Columns

In the recently completed 2011 legislative session, Senate Bill 17 (Keller, D-Bernalillo & Neville, R-Aztec), a bill designed to complete SIC reforms by removing the governor as chairperson, passed with wide bi-partisan support.
It now sits on the governor’s desk waiting to be signed. SB-17 was carefully crafted in the interim, by the bipartisan Investment Oversight Committee, long before the recent gubernatorial election.  
It is composed of original sections from the 2010 bill including sections to ensure minority party legislative appointments.  
It now also includes an amendment that allows the Governor to serve for two more years in the Chairperson role before removing the position all together.  

Have you noticed how the same old divisive legislative proposals invariably get new leases on life when a fresh batch of right-leaning politicos gets elected to Congress?
For example, it’s a safe bet that somewhere along the line, there’ll be a hue and cry to cut federal funding for public broadcasting.
It’s equally predictable there’ll be renewed zeal for so-called “English only” legislation designed to make English the official language of these United States. This one has legs and comes back to haunt political season after political season.
And, sure enough, it is upon us anew, thanks in part to the large cadre of Republican Tea Partiers who were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives last November.

Most Americans were heartened a few months ago, when Congress enacted and President Obama signed — with considerable fanfare ­— a law providing financial help for people who got sick after the fall of the World Trade Center in 2001.
Firefighters, police officers and others involved in the massive cleanup have suffered with diseases traceable to the horrendous toxic exposures they endured.
Special legislation was needed for the civic employees, in part because of the long time lag between the exposure and the disease.
Statutes vary from state to state, but in general, occupational disease coverage under workers’ compensation law is limited by narrow definitions and time limits that would make it difficult to apply to these cases.

The news report spilled out like a cow chip throwing contest in my living room.  
“A coalition of American and European forces launched a military campaign Saturday to drive Moammar Gadhafi from power, bombing Libyan targets by air and sea in the first phase of the largest international military effort since the Iraq war.”
Coalition.  These days, that’s just another word for “Fight Club of the Week.”