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Santa Fe Public Schools is among three school districts suing the state of New Mexico and its Public Education Department in an effort to force an increase in funding for public schools in a state that perennially scores near the bottom in national ratings. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in state District Court in Santa Fe, asks the court to declare that current funding levels violate the New Mexico Constitution and asks the state to change its funding formula to offer equal support for students who are English language learners or living in poverty.

Border Patrol Agent and National Border Patrol Council #3307 Vice President Chris Cabrera said that “nothing” has been done to secure the border in the event the Ebola virus spreads to Central America, and that the apprehension rate on the border was down to about 30% . ... Cabrera continued his criticism of the upper management of the Border Patrol, saying, “What needs to be done is we need to have our agents in the field where they belong, we need to stop cutting our manpower and stop cutting our hours and get our guys out there on the front...

Two Utah congressmen say the public needs more time to weigh in on a "sweeping" proposal to designate more than a half-million acres as critical habitat for the Western yellow-billed cuckoo. Republican Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Chris Stewart are among 17 members of Congress who urged U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe to extend the comment period on the designation beyond Oct. 14. "While we oppose this listing proposal, we find it completely unacceptable that the (agency) has proposed only 60 days of public comment with no public hearings, effectively shutting out meaningful comment on a sweeping critical...

Wednesday on Newsmax TV's "America's Forum," Mayor Phillip Burch Mayor of Artesia, NM, a isolated town that houses a federal immigration detention center, said there has been a sudden large increase in the number of illegal immigrants being released from the center into the United States. Burch said, "We have seen some changes in how the cases of these immigrants are being handled. There can be gowing concern about how this is being handled by the government."

A California woman wasn't able to honor her late husband at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta after a thief made off with the balloon her daughter planned to pilot. Police say Lucinda Wallace's hot air balloon was taken sometime early Saturday morning from the Nativo Hotel. The suspect also took a trailer holding the balloon and a Chevrolet Suburban with a California license plate that reads "baluner."

Pot is one thing, but three ounces is a lot for a casual user and is usually reserved for dealers. Wait…. You weren’t selling that weed were you, Mark? And, then, amphetamines? Really? It’s no secret in Colorado that Sen. Mark Udall has some problems telling the truth. It’s probably also relatively well-known that Mark Udall admitted to The Rocky Mountain News (RIP) that he was arrested for possession of marijuana. But, here’s Sen. Udall’s dirty little secret – it wasn’t just marijuana and it was a little more complicated than he shrugged off in the Rocky. ... The punishment...

Scientists say it’s almost certain that massive injections of waste water caused recent quakes in the Raton Basin, including a 5.3 tremor in 2011 FRISCO — A surge in earthquakes in southern Colorado and New Mexico has almost certainly been caused by the injection of fracking wastewater deep into the ground, U.S. Geological Survey scientists reported last week. The study details several lines of evidence directly linking the injection wells to the seismicity. The timing and location of the quakes is clearly linked with the the documented pattern of injected wastewater. Detailed investigations of two seismic sequences (2001 and 2011)...

A sheriff in New Mexico was convicted by a federal jury Friday of weapons charges and violating a man’s civil rights after a car pursuit. Rio Arriba County Sheriff Thomas Rodella, 56, was found guilty of violating the civil rights of a driver, identified as Michael Tafoya by the Associated Press, and brandishing a firearm during a violent crime in an assault on Tafoya. Federal prosecutors said Rodella and his son chased the man in their car and once they cornered him on a dead-end street, the sheriff got out with his gun, got into the man’s car and pistol-whipped...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Health officials are investigating nine cases of muscle weakness or paralysis in Colorado children and whether the culprit might be a virus causing severe respiratory illness across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday sent doctors an alert about the polio-like cases and said the germ - enterovirus 68 - was detected in four out of eight of the sick children who had a certain medical test. The status of the ninth case is unclear. The virus can cause paralysis but other germs can, too. Health officials don't know whether the virus...

