NM Homeland Security official caught with gun at Sunport

Anita Tallarico - Deputy Secretary
 of New Mexico Homeland Security

NewsNM:Swickard - a gotcha moment of no consequence since she is both a conceal carry trained person and is part of law enforcement.  From KOB-TV.com - By: Jill Galus, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - TSA agents at Albuquerque's Sunport caught a traveler trying to get through security with a loaded gun. According to a police report, the traveler was Anita Tallarico, the Deputy Secretary of the State's Department of Homeland Security. "She did not use her position as a quest to get out of something that occurred," said Sunport Police Chief Marshall Katz. Tallarico told TSA agents she simply forgot the gun was inside her purse, Katz said. "People in general, unfortunately, unnecessarily, bring a gun to the checkpoint and they shouldn't - positions and non-positions," Katz said. It is a common explanation when it comes to travelers caught with prohibited items, he explained. "I forgot, I didn't realize it was there, I should know better." In this case, when asked if Tallarico should have known better, Katz said he could not provide a comment "because I don't know what she was thinking." Tallarico does have a concealed carry permit, as does Governor Susana Martinez, whose spokesperson issued KOB Eyewitness News 4 this written statement: "This is a serious issue and something that anyone with a concealed carry permit has to be especially careful of." A spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security, where Tallarico is second in command, confirmed her claim that this was an unintentional mistake. KOB received this written statement: "The oversight was not known to Ms. Tallarico until airport security discovered it. The secretary of DHSEM is aware of the situation and the department is currently conducting a review of all the facts." Tallarico was cooperative with security officers and like any other citizen, was cited for unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon, Katz said. Tallarico's gun was taken as evidence. Read more

NM Homeland Security official caught with gun at Sunport

What's the safest 4-digit PIN? Not 8068 -- anymore

From MSNBC.com - The safest 4-digit PIN is '8068' — or at least it was, until researchers at Data Genetics told everyone this week. The researchers there went through a set of 3.4 million four-digit personal identification numbers and found "8068" came up only 25 times. But now that this news is out, that's probably a PIN to stay away from. As Softpedia pointed out, would-be thieves may start trying that combination right after they hit "1234" ― the most common PIN, with nearly 11 percent frequency.  While not as common as 1234, there are several numbers that people seem drawn toward. For instance, PINs starting in "19" are common because people like to link their identification numbers with a significant year. In fact, all PINs that start in 19 fall into the top fifth of the dataset.  The top 20 includes all the series in which the first number is repeated throughout (such as 3333) plus 4321, 1212 and 2001. The study also found that many PINs are based on visual clues. Coming in at No. 22 is 2580 ― the numbers that run down the middle of a phone or ATM keypad.  Based on this report, more than10 percent of all bank accounts can be hacked with one guess. Beyond that, one-third of all PINs are made up of just 61 variations.  Read more

What's the safest 4-digit PIN? Not 8068 -- anymore

NM regulators consider PNM solar proposal

New Mexico regulators are considering a proposal that would mean fewer credits for Public Service Company of New Mexico customers who install solar photovoltaic systems. Renewable Energy Certificate credits have been slashed by more than half in the last year, and PNM says more changes are necessary due to a drop in the price of solar photovoltaic systems and the costs of the program to other customers. The proposal before the state Public Regulation Commission stems from negotiations with solar industry representatives and others. Critics tell The New Mexican a decline in REC payments will hurt the growth of the solar industry. PNM's program was launched in part to help the utility meet renewable energy portfolio standards set by the state. Now, more than 10 percent of its solar power is from individual solar photovoltaic systems.

Read more...
   

NM regulators consider PNM solar proposal

Looking In: Stealing private correspondence is wrong, on both sides of aisle

Dennis Kintigh

There has been much attention paid to the saga of the indiscreet emails sent by Pat Rogers to various individuals in the Martinez administration. But scant notice has been paid to the question of how these emails were obtained or the appropriateness of the conduct by Progress Now New Mexico. First off, the emails were offensive. No reasonable person could argue otherwise. Furthermore, Rogers and I, although acquaintances and members of the New Mexico Republican Party, are not political confidantes. It is my perception that Rogers was an ardent supporter of my opponent in the 2008 Republican primary. But this is not a personal issue. This is an issue of law, ethics and morality. During my career as an FBI agent, I was involved in countless wire-tap investigations. My roles ranged from monitoring agent all the way up to case agent/affidavit author. The federal legal system treats the privacy of personal communications with the utmost sincerity. In 1986, Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to set out explicit guidelines to law enforcement on what form of court order must be used to obtain emails and other electronic communications. It also sets out criminal penalties for, and civil suits against, those who illicitly obtain the emails of others...

