Gary’s Italian Mafia Holiday

Attorney General Gary King is cracking down on the seething, Mafioso cesspool in New Mexico by taking a trip to Italy next week.  Granted, King has been working with law enforcement officials from Mexico as of late to combat crime that is trickling over the border, yet is it really necessary to go all the way to Italy to learn about ways to combat organized crime?  I figure he would do just as well going to Jersey and hitting up Tony Soprano and Paulie Walnuts  for that info, so he could come back and spend more time in New Mexico.

I’d also figure the Attorney General would want to experience the entire week-long conference, seeing how much he wants to learn about fighting organized crime, instead of the mere three days he plans on attending (here and here).  For anyone who’s attended long conferences like these, you know the first few days are mostly full of jet lag, intros, and mixers anyways.

And it’s obvious that other border states are just as interested in learning about Italy’s infamous crime fighting ways as the other state AG’s who are attending are from Idaho and North Dakota.  It definitely makes me wonder why AGs from border states California, Arizona, and Texas decided not to attend. Perhaps they figured out that they could get the same information from an upcoming and very similar conference being held by California’s Attorney General. Or shoot, why not even take the two-hour flight to, I don’t know, how about Mexico, to learn about border crime.

No Speech for You!

With each passing day, life inside the confines of the Albuquerque Journal must be getting weirder and weirder.  In addition to having little in the way of a firewall between their political agenda and their news reporting (and in some cases openly flaunting this journalistic taboo), the Albuquerque Journal has now anointed itself the sole arbiter of what a person or organization can say.

Really.

The Albuquerque Journal has transformed itself into the Speech Nazi.  If you’re going to say something publicly, you better not step out of line.

Say something that comports with the Journal’s political agenda and you’re engaging in free speech.  Say something the Journal disagrees with and you might be “straying” into the yet-to-be defined “political arena.”

In today’s lead editorial, the Albuquerque Journal dug up the past and again displayed their unwillingness, or their inability, or both, to comprehend First Amendment law.  It’s truly puzzling, especially from a newspaper that purports to vigorously defend the First Amendment.

The lead…

Three Times The Journal

Once is a mishap, twice is a coincidence, but three times makes for a pattern.  And that’s three times in the past three weeks.

I’m of course referring to the Albuquerque Journal and their incessant melding of the paper’s political agenda with its news reporting.

The Journal was at it again this week, publishing a story about the federal stimulus package on the front page of its Tuesday edition.  Large parts of the story appeared to have been borrowed from a previously published Associated Press story.

As I read Tuesday’s story, I couldn’t help but flashback to my favorite old-fashioned bowling alley.  You know, the kind where you can actually see people setting up the pins after a frame and you can actually see the ball come back out to you on a conveyor belt after you hurl it down the lane.  The whole game is laid out before you.

For me, the Tuesday story was analogous to the guys setting up the pins, placing them perfectly in preparation for waiting bowlers to knock them down.  But, I digress.

The big story in the Tuesday edition of the Albuquerque Journal questioned the existence of “shovel-ready” projects from the federal economic stimulus package.

Here’s the lead…

New Mexico’s slice of the $787 billion federal stimulus-money pie might not be as groundbreaking as expected.

The “public face” of the stimulus effort has been a worker in a hard hat, employed on a federally backed infrastructure project, The Associated Press reported nationally. But reviews of spending in New Mexico and around the country show that the phrase “shovel-ready” to describe the focus of stimulus projects probably has been overused.

In fact, in New Mexico and around the country, social spending, not construction, is in line to be the biggest winner in the ambitious federal effort to spark a sluggish economy.

“NM Stimulus Projects: Not So Shovel-Ready,” Albuquerque Journal June 9, 2009.  Click here for the full story (you may need a subscription).

There is nothing wrong with critically examining the stimulus package spending.  In fact, critical examination of the spending is crucial.  But such an examination should also include facts about how much has actually been spent thus far, the timeline of spending (as it applies to the actual onset of the current recession), the most effective way to plug state budget gaps and information about how spending on things like Medicaid, unemployment insurance and education might stem the tide of a recession.

It’s Real

People who use social media to organize often refer to the crucial moment when someone steps out of the blogosphere and converts their online communication into real-life action.

Sadly, accused murderer James Von Brunn did just that Wednesday when he shot and killed African American security guard Stephen P.  Johns at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

In a place meant to honor the millions who died in the Holocaust, Von Brunn set out to make his lifelong vow of hatred for Jews horribly real. After shooting Johns, Von Brunn was shot and wounded by other guards before he could make good on his plans to kill others at the museum.

From his extensive writings on the Internet and from notes later found in his car, Von Brunn’s rampage appears to be linked to President Barack Obama’s appearance last week at the notorious Buchenwald death camp in Germany. In a speech there, Obama and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel denounced so-called Holocaust deniers (like Von Brunn) who say it never happened.

The ugly truth is that the number of threats against Obama have skyrocketed since Americans elected him in November. One noted criminologist even chalked Wednesday’s murder up to what he called “the Obama effect,” which attempts (rather clumsily) to describe the uptick in racial trash-talking since Obama became the country’s first black president.

