One bill calling for voters to amend the New Mexico Constitution to reform the troubled Public Regulation Commission (PRC) made it through the legislature Wednesday night (Feb. 15) and with a half day left in the current 30-day session, two more are waiting to be heard. On a 40-0 vote on the floor of the [...]

In response to a Watchdog inquiry, a GSD spokesperson said today that agency will include the PRC in its annual campaigns to collect information about authorized personal use of state vehicles for commuting. Until this morning, the GSD spokesperson had maintained the PRC’s participation in the annual domicile-to-duty reporting program was “voluntary.”

Going into the House Judiciary Committee meeting hearing on increasing standards for those who serve as commissioners on the Public Regulation Committee, we knew you didn’t need a college degree to serve on the PRC. What we didn’t know was that you don’t even have to have a high school diploma. Or have finished middle [...]

Buckle up for a bumpy and raucous political year, New Mexico. The state House of Representatives is already a closely-run race as Democrats have seen their majority slip to just 36 Dems, 33 Republicans and 1 Independent. But now that a redistricting judge ruled Tuesday (Jan. 3) in favor of a plan put forth by [...]

Republicans and Gov. Susana Martinez picked up a big win Tuesday evening as a judge in charge of redistricting New Mexico’s political boundaries sided with the governor’s attorneys in choosing a map for the state’s House of Representatives for the next 10 years. Judge Jim Hall picked a plan drawn up by the governor’s legal [...]

Although former commissioner Jerome Block faces sentencing Jan. 27 for – among other offenses – fraudulent use of a state fuel card, anyone else who might’ve used a Public Regulation Commission fuel credit card for personal purchases could tentatively count whatever they bought among this year’s gifts. Or loot.

Lax oversight of state vehicle usage could be letting state employees who commute in state vehicles avoid income taxes on what the IRS classifies as fringe benefit income, according to state auditor Hector Balderas.

For the third time in two months, Jerome Block Jr. has been arrested. From Geoff Grammer of the Santa Fe New Mexican, who reports that the former member of the Public Regulation Commission has been booked into Santa Fe County jail: Jail records show he was booked in Tuesday at 3:12 p.m. It is unclear [...]

Now comes the hand-to-hand combat. After hearing arguments last week about redistricting for US congressional seats for New Mexico, Judge Jim Hall started hearings on Monday (Dec. 12) over what figures to be the most contentious fight over how and where to draw the state’s political lines — the battle over the boundaries for future [...]

Republicans, Democrats, a group representing Hispanics and another representing Native Americans began pleading their respective cases to a retired district court judge in Santa Fe on Monday (Dec. 5) as the first of a series of hearings over the battle for drawing the redistricted political boundaries for New Mexico began. Judge Jim Hall is the [...]