Politics

Director To Request $750,000 In Emergency Funding For Operations Of Magistrate Courts Through June

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Scales of Justice. Courtesy image

COURT News:

Administrative Office of the Courts Director Artie Pepin will appear before the state Board of Finance Thursday to request emergency funding of $750,000 for operations of magistrate courts through June.

In April, the governor vetoed a $750,000 supplemental appropriation approved by the Legislature to address underfunding partly caused by a loss of revenues from vetoes in 2014.

Without the requested $750,000 emergency grant, according to Pepin, the AOC will not pay leases on court buildings for June and state insurance premiums. Those steps Read More

Udall To Discuss Critical NM Funding For Labs

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U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON – This week, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall will attend Senate Committee meetings on several issues important to New Mexico, including the Fiscal Year 2016 budgets for New Mexico’s national labs, military bases and the Department of Veterans Affairs; Indian water rights settlements; important safety updates at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that affect all airports; and expanding U.S. relations with Cuba.

Additionally, a bill that Udall recently introduced to create a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), will be considered by the Senate Read More

Officials Celebrate $14 Million Solar Power Project

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USDA News:
 
ALBUQUERQUE ― USDA Rural Development State Director Terry Brunner announced that 3rd Dist. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan will join him and the management of the Springer Electric Cooperative at 10 a.m., May 26 to celebrate the completion of construction of a $14 million solar power project.
 
The funding provided by USDA Rural Development also includes the expansion and upgrade of 74 miles of electric line and system. A total of $3.4 million of the $14 million loan was used to construct the one mega-watt solar power generation facility located just north of Springer.
Read More

AG’s Statement On Kari Brandenburg Investigation

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Attorney General Hector Balderas

APD News:

ALBUQUERQUE ― New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas released the following statement Thursday regarding the Kari Brandenburg investigation:

“Today (Thursday) my office released detailed findings from a four-month-long investigation regarding a public referral from the Albuquerque Police Department alleging that Bernalillo County District Attorney, Kari Brandenburg, engaged in bribery or intimidation of witnesses.

“The investigation concluded that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges of bribery or Read More

Heinrich Fights For New Mexico In Annual Defense Bill

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U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, voted to advance the committee’s fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The bill includes key provisions Senator Heinrich worked to include that benefit New Mexico’s men and women in uniform, military installations, private industry, national laboratories, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).

The bill, which sets the Department of Defense spending levels and policies for the upcoming fiscal year, was reported out of committee Read More

Attorney General Announces Free Trainings On Open Meetings Act And Inspection Of Public Records Act

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AG News:

SANTA FE – Attorneys from the Office of the Attorney General are traveling throughout New Mexico for the remainder of the year, offering free training sessions on Sunshine Laws designed to help government agencies and municipalities better understand the requirements of the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) and its Open Meetings Act (OMA).

The training sessions will be held monthly beginning next week and continuing through the end of the year.

IPRA defines what information agencies must release to the public. The Act recognizes that “all persons are entitled to the Read More

New Mexico House Speaker Don Tripp Says Senate Democrats Sabotaged Capital Outlay Bill

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GOP News:

ALBUQUERQUE – Speaker Don Tripp released the following statement this evening:

“I have been waiting for several days for Senate Democratic leadership to return my calls so that we could come to an agreement that would benefit the most New Mexicans. Time and again, however, our negotiations have been derailed by an obvious lack of sincerity by the Senate Democrats.

“It is very difficult to work with people who do not value their word, and their unwillingness to negotiate in good faith has cost New Mexico a capital outlay bill and a jobs package that passed the House Read More

Democratic Chairwoman Expresses Disappointment Saying Governor Chooses Politics Over Capital Outlay

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DEMOCRATIC News:

Democratic Party Chairwoman Deb Haaland weighed in this evening on Governor Martinez’s apparent decision not to call a special session in order to pass a much needed capital outlay funding bill.

“Governor Martinez and New Mexico Republicans know this bill would help the working families all across our state,” said Haaland from a Young Democrats event in Grants. “That’s why it is absolutely shocking to me that the Republicans won’t put partisan differences aside for one day to conduct the people’s business, as they were elected to do. I’m disappointed, and I’m thinking about Read More

US And China Mark 10th Anniversary Of Peaceful Uses Of Nuclear Technology Joint Coordination Meetings

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NNSA News:

CHENGDU, CHINA – The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington and China National Energy Administration (NEA) Director General Liu Baohua co-chaired the 10th Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Technology (PUNT) Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting May 6-7 in Chengdu, China.

Since 2002, the United States and China have held periodic joint meetings on their cooperative activities under the U.S.-China PUNT Agreement. The agreement is a formal government-to-government Read More

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall Calls For Congress To End Mass Telephone Surveillance, Reform Patriot Act

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U.S. Sen. Tom Udall

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, during a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall urged Congress to oppose a straight reauthorization of several expiring provisions of the Patriot Act and restore Americans’ privacy rights by ending the government’s dragnet collection of phone records.

The Patriot Act provisions — including Section 215, which has been used to justify bulk collection of Americans’ phone records — expire at the end of the month, and Congress is currently debating reforms that would require greater oversight, transparency, Read More