Jilted ex-boyfriend puts up abortion billboard

From the El Paso Times - ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) - A New Mexico man's decision to lash out with a billboard ad saying his ex-girlfriend had an abortion against his wishes has touched off a legal debate over free speech and privacy rights. The sign on Alamogordo's main thoroughfare shows 35-year-old Greg Fultz holding the outline of an infant. The text reads, "This Would Have Been A Picture Of My 2-Month Old Baby If The Mother Had Decided To Not KILL Our Child!" Fultz's ex-girlfriend has taken him to court for harassment and violation of privacy. A domestic court official has recommended the billboard be removed. But Fultz's attorney argues the order violates his client's free speech rights. Read more

Jilted ex-boyfriend puts up abortion billboard

Red-light cameras ready to power up

From KRQE-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Heads up, Albuquerque drivers. Red-light cameras will be switched back on Friday morning. The Albuquerque City Council approved a new revenue-neutral contract with Redflex on Monday. The cameras at certain intersections will begin snapping red light runners at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Read more

Red-light cameras ready to power up

Swat Team Raids By..The Department of Education

From news10.net -A federal education official Wednesday morning offered little information as to why federal agents raided a Stockton man's home Tuesday.  "They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," Wright said. As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for -  Wright's estranged wife - was not there. Wright said he later went to Stockton Mayor Ann Johnston and Stockton Police Department, but learned the city of Stockton had nothing to do with the search warrant.  U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton confirmed for News10 Wednesday morning federal agents with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), not local S.W.A.T., served the search warrant.  More News New Mexico

Swat Team Raids By..The Department of Education

Faith-based Global Warming Advocates - OPEC a Team

Bloomberg - Oil rose to a one-week high in New York after OPEC failed to reach an agreement on production targets for the first time in at least 20 years at its meeting in Vienna today. Futures gained 1.7 percent after Mohammad Aliabadi, the acting Iranian oil minister and OPEC president, said the group will maintain current output for now. A Gulf delegate said yesterday that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was going to increase quotas. A U.S. government report showed a larger-than-forecast drop in oil supplies. “The market is higher because OPEC failed to raise production today and we got a bigger-than-expected fall in inventories,” said Kyle Cooper, director of research at IAF Advisors in Houston. “You’re seeing the big reaction to the OPEC news because a quota increase has been expected.” Crude oil for July delivery rose $1.65 to $100.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since May 31. Prices are up 40 percent in the past year. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Faith-based Global Warming Advocates - OPEC a Team

Big Business versus Big Business

Newsnm note - Despite a 55-45 margin and bi-partisan support, banks lost and retailers won. Now we will see what happens to consumers when costs of debit card issuance and bank service fees are re-worked. The Nation - For the past year, a wide and expensive lobbying fight in Washington has pitted Wall Street banks against big retailers, and fattened the wallets of lobbyists up and down K Street. The final battle (for now, anyhow) will take place on the Senate floor this afternoon when an amendment by Senator Jon Tester of Montana comes up for a vote. This fierce debate is over the “swipe fees” that banks charge retailers when a customer uses a debit or credit card at their store.

"Dick" Durbin

During the Dodd-Frank financial reform debate last year, Senator Dick Durbin successfully passed a bill requiring the Federal Reserve to limit these fees, and the Fed’s rules go into effect on July 21. Tester’s amendment would delay that implementation by twelve months. There’s a lot at stake for Wall Street banks in this fight—they rake in $1.35 billion in swipe fees every month, according to the Nilson Report. More than half goes to ten large megabanks that include Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Big Business versus Big Business

Ideas so stupid that only intellectuals believe them

Walter Williams

Townhall - There are a lot of things, large and small, that irk me. One of them is our tendency to evaluate a presidential candidate based on his intelligence or academic credentials. When Obama threw his hat in the ring, people thought he was articulate and smart and hailed his intellectual credentials. Just recently, when Newt Gingrich announced his candidacy, people hailed his intellectual credentials and smartness as well.

George Orwell

By contrast, the intellectual elite and mainstream media people see Sarah Palin as stupid, a loose cannon and not to be trusted with our nuclear arsenal. There was another presidential candidate who was also held to be stupid and not to be trusted with our nuclear arsenal who ultimately became president -- Ronald Reagan. I don't put much stock into whether a political leader is smart or not because, as George Orwell explained, "Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them." Read full column here: News New Mexico

Ideas so stupid that only intellectuals believe them

Apodaca Registers as Lobbyist, Fine Unpaid

Veritas New Mexico - National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) Foundation President and CEO Clara R. Apodaca has submitted lobbyist registration forms to the state for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011, Secretary of State Bureau of Elections Director Bobbi Shearer said Tuesday.

