Environmentalists Use Stealth Attacks on Martinez Via Press Releases by "Independent" News Agencies

Oil well fracking has been around for sixty years. It is a technique used to improve extraction rates. In recent years as the anti-fossil fuel movement has taken on a religious like approach groups have cropped up everywhere to oppose the practice. Below is a press release for an organization that calls itself: Food and Water Watch. This organization is targeting Governor Susana Martinez: "New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has made boosting opportunities for small businesses in the state a priority, but several groups dealing with environmental and health care issues say those efforts are falling short. One of the groups crying "foul" over the small business initiatives is Food and Water Watch. State organizer Eleanor Bravo says one of Martinez's early actions upon taking office was to form the "Small Business Friendly Task Force." Bravo says small is not what this task force is about. Well, it is neither small, nor business-friendly. It is made up of big lobbyist corporations." These types of organizations press releases find their way into our news feeds on the outside columns of this site. They are not actually news pieces. Instead they are opinions disguised as news.

Environmentalists Use Stealth Attacks on Martinez Via Press Releases by "Independent" News Agencies

Montana tribe’s high-interest online lending venture booms

From KOB-TV.com - An Indian reservation in the heart of Montana’s farm country may seem an unlikely place to borrow a quick $600, but the Chippewa Cree tribe says it has already given out more than 121,000 loans this year at interest rates that can reach a whopping 360 percent. As more states pass laws to rein in lenders who deal in high-interest, short-term loans, Indian tribes like the Chippewa Cree and their new online lending venture, Plain Green Loans, are stepping in to fill the void. The Internet lets them reach beyond the isolated Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation to borrowers across the nation, while tribal immunity has allowed them to avoid bans and interest-rate caps several states have set. To Neal Rosette, Plain Green Loans CEO and the Chippewa Cree’s former executive administrative officer, it’s a win-win. The online lending venture is a resource for people who can’t or won’t borrow from banks, while it gives the tribe a steady revenue stream and jobs with unemployment on the reservation at nearly 40 percent. Rosette said this model could be the successor to gambling for tribes looking for an economic boost. Some tribes have owned online lending businesses for several years, and Rosette said the Chippewa Cree and three other tribes have started the Native American Lenders Alliance to encourage more. "I believe this is the new outlook for Indian Country, not just Rocky Boy," Rosette said. "We are sovereign nations and we have the ability to create our own laws that regulate our businesses such as this." That’s a problem for consumer groups and the states that have tried to bring such lending under control. The issue with these loans, consumer advocates say, is that their high interest rates make it too easy for a borrower to become trapped in a cycle of debt as they have to borrow more to repay their original loans. Read more

Montana tribe’s high-interest online lending venture booms

Elephant Butte Reservoir: Century-old dam will open to public for first time in a decade

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - It's been a decade since the public was allowed to walk across Elephant Butte Dam, located on the Rio Grande 200 miles south of Santa Fe. Now, on Jan. 7, for one day only, the public can again tour the dam that has played a pivotal role in New Mexico's history. Rising more than 25 stories above ground level, the massive concrete structure at Elephant Butte backs up the Rio Grande to form New Mexico's largest water body. The nearly century-old dam has played a key role in the water politics and disputes among three states and Mexico. It was part of the first major project built by a fledgling U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the early 1900s to control flooding, resolve cross-border water disputes and supply irrigation to hundreds of farmers. Today, the reservoir created by the dam also is a primary recreation spot for sailors, boaters and anglers. "The dam really makes a lot of the agriculture in Southern New Mexico and El Paso viable," said Estevan López, director of New Mexico's Interstate Stream Commission. "Without it, the water supply would be so much more intermittent. Most years, the farmers wouldn't have water at the end of the irrigation season." Read more

Elephant Butte Reservoir: Century-old dam will open to public for first time in a decade

Mexico's cartels build own national radio system

From the El Paso Times - by Michael Weissenstein - MEXICO CITY (AP) - When convoys of soldiers or federal police move through the scrubland of northern Mexico, the Zetas drug cartel knows they are coming. The alert goes out from a taxi driver or a street vendor, equipped with a high-end handheld radio and paid to work as a lookout known as a "halcon," or hawk. The radio signal travels deep into the arid countryside, hours by foot from the nearest road. There, the 8-foot-tall (2-meter-tall) dark-green branches of the rockrose bush conceal a radio tower painted to match. A cable buried in the dirt draws power from a solar panel. A signal-boosting repeater relays the message along a network of powerful antennas and other repeaters that stretch hundreds of miles (kilometers) across Mexico, a shadow communications system allowing the cartel to coordinate drug deliveries, kidnapping, extortion and other crimes with the immediacy and precision of a modern military or law-enforcement agency. The Mexican army and marines have begun attacking the system, seizing hundreds of pieces of communications equipment in at least three operations since September that offer a firsthand look at a surprisingly far-ranging and sophisticated infrastructure. Current and former U.S. law-enforcement officials say the equipment, ranging from professional-grade towers to handheld radios, was part of a single network that until recently extended from the U.S. border down eastern Mexico's Gulf coast and into Guatemala. Read more

Mexico's cartels build own national radio system

Ranch manager completing 40 years at NMSU's Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center

