By Matt Grubs, NMiF Producer

Representative Sheryl Williams Stapleton can’t wait for people to forget the December 14th meeting of the Legislative Education Subcommittee. Stapleton, smarting from a report filed by KRQE’s Larry Barker, took the opportunity at a lunch break to confront Representative Nora Espinoza. Espinoza had been quoted in connection to the Barker report as saying there was clear evidence of corruption. The report’s basic premise was that Stapleton had been collecting both legislative per diem payments as well as an APS salary rather than taking leave from her job at APS to tend to legislative duties.

As has been widely reported, Stapleton accused Espinoza of “carrying the Mexican’s water on the fourth floor”. The reference was to Governor Susana Martinez, who is of Mexican descent and also has her office on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse. Stapleton later apologized – more or less – and the issue began to fade until the folks who run much of the day-to-day policy at the capitol, the Legislative Council Service, refused to release security camera video of the incident. Eventually, the public interest won out and the video was released today. Here’s the action of Stapleton, in grey, confronting Espinoza, who’s wearing red. There’s no audio on Roundhouse security cameras.

Not quite the barn-burner many were hoping for, but it does show the incident in question in unvarnished detail. (Yes, the word “detail” is arguable considering the video quality)

And, per our title track by U2, it does leave Stapleton stuck in a moment she can’t get out of. She was asked about it today, very much in passing, and wanted nothing to do with what seems destined to appear on the evening news tonight.

In Stapleton’s favor is the fact that there’s no audio on the capitol recording and it’s of poor quality. In fact, a portion of the video in its raw form shows the camera being manipulated to take a quick glance at what a man in the audience was doing. No such zooming and panning by security personnel during the confrontation.

By Matt Grubs, NMiF Producer

By most accounts, this has actually been a fairly normal Friday. Unless, of course, you’re holed up in a windowless room trying to force-feed video to a computer that’s more impetuous than a 3-year-old squaring off against a spoonful of oatmeal. We digress.

Work continues in earnest at the Roundhouse. The deadline for introducing bills falls next Wednesday and the bulk of the bills have moved up to the third floor committee rooms. Thus, our title track, courtesy of Curtis Mayfield. As we write, cabinet secretaries from the Department of Tourism and from Cultural Affairs are testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee on a bill that would collapse their two departments into one. In House Education this morning, a controversial bill sponsored by Rep. Ray Begaye, (D) Shiprock, earned a free pass (one with no recommendation) on to Tax and Revenue. The bill would create scholarships for special needs students, allowing the students and their families to have greater school choice. It would also pull money from the public schools those students used to attend…funding that is fiercely guarded by school districts.

The governor today issued still more messages to the legislature, allowing them to consider legislation she hadn’t previously okayed. You’ll recall the governor controls the agenda in the even years or “short sessions”. Among her stack of messages today was one allowing consideration of death penalty reinstatement. The governor’s office downplayed the addition of a controversial bill to a session already criticized for a packed agenda. Communications Director Scott Darnell said in a statement, “[The bill] came up during last year’s session as well. The representative needed a message for the bill to be heard and we granted it.” Representative Dennis Kintigh, (R) Roswell, has sponsored a joint resolution calling for the reestablishment of the death penalty through an amendment to the New Mexico Constitution. Typically, that kind of legislation doesn’t need a message from the governor to be considered. It’s unclear if there is another bill in the works.

People are still murmuring about the appearance of Occupy protesters at an American Legislative Exchange Council dinner Wednesday night. The small group of “Occupiers” are alleged to have stormed into the dinner at a restaurant in Santa Fe’s Eldorado Hotel. At first, it’s believed they were shouting at participants. Then they began to toss mock menu cards at attendees, allegedly injuring two people including the guest of a legislator who injured her eye. Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican has details on his blog. We caught up with Rep. Dennis Kintigh, who was at the dinner, and Rep. Brian Egolf, (D) Santa Fe, who has been receptive – at least in general terms – to hearing the protests of the Occupy movement.

On to tonight’s show which airs in barely 90 minutes. We have some great insight from Tom Garrity of The Garrity Group Public Relations and current GOPNM Executive Director Bryan Watkins squares off with former Democratic Party of New Mexico Chair John Wertheim. The trio joins regular panelist Sophie Martin on The Line to talk about the State of the Union, legislative action, campaign developments…the works. Here’s a glimpse. Enjoy the show and have a great weekend!

One of the more intriguing plot lines up here this week has been the competing proposals for job creation put forth by Governor Susana Martinez and Senate Democrats. We’ve already detailed both in our State of the State coverage and then earlier this week when the Dems introduced their package of 11 bills dubbed The HIRE Initiative (still sounds to us like it should be a movie starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne).

This afternoon, Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee takes up the first of those bills, Senator Tim Keller’s proposal to give a $5,000 tax credit to business that hire graduates of New Mexico universities. Senator Steve Fischmann’s hefty recrafting of the gross receipts tax is also on the agenda a few bills down. The Senate is a legislative body of its own mind. Just ask Governor Richardson and even Governor Martinez might have some perspective after a single regular and a single special session. Still, this is the first chance for Republican Senators like Mark Boitano and Bill Sharer to sound off on some of The HIRE Initiative and signal if there’s any common ground.

Also this morning, Rick Miera’s House Education Committee takes up Representative Ray Begaye’s memorial to study social promotion at the third grade level. It’s a sort of end-around the governor’s plan, but any traction it gets in committee will be a good indicator of legislative intent.

Lastly, our title track, from the blockbuster movie “Babar”, should help with any confusion you might have about the committee process.

By Matt Grubs, NMiF Producer

A group of ranchers from Northern New Mexico has filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service, claiming the government agency is waging a “war of attrition” on family ranchers grazing on USFS lands that have historically been land grants.

Many families in Rio Arriba County have been ranching for centuries. Much of the grazing took place on land grants and then on federal land through a grazing permit. The ranchers claim that because they’ve criticized federal management of those lands, they are being punished through reductions in herd size and, in some cases, the complete removal of grazing rights.

The USFS didn’t comment directly to the Associated Press, but Susan Montoya Bryan notes the USFS has indicated to Congressman Ben Ray Lujan that some grazing allotments have fencelines in disrepair (permittees are responsible for that maintenance) and have been overgrazed to the point of degradation.

Drive through Tierra Amarilla near some of the grazing land and you’ll see a sign near the south end of town that reads Tierra o Muerte – “Land or Death”. This is that dispute. It’s an argument in the same vein as the one that led to the armed occupation of the Rio Arriba courthouse in Tierra Amarilla in the late 1960s. As you’ll see below in the remarks of County Chairman Felipe Martinez and David Sanchez of the Northern New Mexico Stockman’s Association, the ranchers feel Tierra o Muerte isn’t so much a threat to those who would take grazing rights away from cattlemen, it’s a threat to a way of life stretching back hundreds of years.