NM Has Spent $1.5M on Unfinished Public Projects

From kob.com -New Mexico taxpayers so far have spent nearly $1,500,000 for three projects that are now stalled and can't be used by the public. No one from the state can say when those projects will get funded and completed. The projects include a senior center and police substation on the Navajo Nation and a Multijurisdictional Law Enforcement Headquarters building in Cuba.  More News New Mexico

NM Has Spent $1.5M on Unfinished Public Projects

Desert Bighorn Taken Off Endangered List

From daily-times.com -The New Mexico State Game Commission voted Thursday morning in Farmington to take the desert bighorn sheep off the state endangered species list. The decision comes after a 30-year recovery effort that started slow, gained momentum and ultimately increased the number of bighorn sheep in New Mexico from fewer than 50 to more than 600, said Elise Goldstein, a biologist for the New Mexico Game and Fish Department.   More News New Mexico

Desert Bighorn Taken Off Endangered List

DOJ is Coming to Albuquerque

From newswest9.com -U.S. Justice Department officials are scheduled to meet with Albuquerque community activists over slate of police shootings. Two Justice Department attorneys are slated to meet Monday with representatives from LULAC, the ACLU, the Hispano Roundtable of New Mexico, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Center on Social Justice. Community activists and family members of some of the 20 people shot by police since January 2010 have been calling for a DOJ investigation of the department.  DOJ is reviewing allegations of civil rights abuses to determine whether it needs to step in and conduct an independent review.  Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry said the city has hired an outside organization to review the department and should be given time to implement the recommendations in that report from the Police Executive Research Forum.  More News New Mexico

DOJ is Coming to Albuquerque

Private Prison Costs Missing From State's Sunshine Portal

From newmexicowatchdog.org -It seems that no sooner does the state’s IT department get one omission from the new mandatory information portal patched up when another glaring omission crops up. The portal lists $5.7 billion in “Purchases” for the most recent fiscal year – fiscal 2011. That includes some $84 million the state Corrections Department spent last year. Problem is, the Corrections Department spent almost that much just in contracts with four privately operated prisons. Those purchases are not listed among 4,966 purchase orders the state’s prison, probation and parole buyers authorized last year.  More News New Mexico

Private Prison Costs Missing From State's Sunshine Portal

CA Now Competing With NM for US Patent Office

From miamiherald.com -A potential new regional federal patent office now has California lawmakers competing against their colleagues from other states. New Mexico also is gunning for the Patent and Trademark Office satellite center. So are Colorado, Texas and Hawaii. So are other states, each staking its claim to one of the three satellite offices authorized in a new patent reform law.  More News New Mexico

CA Now Competing With NM for US Patent Office

$680M Owed in Child Support in NM

From koat.com -State officials said there are 26,000 deadbeat parents across New Mexico who owe a combined total of $680 million in overdue child support. The state said it hasn’t ever considered using a collection agency to track down deadbeat parents because the state cannon enter into contracts and that Child Support Enforcement has no authority to arrest people on its own. The agency relies on police. The department’s only teeth are sending letters, taking away driver’s license and threatening arrest.  More News New Mexico

$680M Owed in Child Support in NM

BLM Opposes Prayer Plaque at WWll Memorial

Pulaski note: Apparently being a land management expert also makes you an expert in depicting historical "messages" to the public. From thegatewaypundit.com -The Obama Administration announced its objection to including President Roosevelt’s prayer on the World War II Memorial in Washington DC.   Roosevelt asked the nation to join him in prayer as U.S. and allied troops launched the invasion that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany. He asked God to give the allied troops courage and faith, saying, “With thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.” But Robert Abbey, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, said any plaque or inscription of the prayer would “dilute” the memorial’s central message and therefore “should not be altered.” “It is not a judgment as to the merit of this new commemoration, simply that altering the Memorial in this way, as proposed in HR 2070, will necessarily dilute this elegant memorial’s central message and its ability to clearly convey that message to move, educate, and inspire its many visitors,” Abbey said in written testimony.  More News New Mexico

BLM Opposes Prayer Plaque at WWll Memorial

High-ranking official facing charges

NewsNM Swickard: Shooting a dozen times at a rattlesnake? Forget everything else, this guy needs some basic firearms training "front sight, target picture, then shoot." From KRQE-TV.com - SANTA FE, NM (KRQE) - A high-ranking Department Of Corrections employee now faces charges for firing his gun on prison grounds near the state pen in Santa Fe. Larry Flynn was living in the housing division for corrections employees on the prison grounds with his girlfriend Lupe Martinez, who was at the time Corrections Secretary. That housing division is where corrections officials say Flynn fired his personal gun. A report states Flynn pulled the trigger more than a dozen times back in August. At that time the Department Of Corrections said they did not believe any laws had been broken so they did not call in state police to investigate. Flynn claimed he was shooting at a rattlesnake that he spotted under his dog's house. The report was taken, the acting warden called and an internal investigation began. The Governor's office got wind of the allegations and called for a criminal investigation to make sure Flynn did not receive special treatment. Weeks after the investigation began, detectives slapped charges on Flynn, the head of the special operations division for the state's Probation And Parole Department. He is now facing misdemeanor charges for negligent use of a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence. On Thursday, corrections officials said this wont happen again. Read more

High-ranking official facing charges

"A Sign of the Times"

  Courtesy of Conservativedailynews.com

"A Sign of the Times"