Free Republic

Latinos and immigration activists are warning of political peril for President Barack Obama and Democrats in the fall election unless the president acts boldly and soon to curb deportations and allow more immigrants to remain legally in the U.S. Many activists say Obama has been slow to grasp the emotions building within the Latino community as deportations near the 2 million mark for his administration and hopes for immigration legislation fade. With House Republicans unlikely to act on an overhaul, executive action by Obama is increasingly the activists’ only hope.“There is tremendous anger among core constituencies of the president and...

Donald Trump said that “not only is Obamacare a disaster, it is the single greatest lie that I have ever witnessed. As far as immigration is concerned, Trump boasted that he is a builder and that he likes to build things. He said that, if he was in charge of America, “I would build a border fence like you have never seen before.”

"......The California car firm yesterday revealed plans for the factory that would employ up to 6,500 people , cover 1,000 acres, and cost $5 billion, said the Wall Street Journal, Solar and wind farms would at least in part supply the huge power needs of the plant in either Nevada, New Mexico, or Arizona. Reno is thought to be a favorite. Tesla needs its own production to hit its cost target for a more affordable car. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk's idea is a "Gigafactory" that takes in raw materials and produces finished lithium-ion batteries. He has said he intends...

Two federal judges on the U.S. Sentencing Commission said Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder stepped “outside the legal system” and exceeded the authority of the executive branch by sending “improper instruction” to federal prosecutors to reduce drug sentences before they were officially approved by either the commission or Congress. “I have been surprised at the attorney general’s steps taken to proceed with this reduction outside of the legal system set up and established by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984,” Judge Ricardo Hinojosa, the commission’s vice chair, said during a public hearing in the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building...

The federal government is fining an Artesia oil man more than $700,000 for failing to submit reports on production on its federal leases in New Mexico. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue said Tuesday it has assessed Louis Fulton, doing business as C.F.M. Oil Company, a $717,136 civil penalty.

Lone Female Democratic Governor Celebrates #EqualPayDay Andrew Stiles // April 8, 2014 5:01 pm New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D), fourth from left. New Hampshire governor Maggie Hassan (D) celebrated “Equal Pay Day” on Tuesday: Governor Hassan Proclaims Equal Pay Day, Urges Support for New Hampshire Paycheck Fairness Act http://t.co/FcVQiPlJZM— Gov. Maggie Hassan (@GovernorHassan) April 8, 2014 Of the 21 Democratic state governors, Hassan is the only woman. From the Democratic Governors Association website:There are four times as many female Republican governors:Women are amazing. Why do Democrats hate them so much?

SANTA FE, N.M. – For decades, it’s probably the most troublesome question facing education: Why are results for U.S. public school students so mediocre, despite the billions of taxpayer dollars spent? Andrew Coulson thinks he’s got the answer: Because there is no discernible correlation between spending and outcomes. “The takeaway from this study is that what we’ve done over the past 40 years hasn’t worked,” said Coulson, director of the Center For Educational Freedom at the CATO Institute. “The average performance change nationwide has declined 3 percent in mathematical and verbal skills. Moreover, there’s been no relationship, effectively, between spending...

Attorneys for the Reese family filed a petition for rehearing en banc Tuesday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver. This latest move by the defense challenges a March 19 decision by a three judge panel overturning a District Court decision that the family of former gun dealers merited a new trial based on the prosecution withholding evidence that a witness had been the subject of a criminal investigation. The panel’s ruling last month was another in a series of setbacks for a family that has endured an ordeal approaching three years. Arrested in...

A decision pending with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could have huge ramifications for rural Kansans living in the western third of the state. In limbo is the question of whether the lesser prairie-chicken should be listed as a “threatened” species under provisions of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The species inhabits land spanning Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. ... Kansas, in cooperation with the four other states affected by the issue — a coalition known as the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies — has attempted to stave-off such a decision with the development of...

The family of Tony Day, the boy accused of killing his adoptive mother and adult sister, doesn’t understand why he’s allowed to take “field trips” while in custody. “There’s no sense in it. I mean—absolutely none,” Mike Day, the boy’s adoptive father said. In November 2012, police said Tony, then 14-years-old, shot Sue Day and stabbed Sherry Folts in the family’s Tucumcari-area home. The case has not yet gone to trial. “If the gun hadn't jammed, he'd have killed me and the little girl we were taking care of,” Mike Day said. Mike and his wife Sue were foster parents...

