Free Republic

Mesa County commissioners have thrown their first jab in a growing fight against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the department’s decision last November to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species. Commissioners on Monday approved and signed a notice of intent to sue the federal government for listing the Gunnison sage-grouse as threatened and for designating a critical habitat for the bird in western Colorado and eastern Utah. The notice of intent to sue claims the listings are improper because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted the Gunnison sage-grouse population in the Gunnison Basin is “stable...

..Tamara Kay, a professor in the sociology department at the University of New Mexico, criticized right-to-work laws as "kindergarten math."Much of the focus on fights over right-to-work laws has been on Rust Belt states like Michigan, Indiana, and now Wisconsin, as its governor and likely presidential candidate Scott Walker signed a right-to-work bill Monday. But there's also a high stakes showdown underway in New Mexico. Late last month, the state's House of Representatives passed a right-to-work bill, setting up a face-off with the Senate, which could raise the profile of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, positioning her as a Walker-esque rising...

Seniors at a New Mexico high school have voted to hold a prom with a communism theme, which they've dubbed "prom-munism." KRQE-TV in Albuquerque ( http://goo.gl/x2zXLb ) reports that Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School students voted online this week for the theme.

Students at an Albuquerque, N.M., school decided that communism should be the theme for their prom — now dubbed "Prom-munism." The decision by seniors at Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School has upset some members of the school. One student who spoke to local CBS affiliate KRQE, but asked to remain anonymous, said "I hope that Cottonwood would realize the seriousness of having a very powerful and destructive idea as the theme for a prom."

An old scam is popping up in a new place. This time it's targeting people who make a living taking care of children and seniors. Arielle Wohlberg put a post on Care.com offering to be a baby sitter. She is a college student at CNM looking for some extra income. She says she got an email from a man claiming his wife had breast cancer and they needed a sitter for their daughter. He even sent her pictures that he said were of his family. Then, he mailed her a $3,000 check and told her to cash it and wire...

GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma .. said he doesn't think relying heavily on Democratic votes is a "new normal." But he conceded the Republican-led Congress faces even tougher choices ahead, including another debt limit showdown this year, in which scores of conservatives are unlikely to help. ... Tuesday's vote was perhaps the final coffin nail in the "Hastert Rule," promulgated by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. He said a speaker should not allow votes on major bills opposed by most of his caucus. More than two-thirds of House Republicans voted against the DHS bill Boehner offered Tuesday.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20150303/new-mexico-house-approves-two-right-to-carry-reform-bills | New Mexico: House Approves Two Right-To-Carry Reform Bills On Monday, the New Mexico House of Representatives approved House Bill 106 by a 48 to 19 vote, with the measure receiving unanimous support from the House Republican Caucus and roughly a dozen members of the minority party. HB 106, sponsored by state Representative Paul Bandy (R-Aztec), extends the renewal period for a concealed handgun license from 60 to 90 days before and after it expires, removes the fingerprint requirement for license renewals and eliminates the mid-term two-year refresher course. Additionally, the House approved House Bill 189 by a 39...

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

A New Mexico eighth-grader was suspended from school for letting her classmates know that they could opt out of the state’s new online standardized test. 12-year-old Adelina Silva printed out the forms from her own school’s website and was rewarded with a trip to the principal’s office. Adelina and her mother, Jacqueline Ellvinger, appeared on “Fox and Friends” this morning to explain what happened and why Adelina was punished. “I wanted the parents to know that they had the option to let the student either take the test or not,” Adelina said. …

According to findings from The Tombstone Marshal’s Office (TMO), a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officer was mistaken for a man impersonating an officer.. On January 28th, while traveling east on Charleston Road, a sixteen year old driver reported to the Tombstone Marshal’s Office that she observed a male driver in a white truck look at her as he passed and then turned around and begin travelling eastbound behind her before pulling her over with emergency lights flashing on the dashboard. The female advised that she pulled to the side road and the male exited his vehicle and approached her...

More than two dozen states have joined the Texas lawsuit opposing President Obama’s executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, but more eye-opening is the list of Republican governors whose names still do not appear on the suit. The seven Republicans who have thus far elected not to join the suit aimed at reining in Obama are Chris Christie of New Jersey, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Larry Hogan of Maryland, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Matthew Mead of Wyoming, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Bruce Rauner of Illinois. Five of those seven states – Maryland, Iowa, New Mexico, Massachusetts and...

