Politics

National Sunshine Week Runs March 15-21, 2026

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The Document Divide: Why public record laws are failing average Americans, and what to do about it

By DAVID CUILLIER
Brechner Freedom of Information Project
Feb. 9, 2026

Freedom of information should be freedom of information for all.

It is not.

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and celebrate national Sunshine Week March 15-21, we look back at the signing of the law by Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966: “I signed this measure with a deep sense of pride that the United States is an open society in which the people’s right to know is cherished and guarded.” Read More

Bregman: Use Oil & Gas Windfall From Trump’s Illegal War To Send Up To $500 To Every New Mexican

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Sam Bregman

STATE News:

ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Sam Bregman said today that the surge in oil and gas prices and the revenue generated to New Mexico’s state government coffers due to the ongoing Iran conflict presents a rare opportunity to directly help New Mexico families. He is proposing a plan to send reimbursements of up to $500 per family member to New Mexico families earning less than $200,000 per year, using the unexpected revenue windfall.

Global oil prices have surged since the outbreak of Donald Trump’s war in Iran, benefiting major energy-producing states Read More

LANL Public Trails Meeting March 25 At Fuller Lodge

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LANL News:

Want to learn more about our trails and how you can help care for them? The National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos County, and the U.S. Forest Service will hold a public information meeting on the area’s trails, 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25, at Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Ave.

Doors open at 5 p.m. with an opportunity to interact with trails, resources management, and safety personnel. The meeting will provide the latest information about our trails and feature discussions on trail management and safe trail use.

Presentations Read More

Leger Fernández’s Small Cemetery Conveyance Act Passes In The House Of Representatives

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CONGRESSIONAL News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House unanimously passed Congresswoman Leger Fernández’s (NM-03) bill, H.R. 4284, the Small Cemetery Conveyance Act. The bill would remove long-standing federal obstacles for rural, Tribal, and land-grant communities to care for ancestral cemeteries located on National Forest lands.

For generations, families laid their loved ones to rest on lands consecrated long before those lands were claimed by the federal government. Too many communities must navigate costly, time-consuming bureaucratic processes simply to maintain the cemeteries Read More

Luján, Budzinski Introduce Legislation To Strengthen Resilience Of U.S. Food Supply Chains

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U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, and U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, introduced the Grocery, Farm, and Food Worker Stabilization Grant Program Act, legislation that would create a new, permanent grant program to provide stabilization payments to farm, grocery, and meatpacking workers in the case a major disaster.

In 2021, the United States Department of Agriculture created the Farm and Food Workers Relief Read More

Robinson: Chronicling Tariffs’ Path Of Economic Destruction

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By Sherry Robinson
All She Wrote
© 2026 New Mexico News Services 

Jerry Pacheco probably doesn’t own a crystal ball, but at the end of the year he wrote: “Countries that strongly trade with each other do not go to war with each other. The animus and uncertainty caused by starting a tariff war put the U.S. on the road to fractured relationships and isolationism.”

Pacheco is executive director of the nonprofit International Business Accelerator in Santa Teresa. He’s spent his career advising on international trade and recruiting companies to the border region. In the last year Pacheco has opined Read More

Gomez: NM Needs Action On MMIWR Crisis – Not Symbolism

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Scene from a protest outside UNM Law School in 2023. Courtesy photo

Women, children and elders protesting outside UNM Law School in 2023. Courtesy photo

By DARLENE GOMEZ
MMIWR Activist/ Attorney

For decades, Indigenous families across New Mexico have lived with a heartbreaking reality: daughters, sisters, and mothers along with sons, fathers, uncles and cousins vanish, and too often the system fails to find them or bring justice. As an attorney representing families of Murdered, Missing, Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR), I have sat across kitchen tables with parents who still leave Read More

Op-Ed: Let’s Turn Local Government On Its Head

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By RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

I appreciate very much James Wernicke’s always thoughtful writing on local government and would like to offer here some additional and very brief comments on this subject. I do so as someone who spent 40 years working with governments in a large number of countries on how they could enhance economic development and the health and education of their people. I also do so as a lifelong member of the political party of most of our County Councilors, which might surprise some people who read what I say below.

Although we may argue about the role of government, a county government Read More

MOWW To Feature Talk On ‘Real Russian Collusion’ By Dr. Glen McDuff March 17

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Dr. Glen McDuff

MOWW News:

This month’s meeting of the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) is Tuesday, March 17, in conference room 203A at the Los Alamos Research Park.

The featured speaker is Dr. Glen McDuff who will discuss “Real Russian Collusion”. With the advent of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, a.k.a. Star Wars, it was soon determined that a major flaw in the plan. Even though most of the planned defensive systems were within the realm of possibility, there was no way to provide station keeping power for the space platforms. Where the U.S. had ceased development of space

Read More

James F. Ellison Announces Intent To Run For State Treasurer Of New Mexico

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James F. Ellison

STATE News:

ALBUQUERQUE — James F. Ellison, a former commissioner with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC), announced March 12 his decision to drop out of the race for governor and enter the race for State Treasurer of New Mexico.

In a statement announcing his decision, Ellison spoke of the need for strong investment credentials and professional oversight of investment decisions. 

“New Mexico faces real challenges—rising energy costs and decreasing affordability, lackluster economic growth, and an educational system that delivers poor outcomes. I entered Read More