Free Republic

New Mexico’s oil and gas industry is bracing for another round of volatile ups and downs in crude prices that could push the market – and ultimately production in the southeastern part of the state – to its lowest point in more than a decade. The industry has already been battered by steep price declines over the past year that cut the price of crude from more than a $100 a barrel in mid-2014 to about $44 now. That’s led to thousands of layoffs in New Mexico’s oil patch in the southeastern part of the state and, to a lesser...

<p>The Colorado spill would have been avoided had the EPA team checked on water levels inside the inactive Gold King Mine before digging into its collapsed and leaking entrance, a team of engineers from Interior's Bureau of Reclamation concluded in a 132-page report released Thursday.</p>

Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Special Agent John Dodson blew the whistle on the Department of Justice (DOJ) ill-fated “Fast and Furious” operation in an interview with me in 2011. Dodson explained that the U.S. government had been instructing federal agents like him to encourage gun dealers to sell thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. ... Beyond Fast and Furious, similar “gunwalking” cases by the government were reported in numerous cities: Phoenix, Tucson and Houston to name a few. “Walked” guns were used by illegal Mexican bandits in an Arizona shootout that killed...

Injured officer in critical but stable condition ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —Police say the man accused of shooting an Albuquerque police officer this week was located in a backyard shed with a handcuff still attached to his wrist. The shooting occurred just before 8 p.m. Wednesday near Central Avenue and Eubank Boulevard. According to authorities, a traffic stop nearby turned into some sort of altercation in which Davon Lymon, 34, fired six shots. Police say two shots hit Officer Daniel Webster. One shot hit him in the face, critically injuring him. Webster has been in the Intensive Care Unit since the incident...

It's nearly 50 years since the US landed men on the moon, but Americans are still dying from a disease that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages. Why hasn't the US eradicated the plague?

Nine cities in states across the US have pressed for resolutions to recognize October 12 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day rather than Columbus Day. Eight of those cities passed resolutions in the last two months and three adopted a resolution just this week. The City Council of Albuquerque, New Mexico voted six to three on Thursday to recognize October 12 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in a new proclamation:“Albuquerque recognizes the occupation of New Mexico’s homelands for the building of our City and knows indigenous nations have lived upon this land since time immemorial and values the process of our society...

Today two Oregon ranchers were sentenced to five years in federal prison under terrorism statutes for setting preventative fires on their own land. We are gravely disappointed at this outcome. “Elderly Harney County rancher Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, a former OFB Board member and Harney County Farm Bureau president, have already served time in federal prison for their mistakes and paid their debt to society for the less-than-140 acres of BLM land that was accidentally impacted by the fires. “This is an example of gross government overreach, and the public should be outraged. “Today’s verdict is also hypocritical...

Once again the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] has failed to notify the appropriate local officials and agencies of the spill in a timely manner.” These are the words of U.S. Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District in response to another toxic spill resulting from EPA activities at an abandoned mine in western Colorado. According to the Denver Post, an EPA mine crew working Thursday at the Standard Mine in the mountains near Crested Butte, triggered another spill of some 2,000 gallons of wastewater into a nearby mountain creek. Supporting Tipton’s remarks to Watchdog Arena, the Denver Post...

More than 35,000 people have signed a petition calling for the cast of Maze Runner to apologize to the Native American people for stealing Pueblo artifacts while filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It comes after one of the sequel's stars, Dylan O'Brien of Teen Wolf fame, jokingly admitted to pinching rocks and skulls from the Diamond Trail despite being warned not to. His throw-away comment has sparked online outrage - and 20th Century Fox producers are 'very upset and very embarrassed' by the situation, Daily Mail Online has learned. Now, the production team has launched an internal investigation to find...

A few days ago a top law enforcement official finally confirmed that Islamic terrorists have infiltrated the United States through Mexico, a story that Judicial Watch broke last year as part of an ongoing series involving the dangerously porous southern border. Last October JW reported that four members of the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), who entered the U.S. through the Mexican border, were arrested in McAllen and Pharr Texas. Then, over the summer, JW reported that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling foreigners from countries with terrorist links into a small Texas rural town near...

Two allotments delayed pending more studies. A coalition of environmental groups have forced public land managers to delay a grazing permit decision on Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Grand Canyon Trust, Western Watershed Project, Wild Earth Guardians, National Resource Defense Council, Wildlands Defense, the Sierra Club and Durango-based Great Old Broads for Wilderness collectively filed a 27-page protest against the proposed Flodine and Yellow Jacket grazing allotments on the monument ... they want the two allotments permanently closed to grazing ... The groups challenged a recent decision plan by the BLM to issue 10-year terms for the allotments, located...

