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.
A previously unknown federal criminal investigation surrounding Gov. Bill Richardson‘s nomination as President Obama’s Commerce Secretary has ended with no criminal indictments, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
The inquiry in question, which reporter investigative reporter Mike Gallagher pieced together…
Susana Martinez has made corruption a major theme of her campaign for governor, linking high-profile scandals to the “Richardson-Denish administration.” Is linking Denish to the scandals that have rocked New Mexico Democrats, and Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration, a fair reflection of the facts? Two political science professors say no. But planting seeds of doubt about an opponent is a longstanding tradition of political gamesmanship during elections, when campaigns fight over who controls the election-year narrative.
Say what? It appears ‘gripgate’ has now become a term to describe the reception problems Apple has been having with the new iPhone 4—problems attributed to the way people grip the phone. But wait! Hang on! We coined that…
Gov. Bill Richardson
As 2009 staggers into the history books, exhausted and a bit lighter in the pockets than when it first appeared on the scene, let’s acknowledge this: the year gave us plenty to write about.
Accusations of pay-to-play, former elected officials getting indicted, electoral surprises and an occasional David toppling a Goliath — 2009 produced it all, giving the year a healthy luster of newsworthiness despite its threadbare look.
The year showed incredible stamina, in fact, with a steady drumbeat of scoops, gotchas and revelations, exhausting many a political junkie and news professional. And 2009 didn’t take long to demonstrate its capacity to shock.
On the fourth day of 2009, an announcement in Washington landed in New Mexico with all the percussive power of a bombshell: Gov. Bill Richardson was withdrawing as President Obama’s commerce secretary, citing a federal corruption investigation into how his administration conducted business.
And the news kept coming.
Some 360 later, the year is ending the way it began — scrutiny, including from federal prosecutors, on how the state invested its money over the past half decade.
In between those two bookends, the state of New Mexico also came to the disturbing realization that it was broke, Albuquerque’s longtime mayor fell short of winning a third four-year term — knocked off by a long-shot two-term GOP state lawmaker — and two former elected officials found themselves on the business end of a criminal indictment.
It’s unclear whether what transpired this year will change the political dynamic here in New Mexico, or lead to more government transparency. But before The New Mexico Independent gets back into the daily grind, let’s take a deep breath and reflect on the busy year that was.
“Vincent ‘Smiley’ Gallegos, who ran a state housing agency out of an office next to a used-car lot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, should have known better when he borrowed $27.7 million, the Internal Revenue Service said.”
So begins the…
CDR Financial Products, the company that was at the center of New Mexico’s GRIPgate scandal that recently ended without charges being filed, was indicted along with some of its employees today in a national probe into bid rigging in the municipal bond market.
I talked by phone with the hosts of the FOX Business TV show Happy Hour on Thursday about the news that Gov. Bill Richardson and others won’t face criminal charges following a probe into pay-to-play allegations. Watch it here:
Why haven’t the New York Times and Washington Post been following up on the DOJ’s decision not to prosecute Richardson? The conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation wants to know. Short answer: It was never really their story.
Despite Gov. Bill Richardson’s claims of vindication, over the weekend several state newspapers ran editorials about the two-term Democratic governor and the end of a federal probe into whether there was pay-to-play involved in deals at the New Mexico Finance…
A letter sent by U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt to defense attorneys involved in a year-long investigation of Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration has been called “stupid” by Joseph diGenova, a former Republican U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
According to…
So it appears that Governor Bill Richardson will not be charged in the GRIPgate scandal. If Obama were to come through on his pledge to have Richardson join the administration, what would he do with Big Bill? All of…
In a letter sent to witnesses before the grand jury investigating accusations of pay to play in Gov. Richardson’s administration, United States attorney, Gregory J. Fouratt said that while criminal charges weren’t forthcoming, “pressure from the governor’s office resulted in the corruption of the procurement process” and that the letter “should not be interpreted as exoneration of any party’s conduct in that matter, the New York Times reported late Thursday night.
Many right-leaning blogs are focusing on a quote from an anonymous source familiar with the Richardson pay to play investigation who said, “It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington.”
Gov. Bill Richardson and “former high-ranking members of his administration” won’t be charged following the federal investigation into allegations of pay-to-play in his administration, the Associated Press is reporting today. “It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington,” the AP quoted an unnamed source as saying.
A lawyer for whistleblower Frank Foy has asked a state judge to hold Amanda Cooper — Gov. Bill Richardson’s former deputy presidential campaign chair — in contempt of court. At the heart of a motion filed Tuesday is a contention that Cooper hasn’t turned over subpoenaed records.
So far the New Mexico Finance Authority has refused to make public the subpoena the agency has received from federal prosecutors as part of an ongoing federal investigation into allegations of pay-to-play government.
The New Mexico Finance Authority has asked the office of Attorney General Gary King to look into trying to recover millions of dollars lost in a deal at the center of a federal pay-to-play investigation, the authority’s chairman said yesterday.
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.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder dodged questions Friday on the active pay-to-play investigation involving the New Mexico Mortgage Authority.
