New Mexico Mercury

Fortune Teller

El Machete

Monetize the Rio Grande Now—Gotta Do It!

Our low profile, no controversy mayor has just released new plans for the Richard Berry Bosque Access Center (RBBAC) with the fifty story riverfront Disney Hotel complex and the Aldo Leopold Memorial ten-story parking structure, sculpture park, and miniature golf metroplex.

The project is slated to be built in the next two weeks before anyone has a chance to ask any unpleasant questions.  Contractors from Arizona have all been chosen, so don’t worry your pretty little head about all the noisome details...

Keep Big Money out of Publicly Financed Races

Voters in Albuquerque and Santa Fe overwhelmingly voted to establish public financing systems in both cities to eliminate the influence of special-interest money on our elected officials and to permit them to take office beholden to no one but the voters who elected them.

The systems are now facing two challenges, one old and one brand new...

The Event: Preparing for the end game on climate change

The case for merging disaster preparation with climate policy in the countdown to an ecological 'crescendo.'

Desalinization for Sprawl

I wonder what it would be like to have huge mounds of salt laced with arsenic sitting on the ground west of Albuquerque. Suppose a developer wanted to build a massive subdivision miles from the center of the city and worked a deal with Sandoval County to drill deep into the aquifer around the Rio Puerco and tap into the brackish water known to be there.

Suppose this developer started the project, used a process of desalinization, to clean the water, making promises to clean up the salt and arsenic waste, but then hit a snag in the housing market, abandoned the project, and left Albuquerque and Rio Rancho with its salt waste and poison blowing around in the wind and making its way into populated areas...

Provincial Matters, 9-23-2013

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

Meet the secret Republican infrastructure buying Albuquerque’s elections

What happens when you get caught hiding a Republican political-hack firm inside your non-partisan global public relations firm?   Albuquerque's DW Turner/Agenda Communications is about to find out.

Weeks ago we started asking questions about big money donor Jerry Ginsburg who gave $40,000 to start a special interest PAC attacking progressive City Councilor Isaac Benton.

That PAC reported using Ginsburg’s money to hire a shadowy California business to run the campaign. Yesterday, Benton’s campaign shed some light on the shadowy group supporting his Republican opponent...

Insight New Mexico - Virginia Scharff

V.B. Price talks with historian, scholar and author Virginia Scharff about her book "Seeing Nature Through Gender."

Countdown to Health Reform II

With less than two weeks to go, a critical component of the ACA, the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange, unveiled its new look and commitment to becoming part of the landscape of New Mexico starting October 1, 2013.  The new website was unveiled Tuesday morning and you can check it out at: BeWellNM.com. In addition, the Exchange is getting ready to initiate a campaign of radio and television advertisements touting its services shortly...

Albuquerque Tackles Police Oversight

Born from years of police shootings, scandals and lawsuits, a public process to reform the oversight of the Albuquerque Police Department is underway.