Already rare driving privileges for people without legal status in the United States may soon disappear

From the New Mexico Independent - By Elise Foley - New Mexico, Washington and Utah are currently the only states that allow undocumented immigrants to drive. But in all three states, immigrants face threats to their right to drive as agencies step up residency proof requirements or politicians argue for eliminating illegal immigrants’ driving privileges altogether. Backlash against driving rights for illegal immigrants is nothing new: After 9/11, a few groups lobbied hard at the state level to change laws that allowed undocumented immigrants to receive licenses, claiming they could be used by terrorists to assume false identities. Anti-terrorist fervor has since died down, but the push to clamp down on illegal immigration has not, and measures to take away driving rights for the undocumented have broad support. In New Mexico, for instance, Governor-elect Susana Martinez, a tough-on-immigration Republican, said last week that she has the public’s backing to change laws that allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. “Around 80 percent of people in New Mexico don’t want the people who are here illegally to have a driver’s license,” Martinez said on Univision Nov. 7. “They want to ensure that those who get licenses are from the United States.” Advocates of licenses for illegal immigrants say they put more money in states’ coffers through vehicle registration and licensing fees. They also increase the number of licensed drivers, who must undergo tests and are required to buy insurance. This increases overall public safety, according to proponents, because licensed drivers are, overall, less likely to be involved in serious car crashes. One-fifth of fatal car crashes involve at least one unlicensed driver, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Read more

Already rare driving privileges for people without legal status in the United States may soon disappear

Domenici-led group pushes new national sales tax

From NM Politics.net - by Heath Haussamen - A bipartisan group co-led by former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici released its recommendations for dealing with the nation’s debt and deficit on Wednesday. Among its proposals is the implementation of a 6.5 percent national sales tax. You can find details about the “Restoring America’s Future” plan from the Bipartisan Policy Center here. In short, the plan would slash the debt by $6 trillion, but it would do so through some controversial means – the most controversial being the sales tax that’s already being attacked as regressive. The proposal includes many measures, including suspending some payroll taxes for a year, freezing discretionary domestic spending for four years, and freezing discretionary defense spending for five years. In September, Domenici warned in Las Cruces that the proposal would include tax increases and cuts. “We’re not going to ask everybody to love us,” Domenici said at the Domenici Public Policy Conference. “We’re hoping and praying that the public won’t hate us.” Read more

Domenici-led group pushes new national sales tax

Bingaman Wants to Pass a Renewable Energy Standard

From the New York Times - Key Senate Democrats continue to hope they can pass a renewable electricity standard and other smaller energy bills this year despite the dwindling time and interest in the lame-duck session. Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and other lawmakers have been talking with one another and leadership this week on how to move several pieces of energy legislation in the remaining time and with a schedule crowded with expiring income tax cuts, appropriations and a Russian nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) inflicted a severe blow for action on an RES or other energy issues when he decided this week not to proceed on a procedural vote for a natural gas and electric vehicle incentives measure yesterday, the only obviously germane bill on energy issues scheduled for floor time in the lame-duck session (E&E Daily, Nov. 17). But Dorgan said yesterday that Reid's decision was not "the last chance" for energy this year. Read more

Bingaman Wants to Pass a Renewable Energy Standard

Forget the 2nd Amendment and Concentrate on our Constitution

Michael and Conrad

By Michael Swickard - Our Constitution’s Second Amendment does not mention guns. It speaks to “arms,” but the word “militia” makes it impossible to understand today. So, let’s forgot it entirely. Instead, we should focus on something constitutionally far more important. Our country has spent too much time on the concept of a right to bear arms and too little on our right to defend ourselves from attack. Our right of individual defense seems the core argument in our Constitution. To understand, we must mingle two concepts. The first concept is one of property. Are we our own property? Said another way, do I own myself? Do I own my brain and my muscles, the product of my thinking and my labor? Do I own myself entirely? Or, can someone else own me? Read here:

Forget the 2nd Amendment and Concentrate on our Constitution

U.S. Economy Figures Improving

The index of U.S. leading indicators rose for a fourth consecutive month, manufacturing surged in the Philadelphia area and jobless claims climbed less than forecast, signaling the world’s largest economy is accelerating. “The soft patch is behind us,” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York. “We have a little more momentum. Employers are getting a bit more optimistic about the outlook and don’t need to cut costs like before.” Read here:

U.S. Economy Figures Improving

What's Next? Burn the Books?

