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.
Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. has struggled to pay more than $2,000 in debts over the past year, including one to a fellow commissioner and another to a youth group on whose board of directors he sits. Those debts are just the latest headache for Block, who said he has already paid $400,000 in legal fees to defend himself against criminal charges stemming his handling of public campaign funds.
The League of Women Voters has comprehensive guide to the election, including profiles of the candidates and the races. We’ve got it embedded here:
Click the headline to read a transcript our interactive live blog, including reports from The New Mexico Independent, The Santa Fe New Mexican, KNME, KUNM, Weekly Alibi and more than 1,000 readers.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) took no action against former Farmington District manager Steve Henke after the U.S. Interior Department’s inspector general found Henke had sought and accepted unreported gifts and donations from oil companies…
Public Regulation Commission (PRC) Commissioner Sandy Jones’s quest to identify and fire the employee he believed leaked an audit report that was published Friday by The Independent is legally dubious, according to New Mexico…
Nearly two-thirds of respondents in a poll of users of local news websites—including The New Mexico Independent— say they are more satisfied with that site than with their local mainstream new source. The survey of 19 community news sites, conducted by…
Did you know that Jon Barela, the Republican challenger to Democratic Rep. Martin Heinrich, is the beneficiary of a fundraiser scheduled for tonight at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C.? The cover charge is $250 per person—or $1,000…
Court records for cases that did not result in a conviction will remain public record, the New Mexico Supreme Court decided on Thursday. An advisory board had recommended that courts not keep records from cases in which defendants were…
The latest in a string of nationwide oil and gas industry-sponsored “Rally for Jobs” protests against government environmental and safety regulations is scheduled for Wednesday in Farmington. Sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and numerous other industry…
A nuclear waste watchdog group says the state hasn’t done enough to make sure radioactive and toxic waste isn’t leaking from Sandia National Labs’ mixed waste landfill. Rebuffed by regional EPA officials, Citizen Action New Mexico now wants agency brass in Washington, D.C. and New Mexico Attorney General Gary King’s office to review the state Environment Department’s regulation of the site.
A proposed federal tax on the oil and chemical industries would help New Mexico kick-start languishing clean-ups at some of its most dangerous toxic waste sites, according to the state Superfund Oversight Bureau’s program manager.
Insurance Division officials fired former compliance director Aaron Feliciano after he refused to hire an unqualified candidate as chief investigator and complained to the Attorney General’s office about “unlawful or improper” acts by Division officials, Feliciano alleges in a…
The New Mexico Attorney General’s office has failed to confirm the Clovis News Journal’s contention that three Curry County commissioners held an illegal meeting in November, but did warn commissioners to be more cautious in the future.
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG) has posted Public Regulation Commission (PRC) ethics survey responses disclosed to the group earlier this month.
A former Lovington School District employee faces 12 counts of embezzlement for $15,000 worth of falsified checks—less than a month after confessed Jemez Mountain Schools embezzler Kathy Borrego committed suicide in Abiquiu. Lovington is just one of five New Mexico school districts Balderas has designated as “at risk” for failing to complete state-mandated audits. Other school districts fail to maintain basic internal controls to prevent fraud and theft.
In a guest opinion column in the Albuquerque Journal Thursday, former Bernalillo Town manager Stephen Jerge argued that fired Town engineer Ramesh Narasimhan’s engineering is not to blame for Bernalillo’s malfunctioning drinking water treatment…
New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act is meant to help ensure public involvement and to prevent backroom deals in state and local government, but violations of the law are widespread, an investigation by The Independent has found. School boards, universities, town councils, county and state commissions, and boards across the state have broken the law, casting a shroud of secrecy over government officials’ deliberations and bargaining.
As NMI reported, the federal government has launched a major transparency initiative and will be putting heaps of information online for citizens and journalists to rake through. And in New Mexico, the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government has given out a series of transparency awards. So what more can New Mexico state and local governments, businesses and others do to be more transparent? Our panelists weigh in.
Jemez Mountain School District must disclose embezzlement-related financial records to the Rio Grande SUN by Saturday, District Court Judge Sheri Raphaelson has ruled, rejecting the District’s contention that disclosure would interfere with law enforcement.
Want to know what’s happening tomorrow at the Roundhouse? Who’s introduced what bills? How to contact your senator or representative? Check the Web site for the New Mexico state Legislature.
