117 Page Report Will Form Basis of Negative Ads Versus Janice Arnold-Jones

New Mexico Congressional District #1 GOP candidate Janice Arnold-Jones is the target of secret National Democratic Party efforts to trash opposition candidates. The committe has put together a 117 page report for Democrats, PAC’s, and Super PAC’s to use against her.
The plan was uncovered by Media Trackers, an investigative watchdog group. Media Trackers discovered nearly three-dozen Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) opposition research notebooks including secretive manuals outlining anything that could be used against political opponents like Arnold-Jones.
Some of the files have actually been published on the DCCC’s website to facilitate their use by candiates, progressive PAC’s, and progressive Super PAC’s.
Janice Arnold-Jones
Last Thursday Media Trackers published a dozen of the opposition research books that Democrats had managed to keep secret for months. These twelve unpublished manuals range in size from a few dozen pages to more than one hundred pages, depending on the personal, business, and civic record of the Republican target.
Washington-based Roll Call a political newspaper actually covered some of the meetings at which Democratic political staffers discussed ways to gather information for the intelligence files they were building on Republicans. Apparently Roll Call was granted access on the condition that they not publish the names of key targeted Republicans.
However, in a major information breach at the DCCC, the booklets became available via Google searches that combined targeted candidate’s names with opposition research search terms. The information found in the documents contains biographical details, copies of land plots, voter registration records, tax information, business records, and press clippings. Most likely Michelle Lujan Grisham's campaign, along with progressive out-of-state PAC’s and Super PAC’s, and the DCCC itself will use the information contained in the booklet to fashion negative ads targeting Arnold-Jones.

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Pegasus Pulling Out of Hobbs

KRWG - The company behind plans to build a scientific ghost town says it's pulling out of a deal to develop the make-believe city near Hobbs. Pegasus Global Holdings says complications with the land deal forced them to pull out. The group in May announced selection of a 15-square mile site in Lea County for development of the Center for Innovation, Technology and Testing. Officials then said they hoped to break ground by June. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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ACLU Scrutinizes Use of Technology at Border

KOAT - The American Civil Liberties Union is scrutinizing a new device that is being put up at New Mexico border checkpoints. Border agents have installed specialized scanning devices that track all drivers at New Mexico checkpoints.
The ACLU said the devices cause profiling and violate privacy rights. "We don't think law enforcement should be broadly fishing through the American public, trying to figure out who is suspicious and who is not and making judgment about those people as potential criminals," ACLU executive director Peter Simonson said.The specialized recognition devices capture license plates, date, time and location and save the information for years.
The Drug Enforcement Agency said it is using the technology to identify and catch drug and weapon smugglers, but the ACLU said it's violation of civil rights and privacy.
"It's our assumption that it's not just license plates that are being scanned that those cameras also use facial recognition software and that purpose try to identify not just the vehicle, but the person behind the steering wheel," Simonson said. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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Teacher's Unions Reject Evaluation System

KOB - Three New Mexico teachers unions are complaining the state Public Education Department has failed to consult parents and teachers as it crafts a new teacher evaluation system.

The state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the Albuquerque Teachers Federation and the Albuquerque Education Assistants Association sent a letter Friday to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
The letter claims the state didn't include any teachers nominated by the American Teachers Federation on its evaluation task force. The letter also says parents and school board members weren't included and that the task force violated the Open Meetings Act by meeting without public notice. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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"Activists" Protest Apple Stores in the Duke City

KOB - An Albuquerque teacher risked being arrested in order to make her voice heard. Jeanne Pahls and a group of residents spent Saturday morning at ABQ Uptown. They weren’t shopping; instead they protested the Apple Store.
Despite getting a letter from ABQ Uptown management, threatening to be arrested, protestors still gathered at the shopping center to voice their anger.
“I've gone to AppleCare, I've gone to the supervisor of this store and they all blew me off," said Pahls. She is one frustrated customer. She and others took their complaints against Apple, to its only store in Albuquerque. "It bothers me when big corporations take advantage of working people," said Charles Powell of Albuquerque. Pahls is an Albuquerque teacher and an outspoken activist. She says this situation started when a student stole her iPhone. "When I went to Apple to help with this, they told me the phone wasn't registered and they blew me off. It turns out they had sold me a used phone," she said. More police arrived at ABQ Uptown when Pahls refused to get off the private property. "I'm going to stand here. I'll be arrested if I have to," she said. Others joined in her fight. They also accuse Apple of corporate greed, exploiting workers and not paying their fair taxes. (NewsNM note - Apple paid $8,283,000,000 in income taxes last year) Read full story here: News New Mexico

