Morning Word, 08-20-12

The New Mexico news recap

If you aren't using Twitter, you might as well skip on down to the bullet points, because this won't make a lot of sense to you. --- I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but it might be time to change up the Twitter hashtag #

nm2012

. If you

take a look at the Twitter feed

, it is currently dominated by (thanks to the power of Google translate) Norwegians. I have nothing against Norwegians, especially since these look to be soccer fans, but it does make trying to find the latest news about 2012 elections in New Mexico all-but impossible.

Luckily, the #

NMSEN

and #

NMLEG

hashtags are still mostly unsullied. Unless we get a big prosthetic leg convention coming to New Mexico, I don't expect that to change.

But what Twitter account should we use for the 2012 elections? I've always liked #

nmpol

, but others haven't. Anything else that is descriptive and short enough to work?

On to the Word:

  • State Sen. Tim Keller is writing New Mexico Finance Authority restructuring legislation. Keller wants to reduce the amount of members on the authority board and will stagger the terms of the appointment to ensure more continuity. Keller sent a press release on this late Sunday evening.
  • A top official in the Martinez administration has
  • his own plan for the NMFA
  • .
  • Supporters of the Finance Authority have leaked the plan in recent days in an attempt to show that the administration may use the auditing crisis at the authority to try to gut it, turning much of its work over to the private sector and politically favored government contractors.
  • Keller will give interviews on the proposal at
  • today's New Mexico Finance Authority Oversight Committee hearing
  • . There should be more media coverage than normal at this hearing after the fake audit scandal.
  • Rep. Martin Heinrich says the
  • corporate tax code needs to be changed
  • so that big corporations don't have advantages over small business.
  • New Mexico's unemployment rate
  • rose to 6.6 percent in July
  • . As has become usual, government job losses have been at or near the top of the industries hardest hit.
  • Industries that lost jobs were business and professional services, 4,400; government, 3,900; information, 1,000; other services, 1,000; financial activities, 600; construction, 600; retail trade, 300; and transportation, warehousing and utilities, 200. Sectors that gained jobs were health and educational services, 3,200; leisure and hospitality, 2,800; mining and logging, 1,400; manufacturing, 1,000; and wholesale trade, 800.
  • The New Mexico Business Weekly
  • looked more at the government job losses in New Mexico
  • .
  • Proponents of the Paseo del Norte/I-25 interchange are trying a new tactic -- trying to
  • get Isaac Benton off the city council
  • so they can get a supermajority to vote to fund the program without sending it to voters. Benton was redistricted out of his current district -- and mayor Richard Berry would appoint his replacement.
  • U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman was in Santa Fe on Friday
  • to hear testimony on climate change
  • .
  • The state is looking for federal approval
  • on its Medicaid overhaul plan
  • . A previous "blueprint" for the overhaul was criticized by tribal entities for not getting enough input from the tribes around the state. The tribes hold formidably political power in New Mexico.
  • Former congressional candidate
  • Bob Anderson and his wife are both running as write-in candidates for federal office
  • . Anderson is a declared write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate race, while his wife Jeanne Pahls is running as a write-in candidate in the 1st Congressional District race. The two have an uphill battle.
  • The last successful write-in congressional candidate in New Mexico was the late Joe Skeen, who won his 2nd District seat in 1980. But Skeen was a special case. Democratic U.S. Rep Harold Runnels died in office after that year’s primary. No Republican had filed to run against the popular Runnels, so no GOP candidate was on the ballot. Skeen became the de facto Republican candidate. And he was helped by the fact that the Democrats were split. The party nominated David King to run, which angered Runnels’ widow, Dorothy, who also ran as a write-in.
  • I actually was in Anderson's political science class at CNM a few years ago.
  • The Washington D.C. press corps
  • was not happy about a "softball" interview with President Barack Obama
  • by the KOB-FM morning show "Morning Mayhem."
  • Defense lawyers in Curry and Roosevelt counties say that the 9th Judicial District court staff have been excusing grand jury members from duty -- which is against state law.
  • [Attorney Kirk] Chavez is a former deputy district attorney who worked for [District Attorney Matt] Chandler. He charges Chandler's staff has been hand-picking grand jurors from groups impaneled by the court. Stacking the deck, Chavez said in a recent interview, to turn the grand jury from a tool into an unofficial arm of Chandler's office.
  • Chandler is considered a rising star in the Republican Party despite losing handily to incumbent Gary King in the state Attorney General election in 2010.
  • Some want
  • to exclude TV shows from the film rebate cap
  • pushed for by Gov. Susana Martinez. The argument is that TV shows have a more sustained role in New Mexico because they shoot over a longer period of time than movies and return year after year. Republicans who oppose the push say that it would add uncertainty to the state budget.
  • Local publishers aren't happy with Martinez because
  • they were not considered as suppliers of the books
  • purchased by the state for first-grade students.
  • The Rio Rancho Observer
  • writes about the tax increase for Mariposa residents
  • .
  • Peter Goodman says
  • the Martinez administration is muzzling New Mexico Oil Conservation Division staff
  • in an effort to push through a rollback of the pit rule.
  • The
  • Las Vegas city council voted to raise sewer rates
  • -- but hasn't decided on how large of a raise yet.
  • New Mexico's laws are being used as
  • an example of the need to update prostitution laws for the internet age
  • .
  • The National Forest Service is
  • devoting more resources to putting out small fires immediately
  • instead of letting fires burn themselves out. Critics say this will lead to even larger fires down the road, while the Forest Service says this is necessary because of budget constraints.
  • New Mexico's
  • pecan crop was the nation's second-largest in 2011
  • .