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.
Whether New Mexico’s Catholic Church is on the side of Democrats or Republicans when it comes to issues like abortion, homosexuality and capital punishment, is beside the point. The issue isn’t ideology; it’s law: Is the church or is it not violating the constitutional separation of church and state?
In a unanimous decision released Friday morning, the Iowa Supreme Court has cleared the way for same-sex couples to marry across the state beginning later this month.
Most analysts are pointing to the influence of religion when explaining the defeat of the domestic partnership bill by the state Senate. But a breakdown of the vote shows a clear regional division — specifically, the split among rural…
Ten New Mexico Democrats sided with Republican Senators amid mounting opposition from religious groups and a confluence of factors that worked against the bill’s passage.
Domestic partnerships just failed the Senate by a vote of 17-25. All Republicans and 10 Democrats voted to oppose the bill.
The Republican Party of New Mexico said Tuesday that it was standing by a poll it commissioned that included misstatements about domestic partnerships.
Archdiocese of Santa Fe officials and parishioners have turned up the pressure on the measure this year, saying that they fear domestic partnerships will clear a path for legalizing gay marriage. But not all Catholics share that fear.
State Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, won’t say where he stands on domestic partnerships.
“I’m really discerning,” Campos told the Independent on Friday at the State Capitol.
Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said Monday afternoon that the domestic partnerships legislation will go to the Senate floor sometime this week for a vote.
“It won’t be next week,” Sanchez told the Independent.
A poll commissioned by advocates of the legislation zeroes in on two lawmakers viewed as crucial to the legislation’s fate this year — Democratic Sens. Richard Martinez and Bernadette Sanchez. Conducted by one of the state’s most respected pollsters, the poll reveals strong majority support for the bill in both of their districts.
It was unclear whether Gov. Bill Richardson was waxing optimistic or whimsical during a late-morning press conference in his cabinet room.
Richardson predicted that the New Mexico Legislature wouldn’t need a special session to allocate federal stimulus money to…
The Albuquerque Democrat used an age-old ruse to avoid voting on the domestic partnership bill. But supporters say her artful dodge won’t kill the measure.
The bill to approve domestic partnerships just failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 5 to 5 tie. Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, who was the swing vote, walked out of the committee room shortly before the vote, and walked back…
State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, just told me the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on domestic partnerships this afternoon.
As of last week, the bill’s failure or passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee had come down to one…
Five of the six Democrats on the make-or-break committee appear to support the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act. Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, meanwhile, stands in the middle, undecided, and the likely swing vote. She’s being lobbied hard on the bill, which would extend the rights of married couples to same-sex and opposite-sex couples in a committed relationship.
Domestic partnerships, whether lawmakers like it or not, stands in the middle of the clash of two big ideas — equal rights vs. traditional values. And hanging over that clash, like a screaming neon sign, is the word “marriage,” and how to define it.
After hours of testimony, the Senate Public Affairs committee voted to approve the domestic partnerships bill. Now the legislation goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same place it went down in flames last year.
The US House will vote on President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan today. The plan contains “$700 million for New Mexico,” the Albuquerque Journal reports.
The Las Cruces County Commissioners have expressed unanimous support for a domestic partnership bill being heard at the Roundhouse today, says the Las Cruces Sun-News.
One man in Alamogordo is terrified that prisoners from Guantanamo Bay may be transferred to an Otero County immigrant detention center when Gitmo closes, according to the Alamogordo News.
The $2.7 billion fence along the border between the US and Mexico is only 69 miles from completion, but it is possible the Obama administration may halt the progress of the controversial fence, the AP reports.
“Proposed legislative cuts target ethnic programs,” says a story in today’s Daily Lobo.
The US Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement has given New Mexico $3.8 million to clean up abandoned coal mines near Lordsburg, T or C, Grants and Soccoro.
A blogging battle over what domestic partner benefits would mean for New Mexico and what it means to be a progressive is one of the hottest topics in the New Mexico blogosphere today.
Albuquerque Journal columnist Jim Scarantino…
The legislative session is more than three weeks away, but lawmakers are already getting a jump on the 60-day session by pre-filing about 50 pieces of legislation.
Bills already filed include a proposal to legalize domestic partnerships (PDF),…
