{"id":548,"date":"2006-09-07T06:36:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-07T12:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/vigil-jury-makeup-reveals-lack-of-state-government-and-politics-awareness-in-las-cruces-area\/"},"modified":"2006-09-07T06:36:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-07T12:36:00","slug":"vigil-jury-makeup-reveals-lack-of-state-government-and-politics-awareness-in-las-cruces-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/vigil-jury-makeup-reveals-lack-of-state-government-and-politics-awareness-in-las-cruces-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigil jury makeup reveals lack of state government and politics awareness in Las Cruces area"},"content":{"rendered":"

Half of jurors picked Wednesday in the retrial of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil are from Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The group of 12 jurors and four alternates includes six members from Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, one from Anthony and another from the county, according to an article from the Associated Press that you can read via the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The news is not surprising. It\u2019s no secret that residents of the state\u2019s second-largest city are among the most uneducated about state government and politics.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean people here don\u2019t know about the scandal involving the state treasurer\u2019s office, but they probably know less on average than other residents around the state.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The rest of the state gets television signals and news from Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename> gets news from El Paso<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>. Though the evening news from an Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> station is broadcast in a cable channel here, that isn\u2019t widely known.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

We learn more about Texas<\/st1:state>\u2019 government from our television news than we do about New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Our daily newspaper, the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>, covers state government and politics less than many other newspapers throughout the state, particularly those in the central and northern areas.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Overall, we just aren\u2019t as connected with state government as the rest of the state. It makes sense that a statewide pool of jurors, whittled down to 16, would include many from Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

State Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, sponsored a memorial<\/a> in 2005 calling on the state\u2019s congressional delegation to initiate a process that would allow the county\u2019s residents access to television stations from both El Paso and Albuquerque. The Clovis area is in such a situation, receiving signals from Albuquerque<\/st1:city> and Amarillo<\/st1:city>, Texas<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cervantes\u2019 proposal didn\u2019t receive legislative approval, and he did not sponsor it again this year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

I guess the situation in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:PlaceName> Ana<\/st1:PlaceName> County<\/st1:PlaceName><\/st1:place> ended up being good for the Vigil trial, but it isn\u2019t good for the county\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Half of jurors picked Wednesday in the retrial of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil are from Do\u00f1a Ana County. The group of 12 jurors and four alternates includes six members from Las Cruces, one from Anthony and another from the county, according to an article from the Associated Press that you can read via the […]<\/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-548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548","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=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}