Latest Stories

BREAKING NEWS: Board picks Sonia Diaz to head Las Cruces Public Schools

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Sonia Diaz, former superintendent of the Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut, is the new leader of the Las Cruces Public Schools.The Board of Education made the announcement late Friday, following a day of candidate interviews at the Hilton Las Cruces.“It will be my pleasure to work with you,” Diaz said. “Together we are going to make this an incredibly, remarkably successful system for all students.”All five board members voted to hire Diaz, pending contract negotiations. A starting date and salary have not been set, but Board member Leonel Briseño said the board hopes to vote on a final contract at Tuesday’s meeting.“I believe Dr. Diaz can bring healing and raise the educational bar in this district,” said Board member Gene Gant.Diaz was most recently the deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Miami/Dade County Public Schools in Florida. She brings a doctorate in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University to the table.But her hiring is not without controversy. Many in the community wanted the board to hire Charles White, a former LCPS deputy superintendent and the only local candidate to be named a semifinalist. Continue Reading

Bookmark this site

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The Las Cruces Sun-News is removing its link to my blog from its Web site. If you have been accessing my blog through that site, you need to bookmark this page or write down the Web address, http://haussamen.blogspot.com.You can bookmark it by clicking on the link at the top of the page. Continue Reading

News update: Sen. Adair arrested in Roswell for failing to pay speeding fine

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Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, was arrested Thursday morning on an outstanding warrant for failing to pay a speeding ticket.According to court records, Adair was cited in March in Santa Rosa for driving 85 mph in a 55 mph zone. A warrant was issued later that month after Adair failed to show up in court.Adair was not booked into the county jail in Roswell after his arrest, a source tells me, because he resolved the citation beforehand.The source told me Adair’s arrest was “purely, purely political.” The source said a local Democrat who keeps an eye on such things reported the warrant to authorities.The arrest comes in the midst of a bitter Republican primary in Roswell that has pitted two factions against each other in a public battle for control. Signs have been torn down and letters to the editor of the Rowell Daily Record have accused candidates and politicos on both sides of wrongdoing.It is highly unusual for anyone to be arrested on an outstanding bench warrant, especially a controversial Republican state senator days before a bitter primary election.I’m surprised Adair was ever cited. The unspoken rule is that legislators are allowed to speed to Santa Fe. If they are pulled over, police officers almost always tell them to slow down, but don’t cite them.It should not be that way, but it’s normally the reality.Not so in Adair’s case, apparently. Continue Reading

LCPS superintendent to be picked today, faces tough task, and Richardson appoints magistrate

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The Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education is set to pick the next superintendent today. I listened for three hours Thursday night while the four candidates answered questions.Each said the right things. Sure, there were some significant differences. One is religious and another advocates for strict separation of church and state. One will run the school district like a corporation, while another will focus on personal relationships.But they all used the buzz words, like rigor and results and accountability. Continue Reading

Democrat Baca, Republican Evans on defense in PRC primaries, and NMSU workers vote to unionize

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Public Regulation Commissioner E. Shirley Baca says she has missed only 21 percent of meetings in 2005, most because she was traveling on PRC business.Her challenger in the Democratic primary, Sandy Jones, sent out a mailer three weeks ago accusing Baca of not being physically present at 38 percent of PRC meetings in 2005. Jones said Baca was present by telephone “for a few minutes” at 10 percent of meetings he counted as absences.I asked Baca to respond. She had a PRC paralegal create an official attendance record based on minutes of meetings.(That a PRC staffer paid by taxpayers spent time pouring over minutes of 160 meetings and creating a document so Baca could respond to a campaign attack is questionable, but that’s a topic for another time.)The paralegal found that, out of 160 meetings in 2005, Baca was physically present for 110, or 69 percent. She attended another 16 by telephone, raising her attendance record to 79 percent, the document states.Baca was absent from 34 meetings last year, the document states – 28 to attend conferences and conduct other official business, two because of a death in her family, and four for “personal” reasons.Baca said she missed two meetings because she took a week off to “kind of get my breath back” after the drug possession charges against her were dropped last year. In case anyone doesn’t know, she was arrested at the Albuquerque airport for allegedly possessing marijuana.Baca claimed she was framed. Continue Reading

