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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Regents at the University of New Mexico made headlines Tuesday (April 9) when they voted another increase in tuition – a whopping 13.2 percent hike for some students — but  a review of university records shows it’s merely the latest in a series of hikes in the cost of attending the state’s largest institution of higher education.
New Mexico Watchdog checked with the information UNM officials [...]

You will be seeing something different at New Mexico Watchdog very soon.  A new investigative reporter will be among the changes.  I’ve taken my leave to finish the novel that’s been collecting dust in the corner of my desk and to experience more of this wonderous world we share.
A website redesign is around the corner.  [...]

After more than five years of resisting a lawsuit requesting inspection of public records, KNME-TV has been ordered into mediation where it will face claims for civil fines and attorney fees that could reach $200,000 and higher.
KNME-TV is the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) affiliate at the University of New Mexico.
The suit arose from KNME-TV’s production [...]

Welfare money tapped in an Albuquerque strip club.  Cash withdrawals of welfare funds inside an El Paso casino, a movie theater, a nightclub, Hooters, smoke shops and liquor stores around the country.
The same suspicious transactions on EBT cards we observed at the end of 2011 continued into 2012.  You can read our first two reports [...]

EBT cards intended to help needy  families have bought vacation cruises out of Miami and illegal drugs in Spokane, Washington.  They’ve been used to gain entrance to Graceland, Disneyland, and Universal Studios, and many far less family-friendly establishments.
In Boston, a jailed heroin dealer instructed a friend to tap EBT cash for bail money.
An unlicensed tattoo artist in Minnesota accepts [...]