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  • Prisons in need of formal policy for breast-feeding

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Jun 27, 2017

    Given the number of female inmates being held in New Mexico prisons — 753 or 10.4 percent of the state’s total prison population — and the increase in breast-feeding lawsuits in the past decade, it’s surprising the New Mexico Department of Corrections doesn’t have a formal policy on the issue. It needs one. The issue came up in a lawsuit by inmate Monique Hidalgo, who was not allowed to breast-feed during family visits at the state Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. Hidalgo, who has been in the Grants prison since Septe...

  • State tax rate 'absolutely matter' to business interests

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Jun 25, 2017

    It would be easy to take the simplistic view that lowering New Mexico’s top corporate income rate from 7.6 percent to 5.9 percent over a five-year period as part of a 2013 business tax overhaul is costing New Mexico a lot of money. It would also be wrong. Corporate tax collections have dipped from $281 million in fiscal 2012 to a projected $118 million in fiscal 2017. Critics of the overhaul, which also included getting rid of the so-called single sales factor, point to the numbers and say if the goal was to encourage job g...

  • Neither side blameless for political fire

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Jun 20, 2017

    The partisan rancor and toxic incivility that have gripped the nation since last year’s presidential campaign spilled over into bloodshed last Wednesday. James T. Hodgkinson, 66, opened fire on a group of Republican congressmen practicing for a fundraising baseball game against their Democrat colleagues. Although Tim Slater, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, stopped short of calling the shootings an assassination attempt, that’s exactly what it was. Hodgkinson, an avowed progressive and Donal...

  • Mueller should address conflict issues publicly

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Jun 18, 2017

    Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel to investigate whether there was collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign was greeted with general approval by both sides of the political aisle. Mueller, after all, was considered a no-nonsense lawman who had once led the FBI, and it was the Trump Justice Department that appointed him. That bipartisan harmony didn’t last long — and James Comey’s testimony before the Senate intelligence committee is a big reason why. Comey, fired unceremoniously by Trump in what un...

  • Partisan games keep state from moving forward

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Jun 14, 2017

    Once again, perceived vagaries in New Mexico law — and animosity between Gov. Susana Martinez and the Democrat-majority Legislature — have led to district court. This time, the Legislative Council — which authorized a lawsuit in April in an inexcusable closed-door vote — is asking the court to find that 10 bills the governor vetoed during this year’s 60-day legislative session should be declared to be law because Martinez did not follow proper veto procedures. Some bills, the petitioners claim, were vetoed after the three...

  • Audits of tax revenues need not be partisan

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Jun 11, 2017

    Imagine the impact on your personal finances if your monthly income fluctuated by double-digit percentages from month to month, even though you worked the same hours every week at the same rate of pay. That’s precisely what happens to New Mexico municipalities when the state collects gross receipts taxes — levied on most goods and services — and distributes them, minus the state’s take, each month back to the local governments. Although some fluctuation in gross receipts taxes is normal because of a community’s economic activ...

  • Gross receipts tax study must not collect dust

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Jun 6, 2017

    Although legislators decided against overhauling our exemption-ridden gross receipts tax system during the recent regular and special sessions, they did earmark $400,000 to study it. “The people of New Mexico will be watching to see if this becomes another government study that gets filed away only to collect dust,” Gov. Susana Martinez said after finally signing a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that starts July 1. “New Mexicans deserve action.” New Mexicans also deserved action on Martinez’s 2011 promise to review th...

  • NATO, Merkel's feathers needed good ruffling

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Jun 4, 2017

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel, unhappy with President Donald Trump after last month’s meetings, declared last Sunday that Europe “really must take our fate into our own hands.” That’s good news for American taxpayers, the world and Trump. Merkel, who has done plenty to undermine the security of Western Europe with reckless, terrorist-friendly immigration policies, apparently was unhappy with Trump’s continued lecturing on the need for NATO allies to pick up their share of defense costs as defined in the organizat...

