Morning Word: AG weighs in on same-sex marriage

King, a Democrat who plans to run for governor next year against Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, said New Mexico law effectively doesn't allow gay marriages although there's no statutory provision that specifically prohibits, or authorizes, gay couples to be married.

"New Mexico's guarantee of equal protection to its citizens demands that same-sex couples be permitted to enjoy the benefits of marriage in the same way and to the same extent as other New Mexico citizens," King said in the filing.

Ray Rivera, a former general assignment reporter and sports editor for The New Mexican and most recently an investigative reporter on The New York Times’ metro desk, will be the Santa Fe daily’s new editor, New Mexican publisher Ginny Sohn announced Monday.

Drum roll please ... we are relaunching the print edition of the Gallup Post July 25! It was the encouragement of the community that help to make this happen! We are working hard right now to make our deadline. So many of you have called and emailed me with ideas and support. I haven't got back to everyone, but I promise to get caught up this weekend. A heartfelt thank you. ~Babette

Martinez told Burns it was not her intention to close mental health facilities or fire any counselors. The governor added that officials thought the problems existed at management levels, Burns said.

That chat gave Burns tempered hope, she said.

"I told her I hope she was telling the truth and I would wait and see," Burns said of her conversation with Martinez. "I want to see the results." Burns' outlook serves as a contrast to that of Garcia.

"Hope is dimming," he said, referring to a federal court injunction that Southwest Counseling Center and other agencies had hoped would restore Medicaid funding while the New Mexico Attorney General's Office investigated the alleged wrongdoing.

Balderas said he was given permission by a judge last week to inspect the audit. But he said the audit was not made available by Monday's deadline. “For a Secretary to go hire an audit firm, proclaim that the audit firm has a certain amount of findings and not run them through my office nor release those findings or the methodology to me it's very concerning," said Balderas. "It's not just an assault on transparency. You also have an agency that did not follow regulatory requirements that are in place. There's a very strict separation of powers for a reason."

Lincoln County Clerk Rhonda Burrows, who is the county's representative to the board of directors of the New Mexico Association of Counties, told county commissioners last week that proposed resolutions from affiliate groups of the association will go to the executive committee in August for members to determine what legislation to support and to establish the association's priorities for passage.

"One thing I would like to point out is the county clerks' Resolution No. 4. This was brought to the clerks by me regarding funding of special elections by political action committees," Burrows said. "There was a strong consensus among clerks that this is not a good practice in the administration of elections and we are introducing this resolution to encourage legislation to prohibit the practice."

The decision is a blow to Aztec Well, one of the basin's largest employers.

Jason Sandel, executive vice president of Aztec Well, said Encana's move is another sign of slow business in the basin.

The Florida school-grading system that was the basis of the New Mexico system is coming under fire.

New Mexico Drought and Fire Digest:

The monsoons that finally came aren't nearly enough to drag New Mexico out of its drought, John Fleck writes.

But while the weather in Magdalena may be wet, the community’s problems illustrate why a few weeks of summer rain are insufficient to end the drought. The village’s water table has been dropping and no short-term rainy spell can fix that problem, said Dennis McQuillan, source water protection manager for the New Mexico Environment Department.

Like many communities, Magdalena depends on groundwater that recharges only slowly, based on mountain snowfall in the winter. For community water supplies, summer rains are little help beyond reducing the demand for garden water.

Officials in Portales say that the city's participation is needed for the Ute Water project.

“The Ute Lake Water Project is necessary to augment our water supply,” says DeSha. “The (Ogallala) aquifer is declining and is not being recharged. This process is referred to as mining. An alternate source is needed in order to ensure the availability of potable water for our citizens.”

Winthrop Quigley says New Mexicans need to work together to fix our problems.

There are good ideas circulating in New Mexico. Many of those ideas never get beyond small circles of people who share interests, biases and suspicion of anyone who isn’t in the circle.

We need a venue where people we would never know or listen to can invade our own circle and shake us up, make us think, open our eyes to different realities. We need a place where the diversity we say we treasure can be put to work to improve our state.

The city of Taos made an offer to a potential planning director.

Jerry Pacheco writes about the "immigrant work ethic" that he has witnessed.

On one hand, the U.S. is utilizing the labor and services provided by the estimated 11 to 12 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S., the majority of which are Mexicans. How many of us Americans are willing to do the back-breaking work jobs in construction, agriculture, and domestic service that this group provides? I certainly have no plans to revert to manual labor to make my living, and I don’t want my son to take that path in life. Even many Americans who are jobless for extended periods of time generally do not swallow their pride and start climbing on roofs to lay tile in the middle of the summer.

A Clovis couple who were convicted of 16 counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud and major fraud against the United States were ordered by a judge to write an apology letter. The judge rejected their first apology letter and told them to do it over again.