News New Mexico: July 2010

China Passes Japan - U.S. Next

China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No.1 spot sometime around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and others. China came close to surpassing Japan in 2009 and the disclosure by a senior official that it had now done so comes as no surprise. Indeed, Yi Gang, China's chief currency regulator, mentioned the milestone in passing in remarks published on Friday.
Read more here:

Obama Knocks Special Interests

July 30 (Bloomberg) -- As President Barack Obama thrashes Republicans for allowing “special interest takeovers of our elections,” his Democratic Party is benefiting from millions of campaign dollars brought in by lobbyists. Lobbyists raised at least $1.5 million in the first six months of the year to help elect Democrats to the House, according to a report from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That was the most of any congressional fundraising committee and almost three times as much as House Republicans. Read more here:

Aggie Roundball Practicing for Canada Trip

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (July 30)-The New Mexico State men’s basketball team begins practice for the preseason trip to Canada, Monday, Aug. 2. The Aggies are traveling to Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Aug. 8-16, and are allowed 10 practices prior to the start of exhibition play. In Montreal, the Aggies are slated to open the tour against McGill University and Vanier College, Aug. 10. NM State then faces McGill and Dawson College, Aug. 11, and a professional team in Montreal, Aug. 12, before meeting Carleton University in Ottawa, Aug. 13-14. Dates and games for the exhibition trip are subject to change. Read more here:

California - The Definition of Insanity

California’s Democratic leaders plan to unveil a budget proposal to erase a $19.1 billion deficit as early as next week that may include a 1 percentage-point rise in the personal income-tax rate. The increase would affect all taxpayers except those in the highest tax bracket, according to Senate President Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat. To make it more palatable to voters, California’s highest-in-the-nation sales tax would be cut simultaneously by 2.5 percentage points. Unlike sales levies, state income taxes are deductible from federal returns. The swap would add as much as $3 billion to the general fund. “The idea is to increase some taxes that are already federally deductible and to allow taxpayers to take advantage of that while lowering some taxes that are not federally deductible, while the state general fund can gain $2 billion to $3 billion for education and other vital services,” Steinberg said in an interview yesterday. Read more here:

Tiptoeing Around Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac

The White House says it’s finally ready to consider new ideas for what to do about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Still absent from the government’s agenda is any serious effort to hold anyone accountable for their ruin or investigate why they collapsed. Back in December 2003, after Freddie disclosed what in retrospect was a relatively mild accounting scandal, its regulator published an exhaustive 185-page report cataloguing the company’s financial-reporting abuses. In May 2006, the same regulator disclosed similar findings about Fannie’s books in a report covering 348 pages. Strangely, there’s no similar examination under way today by the Federal Housing Finance Agency into the reasons why Fannie and Freddie imploded in 2008, or whether anyone at the companies did anything improper.

That’s probably because the agency and its predecessor, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, bear responsibility for letting the companies resume their natural tendency to run amok.

Denish on High-Tech and Renewable Energy Jobs

By Diane Denish - Jobs are not just an issue in a campaign – they are what helps people get up in the morning, they put food on their dinner tables and put their kids through college. We are in the midst of a global economic slowdown not seen since the Great Depression. New Mexicans are hurting. I was a small business owner. I know what it was like to hire someone and give them a job. I also know the pain of tough times and having to shrink my company and workforce – and sometimes not paying myself just to keep the doors open. Read more here:

The coming fat regulations possibly fueling a real revolution

by Michael Swickard - “American consumers have no problem with carcinogens, but they will not purchase any product, including floor wax, that has fat in it.” – Dave Barry

Americans have a love/hate relationship with every aspect of fat, from fat cats on. They hate fat and love donuts. I am not casting any stones from my fat glass house. However, some have said that because of the potential extra health care cost, if you are fat, government must save you from you and also save us from you. Government officials say they have a mandate to do so because of health care reforms that put their noses right over our bathroom scales and into our refrigerators. Example: in the German state of Saxony, according to Reuters, a member of parliament said it is unfair and unsustainable for the German taxpayers to carry the cost of treating obesity-related illnesses in their public health system. That is an interesting statement that seems to say that if you eat that Twinkie we will not buy your Insulin. How far are we willing to take this approach? Read more

