News New Mexico

Self-Employment at Eight Year Low

The number of Americans who were self-employed dropped in August to the lowest level in eight years, showing the economic recovery is not strong enough to nurture new businesses. There were 8.68 million people working for themselves last month, the fewest since January 2002, according to Labor Department data released today. That’s down 13 percent from a record 9.98 million reached in December 2006, 12 months before the latest recession began. Self-employment tends to increase during and immediately following economic slumps as tight labor markets prompt recently fired workers to venture out on their own, said Scott Shane, a professor of economics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The data this time is testament to the lack of credit and a slump in demand that is choking small businesses, he said. Read more here:

UTEP Overpowers Arkansas Pine Bluff 31-10

Mike Price - UTEP

UTEP has been rather inconsistent in its openers under Mike Price, but there has been a common thread in those seven games -- when the Miners outclass their opponent, they muddle through. A Donald Buckram-less UTEP certainly didn't outclass the FCS's Arkansas-Pine Bluff as badly as it hoped Saturday, but the Miners' superior talent and numbers finally wore down the feisty Golden Lions for a 31-10 victory. Price improved to 4-3 in openers in front of 30,029 fans and UTEP came away with a list of things to fix. "It was a good way we won it. It was a little bit frustrating at times, a lot of opportunities blown, particularly the first half. But we stuck together and that's good," Price said. "It was a good win because we're not fat and sassy. We've got a lot of work to do and the kids know that." The new 4-3 defense, after giving up an embarrassing 80-yard touchdown drive to UAPB to start the game, was resilient the rest of the night, though not overwhelming against an offense that won't be as good as most UTEP will face. Read more here:

Update: Make it 30 Dead Instead of 25 Dead

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) - Mexican soldiers killed at least 30 suspected cartel members in two shootouts near the U.S. border in a region that has become one of biggest battlegrounds in the country's drug war, authorities said Friday. Twenty-five of the suspects were killed Thursday during a raid on a building in Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state. The other five were killed Friday in neighboring Nuevo Leon state, during a shootout on a highway leading to the border, the Mexican Defense Department said in a statement. All 30 gunmen were believed to belong to the Zetas gang - the group suspected of killing 72 migrants nearly two weeks ago in what could be Mexico's biggest cartel massacre to date. Violence along Mexico's northeastern border with Texas has reached warlike proportions amid fighting between security forces and two feuding drug gangs - the Zetas and the Gulf cartel, former allies who split this year and started a vicious battle for trafficking routes in the area. Read more here:

Progressive Magazine - Longing for Saddam

To call the U.S. invasion and occupation “this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq,” as Obama did, is to really cake on the makeup. Yeah, I watched Obama’s speech on Iraq, and I can’t say I was blown away. First of all, to call the U.S. invasion and occupation “this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq,” as Obama did, is to really cake on the makeup. And was it “a war to disarm a state,” as he asserted, or was it, instead, a war to secure oil, or a war to project U.S. power, or a war not of necessity and not of choice but of therapy for George Bush to overcome his Oedipal complex? By the way, I could have lived without Obama’s saluting of his predecessor, who should be brought before the international criminal court for launching this war of aggression. Read more here:

Denish and Martinez Spar over Malott Scandal

Bruce Malott

The fall from grace of another Richardson insider hijacked center stage of the New Mexico governor’s race Thursday. The campaigns of Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and Republican Susana Martinez found themselves trading accusations over the abrupt resignation of Bruce Malott as chairman of the Educational Retirement Board (ERB). Malott admitted to borrowing $350,000 from the father of a man who had shared in $22 million in so-called third-party marketing fees, the Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday. The fees are part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation and came from dozens of investment deals involving the State Investment Council and the ERB, which Malott helped to oversee as chairman. “It is clear that the culture of corruption is deeply rooted in the Richardson/Denish Administration and we are finding more conflicts and wrongdoing every day,” Martinez’s campaign manager, Ryan Cangliosi, said. Read more here:

