Free Republic

The last known surviving member of the German engineering team that designed the rocket that took US astronauts to the Moon has died in Alabama. Oscar Holderer, who was 95, suffered a stroke last week and did not recover, his son Michael said. Mr Holderer was one of about 120 engineers who moved to the US after World War Two, bringing technology used in the German V2 rocket. They played a key role in the Saturn V rocket used in the 1969 Moon landing. The team, led by Wernher von Braun, was part of a project called Operation Paperclip that...

There's a new hazard in the Heartland.  The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently released a map highlighting the future risk for man-made earthquakes, and up to eight states have an increased chance to see ground shaking.  Azle, Texas, which had no recorded quakes for 150 years, felt 27 tremors from November 2013 to January 2014. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex continues to feel regular earthquakes. As Science Magazine reports, earthquakes hit areas of Kansas bordering Oklahoma 192 times in the last two years; the same counties were only hit twice in the preceding 35 years.  For the most part, the scientific...

New Mexicans on Monday had their first glimpse of Archbishop-elect of Santa Fe John C. Wester, who declared his commitment to serve the poor, reform a broken immigration system and to work with others “to strengthen the common good.” The bishop of Salt Lake City since 2007, Wester will become the leader of an estimated 300,000 Roman Catholics in New Mexico on June 4 when he is installed as the 12th Archbishop of Santa Fe at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe. He will succeed Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan, who will step down...

ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector. The exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable...

Every year, law enforcement agencies seize millions of dollars simply by suspecting the property is connected to criminal activity. Friday, April 10, after being unanimously passed through the legislature, HB 560 was signed into law by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez. Read her Executive Message here. Among other improvements, HB 560 reforms the current law on forfeiture procedures by requiring a criminal conviction for seizure and proper reporting. Civil asset forfeiture is a practice in which assets suspected of being associated with crime may be seized and subsequently forfeited, often without the owner being charged with a crime. Law enforcement...

ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector. The exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same...

Two of the country’s most powerful and politically influential labor unions are backing President Obama in the recent court challenge to his 2014 executive action on illegal immigration, saying they support the president’s effort because "undocumented workers" need more workplace protection and their participation helps the U.S. economy. The AFL-CIO and the National Education Association on Monday each filed so-called amicus briefs in a federal appeals court case in which Texas and 26 other states are challenges the president’s 2014 memorandum on illegal immigration. The memorandum essentially expands work authorization and delayed-deportation programs for illegal immigrants. And it provides similar...

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez signed a bill to abolish civil asset forfeiture Friday. She signed just before the noon deadline that would have pocket vetoed the legislation. “As an attorney and career prosecutor, I understand how important it is that we ensure safeguards are in place to protect our constitutional rights,” Martinez said in a letter announcing her decision. “On balance, the changes made by this legislation improve the transparency and accountability of the forfeiture process and provide further protections to innocent property owners.” Civil asset forfeiture is a practice where police can seize your property and keep it...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The University of New Mexico’s student paper has started using new pronouns for people who don’t identify as a man or a woman. “I thought that was ridiculous,” said Samantha Peters. “I think the names are kind of funny,” said Paul Talley. “I feel it’s weird,” said Michael Peters. The names “zi” and “zir” have people on UNM’s campus talking. Thursday, the university’s newspaper, The Daily Lobo, explained in an editorial it will now be using the two words as pronouns when writing about people who don’t identify as a male or a female. “The only non...

Competition to highlight desalination technology By Cheyenne Cope Published: April 9, 2015, 6:54 am Updated: April 9, 2015, 4:50 pm   ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) – Desalination is the process removing salt from water. The process is complicated, but the reason for it is simple. New Mexico is running out of fresh water for drinking.“Desalination is real important for this region there is very little freshwater and what little freshwater is available is usually stressed, there’s more demand than there is supply,” said Randy Shaw, facility manager of the Bureau of Reclamation Brackish Groundwater National Desalination and Research Facility.For years there has...

