New Mexico Mercury

New Mexico, Nation Rally for Immigration Reform

Hundreds in Albuquerque join a national call for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a path to citizenship for the undocumented.

What’s Happened to Albuquerque? Part 9: Pete Dinelli, but where are the constituents?

While I personally am going to vote for Pete Dinelli for mayor on October 8, I remain puzzled and disappointed by this election.

Dinelli is strong on badly needed police oversight and leadership restructuring, strong on marriage equality and women’s rights (he was the only candidate to oppose the move to ban abortions in Albuquerque after 20 weeks), and strong on water conservation and water quality issues, including the potential disaster of the Kirtland Air Force Base jet fuel spill.

What disappoints me is that none of those vital issues attracted in-depth coverage by local mainstream media. And if organized and outspoken constituencies formed around those issues, most of us didn’t hear about it because their activities weren’t covered...

This Gang of the Rich

Our country is frozen in the filthy rich pit of a cultish Republicanism, a bunch of sick coyotes yakking the same chorus, “Kill to Win,” “Pray God for Stagnation.” “We’ll drown you in our own filth of hatred for the poor, the down trodden, the impotent, the sick, the helpless children and stressed families, the out of work, the over-burdened, the unserved, the abandoned class of the dwindling mainstream, screw you!”...

Provincial Matters, 10-7-2013

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

Insight New Mexico - Pete Dinelli

V.B. Price talks with attorney and Albuquerque mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli about his vision for the city.

A Fresh Face: District Two Update

Guess who’s been rubbing elbows with David Koch at the lil ‘ol Country Club? And guess who got the royal nod from the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP): the Commerical Real Estate Development Association? The lengthy name alone shows just how important these folks really are! For instance, the New Mexico branch is currently headed up by Bruce Beebe, Wells Fargo VP for regional business banking.
Mercury readers, on Nov. 29 last year then pres. of the New Mexico NAIOP, Dale Dekker, wrote a letter endorsing this mystery person to run for city council in District 2 as a pro-business candidate.  If you guessed this mystery person is good ol’ Uberprogressive, District 2 candidate Rox Meyers, you were right! ...

Montagues and Capulets

As our country goes into its second day of partial government shutdown, many foreigners ready to spend their money at our national parks and other points of interest are being told their destination is closed. They don’t understand how a standoff between two modern political parties in a democracy constantly advertised as worthy of emulation can paralyze a nation, furlough federal workers, and stop important services. This couldn’t happen at home, they say...

Pachyderm Pout

El Machete

The New Deal Revisited in Symposium and Exhibit (This Saturday)

The New Deal lasted only a decade.  But in that decade thousands of bridges in the country were refurbished or built new; thousands of miles of roads were built, hundreds of post offices, schools and community centers were built or festooned with New Deal art provided by unemployed artists, many products of the nation’s best art institutions.

Some of our national icons were completed during the period like the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam. Three million young men worked in Civilian Conservation Camps, many living outside their communities for the first time...

Countdown to Health Reform III

The New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange opened October 1, and it is clear there are some hiccups as an enterprise as massive as this one moves into action.  But they will get over these growing pains and will get it together. Individuals without coverage or those wanting to change their coverage will have six months (October 1, 2013 – March 31, 2014) to enroll through the Exchange.  Anyone can enroll now, but the policies will not be effective until January 1, 2014. So you have time to learn about using the Exchange.

Below are a few suggestions for those who want to purchase coverage...