The New Mexico House and Business Committee voted along party lines Monday to table two bills that called for raising the minimum wage to ten-dollars and ten cents an hour from the current seven-50. The move all but kills the effort to boost the state’s minimum wage. One of the bills spread the increase over three years and provided for an annual cost-of-living increase. The vote on both bills was 4-3, with Republicans in the majority. The Legislature passed a measure to raise the wage to eight-50 during the 2013 session, but it was vetoed by Republican Governor. Susana Martinez. Last year, an effort to amend the state Constitution to allow the minimum wage to increase annually at the rate of inflation passed the Senate but died in the House.
Voters in the Santa Fe School District today will decide three school board races—and only one of those—the District Two race between Peter Mitchell and Maureen Cashmon—are contested. First District Board member Steven Carrillo and Fourth District member Linda Trujillo are unopposed. Voting in the three races is restricted to residents of those districts, but all district residents may vote on the question of renewing a one-point-five mill property tax levy. Also on the ballot in Santa Fe today is the Santa Fe Community College Board election, where incumbents Linda Siegle and Pablo Sedillo Sr are unopposed. However, the SFCC Board’s District Four seat features a contested race between Jack Sullivan and Xubi Wilson. The polls are open until 7 tonight— Pojoaque and Edgewood schools are also holding elections today.
New Mexico House Republicans rallied in support of ending social promotion ahead of a committee hearing to consider a bill to keep children from moving into the fourth grade if they're not proficient readers. Republican Governor Susana Martinez's plan to end social promotion in New Mexico schools faces opposition from Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, who says student retention should be based on teachers' assessments, not reading test scores. House GOP leaders held a news conference Monday to discuss the issue. They referred to social promotion as a "failed policy." A bill by Albuquerque Representative Monica Youngblood calls for retaining third-graders who are not reading proficiently and giving them intensive remediation. The bill also says kindergartners through second-graders may also be held back if they're struggling with reading.
Republican Senator Craig Brandt of Rio Rancho wants to prohibit New Mexico public schools from charging students fees on essential items such as use of libraries and laboratory classes. Brandt has introduced a bill to prohibit such fees, but he stresses his bill doesn’t cover things such as supply list items provided to students before school starts in August. *****020315-Brandt-3 :29***** Brandt says threats to withhold diplomas and transcripts are some of the tactics some school districts have used to prompt payment of such fees.
Federal officials say a certified public accountant from New Mexico has admitted to making fake documents using U.S. Department of Treasury names and symbols. Prosecutors said yesterday that 64-year-old James Vaughn of Albuquerque pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for the offense. Vaughn is expected to be sentenced to one year of probation. Prosecutors say Vaughn in 2013 provided a fake document to a client, who asked him for proof that he had resolved a federal tax lien.
Flags that accompanied the Two Eagles balloon team across the Pacific Ocean on a record-smashing journey have been presented to the city of Albuquerque to commemorate the historic flight. Pilots Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and LeonidTiukhtyaev of Russia unveiled the flags during a final debriefing at mission control yesterday. They said they were able to detach the New Mexico and U.S. flags from the balloon after landing in the ocean early Saturday off the coast of Baja California.
The only thing interrupting one of New Mexico's most remote stretches of desert is a pristine runway where Virgin Galactic plans one day to launch the world's first commercial space-line. But the runway has seen little use. No roar of jet engines—Just delayed promises of shuttling passengers to the edges of Earth. Then came a deadly mishap over California's Mojave Desert last fall during a test flight of the company's rocket-powered spacecraft. Speculation swirled about the future of commercial space travel and Spaceport America. But Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides says testing will take off again in 2015. He says the company is turning the corner. It's on track to compete its second spaceship and ramp up for a test-flight program that will serve as one of the last major hurdles to getting off the ground.
Santa Fe Weather: Sunny today, with the high, 50. It’ll be partly cloudy tonight with the overnight low, 29. Tomorrow, expect mostly sunny skies and the high reaching 53.