Community Voices

Trump: Head like a toaster

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I never really cared about Donald Trump. I never saw any of his TV shows, including Miss Universe or the one where I gather the punchline was “you’re fired!” (brilliant.)
Jim Terr is a singer/songwriter, documentary and film producer and satirist raised in Las Vegas, NM. I remember seeing him on David Letterman’s show, when Letterman got him talking about “American made,” “We’re losing jobs to China,” etc., then showed him that his Trump Ties were made in China. Trump’s response? “Oh well.”

Caught in another piece of BS, but doesn’t care, his fans don’t care.

Community Voices

Costs on a simple medical procedure can add up

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Jim Terr is a singer/songwriter, documentary and film producer and satirist raised in Las Vegas, N.M.
We can’t all seem to agree about much lately, but perhaps we can all agree that in order to address a problem we have to have some accurate information, even if just one person’s experience. So, assuming we agree we do have a problem with medical costs and coverage (including the specter of going bankrupt from medical costs if not insurance costs), I’d like to share a recent experience with surgery and hospitalization:

A few months ago, in the course of a general check-up, my physician told me that my “outie” belly button is the start of a hernia which, if it ever really popped out, would be a serious medical problem. His advice was that if I could afford it, I should get it reinforced by mesh. I could finally afford it with my new medical insurance, Blue Cross, purchased through the “Marketplace” (ACA – “Obamacare”) a few months later, so I proceeded. The surgeon who was recommended to me said exactly what my doctor told me – that it was not an urgent procedure but a choice to prevent something serious that might or might not happen in the future.

New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department

Complaint against Tax. Dept. lawyer adds details to scandal

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Newly released documents appear to show a top state Taxation and Revenue Department staffer was involved in alleged abuse of power that is subject to an ongoing probe. © New Mexico Political Report, 2015. Contact editor@nmpoliticalreport.com for info on republishing.  

In July, State Auditor General Counsel Sarita Nair filed an ethics complaint against Tax Department lead attorney Brad Odell with the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of New Mexico, NM Political Report has learned. The Disciplinary Board opted not to take action against Odell, citing that it lacked sufficient evidence.

New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department

‘IDIOTS’: TRD attorney criticized agency for botched redaction

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When New Mexico Political Report discovered and reported on a botched redaction from the state Taxation and Revenue Department this summer, the state responded with a threat. “You purposely manipulated the document in order to reveal taxpayer return information and thwart the purpose of the redaction,” tax department spokesman Ben Cloutier wrote to us in July. “You have published taxpayer return information despite the clear intent that it remain confidential. It is unlawful for any person other than the taxpayer to intentionally reveal to any other person the taxpayer’s return information.”

Yet internal emails show at least one current tax department attorney faulted his employer, and not New Mexico Political Report, for the mishap. “I have been telling the Department for years that we are not redacting documents properly,” tax department attorney Lewis Terr wrote in an email the same day we published the story.