Good news from New Mexico: Traffic doubled in the past 12 months, and great political reporting is a big reason why.
Our feisty team has made the The New Mexico Independent a top destination with its tough, behind-the-scenes investigations of Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration, suspect real estate and energy deals, questionable lobbying schemes, and elections like this month’s Albuquerque mayoral upset complete with charges of—surprise!—misuse of campaign funds.
And last night our Washington DC reporter, David Weigel, had his second appearance in one week on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, here.
More details follow, along with CIM’s other state-based and national reporting.
Best,
David
The Washington Independent’s political reporter, David Weigel, was the only national reporter to attend the “How to Take Back America” conference in St. Louis, Minn., which featured workshops such as “How to Recognize Living Under Nazis and Communists” and “How to Activate Your Church.” Six elected officials attended the event, including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who dove into a limousine when Weigel asked her about the death of a U.S. Census Bureau worker. Bachmann had led the anti-census charge in the weeks before the incident. Weigel appeared on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” where he described his interaction with Bachmann and explained why she should respond to questions about the death. MSNBC also quoted heavily from Weigel’s overview piece and aired a video interview that Weigel had conducted with Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) about why Franks thinks President Obama should release his long-form birth certificate. Though Obama was certainly born in the United States, Franks said, “There’s some other issue, I don’t know what it is, that he doesn’t want people to see the birth certificate on.” The video was widely circulated online, including on Politico and The Huffington Post.
Weigel followed up on the St. Louis event the next week when he joined some 2,000 Tea Party activists at the Americans for Prosperity “Defending the American Dream” summit in Washington, DC. His careful read of the scene revealed an important turning point in the movement: many of the Beltway groups are pointing the one-time ideological movement toward 2010, aiming to drum up support for the Republican Party. When producers for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show read Weigel’s piece on the topic, they invited him on the program that night to explain the significance of the transition.
Economy reporter Mary Kane probed the relationships of the country’s largest financial literacy organization, JumpStart, a nonprofit that partners with federal agencies and private companies to provide schools with materials for students. Though widely considered a reputable group, Kane discovered that one of its partners is CompuCredit, a subprime lender that recently settled a $114 million lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) over deceptive practices. In addition, one of JumpStart’s regional directors, Bill Cheeks, does business with CompuCredit. Kane’s impact reporting led to an agreement by JumpStart to reevaluate its relationship with CompuCredit.
Spencer Ackerman, who closely tracks U.S. national security and foreign policy, broke from the rest of the mainstream press by questioning whether there is a divide between the White House and the Pentagon on Afghanistan strategy. Ackerman traced the story back to The New York Times coverage that portrayed Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recent defense of stabilizing Afghanistan as a public rebuke of Vice President Joe Biden. Ackerman’s reporting fueled online debate on Matthew Yglesias’ blog, among others.
David O. Williams reported from Montrose in Southwest Colorado, where county commissioners approved a plan to ramp up uranium milling operations in the Paradox Valley, which is already pockmarked with defunct mills from the area’s Cold War past. One commissioner referenced the September 11, 2001, terror attacks as a reason he voted for the uranium plan. “To me that’s a sign that we need to go ahead and stand strong, move forward and be firm and not allow all of our money to go to people that don’t like us,” said Republican Commissioner Ron Henderson, underscoring the need to boost the domestic energy industry. Local environmentalists, including Daryl Hannah, have decried the plan and accused officials of not considering the risks to the area.
John Tomasic revealed that, according to Twitter, state Sen. Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs) gets his news from WorldNetDaily, the debunked meme generator of the right-wing blogosphere. Schultheis, who made national headlines this spring when he said HIV-infected babies would cause families to “see the negative consequences of promiscuity,” recently tweeted, “Liberals seek health-care [sic] access for illegals” and “Community Organizers pray to Obama,” thereby circulating conservative myths posing as news.
Katie Redding drove top traffic with her report on how many Latino groups in Colorado are resisting an evangelist-led boycott of the 2010 census by Latino citizens. The boycott is the brainchild of the Rev. Miguel Rivera, head of the conservative evangelical National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, in a supposed attempt to pressure lawmakers to address immigration reform. Opponents pointed out to Redding that such a boycott would intentionally undercount Latinos, thereby playing into the hands of anti-immigrant pundits such as Michelle Malkin. The conservative Colorado Springs blogger argues that illegal immigrants shouldn’t be included in the census.
