Possibility of Medicaid "Opt Out" is Muddy

New York Times - Millions of poor people could still be left without medical insurance under the national health care law if states take an option granted by the Supreme Court and decide not to expand their Medicaid programs, state officials and health policy experts said Friday. Republican officials in more than a half-dozen states said they opposed expanding Medicaid or had serious doubts about it, even though the federal government would pick up all the costs in the first few years and at least 90 percent of the expenses after that.

While upholding the most hotly debated part of the health care overhaul law — a requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty — the Supreme Court said in its ruling on Thursday that states did not have to expand Medicaid as Congress had intended — leaving a huge question mark over the law’s mechanism for providing coverage to 17 million of the poorest people.

In writing the law, Congress assumed that the poorest uninsured people would gain coverage through Medicaid, while many people with higher incomes would receive federal subsidies to buy private insurance. Now, poor people who live in a state that refuses to expand its Medicaid program will find themselves in a predicament, unable to obtain either Medicaid or subsidies.
That potential gap will probably lead to ferocious statehouse battles in the coming year, as states weigh whether to accept billions of dollars in federal aid to pay for expanded coverage. The health care industry, sensing the skepticism in some states, is preparing a campaign to persuade state officials to accept the money for coverage of the uninsured. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Possibility of Medicaid "Opt Out" is Muddy

New Mexico DFA: Still Working on Payroll Snafu

Santa Fe New Mexican - Several state employees spent the weekend angry at the state over a payroll snafu that left them with incorrect paychecks, overdraft fees and other financial problems that as of Sunday evening had not been resolved.
A software glitch that caused checks to be issued Friday with incorrect amounts have caused an unknown number of employees to be underpaid, while others reportedly were overpaid, according to state employees who did not want to be named.
Department of Finance and Administration officials had said Friday that they were “confident all affected employees had received their full payroll.”
“I have my family and I have bills that are past due, and I’m getting late fees,” said one state employee. “Are they going to take that into consideration?”
Another employee who did not want to be identified said he was shorted more than two-thirds of his paychecks.
Another was paid for 30 hours instead of 80 and was still waiting Sunday for the rest of his check.
One longtime employee wasn’t paid at all, although he received a pay stub showing he had been paid half of the hours he had worked.
Tim Korte, a spokesman for the Department of Finance and Administration, said Sunday that the state is working on the situation and would know more Monday about the status of the problems. Read full story here: News New Mexico

New Mexico DFA: Still Working on Payroll Snafu

NMSU to Launch Food Safety Site

NM Business Journal - New Mexico State University has launched a food safety blog, where people can go to see the latest hazardous food recalls or food safety alerts issued by the federal government. The Food Safety and Protection blog will post federal food safety alerts for New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Colorado, NMSU said.
The blog is a joint effort between the Southwest Border Food Safety and Defense Center at NMSU and the New Mexico Food Protection Alliance. “This site will give the food protection alliances a way to communicate vital information to help them to inform their neighbors of any food safety situations,” said Sonja Koukel, a community and environmental health specialist with NMSU’s Extension Family and Consumer Sciences department. Read full story here: News New Mexico

NMSU to Launch Food Safety Site

No Straight Party Voting: Complicated?

KOAT - Voters will no longer be able to cast a vote for a straight party ticket, making the process a little more complicated. Almost half of New Mexicans vote straight party ticket, meaning they get a ballot for Democrats or Republicans and pick all the candidates in the party of their choice.

"In the last election, 41 percent of New Mexicans voted for the party line, but now they will no longer be able to do that," said KOAT political analyst Brian Sanderoff.

The straight party ticket is going away.
"What it will mean is the voters will have to go through every line, every race, one by one and choose a candidate they think is appropriate," said Sanderoff.
The change will mean more time in the voting booth and possible voter fatigue, which could result in a fall off in participation. Read full story here: News New Mexico

No Straight Party Voting: Complicated?

Some Ruidoso Residents Can Bury Fire Debris

Albuquerque Journal - Property owners of tracts of five acres or more whose homes burned in the Little Bear Fire were recently given the option of burying structure debris on their land, if some restrictions can be met.

