Could that improve the state’s chances in the second round? New Mexico lost out on $160 million in the first round and is applying for $75 million in the second round.

Stateline.org tells us that Indiana and Kansas both have decided against pursuing money in the second round of Race to the Top.  But that still leaves more than three dozen states in the hunt for the federal money, meaning New Mexico’s got a stiff challenge ahead of it.

Prior to Indiana and Kansas’ decisions to forgo the second round of funding, a few states had declined to participate in the Race to the Top program, including Texas and Alaska.

Like the more than three dozen other states that also applied, New Mexico lost out in the first round of the Race to the Top to the  two winners, Delaware and Tennessee.

New Mexico is in the middle of re-writing its application for the second round, with negotiations expected to continue between the state’s public education department and other groups, like teachers’ unions.

The deadline to apply is June 1, said public education department spokesperson Beverly Friedman.

UPDATED 5:15 p.m. — New Mexico Public Education Secretary Veronica Garcia hailed the news Friday afternoon. “It gives us a better chance,” Garcia said of Kansas and Indiana dropping out of the second round. “There’s fewer people in the race.”

Garcia and her staff are continuing to negotiate with teacher unions as they put together the state’s Race to the Top application in time for the June 1 deadline. The issue before them is how to find a way to measure teachers’ performance that both the administration and teachers’ unions can live with. Garcia said she has scheduled a meeting Monday with union representatives.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar warns in the article that this century could see another era of mass relocation by rural climate refugees fleeing drought, similar to the migration of farmers and ranchers who fled Oklahoma parts of surrounding states during the Dust Bowl.

Methamphetamine labs are on the rise in Oklahoma as drug makers turn to a different method to brew the highly addictive drug to get around state laws, according to The Oklahoman.

A 7.2 earthquake hit northern Mexico, sending tremors and scaring people as far away as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas, reports the New York Times.

At a time when thousands of people are leaving newspapers across the country, Laylan Copelin of the Austin American-Statesman departed, and then returned. He explains why in a moving column that ran over the weekend. I liked it — A LOT!!!

For fans of Zora Neale Hurston, this travel piece in the New York Times over the weekend is a wonderful review of how the iconoclastic, legendary writer grew up in Florida and how she spent the last years of her life. Hurston, anthropologist/ethnographer/novelist/cultural critic all wrapped up in one, exploded all sorts of cultural and academic expectations during her lifetime.

Finally in the world of science, here’s a really interesting piece from Smithsonian Magazine on dark energy and dark matter, which might fill the majority of space in the universe if some scientific theories are correct.

Vermont and its teachers union agreed that teachers would work longer, and contribute more toward their pensions, in return for greater pension benefits once they retire. The move is expected to save Vermont money at a time that it is financially strapped.

Meanwhile in Kansas, hiring a prostitute could land you on a sex offender registry under legislation working its way through the Kansas Legislature, according to the Kansas City Star. The legislation would have people convicted of hiring a prostitute put on a sex offender registry for 10 years, the paper reports. The bill has passed the House, and still must clear the Senate.

Starbucks finds itself in the hot seat over the right of gun owners to openly carry firearms into the chain’s coffeehouses, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The coffee chain is in the middle of a controversy in California after gun owners openly carrying firearms began meeting at its stores.

The Catholic Church, and the Pope, are in the spotlight again over an decades-old sex abuse case. The church, and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his role as the Vatican’s chief enforcer of canon law prior to his becoming Pope,  failed to act in the case of a Wisconsin priest who was said to have molested hundreds of deaf children over decades of work, the New York Times reports.

Historian Ira Berlin tells us that heavy migration of people from Africa and the Caribbean over the last 30 years is stretching what it means to be African American. Berlin takes on that subject in the Smithsonian Magazine.

Meanwhile, in our neighbor to the north, Colorado state workers will see eight furlough days during the state budget year that ends June 30, Gov. Bill Ritter announced Tuesday, according to the Denver Post. State workers had been scheduled to take four days, but Ritter added four more to help balance this year’s budget.

Want yet another sign of how heated the debate over health care reform has become? A number of conservative Kansas lawmakers have proposed amending that state’s constitution to exempt Kansas from federal health care mandates, reports the Wichita Eagle. Within hours of the announcement, the state Democratic Party immediately set up an online petition to oppose the idea. According to the newspaper, “The proposition, which would have to be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature and a majority of voters, seeks to nullify any law passed by the federal government that would require individuals to buy health care or force employers to provide it.”

States have reported creating or saving 380,000 jobs thanks to federal stimulus funds, USA Today reports. The paper’s count is based on reports generated by 33 states and comes a couple of days before the Obama administration is scheduled to announce a 50-state total for the number of jobs created or saved. Of course, debate still surrounds this issue, with some people saying the numbers are vastly overstated.

Here’s an update from yesterday’s posting about S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford. I noted that one of Sanford’s fellow Republicans in the S.C. House of Representatives was preparing to file legislation to begin impeachment proceedings. But those plans were foiled — by a Democratic lawmaker. Rep. Walton J. McLeod argued that it was out of order because the House was meeting in a special session to discuss specific economic issues — not impeachment, reports the Los Angeles Times. As a result, the resolution cannot be considered before January, when the next legislative session begins.

Jayson Blair, the reporter who single-handedly gave the New York Times its worst black eye with his fictitious stories earlier this decade, is scheduled to be the featured speaker at a Virginia journalism ethics seminar.

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