It’s quite evident that the Internet provides a ready forum and handy organizing tool for the rising number of racist, anti-Semitic haters out there.

I’m not saying people don’t have the right to say what they want on the Internet. I would never say that.

But I do want to express my disgust at those who pooh-pooh the connection between the hateful things people write online and actual events like the murder of Johns – and the possible murder of many others – at the Holocaust Museum.

The groups who track hate online on sites like the one Von Brunn maintained have long warned that events like this were coming.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center told the Los Angeles Times that the nonprofit group had tracked a sharp increase in what it considered right-wing hate groups over the last eight years — from 602 to 926.

A “confluence of factors,” Potok told the Times,  appeared to be fueling the growth — including anger about nonwhite immigration, concern over the deteriorating economy, fears of new restrictions on firearms, and the election of the first African American as president.

“We may well be seeing a perfect storm of factors that favor this movement,” Potok said.

Contrast that with those on the right, many of whom simply laughed a few months ago at a Department of Homeland Security report that warned economic and social conditions “presented unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment.”

Now there’s no excuse – we know it’s real.  So can we please stop pretending that the hate people spew online means nothing?

Mt. Taylor Protected After Years of Struggle

Guest Post by Nadine Padilla. She is an organizer for the Sacred Alliance for Grassroots Equality (SAGE) Council.

The New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee has unanimously decided to place Mt. Taylor permanently on the State Register of Traditional Cultural Properties.  This designation follows a year-long battle between private landowners, who say the designation will affect development that may occur on their lands, and Native American tribes, who honor Mt. Taylor as a sacred place central to the cultures and livelihoods of Native Americans.

The permanent designation of Mt. Taylor as a Traditional Cultural Property is the culmination of hard work for five tribes acting on behalf of all tribes in the southwest and the residents of New Mexico.  The five nominating tribes, Acoma Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, Zuni Pueblo, and the Hopi and Navajo Nations began the application process over a year ago in order to protect Mt. Taylor from renewed uranium mining interests.  This designation will ensure that the public has the opportunity to give proper comment on any new mining proposals that are within the TCP boundary.

The Cultural Properties Review Committee was under great pressure and received over 6,000 letters and emails concerning the nomination.  The letters were 4 to 1 in favor of the nomination.  The CPRC should be commended for their continued service in protecting New Mexico’s greatest treasures.

Mount Taylor is a stratovolcano in northwest New Mexico, northeast of the town of Grants.  It is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cibola National Forest.

Editor’s Note:  SAGE Council’s Nadine Padilla, who is of Navajo descent and grew up near Grants, remembers that being close to the sacred mountain was integral to every important moment of her childhood, including her coming-of-age ceremony at age 13.

There They Go Again

In a post earlier this week, I was critical of the Albuquerque Journal – particularly their editors – for willfully blurring the line between the reporting of news and the issuance of opinions on their editorial pages.

This is a persistent problem at the Journal, a problem that has been well documented.

As if on cue, the Albuquerque Journal has done it again.

Monday’s Journal editorial page lavished effusive praise on Mayor Martin Chavez.  The praise was directed at the expansion of a summer educational program called “City Academies.”

The lead…

It’s a marriage made in parent/taxpayer heaven: Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez plans to expand the program that gives area teens something educational to do over the summer for free; city departments get some no-cost help during the busy vacation season.

And then this for the closing…

Circa 2009, reports could sound a lot more like this:

Teen version — Saw firsthand how police officers keep us safe. Practiced with city firefighters to control high-pressure fire hoses and rappel to rescue people. Learned what happens to the plastic and cardboard that gets picked up on trash day from our curb and watched solar power in action. Discovered how to maintain a hiking trail so it works with the ecosystem. Fed the animals in our zoo and aquarium.

City employee version — Taught tomorrow’s city leaders what makes a good city great.

“City Academies Make Summer Work Cool,” Albuquerque Journal June 1, 2009. Click here for the full editorial (you may need a subscription).

There are a couple of glaring problems with this editorial.

California’s Nightmare State

If the so-called teabaggers need an example of what life would look like without government, they need only to look at what’s happening in California right now.

Government there is under siege after voters rejected tax measures that would have funded vital state services and resources.

Now California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’s forced to shut down large sections of state government for lack of funds.

Stunned Californians are standing by as the state closes summer schools, shuts down programs for seniors and makes plans to close hundreds of state parks.

Those kind of cuts affect everyone.

But as usual, the poorest and the neediest will bear the brunt of the shutdown of resources and services.

Gov. Schwarzenegger is proposing a complete elimination of the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.

It’s sad that millions will have to suffer.

But maybe California in its misery will serve as a living, agonizing example of what happens when people don’t make the connection between government, paying taxes and maintaining the standard of living Americans have come to expect and deserve.

Is it PNM’s turn for a bailout?

If you pay enough attention to what’s been going on as of late, you’d figure that PNM is about to be swimming in money. Not money from profits based on their energy production (in fact, PNM posted losing quarters all of last year), but in “help” from state and federal sources.

