Jim Scarantino Departs New Mexico Watchdog

I am moving onto other adventures. My wife and I have decided to seize an opportunity to enter early “aspirement”–the intentionally direct opposite of “retirement.” We have the coming year nearly booked: a month in Italy that begins by paying respects at the WWI battlefields where my grandfather–then only 16 years old–fought in the trenches; a month on the East Coast visiting family and big cities; I am singing with Opera Southwest in its October performances of Rossini’s “The Italian Girl in Algiers” and hopefully next March in “La Traviata”; lots and lots of hiking and backpacking, with the full length of the Continental Divide Trail as a goal; a couple weeks in Cuba with a friend posted to Havana by the State Department; and more activities than I can fit into this post. New Mexico Watchdog will now be in the very able hands of Rob Nikolewski, whom I have come quickly to respect as a hard-driving, meticulous, impartial and inquisitive reporter of the highest standards. The Rio Grande Foundation will soon be looking to hire someone to take over my duties for the investigative reports that put us on the state and national journalistic maps. I have been honored to work with the Rio Grande Foundation since 2008 bringing to light stories about tax dollars misused and government run amok...more