Free Republic

It's officially called the Cessna Citation Bravo. But the $5.5 million jet Gov. Bill Richardson's administration plans to buy has also become peppered with nicknames: Cinco de Million, the Pork Barrel, Supersized and Richardson's Folly. The jet jokes were spurred by the purchase, which Republican leaders said was outlandish. The aircraft purchase proposal was the impetus for an anti-Richardson ad that the GOP started airing statewide and in New Hampshire on Wednesday. "It hit a nerve. I think people were outraged," said Marta Kramer, executive director of the state Republican Party. The ad, a parody of the old television show...

Gov. Bill Richardson's office said Wednesday that students from the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired will fly on the new state jet. The statement was included in a news release blasting an Albuquerque Journal story published Wednesday that reported the state's 10-year practice of transporting students home from the Alamogordo school on weekends had ended. The news release labeled parts of the story as "wrong" and "untrue." According to the story, School Superintendent Dianna Jennings had said in a telephone interview earlier in the week that the school would seek alternate air service because the state...

The Richardson administration's plan to buy a new jet means students at New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Alamogordo will have to find a new way to fly home on weekends. Superintendent Diana Jennings said state aircraft have been flying students home most every weekend during the school year for the past 10 years to communities such as Farmington, Raton and Taos. She said the school received notice May 3 that the state General Services Department can no longer commit state aircraft for student travel. "What was communicated to us was they were trading in one...