Free Republic

Recently I wrote about a suit challenging the law in Arizona - a state that's very friendly towards the abomination called civil asset forfeiture. There, innocent people who have had their property stolen by public officials have to worry that if they fight to get it returned and lose the case, the government will force them to pay out additional money to cover its legal costs in fending off their claims. Across the state line in New Mexico, a different but equally vexing legal situation prevails. Back in summer, the state legislature unanimously passed a bill that defangs the civil...

You may not believe who is abusing America’s immigration laws to secure cheap labor — public schools. "The foreign teacher trafficking business has stretched from the Prince George's County, Maryland, school district (which was ordered to pay $5.9 million in back wages and penalties for H-1B abuses in 2011) to the East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, school system (which required H-1B teachers to pay a $50 interview fee, $5,000 job application fee, and a $7,500 additional fee to a recruitment agency) and beyond," Michelle Malkin and John Miano write in their new book, Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires and Bipartisan Beltway...

More than 30 individuals, businesses seek damages from EPA. Financial damage claims for those affected by the Aug. 5 Gold King Mine blowout eclipsed $1.3 million just two months after the Environmental Protection Agency triggered the release of 3 million gallons of mine wastewater down the Animas River. ... more than 30 individuals and business owners filed Form 95, the claim process for financial reimbursements from economic loss caused by wrongful U.S. government actions. The combined claims total about $1.3 million in damages ... the hardest hit are rafting companies and their employees, who were forced to shut down for...

Three more Syrian men with fake Greek passports arrested on Caribbean island as the extraordinary lengths five others went to in a bid to enter US amid ISIS fears is revealed. [ Full title ] Earlier this week, five Syrians were arrested in Honduras with forged Greek passports . ... Three Syrians apparently attempting to sneak into the United States by traveling with fake Greek passports have been arrested on the Caribbean island of St Maarten.. ... the investigation is continuing to determine their identities and how they obtained the fake documents. They arrived on the island on an Insel...

The U.S. Postal Service will be hosting passport fairs around New Mexico as residents brace for identification requirements to take effect early next year.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently denied New Mexico an extension from tougher federal requirements on state driver’s licenses under the REAL ID Act.The decision means New Mexico driver’s licenses and IDs won’t be valid for federal purposes such as entering military bases and nuclear research labs starting Jan. 10. As a result, residents are seeking passports as an alternative.

"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," [Obama] said.Six Republican governors have announced that Syrian refugees won't be allowed to resettle in their states in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued statements Sunday saying that they wanted to prioritize the safety of the residents in their states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a GOP presidential candidate; Arkansas Gov. Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined them on Monday. "Michigan is a welcoming state and we are...

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez says she’s opposed to the Obama administration’s plan to accept any more Syrian refugees until there’s a clear plan in place to properly vet and place them. "The Governor strongly opposes the Obama Administration’s plan to accept more Syrian refugees until there is a very clear plan in place to properly vet and place the refugees, and the voices of governors and the public can be heard."

Donald Trump is glad that Ronda Rousey lost her title as UFC women's bantamweight champion ... "Glad to see that @RondaRousey lost her championship fight last night. Was soundly beaten - not a nice person!" Trump, 69, tweeted to his more than 4 million followers on Sunday ... Days earlier, Rousey, 28, pledged her support to Bernie Sanders in an interview with Maxim magazine. She added that if Sanders doesn't defeat Hillary Clinton in the primary, she'll vote for a third-party candidate ...

Environmental Protection Agency officials require contractors to sign secrecy pledges that in the case of the Gold King Mine spill kept the public in the dark earlier this year about a Colorado mining disaster that turned waters yellow as they flowed through two states and the Navajo Nation. ... these secrecy clauses are typical with the EPA - the same government agency whose former administrator, Lisa Jackson, used an alias email address to avoid public scrutiny. ... the EPA controls the flow of information by circumventing federal regulations that dictate when an agency can use non-disclosure clauses by including secrecy...

Panelists at Business First's second annual New Mexico Energy Outlook Summit yesterday offered but one common ground: Something needs to be done to turn the industry around. SPONSORED BY PEOPLE ON THE MOVE Tanja Jenkins Tanja Jenkins Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Mexico Andrew G. Schultz Andrew G. Schultz City of Albuquerque Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices SPONSORTony Royle, CPA Tony Royle, CPA Moss Adams See More People on the Move Emceed by ABF publisher Candace Beeke, the event brought together Dr. Daniel Fine, associate director of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy at New Mexico...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Albuquerque Public Schools police officers are investigating a brawl between two parents that happened last Friday at Zuni Elementary School. Officers were called to the school after those parents started duking it out in a fourth-grade classroom filled with kids, according to an incident report.It says one of the parents, Juli Pulsifer, was at the school to eat with her daughter during a Thanksgiving lunch. A group of girls were making faces at Pulsifer's daughter, investigators said, which sparked Pulsifer to verbally confront the group of girls.Pulsifer later told Action 7 News that she never did such...

