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| Rob Nikolewski |
Governor Ticked Off at NM Gas Company
Pay to Play Losses Targeted
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| George Munoz |
Unemployment Fund in Jeopardy
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| Mimi Stewart |
Expense reductions would come from reforms that have been made in previous years. They include: full-time students; reduce dependent allowance from 4 to 2; and discontinuance of EB/HUP (Extended Benefits/High Unemployment Period) extensions contingent of 100% federal funding on July 1, 2011. Modernization reforms that were made in previous legislation that garnered federal money sponsored by Rep. Stewart will remain intact as a good-faith effort. Beverlee McClure, President and CEO of the Association of Commerce and Industry, and Jeff Parker, Regional Vice President for Manpower (a global employment services agency) and Chairman of Albuquerque Economic Development spoke in support of the bill. McClure called it “the best of a worst-case scenario.” House Bill 59cs now heads to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration.
Sustainable Growth: A Threat to Private Property (Part 3)
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| Jim Harbison |
This editorial is based on an article from the American Policy Center. There are four parts to this drive to destroy private property. The first is the rural process called the Wildlands Project which calls for returning 50% of the lands in each state back to wilderness status. It does this by creating buffer zones around government owned lands such as national parks or forests. Human activity within the buffer zone is limited and is increasingly restricted until all human activity ceases.
Once this is accomplished the buffer zone is again extended and the process is repeated. Another method to stop human activity is to restrict livestock access to river banks which forces ranchers out of business. They also lock down access to natural resources (minerals and forests) on government lands to shut down these activities. When this occurs the towns that were supported by these industries die and the population moves into large towns and the former towns are abandoned. These programs are also known as “Heritage” areas for land management, protection and re-introduction of bears and wolves, rails to trails, conservation easements, and open space. There are currently 31 Wildlands Projects, 22 in the West including New Mexico, seeking to lock away 40 percent of the nation’s lands.
The second part called Smart Growth occurs after they have driven people from the rural areas and into regimented and dense urban communities. Because of restrictions on development inside the controlled City limits housing prices rise. This is caused by a shortage of housing and the implementation of mandatory “green” initiatives or regulations. The Vision 2040 plan being adopted by the City of Las Cruces is an example of the restrictive guidelines that will force people into “growth nodes” and mandate if or where your private property can be developed.
The third part of this strategy requires the local Councils be controlled by a ruling elite class and the environmentally driven progressives supported by the many bureaucratic boards, commissions and non-government organizations (NGO’s) that live off the public trough. It is usually necessary to seek approval from many of these “socially driven” groups to make any changes or dispositions of your private property. In San Francisco, for example, the new federal building was required to install an elevator that only stopped at every third floor so that occupants are required to use the stairs as a forced method of exercise for “their own health”.
The fourth part is the Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs) purportedly free enterprise organizations used to keep taxes down and using business to make society better. Many PPPs are nothing more than government-sanctioned monopolies that can charge what they want and use the power of the government to drive out any competition. The success of PPPs is not based on the quality of the product and service but on accepting the mantra of Sustainable Development even if it means going against their own products. This is why Home Depot uses its commercials to oppose cutting down trees and British Petroleum advocates reducing the use of oil.
Sustainable Development is not driven by free enterprise, but rather by the UN’s Agenda 21 blueprint for Sustainable Development. Unfortunately under the guise of some “better for society” banner we get involved in organizations or causes that have hidden motives, goals, and agendas. My intent in raising this issue is to raise public awareness of some of the unpublicized but clear objectives of the UN’s Agenda 21, and the ICLEI, to adversely impact private property ownership under the Sustainable Development banner.
EMT Background Checks Coming?
Gradually Gas Service Restored in Espanola and Taos
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| Susana Martinez |
FLAP Develops: Mandatory Arabic Classes in Texas?
From michellemalkin.com- By Doug Powers -If one of the main goals of the Department of Education is to educate parents on why they might want to consider the option of private or home schooling, then mission accomplished: MANSFIELD (CBSDFW.COM) – Some Students at Mansfield ISD schools could soon be learning Arabic as a required language. The school district wants students at select schools to take Arabic language and culture classes as part of a federally funded grant. The Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant was awarded to Mansfield ISD last summer by the U.S. Department of Education. As part of the five-year $1.3 million grant, Arabic classes would be mandatory at Cross Timbers Intermediate School and Kenneth Davis Elementary School. The program would also be optional for students at T. A. Howard Middle School and Summit High School. More here
Why Big Government is Bad Government
From hotair.com -That government which governs least, governs best. This well-known wisdom from Thomas Paine has been lost on succeeding generations that see an ever-growing federal government as the way to impose favored outcomes on markets and individuals. Blayne Bennett from Students for Liberty hosts the latest Econ 101 video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, explaining the damage that big government does by crowding out private markets and redirecting resources into non-productive and counter-productive uses: Video and more here
Hawkins: 15 Quotes on Global Warming
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| John Hawkins |
New Mexico Ballot Access Improvement Bill Introduced
From ballot-access.org -New Mexico Senator Linda Lopez (D-Albuquerque) has introduced SB 403, a 130-page bill of election law changes. The bill is backed New Mexico elections officials. It includes a few improvements in the ballot access laws. It changes the filing deadline for independent candidates from the day after the primary (which is in early June) to the day that is three weeks later than the primary. For presidential independents, the existing New Mexico law has the earliest petition deadline of any state except Texas. The bill also lowers the number of signatures to qualify a new or previously unqualified party, in midterm years. Current law says the petition needs signatures equal to one-half of 1% of the last vote cast. The bill changes that to the last vote cast in a gubernatorial election year. Because turnout is always higher in presidential years than mid-term years, this eases the number of signatures for a party that is qualifying in a midterm year. For example, in 2010, a party needed 4,151 signatures, but if this bill had been in effect in 2010, the requirement would have been 2,796 signatures. The bill also specifies that the petition to create a new qualified party must be available from the Secretary of State’s office at any time. Past Secretaries of State have withheld the petition form, even though there had been no law authorizing that behavior. The bill’s author is Chair of the Senate Rules Committee, the Committee that handles election law bills.
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