From
NM Politics.net - by Heath Haussamen - When she was a district attorney, Gov.
Susana Martinez was instrumental in bringing to New Mexico an
automated victim notification system about defendants’ incarceration status and court hearings. So many of the state’s district attorneys were disappointed earlier this year when she pocket vetoed
a bill that would have funded continuation of the program at the end of a federal grant by imposing a fee on jail inmates’ phone calls. Now, with federal funding for the system ending today, district attorneys are scrambling to try to find a way to keep the system going. “The district attorneys were absolutely dumbfounded when we found out what happened,” 13th Judicial District Attorney
Lemuel Martinez said about Martinez’s veto. He said he still doesn’t understand. Scott Darnell, spokesman for Susana Martinez, said the bill was flawed in several ways. In addition to paying for the automated notification system, he said it would have created “new state employee positions” that “are arguably unnecessary for an automated system.” Darnell said the bill had a sunset provision, so it didn’t ensure long-term continuation of the program. And the governor, he said, wants to ensure that district attorneys use the system to supplement, not replace, the personal relationships between victims’ advocates and victims.
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DAs scramble to save victim notification system
From KOB-TV.com - By: Eddie Garcia, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - Fireworks vendors have been feeling a lot of backlash because of the high fire danger. We asked a Socorro County vendor why they're choosing to stay open and what challenges they're facing this year. Outdoor enthusiast Wendy Meek says she grieves for the destruction wildfires are wreaking throughout New Mexico. It's a feeling at conflict with her day job as a firework vendor with tents in Socorro County and Peralta. She's been feeling the heat to shut down all season. "It's not as easy for vendors to close down because they've already invested a lot of money and they have employees that they have hired and started to pay," said Meek. She says considering all that's at stake - it's too late to close. We asked her, with these dangerously dry conditions, why she insists on staying open. "If I shut this down today I would have to fire all of the people, I would lose $ 30,000 it wouldn't be good for the state in the sense that everything we make taxes are paid and it goes to each individual county, so the counties would lose money," said Meek. Read more
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