"..there has been a misconception that val kilmer the real deal is val's blog. I am so sorry for the confusion, it is not val's blog, it is my blog, val has absolutley nothing to do with it, the quotes are from various past interviews. Please pass that along to your readers and i will clarifiy it on my blog, my apoligies."
Gov. Bill Richardson is ordering the State Investment Office to finalize sweeping new investment policies and bring them to the full State Investment Council for its next meeting on May 26. If approved, the State will require its investment managers to disclose any and all placement fees, marketing arrangements and other payments these managers make, relative to their investments for the New Mexico Permanent Funds. Until a new policy is in place, Gov. Richardson has ordered a suspension of alternative investments by the SIC.
“In the past few weeks, several serious questions have been raised regarding the arrangements between the state’s external investment managers and the marketers those investment funds pay to represent them,” said Gov. Richardson. “While this practice has been fairly common in the investment industry, the added potential for conflict of interests concerns me. For this reason, today I am ordering broad policy and procedural changes be implemented by the State Investment Office, pending review and approval by the full Council next month.”
These measures would supplement the legislation signed by Gov. Richardson April 7, which requires disclosure of third party marketing agents who are hired by outside money managers to market their funds to institutional investors like the SIC. The State Investment Office supported that legislation (HB 876) and recommended its passage. The Investment Office neither hires placement agents nor pays their fees.
Gov. Richardson has also instructed State Investment Officer Gary Bland to initiate termination of the SIC’s private equity advisor, Aldus Equity Partners, due to concerns raised by an ongoing investigation in New York, in addition to significant due diligence and follow up by Investment Office staff in recent weeks.
“At this time, we believe it is the most practical step for the Investment Office to take, given the realities of the current environment,” said State Investment Officer Gary Bland. “Private equity is a critical asset class, and under existing circumstances, we feel it appropriate to forge ahead.”
In the interim, the State Investment Office will employ existing financial consultants to guide its private equity allocation, while simultaneously looking for a permanent private equity advisor.
The State Investment Office today manages $11.8 billion in state endowment funds. Under historically challenging market environments, these Permanent Funds have seen positive investment returns of more than $2.7 billion under Gov. Richardson, while also distributing more than $3 billion to state beneficiaries. Performance data through the first quarter of 2009 ranks investment returns for the SIC’s Land Grant Permanent Fund in the top 30% of public funds around the country for one and three-year periods, and in the top 5% of public funds nationwide for the quarter ending March 31st.
ALBUQUERQUE – In response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, New Mexico has agreed to provide retirement health insurance to the domestic partners of state employees.
“We are very pleased that the state has agreed to settle this litigation and provide the insurance. It wasn’t fair that the state forced lesbian and gay employees to pay the high cost of health care for often inferior health insurance for their families when they worked just as hard as their straight colleagues,” said Peter Simonson of the ACLU of New Mexico. “I’m sure this will be welcome news to all lesbian and gay state employees, but especially to those who have retired or are planning to do so soon.”
The ACLU brought the lawsuit on February 5, 2007 on behalf lesbian and gay state employees and their domestic partners. The lawsuit charged that it was a violation of the state constitution’s equal protection guarantees for the state to treat lesbian and gay employees differently from its straight employees. The settlement will reached with the state will cover both gay and straight employees and their domestic partners.
“This is fantastic news. We can finally start planning our retirement,” said Havens Levitt, who has been a teacher for the Albuquerque public school for 25 years. “Until now, our only option was for me to keep working because my partner’s employment doesn’t provide insurance for her and private insurance was just too expensive. It means a lot that the state has acknowledged I should be treated the same as my straight colleagues.” Levitt and her partner, Rebecca Dakota, have been partners for 13 years. Dakota is a self-employed consultant to non-profits and an independent filmmaker.
Pursuant to the settlement, the state has agreed to develop a process for enrolling those interested during the next open enrollment period, which comes this fall.
Milan Petrovic, who raised $1.96 million for Blagojevich, introduced CDR to Illinois budget and debt officials, according to e-mails obtained under a public records request. He and his lobbying firm also donated $20,000 to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a one-time Democratic presidential candidate who withdrew from consideration as U.S. Commerce Secretary following disclosure of the CDR probe.
Richardson “is a public official I admire,” Petrovic, 43, said in a telephone interview, declining to comment further.
SANTA FE—State Cultural Affairs Department Secretary Stuart Ashman announced today that he will respect the decision of the National Hispanic Cultural Center board of directors to remove former state Sen. Manny Aragón’s name from the center’s torreón.
“The NHCC board and its naming committee have studied their clearly defined policy and made this decision based on serious deliberation,” said Ashman. “It was the board that voted to put Mr. Aragón’s name on the torreón, and it has now voted to remove it. The department will honor the board’s decision.”
The NHCC Naming Policy Committee met to discuss the Aragon-Torreón matter on March 26. The committee reviewed the board’s official naming policy as well as a series of phone and written correspondence from the public, press articles, the plea agreement in the United States v. Manny Aragón, the Oath of Office mandated by Article XX, Section 1 of the New Mexico Constitution and a list of NHCC funding bills sponsored by Aragón. After hearing the committee’s recommendation at its April 16 meeting at the NHCC in Albuquerque, the board voted 7 – 2 to remove Aragón’s name from the torreón and to leave the building unnamed at this time.
