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.
Anthony is becoming an official city after residents there voted overwhelmingly in favor of incorporation on Tuesday.
With results from both polling places and early and absentee ballots counted, 410 people, or 73 percent, voted in favor of incorporation, while…
Registered voters who live in the unincorporated area of Bernalillo County’s South Valley are voting today in a special election to determine whether or not they should incorporate into a town. The proposed town would be called Valle De Atrisco.…
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.
The state’s two largest universities, UNM and NMSU, are being asked by the state to repay a combined $1.3 million after an audit “turned up hundreds of irregularities in how transportation research money was spent,” the Albuquerque Journal reports.…
The development community appears to be targeting two of its most vocal opponents on the city council in hopes of gaining a development-friendly board, two Albuquerque city councilors charged Wednesday. Westland Development Co., a subsidiary of SunCal, has spent at least $10,000 on the race.
A large developer hoping to finance a huge mixed-used development on the Albuquerque’s West Side—with bonds based on future tax proceeds—is targeting its most vocal opponent on the City Council. A mailer sent to District 5 voters this week criticizes City Councilor Michael Cadigan, who is seeking re-election. Cadigan is a longtime, vocal opponent of the tax-proceeds scheme — called TIDDs for short — by which SunCal, the developer, hopes to pay for roads, water lines and other infrastructure for the development.
The Journal’s John Fleck has a story today about the world of water, specifically at the federal Bureau of Reclamation, and how it has changed from decades past. Fleck interviewed Michael Connor, the new head of the Bureau of…
More than a year and a half after the attorney general took issue with certain types of State Land Office development leases, the land commissioner is attempting to erase questions about the legality of such agreements with an administrative rule change.
I hope that the sort of NIMBYism that foils so many public works projects doesn’t rear its ugly, selfish head this time, because a new I-25 exit at Richards Avenue is really a necessity.
The Albuquerque City Council unanimously voted Monday night to override Mayor Martin Chavez’s veto of a bill that placed ten city charter amendments on the fall municipal ballot. The bill has originally passed the Council on a six to three vote.
The problems for controversial Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou are growing.
A new lawsuit accuses Philippou of fraud in promising a company he hired to help build a golf course in Las Cruces that water would be available for construction,…
One of incumbent mayor Marty Chavez’s recent statements on the stump for reelection is that Albuquerque has secured its water future through the San Juan-Chama diversion project.
He has also said he’s “unabashedly” pro-growth and that he sees development…
Almost two years ago, a spokesman for Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou said he expected that drainage improvements in the Dos Sueños subdivision would be completed in 4-6 weeks.
What the global warming deniers have done is to create a political dead space, a vacuum in which global warming gases have soared and technology, legislation and capital have lagged sorely behind despite far thinking companies and governments.
Critics of the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority go too far when they suggest that the water authority is operating with insufficient oversight from the Office of the State Engineer and that the water authority is somehow not “accountable for the effects of its operations.”
The long-awaited groundbreaking for Spaceport America is taking place Friday, well over a year after state officials initially hoped it would happen.
The Albuquerque City Council will soon take up the issue of whether a moratorium on impact fees makes sense given the new construction in the city over the last year. And it’s a subject that has already reignited a long-simmering debate about how to best manage development in New Mexico’s largest city.
A retired law-enforcement agent who lives in Las Cruces is the second Republican to confirm that he’s running for land commissioner next year.
Errol Chavez, 60, said in a phone interview that he is running because he has…
Change trumped experience Tuesday night as a wave of voters sent three challengers cresting to victory over incumbents in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District board directors election. Karen Dunning, Adrian Oglesby, Derrick Lente and Chris Sichler all won seats on the board that oversees irrigation and flood control from Cochiti to Socorro.
The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District election today could change the direction of the organization that controls a vast stretch of bosque, ditches and levees between Cochiti and Socorro. The most hotly contested seats represent Bernalillo County, where one director has rankled some with his forthright style but earned praise from others for stirring up a cozy board and shining light on its inner workings.
