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City, county settle NM 'anal probe' lawsuit ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A city and county in southern New Mexico have settled a lawsuit filed by man taken to two hospitals and forced to have anal probes over suspicion of hiding drugs. Attorney for David Eckert said Monday that Hidalgo County and the city of Deming recently settled their portion of a lawsuit for a total $1.6 million. The lawsuit, filed against police and sheriff's officials in Deming and Hidalgo County, which borders Mexico, alleges Deming police sought a search warrant for Eckert because they thought he appeared to be clenching his...

State law provides a fundamental right to a terminally ill, competent patient to choose a physician’s aid in getting prescription medications that will allow a peaceful death, a state judge ruled Monday in a seminal case. Second Judicial District Judge Nan Nash said Drs. Katherine Morris and Aroop Mangalik, both oncologists at the University of New Mexico Hospital, could not be prosecuted under the state’s Assisted Suicide Statute, which is defined as the act of “deliberately aiding another in the taking of his own life.” The practice recognizes that the patient is dying from his or her underlying disease and...

CIA official's John Rizzo's revelations in new book, Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA, establish beyond peradventure of doubt that the Plame case was a hoax, stirred up by her husband and Patrick Fitzgerald. See these excerpts from the book:

When this case first appeared, at the height of the first exposure of  the Fast and Furious scandal, it was highlighted as an example of smuggling to the Mexican cartels that was *not* a part of the operation.    It might or might not be significant that the BATFE agent quoted in the article is William Newell, who had a significant role in Fast and Furious, and whose testimony before congress became infamous. Now, one of the victims of the prosecution is able to tell a bit of his story.   He was never allowed bail from the time he was...

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico became the latest state to legalize gay marriage Thursday as its highest court declared it is unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Justice Edward L. Chavez said in a ruling that none of New Mexico's marriage statutes specifically prohibits same-gender marriages, but the state's laws as a whole have prevented gay and lesbian couples from marrying. The justices said same-sex couples are a discrete group that has been subjected to a history of discrimination and violence....

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's highest court has legalized same-sex marriage, declaring it is unconstitutional to deny a marriage license to gay and lesbian couples. The state Supreme Court issued its ruling Thursday. New Mexico joins 16 states and the District of Columbia in allowing gay marriage. Eight of the state's 33 counties have started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples since August, when a county clerk in southern New Mexico independently decided to allow the unions.

The New Mexico and Texas chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union are suing border officers and a hospital after they allegedly subjected a U.S. citizen to numerous invasive body cavity searches without a warrant. Included in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in West Texas are four U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and the University Medical Center of El Paso, among others. The lawsuit alleges CBP officers frisked and strip-searched a 54-year-old woman and then delivered her in handcuffs to the hospital, where doctors observed a bowel movement and performed invasive rectal and vaginal probes, among...

... David Eckert, a resident of Deming, NM, was pulled over by police officers after failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. For whatever reason, the officers decided Eckert was hiding something, or perhaps they were unsatisfied that a routine stop hadn't blown up into something bigger. ... 1. Eckert's abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found. 2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found. 3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found. 4. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to...

A New Mexico school bus driver has been suspended after allegedly punching an 11-year-old boy in the face for watching a video on the ride home. The incident that left Karen and Scott Dickerson’s son with an injured forehead took place December 6 at the end classes at Eisenhower Middle School. Officials with the school district and Durham School Services that operates the bus said the driver has been placed on unpaid leave pending the results of an investigation.The injured sixth-grader's family said he has been having headaches and had trouble sleeping since being struck by the driver. According to...

A 13-year-old student in Albuquerque, N.M., was allegedly arrested for burping during class. According to his lawsuit, after he “burped audibly” his teacher called the school resource officer, who in turn called the authorities to have him arrested for “interfering with public education.” “They are using petty misdemeanor charges to arrest children in New Mexico,” said Shannon Kennedy, the boy’s attorney. A seventh-grader at Cleveland Middle school, he names his teacher, principal and a police officer in his civil rights lawsuit.

