La Plata County / Courtesy photo
Two of NMPolitics.net’s 10 most-read posts in 2015 — including No. 1 — were about the fallout from the August spill of millions of gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River in the Four Corners region.
From the Navajo Nation to Hobbs, from Las Cruces to Albuquerque and Santa Fe — in other words, all over New Mexico — people read NMPolitics.net’s articles and joined our discussions last year. Here’s a rundown of the 10 most-read posts in 2015:
10. Feds subpoena records from Martinez’s tenure as DA
Dec. 20 • A federal grand jury subpoenaed documents from the district attorney’s office in Doña Ana County from 2010, when now-Gov. Susana Martinez was the DA. Read it.
9. NM’s Sen. Sanchez thanks Haley for Confederate flag stance
June 23 • New Mexico Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez crossed party lines to thank South Carolina’s governor for seeking the removal of the Confederate flag that flies atop the statehouse there. Read it.
8. Navajos refuse ‘tainted’ water from EPA; ‘crops are getting thirsty’
Aug. 18 • Farmers on the Navajo Nation had serious problems in the wake of the August spill of millions of gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River. Read it.
7. Auditor Keller should stop using Gmail for public business
Aug. 12 • COMMENTARY • Using a private email account – especially when you also have a government account, as Tim Keller does – creates the appearance that you are trying to hide something, Heath Haussamen wrote. Keller later stopped using the private account for public business, his office said. Read it.
6. NM secretary of state charged with fraud, embezzlement, money laundering
Aug. 28 • New Mexico’s attorney general formally accused Secretary of State Dianna Duran of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering in a 64-count criminal complaint alleging Duran improperly used campaign funds for personal gambling. Read it.
5. Public Education Department chose to deceive
July 6 • COMMENTARY • The Martinez Administration’s claim that an old evaluation system rated 99.8 percent of teachers as satisfactory could not be supported by facts, the National Education Association’s Charles Goodmacher wrote. Read it.
4. Hobbs manager cashes in paid time off to ring in the New Year
Dec. 30 • COMMENTARY • Hobbs City Manager J.J. Murphy has turned his public-service employer into a personal money machine, with the consistently unquestioning consent of Hobbs city commissioners and the mayor, Byron Marshall wrote. Read it.
3. Dianna Duran resigns, pleads guilty to two felonies
Oct. 23 • NMPolitics.net broke the news that Dianna Duran resigned from her position as New Mexico’s secretary of state and entered into a plea agreement that had her admitting to two felonies related to abusing the state’s campaign finance reporting system. Read it.
2. Hobbs manager’s contract evolution exposes sense of entitlement
July 2 • COMMENTARY • Before the Hobbs City Commission voted on whether to amend Manager J.J. Murphy’s contract yet again, Jeanie Coates wrote that reviewing his contract’s chronology in total was importantly informative. Read it.
1. Officials pledge to ‘make the EPA pay’ for Animas River spill
Aug. 9 • Government officials from New Mexico and the Navajo Nation were among those working in August to try to understand and respond to the Environmental Protection Agency’s inadvertent triggering of the spill of millions of gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River. Read it.