Denish - Use State Tax Revenue to Fund Green Jobs

Fresh off a story by Larry Barker at KRQE TV of her extensive use of a gas guzzling jet owned by the taxpayers read more here: we get this news story regarding Diane Denish from the New Mexico Independent - New Mexico should shift its state fleet to high-efficiency vehicles, increase the number of tax credits available to clean energy companies and make a priority out of starting a green-job business incubator, according to a green jobs plan Lt. Gov. Diane Denish laid out Thursday. Denish also advocated using a portion of tax revenue to pay for incentives and programs focused on helping to fund renewable-energy products and creating “centers of excellence” for green-energy development at the state’s research universities. Read more here:

House ethics panel charges Rangel on 13 counts

From McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — A special House of Representatives subcommittee on Thursday outlined 13 counts of ethics violations against Rep. Charles Rangel, the former chairman of the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. The charges place his political career in jeopardy and could put Democrats on the defensive as November's elections approach. The case against the 80-year-old, 20-term Democrat from New York unfolded in a trial-like setting of a House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct subcommittee following incorrect reports that Rangel's lawyers had struck a deal to avoid an embarrassing public reading of the charges against him. Still, Democratic and Republican subcommittee members said they took no joy in prosecuting the affable, backslapping Harlem clubhouse politician almost everyone affectionately calls "Charlie." "He earned the Purple Heart and Bronze Star (in the Korean War) for his bravery. He was a fatherless high school dropout who went from pushing a hand truck in the Garden District of New York City to becoming one of the most powerful — and well-liked — figures on Capitol Hill," said Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the subcommittee. "But Mr. Rangel's life story is not why we are here today . . . "Read more

Gingrich: Obama Repeating Mistakes From the Great Depression

From Newsmax.com by David A Patten - Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned Thursday that President Obama and congressional Democrats appear to be on the verge of repeating the same mistakes that aggravated the Great Depression, adding that letting the Bush tax cuts expire would prove "very dangerous" for the nation's economy. "This was exactly the mistake made in 1937 and 1938, and it created a second mini-Depression. I think it's very dangerous, and I think the simple battle cry ought to be no tax increase in 2011, period. Keep current tax law exactly as it is through 2011," said Gingrich. Read more

Denish Defends Use of Jet

From the New Mexico Independent - Diane Denish would not sell the New Mexico state jet if she’s elected governor, her campaign told The Independent Thursday. “Because of the sheer number of similar jets that are currently on the market, Diane does not believe now is a good time to sell the jet,” Denish said in a statement released by her campaign. The lieutenant governor also defended her use of the jet, saying, “New Mexico is more than just Santa Fe and Albuquerque, …Many of the trips I have taken were small business forums to bring small businesses together and help them find access to capital and cut red tape. I will never stop advocating for rural New Mexico — and to advocate for rural New Mexico, sometimes you have to get out to rural New Mexico.” Larry Barker of KRQE in Albuquerque suggest there could be an alternative take on the use of the jet. Watch a video of his investigative report here:

Michelle Malkin - Let the Chips Fall?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the world's worst cleaning lady. How has she fulfilled her vaunted promise to "drain the swamp" and preside over the "most ethical Congress in history"? By shrugging her shoulders, downplaying the gravity of myriad ethics charges against corruptocrat Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel and waiting for the "political chips" to "fall where they may." Imagine a custodial service that fixed toilet clogs by letting the overflowing waste and polluted waters "fall where they may." Read more here:

Robert Redford says - It's the Opportunity, Stupid!

by Robert Redford in the Huffington Post - A small minority of Senators robbed America of a cleaner, more prosperous future last week. In the middle of the biggest oil disaster in American history, the hottest summer on record, and a war with an oil-rich nation, this group of cynics blocked efforts to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation. This was the moment brimming with potential for new jobs, a more robust economy and cleaner environment -- this bill would have guided America down a profoundly safer and more productive path. This was our moment to create two million clean energy jobs here in the United States. This was our moment to outpace China in the clean energy market that will dominate the 21st century. This was our time to slash our oil imports in half. This was our time to confront the perils of climate change, which despite head-in-the sand-denial, is in fact happening. Read more

More Murders in Juarez

EL PASO -- The violence in Juárez has touched a prominent Borderland family. Roberto Urrea Caraveo, 37, was gunned down on a busy avenue near the country club neighborhood Wednesday evening, Chihuahua state officials said. Fernando Alberto García Urrutia, 39, also was shot and died later at a hospital. A third man was wounded and was in a hospital Thursday, state officials said. The family of Urrea is prominent in both Juárez and El Paso. Family members did not want to comment, citing safety concerns. Urrea's mother, Rosario Caraveo, comes from an affluent family of bankers. His aunt, Victoria "Vicky" Caraveo is a women's-rights advocate. She is the former director of the Chihuahua state Women's Institute. Roberto Urrea, the victim's father, was president of the maquiladora association in the late 1990s. He was also director of corporate services at Rio Grande Travel Centers and most recently a manager at the Las Cruces Sun-News. Read more here:

