Today’s Radar is all bout the benjamins!  Let’s follow the money, shall we?

All of us hope that the U.S. economy is on the rebound for good.  But a new report in TIME magazine finds the recovery may continue to move slowly into 2011.  The report is based on a recent survey of the nation’s top economic minds.  It shows shaky projections for both home sales and job growth.

Diane Denish doesn’t appear to have any problem in the money department.  The democratic candidate for governor has reportedly raised more than a million dollars in the most recent fundraising period.  That gives her a total of $2.6 million on hand to put up a general election battle against whichever republican candidate makes it out of the June primary election.  Not a bad place to be. Today is filing day for all candidates, and the Secretary of State has a new website up and running to help track those campaign dollars.  Give it a whirl and let us know what you think!

One of the ways New Mexico gets federal dollars for programs and services is through the Census report.  As many outlets have been reporting as of late, we’re following behind in terms of filling out the latest round of Census forms.  But, as it turns out, that may not be all our fault.  Many folks in the Four Corners area say they’re not getting the forms in the mail.  The problem is apparently affecting Bloomfield residents the most.  And, a new phone line is now being set up to help those folks get the help they need.  That number is 866-872-6868.  Not only will the results of the Census affect how federal dollars are handed out, it may also impact how congressional districts are redrawn moving forward.  

And lastly, New Mexico might lose up to half it’s dairy farmers, if new environmental guidelines go into place.  The state is considering the guidelines to deal with pollution created by all those cows.  Experts say there is groundwater pollution present in and around most of the dairy farms in the state.  The new regulations would focus on cleaning up the discharge of dairy waste water, and put in place new monitoring procedures.  The battle could have big impacts on the state’s bottom line.  Believe it or not, milk is the state’s top cash commodity.  Dairy farms produced more than $1.3 billion dollars in 2008, ranking NM 9th in the U.S. for milk production and 4th for cheese production.

The Public Affairs Team

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 2:14 pm and is filed under nmif. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.