Free Republic

The two main criminal cases against Andrew Romero that led to his plea bargain and release to the street earlier this year were in danger of falling apart when he pleaded guilty in front of District Judge Cristina Jaramillo in January, according to his former attorney and a spokeswoman for District Attorney Kari Brandenburg. Romero, charged in the Memorial Day killing of Rio Rancho police officer Gregg Benner, was facing charges of narcotics trafficking, aggravated assault during the theft of gasoline from a convenience store and possession of a stolen vehicle. The charges were in three separate indictments and carried...

On my way to the NRA annual meeting, I passed through Lordburg, New Mexico on I-10. It is a convenient place to fuel the truck and myself, so I pulled into a truck stop to grab a sandwich. Open carry is protected by the New Mexico Constitution. I was carrying a Glock 17 (9mm for those who have not kept up with Glock nomenclature). The young woman behind the counter had a streak of purple hair, multiple piercings, a sizable tattoo on her right forearm, and was friendly, courteous, helpful, efficient and pleasant to speak with. I could not ask...

Producers of the new thriller "Beyond The Reach" needed a villain. Specifically, they needed a bad guy to costar with Michael Douglas, who plays the murderous multimillionaire out to kill an innocent hunting guide played by Jeremy Irvine. Requirements for the role included beauty, speed, agility and toughness, and the ability to withstand long shooting days in New Mexico desert near Four Corners. The casting call led them to a most unusual candidate. Douglas' evil partner in crime is played by a Mercedes 6x6.

..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...

Thankfully, Democrats in New Mexico, didn’t fair so well in their recent push for gun control. The Bloomberg initiated “universal background checks” failed in the Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee, 4-3 along party lines.

Deep in the heart of flying-saucer land, a real estate agent is peddling conspiracy theorists' dream home. This Atlas-F nuclear missile silo — decommissioned, of course — is one of a dozen around Roswell, New Mexico, a remote town best known as the site of a supposed flying-saucer crash in 1947. (Almost 50 years later, the Air Force revealed that the wreckage was actually an atomic-age spy contraption meant to detect minute atmospheric evidence of Soviet nuclear test blasts on the other side of the planet.) Century 21 agent Jim Moore, who's marketing the 25-acre property, recently gave the New...

House Bill 44 has been re-introduced by Miguel Garcia (D-Albuquerque) in the state legislature. No surprises here, as a certain political party has a penchant, for victim disarming gun control. Gun owners need to start early and get on the ball opposing it. HB 44 does away with private party sales at gun shows, and it’s really the start, of banning all private sales. What the gun prohibitionists love to call the “gun show loophole.”

Photographs supplied by Valerie Caldwell. Alyssa Caldwell and her father had been hunting all day.   The weather had been nasty; cloudy skies with snow and rain alternating.   They had seen a few elk, much too far away to take a shot.   They left their makeshift blind to see if they could spot another elk before the end of the day.   It was the middle of the afternoon. At 12, Alyssa was already an experienced huntress.   She had started shooting at 5, and had a new rifle, a stainless Howa 1500, as her elk gun.  They...

Today I was visited by a young man who claimed his brother was killed in Afghanistan. He claimed his brother was a Rifleman and gave the 0311 MOS. I don't recall the unit he claimed his brother was with.Something about his story just raised a red flag.The claim was he was raising money to send care packages to troops. I thanked him, told him I was sorry about his brother, but that I wanted to check the website first.The site on his "receipts" stated the charity's site was www.thepatriotproject.com (which I found didn't exist), but the man said it was...

In a stunning blow to the federal government’s case against the Reese family in the New Deal case, Judge Robert Brack imposed the following sentence: Time Served3 years supervised release$100 fine per count of convictionRandom drug testingDNA samplesRefrain from alcohol use or possession of alcoholRandom home/vehicle searchNo gun ownership  He informed them they have the right to appeal his sentence.The government had originally sought the maximum sentence of five years each for Rick and Terri Reese, plus an additional few years for testifying in their own defense at trial, which was considered by the government to be “obstruction of justice”.  The government...

