Details Emerge in Driver's License Scams

KOB TV - A day after a big indictment involving illegal immigrants getting New Mexico driver's licenses, with alleged forged documents, more information is coming out about the scope of the problem. KOB Eyewitness News 4 obtained an ad that New Mexico leaders say ran in a Spanish newspaper in New York. Staffers for Governor Susana Martinez say phone numbers in the ad were linked to New York resident Jose Luis Aguirre. Officials say he was arrested in May and was involved in bringing illegal immigrants from New York and other states to New Mexico to get a New Mexico license. Officials tell us a similar ad also ran in a Polish newspaper in Chicago. State leaders here find the ads troubling because only illegal immigrants who live in New Mexico can get a New Mexico license. Recent indictments of three Chinese men indicate they were being paid by illegal immigrants from out of state to arrange getting a New Mexico license, using forged documents. KOB Eyewitness News 4 has also learned about something else that raised major red flags with the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department. Illegal immigrants must set an appointment with the MVD to get their license and must provide a contact number. We have learned that one New Mexico number was used as a contact number 228 times. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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War on Cameras Continues

Capitol Report New Mexico - We’ve written about the three members of the New Mexico congressional delegation skipping town hall meetings this summer (although they didn’t skip hosting big fundraisers). And we’ve posted numerous stories about what’s called the “War on Cameras,” the wrongheaded (and often illegal) approach many public servants and authorities have when it comes to people merely photographing or videotaping people who work on the taxpayers’ dime. Now a dopey congressman from Ohio has managed to combine both these stories. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) had a town hall meeting the other day … and had security personnel collect the cameras of a couple people recording the event. Read full story here: From the Cincinnati Post: News New Mexico




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Twelve Year Old Learns How Business People Are Treated in the Big Government Era

Forbes - Well it’s not exactly lemonade but it’ll do. Christopher Carr’s twelve-year-old stepson had set up a smoothie and green-tea stand near their house when they moved back to the States after the earthquake in Japan. After they’d set up shop, Christopher took his daughter back inside to get some lunch, leaving his son to manage things at the stand. “After my daughter finished eating and as we approached the end of our street where the drink stand was, I could see from afar that the sign was pulled up and put away, the cooler was shut with everything which we had so carefully arranged on the tray table put away, and my stepson was huddled up and sitting on the rail, staring out between his knees at the ocean.
“What happened?” I asked when I got down there. I wondered if he had gotten discouraged that no one was buying his drinks or maybe that no one could understand his accent. Or maybe he was just lonely down there by himself. “The police told me to pack up and go home,” he said. Or, more accurately I discovered after making a few phone calls, the town police swung by and wished him good luck, and then afterwards, “someone in brown” came by and made my stepson stop selling drinks at the end of our street, because this required a permit, and my stepson did not have a permit to sell drinks.
After hearing a little more from my stepson and talking to the town police, I discovered that it was the Massachusetts State Police that broke up our lemonade stand. After attempting several times to contact the State Police, I reached only answering machines. Apparently, having someone on call on weekends is not in the Massachusetts State Police’s budget (but breaking up lemonade stands is somehow cost-effective). Read full story here: News New Mexico

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