Thirty House Republicans are calling on their leadership to continue to stand firm against calls for a so-called “clean” Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill — or one free of House-passed riders blocking President Obama’s executive amnesty. In a letter dispatched Wednesday to House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) the lawmakers, led by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), argued that the House must continue to fight against Obama’s executive actions using the “power of the purse.” “American voters supported our position of opposing executive overreach during the November elections, and are solely...

Things got very wonky indeed last month when Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Tom Clifford, Deputy State Treasurer Ricky Bejerano and State Auditor Tim Keller all tried to explain to the Legislative Finance Committee exactly how much money the state wasn’t sure it had. The state, which requires all citizens to file tax returns and has the power to audit those returns to make sure they are correct, has not passed an audit of its own books since 2007. It holds taxpayers accountable for the accuracy of their returns, all the while spending more than $6 billion of their...

U.S. Border Patrol agents are expressing frustration that a multi-million dollar park project in San Diego’s Tijuana River Valley region, including a butterfly garden, will make it harder for them to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in that area. Among the obstacles of concern are snowflake barriers, rebar-lined irrigation systems, low-posted bollards and iron gates. The project is shaped in accordance with an environmental impact report from 2006. Much has changed since then, according to National Border Patrol Council Local 1613 spokesman Gabe Pacheco. “These obstacles are going to make securing the border more difficult and more dangerous,” Pacheco said. “Agents...

New Mexico voters continue their long-standing opposition to a 2003 law that allows the state to issue driver’s licenses to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, a new Journal Poll found. Seven in 10 registered voters surveyed last week said they opposed the law – results that mirror those of earlier Journal Polls. Respondents were asked: “Do you support or oppose New Mexico’s state law that allows driver’s licenses to be issued to immigrants who are in the country illegally?” Support is strongest among Democrats, Hispanics and younger voters, the poll showed. But even among those groups, a majority...

members of the Arizona National Guard, including military recruiters were discovered working as “muscle” and “traffickers” for Mexican drug gangs .. About 12 National Guard were identified as suspects in one of the FBI’s biggest government corruption cases ever, which was almost totally ignored by government officials in Washington and major national news outlets On Friday in federal court, a non-commissioned officer (non-com) with the border-state Arizona’s Army National Guard was sentenced to federal prison for his role in protecting drug traffickers by using his military position to provide security for shipments of cocaine being transported from Mexico into the...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —The district attorney is seeking criminal charges against the two officers who shot and killed James Boyd last spring. Police said officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez fatally shot Boyd last year. District Attorney Kari Brandenburg submitted paperwork Monday to move the case forward. The next step would be a preliminary hearing, where prosecutors would make their case to go to a full trial. A judge would have the final say on whether the case moves forward. "In this case we do believe that we have probable cause," Brandenburg said. The DA is seeking murder charges. Brandenburg also...

While a federal judge’s injunction has halted the implementation of President Obama’s sweeping executive actions from November, it appears U.S. Customs and Border Protection never got the news. According to CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, the relaxed border enforcement guidelines that accompanied Obama’s executive actions should continue apace, unaffected by the judge’s ruling. In an email sent to CBP agents on Wednesday and later obtained by NRO, Kerlikowske conceded that the federal judge’s action meant agents “should not consider” Obama’s new and expanded deferred action guidelines when processing illegal immigrants. But border protection and enforcement are apparently a different matter. Kerlikowske’s...

Mesa County commissioners on Tuesday directed Mesa County Attorney Patrick Coleman to draft a notice of intent to sue the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species. Gunnison County filed its own notice of intent in December to bring civil action against the Fish and Wildlife Service for, the county believes, improperly listing the bird as a threatened species and naming Gunnison County and acreage in a handful of other Colorado and Utah counties, including Mesa, as critical habitat for the sage-grouse. Mesa County decided to follow with its...

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has no dues-paying members on the Moriarty, New Mexico police force, but that’s not stopping the union from demanding the city negotiate with it anyway. The city’s police officers voted in 2011 to create a collective bargaining unit affiliated with AFSCME to negotiate employment contracts on their behalf, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Two officers joined, the majority did not. Those two have since left the department. The seven officers currently employed by the city are not union members, though the union still claims to represent them.