Progressive Take on Glenn Beck Rally

Glenn Beck’s got me worried again about fascism in America. His so-called restoring honor rally last weekend assumed that somehow America has been dishonored, and that is a classic trope of fascists. Nor was I comforted by all talk from Beck about “America today begins to turn back to God.” Nor was I comforted by the full-throated and repeated chants of “USA, USA.” Nor by Sarah Palin having the gall to claim “we feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King,” this just 10 days after she told Dr. Laura to “reload,” after the talk show host said the N word 11 times in five minutes.

As if the rally wasn’t enough, Beck continued on his crusade during the week. Check this comment out: Beck said, “There are a lot of universities that are as dangerous with the indoctrination of the children as terrorists are in Iran or North Korea.” The irony is that Ahmadinejad has actually denounced the universities in Iran with similar disdain. One year into his first term, he asked scornfully “why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities." He and Beck see eye to eye on that one. Read more here:

Mexico: Soldiers Kill 25 in Gun Battle Near Border

From the Longview TX news-journal.com - by Mark Walsh, Associated Press - MONTERREY, Mexico — A shootout between soldiers and suspected drug cartel members in northeastern Mexico left 25 purported gunmen dead Thursday, the military said. A reconnaissance flight over Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state spotted several gunmen in front of a property, according to a statement from Mexico's Defense Department. When troops on the ground moved in, gunmen opened fire, starting a gunbattle that killed 25 suspected cartel members, according to the military. The statement said two soldiers were injured but none were killed. Earlier, a military spokesman had said the shootout happened when troops on patrol in the town of General Trevino, in neighboring Nuevo Leon state, came under fire from a ranch allegedly controlled by the Zetas drug gang. Read more

New Arizona Motorcycle Seat

Mexico drug war: the new killing fields

The UK Guardian Rory Carroll reports from the centre of drug cartel violence that claimed 28,000 lives - Picture on left - The bloody footprints following one of thousands of murders.

The events which have no name scythe through the valley like invisible reapers. They slice east to west, west to east, a homicidal pendulum. No one sees anything. The pair of human heads left in a coolbox on the corner of the plaza? A mystery. The 18 houses burnt in a single night? An enigma. The doctor and his family who disappeared? A rumour. This much residents do tell you: Juárez valley stretches along the Rio Bravo and used to grow cotton. It roasts by day, shivers by night. Lob a stone over the river and it lands in Texas. Beyond that, conversation tends to dry up. Of the slaughter, of the reason this has become one of the deadliest places on the planet, residents have little to say. At most they refer to "the situation", "the things happening" or, simply, "it". Read more

Environmental "Improvement" Board - Holding a Hearing

EIB Greenhouse Gas Proposal

Have you had enough of crazy radical environmental regulations that amount to nothing more than nonsensical intrusions into your life and many millions of dollar in mandatory waste? Unfortunately, what the New Mexico State Legislature won't pass into law because even it has more common sense than the EIB, can be done by aggressive over-reaching internal policy initiatives.
If you think the infusion of dumb ideas into public policy in our state have to end eventually........think again. On Tuesday, September 7, 2010 from 12:00 pm – 6:30 pm the Environmental Improvement Board will offer local citizens an opportunity to provide public comment in Las Cruces on the New Energy Economy and New Mexico Environment Department’s Greenhouse Gas proposed rules. If you are wondering about the details of the latest insanity read here: The hearing officer will take comments on both proposals on the same day and will bring a court reporter so that the full board does not have to travel, but can read the transcripts. You can rest assured every whacked out clueless job killing anti-business activist in the area will be on hand to make silly comments that infer these new regulations won't move New Mexico one step closer to California-style bankruptcy. Clear thinking citizens with the time to fight the lunatic ideas might want to plan to attend and let your voice be heard before another nail is driven in our economic coffin.

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