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Gary Johnson on scandals: Don’t let Obama (or Congress) off the hook

(In light of the recent scandals involving the IRS targeting conservative groups and the Obama administration's Justice Department seizing phone records from journalists, New Mexico Watchdog asked former two-term governor of New Mexico and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson to offer his opinion on the controversies. Here's Gov. Johnson's response:) By Gary Johnson │ Special to New ...
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Investigations

Here’s the 83-year-old WWII internment camp survivor the IRS asked about

By Rob Nikolewski on May 20, 2013
The Internal Revenue Service not only wanted a wide variety of information from the Albuquerque Tea Party‘s application for non-profit status, it also wanted to know what contacts it had with people from other political organizations too. That included an 83-year-old great-grandmother who was once held in a World War II internment camp, New Mexico Watchdog [...]Read More>>

NM Watchdog investigation shows big increases in ‘institutional spending’ at state universities

By Rob Nikolewski on May 17, 2013
Do universities in New Mexico spend too much money on what’s called “institutional support” compared to academic support and instruction? A New Mexico Watchdog investigation into schools of higher education in the state shows that in an 11-year period, spending for services associated with running a university has almost uniformly risen much faster than spending on education and academics in general. Here’s what we [...]Read More>>

Part 2 of NM’s audit crisis: No paperwork? Then you get no capital outlay goodies

By Rob Nikolewski on May 13, 2013
Government entities be warned: Fail to submit an audit to the state and say good-bye to some of that state money you want. In Part 1 of our investigation into agencies, school districts, communities and other entities that haven’t turned in proper audits of taxpayer dollars they’ve received or spent, New Mexico Watchdog focused on the [...]Read More>>

New Mexico’s audit crisis and the Dirty 59: “A culture of a lack of accountability”

By Rob Nikolewski on May 8, 2013
By law, every organization in New Mexico that receives or spends public funds has to turn in an audit each year. “If a government is going to spend taxpayer money they should be able to account and submit a full accounting of those activities every year,” State Auditor Hector Balderas said. “It’s a fundamental check and [...]Read More>>

Sticker shock: Increases of 124% and higher at 5 of 6 NM universities since 1999

By Rob Nikolewski on April 22, 2013
If you’re a student at one of New Mexico’s four-year universities — or if you’re a parent paying for your kid to attend college — you may be thinking, “the price tag for college always seems to get higher every year.” Well, your hunch is grounded in fact. A New Mexico Watchdog investigation into the data that the [...]Read More>>

Read more Unleashed here.

Capitol Report

It’s dueling Democrats (so far) in race for Attorney General

By Rob Nikolewski on May 24, 2013
The top law enforcement position in the state is one of New Mexico’s most coveted elected offices but so far, only two Democrats and no Republicans have indicated they’ll run for New Mexico Attorney General. Current State Auditor Hector Balderas and former Public Regulation Commission member Jason Marks have thrown their hats into the ring and figure to square off next [...]Read More>>

Financial mess in Sunland Park has cost NM taxpayers $250,000 … so far

By Rob Nikolewski on May 22, 2013
A year ago, a series of embarrassing scandals involving sex, lies and videotape made the New Mexico border town of Sunland Park the target of plenty of jokes, but there isn’t much for state taxpayers to laugh about as the bill for monitoring the border town’s finances pile up. On the one-year anniversary of the announcement [...]Read More>>

Interior Department sets new rule for ‘fracking’

By Rob Nikolewski on May 16, 2013
The new boss at the U.S. Department of the Interior has established a new rule for hydraulic fracturing (commonly called “fracking”) on federal lands that seems to have pleased neither environmentalists nor oil and gas producers. According to the Associated Press, new Interior secretary Sally Jewell and the Obama administration announced Thursday (May 16) that companies that drill for [...]Read More>>

Japanese officials tour NM in search of natural gas deal

By Rob Nikolewski on May 15, 2013
It’s not just a pipe dream: Japan is interested in acquiring natural gas from New Mexico. But whether it will ever get across the Pacific Ocean is an open question. An executive for Japan’s state-run energy corporation has been touring of New Mexico natural gas facilities this week and met on Monday (May 13) with Lt. Governor [...]Read More>>

Lujan offers House bill to protest Obama sequestration cut

By Rob Nikolewski on May 14, 2013
First, it was the administration of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. Then, it was Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Udall. Now, Democratic U.S. House of Representatives member Ben Ray Luján is complaining about the Obama administration’s 5.1 percent reduction for states who get mineral and energy royalties from the federal government. On Tuesday (May 14), Rep. Luján joined other members [...]Read More>>

Read more Capitol Reports here.

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