Duran Wants Data to Protect Legal Votes
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| Dianna Duran |
Duran's chief of staff Ken Ortiz said Tuesday the office will ask the Department of Homeland Security for access to the database, which has information on immigrants who are legally living in the country. Read full story here: News New Mexico
Teacher Union Activists Protested No Child Left Behind, Now the New Evaluation System in Their Sights
KOB - A public hearing about teacher evaluations drew a lot of attention at the state capitol on Wednesday. Hundreds of teachers, community leaders and parents protested outside the hearing, saying they do not agree with the proposed changes in a new system to evaluate teachers.
The changes are, however, required with New Mexico's "No Child Left Behind" waiver.
Kathy Sandoval, principal of Albuquerque Institute for Math and Science, said her school has implemented the changes. The outcome has been positive.
I've had not one teacher leave the school because of evaluation," Sandoval said. "I've had nobody leave for money - I've had nobody quit or be fired. I've been able to reward highly effective teachers."
The New Mexico Public Education Department explains that with New Mexico ranking so poorly on a national level, New Mexican's deserve to know who the greatest teachers are in the state.
Some teachers, including Ellen Bernstein with the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, feel like it just puts too much emphasis on the state tests.
"It's going to create a bunch of test prep dummies instead of rich thinking, problem solving students," Bernstein explained.
The PED said it will consider public comments before implementing a new evaluation system. There is no time frame as to how long that will take. Read full story here: News New Mexico
The changes are, however, required with New Mexico's "No Child Left Behind" waiver.
Kathy Sandoval, principal of Albuquerque Institute for Math and Science, said her school has implemented the changes. The outcome has been positive.The New Mexico Public Education Department explains that with New Mexico ranking so poorly on a national level, New Mexican's deserve to know who the greatest teachers are in the state.
Some teachers, including Ellen Bernstein with the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, feel like it just puts too much emphasis on the state tests.
"It's going to create a bunch of test prep dummies instead of rich thinking, problem solving students," Bernstein explained.
The PED said it will consider public comments before implementing a new evaluation system. There is no time frame as to how long that will take. Read full story here: News New Mexico
Rio Rancho Man "Bites Dog"
KOAT - Police said a man bit a dog in Rio Rancho, leading to a bizarre series of events. Three roommates in their 20's were hanging out last week when one of them went after another's dog, according to Rio Rancho police. "An individual went to the lengths of biting an animal for whatever reason," said Sgt. Nic Onken.
Onken said the dog biting prompted a brawl between the three men, with two of them beating the accused dog biter so badly he was left knocked out and bloodied at the end of a driveway.
Neighbors were stunned to watch it all unfold.
"It's pretty backward, man biting dog," said a neighbor named Ashley.
"Officers on scene don't believe it amounted to animal cruelty. It was just a bizarre beginning to a very bizarre case," Onken said. Read full story here: News New Mexico
NM region’s economy ‘expanded moderately’ in June
New Mexico Business Weekly - The economy in northern New Mexico and neighboring states “expanded moderately” in June, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent Beige Book report, which gauges economic conditions. In the Fed’s Kansas City district, which includes northern New Mexico, consumer spending and real estate prices posted gains. Stronger automobile sales and a good start for summer tourism helped boost consumer spending, and sales growth helped to drive higher prices for commercial and residential real estate. Some banks in the district also said loan demand and loan quality were getting better. Despite the gains, expanding drought conditions slowed crop development in the region. Oil and gas drilling remained at peak levels, but were expected to slow as global demand falls. The Fed’s Beige Book report is published eight times a year. The Fed banks gather anecdotal information on local economic conditions, interviewing business contacts, economists and market experts. For more information, check out the report. Read More News New Mexico
S&P concerned about New Mexico authority's oversight
Reuters - Standard & Poor's Rating Services put the New Mexico Finance Authoirty's senior and subordinate-lien bonds on Creditwatch with negative implications on Wednesday, over concerns about oversight and fraud after the authority stated its fiscal 2011 financial results were not completed properly. "While the rating on the bonds reflects multiple credit factors, the potential lack of oversight or fraud regarding the authority's financial position could result in a lower rating," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst James Breeding in a statement, citing a press release the authority issued last week. S&P said it is primarily concerned about oversight of the authority's gross receipts tax revenues, borrower loan payments, common reserve fund and contingent liquidity account. Read More News New Mexico
Presidential Race Appears to Tighten in New Mexico
Washington Wire - Could President Barack Obama be vulnerable all of a sudden in New Mexico, a state he took by a landslide in 2008 and seemed likely to hold without much strain in November? Polls going back to February in New Mexico have shown Mr. Obama up consistently by double digits over his presumptive GOP rival, Mitt Romney. But a new Public Policy Poll of the state finds the president ahead by just five percentage points, 49% to 44%. Signs of a much tighter race in the Land of Enchantment come as Mr. Obama’s approval rating has slumped there since PPP last polled the state three months ago. In May, the president had a net approval rating of nine percentage points, while now, the state is evenly split among those who approve and disapprove of his job performance. Half of those polled disapprove of Mr. Romney, while 41% approve. The poll found Mr. Obama losing ground among both Hispanics and whites. Mr. Obama gets the support of 56% of the state’s Hispanics, compared with 34% for Mr. Romney—a sizable margin but far narrower than what the president enjoys among Hispanics nationwide. Read More News New Mexico
Replacing American Exceptionalism Part II
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| Jimmy Carter |
Much like President Obama today, Jimmy Carter tended to embrace the Denunciatory Ethic during his presidency. We were reminded of the essence of Carter’s presidency while watching an “Iranian hostage crisis” documentary recently. When Islamic extremists took American hostages at the U.S. embassy Carter declared, “We won’t abandon our struggle for a decent and fair society here at home.” The odd aspect of this statement being that Carter felt compelled to make it immediately following his condemnation of those who took U.S. Embassy officials and other occupants as hostages in Iran.