“This is an awkward and unfortunate situation for the National Hispanic Cultural Center, its board of directors and the people of New Mexico,” said Ashman. “As we follow the board’s direction, it is important that visitors to the NHCC – and all New Mexicans – never forget the many contributions that Sen. Aragón made during two decades of service to their state and to this beautiful cultural center.”
By the time the cops showed up at 5 a.m., the place was wrecked and eight men lay bleeding in the sawdust on the floor. Blue gunsmoke hung in the air below the white tin ceiling. Harry White was near death, a deep knife wound slashed across the width of his belly.Read the whole article in the Niagra Falls Reporter HERE.
On Tuesday, I learned that I am a right-wing hack. I am not a journalist. I am typical of the right wing. I am why newspapers are going broke. I write garbage. I am angry with Barack Obama. I misquote Obama. I am bitter. I am a certified idiot. I am lame. I am a Republican flack.
On Thursday, I realized that I am a media pimp with my lips on Obama's butt. I am a bleeding-heart liberal who wants nothing more than for the right to fall on its face. I am part of the ObamaMedia. I am pimping for the left. I am carrying water for Obama. Lord, am I an idiot.
My story about Attorney General Gary King's response to the Wall Street Journal editorial that accused him of being of being part of "a nationwide 'pay-to-sue' operation" is HERE.
The governor said he is "very confident that we did nothing wrong," but he complained that the inquiry "just drags on."One thing we do learn is that, according to Richardson, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his rival from the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, talks to him regularly about foreign policy. Bill Clinton, however, is still angry with him for endorsing Obama instead of Hillary last year, Richardson says.
I appreciate this opportunity to talk with you. I believe when people come together to talk, regardless of their viewpoint, something valuable occurs. Unfortunately, discussion rarely happens in politics today. Political cowardice, partisan boundaries and our inability to work together is destroying our country.
I am a Democrat. I am a Democrat that recognizes that we have a two party system in the United States. A system that is completely dysfunctional. I believe that 90% of the issues we face in government can be resolved. I also recognize that on the remaining 10% we will never agree.
We are mired in a bi-partisan mess and both parties are responsible for creating the crisis we face. The only way out of this hole is to completely dismantle old time politics, stop electing politicians with the best sound bites and elect leaders willing to stand for something. Finally, we need to stop wasting time on the 10% of politics we will never agree upon.
From what I was told, the tea party movement is fashioned after the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Members of the original tea party were angry because King George III was imposing a tax on tea which they felt was unfair and unjust. The modern day tea party group is angry because they feel our modern day tax system is just as unfair and unjust. I think this anger is misdirected.
I do not enjoy paying tax, but I recognize that tax dollars are necessary for the functioning of a civilized society. When you compare the level of taxes in the United States with other advanced countries, we are getting off pretty easy. Economists do this by looking at the ratio of taxes to gross domestic product, the total output produced in the country.
In the US, all taxes, federal, state and local reached a peak of 29.6% in the year 2000. This number was swollen by taxes on capital gains during the stock market bubble and I think we are closer to 26% today. In Canada the percentage was 38.2%, France was 45.8% and Sweden, 52.2%.
I don’t think the anger of the average American taxpayer is over the fact that we have to pay taxes. I think the anger is based on the fact that Americans get very little bang for their tax buck and what bang we do get is jeopardized by the complete lunacy of those we have elected to act in a fiscally responsible manner.
A politician screaming for tax cuts is more likely to get elected or re-elected and as a legislator I participated in throwing a $50.00 tax cut bone to New Mexicans during the special session this past year. We knew that a budget shortfall was looming, but we did it anyway. We did it because it was an election year and in the political mind a tax-cut, no matter how small, helps to get people re-elected.
Taxpayer anger is rooted in the fact that we can’t get our kids decent public educations, that we can’t get or keep enough cops on the streets, that we are rewarding greed, dishonesty and self interest with bailouts while we fail to give our citizens the basic benefits of a civilized society.
Tax cuts are not the answer and I look forward to the expiration of the tax cuts imposed by President Bush. Tax cuts are partly responsible for our fiscal disaster. You cannot fund government and provide necessary programs without adequate revenue. Tax cuts are tools used to elect politicians in our country and to pay off wealthy campaign donors.
Taxes are the dues we pay for membership in civilized society and that is where the argument is... we need to ask what services are important, what we are willing to pay for them and how government can effectively provide the services we as a society deem necessary. This cannot happen without a painful, honest and critical assessment of how our government has failed and a dynamic response to this failure.
Looking at our federal budget, the big ticket items are Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, defense, homeland security and payment of interest on our public debt. Throw in the remaining cost associated with the nuts and bolts of government and you realize that the question of where to cut becomes difficult if not impossible.
