Anniversary of Roswell UFO crash

KRQE -  Sixty five years ago Sunday, a legend was born out of Roswell New Mexico. The infamous Roswell UFO.  On July 8th, 1947, the Roswell army air field issued a press release stating they recovered the remains of a "flying disc" after a crash on a Roswell ranch.  Later on the army retracted that statement saying it was really a weather balloon. But years later, a number of retired Roswell army officers testified that the weather balloon story was a cover-up for something unexplainable. Now each July, thousands of tourists come to see the sight and debate the evidence. Experts and historians present their cases at the UFO Festival each year.  Read More News New Mexico

Anniversary of Roswell UFO crash

End of spectator citizenship—it is time to get engaged

Marita Noon

“The problem is,” a utility company executive told me, “that there is no one at the table who cares about the ratepayers. There is no one who cares about low-cost energy. Everyone is too concerned about looking PC instead of standing up for the consumer.” We were discussing the “stay” announced last week by the EPA that allows the state of New Mexico more time to find an alternative solution toward meeting the visibility requirements spelled out in the Clean Air Act. Read full column here: News New Mexico

End of spectator citizenship—it is time to get engaged

Voter Fraud Strikes Home

New Mexico Watchdog - The canvasser for Martin Heinrich for Senate stood at my door. He asked if “Jennifer Wangler” was home. “No one by that name lives here,” I told him. “She’s registered as a Democrat to vote from this address,” the Heinrich canvasser insisted. “Never heard of her,” I replied. He showed me his clipboard, with a printout of the Democratic voters on our street. There she was, a complete stranger, registered to vote from our home address.
My wife and I have lived in the same house for 22 years. No one has resided with us except for some wonderful cats, none of which we have ever registered to vote. The previous owner lived in Pennsylvania and rented this property to a couple of English emigres whom we know. They are not named “Wangler.”
I called the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office to report this situation. I was told that I would have to go to court to get it cleared up.
That couldn’t be right. That’s a crazy way to deal with voter fraud. How many individual citizens will take it upon themselves to draft and file a lawsuit and see it through, or pay a lawyer do it for them, just to remove from the voter rolls a person wrongfully registered at their home? Not too many, including me, a former attorney at that. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Voter Fraud Strikes Home

Cruces Tea Party and Mayor Clash Over 1st Amendment

KOB - Bitter words are being exchanged between the Las Cruces mayor and the city's Tea Party over a parade float. The Tea Party's float won best of show at the Las Cruces Fourth of July parade. The float prominently displayed a Confederate flag. Mayor Ken Miyagishima is upset about the flag's placement on the float. "The Las Cruces Tea Party can believe whatever it wants, but to have this symbol and what it represents," he said. "Highlight the winning float at a celebration of our nation's independence is an outrage."
The Tea Party said the float celebrates the area's history. "The theme of the parade was the history of the State of New Mexico," party members said in a statement. "There was a lot of history that defined our state prior to 1912. We showed how we fought for our statehood and the sacrifices we made along the way, along with our triumphs."
History tells a brief tale about Confederate occupation in New Mexico. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Cruces Tea Party and Mayor Clash Over 1st Amendment

Border Patrol Opens Fire on Border, Again

U.S. Border Patrol on Rio Grande

Washington Post - The U.S. Border Patrol says agents opened fire along the Rio Grande after being pelted by rocks and having a gun pointed in their direction.
Border Patrol spokesman Henry Mendiola says no agents were injured in the incident Saturday near Brownsville. He did not know if anyone else was hurt. The Mexican government was notified.
The Border Patrol released little details about the morning gunfire, including what the suspects were doing on the river.
Mendiola says one of the agents started shooting after being “unable to take cover” when rocks were thrown. He says another began shooting after seeing a suspect on the Mexican side of the river pointing a gun at him. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Border Patrol Opens Fire on Border, Again

Medicaid Situation Still Undecided

Albuquerque Journal (Subscription) - In New Mexico, children 18 and younger comprise about 61 percent of the 550,000 people covered by Medicaid, the state and federally funded health care insurance program for the poor, said Matt Kennicott, a spokesman for the state Human Services Department. New Mexico now extends Medicaid coverage to about 336,000 children from families up to 235 percent of the federal poverty level, or $54,168 a year for a family of four. By comparison, the Affordable Care Act goes only to 133 percent of poverty. Under the new federal health care law, states can’t reduce Medicaid eligibility at least until new health care exchanges are up and running, if they so choose to do. Medicaid eligibility varies widely for New Mexico adults. Pregnant women are covered up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $42,648 a year for a family of four. New Mexico remains in early discussion about what shape Medicaid will take under the new law, Kennicott said Thursday. Gov. Susana Martinez and state lawmakers have yet to weigh in, he said. “We’re still in very early conversations about what is going to happen in New Mexico,” he said. “There are lots of moving pieces and lots of people involved in this decision.” Read More News New Mexico