Kansas – A federal judge has decided a lawsuit challenging increased federal regulation of economic activity and land use in the area that is habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken will be litigated in Oklahoma and not transferred to Washington, D.C., Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today. The decision yesterday by U.S. District Judge James H. Payne is the second time in the last two months that the federal judiciary has rejected an attempt by the federal government to move the litigation from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C. “This is good news for Kansas,” Schmidt said. “It means our case...

A new poll shows likely New Mexico voters still oppose an 11-year-old state law that allows immigrants who are in the country illegally to obtain driver's licenses. The Albuquerque Journal reports three-fourths of the likely voters surveyed opposed the law, echoing findings of similar Journal polls.

Amarillo, TX - An incident involving a Clovis (NM) police officer accused of using excessive force is receiving a lot of attention. A video recently released shows what happen during the traffic stop. The officer in question is Brent Aguilar. He placed Jorge Corona under arrest during a traffic stop for concealing ID. According to a local attorney, that was just the first mistake. Dan Lindsey says the second mistake was slamming Jorge Corona to the ground when he was not resisting or evading an officer. "Jorge was falsely accused of concealing his ID, falsely arrested, falsely slammed to the...

ROSWELL, N.M. — A driver who went missing after a one-car rollover says he later woke up in a field of donkeys. New Mexico State Police say the driver called 911 seven hours after investigators failed to find any victims from the crash. The driver told 911 dispatchers that he was lost and found himself surrounded by the animals. Authorities say the man claims he and a passenger were drinking the night before but didn't remember what happened next.

Odile will unload tremendous rainfall over a large part of the Southwest United States that will run off the mountains and into the desert valleys and plains through the end of the week. While the rain will continue to ease the long-term drought in the region, too much rain will fall too quickly for the landscape to absorb.

Google is planning to test Internet delivery by drone high above New Mexico, according to a government filing. On Friday, the company asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to use two blocks of frequencies for the tests, which are scheduled to last about six months and begin in October. They will be conducted above an area of more than 1,400 square kilometers in the center of New Mexico to the east of Albuquerque. “Google recently acquired Titan Aerospace, a firm that specializes in developing solar and electric unmanned aerial systems for high altitude, long endurance flights,” Google said in...

This is real: Discovery Channel is stranding Republican and Democratic U.S. senators on a deserted island and filming what happens. In an aisle-crossing new reality series titled Rival Survival, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) must put their political differences aside and work together for six days and six nights in an harsh isolated environment

Mark Udall, who yesterday had to apologize for his use of beheaded Americans as a political shield in his weekend debate with Republican opponent Rep. Cory Gardner, has been hit with an accusation of a campaign finance violation. What Senator Mark Udall did, which was caught on camera by Revealing Politics, is a rather blatant violation of the Federal Elections Commission rule which bans the practice of federal candidates soliciting non-federal funds. While a named guest at a fundraising event for State Representative Crisanta Duran, Chairwoman of Colorado’s powerful Joint Budget Committee and rumored contender for House Majority Leader, Udall...

"The court appointed attorneys in the Reese case have filed a joint motion to vacate (throw out) the felony convictions and sentence them under a misdemeanor statute." "Rick, Terri and Ryin Reese were convicted in 2011 of four counts of Form 4473 (Brady check) violations. According to agents who testified during trial, the Reeses ran all of the required background checks (the Brady checks) through the FBI processing center for all sales, including the undercover agents who purchased the firearms, and that none of the paperwork was missing."

OPINION Harry Reid is mad that Republicans didn't obstruct his bill BY ASHE SCHOW | SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 | 10:57 AM After all his complaints about Republican obstruction this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed frustration last night after Republicans helped guarantee a floor vote on a measure he supports. The Nevada Democrat has accused Senate Republicans of chicanery for voting to advance to the Senate floor a Democratic constitutional amendment allowing Congress to regulate all campaign speech and spending. After Monday's bipartisan 79-18 vote, Reid vented to reporters that Republicans were trying to "stall" the Senate, indicating that...

In which New Mexico Democrats' white, male gubernatorial nominee pronounces his Hispanic, female opponent -- whom he's trailing in the polls -- to be insufficiently 'Latino' in her heart, or something (via the Weekly Standard):