Morning Word: State Democrats 'Ready for Hillary'

J

ust how long will it take for the 2016 presidential campaign to take over our television sets and car radios with obnoxiously negative ads now that candidates from

both parties 

are jumping in? Probably not very long. At least we still have mute buttons. We also have the latest statewide news roundup to get your week started.

It's Monday, April 13, 2015

Surprising exactly no one, Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, US senator and first lady, announced her 2016 presidential campaign via

and social media on Sunday. New Mexico Democrats say they’re “Ready for Hillary.” State Republicans, not so much.

Charles Brundt has the local reaction.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, may be blazing a new path to reform pot laws, but former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson says Paul isn’t really a libertarian.

Michael Coleman is UpFront.

On Saturday, the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education picked a California educator to lead the district. Louis Valentino beat out Almudena Abeyta, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning for the Santa Fe school district, for the top post. Valentino faces some tough challenges but already has some big plans in store for the state’s largest school district, including closing achievement gaps.

Erica Zucco has more at KOB.

Full time University of New Mexico students will be paying about $217 more a semester next year, after regents approved a 3 percent tuition hike and a jump of 4.5 percent in student fees. The regent’s new tuition model offers an incentive for students to graduate in four years.

Read more at the Albuquerque Journal.

School counselors in Taos are speaking out against those new standardized tests. The volume of standardized testing, they contend, is forcing them to give up their primary jobs: addressing the many and ever-changing emotional, social and behavioral needs of students.

Read more at the Taos News.

Under pressure, Gov. Susana Martinez signed a new bill that limits civil forfeitures, but it doesn’t appear she really likes it too much.

Read more at the ABQ Free Press.

National Guard members in New Mexico will be able to take full advantage of federal life insurance benefits under a bill signed by Gov. Martinez on Friday.

Read more at the Las Cruces Sun-News.

A federal judge has blocked efforts by a Navajo Nation coal mine to expand operations within its permitted area in northwestern New Mexico. Navajo Transitional Energy Co. LLC is seeking an emergency stay on the ruling by US District Judge John Kane in Colorado. The company says the ruling will not affect supply to the Four Corners power plant in the immediate future but jeopardizes its long-term sustainability.

The Associated Press has more.

Opponents of coyote-killing contests aren’t giving up just because a bill to ban them was killed in the New Mexico Senate.

Read more at the Rio Rancho Observer.

Las Cruces-area bishop Oscar Cantú is back from the United Nations in New York City and an international panel discussion that raised the moral argument against the possession and use of nuclear weapons.

Cantú said for an act of war to be just, it must discriminate between combatants and noncombatants.

Read it at the Albuquerque Journal.

Santa Fe officials and the nonprofit Interfaith Community Shelter Group have come to a new agreement that they hope will ease tensions around the publicly owned shelter for the homeless.

Read more at SFR:

Elder care costs are soaring. In fact, the median bill for a private room in a nursing home is now $91,250 a year, according to an industry survey out Thursday.

Read the Associated Press story here.

A SpaceX rocket launch scheduled to deliver supplies to astronauts aboard the International Space Station today has big implications for the future of rocket testing at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.

Jason Gibbs has more at the Las Cruces Sun-News.

The Albuquerque Isotopes are off to a so-so start. In a hitting derby on Sunday, the 'Topes beat Reno 16-10. The 2-2 team plays Tacoma in Albuquerque tonight at 6:35 pm.

See the game highlights at KRQE.

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Santa Fe Reporter