On this date in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked the United States Congress to declare war on Germany, following the publication of the Zimmerman Telegram (in which Germany offered to finance Mexico's entry into the war on their side and for Mexico to attempt to reconquer Texas, New Mexico and Arizona) and Germany's resumption of submarine attacks on American ships. Congress would declare war on April 6th.

Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul told fellow Republicans on Tuesday that the future of their party depends on them connecting with Hispanics in a more empathetic way and on getting in front of immigration reform – a message that further signals his flirtation with a 2016 presidential run. “If we are to change people’s attitudes toward … the Republican Party, we have to show up and we have to have something to say,” Paul told a small group of conservatives gathered at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. “I hope to be part of that dialogue.” This certainly was not the...

After House Democrats filed a discharge petition on Wednesday to try to force a vote on comprehensive amnesty legislation, President Barack Obama praised the bill as one that would "make sure everyone plays by the same rules," even though it would give special treatment to illegal immigrants who have broken the law. In a White House press statement, Obama blamed "Republicans in the House" for refusing to "allow meaningful immigration reform legislation to even come up for a vote." He then applauded the "efforts of Democrats in the House to give immigration reform the yes-or-no vote it deserves." "It would...

Wells Fargo’s bank in New Mexico has taken down the American flag that was hanging inside the building for six years. It says “a few people” complained that the flag was “offensive.” When questioned as to why the flag was offensive, the bank refused to provide an answer.

When Mine That Bird won the 2009 Kentucky Derby, he blazed a path so profoundly unexpected that to this day expert handicappers wince at his name. Going into the race, nothing was expected of this 50-to-1 nobody from nowhere. And for most of the race, he was dead last—until jockey Calvin Borel made his move from behind the pack, sneaking up tight against the rail and flying past them all. For filmmaker Jim Wilson, the enduring wow factor of the narrative cried out for the big screen. The major studios didn't agree. "Hollywood wanted nothing to do with it," he...

he Department of Energy said Thursday it expects to get underground next week to begin investigating the cause and extent of a mysterious radiation leak from the government's nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico. Officials said the inspections of the shafts that workers will use to access the half-mile-deep repository are complete and they are preparing to send an initial crew of eight into the mine early next week. The dump has been shuttered since mid-February, when radiation was released above ground and into the air around Carlsbad, contaminating at least 17 workers with low doses of radiation. Four...

A three-page analysis from Jeff Sessions’s office. The good news is, at least ICE is prioritizing correctly. Illegals who’ve committed serious criminal offenses are the first out the door, followed by people caught at the border trying to sneak in and those caught inside the U.S. after having been deported before. The other 99.92 percent who are already here are, however, apparently here to stay, unless/until a Republican president sends down the order to restart deportations among that group. And given the GOP leadership’s icy panic about further alienating Latino voters, the odds of that are near zero.Remember this the...

The Democrats' best shot at destroying the GOP in the short/medium-term would clearly lay in mass amnesties of illegal immigrants... forget smokescreen BS about green cards and phony half-measures that pretend to do something short of what the Dems really want: once they're here legally, most 3rd-world immigrants will be made citizens and voting (Democrat) soon enough, and anyone who purports otherwise is being intellectually dishonest... Luckily for left, Republican 'leadership' in the House and Senate are more than willing to help them do that, as the US Chamber of Commerce just loves them a bottomless labor market-- and John Boehner's too stupid to see any farther...

Nearly 300 years ago, two great alliances collided on the Great Plains in a battle that changed the course of American history. But until now, no physical evidence of the storied conflict had ever been found. In the summer of 1720, where the Platte River meets the Loup in eastern Nebraska, Spanish soldiers, New Mexican settlers and their Pueblo and Apache allies clashed with warriors from the Pawnee and Oto nations of the Plains. In a daybreak raid, the Pawnee and the Oto — possibly with the support of French traders — routed the Spanish, killing their commander, Don Pedro...

Mine That Bird beat the odds 50 to 1 when the gelding came from behind to win the Kentucky Derby in 2009. The win thrust the horse into the national spotlight, along with his New Mexico-based owners and trainer. Five years later, there is more spotlight on the way as Oscar-winner Jim Wilson and Faith Conroy are bringing the story to the big screen with the film “50 to 1.” “50 to 1″ is the story of Mark Allen, from Double Eagle Ranch in Roswell, who bought the Canadian gelding in late 2008 with his business partner Dr. Leonard Blach....