Dennis Kintigh is the state representative of District 57, which includes Chaves, Lincoln and Otero counties. He lives in Roswell.

Read more...

Looking In: Stealing private correspondence is wrong, on both sides of aisle

NM officials expand chronic wasting control areas

The areas where hunters have to abide by special rules for handling and transporting animal carcasses have been expanded due to chronic wasting disease in deer and elk in southern New Mexico. The state Game and Fish Department made the announcement Monday. The agency says all of game management units 34, 28 and 19 have been designed as control areas. Those include Fort Bliss and White Sands ranges. Under the department's rules, hunters can transport only certain portions of an animal carcass from a control area. That includes cut and wrapped meat, hides and clean skull plates with antlers attached, but no parts of the spinal column or head. Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease. It attacks the brains of infected animals, causing them to become emaciated, behave abnormally and eventually die.

Read more...

NM officials expand chronic wasting control areas

Parents say coach ordered kids to campaign

When parents of the boy’s soccer teams at La Cueva High School got an email from the head coach about a mandatory community service project, delivering campaign brochures is not what they had in mind.  One parent KRQE News 13 spoke to wanted to remain anonymous. “I had the understanding that it was going to be cleaning up the park, cutting grass, pulling weeds,” one parent said.  Instead, the 50 or so junior varsity and varsity soccer players went door-to-door Sunday dropping off campaign brochures for Democratic Senator Lisa Curtis, who represents the far northeast heights.  “Why is the school sponsoring this? Why is the school condoning this? This is not community service,” a parent said.  Parents say no APS staff or coaches only members of Curtis' campaign were there to supervise the kids' political project.  “Who knows who could have opened the door and responded to the literature being passed out,” a parent said. Senator Curtis says she Is good friends with la Cueva's soccer coach Kevin Driggs.  “It was just a fundraiser for the team,” Senator Curtis said.  She told the coach she wouldd make a $500 donation to the team in exchange for some help from the players.  Curtis says the kids were not campaigning for her. “There’s no talking. Okay. There’s no campaigning. No issue discussing. All you're going to be doing is dropping lit. You're just making sure we're getting a bunch of literature out in the neighborhoods,” Senator Curtis said.  However, parents and APS officials did not see it that way.  “It is absolutely unacceptable,” APS Chief Operations Officer, Brad Winter, said. “We don't condone it. It should have never happened.”...

Read more...

Parents say coach ordered kids to campaign

Pat Garrett's hearse on display in Las Cruces

After negotiations that spanned two decades, the famous horse-drawn hearse that carried Sheriff Pat Garrett to his final resting place in 1908 is back in Doña Ana County. The antique hearse, owned by the Woman's Improvement Association until 1912, was recently purchased privately and then donated to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department for permanent installation in the Historical Museum of Lawmen, located inside the lobby of the department's main headquarters at 845 N. Motel Boulevard in Las Cruces. Las Cruces resident Cal Traylor, a lifelong New Mexican and history buff with a particular fondness for information related to the murder of Pat Garrett, spearheaded the negotiations for the hearse and subsequently donated it to the museum. Traylor spent the past 20 years working to acquire the hearse, which was traced to an art museum in Pinos Altos, with the intentions of returning it to Doña Ana County.

"It was simply misplaced at its former location in Grant County," said Traylor, whose research concluded the Women's Improvement Association sold the hearse to local farmer Hal Cox, who converted it to a farm trailer until selling it to Grant County resident and antique collector Frank Tatsch in 1935. Tatsch later restored the hearse to its original condition and placed in the Piños Altos museum. After Tatsch's death, the hearse was willed to his son, who sold the hearse to Traylor. "Unfortunately, that museum was hard to find and rarely open," said Traylor. "This is a rare piece of local history, and it was important that it not only be returned to Doña Ana County, but also made accessible to anyone who would like to see it." The popularity of Western history, and Garrett's affiliation with Doña Ana County, was of particular interest to Traylor. He contacted the sheriff's office and was connected with Jim Beasley, a retired deputy of the department and curator of the lawman's museum...

Read more...