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| Mahmoud Ahmadinejad |
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| Jeremiah Wright |
The Reverend Jeremiah Wright in Chicago and the leaders of al Qaeda both have asked their god to “damn” America. And it is worth noting that sponsors of suicide bombers benefit greatly from the basic ethical tenets that encourage the embracing of the Denunciatory Ethic in America. No doubt recruiters of suicide bombers are grateful for any thought process that convinces Americans to project the image of a country totally dissatisfied with itself. One of the hallmarks of the Denunciatory Ethic is a accepting an international double standard. And this double standard adds barriers to solving the enormous problems presented by international and domestic terrorists. When questioning the wisdom of the actions of foreign terrorists or their sponsoring governments is almost always quickly described by denouncers as U.S. bullying or “cultural imperialism,” it tends to compromise domestic attempts to identify the sources of terror. The best example of this is the recent reluctance by some seemingly prominent members of the White House to simply point to the extreme radical elements of Islam as a primary source of terrorist activity.
A “national self-guilt” game is initiated whenever an attempt to turn American attention towards border security and away from its own shortcomings is made. When denouncers apply stinging criticisms of America and yet refuse to apply the same standards of behavior to all other nations, they enable the swell of global anti-American sentiment to grow. We saw a fine example of this recently. With the full support of the White House, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon (below) was allowed to criticize Arizona’s new border security law which essentially mirrors Mexico’s laws.
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| Felipe Calderon |
How has the U.S. media dealt with the denunciation movement? For several decades the majority of urban newspapers and national television networks appeared to practically fawn over anyone willing to utter anti-American rhetoric. However, in recent years not all domestic journalism outlets have directed sympathetic coverage towards the aims or words of denouncers. Since the late 1990’s the Fox News Network has provided significant weighting in the media to the recognition of American generosity and successes rather then place an emphasis on its shortcomings and failures. American citizens have responded to this non-denunciatory approach by making Fox News the top-rated cable news network In America by a wide margin.
Many sources within the denunciation movement attack Fox News. These attacks tend to reflect growing anguish within the denouncer community. Prior to the ascension of Fox News to the top domestic ratings spot in television news, the best way for a denouncing politician to avoid being criticized for being “dangerously patriotic” or “insensitively unconcerned” was to simply lead campaigns that trumpet American shortcomings. These days when any prominent denouncer engages in America bashing, they can count on being confronted by Fox.
In Part III we will look at how denouncers connect their words to their most favored policies.
Egolf on NewsNM to Discuss Santa Fe Studios
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| Brian Egolf |
On the Democratic Party website, under Mr. Gonzales’s bio, it states, “currently, he is leading the effort to bring a state-of-the-art film studio to Santa Fe.”
NOTE TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WEBSITE WEBMASTER:
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| Javier Gonzales |
In financial documents the Watchdog obtained from the EDD (Economic Development Department) and the County of Santa Fe weeks ago, there are no mentions of Mr. Gonzales either on signed papers or in the numerous emails the Watchdog reviewed in the correspondence between the State, the County, and the Hool Brothers. Read full story here: News New Mexico
Udall-Bingaman Bill to Accelerate Spending
KRWG - U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall have introduced legislation aimed at help rural and tribal communities meet their future water needs. The legislation provides that the Bureau of Reclamation may direct without further congressional action $80 million annually into high-priority rural water projects that Congress has already approved. These are funds that would otherwise be paid into the Reclamation Fund in the U.S. Treasury, which was established in 1902 for water project development in the West.
Currently, Congress appropriates only a portion of the Reclamation Fund annually, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars of unspent funds in the account. Yet, at the same time, rural water projects that Congress has already approved lack funds for construction.“Rural and tribal communities around the West know how to meet their future water needs, but in many cases they need help paying for infrastructure,” Bingaman said. “This bill would prevent long-approved water projects – like the Eastern New Mexico Water Supply Project and the Jicarilla Apache Reservation Rural Water System– from having to wait for years on end for the funding they need,” Bingaman said. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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