Do New Mexicans deserve low-cost electricity or clear skies? That question lies at the heart of the latest dust-up between federal regulators and the Public Service Company of New Mexico.

Long before Jerome Block Jr.’s third arrest for violating the conditions of his drug court program, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission had problems. In 2007, former Commissioner David King was convicted of sexually harassing his assistant; in 2008, Block and his father, Jerome Block Sr., faced allegations of election violations; in 2009, former Commissioner Carol Sloan attacked a rival with a rock.

Before learning the ins and outs of lobbying, Rainy Upton didn’t realize how difficult it could be.

On Jan. 5, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez proudly announced—per her press release—that the state’s “fiscal house is back in order.” She also introduced her budget proposal for fiscal year 2013, trumpeting one of its provisions: a $55 million tax cut.

As a sizable number of positions in the Department of Health remain unfilled, critics say they’re empty for a reason.

To the three public employee unions currently negotiating new state contracts, the state’s offers are nothing more than the governor’s latest sneer toward organized labor.

When Andrea Alano submitted her resignation to the Medical Cannabis Program in late November, she was the last of the program’s permanent staffers to resign.

  

  

Los Alamos National Laboratory is doubling down on a project that helps create a controversial, highly reactive new fuel used in nuclear power plants.