Pat Garrett's hearse on display in Las Cruces

Gardner apologizes following leaked audio

Keith Gardner

Gov. Susana Martinez’s chief of staff, Keith Gardner, telephoned Senate Democratic leader Tim Jennings to apologize for a crude name-calling tirade in a secretly recorded conversation with another Roswell man. But Jennings said Monday the apology had a hollow ring — and arrived just before a campaign attack piece sent to Roswell-area voters by the Republican governor’s political adviser. Gardner’s profane references to Jennings were part of a wide-ranging conversation secretly recorded in October 2011 by a Roswell man but recently released by a lawyer active in Democratic Party politics. The chief of staff complained on the audiotape that a just-ended special legislative session had “kicked my ass.” He went on to call Jennings, a Roswell-area rancher and the Senate’s president pro tem, a string of vulgar names and said he was trying to find someone to run against him. Jennings — who told the Journal he found the explicit comments “quite degrading” — said Gardner called him Thursday night while Jennings was eating dinner with his daughter. Jennings said he returned the call, and the men spoke only briefly. “I just told him we’ll sit down and talk in person on this deal,” Jennings told the Journal on Monday. Gardner could not be immediately reached for comment Monday. The governor’s spokesman, Scott Darnell, said the two men “have spoken with one another and Keith has apologized to him.”...

Read more...

Gardner apologizes following leaked audio

State provides online access to LANL data

State environmental officials say they have finished their upgrade to a database that gives the public access to information on clean-up efforts at Los Alamos National Laboratory. New Mexico Environment Department Secretary David Martin says the new centralized, cloud-based database application called Intellus New Mexico provides the public with greater transparency and more timely access to the environmental data for tracking efforts to clean up toxic waste around the laboratory where the nuclear bomb was developed. Officials say validated and verified data will be consistently formatted and automatically updated to the new system every night.

Read more...

State provides online access to LANL data

NM to consider allowing concealed handguns in state parks

 A state agency is proposing to allow people licensed to carry a concealed handgun to bring their loaded weapons into a New Mexico state park. That's among several administrative rule changes proposed by the State Parks Division. Other proposals require life jackets for those using paddleboards. A public hearing on the proposals is scheduled Oct. 17 in Santa Fe at the Wendell Chino Building. Loaded concealed weapons currently are prohibited in state parks by an agency regulation. A Parks Division official says the proposed change will bring regulations into compliance with New Mexico law allowing people with permits to carry concealed handguns except in certain places such as courts, schools and bars. Since 2010, national parks have allowed visitors with a valid state permit to carry a concealed handgun.

Read more...

NM to consider allowing concealed handguns in state parks

State proposes revamp waste permit for Sandia Labs

Existing permits that govern the storage and treatment of hazardous and mixed waste at Sandia National Laboratories would be combined under a new permit drafted by state environment officials. The New Mexico Environment Department will be seeking public comments on the proposal through Nov. 16. The proposed permit would allow for the management of hazardous and mixed waste at eight container storage units and one area where explosive wastes could be burned. The proposal also spells out requirements in the event of a fire, explosion or other release of waste. Corrective action for cleaning up contaminated soil and water is also addressed. The latest draft has been years in the making. The department first issued a draft renewal permit in 2007. That was followed by public comments and requests for hearings but differences could not be resolved.

Read more...

State proposes revamp waste permit for Sandia Labs

ABQ council works to cut back zoo admission

The ticket price hike at the zoo isn't sitting well with some, and a group of Albuquerque City Council members have a plan to roll back the admission fees put in place at the beginning of the month. Right now, it costs a few bucks more for families to visit the zoo. Some families don't mind the price increase. "If it's for upkeep, then I think it's a good idea. I mean it's not that big of an increase and it's still affordable," zoo-goer Natanya Cisneros said. The fee hike is to help maintain the aging BioPark, which needs $18 million in repairs. City Council member Ken Sanchez said $3 more for adults and $1.50 extra for children and seniors is more than enough. He's proposing admission be rolled back to $8, instead of $10. "We can get this done without having a big impact on the fees and families of this community," Sanchez said. Sanchez said his proposal will generate $400,000 and the city can find additional funding sources. "Right now, the mayor has $9 million in a discretionary fund called 'ABQ The Plan.' We should take part of the money, which is $3 million, and use some of the money to pay for maintenance at the zoo," Sanchez said. The mayor's office said Sanchez's proposal provides less revenue than needed to maintain the park and would cause layoffs for city employees.  
Read more...

ABQ council works to cut back zoo admission

courtesy of Conservative Daily News

http://www.janice2012.us/