New Mexico Mercury

Governor Ignores Looming Disaster at KAFB

A major environmental disaster more than half a century in the making is lurking right below our very feet, and yet the Susana Martinez administration is irresponsibly and unlawfully choosing to look the other way. Officials with Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque have accepted responsibility for a major contamination of groundwater that has already spread beyond its boundaries.

The Governor has systematically dismantled the New Mexico Environment Department and is choosing to officially ignore a crisis situation that should already have warranted critical status in our state’s largest city. The fact that the Governor has halted the state from officially holding the Air Force accountable for the groundwater contamination is a clear act of political malfeasance and is a willful violation of the public trust...

APD Killing of Homeless Man Alarming & Heartbreaking

The release of a video showing the latest Albuquerque police shooting and killing of a homeless man camping in a restricted area in the foothills of the Sandía Mountains casts yet more serious questions about one of the state’s largest law-enforcement agencies. Two Albuquerque Police Department (APD) officers each fired three shots at 38-year-old James Boyd, who police claim made threatening moves and refused to drop a knife in each of his hands.

The lack of resources and programs to help those who are struggling with mental-health issues is quite evident in incidents like these...

Governor’s proposals continue to demoralize teachers

In the upcoming 2014 Legislative Session I will again seek approval of a bill that would appropriate nearly $68 million to hire intervention teachers to help identify and serve students from kindergarten through the eighth grade who are struggling academically in reading and/or mathematics.

In 2013, Rep. Mimi Stewart and I introduced Senate Bill 474, which sharply contrasted with Governor Susana Martinez’s and Public Education Department cabinet-secretary-designee Hanna Skandera’s past initiatives to retain third graders not reading at proficiency without their parents’ approval of the action...

National Journal Article Reveals Governor’s Cloak

A recent story by Daniel Libit in the National Journal about the behind-behind the-scenes workings of the Martinez Administration provides further insight into a complicated agenda of well-financed deception that should sound off alarms in the minds and hearts of most New Mexicans.

To most of us who have a front row seat to the workings of state government, the article only reaffirms the hidden agendas and mean-spirited politics of what is commonly referred to as the “fifth floor.”...

Brook’s suspension warranted but Governor’s stance hypocritical

The suspension of Albuquerque Public Schools superintendent Winston Brooks last week for disparaging tweets against state education-designate Hanna Skandera was the right thing to do, but Governor Susan Martinez’s public remarks about the matter contradict her own inaction toward a high-ranking member of her own administration for a far worse offense against a woman...

Educational ‘Reform’ Movement Not What It Appears

Most of our dedicated public-school teachers must deal with a myriad of social challenges that are often rooted away from the classroom and not directly related to actually teaching students. Yet somehow, they too often must shoulder the blame for not solving the ills of society and the many things that are simply beyond their control.

Teachers in our public schools are tasked with teaching all of our children, regardless of the student’s environment outside the classroom...

Heavily Redacted Audit Continues Lack of Due-Process

In a feeble attempt to placate the public’s demand to know the details behind the Martinez Administration’s undisclosed accusations of fraud against as many as 15 New Mexico behavioral heath providers, the Attorney General’s office release of a heavily redacted audit only muddies and delays the issue further.

And one of the few things we were actually able to glean from the audit was that auditors from Massachusetts-based Public Consulting Group Inc. (PCG) wrote that “PCG’s Case File Audit did not uncover what it would consider to be credible allegations of fraud, nor any significant concerns related to consumer safety.”...