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.
The first two tax increases to reach the floor of the House made it through on Friday, but not before some strong words on both sides. One bill would temporarily raise the gross receipts tax by .5 percent; the other would raise taxes on the state’s highest earners by 1.5 percent. Both bills could bring in $300 million to state coffers.
On Friday House members recalled former Republican Rep. Eric Youngberg, who died this week.
Youngberg, 42, served 2003 through the end of 2008 in the House. A low-profile lawmaker with a puckish sense of humor, Youngberg never really spent much…
The House Rules Committee temporarily tabled a measure that would add video to the audio already streamed from the state House. Rep. Keith Gardner, R-Roswell proposed the measure, and for a time it looked like it would…
Politically, this bill will get more eyes than most any other bill this session, save perhaps the state budget. Over the next few days, many state lawmakers will review the over 60-some-odd page list of targeted projects to see if any of theirs is on it. The gyms, senior centers and bridges built with state money are often viewed as tangible evidence of what the lawmakers are doing for the districts.
U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday health care reform legislation scheduled for the U.S. Senate floor in coming weeks would contain a public health care option with an opt-out clause for states. But a public health care option wouldn’t be a slam dunk in New Mexico if the decision fell to state lawmakers.
The New Mexico House voted 49 to 17 Friday to cap the amount of money political candidates and elected officials can accept from individuals and political committees. If the Senate gives its OK and Gov. Bill Richardson signs the bill, the vote would allow New Mexico to cast off the stigma as one of only five states in the union to not limit campaign contributions.
A breakdown of the votes shows that the opposition to embryonic stem-cell research was a bipartisan affair.
Fourteen Democrats, including House Speaker Ben Lujan, Majority Leader Ken Martinez and Majority Whip Sheryl Williams Stapleton, joined Republicans to…
State Rep. Paul Bandy’s bill to restrict what New Mexico nonprofits can do during an election year has run into an immovable object: the House Judiciary Committee. In fact, the committee’s unwillingness to pass the legislation with days to go in the 2009 session means the bill’s chances for passage are between unlikely and nigh impossible.
A new bill that would regulate alleged ‘electioneering’ by New Mexico nonprofits was unanimously approved earlier today. The legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Paul Bandy, an Aztec Republican, is nearly identical a proposal sought by House Majority Leader Ken Martinez and Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez.
The New Mexico House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would make an e-mail the legal equivalent of a paper request for public documents.
The legislation is needed because some state agencies in the past have not…
A bill that started out with the intention of making it easier to get state records suddenly has been transformed into a fortified castle, thanks to the very state agencies it would affect.
State agencies alerted the sponsor of the…