El Paso Hacking Services Raising Taxes

Coming to a city near you? Like Las Cruces?
From the El Paso Times - EL PASO -- Tax rates for El Paso residents will probably rise -- or services will be cut -- if police do not agree to more than $1 million in concessions. The police union will tally votes on whether to reopen its contract with the city this afternoon. After days of hearings and $3.5 million in cuts, the city's operating budget is still $1 million higher than it was last year. City Manager Joyce Wilson on Thursday said the city must cut services -- or get concessions from police -- if it is to find the savings. Read more here:

President Tapes "View" Sends Tape to Boy Scouts

Honorary President of the Boy Scouts, and President of the United States, Barack Obama, did not attend an Arena Show on Wednesday at the 2010 National Jamboree in Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia. According to sources, due to scheduling conflicts determined months ago, the President was unable to accept the invitation to address the 45,000 Scouts in attendance at the 100th Anniversary National Jamboree; an historic event for the organization. Instead, Obama appeared at Democratic fundraisers and jetted to New York to tape a segment for ABC's "The View". Obama made history, Wednesday, as the first sitting President to appear on daytime talk television. Read more here:

Officials: Lost signal caused Predator to veer off runway

From the Clovis News Journal - Officials at Cannon Air Force Base said they’re not sure why they lost the link from ground control to an MQ-1 Predator, but that’s why the $4.5 million aircraft turned off the runway and plowed through a fence Wednesday morning. Col. James C. Slife, 27th Special Operations Group commander, said all personnel involved with the unmanned aircraft’s operation are highly qualified. He said while the aircraft has multiple fail-safe options should there be a disconnect between ground controllers and the plane while in the air, none of those options are available to personnel while the plane is on the

ground. Slife said a safety investigation is continuing and no one was injured in the crash. Predator crashes have plagued the Air Force for some time. In a March 2009 New York Times story, the Air Force acknowledged more than a third of their unmanned Predator spy planes had crashed, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cannon officials said in a Wednesday afternoon the plane was assigned to Cannon’s 3rd Special Operations Squadron. Read more

The End of Wishful Thinking

by Ben Stein - in the American Spectator - I am sixty-five now. I have lived through many recessions. The first one I remember clearly was in 1958 and the worst one, by far, until now, was the one in the late 1970s stretching into the early 1980s, when we had double-digit inflation and double-digit unemployment simultaneously. That should have been impossible, but thanks to union Cost of Living Adjustment contracts and skyrocketing oil prices, it was indeed possible. But the current recession, which really started with some very tense days in late 2007 and began in deadly earnest when Hank Paulson, possibly the most incompetent Treasury Secretary of all time, allowed Lehman Brothers to fail, has been the most upsetting for several reasons. Read more

N.M. Supreme Court Denies Insurance Company Request on Rate Increase

From the Albuquerque Journal online - Ruling clears way for state regulators to hold public hearing on rate hike for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico. The state Supreme Court has cleared the way for state regulators to give another look at a double-digit rate increase for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico. The court turned down in Santa Fe on Wednesday a request by the insurance company to keep a rate increase agreement in place. The state insurance superintendent suspended a 21 percent average rate increase for the company last month and scheduled a public hearing on it in late August.Read more:

Hey, Young Voters!

From Wizbang - by Jay Tea - You voted for Obama in overwhelming numbers, didn't ya? How's that working out for you? When Congress was getting ready to raise the minimum wage, a lot of us said that this would kill the job market for youth. Because, quite frankly, young workers aren't worth $7.25 an hour. The businesses that traditionally take on the newest members of the work force have very low expectations and, usually, very low profit margins. When the minimum wage shot up, most of them they didn't just bump their payroll proportionately -- they simply made do with fewer workers. Further, when the economy started tanking, a lot of us noted that this would result in workers taking lower-paying jobs. This had the effect of shifting the workforce down the pay scale -- and the people at the bottom would just get shoved off. Teenagers seeking out the traditional jobs find themselves now competing with applicants in their 20s, 30s, even 40s and up. And when given a choice between an 18-year-old rookie and someone older, with more experience, maturity, and skills, employers more often than not do the smart thing. So, kids, can't get a job flipping burgers because Uncle Bob beat you to it? Landscapers ain't interested in someone who hasn't been doing it for several years? Movie theaters choosing Mom and Dad instead of you to sweep the aisles?That's what you voted for, kids. Elections have consequences.

