News New Mexico: 01/16/12

Bombing range lease signing ceremony Wednesday

From the Clovis News Journal - A signing ceremony is set for Wednesday in Santa Fe to pave the way for an expansion of the Melrose Air Force Range. A two-part process will lease about 11,000 acres of state trust land in Roosevelt County to the U.S. Air Force. The range currently includes about 66,000 acres in northwestern Roosevelt County. Officials scheduled to attend the signing ceremony at the state land office include Gov. Susana Martinez, Land Commissioner Ray Powell, and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Terry Yonkers, along with state legislators and officials from Curry and Roosevelt counties. The ceremony will happen in two stages. Powell will lease the state trust land to the state, then Martinez will assign the lease to the U.S. Air Force. The land office is a separate entity from state government and is tasked with using those lands to generate money for schools and other various beneficiaries. Under the lease arrangement, $2.7 million will go immediately towards its beneficiaries — the state’s public schools and the Interstate Stream Commission. Had the land been sold, officials with Martinez’ office said, the money would go into the state land grant permanent fund, and the beneficiaries would receive 5.3 percent of that amount per year. Read more

Snow, wind make for tough driving in Northern N.M.

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - EAGLE NEST — State transportation officials are warning travelers of difficult driving conditions as parts of Northern New Mexico get another blast of winter weather. Heavy snow was being reported Monday around Taos, Eagle Nest and Angel Fire. The combination of snow and wind reduced visibility to about a mile along U.S. 64 between Taos and Cimarron canyons. New Mexico highways 38 and 434 were also seeing snow and wind. Crews were out plowing and spreading cinder, but officials were urging drivers to be cautious. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the Taos and Chama areas and a winter weather advisory for much of the northwestern corner of the state. Read more

Occupy the Dream: The Mathematics of Racism

From the Huffington Post - by Russell Simmons and Dylan Ratigan - As we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr, it appears we are a far less prejudiced country than we once were. Individual expressions of racism are less tolerated than ever, we have an African-American President, and African-Americans are increasingly being accepted into executive suites. Yet when we look closer, we find that Greedy Bastards have rebranded racism and made it acceptable again, by calling it "the war on drugs." Since 1971, there have been more than 40 million arrests for drug-related offenses. Even though blacks and whites have similar levels of drug use, blacks are ten times as likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes. "In 2005, 4 out of 5 drug arrests were for possession not trafficking, and 80% of the increase in drug arrests in the 1990s was for marijuana. There are 50,000 arrests for low-level pot possession a year in New York City, representing one out of every seven cases that turn up in criminal courts. Most of these arrested are black and hispanic men. A Federal law passed in 1986 allowed law enforcement agencies to seize drug money, and use it to supplement their budgets. Grabbing cash connected to drugs meant that police departments could buy more tools and training. Like the fee-for-service model in medicine, that pays doctors for performing procedures, not for making people healthier, the "forfeiture laws" effectively pay the police departments for making busts - not for reducing the drug trade. In fact, if the war on drugs was ever won, it would be a financial disaster for law enforcement. There's so much dirty money funding law enforcement agencies that now, according to NPR, some police departments have become "addicted to drug money". Read more

The Keynesian School of Economics Leads to Violence

From the blog Points and Figures - by Jeff Carter - We are seeing the end game played out over and over in different cultures all over the world. There is one thread of similarity. All of them have practiced Keynesian economics for decades. The belief that more government spending and bigger government to solve society ills has degenerated into a stagnant economy with no growth and in many parts of the world it’s unsafe to walk down the street. Riots have taken place in “civilized” first world countries. Spain, Italy, Greece, even France and England. Unemployment in some of them is over 20%, and for younger people that have never been hired it can be significantly higher. Even in America, we have seen mini-riots with the Occupy Wall Street crowd and in places like Wisconsin and Ohio that have tried to undo years of bad economic policy. The problem is that eventually the socialist/Keynesian school runs out of other people’s money to spend. They can’t raise taxes high enough, and the market forces them to pay ever higher interest rates to access public markets. When governments increase spending, businesses cut back. The net present value tables always catch up to them. At this point in the cycle, they generally have created a situation where there are haves and have nots. Forced to cut spending on the people that receive a government check, those people riot. In Rome, Italy the streets are becoming unsafe. Read more