First off, PNM has been given free rein when it comes to rate increases.  Last year the state Public Regulation Commission approved PNM for a 4.4% ($24 million) rate increase. That was big, but not quite the $82 million PNM originally wanted. PNM also requested a fuel clause, which would have given them the ability to adjust their rates to adjust to fuel costs. Many spoke out against this rate clause, saying it was simply a thinly-veiled rate hike designed to help PNM make up some of the $58 million that they didn’t get in the rate increase. It was determined that there wasn’t a need for the fuel clause and PNM’s request was rejected.

Now there’s word of another rate increase at the beginning of this year. PNM recently announced they will impose a 9.7% or $77 million rate increase starting in July. According to PNM’s CEO Jeff Sterba, the increase “is the latest step in our ongoing efforts to ensure adequate recovery of PNM’s costs and restoring shareholder value.”

Funny, I thought the reason PNM sold their gas holdings and got a credit line increase (increased to $300 million) last spring from the PRC was to improve PNM’s profits (and thus decrease how much they pass on to consumers) and help improve PNM’s credit rating.

One has to wonder whether last year’s profit losses, the large costs paid out to upgrade PNM’s San Juan Generating Plant, and the recent $7 million fine for emissions from the San Juan plant have anything to do with PNM’s recent request for a rate increase.

But now PNM is taking it to the federal level.

The Albuquerque Journal: Habitual Wall-Jumper

I am remiss in not posting this sooner – visiting family and the holiday weekend threw me a little out of sorts.

Last Friday, New Mexico Independent commentator Arthur Alpert penned an interesting piece on media bias.

The final half of the commentary focuses on a recent Albuquerque Journal story regarding President Obama’s recent visit to Rio Rancho.  Alpert’s point is that the headline doesn’t really capture the essence of the story.  Instead, it more accurately captures the slant Journal editors are trying the put on the story by carefully crafting a headline that meets their political predilection.

There are many capable and honest reporters at the Albuquerque Journal who take their jobs very seriously.  The problem with the Journal is not with the reporters – it’s with the management and the editors.  Alpert sums this fact up with this pointed statement:

Journal reporters’ virtues make its editors’ inability to play fair very sad.

You said it, Mr. Alpert.

We here at Clearly New Mexico are no strangers to Albuquerque Journal editors and their purposeful manipulation of news stories.  Take the following examples.

Some New Mexico nonprofit organizations that appear to stray into the political arena could face new disclosure requirements as part of the fallout from a direct mail campaign that targeted a group of lawmakers last year.

The proposed legislation appears to be aimed at nonprofit organizations like Brix’s, which last year helped organize the direct mail campaign that carefully skirted the IRS definitions of political activity.

-Jeff Jones and Colleen Heild of the Albuquerque Journal, February 15, 2009.  Click here for the full story (you may need a subscription).

And…

An Albuquerque nonprofit that insists it wasn’t playing politics when it helped send out mailers targeting a handful of state lawmakers last year has engaged in past political work that includes identifying and training potential candidates, according to a report now circulating in New Mexico political circles.

Legislation aimed at requiring financial disclosure from nonprofits that stray into the political arena was introduced in the last session but died in committee.

-Jeff Jones and Colleen Heild of the Albuquerque Journal, April 19, 2009.  Click here for the full story (you may need a subscription).

When writing a factual news story, phrases like “straying into the political arena,” “carefully skirted” and “engaged in past political work” should be phrased as opinions.  And, those opinions should be properly attributed to someone.  Instead, in the stories referenced above, Albuquerque Journal editors pass off opinion – their opinion – as fact.

The Albuquerque Journal has shown itself, time and again, to be incapable of maintaining a proper firewall between the editing of news stories and the production of actual editorial (opinion) content.  The editors at the Albuquerque Journal, as Arthur Alpert correctly points out, have a political agenda.  Readers ought to take note of this when seeking news and information from the largest daily in the state.

The Journal has long touted itself as the state’s “Paper of Record,” a term that implies that it covers everything and covers it fairly.  The Journal also pays great lip service to the idea that its news gatherers and editors are “objective,” hewing to the old-fashioned traditional journalistic principle that a newspaper can produce coverage with no bias.

The Journal makes a great show of playing by those rules, but its coverage shows otherwise.

Simply put, the editors at the Albuquerque Journal habitually ignore the long-standing newspaper industry firewall between news content and editorial content.

Cheese Sandwich Regurgitation

I can’t lie -  I was pretty pissed off when I first heard of the Albuquerque Public Schools cheese sandwich debacle a few months ago.

Growing up in Southeastern New Mexico as a child in a low-income family, I know how it feels to have to eat a free lunch and be scorned by other students for not being able to pay for it.  Yet, APS took it to a whole other level when it began punishing students because their parents didn’t pay their lunch tab.

Yet, now we just learned from APS Superintendent Winston Brooks that the district had money to cover the lunch debt all along.  In fact, the $140,000 lunch debt reported by the district seems rather insignificant when compared to the $16 million that APS just “discovered.”

But this is not to say that that the lunch debt is the biggest issue here.  It just automatically came to mind because this “discovery” of money could have led to many APS children eating healthier and not being degraded as a result of eating the “poor kids” lunch.

Let’s face it…