For some years now the decline of civil discourse in American society has been lamented by reasonable people. Political dialogue has only a few modes: gaslighting, personal attack, partisan huckstering and populist ooze. Honest discussion, with back-and-forth conversation and polite disagreement, has all but disappeared. This has resulted in the loss of self-restraint and basic […]
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Posted inOpinion & Analysis
On peace and projecting power to maintain it
Nobel Prizes are being awarded this week and one element of the award process that should be obvious to the world is that these prizes are not bestowed in a vacuum. Thousands of candidates are nominated for these honors and various interests, and often the nominees themselves openly lobby each selection committee for the ultimate […]
Posted inOpinion & Analysis
On absolute power
A paraphrased and misquoted aphorism commonly bandied about in recent days goes along the lines of “absolute power absolutely corrupts.” It’s a powerful trope, and the phrase warrants original credit and context. John Dahlberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, a Catholic, wrote a letter to Anglican Bishop of London Mandell Creighton in 1870, challenging Papal infallibility and […]
Posted inOpinion & Analysis
Government shutdown signals heartburn ahead for New Mexicans
Alex Ross is a senior politics and legislative reporter for the New Mexico Political Report. He began his career in daily journalism in Montana and previously worked as a breaking news and politics reporter. At midnight on Wednesday, the federal government went into shutdown mode, and if the last shutdown was any indication, New Mexico […]
Posted inOpinion & Analysis
My summer of AI
Among all the disruptors of 2025, artificial intelligence looms large. Even New Mexico, often on the fringes of major upheavals, if not completely ignored by them, is getting in on the action. Most recently in the news has been the selection of a site in Santa Teresa for Project Jupiter, a $165 billion data center […]
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Starbucks to close hundreds of stores, including in New Mexico. Is yours on the list?
Starbucks announced Thursday that it would close hundreds of its company owned stores that would not be a part of the company’s strategy to revive the struggling coffee behemoth brand. Social media soon filled with posts from Starbucks employees saying they had received notice that their location would close, just as the company pushed out […]
Posted inOpinion & Analysis
The importance of local news
Pat Davis Pat Davis is a former police officer and recovering politician. After serving two terms as an Albuquerque City Councilor, he became the founder and publisher of nm.news, a network of local community news outlets rebuilding community-based journalism across New Mexico. From the Publisher: After a nearly 25-year run, The Independent News printed it’s […]
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The importance of local news
From the PublisherOur summer-long series of reporting on fiscal mismanagement in the City of Moriarty underscores why we have worked so hard to restore independent, local journalism in news deserts like Moriarty which has been without a local newspaper since the original Independent News closed in 2022. With the help from Press Forward and the […]
Posted inCommunity Content, Congress & Federal Gov.
Route 66 rabbit icon was born in Tijeras Canyon
By Rick Holben, East Mountain Historical Society If you traveled with family on Route 66 as a child in the 1950s and 1960s, you probably remember seeing jackrabbit signs that seemed to spring alongside the famous highway for miles and miles and miles, leading tourists to a trading post in Arizona. Turns out, that iconic […]
Posted inCommunity Content, Congress & Federal Gov.
Residents return flag to Sedillo Hill after years of NMDOT bureaucracy
For years, drivers topping Sedillo Hills on I-40 marked the waypoint with a nod towards a simple American flag flying proudly on top of the hill. And then, one day, it was gone. For more than two years, members and supporters of the Sandia Lions Club in the East Mountains negotiated with the state’s Department […]