Made me laugh

Autistic Teen Rescued At White Sands Monument

From ktbs.com -An autistic teenager who wandered away from his family during an outing at White Sands National Monument and spent the night among the sand dunes has been found. Monument officials say the 15 year old was spotted Monday morning by a U.S. Air Force Blackhawk helicopter. He was walking in the dunes about six miles from where he was last seen. Authorities say he was in good condition. More News New Mexico

Un-Occupy Protestors Take Movement To Santa Fe

NewsNM: Swickard - Sure seems a counter protest, if you will a "protesting the protesters" is in order. From KOAT-TV.com - SANTA FE, N.M. -- The Un-Occupy Albuquerque movement hit the road this weekend -- literally. Protesters began walking on Interstate 25 to Santa Fe on Saturday. They're planning on joining other demonstrators to occupy the state capitol when the legislative session kicks off Tuesday. One of the activists said, "We believe that a lot of things need to change in this country and in this world for our future generations, so we have some youth with us today and we will be converging in Santa Fe with people from all over New Mexico." Read more

Huntsman Out of Presidential Race

ABC News’ Michael Falcone reports: Jon Huntsman will drop out of the Republican presidential race on Monday, a campaign spokesman told ABC News.
A source close to the Huntsman campaign said the former ambassador to China and Utah governor was “proud of the race that he ran” but “did not want to stand in the way” of rival Mitt Romney, the current front-runner for the Republican nomination.
Huntsman plans to endorse Romney at an 11 a.m. press conference Monday in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

D.A. Orlando Criticizes Soft Drug Dealing Sentence

Amy Orlando

Las Cruces Sun-News - Dona Ana County District Attorney Amy Orlando says she is "gravely concerned" after Judge Fernando Macias gave probation to two men who sold cocaine to undercover police officers on multiple occassions.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that Orlando criticized the sentences handed down last week as too lenient.

Prosecutors in the D.A.'s office had pressed for prison time for 23-year-old Manuel Sanchez and 28-year-old Adolfo Corrales. But Judge Fernando Macias sentenced them to five years' probation and granted deferred sentences. The deferral means the cases will be dismissed if Sanchez and Corrales successfully complete probation. Each man pleaded no contest to three counts of trafficking in 2010. Orlando says she will keep pushing for prison time for criminals who put the community in danger.

Money isn’t the biggest factor in public education

Rob Nikolewski

Capitol Report New Mexico - Into the vast expanse of liberalism, sustainability, cars with “Potters for Peace” bumper stickers and the seemingly infinite number of middle-aged white guys with ponytails I step — a token conservative, selected by The New Mexican editorial brain trust to grace these opinion pages. I’m not complaining about being outnumbered. In the words of Gus McCrae in Lonesome Dove when asked on his deathbed if he wanted his partners to track down the Plains Indians who mortally wounded him, “We got no call to be vengeful, they didn’t invite us here.”
My name is Rob Nikolewski and I knew when I moved to the City Different that liberalism runs deep. More like gallops, but that’s OK.
I edit and write a website called Capitol Report New Mexico, covering the Roundhouse and all things political in this state. I get my paycheck from the Rio Grande Foundation, the free-market think-tank based in Albuquerque, and I generally agree with Thomas Jefferson’s dictum that the government that governs least, governs best.
So, with TJ’s words ringing in our ears, let’s talk about public education.

The results in national surveys consistently place New Mexico in the bottom five of all 50 states in student performance.

“We’ve gotta spend more money,” those on the left say, “for the sake of our children.”

But while New Mexico might get a D or an F on results, when it comes to taxpayer dollars spent on public education, our state earns a solid B. We’re 18th in per-pupil spending. Read rest of column here: News New Mexico

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