From the Deming Headlight - In today's world, it is unusual for a person to spend 40 years in a single career, much less in a single position. New Mexico State University reports that only three employees have worked continuously for the Las Cruces campus for 40 years or more. This month, a fourth individual, Calvin Bailey, will join their ranks. When the ranch manager position came open at NMSU's College Ranch in late 1971, Bailey, who had recently graduated from the university, knew the job was right for him. So did Bobby Rankin, an animal science faculty member and the recently appointed supervisor of the facility. "The position was offered and I took it," Bailey said recently. "My wife and I moved out here in 1971, the day after Christmas." "Calvin was raised on a ranch and got a degree in animal science," said Rankin, who retired in 2000 after a 39-year career that included 14 as department head of Animal and Range Sciences. "You know a lot of things that need to be done on a place, having grown up ranching, that you don't have to learn or ask somebody else about, so it worked out wonderfully in Calvin's case." Rankin was quick to give credit to a second member of the Bailey team. "There was an extra bonus to hiring Calvin Bailey in that job, because his new wife, Debbie, came with him," he said. Part of that had to do with the delicious meals she would fix for the ranch crew. "It was easy to recruit college students and graduate students to come out and help with the branding and the calving and some with fencing simply because of Debbie. So I give her a lot of credit for Calvin's success in managing the ranch wonderfully for this length of time. We couldn't have done better on that selection." The facility, now called the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center, has been owned and operated by NMSU since 1927. The university assumed ownership of the 60,000-acre property through an act of Congress mandating that it be maintained it in a way that benefits the people of New Mexico. The property is located north of Las Cruces. According to Bailey, it includes about half of the Dona Ana Mountains, and stretches east-west from the Jornada Experimental Range to the Rio Grande. Read more

Ranch manager completing 40 years at NMSU's Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center

Obama’s Uncle’s New Defense Is To Target Patrolman

From the Western Center for Journalism - Lawyers for President Obama’s illegal alien half-uncle are going after the beat cop who busted him on a drunken-driving rap, chasing internal affairs records they hope will paint him as a serial squad-car speeder. Onyango Obama never would have been stopped and subjected to a breath test, which lawyers also are contesting, if it weren’t for the cop’s bad driving, his lawyers insist. “It will be our contention that the officer nearly caused the accident by nearly hitting Obama,” defense attorney William L. Harvey III told the Herald, saying he believes patrolman Val Krishtal was going “well above the speed limit” at the time of the near-crash. Read more

Obama’s Uncle’s New Defense Is To Target Patrolman

APS Officer's Search Upheld by Court of Appeals

KASA - An appeals court has backed up an Albuquerque police officer's search of an illegal immigrant during a routine traffic stop, disagreeing with attorneys who argued that the lawman's search went too far. At issue was Officer Joe Moreno's search of suspect Ivan Rochin last January. The Albuquerque Journal reports that Moreno pulled Rochin over for having a suspended car registration, did a pat-down and felt a bulge in Rochin's pants pocket that he asked Rochin to identify. When Rochin refused, Moreno reached in his pocket and found a glass pipe and marijuana. He also found a gun inside Rochin's car. Rochin was later charged in federal court with being an alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Read full story here: News New Mexico

APS Officer's Search Upheld by Court of Appeals

Defending the Gunslinger

From the Blog, Ludwig von Mises Institute South Africa - Gunslinger" typically refers to the men of the Old West who gained a reputation for being skilled and dangerous with a gun. Among the ranks of these popular legends are outlaws and lawmen alike, although we know today that the line was often blurred, hence the enduring reputation of the gunslinger as an unpredictable and wily opportunist. For the purposes of this article, however, I use "gunslinger" to refer to an armed man who offers the service of his presence and skills to protect a client's material interests. The Old West was no country for unarmed men, if Hollywood is to be believed. All manner of disputes, from accusations of cattle rustling and cardsharping to infidelity and the simple bar brawl, would be settled in the street with a guns-drawn duel. Reality, however, is far more banal and the "Wild" West was as orderly, if not more so, than contemporary society.  Read more

Defending the Gunslinger

Wirth and Gentry Co-Sponsor Transparency Law

Capital Report New Mexico - Whether you think the controversial Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United v. FEC case that ruled it unconstitutional to regulate the money spent during elections by corporations and unions was terribly misguided or simply a logical extension of free speech rights, the ruling has left individual states to decide to what degree campaign donations should be part of the public record. With critical national and statewide elections coming in November of 2012, state Sen. Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) wants to reintroduce a bill at the Roundhouse requiring transparency in political contributions from independent sources — and he’s lined up state Rep. Nate Gentry (R-Albuquerque) as a co-sponsor to help turn the bill into law. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Wirth and Gentry Co-Sponsor Transparency Law

New autopilot will make another 9/11 impossible

From The Mail Online.com - A hijack-proof piloting system for airliners is being developed to prevent terrorists repeating the 9/11 outrages. The mechanism is designed to make it impossible to crash the aircraft into air or land targets - and enable the plane to be flown by remote control from the ground in the event of an emergency. Scientists at aircraft giant Boeing are testing the tamper-proof autopilot system which uses state-of-the-art computer and satellite technology.It will be activated by the pilot flicking a simple switch or by pressure sensors fitted to the cockpit door that will respond to any excessive force as terrorists try to break into the flight deck. Once triggered, no one on board will be able to deactivate the system. Currently, all autopilots are manually switched on and off at the discretion of pilots. The so-called 'uninterruptible autopilot system' - patented secretly by Boeing in the US last week - will connect ground controllers and security services with the aircraft using radio waves and global satellite positioning systems. After it has been activated, the aircraft will be capable of remote digital control from the ground, enabling operators to fly it like a sophisticated model plane, manoeuvring it vertically and laterally. A threatened airliner could be flown to a secure military base or a commercial airport, where it would touch down using existing landing aids known as 'autoland function'. After it had landed, the aircraft's built-in autobrake would bring the plane safely to a halt on the runway. Read more

New autopilot will make another 9/11 impossible