New Mexico Independent: Comments by Denise Tessier

Denise Tessier — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:16:34 GMT

Nora,
Sorry to take so long to answer your question, but these are the U.S. figures for women’s wages compared to men as a whole group.

According to the Southwest Women’s Law Center report summary, the wage gap for minority women is even worse when compared to white men: In 2004 in New Mexico, Hispanic women earned 53 percent, Native American women earned 55 percent, and African American women earned 58 percent of what white men earned.

The report says,”The earnings gap for minority women AND men compared to white men is extremely high, but it is compounded for minority women.”

Denise Tessier — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:05:06 GMT

Since this round-up was posted, Ashley Meeks of the Las Cruces Sun-News has reported that Garrey Carruthers is out and James L. McDonough is in as New Mexico State University’s interim president, selected on a 4-1 vote by the regents. Read the whole story in the Sun-News at http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_9502506.

Denise Tessier — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:51:25 GMT

Here’s a disturbing example of the Monsanto vs. small farmers scenario Benito refers to in his comment above: http://www.percyschmeiser.com/crime.htm

Denise Tessier — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:51:33 GMT

Written testimony of five of the six hearing witnesses is now available online through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hear…

Denise Tessier — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:02:18 GMT

A correction: Thanks to Les Crowder for bringing to my attention that while most nut trees are pollinated by bees, pecans are actually pollinated by the wind.

Denise Tessier — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:49:13 GMT

Might I add: Long-time liberal Jackson Browne last month sued the McCain campaign for using his classic “Running on Empty” in an anti-Obama ad. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/08/jackso…)

Your article also reminded me of the jolt I got while listening to the car radio many, many years ago and the intro to The Pretenders’ “My City Was Gone” turned out to be my introduction to conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. For the twists and turns of the now bizarrely symbiotic relationship between Rush and Pretenders songwriter/PETA advocate Chrissie Hynde check out the musings on Ask MetaFilter (http:\\www.ask.metafilter.com/48170/how-did-rush-limbaugh-get-rights-to-my-city-was-gone) or the story in Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5923659/really_ran…).

As one of the MetaFilter musers points out, it’s entirely likely that by letting Limbaugh continue to use it, Hynde’s anti-mall, anti-corporate hit from the album “Learning To Crawl” is probably known by more people at this point as the theme to Rush’s “Excellence in Broadcasting” network.

Denise Tessier — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:30:42 GMT

Yes. In 2007, the State Legislature passed laws related to payday lending, which Denish said has resulted in the tracking of all payday loans and is helping to steer hundreds of borrowers to an affordable repayment plan. However, she said the Legislature needs to revisit Payday Lending Reform because “some lenders have developed questionable, if not illegal practices of steering people away from the repayment program and into special ‘installment loans’.” In other words, they’ve renamed the loans to get around the law. Denish said the installment loans “continue the cycle of debt by charging outrageous interest rates.” So, they’re pushing to close gaps in previous legislation while starting anew on mortgage originators, title loans and the other items mentioned in the story.