By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
ALBUQUERQUE – Maybe Winston Brooks should just stay away from Twitter altogether.
The superintendent of the largest school district in New Mexico may have had his share of clashes with the state’s Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and her administration’s education chief in the past but on Tuesday he really stepped [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – First, People magazine, in a story about the relationship between Gov. Susana Martinez and her developmentally disabled sister, said Martinez doesn’t have “a serious 2014 re-election challenger in sight.”
Then, last week, a story from Politico about various gubernatorial races across the country mentioned Martinez, along with [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – One year after an unprecedented move by the Public Education Department, it appears the Questa School Board has gone from dysfunctional to fully functional.
“We’re up and running and we’re full speed forward and not looking back at the rear view mirror,” school board president Bernie Torres [...]

The state’s largest newspaper on Sunday (July 7) picked up on the story New Mexico Watchdog reported late last month concerning per-pupil spending for the state’s public schools.
While New Mexico’s results in a number of scholastic studies have consistently ranked among the lowest in the nation, we reported how the state finishes
exactly in the middle — [...]

From the Santa Fe New Mexican:
State Sen. Linda Lopez, an Albuquerque Democrat, said Monday that she’s ready to run for governor.       
Lopez, who first was elected to the Senate in 1996, told The New Mexican that she has appointed a campaign treasurer but still needs to set up a campaign account and complete the paperwork at [...]

The Hanna Skandera mini-series will resume Wednesday … maybe.
The long-running confirmation hearing for the secretary-designate of the Public Education Department (PED) is scheduled to resume in the Senate Rules Committee tomorrow but committee chairwoman Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, told reporters the hearing may get pushed back.
“We are scheduled for a hearing tomorrow,” Sen. Lopez told reporters [...]

(Note: This editorial was written the morning of Friday March 8, the day before another day of hearings were held with still no vote in the Senate Rules Committee. The editorial originally ran in the Santa Fe New Mexican.)
At best, it’s been a whole lot of nothin’ and at worst it’s turned into a political [...]

In what has become one of the most drawn-out confirmation hearings that long-time Roundhouse followers can remember, Hanna Skandera has still not received a vote in the Senate Rules Committee.
Skandera, the secretary-designate of the Public Education Department for more than two years while waiting confirmation, appeared before the committee for the third time in little more than a week and took [...]

We just ran into Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, and chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, who told us the confirmation hearing for Public Education Department Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera will not resume on Friday (March 8).
When asked if the hearing that took up most of last weekend will resume Saturday, Lopez expressed some doubt and said [...]

After a couple of hours on Friday and five more on Saturday, the confirmation hearing for Hanna Skandera still hasn’t wrapped up.
In fact, the members of the Senate Rules Committee haven’t even begun to ask questions of the Public Education Department Secretary-designate who has been on the job for two years and waiting for an up or down [...]