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.
Former Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Committee Secretary-designate Harrison Schmitt alerted aides to the governor of his refusal to undergo a background check four days before Gov. Susana Martinez told reporters she had just heard of the refusal.
Harrison Schmitt withdrew his nomination to serve as head of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources department on Thursday following his decision to not undergo a background check by the Senate Rules Committee. Gov. Susana Martinez said that Schmitt agreed to be screened but “was not willing to waive that investigator’s liability for any improper actions or use of that information.”
Senate Rules Committee chair Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, will oppose Harrison Schmitt’s nomination to head the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department because Schmitt refused to go through a background check. Lopez says when she met with Schmitt three days ago he told her he would not allow the check that all cabinet nominees and high-level appointed officials go through.
The state Division of Insurance, and the Public Regulation Commission (PRC), will seek legislation this coming session that would grant new, strengthened regulatory powers to vet premium rate hike requests from health insurers. If passed, the new powers would allow the insurance agency to consider an insurer’s investment income, surplus and cost containment and an insurer’s overall profitability rather than just the profitability of a particular line of insurance.
Set your DVR now for 7 p.m. Friday night when KNME’s New Mexico in Focus will air a panel discussion with almost all of the candidates running for lieutenant governor. Correspondent Sarah Gustavus will sit down with Democrats Jose Campos,…
Former state Democratic Party chair Brian Colón leads the race for lieutenant governor with 20.6 percent of the respondents, according to a poll for New Mexico Politics by Joe Monahan, conducted by Roswell-based Dialing Services.
Executive director of the Mid-Region…
Joe Campos qualified to appear on the primary ballot for lieutenant governor on Saturday after all, the Democratic Party of New Mexico has decided. The party says it’s required by state law to round up Campos’ 19.69 percent of delegate votes from the preprimary nominating convention to 20 percent – the threshold for qualifying for the ballot at the convention.
Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Joe Campos says he’s staying in the race even though he didn’t get 20 percent at the party’s preprimary nominating convention on Saturday.
Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Jerry Ortiz y Pino says he’s staying in the race even though he didn’t get 20 percent at the party’s preprimary nominating convention on Saturday. “I am not at all discouraged by this hurdle,” Ortiz y…
Proposals to expand legislative webcasting and create a state ethics commission died in the Senate today when the session ended without Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, calling them up for debate.
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.
State lawmakers should have judged Neri Holguin on her professional qualifications, not her past political work, Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday, after the Senate rejected his nominee to the state Environmental Improvement Board by a vote of 17…
Without debate, the Senate Rules Committee today gave a do-pass recommendation to a memorial that would direct Legislative Council Service to begin webcasting interim committee meetings. House Joint Memorial 15, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, now heads to…
Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez cut short a Sunday hearing on a resolution that would expand webcasting from the Senate floor, but Sanchez says the resolution isn’t dead, regardless of what others claim.
“It could come back up before…
The Senate Rules Committee gave a do-pass recommendation Thursday evening to a proposal to create a state ethics commission, but the bill must make it through two more committees before it could be considered on the Senate floor. The session ends next Thursday.
The Senate Rules Committee gave its approval Wednesday to legislation that would expand the number of cameras used in webcasting from the Senate floor.
With the proposal to create a state ethics commission under consideration in the Senate Rules Committee, activists lobbying for the bill say they’d like to see a better balance between confidentiality and the public’s right to know than would be created by some of the bills under consideration.
If the state establishes an ethics commission, how many members should it have? Who appoints them? And how much of the commission’s work should be made public? Legislators are grappling with those decisions as three bills are combined into one.
The Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday passed a bill that would make changes to the state’s Governmental Conduct Act, including adding local government officials to the list of public employees who are bound by its ethical provisions.
Two pieces of legislation that would expand webcasting in the Senate have been awaiting – but not yet receiving – hearings in the Senate Rules Committee.
