New Mexico Mercury

Five Questions with New Mexico Authors - Dede Feldman

This week we asked former state senator and author Dede Feldman some questions about her 16 years in the Senate, the future of New Mexico politics, and about her new book Inside the New Mexico Senate: Boots, Suits, and Citizens from UNM Press, 2014.

NMM: So many people love this book, the Mercury included, we wondered if you had any new insights away from the job into the essential method and madness of the New Mexico Legislature?...

Response to open primary piece

The flowing exchange of emails between Fred Nathan and me transpired as a consequence of a column I wrote last week about the ways the political parties control the political process and disenfranchise many voters, especially by excluding independents from the primaries...

Searching for today’s “Salt of the Earth”

We all know that Hollywood has made a number of films in New Mexico. But one film that gained the kind of notoriety that chambers of commerce don’t appreciate, was Salt of the Earth, an independent film produced by Paul Jarrico and directed by Herbert Biberman, released sixty years ago on March 14, 1954.

The film was shot in Bayard and Silver City and the script depicts an actual strike against the Empire Zinc Mine in Grant County in 1950. Many miners were recruited to play themselves in the film...

DOJ announces start of negotiations with ABQ Mayor Berry

US Attorney for New Mexico Damon Martinez told a group of community members Monday night that the community outreach portion of their process is coming to an end.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) will present a portion of a draft consent decree to the mayor this week to begin negotiations - possibly as early as Wednesday.  Martinez said that his team wants to reach an agreement with the City on the stipulations contained in the 45 page report in order to avoid filing a law suit regarding the conduct of Albuquerque Police Department. Martinez said, “The negotiations will go on as long as they are productive"...

The VA Scandal

When former Senator majority leader and Presidential candidate Bob Dole said that it was time for VA Secretary Erik Shinseki to go, that was the end because Dole, a war hero, wounded veteran, great public servant and frequent user of VA services has more credibility on this issue than any American. Having introduced Shinseki at his confirmation in 2009, this must be a very painful experience for him.

Senator Dole’s comments made me think of my cousin, Molly from Middleburg, Virginia who worked for eleven years as a volunteer at the Walter Reed Army Hospital...

Provincial Matters, 6-9-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

Video shows UNM professor did not assault officer

UNM professor David Correia has been an outspoken critic of APD in light of the police department’s ongoing spree of controversial shootings and damning Department of Justice report which found gross violations of civil rights and a culture where accountability is nearly non-existent.  Correia has stood in solidarity with the family members who have lost loved ones at the hands of APD.  He has appeared on New Mexico Mercury’s “Insight New Mexico” and we found him to be courteous, informed and passionate...

El Machete: Massacre of the Protectors

Massacre of the Protectors

Not invited to the party

Yesterday, New Mexico threw a big party, but the overwhelming majority of the state’s residents didn’t attend. They can claim, with varying levels of plausibility, that the candidates who emerged from the Democratic and Republican primaries don’t represent them.

Those who have the most plausible case, an incontrovertible case in fact, are the 239,151 independents. Under state law they are technically people who, when they registered to vote, declined to state a party preference. Independents are so marginalized in New Mexico that we don’t even allow them to call themselves independent, merely those who declined to choose a major party...

Albuquerque Protesters Jailed

The latest protests over APD police shootings resulted in 13 arrests and the cancellation of Monday night's City Council meeting.