SANTA FE – The New Mexico State Police officer who fired shots at a van full of children while their mother was fleeing a traffic stop near Taos in late October has been fired. State Police spokesman Lt. Emmanuel Gutierrez said that officer Elias Montoya, who was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday, was terminated from his position as of Friday. Gutierrez said he had confirmed the firing with State Police Chief Pete Kassetas. Gutierrez declined further comment “until all appeals have been exhausted ... The video of the incident received national media attention ... Media legal analysts weighed in,...

An officer who shot at a minivan full of children following a traffic stop near Taos has been fired, a New Mexico State Police spokesman said Friday. The Oct. 28 incident, in which the officer fired a handgun toward the fleeing vehicle, gathered national attention after a video from a dashboard camera was released.

Trip to the Rio Grande turns sour after a traffic stop escalates into a wild scene involving a high speed chase and gunfire. What started as a routine traffic stop quickly descended into a maniacal scene with a 14-year old kid rushing a cop, a dangerous high-speedchase, a cop smashing a window with his baton and another firing at the back of a minivan full of kids.... The heated incident began outside Taos where Oriana Ferrell was pulled over for going 71mph in a 55 mph zone having travelled to New Mexico from Memphis for an educational trip. Looks like...

Mother of minivan of kids shot at by police speaks out against'terrifying individual' police officer The mother who led New Mexico police on a dramatic chase that culminated in their shooting at the minivan she was driving with her children inside has spoken out about the incident. Calling one of police officers a 'terrifying individual,' Oriana Ferrell, 39, wrote in a letter penned from her prison cell last month and published in the Taos News yesterday that she drove away from police repeatedly to protect her children. 'A uniformed officer can shoot three bullets at my van and be considered...

Why didn’t Albuquerque vote for the late-term abortion ban? Why would they? People won’t value life if they don’t know they’re valued by God. If we’re just the result of an accident, what difference does partial birth abortion make? None, really.

he Lean Forward network took a half-hearted stab at being fair and balanced on Tuesday. During the 11 a.m. hour, Thomas Roberts invited on two women to discuss the vote to ban abortions after 20 weeks in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Representing the obvious pro-abortion side was frequent MSNBC contributor Irin Carmon. Representing what Roberts called “the church side” was Sara Hutchinson of, wait for it… Catholics for Choice, a pro-choice lobby group. [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Carmon — a visiting fellow at Yale Law’s Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice — went first and offered up her...

After a monumental battle that saw national pro-life groups and abortion supporters engage in a furious fight in the state of New Mexico, voters in Albuquerque today defeated the nation’s first city-wide ban on late-term abortions. Initial results from 50,000 early and absentee ballots showed 56 percent of voters against the proposal, while 44 percent supported the ban on most abortions after 20 weeks. The totals from voters casting ballots on election day didn’t change those percentages much and, with 28 of 50 precincts tallied, the vote remained 55-45 against the ban. Some pro-life advocates are asserting the results are...

“Just sit on the toilet. You don’t have to look at anything.” These are the words our undercover investigator – 27 weeks pregnant, with a big belly – heard on January 14, 2013. The setting was Southwestern Women’s Options, in the heart of the late-term abortion capital of the United States — Albuquerque, New Mexico. The investigator was seeking a late-term abortion – the sort only a few facilities, including Southwestern Women’s Options, will do. The counselor told her how the procedure is done: how the abortionist would stab her abdomen with a needle containing digoxin, a heart-stopping poison. How...

After months of a fierce campaign between pro-life advocates and abortion campaigners, who have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into keeping late-term abortions legal, voters in Albuquerque, New Mexico decide today whether or not they will ban abortions after five months. The ban would have far-reaching effects, as it would prohibit abortions at Southwestern Women’s Options, a notorious late-term abortion facility that kills unborn babies by shooting them through the heart with poison. It is considered the largest late-term abortion facility in the United States. “It’s very troubling, very barbaric, very unnecessary procedure that the public needs to [talk]...

After years of steadily rising prices, “low-cost fuel” may seem like an oxymoron. But thanks to a steady surge in domestic oil and gas production, energy experts say consumers could enjoy inexpensive gasoline and natural gas for years to come. MAP MASTER“The outlook is for a low-cost energy economy in the U.S.,” said Daniel Fine, associate director of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy, which is run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. “This is a long-term trend, not an isolated event, and it’s something almost revolutionary.