This email was sent out by Cheri Jimeno, Ph.D., the President of New Mexico State University Alamogordo to the university students. Jimeno encourages students to vote early and often. “Remember – early voting is available through Saturday. Please be sure to turn over your ballots to read about GO Bond A, GO Bond B and GO Bond C. Yep, Bond B and C have a direct (and wonderful) impact on NMSU-A. So, if you are going to vote “yes” on the bonds, I would encourage you to vote as often as possible….

A scion of the Udall family is losing ground in this year’s Senate contest, but this time it’s Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico. The Democratic incumbent saw his once-formidable lead over Republican Allen Weh shrink in two polls released Monday. A survey taken by Research & Polling Inc. for the Albuquerque Journal has Mr. Udall ahead by 50 to 43 points, down from 51 to 38 percent in its mid-September poll.

The U.S. Senate race in New Mexico has flown under the radar for months as political handicappers have almost universally predicted an easy re-election for Democrat Tom Udall. But a new survey from the Albuquerque Journal suggests that the race may be tightening in its closing days. Fifty percent of state voters support Udall (pictured), and 43 percent favor his Republican challenger, Allen Weh. About 8 percent remain undecided. Udall holds key advantages over Weh with Hispanic voters (62 percent to 27 percent) and women (53 percent to 37 percent). Weh leads among men (49 percent to 46 percent) and...

A former aide to Gov. Susana Martinez (R., N.M.) who was involved in the hacking of emails from the Martinez campaign and was implicated in the subsequent FBI investigation is now being used as a source for anti-Martinez articles in New Mexico. The Santa Fe New Mexican last week published allegations made by former Martinez campaign aide Anissa Galassini-Ford that the governor’s office improperly used government databases against political opponents. The article on Ford’s claims was the paper’s cover story last Thursday and was featured on its website for much of the day.The author of the story, Steve Terrell, notes...

A New Mexico man almost lost his genitals to a dog bite when a 90-pound (40-kg) mixed breed pitbull attacked his eight-year-old daughter and he intervened to rescue her, police said on Sunday.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —In recent years, gun sales have gone through the roof out of fear gun laws would drastically change, but they didn’t.

Southeast New Mexico is facing a crisis that cuts at the heart of Christian faith and practice. With Immigration and Customs Enforcement bringing some 600 Central American refugees to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, local citizens are rallying. Tragically, the most vehement response is exceptionally negative, couched in fear, fueled in politicized rhetoric and grounded in anything but biblical, moral and humanitarian concerns. As faith leaders and pastors in Eddy and Lea Counties, we call for Christian grace, morality and common sense given the looming crisis. We commend events like a planned July 15 interfaith vigil at...

Some of the Firearms Destroyed in Santa Fe, NM One of the oddest parts of the political desire to disarm Americans is the push to destroy valuable property for propaganda purposes.   In Santa Fe, New Mexico, tens of thousands of dollars of valuable property was destroyed purely for propaganda.  Even in the old Soviet Union, which was no slouch when it came to disarming its people, the guns that were collected were not wantonly destroyed.   They were cared for, refurbished, sold to renew state resources, or used to defend the state from its enemies.  No doubt many were redistributed...

Oil companies say a weeks-old Obama administration ruling that protects a Southwestern prairie bird has already halted oil-drilling operations in Kansas and is costing the U.S. economy tens of millions of dollars, as a GOP congressmen suggests the move is another “job-killing” attack on fossil fuel. The decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that was announced in late March and took effect May 1 includes a provision that should allow federal officials and landowners in the five impacted states -- Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas -- to manage conservation efforts. But oil producers say the interim...

A rural New Mexico county has voted to defy the federal government and give a rancher's cattle access to a watering hole fenced off by the Forest Service in the latest dispute over federal control of public land in the U.S. West. Commissioners in Otero County voted 2-0 on Monday night to authorize Sheriff Benny House to open a gate allowing nearly 200 head of cattle into the 23-acre area despite Forest Service restrictions. A third commissioner was out of town for the vote. "We are reacting to the infringement of the U.S. Forest Service on the water rights of...