Huge Drug Seizure in Gallup

Gallup – More than two million dollars worth of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and hashish were seized at the Gallup port of entry by the Motor Transportation Police.
On the evening of March 11th, a truck driven by an Illinois man en-route from California to Kentucky was selected randomly for a safety inspection at the Gallup port of entry. During the safety inspection, inspectors and officers discovered 428 pounds of marijuana, 170 pounds of cocaine, 8 pounds of heroin, 1.1 pounds of hashish and 2 bottles of hash oil hidden in both the trailer and tractor.

The driver and illicit cargo were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration for further investigation.

Huge Drug Seizure in Gallup

Governor Leads Drunk Driving Fight

Susana Martinez

Governor Susana Martinez today launched the St. Patrick’s Holiday Mini Superblitz, a statewide collaborative enforcement effort targeting drunk drivers in New Mexico. The Governor was joined by Transportation Secretary Alvin Dominguez, Public Safety Secretary Gorden Eden, Sen. Lynda Lovejoy (D-Crownpoint), Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and other law enforcement officials involved in combating DWI.
The St. Patrick’s Holiday Superblitz begins March 14th and will run daily through March 19th, 2012. The Superblitz includes an increase in law enforcement efforts statewide and features an ad campaign showing the impact of alcohol and the dangerous consequences of driving while impaired.

For the second year in a row, the legislature failed to act on proposed bills that would have cracked down on repeat DWI offenders, helping to take dangerous drivers off the roads and dangerous weapons out of their hands. Before the recent legislative session, Governor Martinez announced bi-partisan support for measures that would have increased penalties for repeat offenders, seized vehicles from individuals after a second DWI offense, and made felony DWI count when courts sentence a habitual offender. The bill died in the legislature.

Governor Leads Drunk Driving Fight

Courtesy of Conservative Daily News

     

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Four Firefighters Awarded Medal of Valor

KOB TV - The Albuquerque Fire Department honored four members who went into a chaotic situation to save the lives of people from a fight that broke out January 1 in Downtown Albuquerque.
It was a wild start to 2012. Fights broke out in the middle of the street as the bars closed early New Year's morning. One man was shot on Central Avenue and when the Albuquerque Fire Department Engine 2 arrived on scene, it went from wild to worse. AFD firefighter 2nd Class Brett Rohrig was one of the first responders to arrive.

"Approaching the scene and the first cluster of fire. Pow-pow-pow went off," Rohrig explained.

AFD Lt. Matthew Sanchez was in charge of Engine 2. "It was total chaos, one of those things anybody in the fire department…instead of running away, they would all react."

Instead of moving away, they went toward the gunfire. That is when a second round of shots rang out. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Four Firefighters Awarded Medal of Valor

Thornburg Executives Charged With Fraud

KOB TV - Federal regulators have charged three executives of what was once the nation's second-largest mortgage company with civil accounting fraud.
The Securities and Exchange Commission says the now-defunct Thornburg Mortgage Inc., which was based in Santa Fe, N.M, aimed to conceal disastrous conditions as the housing market collapsed and the financial crisis loomed.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., the SEC says the three executives conspired to overstate Thornburg's income by more than $400 million in 2007. It says Thornburg was facing a "severe liquidity crisis" in early 2008 and its lenders were demanding payments the company wasn't able to meet. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Thornburg Executives Charged With Fraud

Swickard: Starting a group to restore kindergarten

Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. - Five rules of education: first engage their curiosity and then give them the tools to satisfy that curiosity. While doing so students must enjoy the passage of time. All curricular and instructional experiences must be correct for their brain development and students must retain their basic human dignity at all times. Michael Swickard

     There is a great evil in our schools perpetuated for political rather than educational reasons. Many who embrace this evil are good people not realizing the harm they cause. Namely, we no longer treat young students just entering our schools humanely. Specifically, kindergarten students are treated inappropriately for their age.
     We must band together to restore the humanity to kindergarten. It will take our voices and feet. First, it takes seeing the problem. The Swickard Axiom: never use a political solution for a non-political problem, especially in education. Read column