Jay Rockefeller

From Fox News - A powerful Democratic senator, pointing the finger at cable news for a politically toxic climate in Washington, unleashed a stunning tirade in which he expressed his desire to see the Federal Communications Commission shut down Fox News and MSNBC. "I'm tired of the right and the left," West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller said Wednesday during a Senate hearing on retransmission consent. "There's a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC, Out, Off, End, Goodbye. It would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future," said the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Read here:

What's Next? Burn the Books?

Progressive Magazine Loves QE2

From Progressive.org - We’re going to get a nasty serving of Republican policies in the next couple of years. And they’re already sending around a sampling. Republicans in Congress are proposing to amend the charter of the Federal Reserve Board not to make it more responsive to the people or less beholden to the banks. No, Republicans in Congress want to strip the Fed of any responsibility for promoting full employment. Since 1977, the Fed has had a dual mandate: curb inflation and boost jobs. But Republicans don’t care about boosting jobs. They don’t want Obama to do so by another stimulus package. And they don’t want the Fed to do so by either keeping interest rates low or by pouring money into the system, as it’s doing now. Read here:

Progressive Magazine Loves QE2

New Mexico: Amber waves of hemp?

From Capitol Report New Mexico - by Rob Nikolewski - Let’s talk hemp. But first, let’s dispense with all the Cheech and Chong jokes and I promise this post will not include any lame puns about pot or weed or getting the munchies, etc. Let’s get the facts out first: Hemp is not the same thing as marijuana. It is a fiber that is produced by the cannibas family of plants. You cannot smoke hemp. (Well, you could but it would not get you high, just sick.) The hemp fiber is used to make things like rope, clothing, textiles, lotions and even construction materials such as strengtheners for concrete. Some energy bars include hemp seeds because the seeds are rich in Omega 3s, 6s and 9s.In countries like Canada, the Ukriane and France, farmers and ranchers grow industrial hemp as a cash crop because
A) it’s easy to grow
B) it doesn’t cost much to maintain or water, and
C) it’s profitable.
For example, in 2008 Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps sold $29 million in hemp-related products. Okay, but what does this have to do with New Mexico? Well, state Sen. Cisco McSorley (D-Albuquerque) would like to see the state pass a bill allowing the production of industrial hemp. He thinks it could help farmers and ranchers, who are struggling in the current economy. After all, New Mexico has plenty of land and its climate may be conducive to the growing of hemp because the fiber does not need much water. Read more

New Mexico: Amber waves of hemp?

Former New Mexico Inmate Goes Shopping Using Jail's Checking Account

From AOL News - (Nov. 18) -- Some people get out of jail free. Others get out of jail and rack up thousands of dollars of charges on the detention center's dime. That's what investigators say happened in New Mexico, where a recently released inmate used a check issued to him by the jail to make dozens of fraudulent purchases. Like all inmates incarcerated at Albuquerque's Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, Thomas Stegall was given upon release a check equivalent to the amount of cash he was carrying when he got locked up. But authorities say Stegall copied the check and used the jail's bank account number and routing number to make more than $5,000 of fraudulent purchases, mostly at a Lowe's home improvement store, according to MyFoxChicago.com. Stegall -- who had just been released after serving time on car theft charges -- allegedly sold the newly purchased goods for drugs. Ronald Torres, chief of corrections at the Metropolitan Detention Center, told KOAT.com that from a security standpoint, it's safer for the jail to issue checks than deal with cash. "From a system standpoint, the less cash-handling, the better," he said. Stegall had already been taken into custody for parole violation when he was hit with 42 charges of fraud.

Former New Mexico Inmate Goes Shopping Using Jail's Checking Account

NM unemployment benefits drain state's coffers

From KOB-TV.com - According to current trends, the New Mexico’s Department of Workforce Solutions could run out of money for unemployment benefits by next August. On Wednesday, officials for the Department presented several options to the legislative finance committee at the Roundhouse. One idea is to cut down on unemployment payments for full time New Mexico students. Another benefit which could be scaled back is payments made to dependents. The state gives out $25 each for up to four dependents weekly if the main provider, a parent for example, loses their job. By December, the state will be paying out over a million dollars a day in unemployment benefits. “The state alone has had a 500 percent increase in unemployment claims since June of 2008, so we are paying and serving close to 50,000 people currently on unemployment,” said Carrie Moritomo with the department. Officials stressed that payments would not stop for people receiving unemployment benefits; any decrease to benefits would only affect those claiming future unemployment. The state could have to take out a loan from the federal government to keep paying benefits. If that happens, raising taxes on employers would almost be unavoidable say officials. Read more

NM unemployment benefits drain state's coffers