ROSWELL – Gasoline prices in New Mexico could drop to as low as $1.60 a gallon this year as the United States and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries engage in an outgoing crude oil price war, an expert told the New Mexico Landmen’s Association on March 27. Dr. Daniel Fine, associate director of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, said at the landmen’s association’s monthly meeting recently that crude oil storage in the United States is at a near maximum, meaning it will be some time before crude oil prices...

The city’s Animal Welfare Department is putting a moratorium on adopting out dogs that have failed behavior tests and has begun contacting owners of potentially dangerous dogs adopted over the last year, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry said Tuesday. “This is an urgent situation,” he said in a Journal interview. “This is a big deal.” The mayor also reiterated his confidence in the department’s director, Barbara Bruin, saying he was confident she would make whatever changes were needed in the interest of public safety. Bruin came under heavy criticism in a complaint to the city Office of Inspector General, which alleged...

They have names like Pappy, Taz and Smokey – pleasant names to make them better candidates for adoption. But these and dozens of other dogs adopted out of the city of Albuquerque’s animal shelter last year have something else in common: They have killed and maimed other pets, bitten children, attacked their handlers or displayed other signs of aggression. In more than 100 cases last year, the Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department has allowed the dogs to be adopted by families or returned to their owners even though they flunked nationally recognized standardized tests that showed the animals had dangerous tendencies....

A man walked into Calibers shooting range, rented a gun and shot himself in the head with it Monday, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. He died at a local hospital. Police say the man used a gun rented from the indoor range, which is near Washington and I-40, to commit suicide. Tanner Tixier, a spokesman for APD, said police believe he shot himself in the head. Doctors found a suicide note in his pocket. His identity has not been released.

At least 2,000 jobs will likely be lost in New Mexico’s oil and gas industry in the coming months because of sharp declines in the price of crude oil, according to estimates by the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

Seven Southwestern states will soon be infiltrated by 1,200 military special ops personnel as part of a controversial domestic military training in which some of the elite soldiers will operate undetected among civilians. Operation Jade Helm begins in July and will last for eight weeks. Soldiers will operate in and around towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado where some of them wil drop from planes while carrying weapons loaded with blanks in what military officials have dubbed Realistic Military Training. ....snip....

There was no doubt that Private Blake W. Mariano of the 191st Tank Battalion was a brave man. As part of the American Army's 45th Infantry Division, he had killed many Germans as he fought through Africa, Italy and southern France, before finally, in March 1945, he and his Sherman tank had crossed the Rhine into Germany. By April 15, 1945, Mariano had been away from his home in New Mexico for nearly three years. A father of three, the 29-year-old was divorced, although he did have a girlfriend in England.

George Fischbeck, a science teacher turned weatherman who joined KABC-TV in 1972 and spent nearly two decades exuberantly delivering the local forecast, has died. He was 92. Fischbeck, who was known as "Dr. George," died of natural causes early Wednesday morning at the Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills, his daughter, Nancy Fischbeck, said. A trained meteorologist, George Fischbeck was so enthusiastic about his subject that he sometimes forgot to talk about the next day's weather.

... Civil asset forfeiture is one of those issues where Americans of all political persuasions grasp the truth that government has grown far too powerful and arrogant, with officials serving their own interests rather than those of the public. Some officials have badly overreached, using their power to engage in what Frederic Bastiat called “legal plunder” and thereby awakened a huge cross section of the populace to the fact that government is often more about helping itself than about serving the public interest. The silver lining to civil asset forfeiture is that it helps people to understand that, as Albert...

The New Mexico state legislature passed a groundbreaking bill Saturday to abolish civil asset forfeiture. Now Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who will likely get attention as a potential 2016 vice presidential candidate, will have the bill on her desk. Civil asset forfeiture is a practice where police can take and keep your property without convicting or even charging you of a crime. Then, you must go through the arduous and often unsuccessful process to get your property–whether it’s a vehicle, cash or your home–back from the police.