Morning Word: Auditor Suggests Officials Obstructed Investigation

State Auditor Tim Keller is accusing the Tax and Revenue Department and others in Gov. Susana Martinez’ administration of obstructing his investigation into whether Secretary Demesia Padilla pressed her staff to give a former client preferential treatment.

Joey Peters has the story at NM Political Report.  According to a KRQE report, a recently paroled murderer has a new job as a cook supervisor. And get this: David Van Horn, who is the first former inmate participating in a New Mexico Corrections Department pilot program, earns $17 hour working as an independent contractor for the same institution where he served his 20-year sentence. Kim Holland reports Gregg Marcantel, secretary of the state Department of Corrections, made the choice to hire Van Horn for the program’s kick-off.

No word in the television piece about whether Van Horn’s employment violates the New Mexico Corrections Department’s own ethics policy. It bars employees from offering any kind of financial assistance to people in their custody. See it at KRQE.  There's another big push to extradite a man accused of killing a New Mexico State Police officer before hijacking an airplane and fleeing to Cuba in 1971. See it at KOB.  On Wednesday, public regulation commissioners voted unanimously to set aside a petition from the state’s attorney general’s office requesting a cost-benefit analysis of renewable energy sources and their impact on the electric grid. With a six-month hiring freeze in place at the PRC, Commissioner Pat Lyons says the agency doesn’t have the manpower to do it now. Read it at the Santa Fe New Mexican.  Meanwhile, it looks like two more cities in California may be cutting ties with the embattled coal plant in Northern New Mexico.

Dan Mayfield has more at ABQ Business First.  That huge, record-setting $165 million verdict a jury awarded to the family of a mother and daughter who were killed by a Federal Express truck has been upheld by State District Judge Francis Mathew.

Reporter Robert Nott has more.  A Santa Fe Public Schools program is starting to chip away at the teacher shortage with accelerated training for hard-to-fill spots. Elizabeth Miller has the story about teaching new teachers to teach.

Read it at SFR.

A former Española police officer won’t face trial for embezzlement after all. First Judicial District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco says she doesn’t think she could prove her case against Solomon Romero, who was accused of trading police department ammunition for T-shirts. Uriel Garcia has the story.  This could become a big problem in a few months: Reports show the Social Security disability fund could run dry by next years. At minimum, the 11 million Americans who received monthly benefits could face steep cuts. Read the AP story here. Longtime Santa Fe New Mexican journalist Staci Matlock has a report on the impact of one of the state’s top agricultural crops that will leave you, like us, craving summer onions.

. 

Santa Fe Reporter