Massachusetts auto dealers ride out COVID
Posted Feb 17, 2021
It should come as no surprise that COVID-19 has had a tremendous impact on the automotive industry, just as it has on others. First, the bad news.
“The coronavirus pandemic certainly impacted new light-vehicle sales in 2020, not to mention the U.S. economy as a whole,” said Patrick Manzi, chief economist for the National Association of Auto Dealers in their analysis of auto sales last year. “Our forecast at the start of 2020 estimated new light-vehicle sales would fall by 1 to 2 percent compared to 2019 for a total of 16.8 million units sold, but once COVID hit, we knew this would be a different year than anticipated.”
A bill to shore up abortion rights in New Mexico by repealing a dormant ban on most abortion procedures won Senate approval on Thursday, clearing a crucial hurdle in a 25-17 vote.
New Mexico State Senate.
Two years after a group of conservative Democrats, along with Republicans voted against decriminalizing abortion care, the state Senate passed SB 10 Thursday, 25 to 17.
SB 10, sponsored by state Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, is called the Respect New Mexico Women and Families Act and has a mirror bill, HB 7, sponsored by Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla. The two bills remove three sections from the criminal code which, in 1969, banned abortion with some limited exceptions.
The law has repeatedly been called archaic and advocates for its repeal said it included language contrary to how medicine is currently practiced. While the law is currently unenforceable, reproductive rights advocates have said that given the conservative bloc on the U.S. Supreme Court,
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Independent voters don’t have a voice in New Mexico’s primary elections, and lawyers are financing judicial campaigns.
Two good-government bills addressing these election shortcomings have been introduced in the Legislature, and it’s time to pass them both and make them law.
House Bill 79, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Miguel Garcia and Daymon Ely and Sen. Katy Duhigg and Republican Sen. Mark Moores, would allow voters who aren’t affiliated with a major political party to vote in primary elections. This is overdue; in many races primary elections determine the ultimate winner. Candidates from Lea to Rio Arriba counties are often unopposed in the general election, leaving voters from one major political party to decide the next sheriff, county clerk or commissioner.