Karen Perez a Guest On NewsNM

Dona Ana County Commisioner for District 3 Karen Perez (left) will appear as a guest on News New Mexico this morning. We will be talking about metropolitan planning challenges and implementing best practices in this area.

Denish and Martinez Hesitant About Casino

The two candidates to become New Mexico's next governor have been staking out positions on a variety of issues, from guns to ethics. There's one topic, however, that both Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, the Democrat (left), and Doña Ana District Attorney Susana Martinez, the Republican (right), say they need more time to think about. Read more here:

New Mexico Notes

Susana Martinez, GOP nominee for governor, said Wednesday July 28th that she will definitely sell New Mexico’s state jet. “The jet will be sold,” Martinez said at a press conference. “No one in state government is above the law. It’s this attitude of being above the law that we need to get rid of in state government.” Martinez seemed to be responding to a report by KRQE television in Albuquerque that her opponent Diane Denish had run up more than $367,000 in costs to the state using the aircraft.
On News New Mexico Tuesday morning Representative Mary Helen Garcia of Dona Ana County called for a "change in the speaker position." It is another sign of the growing rift between speaker Ben Lujan of Santa Fe and other members of his party. Garcia indicated other elected officials in state government were also interested in re-tooling the speaker position which is considered by many observers to be the most powerful position in the state.

Susana Martinez Announces Anti-Corruption Plan

From the New Mexico Independent - Public officials convicted of corruption would lose their pensions and a new State Police unit would crack down on crooked New Mexico politicians under a plan announced today by Susana Martinez, the Republican candidate for governor of New Mexico. The drumbeat of guilty pleas, new criminal investigations and allegations of still more questionable behavior by New Mexico public officials since 2005 has thrust public corruption and how to deal with it into the bright glare of the 2010 governor’s race. Read more here:

Torres - LCPS Was "Disappointed" by City Council

Earlier this month the outcry from nearly every councilor except the mayor was immediately evident just after News New Mexico reported that City Council's decision back in April to shelve a carefully planned, privately funded major road project was going to cost Las Cruces Public Schools dearly. However, a series of interviews culminating in an extended interview with Herb Torres of LCPS yesterday on News NM confirmed virtually everything that Mayor Ken Miyagishima said regarding the colossal waste of the people's money. After conducting dozens of hours of interviews with city officials and staff, public school officials and staff, and the developer who was actually going to pay for the two miles of major arterial roadway, News New Mexico will provide a summary of our findings on this ongoing saga of waste and bad practices and post them on this website over the weekend.

Thomas Sowell - How Smart Are We?

Many of the wonderful-sounding ideas that have been tried as government policies have failed disastrously. Because so few people bother to study history, often the same ideas and policies have been tried again, either in another country or in the same country at a later time-- and with the same disastrous results. Read more:

Albuquerque to Host 500 International Diplomacy Event

Mayor Ken Miyagishima will attend a gathering of more than 500 elected officials, business and nonprofit leaders, members of the international affairs community, and students from 15 countries. The mayor will travel to Albuquerque for the 54th Sister Cities International Annual Conference. The three-day event will highlight international diplomacy efforts at the local and individual level. It will also educate about and celebrate those within the sister cities network. Here is a portion of the guest list: Special Guests: Mayor Richard J. Berry, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mayor Alvaro Madero, Chihuahua, Mexico, Mayor Ken Miyagishima, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Mayor Brad Cole, Carbondale, Illinois (SCI Board of Directors), Mayor Maher Maso, Frisco, Texas, Alderman Joe Davis, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Councilman Tom LaBonge, Los Angeles, California Mark Ginsberg, U.S. Department of Energy, Carol Herrera, U.S. Department of State, Mary Jean Eisenhower, People to People International, Bob Lynch, Americans for the Arts Michael Hyatt, UBS (SCI Board Chairman), Mark Walton, The Africa Channel (SCI Board of Directors), Carol Robertson Lopez, Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (SCI Board of Directors) The event runs from Thursday, July 29 – Saturday, July 31, 2010
All keynote addresses and education sessions will be held at the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque, 330 Tijeras Avenue, NW

