New Mexico Tourism Dept. Selects Texas Based Firm for Promo Campaign

From kob.com -New Mexico's Tourism Department has hired a Texas-based firm to handle our state's promotions campaign. The campaign for New Mexico has not been local for at least eight years. For the past few years, it has been handled by a company in Los Angeles. KOB Eyewitness News 4 questioned why a local firm has not had the job. "Our New Mexico agencies did get the five percent preference, and despite that, this agency did perform the highest in terms of the overall score. So we believe in the integrity of the process that was used," Jacobson said.  More News New Mexico
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Ground Water Projects Selected for Grant County

From businessweek.com -New Mexico environment officials say six groundwater restoration projects are being given the green light in Grant County. New Mexico Natural Resources Trustee Dave Martin says the projects will be funded from a $13 million settlement involving the release of hazardous substances from copper mining operations in southwestern New Mexico owned by Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold Inc.  Martin says the groundwater restoration projects were selected following a public outreach effort.  More News New Mexico

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PRC study calls for ethics, hiring reform

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - Members of the scandal-plagued state Public Regulation Commission on Wednesday reviewed a management study that Chief of Staff Johnny Montoya (shown on left) characterized as a "proactive attempt" to reform the agency. The study's unveiling beat by a few days the opening of the 30-day legislative session in Santa Fe, where state lawmakers will talk about reforming the sprawling agency. The elected regulatory body has generated a series of scandals in recent years, including the 2011 resignation and felony guilty pleas by Jerome Block Jr., who stepped down as a Northern New Mexico representative on the commission after admitting to fraudulent use of a state-issued gasoline card, embezzlement, identity theft and other charges. The management study released Wednesday recommends shrinking the number of employees who are exempt from the personnel rules for hiring and firing. The study also proposes moving railroad regulation out from under the commission to the state Transportation Department, among other things. It recommends streamlining the handling of consumer complaints into one division. The management study is the latest step taken by the Public Regulation Commission in an effort to clean up its image. Last week, commission members adopted a policy tightening up how government-owned vehicles are used. The underlying question driving the study, Montoya told commission members Wednesday, is "Are we satisfied with the way things are at the PRC?" A resounding "no" was the response of all members of the five-person commission. "It's time to do changes at the PRC," Chairman Pat Lyons said. Read more
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N.M. Lottery Winner Has Till Jan. 24 to Claim Prize

From kfoxtv.com -A New Mexico lottery player who has a winning Powerball ticket worth $10,000 dollars has until Jan. 24 to claim his prize. The ticket was purchased in Las Cruces for the Oct. 26 drawing. The ticket was bought at Pic Quick at 825 Avenida de Mesilla. It is unknown if the player lives in Las Cruces. The ticket matched the red Powerball of 6 and four of the five winning white ball numbers of 1, 18, 21, 39 and 55. The player must return the ticket by 4:30 p.m. on January 24. If the money is unclaimed, the $10,000 dollar prize will go back into a prize pool for future New Mexico lottery games.
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Six people killed in separate shootings in Juárez

From the El Paso Times - By Daniel Borunda - Six people have been killed in three separate shootings in an uptick in violence in Juárez today, Chihuahua state police said. Police said that in the first incident, a man and a woman died at a hospital after being shot this morning in the Independencia Sur area of the city. The victims had not been identified. At about 12:30 p.m., two unidentified men and a woman were shot to death in the patio of an abandoned building in the Salvacar area. Investigators collected 14 bullet casings from two types of firearms, police said. A little more than 12 minutes later, a man was shot to death on a street in La Huerta area, police said. Thirty-seven people have been killed in Juárez this year, including a police commander killed Tuesday in downtown Juárez. Read more
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MRSA Outbreak at N.M. High School

From abcnews.com --One female cheerleader was sickened with the antibiotic-resistant infection MRSA and 12 others tested positive for staph and were treated with antibiotics at Belen High School in New Mexico. The sometimes lethal bacteria was probably spread on mats in the wrestling and weight room, which is also used for the cheerleaders. "All the kids will make a complete recovery," said the school's athletic coordinator Rodney Wright. He said the school had closed the rooms and disinfected the mats, light switches and door knobs up to 40 times since the case was reported last week.  More News New Mexico
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Cara Valente-Compton: “I want to elevate the tone”

