Fill in the Blank: “____ has worked for and with every Governor since Gov. Jerry Apodaca,” the press release reads.

Ready for the answer? Dorothy “Duffy” Rodriguez, a former deputy secretary at the Department of Health who earlier this year was at the center of two whistleblowers’ allegations of nepotism and fraud. (Read SFR’s coverage here.) So far, neither allegation has been proven—but when Rodriguez left the DOH in April, many of the comments on SFReeper.com were euphoric.

“Duffy…was a corrupt bully who was feared by all in the agency,” one commenter wrote. Another described the news as “too good to be true!”

But Rodriguez has a brand new job: Secretary of the Taxation and Revenue Department, where she’ll replace Rick Homans—who in turn will take over from Steven Landeene as director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, according to a press release from the Governor’s office. And the wheel turns.

In covering this year’s elections, SFR reported on allegations made by Texas oil investor Nelson Spear about inconsistencies in Republican land commissioner candidate Bob Cornelius’ campaign claims. Spear’s allegations centered around Cornelius’ frequent references to Petro Verde, LLC, a biogas company his now-defunct website said “will create hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in annual revenue for the city of Clovis.” SFR found that while Petro Verde did exist, it had yet to secure a single investor.

SFR’s investigation also revealed that Cornelius—who also referred frequently to his major in political science and communications at Eastern New Mexico University—did not actually graduate from ENMU.

Prior to our first post, SFR spoke with Cornelius about the questions raised by Spear. Cornelius, who is quoted in the May 19 blog, told SFR that Petro Verde is active and that he’d met with Clovis Mayor Gayla Brumfield about the company’s biogas project. Subsequently, he did not respond to e-mails and calls about his education. In a May 19 blog post titled “Cornelius Campaign: Inconsistencies Abound,” SFR published our findings.

On May 24, Cornelius sent an e-mail to SFR requesting a retraction and apology and listing the names of several people as evidence of his work with Petro Verde. After checking each reference, SFR sent Cornelius an e-mail on May 28, giving him the opportunity to respond. Below are Cornelius’ initial request for a retraction and the results of SFR’s fact-checking.

Note: While SFR did not intend to pursue this story after the primary election, the publication of a blog on this subject at Albuquerque Journal Watch prompted renewed protests from Cornelius, so SFR decided to publish our reportage thus far: Continue reading »

“Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Israeli apartheid has got to go!” the crowd of protesters chanted outside the federal building in Santa Fe today.

“What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”
Continue reading »

This is cool: Odwalla, purveyor of fruity, protein-filled juices, has this lovely new website where you can vote to plant a tree in your state’s parks. After watching this 26-second campy, cheesy, makes-you-love-New-Mexico video (which really, even if you hate trees, is worth watching), you get to vote in a tree for whichever state you choose.

You can thank yours truly for New Mexico’s 186th tree.

Last night, approximately 140 Santa Feans gathered for a public hearing on the proposed rezoning of part of Old Pecos Trail—what many like to call “the last scenic byway into Santa Fe”—from residential to commercial.

And what a hearing it was: Neighborhood residents were educated, prepared and angry as hell. More (plus photos) after the jump.
Continue reading »