- Rep.
- Ben Ray Luján will head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee through the 2016 cycle
- . It is a very high profile position for Luján, a young Congressman who can serve for a long, long time in the House in a safe Democratic district.
- From
- the Santa Fe New Mexican
- :
Luján said in an interview Monday that he and Pelosi first talked about the position a week ago. Pelosi asked him to keep it quiet, he said. “My mom’s the only person I spoke to about it,” he said. At a news conference about the appointment on Monday, Luján apologized for being late, saying, “I couldn’t get Mom off the phone.”
- KRQE
- reported that New Mexico's bid for Teslas was nowhere near Nevada's bid
- despite repeated statements by state officials that New Mexico's bid was competitive.
However, a high-ranking state lawmaker and an official with knowledge of the state’s bid, tell KRQE News 13 that New Mexico’s offer was less than $300 million – less than a quarter of what Nevada had on the table. Those two sources differed on the exact amount.
- Fortune Magazine
- had some more details on the Tesla gigafactory
- and New Mexico's bid. Nothing super specific, but it is worth mentioning the phrase "right to work" doesn't appear anywhere in the article. But the owner of the legal Nevada brothel Mustang Ranch was involved, surprisingly.
- Albuquerque Business First
- was the
- first local news outlet to flag the Fortune article
- .
- Public Education Department secretary-designate Hanna Skandera
- told legislators about fixes to teacher evaluation data
- . There have been problems with data of many teacher evaluations that the PED has blamed on individual districts.
- One thing to watch is the percentage of the evaluations based on student evaluations.
But some on the committee, including Republican Sen. Gay Kernan of Hobbs, would still like to see the state decrease the percentage of student measurements, including test scores, used to make up 50 percent of that evaluation.
- Skandera said the PED isn't willing to compromise on that issue.
- The
- Taos News
- reports on allegations of
- bid-rigging against the state of New Mexico over the contract for standardized tests
- that students in New Mexico will have to take.
- Molina Healthcare
- will move its headquarters to downtown Albuquerque
- . The move was announced by Albuquerque mayor Richard Berry during his
- State of the City address on Monday
- . Also in the address, Berry said
- Albuquerque is over reliant on government money and jobs
- .
- Albuquerque mayor Richard Berry
- acknowledged that right to work legislation is a big political wedge issue
- . He also says it would benefit the state economically.
He said that he's spoken to several in the legislature about changing the state's laws that today require anyone joining a unionized force to also join the union. This year, several are expecting the measure to pass the New Mexico House of Representatives, which is newly Republican controlled.
"It's a political sword, and I know that," he said.- Will legislation to freeze changes to PERA happen at next year's legislative session? Well, it
- passed an interim legislative panel this year
- and so should get a serious consideration during the session.
- Counties in New Mexico
- want a change to indigent healthcare funding
- . The counties say that they don't know how much money each county will get each year for the funding for healthcare for those who do not have the means to pay for it.
Under the current SNCP program, every county dedicates an amount equivalent to one-twelfth of 1 percent of taxable gross receipts to the indigent care fund.
The funds then go to qualifying hospitals under an agreement with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which allocates the federal matching funds, but on a system that has made the matching amounts unpredictable.- New Mexico
- is among the states with the largest drop in health premiums
- .
The foundation shows the premium for the silver plan – used as a benchmark for calculating federal subsidies under the Affordable Healthcare Act – will decrease by 11.8 percent in New Mexico in 2015, compared to a nationwide average reduction of 0.2 percent.
- The New Mexico Tourism Department
- wants $3 million more in state funding to expand advertising of its New Mexico True campaign
- .
- Some pretty huge media news here in New Mexico: Longtime
- Associated Press
- political reporter Barry Massey
- left the AP after 35 years
- . New Mexico is losing a reporter who knows a whole hell of a lot about New Mexico politics and he'll be missed during the upcoming legislative session.
- The big debate over the minimum wage increase is a very wide range of exemptions the city councilors want to put into place. From the
- Las Cruces Sun-News
- :
A separate proposal by Miyagishima was to include a list of 15 types of employees or businesses that would be excluded from paying the city's minimum wage rate. Miyagishima said he'd based that idea off the federal government's exemptions to its minimum wage ordinance and found a list of exclusions on the Internet. He said he learned recently, however, that full federal list comprises about 100 exemptions, something he doesn't support.
- New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange board members
- aren't sharing how many people they believe will sign up on the healthcare exchange
- . Once again, New Mexico will be using the federal exchange.
- The University of New Mexico
- will not host any NCAA Tournament games at The Pit
- through 2018. The $60 million renovations were made, in part, to attract the NCAA Tournament to New Mexico.
- PNM is
- considering buying the San Juan Coal Mine
- . If PNM does buy the mine it would be the second coal mine sold by conglomerate BHP Billiton. The company is reportedly selling off many of its smaller coal mines.
- A defamation lawsuit against
- the Albuquerque Journal by a civilian worker at APD who was a reserve police officer was dismissed
- . Among the allegations that the reserve officer said were defamatory was that he was paid overtime for his work as a reserve officer; that was actually true.
- The Navajo Nation
- approved a junk food tax
- . The legislation would impose a tax on junk food like candy or potato chips and put the revenue towards health and wellness programs. This isn't the first time the Council has passed such legislation, but it was previously vetoed by Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly. Supporters of the legislation say that they believe Shelly is likely to sign this version.
- An unused Railrunner station in Santa Fe
- won't be unused for much longer
- .
Officials say they are using it to test traffic patterns, and the trains won’t be carrying passengers just yet.
The goal for now is to determine potential improvements needed for traffic signals at Zia Road and St. Francis Drive.- Susana Martinez
- is in Florida for meetings of the Republican Governors Association
- .
- New Mexico is
- moving out of the bottom of job creation statistics
- . This doesn't mean New Mexico is near the top, but it is at least not in the bottom of the basement.
- The Wall Street Journal
- write about the problems that have plagued Virgin Galactic for some time now
- . The company is facing more scrutiny since a fatal test rocket crash.
- The state of New Mexico's exports
- are on page to hit a record high this year
- .
- The Innovate ABQ Board is still in flux. The
- board lost member Sherman McCorkle
- but will eventually end up with 11 people. The rollout of Innovate ABQ's board has been something of a fiasco.
- Rio Rancho area state legislators
- have scheduled two public forums ahead of the legislative session
- .
"After the success of last year's forums, we decided that we should make this an annual event. We went into the last session better prepared to fight for our constituents," Brandt said in a statement. "The capital outlay forum gave us and the community the opportunity to see and better understand the needs of our districts. Now, we are prepared to give an update on how state dollars are meeting those needs."
- The Albuquerque city council
- voted for $36 million in bonds for a regional sports complex and other projects
- . The proposed $13 million complex would be located on Albuquerque's Westside.
- The number of new business licenses in Albuquerque
- has dropped just about every year since 2007
- .
- The Society of Professional Journalists
- issued a statement on a freelance reporter who wrote on the Interstate Stream Commission while being paid by the commission
- . The stories came in the Silver City Daily Press.
Santa Fe Reporter