Clara Apodaca

“We have not yet received any expenditure reports or a response to the fine,” Shearer said, referring to a $5,000 fine imposed by Secretary of State Dianna Duran on the NHCC Foundation for Apodaca’s violations of the state Lobbyist Regulation Act.The violations were first uncovered by Veritas New Mexico. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Apodaca Registers as Lobbyist, Fine Unpaid

NMPolitics: Corrections Dept. Audit Finds More Problems

Heath Haussamen

NMPolitics - A former N.M. Corrections Department official is already under indictment for taking bribes from one company; now, a newly released audit indicates that the problems extend beyond that company. State Auditor Hector Balderas released the audit today that finds issues with the department’s relationships with three contractors – Advantage Asphalt Seal and Coating, HEI Inc., and Omni Development Corporation, the company at the heart of the pending federal bribery case against former Corrections Facilities Manager Laurie Chapman. Read full story here: News New Mexico

NMPolitics: Corrections Dept. Audit Finds More Problems

N.M. Rancher Gunned Down in SW New Mexico

Examiner - Hidalgo County Sheriff Department has confirmed that New Mexico rancher, Larry Link, was murdered earlier today on his property. Sources are reporting that the rancher was responding to an alleged- illegal alien on his property at Stein’s Ghost Town when the he was gunned-down. The murder took place on the southwest side of the state near the Arizona border on Interstate 10 at mile marker three. Read full story here: News New Mexico

N.M. Rancher Gunned Down in SW New Mexico

IRS: Billionaire Carl Berg Understated Income by $110M

Carl Berg

From forbes.com -The Internal Revenue Service says a venture capital business of billionaire Carl E. Berg, the unassuming, low-key New Mexico native who made his fortune in the Silicon Valley, understated its income by $110 million and owes $44 million in back taxes and penalties.  Berg certainly is no stranger to tax woes. In 2000 he made the mistake of buying a tax shelter from sketchy Dallas promoter Gary M. Kornman to generate $18 million in losses that could be used to shield similar profits. As Forbes reported in 2007, the IRS later called the deal a sham, costing Berg an estimated $6 million in tax penalties, interest and legal fees.   More News New Mexico

IRS: Billionaire Carl Berg Understated Income by $110M

Wilmeth and Wood to Appear on NewsNM

The terrible news of Hidalgo County rancher Larry Link's passing yesterday reached the News New Mexico desk just as we were looking at the guest list for today's show. Rancher Steve Wilmeth and Retired Border Patrol chief Gene Wood will appear on the show this morning. Both men will speak at length on the impact of a "wilderness" designation proposal made by New Mexico Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall. While the death of rancher Larry Link is still under investigation, Wilmeth and Wood will be speaking from their own personal experiences about the dangerous situations ranchers and U.S. Border Patrol agents are facing in the southern portion of the state. They will join us in the 8:00 o'clock hour.

Wilmeth and Wood to Appear on NewsNM

Bernanke Talks Investors Walk

Ben Bernanke

WSJ - NEW YORK—A gloomy economic assessment from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke erased an earlier stock rally, sending major indexes in the final minutes of Tuesday's session to their fifth consecutive drop. The sharp reversal came after Bernanke offered downbeat comments on the U.S. economy. He said economic growth has been "somewhat slower" than expected, although he added that the recovery should pick back up in the second half of 2011 despite recent signs of weakness. Mr. Bernanke also said the recovery two years after the end of the recession remains "uneven" and that conditions—particularly in the labor market—remain troubled. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Bernanke Talks Investors Walk

Obama's Bin Laden Bounce: Gone

Mitt Romney

Washington Post - The public opinion boost President Obama received after the killing of Osama bin Laden has dissipated, and Americans’ disapproval of how he is handling the nation’s economy and the deficit has reached new highs, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey portrays a broadly pessimistic mood in the country this spring as higher gasoline prices, sliding home values and a disappointing employment picture have raised fresh concerns about the pace of the economic recovery. By 2 to 1, Americans say the country is pretty seriously on the wrong track, and nine in 10 continue to rate the economy in negative terms.

Nearly six in 10 say the economy has not started to recover, regardless of what official statistics may say, and most of those who say it has improved rate the recovery as weak. New Post-ABC numbers show Obama leading five of six potential Republican presidential rivals tested in the poll. But he is in a dead heat with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who formally announced his 2012 candidacy last week, making jobs and the economy the central issues in his campaign. Among all Americans, Obama and Romney are knotted at 47 percent each, and among registered voters, the former governor is numerically ahead, 49 percent to 46 percent. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Obama's Bin Laden Bounce: Gone

Area in Hidalgo County a "Connecting Point"

Las Cruces Sun-News - The Las Cruces Sun News provided additional information on the death of rancher Larry Link yesterday: Hidalgo County Commissioner Ed Kerr said there is undocumented immigrant and drug activity in the area where Link was killed. "Last summer in August, I found five bundles of marijuana on my ranch land about 50 feet from the freeway. That can't be more than eight or 10 miles from Larry's," he said.

"They were scattered about. One was under the billboard, one was beside the fence. Illegals with empty backpacks had dropped their load. I-10 is, obviously, a connecting point. We're getting a lot of traffic, more than what we've seen in the past couple of years. They have ultra-light planes flying out of Mexico and dropping off bundles and then illegals walking and picking them up." Read full story here: News New Mexico

Area in Hidalgo County a "Connecting Point"