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.
Debate over a bill that would allow New Mexicans to renew their drivers licenses online caused a testy debate in the Senate on Wednesday afternoon after Sen. Rod Adair proposed an amendment that would bar those in the United States…
Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell said Tuesday that broad-based cuts are a ‘very possible’ step to balancing the budget. But Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, disagreed, saying ”When you say ‘across the board’ you balance the budget on the backs of…
Two pieces of legislation that would expand webcasting in the Senate have been awaiting – but not yet receiving – hearings in the Senate Rules Committee.
State Sen. Benjamin Rodefer, D-Corrales, responded to Senate Public Affairs Committees’ addition of a committee hearing to a domestic partnership bill by writing on Twitter that he his “ashamed of the Senate’s actions.” He also wrote, “The founding of…
Members of the state Senate gloated today after Friday’s 43-42 victory in the House vs. Senate basketball game. The win broke a streak of nine straight victories by the House. The game, held in the St. Michael’s High School gym…
Days after the House dramatically expanded webcasting of its proceedings, the Senate may be poised to do the same. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, has introduced Senate Resolution 1, which would expand video webcasting from the…
On Wednesday night in Santa Fe, writers from The Independent mingled with dozens of guests gathered at Rio Chama for the first of four Independent Forum events. The Independent’s partner KNME was on hand to film a panel discussion…
On Wednesday night The New Mexico Independent hosted a panel discussion with Sen. Eric Griego, Rep. Nora Espinoza, and Richard Anklam of New Mexico Tax Research Institute. We talked about how gross receipts tax increases affect the…
Waiting until January to cut capital outlay projects isn’t good enough, Governor Bill Richardson said today as he moved to freeze “pork projects.”
On Friday afternoon, the Senate increased the amount of capital outlay–also known as “pork”–legislators will have to give up, with Lt. Gov. Diane Denish casting the tie vote to move the bill forward.
The amendment to the big budget bill…
Senator Eric Griego, an Albuquerque Democrat, has made a proposal that avoids cuts to public schools and higher education, if legislators will simply choose “people over pork,” he said. His proposal was made available to press watching the Senate floor…
While Gov. Bill Richardson has said that he would seek to bridge the budget gap by cutting services including Medicaid, he has said that rescinding the 2004 tax cuts is one option that is off the table as…
On a warm Saturday afternoon about 100 conservationists, government officials and concerned citizens gathered at Central New Mexico Community College’s Smith-Brasher Hall for a town hall meeting on clean energy and the economy.
According to an Associated Press report, spending on lobbying was down this year at the Roundhouse by a third over last year, the lowest since 2000. In 2000, which had a 30-day session, lobbyist expenditures cost $309,000. As one…
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.”
A package of green jobs bills before the Legislature could be key to how New Mexico uses federal stimulus money. The final federal package provides potentially $1.15 billion for green jobs training, in a larger $113.5 billion package to stimulate a clean energy economy.
The public financing bill sponsored by Sen. Eric Griego, SB 165, “sits in committee” as the Senate Rules Committee ended this morning’s meeting.
I got a chance to sit down with two of the state’s newbie state senators — Tim Keller and Eric Griego, both Albuquerque Democrats — for yesterday’s episode of KNME’s New Mexico In Focus.
A lawsuit alleging an illegal conspiracy to defeat three incumbent lawmakers in the June primary is baseless, several people and groups named as defendants say, but one of the lawmakers says insiders who decided to “snitch” will help prove the…
