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 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.
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.
In an act that the chair of the House Energy and Natural Resources committee called “gamesmanship,” all Republican members of the committee left a hearing on oil and gas Monday after a perceived slight to Rep. Don Bratton, R-Hobbs.
Despite a unanimous vote on the House floor, Rep. Brian Egolf’s bill to move New Mexico’s money to local banks, HB 66, didn’t make it to the Senate in time for a vote during the regular session. Now Egolf…
After two days of turmoil, over four hours of heated debate and lots of procedural wrangling, the House on Tuesday passed a major piece of ethic legislation. HB 118 would ban campaign contributions from lobbyists and big state contractors from giving money to state-wide candidates and political parties. The bill now has less than 48 hours to try and get through the Senate.
A bill that would give local banks and credit unions preference over national banks for holding the state’s money cleared the Senate Finance Committee unanimously Monday, sponsor Rep. Brian Egolf announced on his Facebook page. It is now headed…
A bill brought by Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, to give preference to local banks in putting state funds in local banks instead of national banks cleared the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee last night. The bill gained…
House lawmakers on Wednesday narrowly rejected giving power to state environmental regulators to consider a company’s past crimes and regulatory punishments in other states when deciding whether to revoke or deny an air quality permit. The bill died on the House floor Lawmakers on a 32-33 vote after a lengthy, sometimes testy debate.
A bill by Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, that would require that the state put its money in local banks instead of with national banks like Bank of America, where the money currently is, has reached the big time…
Approximately 100 people turned up at the New Mexico state capital Monday to support domestic partnership bill (SB 183) expected to be heard in the Senate this week.
State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons spoke to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee on Monday, and afterwards he spoke with the New Mexico Independent about a controversial land swap that brought protestors to the Roundhouse on the first day of…
Steve Terrell has an interesting look at one proposal to help close the budget gap in New Mexico — raising the tax on alcohol. The tax, known a “sin tax,” is one of a number of revenue-enhancing plans that…
Governor Bill Richardson recently rediscovered his blog, using it as a way to answer criticism from the state legislature—and to take a few swipes at the media—but now individual legislators are also taking to new media to push back at…
While we at the New Mexico Independent are sending tweets on our Twitter account about the state Legislature, we aren’t the only ones. Legislators, media and even the House GOP are sending out updates on the 2009 special session.
The saga of whether or not the College of Santa Fe will remain open looks to be coming to a close, with the Santa Fe City Council’s vote to approve a plan to buy the College of Santa Fe.…
In the wake of a horrific murder in Santa Fe, one Republican state lawmaker says he’ll ask Gov. Bill Richardson to add a controversial proposal — the Unborn Victims of Violence Act — to the agenda for the next legislative session.
The non-profit Web site Stateline.org took a look at Twitter as a political tool recently.
The 2009 legislative session may be remembered by many as the one when the money stopped flowing and painful budget decisions had to be made. But advocates say this is actually the year when state government got on board the renewable energy bandwagon. Up till now, programs to boost solar energy installations were “woefully missing in New Mexico.”
Heading into Christmas week, lots of shopping took place over the weekend. I don’t have the stats, so maybe it’s down from last year — we’d expect it to be, given the economy — but it sure seemed busy…
