The New Mexico Corrections Department is investigating why one of its vehicles was left unattended overnight Saturday outside St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe. The state vehicle – a four-door 2011 Chevrolet equipped with two-way radios and a prisoner cage – had been assigned to Probation Officer Melanie Martinez, the Watchdog has learned. “That [...]

After several years of financial losses, trustees of New Mexico’s largest faith-based gathering place have decided to explore “disposition” of Glorieta Conference Center, located along Interstate 25 between Santa Fe and Pecos. Trustees who oversee the Southern Baptist Convention’s western conference center also announced they will cease year-round operations at the end of October, close [...]

What is the name of New Mexico’s Attorney General? Sorry, that name is “classified” according to a state “Sunshine Portal” launched earlier this year under legislation approved in 2010 with only one dissenting vote from either side of New Mexico’s legislature. Of course, we know the Attorney General is Gary King, but his name is [...]

Proponents say controlled nuclear fusion promises an unlimited source of clean energy. The yet-unproven technology also holds a potential to drive proponents mad. Take the case of former LANL scientist Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni. Feds arrested him and his wife this time last year after agents in a sting operation allegedly caught him trying to sell [...]

One Albuquerque motel has stopped charging long-term residents a 6 percent tax after someone notified city officials the business was not honoring an exemption for those who stay longer than 30 days. “We are not charging the lodgers’ tax any more,” said Rahim Sharis, a manager at Freeway Inn, located on Hotel Circle Northeast, near [...]

The New Mexico Corrections Department facilities manager who in July pleaded guilty to soliciting and taking bribes continued to collect a state check long after she was fired. This time, it’s an unemployment check. Lauri Chapman was “terminated” Feb. 24 from her job as a staff manager at the state Indian Affairs Department, according to [...]

The former Corrections Dept. cabinet secretary who resigned after her boyfriend reportedly fired 14 times at rattlesnakes outside their prison-grounds home will compete for a warden’s job in Las Cruces that for several weeks has been listed as “no longer available” on the state jobs board. Lupe Martinez’ resignation was announced Sept. 2, five days [...]

The Public Employee Retirement Association today began mailing replacement ballots to about 25,000 retired state workers after an earlier ballot listed two candidates in the wrong order. Connie Cohn, a candidate whose name was improperly listed third instead of second on the original ballot, said she suspected the incorrect ballots were part of a “concerted [...]

The agency was established under a New-Deal-era law intended to quiet labor unrest. One governor last month said the independent board of presidential appointees has gone rogue. Many U.S. workers have never heard of this powerful federal agency. That’s about to change. Whether employees loath their boss or love their jobs, a message the controversial [...]

When you’re fighting for control of the U.S. Congress, there’s nothing quite like some free advertising to keep the donations rolling in. For the past five years, that exactly what Taos County has provided the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers Local 1193. The county’s official Web site steers visitors toward the union’s [...]