We would undoubtedly be asking Americans to retire later, pay more Medicaid expenses out of pocket and cut back on Social Security benefits. Not a formula for launching a successful political career, but issues that must be addressed by the people we elect.
The economic success of the United States was built upon the backs of a broad and solid middle class. We have forgotten this. In the movie Wall Street Michael Douglas played a character named Gordon Gekko. Gekko says that “greed is good.” Greed is a disaster, greed is stealing our homes, greed is robbing our children of their dreams. In order to survive we have to come together and face this challenge as a united people.
The gulf between rich and poor has never been wider in our country and if it continues to grow it will lead to our destruction. We have examples in our own hemisphere of countries that have embraced the ideas of the haves and the have mores over the needs of the middle class and the poor with disastrous results.
Our country was founded upon a handful of strongly held beliefs by ordinary people who wanted a new form of government. These simple beliefs have been distorted and have grown into a complicated mass of inefficient, unresponsive bureaucracy. We need to simplify government.
We need to figure out what we value and how we will pay for it and remember that we are a country of equals. Government can be more efficient, but we must focus on the core of government function. We need to feed our families, care for the elderly and sick, educate our kids and keep them safe.
We need to put aside the distractions of partisan politics, focus on real issues and elect officials willing to make tough decisions based upon what is right, not on what the polls, the media or their party tells them to do.
Roman Coliseum to be Lit in Honor of New Mexico
SANTA FE, New Mexico – Governor Bill Richardson and Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan, Archbishop of Santa Fe, are part of a New Mexico delegation that will be honored on Wednesday, April 15, at a special ceremony at the Roman Coliseum in Rome, Italy.
Sant’Egidio, a prominent international lay organization of the Catholic Church that promotes dialogue, peace and social justice, is hosting the ceremony to honor the New Mexico advocates, legislators and the Governor who successfully joined efforts to repeal the state’s death penalty. The Coliseum, a prominent landmark of execution will be transformed into a beacon of hope to promote the worldwide repeal of the death penalty.
The New Mexico delegation will also be present for the Wednesday audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
The legislation to repeal the death penalty was sponsored New Mexico Rep.Gail Chasey. Many organizations joined the efforts of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty. Representing the State of New Mexico in Rome will be Governor Bill Richardson; Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan, Archbishop of Santa Fe; Rep. Gail Chasey and husband, David Norvell; Allen Sánchez, Executive Director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops/ CEO St. Joseph Community Health and wife, Carolina Sanchez; Viki Elky, Director of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty and husband, Thomas Elky; and Eric Witt, the Governor’s deputy chief of staff.
The practice of lighting the Coliseum was begun by Sant’Egidio in 2002 when the International Day Cities for Life-Cities against the Death Penalty was launched every year on the anniversary of the first abolition of the death penalty in the world by a state, the Granduchy of Tuscany on Nov. 30, 1786. A special lighting of the Coliseum decided by the Community of Sant’Egidio and the City of Rome, took place in December 2007 when the General Assembly of the United Nations called for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty as a first step toward abolition.
ALBUQUERQUE- Former pastor, and head of the National Association of Evangelicals, and author of numerous books, Ted Haggard and his wife, Gayle, will be speaking at New Life City, 4830 Pan American Freeway NE, April 17-19. The meetings will be Friday at 6:30 pm, Saturday at 10 am, 2 pm, and 6 pm, and Sunday at 10 am and 6 pm. Kris Vallotton from Bethel Church in Redding, CA, will also be speaking. The meetings are free and open for all to attend.
“Ted’s ministry profoundly influenced New Life City in our earliest days, and we believe Ted’s story can be an encouragement to all of us. Holding his family together in the worst circumstances is a witness to God’s love and to the power of forgiveness,” commented Alan Hawkins, Senior Pastor of New Life City.
Kris Vallotton, author of several books, noted international speaker, and founder of the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, which is currently training a thousand students per year, will also lead several sessions. A love offering for the speakers will be taken at the event.
For more information, please visit newlifecity.org.
SANTA FE – Governor Bill Richardson today signed House Bill 393, which opens legislative conference committees to the public. Conference committees are formed by legislative leaders to reconcile differences in bills passed by the House and Senate.
“I have always maintained that this is a decision that should be made by the Legislature, without involvement by the Executive Branch,” Governor Richardson said. “Nevertheless, the Legislature chose this path and I have signed the bill out of respect for its desire to further open the committee process to the public.
“Despite the flaws in the bill, the public wins with an open process,” Governor Richardson said.
Investigators confiscated computer material and other items from Pataky's north Phoenix home, which he considered a threat to quit writing.
"We have heard internally from our police sources that they purposefully did this to stop me," Pataky said. "They took my cable modem and wireless router. Anyone worth their salt knows nothing is stored in the cable modem."
Maricopa County Judge Gary Donahoe signed the search warrant that allowed at least ten cops to raid his home in North Phoenix on March 12 while handcuffing his female roommate for three hours as they tore the place apart.The assistant police chief told The Republic that the search had to do with a harassment complaint by a police detective, and, "This isn't about the blog. That's just where the investigation led."
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