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| Carolina Baseball Stadium |
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| Presley Askew Field |
Albuquerque Journal (Subscription) - A group advocating for open government is asking a state agency to prohibit confidentiality provisions that restrict public disclosure of settlements with investment firms, such as those under investigation in an alleged pay-to-play scheme. The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government is upset because the State Investment Council reached a $250,000 settlement that wasn’t made public for more than a year because the agency agreed not to issue a press release or voluntarily announce the deal with a California-based investment firm. The council oversees state endowment funds worth about $15 billion, and today is considering proposed guidelines for handling settlements as it tries to recover money for investments allegedly influenced by a pay-to-pay scheme during former Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration. A draft of the proposed policy says the council “strongly disfavors” settlements with confidentiality provisions. However, the foundation wants tougher language to make it clear there can be no restrictions on public disclosure of settlements. “We understand that the state has a financial interest in reaching settlements such as this one, but that interest cannot trump the state’s duty to act transparently on behalf of the public,” Gwyneth Doland, the foundation’s executive director, said in a letter to Gov. Susana Martinez, who leads the council. Read More News New Mexico
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| Marita Noon |
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| Rocky Ward |
What is a mystery is why leadership at NMSU won’t commit to building the team a modern baseball facility that would enable the Aggies to host NCAA Regional and Super Regional tournaments. The NMSU baseball program has already proven it is competitive at the most elite level in college baseball. Unfortunately, until the Aggies stop playing home games at a ballpark that is inferior to several high school facilities in this state, there are limits to what the program will be able to accomplish. |
| Ray Tanner (left) and Andy Lopez (right) |
New Mexico Business Weekly - The New Mexico State Land Office earned $9 million at its June 19 oil and gas lease sale in Santa Fe. The lease sales provide revenue from oil and natural gas produced on state trust land for trust beneficiaries. Twenty-five tracts of land were offered to the highest bidder. The offered tracts covered almost 10,000 acres of trust land and all were sold. An additional sale included tracts that are geographically located in areas where there is not yet commercial production and oil and gas reserves are unknown. That sale brought in $75,000 for 17 tracts. “This revenue provides financial support to our public schools, universities and hospitals, saving taxpayers from additional taxes to support these important institutions,” State Land Commissioner Ray Powell said in a news release. The next oil and gas lease sale is July 17. Oil and gas lease sales are regularly scheduled on the third Tuesday of each month. Read More News New Mexico
Farmington Daily Times - Con men have had an easy time claiming that any old pepper was a New Mexico chile. Now the state’s iconic agricultural product will be more on par with Washington apples and Idaho potatoes. Pass off impostor products as those specialty foods and you are guilty of trademark infringement. New Mexico legislators did not obtain a trademark for homegrown chile, but they approved a protective law that will be enforced starting Sunday. The New Mexico Chile Advertising Act makes it unlawful for vendors to label fresh or processed chile as being from New Mexico unless it was actually grown in the state. Vendors subject to the new law include groceries, restaurants, convenience stores, farmers’ markets and roadside vegetable stands. State Rep. Andy Nunez, an independent from the chile capital of Hatch, sponsored the law. It was approved by Legislature and signed by Gov. Susana Martinez in 2011. Nunez said he wanted to end persistent deceptions occurring across the state. Chile from Peru, India, China and Mexico was being imported to New Mexico, then falsely billed on labels or menus as the home-state product. “New Mexico chile is the best. We have to do our best to protect it,” Nunez said. Eight inspectors in the Standards and Consumer Division of the the state Department of Agriculture will have the job of rooting out chile impostors in New Mexico. Read More News New Mexico
Wall Street Journal - The U.S. Supreme Court declined to reconsider its 2010 Citizens United ruling lifting restrictions on corporate and union political contributions, summarily overturning the Montana Supreme Court in a case involving a Montana state law limiting corporate political spending. In an unsigned decision, the court said "there can be no serious doubt" that the holding in Citizens United v. FEC applies to the Montana state law. "Montana's arguments in support" of the state court ruling "either were already rejected in Citizens United, or fail to meaningfully distinguish that case," the decision said. Four liberal justices dissented from the decision. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the dissenters, said he would have preferred to reconsider Citizens United or at least its application to the Montana case. He said Montana's experience "casts grave doubt on the Court's supposition that independent expenditures" by corporations and unions "do not corrupt or appear to do so." The majority turned away pleas from the court's liberal justices to give a full hearing to the case because massive campaign spending since the January 2010 ruling has called into question some of its underpinnings. Read More News New Mexico
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| Susana Martinez |
KRQE - New Mexican’s had their own opinions about the Supreme Court ruling that rejected key parts of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, but how will it affect the state and our policies. Law makers and enforcement agencies are keeping a close eye on Arizona to see if ruling will have any impact here. The New Mexico’s American Civil Liberties Union says the decision is both a victory and a loss. Representatives with New Mexico’s ACLU say the ruling clearly states that immigration laws need to stay in the hands of the federal government. That is something that state and local law enforcement agencies are sticking with.They currently meet federal standards and only check immigration statuses once a person is booked into jail. The New Mexico ACLU is concerned though that the ruling will lead to racial profiling because they did not take out the show me your papers provision of the law and officers are still allowed to ask a person their status. Read More News New Mexico
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