civil liberties

Steve Klinger Guest Blog: New Independent Newspaper 'The Light of New Mexico' Seeks to Illuminate Inconvenient Truths

September 28, 2011 by Democracy for N...

This is a guest blog by Steve Klinger, a long-time journalist and editor of the Grassroots Press, on the recent launch of a new, independent print and online newspaper called The Light of New Mexico. Steve will be editing the paper, which will initially be published monthly. The first print issue of The Light of New Mexico hit the streets of Santa Fe on September 15, with a cover story on "The Politics of H2O: Who Controls Your Water?" It's also available for download as a pdf by clicking here.

The newspaper, published by Skip Whitson, will focus on "Illuminating Inconvenient Truths," and will be covering "Conscious Culture, including Politics, Reviews, Books and Entertainment." The Light of New Mexico is designed to serve as a progressive, alternative source of ideas, information and a networking nexus for north-central New Mexico and beyond, providing a newspaper, a blog and a community resource.

ACLU of New Mexico Announces Award Recipients

September 26, 2011 by Democracy for N...

From ACLU-NM:
Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is pleased to announce the recipients of the organization’s annual awards. Each year, the ACLU of New Mexico honors an attorney and an activist for their outstanding civil liberties work in the State of New Mexico. The awards will be presented as part of the 49th annual Bill of Rights Celebration on Saturday, October 22, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

The 2011 Cooperating Attorney Award goes to Mark D. Fine of the Fine Law Firm for his work defending the rights of female inmates in the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility (NMWCF) in Grants, NM. Fine currently represents three women who allege that a male employee sexually assaulted them while they were inmates. The suit also seeks to hold NMWCF accountable for retaliation against the victims after they reported the incidents.

The 2011 Guardian of Liberty Award goes to two people this year, James Walker and Steven De Los Santos, both recently graduated from Clovis High School. Despite resistance from the community and deliberate obstruction by the Clovis school board, Walker and De Los Santos successfully established the school’s first-ever Gay-Straight Alliance.

NAACP, LULAC Denounce Gov. Susana Martinez's Extremist Allies on Driver's License Issue and Discriminatory Anti-Immigrant Agenda

September 22, 2011 by Democracy for N...

NM Governor Susana Martinez

In a joint press release issued today, New Mexico's chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) said they are concerned and appalled by the involvement of the Americans for Legal immigration PAC (ALIPAC) in New Mexico politics, as well as Governor Susana Martinez's continued attacks on immigrants and her apparent abuse of power.