In New Mexico, approximately 1.9 million people rely on public water systems to provide a safe and reliable supply of drinking water to our homes and businesses. But how do we know if our community drinking water supply is safe to drink? The simple answer is that our drinking water supply is tested regularly to ensure that it complies with state and federal regulatory standards. Without regular testing, local drinking water utilities would not learn of a known or potential health risk in a timely manner.

Water analysis at certified laboratories can often cost several thousand dollars per year for one small community water system. In 1993, the New Mexico Legislature enacted a law that...

Redistricting

The American system of representative democracy rests primarily on the concept of equal representation in legislative bodies. The Constitution requires a census of the population every ten years and then states reapportion representation and draw new district lines based on this census.  Unfortunately, the devil is in the details.  Our New Mexico Constitution, passed in 1912, leaves the drawing of district maps to the legislature.

N.M. has very few standards guiding the drawing of these maps.  Only Texas and Nevada have looser standards. The process of redistricting ends up being totally partisan because the legislature is a political body, manipulation during the map...

“The Trump campaign today [Jan. 11] filed to withdraw their lawsuit against my Office attempting to invalidate New Mexico’s secure and lawful 2020 General Election and withdrew their overly burdensome public records requests motivated by an outlandish conspiracy theory involving Dominion Voting Systems.

As no new facts have come to light since they filed this lawsuit and records requests, except the anti-democratic horror show that played out as the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday [Jan. 6], this withdrawal suggests that the Trump campaign knew from the very beginning that their lawsuit was baseless and that it was simply a political show.

Let me be clear: New Mexican election...

The Albuquerque Journal puts out a weekly insert on Mondays titled Business Outlook. This Dec. 28 edition was almost entirely about possible cannabis legalization at the upcoming N.M. legislative session. Marijuana legalization in some form seems a sure thing.  But we need to pay particular attention to how this sensitive issue is addressed by our legislature.

“Legalize Today for a brighter tomorrow” is the title of five full pages of advertising by Ultra Health who label themselves New Mexico’s #1 Cannabis Company in the 28 December Business Outlook.  The articles included, while mildly informative, are almost entirely about proper marketing of the product and how much tax the...