Redding also reported that many activists in Colorado are angry about a federal plan to expand a for-profit, private immigration detention facility in Aurora—even though a recent Obama administration report was highly critical of the current immigration detention system. Observers told Redding they are concerned that the expansion will cost taxpayers a fortune while doing untold damage to families and communities.
Jason Hancock reported that U.S. Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) took several trips recently— including a golf outing to West Virginia and a weekend getaway to Atlantic City, N.J.— paid for by the Republicans’ political action committee (PAC) and touted as fundraising events, according to campaign finance watchdogs. Hancock did more digging and found that Latham took similar trips to prestigious golf resorts around the country throughout 2008, all paid for with PAC money. The practice is legal, Hancock reported, but government reform advocates contend this activity turns the PAC into little more than a slush fund designed to skirt campaign finance law.
With the trial of Solomon Rubashkin, the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant executive accused of a variety of immigration- and fraud-related charges, scheduled to begin Oct. 10, Lynda Waddington reported that a federal judge was angered when a pro-Rubashkin newspaper ad appeared in the Des Moines Register last week. Rubashkin’s trial was moved to Sioux Falls, S.D., in order to find a jury that hasn’t been exposed to details of the notorious June 2008 federal immigration raid at the Agripricessors plant in Postville, Iowa. The court has warned prosecutors and defense attorneys against manipulating the Sioux Falls media prior to the trial; Waddington has been in touch with the local press there and has found no such manipulation.
Jason Hancock noted that controversial Christian radio personality Steve Deace slammed Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for a speech he gave at an Iowa Christian Alliance banquet, which Deace called “a long, rambling, incoherent embarrassment.” In particular, he took issue with one of Grassley’s proposals to clarify “reporting requirements for tax-exempt organizations.” Deace fears this would open the door to discrimination against churches that refuse to hire homosexual or female applicants for pastoral positions. Hancock pointed out that Deace’s radio program has been the platform for several calls for a social conservative to challenge Grassley in 2010.
While Sen.Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) both believe that a final health care reform bill will include some sort of public option, Lynda Waddington reports that the two Iowa Democrats are also examining a new idea that could lead to a compromise: an opt-out provision. The proviso may win over some Republicans, allowing states to opt out of a public option that may defeat the purpose of reform, but consumers would be left out in states that have little health care competition without “meaningful choice.” Harkin noted that an opt-out provision may be a possibility, but said that the final health care bill will include a strong public option.
The Michigan Messenger team offered the most comprehensive coverage of any media outlet on the state’s down-to-the-wire budget showdown that nearly shut down state government. Todd A. Heywood, reporting from the state capitol, and Ed Brayton offered detailed updates (more than 35 articles and blog posts over the course of three days) and analysis of what led to the impasse—counterproductive Republican legislative tactics minutes before the deadline. The Michigan Republican Party inflamed the situation when it issued a press release falsely accusing the top two Democratic leaders of being at a party fundraiser during the negotiations. Heywood’s fact check revealed that the two were actually at the state capitol trying to hammer out a budget agreement.
Eartha Jane Melzer examined how state mental health services are going to take a huge hit. Minehaha Forman looked at how cuts to local revenue sharing will hit the state’s largest city and its public schools, where the average class size will increase to 45 students. With a temporary deal in place, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said that there is still much work to be done to settle on a permanent budget and that she’s not afraid to use her line-item veto authority ”to shape this budget.”
Melzer also reported that state environmental enforcement, having been hit with funding cuts, will be further hobbled by budget cuts. “There is no money for cleanup at thousands of sites known to be imminent and substantial dangers,” said an official for the state Department of Environmental Quality. The department is also set to merge with the Department of Natural Resources, a move that environmental organizations have endorsed while warning the governor that it will be no panacea to the state’s deep budget cuts.