Colorado officials say they didn't endorse an Environmental Protection Agency cleanup operation that caused a massive spill of toxic wastewater from an inactive mine, disputing a key claim by federal agencies that state experts signed off on the plan. ... a blow to the EPA's contention that outside technical experts supported its plan ... also raises questions about an investigation of the spill by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which claimed two mining experts from the state approved of the project

Robert Rubin, president and CEO of Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, says the federal government's decision to clamp down on the use of New Mexico driver's licenses to access federal facilities starting in January could potentially shut down his 600-employee business. He's not alone. "This could just be a disaster for a company like mine," said Bill Miera, president and CEO of the 143-employee engineering firm Fiore, which manages research and development contracts with Sandia National Laboratories and with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base. "If we couldn't get on base, we'd have to stop work, because...

New federal data shows that the Energy Department expects drillers in the Permian Basin to push oil production in the shale play above 2 million barrels per day for the first time ever this November. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s monthly Drilling Productivity Report released Monday, which covers seven of the biggest shale plays in the country, projects production in the Permian to jump by 17,000 bpd this month. That increase would bring the play above the 2 million bpd mark. In December, the EIA expects the play to grow again by 11,000 bpd. But the Permian is one of...

It’s time to talk seriously about the energy industry in New Mexico. And you have some work to do. Whether your business is directly involved in this industry, it’s very much tied to its outcomes — and right now, there’s much concern about that in the state. After all, some 30 percent of New Mexico’s tax base comes from oil and gas. And you’ve read the headlines we’ve been reporting on how that sector is faring. If you haven’t, let me recap — it’s a fracking mess. The price of oil dropping more than a year ago has resulted in...

Americans now comprehend fully the disdain the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has for truth-telling, the rights of others, and the environment. Forget the last six spiteful years; the Colorado mine disaster suffices. The EPA’s wanton malfeasance — experts warned of a catastrophic blowout — unleashed three million gallons of orange arsenic-, cadmium-, and lead-laden wastewater into an Animas River tributary trashing public, private, and tribal lands and waters in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and the Navajo Nation. Even so, the EPA has nothing on the U.S. Forest Service. In documents filed days ago in a federal district court in Arkansas,...

It's no secret that many U.S. environmental groups have become more strident and ideological during the Obama residency. But you may be surprised just how extreme they have become. In early October, a national network of environmental groups - called Stop the Frack Attack (STFA) - held a summit in Colorado to discuss their campaign strategies. The STFA alliance is led by Earthworks and includes other well-known national activist groups, such as the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Food & Water Watch. Dozens of smaller groups, which routinely serve as the face of national groups in state- and...

Elementary school principal Stephen Maresca was heading home from hiking in the Sandias with his wife, three children and their dog when the family was arrested by armed deputies after a rookie Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputy typed in a wrong license plate number. Responding officers had the couple and their children exit the truck, walk backward with their hands up and lie face-down on the pavement. The officers aimed firearms at the parents and children, including two boys ages 17 and 14 and a 9-year-old girl, according to a summary of evidence in an opinion by the 10th Circuit...

Judge stalls approved Montana coal mine expansion in 2nd successful suit citing climate change. The U.S. Interior Department should not have approved the expansion of a southeastern Montana coal mine without taking a closer look at its effect on the environment, a federal judge said about a lawsuit arguing the government ignored coal's contributions to climate change. Environmental groups sued the Interior Department after it approved an expansion of the Spring Creek Coal mine in 2012. The case marks the second time conservationists have used worries over climate change to successfully challenge approval of a coal mine after it had...

Two nuclear research labs would require visitors to show passports or other forms of identification if New Mexico does not comply with tougher U.S. regulations for driver’s licenses, creating uncertainty in a state that grants IDs to immigrants regardless of their legal status. Los Alamos National Laboratory, the nation’s premier nuclear weapons lab, said late Wednesday that visitors would need U.S. passports for entry if the state does not start mandating proof of legal U.S. residency for driver’s license applicants, a requirement under the federal REAL ID Act. Sandia Labs also said they would need an alternative government-issued form of...