Pat Woods

New Mexico hasn’t had a state meat inspection program since 2007, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture took it over due to “repetitive noncompliance with federal standards,” according to a 2021 legislative report. Proposals to bring it back have failed to clear both chambers of the Legislature four years in a row, but this year’s bill still has a chance of reaching the governor’s desk.

The decision that local authorities would plug the hole in the state’s employee group health benefits fund was authorized in the legislative session in House Bill 2. But Republican Senator Pat Woods, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, said he didn't know it was in there.

A bill that would provide free, healthy meals to all New Mexico school kids passed the state Senate over the weekend. KUNM has more on some of the changes that were made as the legislation reached the full chamber.

New Mexico Senators asked a local news reporter to leave a committee meeting Thursday at the Roundhouse, citing a Senate rule that bars recording these…

They don’t have big expense accounts or cozy relationships with powerful lawmakers. They don’t even know where the bathroom is. They’re citizen lobbyists,…