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More Voter Fraud Charges in Sunland Park

KOB - Voter fraud charges in Sunland Park have been filed against four more people, the Dona Ana County District Attorney's said on Friday.
Former city councilor Angelica Marquez, also facing extortion, bribery and other voter fraud charges, registered the four individuals to vote, District Attorney Amy Orlando said. Out of the four people charged, three are from Texas. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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10 Year Old Vandal Punished in Public

KOAT - An Albuquerque mother took her parental punishment public after she said her daughter vandalized her school, causing hundreds of dollars in damage.
Tony Armijo and her 10-year-old daughter, Bonnie, sat on the corner of the busy intersection of Central Avenue and Wyoming Boulevard on Friday afternoon holding a sign that read, "I vandalized my school."
The fifth-grader said it has taught her a lesson she will never forget after getting caught throwing rocks at her school and breaking several windows.
"I did it because my friend did it, and I knew it was a bad choice," Bonnie Armijo said. She said that even though the public punishment is embarrassing, she thinks her mom is doing the right thing by having her hold the sign at a busy intersection.
"I know that she loves me and (is) trying to teach me a lesson so I don't go to jail," Bonnie Armijo said.
Tony Armijo said she just wants to make a lasting impression. "It's hard, because I don't know if I am doing the right thing," she said. "I am trying to help her understand the ripple effect." She came up with the unconventional punishment after hearing about a mother who made her drug-dealing son wear a similar sign. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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NMFA’s fraudulent audit is a big deal

NMPolitics - There are more questions than answers right now about why the New Mexico Finance Authority’s controller allegedly created a fraudulent audit of the agency’s finances, but what’s clear is that it’s a big deal.

State Auditor Hector Balderas announced Thursday that his agency had uncovered the fraudulent audit. In a news release, his office announced that a special audit of NMFA’s books would be conducted. NMFA quickly announced that it had retained a law firm “to conduct a thorough investigation to determine how the misrepresentation occurred and to recommend steps for strengthening financial reporting procedures,” and had hired an accounting firm to complete the agency’s fiscal year 2011 audit. Balderas also turned the matter over to law enforcement. Read full analysis here: News New Mexico

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Obama Scrubs Welfare Reform Dating Back to Bill Clinton, Prefers Money for Nothing

Daily Caller - The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the controversial July 12 rule that allow states to opt out of the successful, bipartisan and popular 1996 welfare reform law that required people on welfare to also work to maintain those benefits.
Bill Clinton Signing Welfare Reform Law in 1996
Both OMB and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius approved the new rules, Kenneth Wolfe, the department’s deputy director of public affairs, told The Daily Caller.
The department will not be holding a press conference about the rules, which remove a core element of the successful reform that halved the taxpayers’ welfare caseload. The OMB is part of the White House, and works directly for President Barack Obama.
The new rule says HHS will welcome state proposals to replace work requirements with alternatives, such as job-training or classroom attendance.
Both OMB and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius approved the new rules, Kenneth Wolfe, the department’s deputy director of public affairs, told the The Daily Caller. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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New Mexico Film Rebates Plunged in Fiscal Year

Albuquerque Journal (Subscription) - The amount of film rebates approved by New Mexico plunged during the just-completed budget year, the first year since the state imposed a $50 million-a-year cap on the controversial incentives. Finance and Administration Secretary Tom Clifford this week attributed the drop in film incentives to an industry-wide slowdown and a rush to file rebate claims before last year’s new law took effect, though others point to different reasons. “What we did by capping the film credit is scare off business,” Sen. John Sapien, D-Corrales, said during a legislative hearing Wednesday in Rio Rancho. A total of 85 film rebate applications totaling nearly $19.2 million were approved during the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Taxation and Revenue Department. In addition, 27 applications that add up to more than $14.1 million in rebates were still pending as of the fiscal year’s end. Those numbers fall far short of the $102 million the state paid out during the 2011 fiscal year, the final year before implementation of the annual cap and other new restrictions, which were supported by Gov. Susana Martinez. Martinez and others claimed the film incentives – which offer a 25 percent rebate to film companies for most direct, in-state expenditures – were “Hollywood subsidies” that cost the state money that could otherwise be spent on public education. Read More News New Mexico

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