  • State budget like terrible movie rerun

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated May 31, 2017

    There’s nothing like spending 62 days on the public’s dime kicking a can down the road. That’s what Santa Fe did in the regular 2017 session, and it’s what it did in the two days of special session last week. As Senate Majority Whip Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, said Thursday when lawmakers adjourned for the long holiday weekend, “If you feel like you’re watching a movie for the second time, you’d be correct.” Rather than reform what by all accounts everyone agrees is an abysmal gross-receipts tax system filled with loo...

  • Guardianship system needs to ax secrets

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated May 28, 2017

    There is no shortage of things that need to be fixed in New Mexico’s system of guardianships and conservatorships for people who are declared incapacitated. But without question, the excessive secrecy that shrouds the system ranks high on the list. So critics can take some comfort in the fact that a commission appointed by the state Supreme Court to review the system and recommend changes has honed in on the lack of transparency as one of the key issues. Retired state District Judge Wendy York, who was appointed to chair the...

  • Mueller right man for Trump investigation

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated May 23, 2017

    Some sanity was injected into the political hysteria engulfing Washington, D.C., last week when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein selected former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead an investigation into whether the Trump campaign collaborated with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Mueller, a career lawman who has wide bipartisan respect, has the knowledge, legal authority and temperament needed to determine exactly what the Russians did, if anything, to seek to sway the 2016 elections or...

  • 'Passing the trash' a big problem in our school system

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated May 21, 2017

    The recent indictment of Gary Gregor, a former Santa Fe and Española grade-school teacher, has brought his unfortunate professional history around the West back into focus. Now, again, parents and taxpayers in New Mexico — and maybe elsewhere — are left to wonder how Gregor ever got into the position to commit the numerous counts of child sex abuse that he’s accused of. In a case handled by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, Gregor faces three counts of rape of a minor, five counts of criminal sexual contact with a m...

  • Soda tax won't deter obesity, sugar habits

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated May 10, 2017

    Santa Fe voters turned out in record numbers last week and soundly defeated a proposed 2-cents-per-ounce tax on sugary soft drinks that Mayor Javier Gonzales hoped would put an extra 1,000 kids in pre-kindergarten classes for free or at cut-rate prices. While the proposal might have sounded good on its face — fight obesity and get more kids into early education — 58 percent of those who voted didn’t drink that Kool-Aid. And an impressive 37.6 percent of registered voters turned out to vote. Had the soda tax passed, Santa...

  • State, federal pot conflicts unavoidable

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Apr 27, 2017

    The conflict inherent in having states allow the use of marijuana while the federal government does not is playing out in New Mexico, and it begs an interesting question about legislative intent. The New Mexico Crime Victims Reparation Commission, established in 1981 to assist victims of violent crime, has refunded the U.S. Department of Justice $7,630 after independent investigators found the commission erroneously used federal grant money to reimburse crime victims for the cost of their medical marijuana. Last year, the...

  • There's reason to be skeptical of DOE project

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Apr 23, 2017

    By tabling a vote on whether they will support a U.S. Department of Energy plan to drill a 3-mile-deep borehole on private property to test the feasibility of burying nuclear waste in deep wells, Otero County commissioners joined a growing list of skeptics of the project. A nearly identical project is being planned near Nara Visa in Quay County, and that County Commission has come out against the project there. With the 2010 shutdown of the planned nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the DOE has been...

  • UNM coach made memorable first impression

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Apr 19, 2017

    First impressions matter, and Paul Weir certainly made a memorable one when he was introduced last week as the new University of New Mexico head basketball coach. Meticulously dressed, well-spoken — he even quoted the Greek philosopher Atticus — and surprisingly humble for a guy who just landed the plumb coaching job in the state, Weir graciously stepped into what is likely to be the toughest coaching job he’s ever had. For starters, Weir comes to Loboland from Aggieville, UNM’s big-time downstate rival in all things athleti...

  • Political fights could impact Senate negatively

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Apr 11, 2017

    As messy as the political battle got — GOP transgression, Democrat retaliation, an unprecedented partisan filibuster and, finally, the “nuclear option” — the U.S. Supreme Court has a highly qualified new justice on its bench. Unfortunately, the political fight could well have negative long-term impact on the U.S. Senate and its formerly cherished reputation as a “deliberative” body, and it makes the nation’s highest court even more politicized. This was a bloody, partisan fight reminiscent of a running playground spat but wit...

