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.
Republicans appeared to pick up several seats in the state House on Tuesday, significantly narrowing the Democrats’ margin of control in the chamber, GOP lawmakers said late Tuesday night. Tuesday’s election returns caused GOP legislative leaders to wax about the coming changes they predicted after apparently picking up eight seats.
Democratic state Reps. Bill O’Niell, Ben Rodefer, Karen Giannini, Jeff Steinborn and Jack Thomas are all facing stiff competition from Republicans who are amassing significants amount of money before the November election.
This week we’ve asked our Independent Forum panelists who they think are the winners and losers in the 2010 primary. Panelist Martha Burk said based on the two women at the top of the ticket, the primary season was…
Gov. Bill Richardson has called several freshman lawmakers to ask for their input on whether he should sign or line-item veto the food tax. “If you can find a way of covering it without cutting education and without us calling us back, do it (line item veto),” State Rep. Ben Rodefer told the governor, “You’ll look like a hero.”
The town of Las Cruces got approval in the final hours of the legislative session Thursday to issue tax increment financing bonds for redevelopment of its downtown area. Known as a TIDD in shorthand, the Las Cruces tax district will…
A deal to balance the state’s budget fell apart in the early hours of the morning, and now some senators say that chamber has the signatures to call the Legislature into extraordinary session so lawmakers, not the governor, control the agenda. The question is whether the House will agree.
House Speaker Ben Lujan’s bill to implement a temporary half-cent hike in the state’s gross receipts tax would presumably not have passed earlier today if two Republican members hadn’t missed the vote.
Two bills that would have merged departments and eliminated redundancies were tabled on Thursday by the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.
Both bills, HB 94 (Merge Aging and Human Services Departments) and HB 95 (Merge…
At least two dozen school districts across New Mexico are in for a tough lesson in legislative math as they add up possible program cuts, subtract classroom money and factor in teacher layoffs. From Chama to Gadsden, 24 school districts…
Once again the nature of New Mexico’s unpaid, volunteer legislature is threatening to limit the kind of people who are able to serve. Case in point: Karen Giannini, the upset Democratic winner of a House seat in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights.
On Monday, Karen Giannini sent out a call for help. The representative-elect from District 30 sent an e-mail explaining a tough predicament: Her employer had denied a request for a 60-day leave of absence that would allow her to…
Nobody thought Democrat Karen Giannini was going to win her Northeast Heights Albuquerque race. Nobody. Justine Fox-Young, considered by many a Republican rising star, was sitting pretty in a so-called “safe” Republican seat. But somehow, an Air-Force veteran and divorced mother of three defied the odds and rode a Democratic wave to a new gig in Santa Fe — and without spending a dime. No one was more surprised than the candidate herself. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding?’ All I could think was: ‘Boy, Justine is really going to be upset. If she finds out what I did — or didn’t do — she’s gonna have conniptions.”
