{"id":386,"date":"2006-07-19T12:21:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-19T18:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/07\/breaking-news-aragon-agrees-to-step-down\/"},"modified":"2006-07-19T12:21:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-19T18:21:00","slug":"breaking-news-aragon-agrees-to-step-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/07\/breaking-news-aragon-agrees-to-step-down\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS: Aragon agrees to step down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5892\/2386\/1600\/Aragon%2C%20Manny.2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5892\/2386\/200\/Aragon%2C%20Manny.2.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>New Mexico Highlands University President Manny Aragon has agreed to step down, the university\u2019s president announced today.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Details were not immediately released, and the agreement is pending a proposed settlement\u2019s approval by the board of regents, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/news\/state\/aparagon07-19-06.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Associated Press<\/a> reported. The regents are set to meet on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Gov. Bill Richardson was pleased, a spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\">\u201c<span style=\"color:black;\">The governor is pleased that the instability at Highlands is over, and the university can move forward with a renewed focus on improving educational opportunities for <st1:place st=\"on\">Northern New Mexico<\/st1:place>,\u201d said spokesman Gilbert Gallegos. \u201c<st1:place st=\"on\">Highlands<\/st1:place> made great strides during the past two years toward improving its finances and building a better atmosphere for students. The university is in a good position to build on those accomplishments in the future.\u201d<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\"><span style=\"color:black;\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\"><span style=\"color:black;\">Former Senate leader Aragon and the regents have been at odds over many issues, including his control of some funds and the awarding of contracts without regents\u2019 knowledge or approval. But Regents President Javier Gonzales said the board\u2019s investigation revealed no wrongdoing by <st1:country-region st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Aragon<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\"><span style=\"color:black;\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\"><st1:country-region st=\"on\"><span style=\"color:black;\">Aragon<\/span><\/st1:country-region><span style=\"color:black;\"> is also a target of an ongoing FBI investigation into possible kickbacks and padded contracts related to the construction of three government buildings in <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\"><span style=\"color:black;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\">Update, 1:30 p.m.<\/span> <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:country-region st=\"on\">Aragon<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> will be paid $200,000 as part of the settlement, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/news\/state\/aparagon07-19-06.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Associated Press<\/a> is reporting.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 14.4pt;\"><span style=\"color:black;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Mexico Highlands University President Manny Aragon has agreed to step down, the university\u2019s president announced today. Details were not immediately released, and the agreement is pending a proposed settlement\u2019s approval by the board of regents, the Associated Press reported. The regents are set to meet on Saturday. Gov. Bill Richardson was pleased, a spokesman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}