Well, the deal right now for President Trump, if he wanted to do it, would be to put Gorsuch and Merrick Garland on the court at the same time. – Senator Tom Udall’s “pipedream” to have both Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and Merrick Garland simultaneously confirmed to the Supreme Court
The Crib Sheet is a collection of stories, events, and ideas that are shaping the conversation in New Mexico and D.C. politics.
[New Mexico]
- As expected Right to Work legislation never made it out of a Democrat controlled House committee.
- A bill to open primary elections cleared a Senate committee and lives on for now.
- Auto Voter Registration legislation died in committee, but is likely to come back in the future.
- PNM’s proposal that claims to “save customers $20 million over the next two decades” is being questioned.
- The Feds have given approval for work on a upgrading a road that leads to Spaceport America.
- Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry is asking for developers to submit proposals for a new high rise downtown. It is not an easy sell: the city has the highest auto theft in the nation and a homicide rate not seen in 20 years.
- Teachers unions continue to wield their power: a moratorium on new charter schools passed a committee and now goes to a full vote by the House.
- On Friday a House committee voted to cap storefront loan interest rates at 175%.
- A bill to tax and regulate marijuana for adults over 21 did not make it out of committee; meanwhile, a private company is partnering with Acoma Pueblo “to build a $160 million state-of-the-art greenhouse for researching and growing medicinal plants, including marijuana.”
[D.C.]
- Governor Martinez was in D.C. over the weekend and along with other governors met with President Trump at the White House as well as Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. The Governor came away from the meetings “especially impressed with Trump’s commitment to national security.”
- Newly elected DNC Chairman Tom Perez immediately went after President Trump “in very blunt terms” and called the President “a fraud” on Sunday.
- Statistics from Customs and Border Protection show that “apprehensions of undocumented immigrants dropped 27 percent from December to January, but were still up significantly from the same period a year ago.”
- The Trump administration has instructed the Justice Department to “abandon the federal government’s longstanding opposition to a key portion of Texas’ toughest-in-the-nation voter ID law”. The law requires voters to show one of seven forms of photo identification approved by the state.
[Tech & Strategy]
- While Google shuts down the Titan drone project in New Mexico, Facebook is planning to “ramp up” testing of its own “experimental solar-powered glider”.
- A book by Peter Thiel served as “something of a bible” for President Donald Trump’s campaign, according to Politico.
[Culture]
- The Dalai Lama’s visit to the Santa Fe ski basin in 1991 is covered in a recent Slate piece.