  • Federal budget puts state water systems at risk

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Apr 5, 2017

    President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 federal budget eliminates a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that provides millions of dollars in grants and loans to small water and wastewater systems. It would have a devastating effect on parts of rural New Mexico. The USDA’s Water and Environmental Program last year alone provided $6.6 million in grants and loans for New Mexico water projects. The program, tailored to serve rural community and water systems serving 10,000 people or fewer, provides grants and low-interest loa...

  • School heads salaries need to be realigned

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Apr 2, 2017

    It’s doubtful state Auditor Tim Keller is the only person whose jaw dropped after learning the husband-wife team who head the GREAT Academy charter school in Albuquerque draw salaries totaling $305,652 a year — an amount stratospherically higher than the $87,000 average other charter school executives in similar positions receive. (Meanwhile, the sixth- through 12th-grade school pays its instructors an average of $38,000 per year — 143rd-lowest among 148 school districts statewide.) In a letter to the president of the schoo...

  • Here's hoping branching out brings innovators

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Mar 30, 2017

    The New Mexico Department of Tourism is on the move, not just promoting the state’s natural beauty and many attractions, but also highlighting the potential for entrepreneurs to consider the state as a great place to locate a business. In partnership with the city of Albuquerque this year, the agency debuted new videos featuring New Mexico companies at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, earlier this month. The conference has become a magnet for innovators, entrepreneurs and investors to network and check o...

  • State grieves with Cannon for lost airmen

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Mar 22, 2017

    In New Mexico we celebrate — and often take for granted — our U.S. military forces. We turn out en masse for parades and fireworks displays. We jealously guard the budgets of our national labs, Air Force bases and Army missile range. We glance up at the flyovers. And we don’t think twice when we see a vehicle with a Purple Heart license plate parked next to one with a Disabled Veteran plate down the row from one with a National Guard plate. But there’s an unspoken risk and sacrifice that comes with having such a large a...

  • NM legislation working to block the sunshine

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Mar 14, 2017

    It’s ironic that the state Legislature is considering several anti-open government bills during Sunshine Week. That’s the national initiative spearheaded by the American Society of News Editors to educate about the importance of open government and the dangers of excessive and unnecessary secrecy. Interestingly, the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors launched Sunshine Sunday in 2002 in response to efforts by some Florida legislators to create scores of new exemptions to that state’s public records law. The following year,...

  • Senate bill would hurt victims, kill public oversight

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Feb 28, 2017

    In a troubling case of “we’re from the government and we’re here to help,” Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, wants to shield significant portions of police reports for six serious crimes from public view. Considering how too many of New Mexico’s law enforcement, prosecutorial and court systems are struggling to take predators of all kinds off the street — and how concerned residents are with crime — how can eliminating the sunshine of public oversight be a remotely good idea? Especially when it comes to cases of sexual as...

  • Taxpayers pay for better than Capulin offers

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Feb 9, 2017

    When you have hundreds of thousands of people living near the base of a ski area, and it snows, it is inevitable that a bunch of those people are going to pick up a sled, or an inner tube, or a sheet of cardboard, and drive up the mountain just so they can slide down. In the case of the Sandia Mountains, a whole lot of somebodies. Throw in a three-day holiday and it’s a powdered-sugar-covered invitation to play in the snow. Unfortunately, on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, the U.S. Forest Service once again underestimated b...

  • Country could use more of the Gorsuch approach

    Albuquerque Journal|Updated Feb 9, 2017

    Another day, another administration and Senate, another partisan fight that catches a highly qualified Supreme Court candidate in the crosshairs. Democrats complain with some justification that Republicans should have taken up the nomination of well-qualified Merrick Garland late in President Obama’s term. But the Democrat and liberal reaction to President Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming that he’s “dangerous,” “extreme” and “outside the mainstream,” borders on farce....

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