ongoing violence against Navajos has multiple sources
Farmington is one of a series of “border towns” that bridge the intersection of the Navajo Nation with non-native communities. Located in San Juan County, in northwestern New Mexico, the town is home to about 43,000 people, roughly 70 percent of them white, according to Census figures. Almost 17 percent are American Indian, higher than the statewide average of 10 percent.
The town is an economic hub that is heavily reliant on both the oil and gas industry and members of the surrounding Navajo community who come into town to shop and do business. An expansion of the oil and gas industry over a period of recent decades has led to an influx of people, Yazzie said.
“These relative newcomers seem to be one source of insensitivity that’s been targeting our people,” he said.
According to Yazzie, mass protests and a boycott by Navajos after the 1970s incident led community leaders to take notice and improve the environment for Navajos in Farmington.
“Our action back then had a strong impact,” he said. “The education of the community was substantial and it led to the people refraining from that kind of activity for many years. We’d hear of people being cheated over counters and disrespected, but not this violent type of activity until 2006.”
But according to Navajo educator Dr. Larry Emerson, who lives near Shiprock, a Navajo town not far from Farmington, the violence Farmington has deeper roots.
“Certain Farmington white youth seem to carry on a violent tradition of venting their unresolved rage, loss, and anger on disadvantaged Diné,” Emerson wrote in an e-mail to The Independent.
Both Yazzie and Emerson made a point of acknowledging that many of white society in Farmington strives for change in the racial pattern of the area that has led to violence against Navajos.
“There are white folks in Farmington who appreciate and value cultural and racial diversity and tolerance, too,” Emerson said. “They bother to understand Diné history, culture, identity and politics. Many whites work for such values, but I don’t know if they are in the majority. I suspect not.”
Yazzie said the solution is ongoing education, which is why the commission is actively working to develop partnerships with surrounding border towns and major cities in New Mexico and Arizona, with the goal of expanding coordination and cooperation in educating young people and newcomers.
But in addition to public programs, Yazzie said, in order to rid society of hate crimes families have to do internal education as well.
“I think the city of Farmington and the business community is doing all it can to prevent this kind of incident—there’s a focus on education for the public,” he said. “They need to continue doing what they are doing. But also, every person who has an understanding of these issues should set an example, both in public and when with their families.”
Not all Republicans are happy with the win by Susana Martinez in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Bill Turner, hydrologist and former director of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (and father of GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Turner), said a Martinez…
The Attorney General’s office cannot say whether or not it received all of the financial records it demanded from Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico before signing off on a controversial April 26 rate hike settlement, according to spokesman Phillip Sisneros.
The company did not disclose financial records to the PRC Insurance Division supporting figures in its rate hike application, The Independent reported. More …
If you need to find out more about the candidates for state land commissioner before casting your vote next week, you’re in luck. The New Mexico Wildlife Federation has compiled an excellent set of video clips from a forum…
Albuquerque mayor Richard Berry announced today that everyone who is arrested in Albuquerque will have their immigration status checked, regardless of race. Berry announced the plan, which Berry characterized as a “not an immigration issue” but “a public safety issue,”…
Gallup, New Mexico won’t be scheduling or attending any “trainings, seminars, conferences or meeting located within the state of Arizona,” Gallup City Manager David Pederson said in a letter to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, dated April 28. The city, about…
The question of whether or not the annual Gathering of Nations Pow Wow has become overly commercialized was taken up by the University of New Mexico’s Daily Lobo this week, after the conclusion of the event Saturday. The piece…
Nebraska Democrat Ben nelson bucked his party and voted with the Republicans against invoking cloture on financial regulation Monday. This would have ended any filibuster of the legislation.
In 2014, the federal government will pay 100 percent of health care costs under Medicaid, the government’s low-income health care program, thanks to the new federal health care reform law. But between now and then the health care portion of New Mexico’s state budget could soar as more people enroll in the government program and federal stimulus dollars disappear.
The University of New Mexico’s Board of Regents members serve on the board of a nonprofit called the Lobo Development Corporation, which reports back to those very same regents who vote on the plans made by themselves, Duke…
New Mexico state officials performed a safety inspection of the underground San Juan Coal Mine last Thursday, after a coal mine tragedy killed 29 miners in West Virginia. Bill Brancard, New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division director, said Monday that there…
By 2016, new cars should get an average of 35.5 miles per gallon, according to new vehicle emissions standards issued yesterday by the federal government.
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.
Arsenic levels at both of Bernalillo’s active wells have jumped over the past three years, and the New Mexico Environment Department announced Tuesday it will issue the Town a second arsenic violation notice by next week. The town’s project engineer, Ramesh Narasimhan, is now considering supplementation of the Town’s aluminum-based arsenic removal system with iron treatments — an approach recommended in a 2006 engineering report scuttled by former town manager Stephen Jerge. At Narasimhan’s recommendation, Jerge opted instead for the Town’s no-bid purchase of the aluminum-based system, which is produced by a Bernalillo firm.
