Morning Word: Insurer Pulls Out of Health Exchange

Blue Cross, Blue Shield will drop 35,000 individual policies

Two and Done 

There have been plenty of signs this was coming, but now it’s official: Blue Cross, Blue Shield said Wednesday that after just two years, it is pulling out of the New Mexico Health Exchange after the company's

by the state’s insurance superintendent on Aug. 8. The

here last year. The departure means about 35,000 customers will have to find a new provider by the first of the year.

Decision Possible by New Year 

James Fenton at the Farmington Daily Times reports that commissioners at the Public Regulation Commission want to make a final decision on what to do with the Public Service Company of New Mexico’s request to require more coal to burn at its San Juan Generation Station by the end of the year, and they’ve set up

. Commissioner Lynda Lovejoy says, “We need to make some tough decisions.” Environmentalists who’ve crunched the numbers don’t think it should be that hard to require PNM to move to renewable energy sources, which they say have already proven to be cheaper and more reliable.

No matter what decision regulators make, PNM plans to refile its earlier incomplete rate increase application. If it wins approval, it could

. Other media outlets have reported it’s a 12 percent increase, but they don’t account for the utility's plan to cut the rates for its one big 30-megawatt industrial user—likely Intel.

Before any of this happens, the commissioners need to find a replacement for Vince Martinez, who resigned as the agency's chief of staff. Steve Terrell over at the Santa Fe New Mexican says it looks like former state legislator

.

Warning Signs Ignored

An internal government reports shows Environmental Protection Agency officials and state regulators in Colorado ignored

at the Gold King mine more than a year before this summer’s spill into the Animas River.

Martinez Jailed

Accused of breaking the terms of his pretrial jail release, former APS Deputy Superintendent Jason Martinez is behind bars in Colorado. Colleen Heild reports agents with the Rocky Mountain Safe Street task force

. A district court judge there is expected to hold a hearing to see if a higher bond should be set or if the accused child predator should stay locked up until trial.

Puppet Show ABQ Free Press Editor Dan Vukelich isn’t one to mince words when he writes a commentary or analysis piece. On Wednesday, he wrote the mess at APS “provides a window into a disturbing statewide effort by Gov. Susana Martinez and the state Department of Education to

” Vuk also talked to APS board member Steven Michael Quezada, who said his three years on the school board have been a wake-up call to the lengths the Martinez administration will go to end-run the board legally empowered to supervise its superintendent. “I thought that if we brought someone from San Francisco, they wouldn’t have a political agenda, a dog in this thing,” Quezada said. “My hope was to separate politics from education. Maybe it was ignorant on my part to think that.”

Quezada and the other board members will consider what actions, if any, they'll take against APS Superintendent Luis Valentino tonight at a special meeting. Some parents are

.

Courthouse Auction

In foreclosure, Jackalope’s real estate and other property were auctioned off in Santa on Wednesday. Global Holdings, which has close ties to the iconic store,

on Wednesday. ABQ Business First’s Mike English writes the

under the ownership of Charles H “Darby” McQuade, who founded Jackalope in 1979 and built a thriving retail company with locations in Santa Fe, Bernalillo and Albuquerque. McQuade has lately been in poor health.

Farewell to a Hero

New Mexico is mourning the loss of a Bataan Death March survivor. Ed "Milt" Hern passed away Sunday at the age of 97 in Las Vegas, NM. Hern, who was one of 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers held captive by the Japanese in World War II.

His funeral is scheduled for Friday.

"You're Fired." Well, Maybe Not.

More than 1,100 people are urging Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden not to fire Officer Dominique Perez after a judge said there was probable cause to try him and retired officer Keith Sandy on murder charges.

. The two men are accused of killing homeless camper James Boyd in the Sandia foothills. Boyd’s family believes Perez, who has been on administrative leave since the shooting in 2014, should be fired, “so that the public may see that no one is above the law."

Cruces Mayor All But In

Political analyst Heath Haussamen is cutting through the political theatrics and reporting that it's clear that longtime Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima is

. Miyagishima has been lining up support for months; now all that's left is filing for the fall campaign.

Meanwhile, it doesn't look drivers snagged caught on camera speeding or running red lights won't have to pay their fines after all. Some 15 months after the Redflex program was halted, the City of

Feelin' Lucky?

New Mexico Lottery officials say they’re seeing

despite a decline in revenue from those dreamy multimillion-dollar Powerball and Mega Million games of chance. Keep scratching; 30 percent of the money, by law, goes to help fund college tuition scholarships.

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