News New Mexico: 05/17/12

Albuquerque man busted by laptop he reportedly stole

Diego Torres

From KOB-TV.com - An Albuquerque man was busted red handed by a laptop he reportedly stole. Burglars reportedly stole $4,000 worth of items including an HP laptop with security software installed on the computer that takes a photo of anyone who who opens the computer once the anti-theft software is activated. It wasn’t the first Chris Ortiz’s mother had her home burglarized, so he decided to be proactive and installed the software to help his mom. "As I was driving I remembered I had installed tracking software on the computer I had given her, I activated the software,” he said. The free software is called GadgetTrak, and it can also track whatever device it’s activated on with a wireless signal. That tool led the Albuquerque Police Department to a house on the 300 block of 55th Street. On Wednesday, Ortiz received e-mails with pictures of Diego Torres. "After a couple times of him opening it I was able to see his house, his bedroom and then I got a photo of the guy himself,” Ortiz said. Police said Torres, 24, had his photo taken on the laptop several times and had possession of the stolen material. His father returned the stolen laptop, but Torres hasn’t been arrested. A $15,000 cash surety warrant was issued for his arrest, and police don’t know for sure if he actually stole the items. Read more

F22s still flying

The best fighter in the world, the F22

From the Alamogordo Daily News - NORFOLK, Va. -- People who live near F-22 bases should not see significant changes in how or where the aircraft are flying following new restrictions put in place while military officials examine what's causing oxygen-deficit problems with the stealth fighters, the Air Force said Thursday. Guidance on how far away from bases the jets can fly will go out to F-22 units over the next several days, officials at Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia said in a statement to The Associated Press. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the restrictions Tuesday as the Air Force attempts to figure out what's causing pilots in the world's most advanced fighter jet to experience dizziness and other symptoms of oxygen shortages while flying. The Air Force grounded the jets -- which have never flown a combat mission -- for four months last year while it tried to pinpoint the problem. The planes started flying again in September but the hypoxia-like symptoms in pilots continued. The 49th Wing Public Affairs Office at Holloman Air Force Base did not respond to an email from the Daily News seeking comment. Some of the nation's 200 F-22 pilots have refused to fly the plane as a result and the issue has drawn scrutiny from members of Congress concerned about pilots' safety as well as the safety of communities near the bases, some of which are heavily populated areas. In Virginia, residents are keenly aware of the dangers of malfunctioning planes following the crash. Read more

Swickard: I do not consent to tyranny by my government

Michael Swickard, a younger version

Speech by Michael Swickard – for the Las Cruces TEA Party, May 17, 2012 - I will take two local government situations and use them to explore the principle that we citizens must consent to be governed. Let me set the table: locally our city government threatened to turn off utilities to those who do not pay the red-light camera fines. It got international attention and I am sure hundreds of other cities said, “Cool, can we do that?” Also, we are dealing with Wilderness Proposals that seek to change how we interact with our public lands. What do these have in common? Our consent to be governed. Our country came into being because of an unjust government. The Declaration of Independence said that we will no longer consent to be governed by England. The English did not consent to our withholding our consent so we had the Revolutionary War. We won the right to be free as long as we remain willing to fight for freedom. The first task after whipping the Brits was we had to construct a just government. So those leaders had to know just from unjust. Then those leaders had to develop a set of rules so that the American government would remain just. No easy task.The federal government was created by the states. The states shared the power to govern with the federal government Even now they have the right to withhold it. Read full speech

Acton & Dystel and WhiteHouse.gov pdf posters, You Have Some Splaining to Do

NewsNM note (Spence) - We'll cop a plea to suppressing the "birther" debate. Unlike the debate over man-made global warming which we realized has clearly been squelched, we thought the birther debate was a non-starter. In the last thirty-six hours we have run across two compelling pieces we submit for you without any additional comment. The first is video produced using the White House birth certificate document at WhiteHouse.gov. You should watch this video very carefully here if for no other reason than an education on editing in Adobe.
Breitbart News has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama's then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which touts Obama as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii." The booklet, which was distributed to "business colleagues" in the publishing industry, includes a brief biography of Obama among the biographies of eighty-nine other authors represented by Acton & Dystel. It also promotes Obama's anticipated first book, Journeys in Black and White--which Obama abandoned, later publishing Dreams from My Father instead. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Too much agreement means more entitlements

George F. Will

George F. Will - Bipartisanship, the supposed scarcity of which so distresses the high-minded, actually is disastrously prevalent. Since 2001, it has produced No Child Left Behind, a counterproductive federal intrusion in primary and secondary education; the McCain-Feingold speech rationing law (theBipartisan Campaign Reform Act); an unfunded prescription drug entitlement; troublemaking by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; government-directed capitalism from the Export-Import Bank; crony capitalism from energy subsidies; unseemly agriculture and transportation bills; continuous bailouts of an unreformed Postal Service; housing subsidies; subsidies for state and local governments; and many other bipartisan deeds, including most appropriations bills. Read More News New Mexico

EPA auditors review how state records costs

Santa Fe New Mexican - Two auditors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began examining records at several bureaus of the New Mexico Environment Department on Tuesday, state officials confirmed. The federal audit, which is expected to last a week and a half, is to determine how the state Environment Department recorded labor costs related to 13 federal grants worth about $55 million, state officials said. "They just want to make sure what we are charging the federal agency is what the employees are working," Cathy Atencio, administrative services director at the state agency, said in a telephone interview. Later, Butch Tongate, the state agency's deputy secretary, said in a written statement that the audit was "more of a technical correction in the way we track our spending of federal grants. We want to fully comply with EPA's directives when it comes to cost accounting. We will comply with whatever findings come as a result of this audit." The EPA auditors started at the state Air Quality Bureau on Tuesday and planned to expand their examination to the Surface Water Quality, Drinking Water and Ground Water Quality bureaus over the next week and a half, Atencio said. Among the items auditors are reviewing are each bureau's timekeeping and payroll policies and procedures, a listing of current EPA grants and a listing of employees who worked on grants, according to an EPA memo. Read More News New Mexico

Radicals Fight for PNM Policies That Will Drive Up Electricity Prices and Cause Blackouts

Canadian Business - Environmentalists are continuing their push to see that a coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico is closed. About 50 people from various environmental groups turned out Tuesday to protest during Public Service Company of New Mexico's annual shareholders meeting in Albuquerque. They argued the utility should not continue to invest in the 40-year-old San Juan Generating Station.
The plant is under an order from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to install equipment to reduce haze. Cost estimates range from $350 million to $750 million, and PNM officials have said ratepayers will ultimately end up with the bill. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Radical Environmentalists At It Again, Fighting a NM Coal Permit in Court

NewsNM Note (Spence) This story is a perfect illustration of the points made in a column over the weekend on how radical environmentalists are piling trillions in costs on the U.S. economy. Here in New Mexico they are at it again clogging our court system, piling costs on energy producers, killing jobs, and lowering living standards. - KOB - Environmentalists are suing the federal government over approval of a permit that allows for expansion of a coal mine in northwestern New Mexico. The Western Environmental Law Center filed the suit in federal court in Colorado on Tuesday. It names the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement. The suit challenges the agency's approval of a 714-acre expansion at BHP Billiton's Navajo Coal Mine and its claim that the mine hasn't caused health and environmental impacts. An agency spokesman says the Office of Surface Mining has followed the permitting process to the letter. He declined to comment further on the pending litigation. The mine feeds the nearby Four Corners Power Plant. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Courtesy of Conservative Daily News

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