Because of unexpected delays at the New Mexico Public Education Department, data that school districts and charter schools are required by law to have published in local newspapers for informational purposes has not been forthcoming.

The districts are supposed to publish certain information about academic progress between mid-November of one year and mid-November of the next, said Cindy Gregory, an analyst with the department's Academic Growth and Analysis Bureau. The PED has not provided the districts with that information in more than a year, but hopes to do so within the next two weeks, she said, adding that even that prediction might be overly optimistic.

"We haven't been able to provide copy due to various and sundry delays," Gregory said. "We are overdue. We're laughably overdue."

The information falls under the Annual Yearly Progress reports of the No Child Left Behind law.

In some districts, the last reports were published in November 2011. At that time, two years of data were supplied to the districts, and some districts were able to publish the required information in early 2012, which means they are current on statutory requirements. Read on 

TAOS - A quorum of the Taos County Commission meets regularly to have lunch, but commissioners insist that they discuss no county business.
County officials say the lunches are within the state's sunshine laws, but an attorney with the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government told The Taos News he questions whether this is an ethical practice, and says it is teetering on the edge of illegal.
Greg Williams, an Albuquerque-based attorney who volunteers as a legal consultant for NMFOG, said that if even one sentence comes out of a commissioner's mouth during one of these lunches that has to do with county business, that commissioner has broken the law. Keep reading

Just as advertisers and media execs feared, Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, is proposing watering down the advertising tax deduction. Multiple sources have told advertising and media lobbyists that the measure, which could cost advertisers millions and reduce revenue for ad-supported media, has been written into a working draft of a tax reform bill.

The provision would allow advertisers to deduct only 50 percent of all ad expenses in the first year and amortize the remaining 50 percent over the next 10 years.

"This would come at the wrong time when we're beginning to get our sea legs in the digital world. Media companies are going to get hit twice. Potentially, it could mean staggering job losses," said Paul Boyle, svp of public policy for the Newspaper Association of America. "It puts more than 1.6 million jobs at risk," Boyle said, citing an IHS Global Insights study the advertising lobby commissioned. "In this economy, do they want to jeopardize that? We need to make a better case that this is an ordinary, necessary business expense," Boyle added.  Full story here