BREAKING NEWS: Prosecutors won’t file charges related to Doña Ana County special audit

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Prosecutors have completed their review and will file no criminal charges related to the 2004 special audit of Doña Ana County government.Shari Weinstein, chief deputy district attorney in Santa Fe, confirmed Wednesday that her office has closed the case after reviewing the results of an investigation by the New Mexico State Police.“We’re not pursuing any criminal charges,” Weinstein said. “If there were any possible criminal charges from our point of view, the statute of limitations has run.”A source told me that police and prosecutors believe there were several misdemeanor violations but no felonies, and the statute of limitations on the misdemeanors expired before the audit began.The Santa Fe district attorney’s office took the case because Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez had a conflict of interest. She and her staff are housed by the county, which was in the process of designing its new building and her new offices at the time of the audit. One of three findings referred to prosecutors involved the architect selection.The audit found widespread problems as recently as 2004, but the state auditor said it appears most identified problems have been fixed. Three findings were referred to prosecutors:• The county set up a loan agreement with landowners to repay its 1999 water bonds, which were used to build a water and sewer system in Santa Teresa. Continue Reading

LCPS board not fazed by superintendent search outcry, and governor praises embattled judge

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Even the political big dogs could not convince the Las Cruces school board to add Charles White to its list of superintendent finalists Tuesday evening.Among the 10 people who asked the board to include White were State Rep. Joni Gutierrez, New Mexico State University College of Education Dean Robert Moulton, former Las Cruces school board member Patsy Duran and former State Board of Education member Francis Stevens, who was also the deputy superintendent in Las Cruces in the early 1990s.After listening to their pleas, the board adjourned without comment.White, the district’s former deputy superintendent for operations, was the only local named a semifinalist for the top job. The board eliminated him last week from consideration.But with news that finalist Tony Amato was taking a job in Kansas City, and that two other finalists were up for the top schools job in Aurora, Colo., the board met again Tuesday.The situation in Las Cruces ended up not being further complicated by the Aurora search. That district named its superintendent Tuesday night, and the choice was not one of the finalists in Las Cruces.The new list of finalists for the Las Cruces job, approved at Tuesday’s meeting, includes David Barbosa, superintendent for the Grand Prarie (Texas) Independent School District; Sonia Diaz, former superintendent of the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Public Schools; William Harner, principal of Gainesville Middle School in Gainseville, Ga., and Joan Kowal, Florida’s Nova Southeastern University Superintendent in Residence.At the meeting, Duran told board members they had “lost enormous credibility” by not including White.“We don’t have time to try out a leader to see if he or she fits,” she said. “We need a leader who can go to work tomorrow.”Board member Gene Gant was absent from the meeting and did not vote on the new finalist list. Only Chuck Davis voted against the list, and he said he did so because “I do not believe that the set of candidates reflects what the community and our employees would like to see.”“I think we ought to have a local candidate be part of the process,” Davis said. Continue Reading

News update: LCPS superintendent finalist likely taking Kansas job, and search uproar continues

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The Las Cruces school board’s list of superintendent finalists will likely drop from four to three because one candidate is in negotiations to become the superintendent of the Kansas City school district.Former New Orleans schools superintendent Tony Amato is working out a deal with the Kansas City board to become superintendent there, the Kansas City Star is reporting.The Las Cruces board meets tonight to discuss its search. In addition to Amato’s likely withdrawal from consideration, two other finalists are also finalists for the top job in Aurora, Colo., and many of the candidates have controversial pasts.Those pasts are being dug up and spread around by community members upset that the board eliminated Charles White, a former deputy superintendent for operations for the Las Cruces district, from consideration for the top job. Many principals and union members are also upset, believing White is the candidate who can restore calm to the district after the turmoil surrounding two of the past three administrations.Two Las Cruces superintendents have left under clouds of scandal in recent years.Amato was a controversial candidate. He was forced out of New Orleans in April 2005 after two years on the job because critics felt he wasn’t making progress in improving budgetary issues.The other finalists for the Las Cruces job are David Barbosa, superintendent for the Grand Prarie (Texas) Independent School District; Sonia Diaz, former superintendent of the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Public Schools; and William Harner, principal of Gainesville Middle School in Gainseville, Ga.The board also named alternates: Joan Kowal, Florida’s Nova Southeastern University Superintendent in Residence; and Chip Zullinger, former Manassas (Va.) City Schools Superintendent.Barbosa’s contract is not being renewed after eight years on the job because the school board felt the district was not making progress. In addition, according to a 1999 article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he was involved in a controversy in which, while he was superintendent, a 17-year-old female high school cheerleader was paddled by a male administrator behind closed doors, with another male administrator present, after she was caught smoking.Kowal was forced out of her job as superintendent of a school district in Florida in 1999 after three years, according to a 2003 article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Continue Reading