Plans by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to slash the size of the municipal government are not sitting well with organized labor and some elected officials in the city. As Minehaha Forman reported, members of Bing’s Transition Turnaround Team have suggested that a large swath of city government be privatized. Privatization could include outsourcing operations of the city-owned Coleman A. Young International Airport and the city’s payroll and accounts receivable departments, as well as closing the city-owned Mistersky Power Plant and replacing it with energy purchased from DTE Energy. One union official from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) questioned the cost-saving claims, saying Bing “wants to reward his corporate backers with lucrative contracts.”
Andy Birkey drew high traffic with his report that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) will be headlining a fundraiser for a controversial Christian punk ministry. The group, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, has made a name for itself by organizing student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. However, parents and school administrators in the Midwest have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself by not being not transparent about its Christian mission. Birkey’s story drove nearly 8,000 readers to the site through The Huffington Post, Raw Story and social networking sites.
On the heels of Andy Birkey’s report about the controversial Christian punk ministry, civil liberties groups charged that the group You Can Run But You Cannot Hide is causing schools to run afoul of the constitutional separation of church and state. Officials from the Freedom From Religion Foundation told Birkey that the ministry, in its effort to evangelize in public schools, was using “assembly subterfuges to gain access to a captive audience of school children.” The observers added that it is incumbent on schools to research such groups before booking them for school activities.
Birkey also broke the news that the Pawlenty administration recently recommended that federal stimulus funds dedicated to mapping the state’s broadband service go to a nonprofit group funded by the telecom industry itself. Beyond the apparent conflict of interest, the choice also contradicted the input of the Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force, whose members Pawlenty appointed. One disgruntled task force member said it was like “ask[ing] the Minnesota Vikings to create a nonprofit to study whether a new football stadium is a good idea or not.”
Contributor Jon Collins profiled Lila Rose, a marquee media figure of the anti-abortion right, whose tactics raise serious questions about journalistic ethics. Rose readily admitted that her aim is dramatic effect and shrugged off criticism that her highly edited undercover videos can land her in ethically murky waters. She also suggested that she may conduct one of her “reports” in Minnesota this year.
With the Albuquerque election looming, Trip Jennings reported that one of the state’s largest developers had targeted its most vocal opponent on the City Council with an attack mailer. Development giant Westland has been lobbying hard for its plan to build on the West Side—using bonds based on future tax proceeds—a plan long opposed by City Councilor Michael Cadigan. Jennings revealed that a political committee funded largely by Westland issued the mailer, which painted Cadigan as anti-growth.
Marjorie Childress investigated competing claims that two mayoral candidates were misusing campaign funds to rent their campaign headquarters. Incumbent mayor Martin Chavez pointed out that opponent Richard “R.J.” Berry was paying himself rent using public campaign funds and running his office from the real estate holding company of which he is managing partner. Berry countered that Chavez was renting campaign office space from a law firm—which could be an illegitimate in-kind donation—although the Chavez camp responded that it was renting from an individual lawyer, not the firm itself. City Attorney Bob White was unable to shed much light on the dispute because, he said, no one had filed a formal complaint with him.
On election day, staffers issued live reports from the campaign headquarters of mayor candidates Chavez and Berry, along with city councilors Michael Cadigan, Isaac Benton and their challengers.
More than 2,300 readers turned to Trip Jennings’ report and analysis of Berry’s come-from-behind victory over three-term incumbent Chavez. Marjorie Childress, meanwhile, provided experts’ views on the “grim” local economy that Berry is inheriting and recommendations for the new mayor. “You don’t want to add problems to the economy by cutting government spending, which would have ripple effects,” one University of New Mexico analyst advised.
GOOD NEWS
Salazar, Markey, Bennet secure cash to clean up water wells
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and representatives John Salazar and Betsy Markey announced that they had finally secured $5 million in federal funding to begin work on the Arkansas Valley Conduit—a supply line to carry water from the Pueblo Dam to the city of Lamar.
More medical marijuana nonprofits are imminent for New Mexico
New Mexico has been struggling with a shortage of medical marijuana, in part because only one supplier has been licensed to produce the drug. That may change soon, as seven of the 25 current applications for licensure will be referred to Department of Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil for review this month.