SANTA FE – Minutes after pleading guilty to multiple felonies on Oct. 23, former Secretary of State Dianna Duran hardly acknowledged her wrongdoing to reporters outside the courtroom in Santa Fe.

Instead, she repeatedly emphasized how her criminal behavior—which included using campaign money to pay for personal use at casinos—had nothing to do with how she “preserved the integrity of the electoral process” in her five years as head of state elections. She characterized her embezzling and laundering of campaign money as “poor personal financial decisions” that didn’t have “anything to do with the integrity of the office.”

“I know and believe that I have done a...

Site visits of teachers that are finalists for the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching are happening now, and that is a reason to celebrate! Tobe Turpin Elementary teacher Viola Hoskie is a finalist.

Becoming a finalist is a major accomplishment.  Of the 215 elementary teachers nominated this cycle, only 16 have become finalists.

Hoskie expressed her gratitude during the Gallup McKinley County Schools Board of Education meeting Nov. 2.

“I feel thankful for the honor this evening,” she said. “Not sure how I completely

feel about it because its like you are being honored for something that you really love to do. I really love teaching. I love my kids. Iwant the...

For the month of November, the Octavia Fellin Public Library will be hosting a myriad of events to celebrate “Native American Heritage Month” which will illuminate this year’s national theme: “Growing Native Leaders: Enhancing Seven Generations.”

The library’s Director, Mary Ellen Pellington, said that the main objective is to build the program up from last year’s events and to provide information to the community that will bring up some challenging discussions, such as the recent publicized incident of two local Native American actors, Loren Anthony and Goldie Tom, who walked off the set from an Adam Sandler film, “The Ridiculous Six.”

On Nov. 9, both actors will...

At the conclusion of the UNM-Gallup Advisory Board’s Oct. 27 meeting, members were given an earful as, local student, Lyndsey Toddy, read a letter aloud detailing an incident that occurred last month along the school’s one-mile running trail.

In the letter, a female student who chooses to remain anonymous, described how she went on a run around noon time only to be confronted by two men that emerged from the nearby bushes.

According to the letter, it stated, “These men seemed like they weren’t students and honestly, they scared me and I got an uneasy feeling. I was all alone. I didn’t have my pepper spray and I was so tired from running the trail, I wasn’t sure if I could...