Bowie Resource Partners plans to lay off nearly 100 people at its Bowie #2 Mine near Paonia in the latest setback to coal employment in the North Fork Valley. The company said Tuesday that it anticipates laying off 78 workers and 19 contractors from the mine, where 181 full-time employees and 19 contractors work now. ... it is continuing to evaluate the market for the mine’s coal after losing a contract to sell to the Tennessee Valley Authority a year ago. The loss of that contract caused Bowie to eliminate about 150 jobs at that time. Bowie operates three underground...

Despite a long process involving collaboration between local officials the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Western Colorado, the federal land agency is proceeding with the closure of roads that have been traveled for 50 or more years. The road closures comprise a portion of the BLM’s Resource Management Plan (RMP) for Mesa County, of which, 73 percent is controlled by the federal government . ... public roads, used by off-roaders, hunters, farmers, ranchers and, during wildfire season, firefighting crews. ... Jody Green, a member of Public Lands Access Association and long-time activist working to preserve access into federally-managed lands,...

Deadly floodwaters that tore through a Boy Scout troop's New Mexico campsite as they slept turned their tents into wet cages that clung to their bodies like saran wrap, newly released police reports and taped interviews show. The group of eight California boys and their chaperones fought desperately to escape, some using their teeth to rip holes in their tents. "You could hear people yelling, but you couldn't understand what they were saying," Michael Evans, one of the adults, told police of the chaos that June night.

Mayors from eighteen U.S. cities signed a letter to President Obama saying they are willing to take even more refugees than what has been proposed by the administration. “We will welcome the Syrian families to make homes and new lives in our cities,” wrote the mayors, all of whom are part of the Cities United for Immigration Action coalition. “Indeed, we are writing to say that we stand ready to work with your Administration to do much more and to urge you to increase still further the number of Syrian refugees the United States will accept for resettlement.” “This is...

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez recently announced a sweeping, statewide energy plan aimed at embracing a wide array of energy sources, including oil and gas — which already accounts for more than $1 billion in yearly state revenues — solar, wind and new technologies. The far-reaching energy policy and implementation plan, entitled “Seizing our Energy Potential: Creating a More Diverse Economy in New Mexico,” is the state’s “first comprehensive energy policy and plan since 1991, nearly 25 years ago,” Michael Lonergan, Martinez’s press secretary, told Ripon Advance.

The Interior Department said Tuesday that the greater sage grouse, a ground-dwelling bird whose vast range spans 11 Western states, does not need federal protections ... The fight over whether to list the bird as endangered or threatened recalled the battle over the spotted owl 25 years ago, where federal protection greatly impeded the logging economy. ... could help defuse a potential political liability for Democrats heading into the 2016 election; ... House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop said Tuesday's announcement was a "cynical ploy" intended to mask the fact that the Obama administration has imposed limits on development...

An F/A-18 fighter jet aircraft has crashed west of Naval Air Station Lemoore. The crash, which happened Monday, was north of Highway 198 in a dirt field just east of the Kings/Fresno county line, about two miles west of NASL, according to Adam Barresi, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. The pilot reportedly ejected from the aircraft in mid-air, parachuted to the ground, landed and walked over to emergency responders on scene, according to Kings County Fire Chief Bill Lynch. Lynch said the crash happened around 4 p.m. The pilot's name wasn't immediately available. The parachute was reported as...

New Mexico has a wealth of energy resources. And now it has a comprehensive plan to help guide development of those riches to grow the state’s economy. Last week at the 2015 Southeastern New Mexico Mayor’s Energy Summit in Carlsbad, Gov. Susana Martinez laid out a broad “all of the above” energy policy. “There is no reason we shouldn’t be an energy leader,” she later told attendees at the eighth annual Domenici Public Policy Conference in Las Cruces. Her plan embraces a wide range of energy sources, ranging from oil and gas to solar, wind and up-and-coming technologies, such as...

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- On a remote property on Perdiz Canyon Road, off of Highway 165, in New Mexico, a 59-year-old homeowner says that he woke up to find an intruder in his home.  The house is out of sight of the gate, down a long, dirt track that serves as a driveway.  The intruder is said to have sprayed the homeowner’s dog with pepper spray, then used a gun after the homeowner woke up.  From koat.com: “(The intruder) fired a shot that went just wide of my client’s hip,” Cravens said.Cravens said his client used his cane to knock the...