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.
Some of Gov. Bill Richardson’s former campaign higher-ups were spotted in downtown Santa Fe by Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican — not planning another presidential run for the two-term New Mexico governor, but planning on how to push for an initiative to abolish the electoral college and elect a president by the national popular vote.
“As the Governor and I have said from the beginning, we acted appropriately and ethically at all times and a fair and impartial investigation would bear out those facts,” Dave Contarino, Gov. Bill Richardson’s former chief of staff, said in…
So how does Stephen Flance, the chairman of the New Mexico Finance Authority, know that the FBI has completed its investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the state agency’s deals?
Flance told state lawmakers that the FBI had…
The chairman of the state agency at the center of a federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations against Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration said today that the investigation is complete and has been forwarded to the office of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed documents related to the state’s pending shift from a contract with one behavioral health services company to another, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting.
The state’s Human Services Department has until…
Two high-profile defendants are asking a federal judge to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit that alleges a pay-to-play scheme that rewarded campaign contributors of Gov. Bill Richardson with state work or investments, the Associated Press reports.
Officials announced Thursday that…
Pauline Turner, who Frank Foy’s attorneys describe as ‘a key witness’ in Foy’s pay-to-play case against the state, says the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board made hasty and risky investment decisions that weren’t understood by some board members. Malott is the embattled ERB chairman.
In this midst of this media circus, it’s important that the public and media remember that, while Frank Foy’s allegations of pay-to-play in the Richardson administration might be true, this is a civil lawsuit, which is much different than the federal, criminal grand jury investigation into the other pay-to-play controversy dogging Richardson. While the first is serious, there’s much more at stake in the second.
Dave Contarino says an allegation that he ordered other officials to make state investments in exchange for a little more than $15,000 in contributions to Gov. Bill Richardson’s 2008 presidential campaign is “a flat out lie.”
Two of Gov. Bill Richardson’s longtime friends and advisers made headlines last week amid revelations that a federal probe into allegations of pay-to-play politics may reach all the way to the governor’s office. But the bigger story is New Mexico’s chummy political culture in which friendship with the governor and state business can become intertwined.
It’s getting ugly out there, people. “Obama has embraced Richardson’s approach to governing, and so even without Richardson, the president-elect is welcoming corruption and corporate influence into his administration,” says an opinion piece posted today on dcexaminer.com. The piece…
Gov. Bill Richardson says he is confident that former Chief of Staff Dave Contarino, who is under investigation in a federal probe of pay-to-play allegations, did nothing improper.