Stock up on white flour tortillas and red chile pods now. The New Mexico Senate voted late Saturday night to extend the state’s gross receipts tax on a wide variety of foods after a wide-ranging debate that included attempts to raise taxes from the state’s wealthiest residents and out-of-state corporations.
Brought forward by Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, the food tax passed on a vote of 23 to 19. The measure exempts foods offered through the state’s nutrition program for women, infants and children, known as the WIC program, plus fresh or frozen meats, poultry and chicken. But it also taxes many foods considered staples, like white flour tortillas, white bread and red chile pods.
“It helps prevent additional cuts to Medicaid, to courts, to seniors…and hopefully it’ll eventually have a health benefit by reducing obesity and diabetes,” Sanchez said.
But Sen. Cisco McSorley said consumers wouldn’t know which products would be taxed and which wouldn’t be, and, he said, a wide variety of foods would not be exempt.
“For the last five years, this state has enjoyed a tax free Thanksgiving,” McSorley said, “and that’s something to be thankful for. But if you look at a butterball turkey, spices and preservatives are built into it, so would it be taxed?”
Sanchez replied that the intent was to exempt meats, poultry and fish with limited amounts of added ingredients, and that the Tax and Revenue Department was working out the details.
Two amendments specifically concerning the food tax bill were offered. Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, proposed exempting red chile pods and powder. Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, meanwhile, suggested taxing all food, while offering a food rebate for low-income families. His proposal would reduce the complexity of the tax, he said, while making it more progressive by offering an outright tax rebate to the poor. Both amendments failed.
McSorley explained in voting no on Griego’s amendment that he had promised his constituents he would never vote for a food tax. Another progressive senator defended Sanchez’s legislation.
“I came into this session thinking I’d never vote for a food tax, but I realized this could be the biggest boon to health in NM,” said Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. “This is a tax on salt, sugar, white flour and processed foods. …[when] over 60 percent of New Mexicans are overweight or obese. Mothers will be cooking more and cooking from scratch. That is a good thing.”
The food tax legislation received vigorous opposition in the lead up to the final floor debate by the Catholic Church in a particular. Billed a “tortilla tax,” the legislation was blasted for taxing white tortillas, which are a staple food in New Mexico.
“WIC is designed to provide supplemental funding for food with an extensive education to accompany it,” Allen Sanchez, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, said immediately after the legislation was adopted.
“Without education the working poor will not be able to navigate the grocery story knowing what is taxed and is not taxed. This bill deliberately targets the poor and the Catholic bishops of New Mexico find this bill to be in direct contradiction to the Gospel values.”
Other tax measures
The food tax passed despite multiple amendments offered by several lawmakers who hoped to raise revenues in a variety of other ways.
“This is about asking the richest people to step up to the plate,” Sen. Eric Griego said of an unsuccessful amendment that would have raised the top income tax rate in the state.
Another amendment offered by Griego reduced the capital gains exemption from 50 to 25 percent.
“There are 15 to 20 proposals that have been circulated to help us raise the revenue we need,” Griego said to explain why he offered the two amendments on the food tax bill. “This is the only vehicle we have to have a balanced conversation, because most haven’t seen the light of day.”
“Otherwise,” he said, “we’re just balancing the budget on the backs of teachers, …instead of asking the rich and wealthy to pay their fair share.”
Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, proposed an amendment that would have mandated that multi-state corporations use a mechanism called “combined reporting,” which would ensure they pay corporate income tax to New Mexico. Wirth has proposed the bill for five years in a row, but in years past was routinely told that while the idea was a good one, the state didn’t need the money. Now it does, he said, which was why he thought it was important to ensure a floor debate.
“I was told for years that it’s a good deal, but we don’t need the money,” Wirth said. “Now, we need the money. It’s about fairness. It doesn’t apply a new tax rate, it simply makes these multi-state corporations pay their fair share.”
Ultimately, neither Wirth’s or Griego’s two amendments were adopted.
Votes for and against the food tax, SB 10:
For: Campos, Cisneros, Eichenberg, Feldman, Fischmann, Phil Griego, Ingle, Jennings, Kernan, Leavell, Martinez, Morales, Munoz, Ortiz y Pino, Papen, Pinto, B. Sanchez, M. Sanchez, Sapien, Smith, Ulibarri, Beffert, Harden.
Against: Adair, Asbill, Boitano, Cravens, Duran, Garcia, Eric Griego, Keller, Lopez, Lovejoy, McSorley, Payne, Rue, Ryan, Sharer, Wirth, Nava, Neville, Rodriguez
