Poverty

Widening income gap partly due to NM's high illiteracy rate

The income gap has increased in New Mexico, according to a report released last week. According to some, one reason for the growing inequality may be found in the state’s shift to a knowledge-based economy at the same time that a sizable portion of adult New Mexicans are functionally illiterate.

Behind the Food Crisis: Free Trade?

ALBUQUERQUE – A policy brief recently released by the Oakland Institute, a California-based progressive think tank, claims that increased free trade has contributed to the food crisis. In answer to the question “Who stands to gain from high food prices?”, Institute founder Anuradha Mittal answers: In fact, it is traders and middlemen who stand to gain most. Speculation in world commodities is driving prices upward, from global futures commodity trading to traders and hoarders in West Africa, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Senator Tom Udall?

Tom Udall wants to be your next Senator. And if the the election were held today, he'd win in a landslide.

 

But the election isn't today.

 

In an exclusive interview with the New Mexico Independent, Udall gives voters an extended look at his positions on the issues, why he's Mr. Neutral (or Mr. Cautious) in Democratic primaries, and what he sees as the major difference between his campaign and that of his two would-be Republican opponents.

A label that hurts

If you live in one of three ZIP codes in Rio Rancho, expect for it to be harder to sell your house. The three ZIP codes have been hit with an unwanted designation: declining market, which means higher interest rates and loan fees for buyers. And if it's happening in Rio Rancho, Albuquerque may be next, one realtor said.

Food stamps near historic high

Thousands could qualify for food stamps but they don't know it because they think they earn too much money, the state says. While nearly 95,000 New Mexico families receive food stamps, the state Human Service Department estimates that another 90,000 probably could qualify.

South Valley test

The South Valley is known for its rough edges. Rustic building facades and wooden corrals meld with unpaved roads and century-old homes. But the same South Valley may soon be known as home to one of the nation's most innovative approaches to primary health care.

Prison reform outlined

The state should consider charter schools in its prisons, expand on its current limited use of a Navajo Nation practice of restorative justice and divert as many non-violent drug offenders to treatment as possible rather than lock them up. More drug and mental health courts, as well as halfway houses, should also be opened and more educational opportunities given to inmates, including domestic violence prevention programs. Those were among the recommendations from a task force task force report submitted Tuesday to Gov. Bill Richardson. The report was the product of a task force Richardson empaneled earlier this year to devise ways to curb future prison overcrowding and to lower the rate of offenders who return to prison after being released.

Fear and hoarding at the supermarket

The rising cost of rice has been in the news a lot lately, and in the U.S. several retail stores have put limits on the amount of rice customers can buy, leading to headlines about food rationing. So what’s really going on? Prices are high for many reasons (scroll down), but shoppers appear to be reacting to a lot of media hype about high prices by buying and hoarding rice before the prices go higher—thereby increasing both demand and hype.

Domestic violence laws get tougher, with hopes that abuse drops

New Mexico's domestic violence laws just got a little stronger, with several new laws going into effect July 1st that address prevention, protection of victims, and in one case the provision of increased penalties for offenders.

The package would allow public domestic violence treatment funds to pay for the treatment of batterers statewide, as an enhancement of prevention efforts.

The true cost of your food

Few people realize that an important section of New Mexico’s economy thrives on the backs of people who live in stark poverty – workers who labor under harsh conditions in dangerous jobs but who, while being paid a pittance, are excluded from the most important health protections that other workers get by law.

Drive to end hunger

A sobering fact to come out of a recent report is that there is one grocery store for every few hundred square miles in New Mexico. In fact, many rural communities in the Land of Enchantment don't have a grocery. That's why the Roadrunner Food Bank is launching the state's first ever Mobile Food Pantry next month. The pantry aims to provide nutritious food to New Mexicans in need. It's modeled after a similar program in Michigan. Organizers say that the souring cost of gas is yet another factor hurting already poor, rural families with long drives to the nearest grocery store.

It won't be cheap

New Mexico would need more than $800 million over five years to expand health insurance to a large portion of the state's uninsured population, lawmakers learned this week. The figure isn't a budget request, but a projection. But it gives state lawmakers a better sense of how much Gov. Bill Richardson's plan to expand health coverage would cost.

Judges "express surprise" at mining plan

Here's a brief update on the uranium mining story we published yesterday. A panel of federal judges "expressed surprise" at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision to allow a mining company to extract uranium from an aquifer that supplies drinking water to thousands of Navajos in northwestern New Mexico, the Associated Press is reporting:

How we're losing $100 million

Data collected by the University of New Mexico's Bureau of Business and Economic Research suggests that the state is headed for yet another decennial census undercount. Meanwhile, funding decisions for many federal programs, like Medicaid, are determined by Census Bureau population estimates.

Sanchez 'considering' 2010 run for guv

On the eve of a special session of the New Mexico Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez says he’s “considering” a run for governor in 2010. “At this point, I’ve been approached and asked to consider it and I’m considering it,” the four-term state senator from Belen told the Independent. Sanchez’s possible entry into the Democratic primary for governor nearly two years away adds a second heavyweight contender to the contest to succeed Gov. Bill Richardson.

Cradles of hope, with love to Africa

Keeping tabs on TB

International travel and bio-terrorism have upped the ante in the need for quick turnaround times in disease forensics. But quick turnarounds require that scientists and clinicians have access to a pathogen-centric database. Three scientists explain to NMI how such a national database for one of today's greatest health threats -- tuberculosis -- could be up and running in six months at the University of New Mexico.

NM has second-worst graduation rate in nation, new report says

A new report out shows that New Mexico has the second-worst graduation rate in the country.

 

According to the report, which is in Education Week, fewer students in New Mexico's class of 2005 graduated with their peers than students in virtually every other state in the union, except Nevada.

Here's an excerpt from the report:

 

Nationwide, about 71 percent of 9th graders make it to graduation four years later, according to data on the class of 2005, the latest available. That figure drops to 58 percent for Hispanics, 55 percent for African-Americans, and only 51 percent for Native Americans. While more than eight in 10 students graduate on time in Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Wisconsin, that rate drops to fewer than six in 10 in the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, and South Carolina.

 

The press release announcing the report also has a link to a cool map that allows you to see what the graduation rates are for local districts.

 

Poverty on guv's agenda

Gov. Bill Richardson announced Friday that he is forming a poverty task force.  

 

"While our state’s economy is expanding, figures show the income gap is widening,” Governor Bill Richardson said in a press release. “We can not allow our neighbors to fall behind. We must be bold in our solutions to help struggling families make ends meet.”

The task force, which will submit its recommendations in September, will develop specific recommendations for legislative and regulatory initiatives to reduce poverty and income inequality in New Mexico. 

Richardson wants the task force to research a range of issues, including strategic initiatives to address hunger, housing and child care needs, adequate compensation and a fair minimum wage, easing access to higher education and assisting former prisoners in finding employment. 

USA Today: Navajo nurses deserve praise for raising alarm on salmonella

A USA Today story today gives props to public health nurse Kimberlae Houk and her colleagues in the Navajo Nation for raising the alarm early about the ongoing salmonella outbreak in tomatoes. The article describes the magnitude of the impact, which is nationwide, gives a timeline, and credits Houk and the Shiprock Indian Health Services Unit for quick action:

...it could have been a lot worse if a red flag hadn't been raised early in the outbreak last month by a public health nurse with good instincts in one of the nation's poorest, most remote regions.