New Mexico’s Attorney General has released a redacted version of an audit that led to the shake-up of behavioral health services for needy New Mexicans.. Hector Balderas released the audit during a news conference in Albuquerque, saying the state needs to do a better job of ferreting out fraud without disrupting services that citizens depend on. *****013015-Balderas-2 :20***** Balderas says he's making changes in the way the attorney general's office investigates such matters. He began his first term as AG at the beginning of the year. The previous attorney general, Gary King, declined to release the audit because it was part of an ongoing investigation. The 355-page audit spurred allegations that state Medicaid funding was mishandled by the nonprofit providers. That prompted Republican Governor Susana Martinez's administration to freeze payments while the attorney general's office investigated.
A New Mexico House committee has approved a right-to-work bill after hearing hours of impassioned appeals from speakers. The House Business and Employment Committee voted 8-5 Thursday, largely along party lines with one Democrat joining seven Republicans, to move forward the contentious bill that prohibits requiring workers to join a union or to pay dues as a condition of employment. Opponents far outnumbered proponents. Jose Vicente Atencio Junior, the business manager for the laborers’ international union local 16 was among the many who testified against the measure: *****013015-Atencio-2 :13***** Opponents told lawmakers the bill would hurt workers by lowering wages and allows big business to bully them. Supporters say the law would attract businesses to the state and keeps people from leaving to find work elsewhere. Terri Cole, President and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce said that the primary reason for the Chamber’s support of the bill boils down to having a state that values the individual’s right to make a decision. *****013015-Cole-1 :32*****In addition to chamber of commerce leaders, builders and business voiced support for the measure. Labor and education union leaders and members characterized the bill as misguided and misnamed.
Democratic State Representative Patricia RoybalCaballero says an effort to repeal a New Mexico law that allows immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally to obtain driver's licenses reminds her of stories from the Holocaust. The Albuquerque Democrat warns it would create more divisions in New Mexico. Despite such opposition, the bill on Thursday cleared its first hurdle. The House Safety and Civil Affairs Committee voted 5-4 along party lines to move along the GOP-led proposal aimed at revamping the state driver's licenses laws. The proposal by Representative Paul Pacheco of Albuquerque calls for creating a "two-tier" driver's license system for some immigrants.
If a New Mexico State Senator’s bill to keep New Mexico on daylight savings time year-round becomes law, then March eighth would be the last time we would be “springing ahead” and losing an hour. Sen. Cliff Pirtle introduced a bill Wednesday that would keep New Mexico on daylight savings time year-round. The Republican farmer from Roswell says changing the clock twice a year is an unnecessary inconvenience and no longer makes sense. *****013015-Pirtle-1 :20*****Pirtle says farmers and ranchers like daylight savings time and work from sunrise to sundown no matter what the clock says. The federal government allows states to exempt themselves from changing their clocks. Currently, Arizona and Hawaii do not observe daylight savings time.
Two pilots soaring over the Pacific Ocean have made history by surpassing an official world distance record for human flight in a gas balloon. The Two Eagles pilots, Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and LeonidTiukhtyaev of Russia, traveled more than 5,260 miles to put themselves in contention for the record.
Santa Fe Weather: Snow today through tonight, with the high near 35, the overnight low 27…with accumulations of one-to-two inches possible today. Tomorrow: Snow likely before noon then rain and snow likely. The chance of precipitation is 100-percent today, 90-percent tonight and 60-percent tomorrow.