From Capitol Report New Mexico - Yesterday (Jan. 10) we wrote how longtime state rep Sheryl Williams Stapleton is getting a challenger in the Democratic primary this year. Today, we talked with the woman who admits she’s got an uphill battle to unseat Stapleton, who has represented District 19 in southeast Albuquerque for the last 17 years. Cara Valente-Compton is a 43-year-old UNM law student who’s married with four kids at home and while she still hasn’t officially announced her candidacy, she told Capitol Report New Mexico that she’s already met with ward and precinct officials and hosted a meeting with 25 neighborhood activists. “My strategy is to knock on every single door in the district,” Valente-Compton said during a telephone interview. Last month, Stapleton drew national attention when she angrily accused a Republican colleague during a lunchbreak in a committee meeting of “carrying the Mexican’s water on the fourth floor,” referring to Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, whose offices are located on the fourth floor of the state capitol building. Stapleton later apologized but refused to step down as Democratic House Majority Whip. Did the Stapleton outburst play into Valente-Compton’s decision to run? “Of course it did,” Valente-Compton said, “but it’s not the primary reason why I’ve decided to run. But we do have to elevate the tone in Santa Fe … we’re professional people and we have to treat others, and those we disagree with, with respect …. I was raised by Republicans, you have to honor and respect them.” But Valente-Compton is not a conservative Democrat. “I’m a liberal Democrat,” Valente-Compton said and a glance at some of the posts on her Facebook page confirms that. Read more
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"Tebow Bandwagon"


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New Mexico Can't Enforce $5,000 Donation Limits

From courthousenews.com - A federal judge has frozen two parts of New Mexico campaign-finance law, just as the Republican primary season heats up, freeing political parties from a $5,000 contribution limit to federal campaigns. The New Mexico Campaign Reporting Act imposes a $5,000 limit on contributions to federal campaigns and on contributions meant exclusively for independent expenditures.
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Stolen N.M. Meteorite Worth $20K-$40K Found

From time.com -A meteorite that landed in Russia in the 1940s and was recently stolen from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque has been located. KRQE-TV reports authorities found the rock after a man in Missouri bought it for $1,700. It's worth between $20,000 to $40,000. The Meteorite Museum at UNM flew an employee to retrieve the nearly 21-pound chunk of space — and lug it through security. School police believe someone stole the meteorite from the display case and walked out the front door. Investigators have a suspect but no one has been arrested. More News New Mexico
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Gov Wants $2 Million for Police Replacement Vehicles

From ktsm.com -New Mexico state police officers could get their vehicles replaced if Gov. Susana Martinez gets her way. The governor is asking the state legislature to provide more than $2 million to buy replacement vehicles for state police and motor transportation officers. The money is part of Martinez's budget, but whether it happens now is up to lawmakers. The legislature is back next week, for a 30-day session.
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NMSU Las Cruces Receives $800,000 Federal Grant

From publicbroadcasting.net -New Mexico State University was recently awarded an $800,000 grant to help place students on career paths that translate the call of the wild into a profession involving natural resources. NMSU was among 20 Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) awarded competitive grants by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support education in areas like natural resource management and agricultural research and was one of only seven institutions to receive a national-scale competitive project. More News New Mexico
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Study: N.M. is "Barren" "Dull" and "Close to AZ"

From kob.com - harsh new study is forcing New Mexico to re-think its marketing plan. According to the New York Times, people often describe our state as "dull," "barren," and even just "close to Arizona." The state tourism department recently conducted focus groups in Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles to ask prospective travelers about their perceptions of New Mexico. They found people really knew nothing about the state. More News New Mexico
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Stapleton Gets a Challenger in the Dem Primary

Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton
From capitalreportnewmexico.com -Williams-Stapleton is getting a primary challenger from a fellow Democrat in District 19, which makes up a large portion of the southern part of Albuquerque. Cara Valente-Compton has decided to take on Stapleton, who has come under fire in the past month on a couple of fronts — most notably for shouting at a Republican colleague that she was “carrying the Mexican’s water on the fourth floor,” the site of the offices of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. More News New Mexico
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