Swickard: Starting a group to restore kindergarten

Angry customers result in 'informal complaint' against Sprint

From the Carlsbad Current-Argus -  By Stella Davis, Current-Argus Staff Writer - CARLSBAD — Frequent dropped calls and intermittent or no service for days at a time have recently caused Sprint cellular phone customers to vent their frustration with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission's Consumer Relations Division., PRC director of consumer relations, said his agency has received more than 100 complaints from Sprint customers in Roswell, Hobbs, Artesia and Carlsbad. He said enough complaints have been received to warrant the lodging of an informal complaint against the wireless carrier."Sprint has had problems with its cell towers, and customers have had problems since November to the present," Williamson said. "We have received quite a few complaints. By filing an informal complaint, we hope Sprint customers will get their service restored quicker, or if not, they should be given a credit on the bill for the month they experienced the outage." Williamson said Sprint is not advertising its willingness to give a credit to area customers who lost service. However, if they call Sprint or the PRC, customers are promised a credit on their next bill, based on the date and length of the outage. Read more

Angry customers result in 'informal complaint' against Sprint

Regulatory commission puts Xcel Energy power plant on fast track

From the Alamogordo Daily News - By Milan Simonich - SANTA FE -- Xcel Energy's request to build a $16.4 million power-generating plant in Quay County is on a fast track. The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission voted 5-0 Tuesday to gear the project for approval in as little as 60 days, in all likelihood bypassing an analysis by a hearing examiner. Commission Chairman Patrick Lyons pressed to move the project forward as fast as possible, saying it would solve a problem that had on occasion paralyzed the small city of Tucumcari. Lyons, R-Clovis, said Tucumcari now has no backup generating system. At times of peak demand for power on Xcel's grid across eastern New Mexico, Tucumcari has been left without electricity for up to six hours at a time, Lyons said. "You can't pump gas. You can't transact business in any store. It shuts the town down," Lyons said. The new plant would provide 23 megawatts of standby electricity for Tucumcari, which is served by a single transmission feed.. Read more

Regulatory commission puts Xcel Energy power plant on fast track

McKinnon jumps out of, then back into, CD2 race

Frank McKinnon

From NMPolitics.net - After failing to win a spot on the ballot at the Democratic Party’s preprimary nominating convention on Saturday, Frank McKinnon said he was dropping out of the race, but he’s changed his mind.The in-then-out-then-back-in shifting came in a series of Facebook posts. First this post from Sunday, after McKinnon won the support of 12 percent of delegates, falling short of the 20 percent needed: McKinnon jumped back in the race on Monday:“Because I am not a quitter, and never have been. I have decided not quit the race. I will leave it up to the Democratic Party to determine whether or not my campaign will be one of the choices on the ballot in the Primary Election. If I receive enough signatures on copies of this Nomination Petition in the mail by March 19 for me to drive to Santa Fe to file them with the Office of the Secretary of State on March 20, I will continue this campaign. It is up to the Democratic Party.” Read more

McKinnon jumps out of, then back into, CD2 race

Ex-Investment Boss Countersues SIC

Gary Bland

KOB - SANTA FE – SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Former State Investment Officer Gary Bland is fighting back against allegations of corruption and he's suing his accusers for more than $1 million in damages. Bland is seeking damages against his former employer, the State Investment Council, as well as council chairwoman Gov. Susana Martinez, Attorney General Gary King and a former pension fund officer who brought whistleblower lawsuits alleging a pay-to-play scheme influenced investments. The Investment Council sued Bland and others last year alleging he and a financial advisory firm steered investments to political supporters of former Gov. Bill Richardson. Bland says the allegations are false and politically motivated. He told The Associated Press he will vigorously fight back because the lawsuits have destroyed his reputation. Bland resigned as investment officer in 2009. Read More News New Mexico

Ex-Investment Boss Countersues SIC