House Republicans set to pick new leaders, and sources think Lujan will remain speaker, for now

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Republican leadership positions in the House are up for grabs.Sources tell me to expect that Brian Moore of Clayton will be the new minority floor leader and Dan Foley of Roswell will be the minority whip when the legislature convenes in January.Those positions are up for grabs because current minority leader Ted Hobbs is retiring. The current minority whip, Terry Marquardt of Alamogordo, wants to replace Hobbs.Two sources tell me that won’t happen.House Republicans have been ineffective for years because there are several factions, one source said. Many Republicans view Marquardt as an unsuccessful whip and don’t want him as leader.He was elected whip the last time over Foley by a one-vote margin after a few tie votes. Since then, many Republicans have been trying to replace Marquardt with Foley.Moore is a choice upon which most House Republicans can agree, two sources said. And though Foley is a controversial legislator with a hot temper, enough Republicans are fed up with Marquardt that they’ll vote for him, they said.The main criticism of Marquardt is that he has made deals with the governor to save his own capital outlay requests, often at the expense of the Republican agenda, infuriating many.Marquardt apparently sent out an e-mail immediately after Hobbs announced he was retiring seeking support for his bid to replace the leader.“It’s almost like he is oblivious to all this,” one source told me.Another source said most Republican House members are uniting behind Moore and Foley in an attempt to make a stand. Continue Reading

When we assume the worst about each other, the system breaks down and nothing is accomplished

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Scandal seems to permeate politics these days.As the nation becomes more polarized, allegations monopolize the headlines. Many are deserved. Former state Treasurer Robert Vigil needed to be ousted. So did Eric Serna, the outgoing state insurance superintendent.There are a lot of problems with our political system. Corporate money has too much influence. Continue Reading

BREAKING NEWS: High court asked to permanently ban Galvan from becoming a judge again

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The New Mexico Supreme Court has been asked to ban former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan from holding judicial office again.This week’s filing by the Judicial Standards Commission is the result of an April trial before the board and states that Galvan “is unfit to hold judicial office.”The high court has not set a date for oral arguments.Galvan resigned last year amid allegations that he raped and solicited a bribe from a Las Cruces woman in August 2004. After two hung juries, prosecutors dropped the criminal charges.Galvan admitted in a statement to police to actions that may violate the judicial code of conduct. While drinking and flirting in a bar, he discussed with the woman a pending battery case against her husband, though she was the alleged victim in that case. He had sex with the woman, though she and her husband had been married two months earlier by Galvan.He also took the woman for a ride in his Porsche, though he told police he had too much to drink before driving.Before the rape allegation surfaced, Galvan was barred from hearing criminal cases for a time because he had a sexual relationship with an assistant district attorney while hearing cases she was prosecuting. He also has two prior drunken driving convictions.The fact that the commission is asking the court to permanently keep Galvan off the bench means the two sides could not reach a settlement on their own, most likely because Galvan refused to agree to never again run for judicial office.Galvan has said he may attend law school and become an attorney. Continue Reading

He does exist! In scathing attack, Damron calls Richardson administration most corrupt ever

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Republican gubernatorial candidate J.R. Damron has been silent thus far in the election season, baffling those who believe Gov. Bill Richardson is vulnerable on many issues.No more.In a speech he gave across the street from the federal courthouse Thursday in Albuquerque, Damron called Richardson’s “the most corrupt administration in our state’s history.”“Pay to play, abuse of power and cronyism have become just the way we do things in New Mexico,” Damron said. “Multiple Richardson administration officials have had to resign in disgrace.”“Whether by fear and intimidation, or rampant nepotism, this governor and his cronies are conducting the state’s business – the people’s business – in an irresponsible and dishonest manner,” he said.Damron was announcing his proposal for ethics reform, which is included below along with a transcript of Damron’s speech.More interesting than the proposal was Damron’s message to voters.“Ethics laws mean nothing when those who violate them are not held accountable for their actions. And if the people do not demand that their top elected officials, such as the governor and the attorney general, be held accountable, no one else will,” Damron said. “The best and most important way to ensure our government operates in the highest ethical manner is to elect honest officials.”Democracy requires debate and choice. Until Thursday, Damron was doing little to challenge Richardson’s re-election campaign. Continue Reading