Arizona's Police Check of Immigrant Status on Hold

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Arizona was barred from enforcing portions of a law set to take effect tomorrow that would have required police to ascertain the immigration status of individuals they stop for questioning, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix held today that the state can’t mandate that police make a “reasonable attempt” to determine whether a person is legally in the U.S. and then detain him if there is “suspicion” that he is not. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said she will appeal the ruling. Read more:

U.S. Congress Sends Obama War Bill

The U.S. Congress sent to President Barack Obama a $60 billion war-funding bill amid attacks on his Afghanistan policies newly provoked by leaked reports suggesting that Pakistan secretly aided aiding Taliban forces. The House voted 308-114 yesterday to forward the measure to Obama for his signature. It cleared the Senate last week after lawmakers in that chamber deleted $23 billion in unrelated spending. House Democrat leaders who had sought that additional money said they wouldn’t delay the long-stalled war funds any longer with the Pentagon warning of impending personnel furloughs. Read more:

Jonah Goldberg - The New Journalism

"The high standards and wise judgments of people like Walter Cronkite once acted as a national immune system, zapping scandal mongers and quashing wild rumors," wrote former "green jobs czar" Van Jones in Sunday's New York Times. This may be one of the most unintentionally hilarious lines in recent memory. Jones, you may recall, left the White House when his background -- not just as an alleged 9/11 truther but as a self-confessed "Communist" and "revolutionary" -- became grist for the Fox News mill. Mainstream publications mostly ignored the controversy until after he was fired, and then focused on the fact that he directed an expletive at Republicans in a YouTube video. Read more:

Blago Trial - In Hands of Jury

"It was my first time inside the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and I entered with the hope that the next time I was inside, I would be carrying a hundred million dollars out to my nice Jeep." So reads the first sentence of "Money to Burn." Kay Osborne was reading the 2002 crime thriller as she waited in line at 4:50 a.m. Monday for the trial of impeached former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The judge wrote this novel, Osborne said outside downtown Chicago's federal courthouse. What judge? Judge James Zagel. You know, the one presiding over Blagojevich's trial, she said. As it turns out, U.S. District Court Judge Zagel dreams of robbing the Federal Reserve Bank and he doesn't even work on Wall Street. Read more:

Walter Williams - Racism or Stupidity

A black or white person, now dead, who lived during the civil rights struggles of the 1930s, '40s or '50s, might very well be appalled and disgusted by black behavior accepted today. Yesteryear, it was the Klan or White Citizens Council who showed up at polling places to intimidate black voters. During the 2008 elections, it was the New Black Panthers who showed up at a Philadelphia polling place to intimidate white voters and tell them, "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker." What's worse is the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to not to prosecute. Read more:

Holder Says U.S. Probing Leaks of Afghan Documents

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (left) said the Justice Department was investigating the source of the leaking of secret U.S. military reports on Afghanistan to the WikiLeaks website. “The Justice Department is working with the Department of Defense with regard to an investigation concerning who the source of those leaks might be,” said Holder, who spoke at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo today. “Whether there will be any criminal charges brought depends on how the investigation goes.”
WikiLeaks published more than 91,000 secret military reports from Afghanistan which cover the period from about 2004 up to a change in war strategy initiated by President Barack Obama last year. The U.S. and Pakistan have dismissed portions of the documents that indicate the American military suspects Pakistan’s main intelligence agency of secretly aiding the Taliban and other Islamic extremists battling the U.S. in Afghanistan. Read more:

Yachting Anyone? - (In Rhode Island)

Senator John F. Kerry announced yesterday that he will voluntarily pay $500,000 to Massachusetts tax collectors on his luxury yacht, a pledge made hours after state officials had begun inquiring into whether he had attempted to evade the payment by docking the boat in Rhode Island. The state Department of Revenue had just started looking into Kerry’s use of the $7 million sloop and into reports that it had been spotted repeatedly in Massachusetts since it was registered in March. Officials could have subpoenaed the ship’s log to see where the yacht had been, according to a Department of Revenue official who declined to be identified by name because tax cases by law are confidential. Read more:

Rangel Seeks to Avert Hearing in Ethics Case

U.S. House Democratic leaders are trying to broker an agreement with New York Representative Charles Rangel in which the former Ways and Means Committee chairman would accept a penalty for ethics violations without undergoing a trial, a Democratic aide said. Two Democrats in the House leadership, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, have talked with Rangel about a possible settlement, the aide said today. Resignation hasn’t been discussed, according to the aide. Rangel’s spokesman, Emile Milne, declined to comment. Read more:

Poll Shows Barela on the Lead

From NMPolitics.net - If you had asked me over the weekend where the 1st Congressional District race stood, I would have told you Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich was probably leading Republican challenger Jon Barela by about 10 points. So I was as shocked as anyone when KOB-TV released its new SurveyUSA poll Monday evening that shows Barela leading by six points. The poll has Barela leading 51 percent to 45 percent. It was conducted Thursday-Sunday, surveyed 559 likely voters and has a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points. Barela led among all age groups and among men, Anglos and independents. Read more here:

Rep. Mary Helen Garcia to Appear on NewsNM

New Mexico House of Representatives member Mary Helen Garcia will appear as a guest on News New Mexico Tuesday morning July 27th at 8:30am. Tuesday's show will deal almost exclusively with education issues affecting Las Cruces, Dona Ana County, the State of New Mexico, and the United States. Mrs. Garcia enjoyed a lengthy career as an educator and also served as a school principal before being elected to the state legislature. Garcia is unopposed in November.

Michelle Rhee - Making an Impact

One-quarter of the 4,000-member teaching force in D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) could be kicked out of their classrooms by the end of the next school year if they fail to measure up to a new evaluation tool that plays a major role in President Obama's education-reform plan.

The national school-reform spotlight is again shining on D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and, as with her other efforts, teachers are again on edge. This time, the issue is how she grades teachers. One-quarter of the 4,000-member teaching force in D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) could be kicked out of their classrooms by the end of the next school year if they fail to measure up to a new evaluation tool that plays a major role in President Obama's education-reform plan. Read more here:

Obama Children Don't Attend Public Schools in D.C.

Continuing a tradition among Washington's power elite, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have decided to send their kids to Sidwell Friends School. Michelle Obama confirmed yesterday that Malia and Sasha, the incoming first daughters, will enroll at the pricey private school when the family moves into the White House in January. Although Mrs. Obama has said that public schools were under consideration and consulted with D.C. school officials, the decision narrowed this week after she and the girls visited Sidwell and the private Georgetown Day School. Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, visited classes and met with students while their mother talked with administration officials and parents. Mrs. Obama also visited both schools last week when she came to Washington with her husband to tour the White House and meet with President and Mrs. Bush. Read more here:

Anthony Casino Proposal Returns

From the Las Cruces Sun-News LAS CRUCES - A proposal by the Jemez Pueblo of northern New Mexico to build a $60 million, off-reservation casino and hotel in Anthony, N.M., is back on the table. A group of pueblo officials and representatives of Santa Fe art dealer Gerald Peters, the developer who's partnering with the tribe, met with trustees of the newly seated Anthony governing body last Wednesday. Read more here:

Martinez Candidacy Drawing National Attention

Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez may be the “most frightening” candidate in the nation for Democrats in 2010, writes Molly Ball on Slate.com. In addition, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza has added the New Mexico gubernatorial race to the list of contests that are most likely to result in a party switch this fall. Read more here:

Speaker Lujan Vulnerable?

From the archive of NMPolitics.net - Many say House Speaker Ben Luján’s near-loss in last week’s Democratic primary should be a warning to all incumbents that no one is safe this election year. I disagree. I’m convinced that voter anger is strong, but I’m not convinced that it’s motivating the masses to reject all incumbents, regardless of their records. What Luján’s near-loss does show is that his power is continuing to fade away. Don’t count him out – the man who holds the second-most powerful position in state government is a skilled politician who holds a lot of cards and undoubtedly still has a few tricks up his sleeves. Read the rest of Heath Haussamen's column here:

News New Mexico heard persistent rumors prior to the last session of the New Mexico legislature that Dona Ana County's own House member Joseph Cervantes (right) may well be in line for Speaker of the House when the long often torutous and controversial reign of Ben Lujan finally comes to an end. Cervantes is a seasoned legislature and would make an excellent successor according to many sources we rely on.

Obama Defines Dysfunction With One Appointment

-Kevin Hasett - Bloomberg News - If Democrats wonder why their political fortunes have shifted so much, they should study the appointment of Craig Becker (left) to a body that adjudicates labor disputes. It captures everything that is wrong with the Obama administration in a nutshell. Republicans should study the case of Becker as well, as it illustrates everything that is wrong with Washington. Democrats should run from Becker; Republicans should run against him. Read more here:

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