Name snafu on ballot

SANTA FE – Former Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly filed to run Tuesday for the soon-to-be-vacant District 69 New Mexico House of Representatives seat. Shelly is seeking the seat being vacated by former N.M. Speaker of the House W. Ken Martinez, D-Grants. Martinez, an attorney, is retiring from public office. The son of a former N.M. Speaker of the House, Martinez began serving the state Legislature in 1999.

“Today, I accept a new challenge as I run for a state office in becoming a lawmaker,” Shelly said upon filing at the state secretary of state office in Santa Fe. “I have been a registered Democrat all of my life.”

Since ending his four-year tenure...

In a recent audit report of the Gallup-McKinley County Schools, conducted by Accounting and Consulting Group, LLP,  shows deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting for the date ending in June 30, 2015.

It was stated in the in the General Funds Report, the total revenues amounted to about $100.5 million and the total amount of expenditures is $85.6 million. This also reflects the excess (deficiency) amount of revenues over expenditures which amounts to $14.8 million.

The audit uncovered that the district is not keeping track of lodging receipts for purchases made with the superintendent’s credit cards and two transactions occurred with a total amount of $1,310.57...

SANTA FE – Gov. Susana Martinez’s regular list of legislative priorities was joined by a number of public safety initiatives that confirmed that this year would be a session with a lot of tough on crime rhetoric.

Martinez, a former prosecutor, spoke about the need to curb crime and spoke about how increased sentencing is the way to do that during her “State of the State” address Jan. 19.

She laid out this and two other issues—education and jobs—as priorities at the top of her speech, which she read off Teleprompters on Tuesday afternoon.

She spoke passionately about the deaths of two police officers while in the line of duty, officers Nigel Benner of Rio Rancho and Dan...

The House of Representatives wasted no time in passing the bill that pays for the legislative session.

The Feed Bill is annually HB 1, and contains funding for running the legislative session, including salaries for legislative staff.

The bill also pays for interim activities, including interim committees and studies by legislative staff.

The House introduced the Feed Bill shortly after the governor’s State of the State Address Jan. 20.  The House then sent the bill to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, which passed the legislation quickly on Tuesday afternoon.

Then the House passed the legislation on a 61-0 Wednesday morning. It now heads to the Senate, where it is...