By THE NEW MEXICAN

Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:45 pm

Much of the news on Bill Richardson today deals with his signing of bills. He signed the bill to stop cockfighting and the ban against smoking in public places; and, he has announced that he would support a bill calling for vaccines for sixth-grade girls against HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer.

Here's one take on the cockfighting ban, and another cockfighting story can be read at Newsweek on line:

It isn't universal health care or same-sex marriage, but cockfighting has been a hot button issue in New Mexico for years. Opponents of the sport‹which is now only legal in Louisiana‹called cockfighting the severest form of animal cruelty. Supporters call it an important cultural tradition in this heavily Latino state. Despite polls that cited more than 80 percent of residents in favor of a ban, state legislators launched several previous attempts to pass a ban, to no avail.

Richardson also signed a clean-energy bill last week that is designed to increase New Mexico's use of clean energy by 2020. "New Mexico seems to be on a roll," writes Maria Surma Manka of greenoptions.com.

Once again, Richardson is making that point that governors get things done, while senators just give speeches.

Drew Miller of the Bleeding Heartland progressive Iowa blog posts the second installment of his interview with Bill, with both a transcript and an audio file. Part 1 is also available.

Richardson gets chastised by Kurt at Fly by Night for bowing out of the Nevada August debate.