BREAKING NEWS: Governor releases details of National Guard’s role on border

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Gov. Bill Richardson released today details of the National Guard deployment to the New Mexico border ordered by President Bush.Richardson spoke with Lieutenant General Steven Blum, head of the National Guard, according to a news release. Here are the details the governor released:On June 1, 50 members of the New Mexico National Guard will be deployed to the border to handle planning and logistics for the overall Guard operation in the state. In mid-June, those troops will be joined by an additional 100 Guard troops that Richardson previously directed perform a regular training mission along the border in a similar support effort.This will be followed by an additional 50 troops per month through September.When this mission is fully operational, the total number of Guard troops stationed along the border in New Mexico will be approximately 200. This is in addition to the 68 troops already on the border who are performing various missions in support of border security.Additional Guard troops from other states will be available to augment local troops if necessary.These troops will remain under the command and control of the governor of each state.The federal government will cover all of the costs of this mission up-front.The deployment is expected to be phased out within two years as the Border Patrol brings new agents on line, according to the news release. Continue Reading

Land commish hopefuls both qualified, Macias tries again, and critics attack cock-fighting candidate

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The candidates for land commissioner in the Democratic primary are very different people.Jim Baca is confrontational and pushes hard to accomplish his agenda. Ray Powell seeks to meet his goals by building bridges and forming alliances.I’m not going to profile both men. Mainstream media has done a good job of profiling both, who are former land commissioners, and detailing their records.What I am going to tell you is that either is a viable choice for the Democratic Party.Baca has no problem being blunt about what he sees as the shortcomings of Powell and Patrick Lyons, the Republican who currently holds the office. He has made many enemies in his years in politics. Democrats overwhelmingly voted for Powell during this year’s preprimary nominating convention.Long ago, Baca led a much-needed reform of the state’s liquor-license laws. Continue Reading

Principals’ protest reveals deep wounds in the Las Cruces school district; plus, where is J.R. Damron?

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As a group, Las Cruces Public Schools principals watched quietly as three union-backed candidates were elected to the school board more than five years ago, and as the anti-union and controversial Superintendent Jesse Gonzales quit in frustration.They watched as allegations of secret board payments to Gonzales surfaced, and as board members were recalled and convicted of violating the New Mexico Open Meetings Act in 2002.A few spoke as individuals against the recall but, as a group, principals remained silent.They watched again when the board hired Louis Martinez to take the helm in 2003. They watched as allegations surfaced against him and he was eventually chased out, but not before he ousted longtime Mayfield Principal Robert Ogas.Again, a few spoke, but as a group, they remained silent.The principals finally left the bleachers and stormed the field last night.When the school board announced finalists for the district’s top job at last night’s meeting, four principals, including Las Cruces High School’s Nyeta Haines, told the board they were disappointed that they hadn’t been included in the process. When board members tried to explain that principals and others would be included from this point forward, about 25 principals – the vast majority in the district – walked out of the meeting, leaving in mid-sentence a board member who was addressing them.The action revealed deep wounds that have never healed from the scandals of the past few years, and a group of administrators fed up because they believe they haven’t been heard.Here’s the result: The principals think the board has already failed, before it’s picked the new superintendent.The unspoken issue Tuesday night was the board’s decision to eliminate Charles White from the list of contenders. White, the district’s former deputy superintendent for operations, quit in frustration last year over the leadership of Martinez.He had the backing of the Mayfield faction of the district, making his candidacy controversial since at least some board members supported the ousting of the notorious Ogas. Sources said some board members didn’t take White’s application seriously because they thought he had little support outside Mayfield.They were very, very wrong, as the principals showed.Many felt White was the man to stabilize the district, to provide solid leadership for a few years while allowing the district to heal from the wounds of the past. Continue Reading