Medicaid Situation Still Undecided

Mexico's New President Signals Shift in Drug War Policy

Enrique Peña Nieto

Fox News - Mexico's next president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has not detailed his drug war strategy but has promised to halve the number of kidnappings and murders during his six-year term by moving law enforcement away from showy drug busts and focusing on protecting ordinary citizens from gangs. The ambiguity of Pena Nieto's drug war plans has fed fears at home and abroad that he might look the other way if cartels smuggle drugs northward without creating violence in Mexico. Many analysts wonder if Peña Nieto is holding back politically sensitive details of his plans, or simply doesn't know yet how he'll be prosecute the next stage of Mexico's drug war. Some hints are starting to seep out. A close acquaintance, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, told The Associated Press that the president-elect has discussed a new offensive against the smaller, local gangs that have cropped up in many Mexican states and earn money through kidnapping and extortion in addition to drug dealing. President Felipe Calderón's 5 1/2-year war against the big cartels has been criticized by some for fracturing control of territory and smuggling routes, spawning smaller gangs like La Linea in Chihuahua state and La Barredora in the city of Acapulco that view ordinary citizens as their primary source of illicit income. Read More News New Mexico

Mexico's New President Signals Shift in Drug War Policy

New Mexico works to get back on Hollywood's A-list

Nick Maniatis, New Mexico Film Office

Santa Fe New Mexican - New Mexican Alton Walpole, who works as both a line producer and a unit production manager in the film business, figures he’ll pay more state income tax in California than in New Mexico this year. So does SantaFean Rosario Provenza, an art director in the business. They’ve gone where the film work has gone: elsewhere. Wherever that is, they may encounter Guy Barnes. He has worked in the film business for 35 years as a production designer/art director; 10 of those years were spent here in New Mexico. Three of the last five film and television productions he has worked on in the past 18 months have been anchored in other states, he said. “In two years, you’ll be talking to me in Louisiana or Georgia,” he said, referencing two states that have become top players in the film business. Walpole and others attribute their new itinerant careers to changes in New Mexico’s film incentives program made by Gov. Susana Martinez and the Legislature early in 2011. The changes themselves weren’t the big issue, people say. It was the uncertainty hanging over the program as Martinez and state lawmakers debated the fate of it, leading Hollywood to look elsewhere for more security. The result was a lull in the film industry in New Mexico. But Martinez administration officials say things are turning around now, and the state can expect a busy next year. Read More News New Mexico

New Mexico works to get back on Hollywood's A-list

The Drone Zone

Courtesy of Sean Hemmerle

AHD Note: Air Force Drones Trail Civilian Auto Traffic in New Mexico New York Times - Holloman Air Force Base, at the eastern edge of New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range, 200 miles south of Albuquerque, was once famous for the daredevil maneuvers of those who trained there. In 1954, Col. John Paul Stapp rode a rocket-propelled sled across the desert, reaching 632 miles per hour, in an attempt to figure out the maximum speed at which jet pilots could safely eject. He slammed on the brakes and was thrust forward with such force that he had to be hauled away on a stretcher, his eyes bleeding from burst capillaries. Six years later, Capt. Joseph Kittinger Jr., testing the height at which pilots could safely bail out, rode a helium-powered balloon up to 102,800 feet. He muttered, “Lord, take care of me now,” dropped for 13 minutes 45 seconds and broke the record for the highest parachute jump. Today many of the pilots at Holloman never get off the ground. The base has been converted into the U.S. Air Force’s primary training center for drone operators, where pilots spend their days in sand-colored trailers near a runway from which their planes take off without them. Inside each trailer, a pilot flies his plane from a padded chair, using a joystick and throttle, as his partner, the “sensor operator,” focuses on the grainy images moving across a video screen, directing missiles to their targets with a laser. Read More News New Mexico

The Drone Zone

Largest Wind Farm in the U.S. is Still Insisting on Taxpayer Handouts for Expansion

Platts - The developer of the US' biggest wind farm in terms of megawatts, which is due to get even bigger, said Friday it will not pursue expansion into 2013 if the production tax credit is not extended by Congress.
Terra-Gen Power's 1,020-MW Alta Wind farm in Tehachapi, California, is expected to reach 1,320 MW by the end of the year. The phased-in facility, located in Kern County about 115 miles north of Los Angeles, has separate power purchase agreements carved out from a 1,550-MW master power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison and is seen as helping the investor-owned utility meet the state's ambitious renewable portfolio standard.
However, what has been built thus far and what is under construction is less than half of what was originally conceived in 2006 as a 3,100-MW project. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Largest Wind Farm in the U.S. is Still Insisting on Taxpayer Handouts for Expansion