However, Lincoln County Attorney Alan Morel said owners probably will fare better with future resale of the land if it does not contain a debris burial site.
And Teri Monaghan with the Solid Waste Bureau of the New Mexico Environment Department said her agency prefers material be hauled to the regional landfill.
At a special meeting in mid-June, Lincoln County commissioners approved a resolution authorizing a waiver of a provision in a county ordinance limiting debris burial to sites of 300 acres or more. A letter was attached from the NMED outlining an exemption to state requirements for burial, including for asbestos. With the relaxation of solid waste rules, residents will be allowed to bury appropriate solid waste that burned in the fire that destroyed nearly 40,000 acres, 242 homes and 12 outbuildings. Read full story here (subscription required) News New Mexico

Some Ruidoso Residents Can Bury Fire Debris

Richardson Implicated at Bid-Rigging Trial

Bill Richardson

KRQE — A New York trial has shed light on a closed investigation of former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson , as a witness testified that the financial advisory firm that he worked for got a state contract worth nearly $1 million for 13 hours of work.
Douglas Goldberg, a former official with Beverly Hills, Calif.-based CDR Financial Products, testified at the April trial involving a federal criminal antitrust case involving bid rigging in the municipal bond industry.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that that the case had no ties to New Mexico, but that defense attorneys trying to discredit Golberg's testimony examined his role in getting the company a lucrative contract with the New Mexico Finance Authority. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Richardson Implicated at Bid-Rigging Trial

Department of Justice Retailiates Like Mob

Daily Caller - House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley are asking the Department of Justice’s internal investigator to hold accountable anyone who retaliated against or threatened to retaliate against Operation Fast and Furious whistleblowers.

In a Friday letter to the DOJ’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz, Grassley and Issa said they’re now concerned retaliation is much more likely following Thursday’s votes to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal and civil contempt of Congress.

“We just learned that ATF senior management placed two of the main whistleblowers who have testified before Congress about Fast and Furious under the supervision of someone who vowed to retaliate against them,” they wrote before describing how senior political figures have made dangerous threats before.

Grassley and Issa said that in early 2011, right around the time Grassley first made public the whistleblowers’ allegations about Fast and Furious, Scot Thomasson – then the chief of the ATF’s Public Affairs Division – said, according to an eyewitness account: “We need to get whatever dirt we can on these guys [the whistleblowers] and take them down.” Read full story here: News New Mexico

Department of Justice Retailiates Like Mob

Courtesy of Conservative Daily News

     

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Ruling nixes penalties for states that don't expand Medicaid, puts New Mexico in limbo

Santa Fe New Mexican - The U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the federal health care law Thursday came with another surprise tucked inside: States suddenly can decide whether or not to expand Medicaid, a government low-income health insurance program. Medicaid has a major footprint in New Mexico. It covers one in four New Mexicans to the tune of just under $1 billion in state dollars, or 16 percent of the state budget. The federal government picks up most of New Mexico’s Medicaid tab, which totals $3.8 billion. But here’s the rub. Before Thursday, the federal law contained a provision punishing states that didn’t expand Medicaid, beginning in 2014. States not expanding the program faced the potential of losing all Medicaid funding from Washington. Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling stripped that punitive measure from the law, suddenly releasing states from that huge financial threat. Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration on Thursday was still digesting Thursday’s ruling and couldn’t say what it would decide to push for — a full-scale expansion of Medicaid, as called for under the law, or something else. Read More News New Mexico

Ruling nixes penalties for states that don't expand Medicaid, puts New Mexico in limbo

Vaughn's police dept run by criminals

KRQE - The state of law enforcement in the tiny prairie town of Vaughn, southwest of Santa Rosa, is so bad the only qualified member of the police department is a drug-sniffing dog. “They are a police department that should not exist,” said Gordon Eden, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. “If they do not stop what’s going on in Vaughn, New Mexico, we will go to the New Mexico attorney general … to take additional action.” Vaughn is a community of 450 and has a police department being run by convicted criminals. In fact, the only fully trained and certified member of the Vaughn Police Department is Nikka the police dog. “I’m very leery about getting rid of police officers for just not being able to carry a gun or something,” said Vaughn Mayor Paul Madrid. Read More News New Mexico

Vaughn's police dept run by criminals