New Mexico Legislature to face changes

Farmington Daily TimesWidespread change is a sure bet in the New Mexico Legislature this year. No matter what happens in today's primary election, at least 21 of the 112 legislative seats will change hands. Nine of 42 senators are leaving office of their own accord at year's end. Twelve members of the House of Representatives also are giving up their seats, but six hope to remain in the Legislature as senators. In addition, one incumbent member of the House is sure to be ousted in Tuesday's primary. That is because Reps. Bob Wooley and Dennis Kintigh of Roswell are matched against one another in the District 66 Republican primary. Close friends, they were thrown into competition through redistricting. How much deeper the changes go depends on how many other incumbents lose their campaigns for re-election. For Republicans, the primary marks the beginning of what they hope will end a 60-year political drought. They have not controlled the state House of Representatives since 1953, when gas cost 20 cents a gallon and school segregation was still legal under the U.S. Supreme Court's "separate but equal" ruling. State Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, predicted Republicans will not take control of the House in 2013 either. Egolf said in an interview that he thinks Democrats will widen their margin after the general election in November. They now have a 36-33-1 advantage. Read More News New Mexico

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Where will you be when the lights go out in America?

Marita Noon
The passage of time is marked with milestones. We each know where we were when President Kennedy was shot, when the Berlin Wall came down, and on the morning of 9-11. If we continue on the current course, you’ll be telling your grandchildren where you were the night the lights went out in America. America’s energy policy is being dominated by environmentalists’ priorities—regardless of the impact to the American economy, individual communities, or economically-challenged citizens. The plans to shut down or limit America’s abundant, available, and affordable energy are organized, coordinated, and effective. The results will be “lights out in America”—a dim future.
On May 30, the Wall Street Journal alerted us to the Sierra Club’s new campaign aimed at killing the natural gas industry: “Beyond Natural Gas.” WSJ reports: “This is no idle threat. The Sierra Club has deep pockets funded by liberal foundations and knows how to work the media and politicians. The lobby helped to block new nuclear plants for more than 30 years, it has kept much of the U.S. off-limits to oil drilling, and its ‘Beyond Coal’ campaign has all but shut down new coal plants. One of its priorities now will be to make shale gas drilling anathema within the Democratic Party.”
How do they think we will power America? With intermittent, ineffective, and uneconomical wind and solar energy.
Why are the Sierra Club, et al, able to wield so much power? The Obama administration is friendly to their cause. Many of the agencies regulating domestic energy development are staffed with personnel culled from within the ranks of the environmental movement. And, they are not shy about their biases—as was revealed in the now famous “crucify” comment. They also use their vast resources to sue, and sue often. As a new report from the Kentucky Coal Association (KCA) reveals, they don’t just sue the coal miners and the coal-fueled power plants, they sue the EPA to force new standards which are often unattainable—thereby effectively stopping all use of coal. (Remember, natural gas is the next target.)
The EPA, then, goes around standard operating procedures to do the bidding of their environmental buddies. Read rest of column here: News New Mexico
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NM Estimated Primary Vote Turnout is 28%

KRQE - Election Day looms, candidates across New Mexico are focusing their attention on turning out supporters to vote on Tuesday. Only Democrats and Republicans can vote in the primary election. Winners of races will be the party nominees in the November general election.
About 28 percent of registered Democrats and Republicans have cast ballots in presidential election year primaries in New Mexico since 1996. Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff says he expects turnout to be average or slightly lower because there aren't many hotly contested top-of-the-ballot races to grab the attention of voters. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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KOB Reporters Uncover Campaign Workers Offering Whiskey for Votes in Rio Arriba County


KOB TV - Alcohol and voting do not mix, but that didn’t stop campaign workers in Rio Arriba from offering people miniature bottles of whiskey while giving them rides to an early voting center.
On the first day of early voting, 4 On Your Side watched some campaign workers and voters taking what looked like small bottles of alcohol from a cooler in the back of a truck used to shuttle voters to the polls.
To get closer, 4OYS reporter Gadi Schwartz and producer Peter St. Cyr disguised themselves as homeless people and spent two days walking up and down the streets, standing on corners, and even hanging out at an empty lot known to attract drug addicts and transients.
Eventually, a black Tahoe slowly approached St. Cyr. County employee Elias Fresquez, who is on leave from his job, offered him a ride to go early vote. St. Cyr climbed in the Tahoe, turned on a hidden camera, and got into the truck. Inside, St. Cyr was told he should vote for County Commissioner Alfredo Montoya who is running for State Senate against incumbent Sen. Richard Martinez. Read rest of story and see video here: News New Mexico
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EPA Using Drones to Spy on Ranchers

Infowars - Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is using aerial drones to spy on farmers in Nebraska and Iowa. The surveillance came under scrutiny last week when Nebraska’s congressional delegation sent a joint letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. On Friday, EPA officialdom in “Region 7” responded to the letter.
“Courts, including the Supreme Court, have found similar types of flights to be legal (for example to take aerial photographs of a chemical manufacturing facility) and EPA would use such flights in appropriate instances to protect people and the environment from violations of the Clean Water Act,” the agency said in response to the letter.
“They are just way on the outer limits of any authority they’ve been granted,” said Mike Johanns, a Republican senator from Nebraska.
In fact, the EPA has absolutely zero authority and is an unconstitutional entity of an ever-expanding and rogue federal government. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution does not authorize Congress to legislate in the area of the environment. Under the Tenth Amendment, this authority is granted to the states and their legislatures, not the federal government. Read full story here: News New Mexico

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EPA Leaves PNM Options Open for Discussion

Albuquerque Journal - The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed approving virtually all of the state’s plan for addressing regional haze, with a glaring exception: the state’s proposal for retrofitting the San Juan Generating Station to cut pollutants. But the federal agency appears to have left room for more discussion of alternatives to what it determined in a ruling last year to be the most cost-effective and expensive technology at the plant for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions, selective catalytic reduction.
The state proposed a less-costly alternative. In a proposed rule issued last week, EPA would approve most elements proposed by the state for improving visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. However, it said it would propose a future, separate action on San Juan “unless the state … earlier withdraws it in favor of an alternative that it may develop through discussions with the source and EPA.” Read full story here (subscription required) News New Mexico

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