SIC reallocating more than $7B in investments

New Mexico Business Weekly - The New Mexico State Investment Council is in the middle of what might be the biggest asset reallocation effort in the U.S., shifting more than $7 billion to different investments and investment companies, State Investment Officer Steve Moise said Wednesday. The SIC, which manages $15.2 billion in state funds, has fired more than a dozen asset managers in the past two years and replaced them, Moise said during a breakfast presentation to the Economic Forum of Albuquerque. In addition, the SIC has sued 17 people in an attempt to collect “tens of millions of dollars” in lost earnings and improper fees that resulted from alleged pay-to-play schemes that plagued the SIC during the administration of former Gov. Bill Richardson, Moise added. “We are going to sue others, we are going to sue funds and we are going to sue managers,” Moise said. “We hope to recover tens of millions of dollars. Time will tell.” Read More News New Mexico

SIC reallocating more than $7B in investments

Carlsbad Caverns Reopens Today

KRWG - Carlsbad Caverns National Park is expected to reopen today, two days after air contamination forced its closure.

Employees at the park had reported headaches and other illnesses earlier this week because of heavy fumes coming from the elevator shaft. The elevator takes visitors 750 feet below ground to view cave formations.

Park Superintendent John Benjamin says a contractor had been cleaning rails with a solvent, which sent vapors into the visitors center. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Carlsbad Caverns Reopens Today

Santa Rosa in a Pinch

KOB - The City of Santa Rosa said it will fight the state's efforts to reclaim $1.2 million after a private business (rumored to be county jail operator The Geo Group) operating in the city claimed it overpaid its taxes, then demanded and got a refund from the state.

The State of New Mexico then sent the city a $1.2 million bill - half the city's entire budget.

During a city council meeting Tuesday night, Santa Rosa residents learned the city has already been making some cuts. The city has cut down on fuel, travel, postage, paper - even toiletries.
It also plans on holding off on hiring, but said there will be no personnel layoffs or furloughs at this time. The city administrator announced he is not planning on making any major cuts because he does not plan on ever having to pay the full amount. He plans on fighting the state, and Santa Rosa residents are on board. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Santa Rosa in a Pinch

The Anatomy of a Voter Fraud Operation

Richmond Times-Dispatch - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign is asking Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to launch an investigation into voter-registration forms that are being sent to Virginia residents and addressed to deceased relatives, children, family pets and others ineligible to vote.
The errant mailings from the Washington-based nonprofit group Voter Participation Center have befuddled many Virginia residents, leading to hundreds of complaints.
The organization has been mass-mailing the forms — pre-populated with key information such as names and addresses — to primarily Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as young adults, unmarried women, African-Americans and Latinos. Read full story here: News New Mexico

The Anatomy of a Voter Fraud Operation

Courtesy of Conservative Daily News

http://www.janice2012.us/

$1 Trillion Federal Deficit: Portion Went to Colorado Killer

CBS - James Holmes, the alleged gunman in the recent theater shooting that left 12 dead in Aurora, Colo., was previously awarded a $26,000 federal grant. WNEW News reports that Holmes was awarded a prestigious grant from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It gave the graduate student a $26,000 stipend and paid his tuition for the highly competitive neuroscience program at the University of Colorado in Denver. Holmes was one of six neuroscience students at the school to get the grant money.

Holmes is expected to be formally charged next Monday. He is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and he could also face additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations. Holmes has been assigned a public defender. Weeks before, Holmes quit a 35-student Ph.D. program in neuroscience for reasons that aren’t clear. Read full story here: News New Mexico

$1 Trillion Federal Deficit: Portion Went to Colorado Killer

Large NM Group Visits Congressional Delegation in Washington D.C. on LANL

Albuquerque Journal - Sometimes it takes intensive, focused, grass-roots action to make something happen in Washington, where big-money special interests dominate the agenda and the legislative pace is glacial.

Los Alamos National Labs

That’s why a coalition of business and civic leaders from northern New Mexico, hoping to stave off budget cuts at Los Alamos National Laboratory, traveled to the nation’s capital last week. The group of nine – including representatives of the Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Albuquerque Chambers of Commerce, Gov. Susana Martinez’s chief of staff and others – met with all five members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, as well as top officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Their message? Please don’t let LANL wither on the vine. The nation’s national security – and northern New Mexico’s shaky economy – depend on it.

The coalition, operating without a formal name, is an outgrowth of a similar trip that the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (comprised mostly of city and county officials) made to Washington in April to lobby for nuclear cleanup money at Los Alamos. Last week’s trip took a more business-centric approach. Read full story here: (subscription required) News New Mexico

Large NM Group Visits Congressional Delegation in Washington D.C. on LANL

Investment council elects Peter Frank vice chair

Peter Frank

Milan Simonich - Members of the State Investment Council today elected Peter Frank as their vice chairman, again rejecting Gov. Susana Martinez’s favored candidate. Frank defeated former Republican state legislator Leonard Lee Rawson of Las Cruces in a 5-4 vote. Two council members appointed by Republican Martinez voted for Frank, tipping the election his way. They were Scott Smart of Portales and Linda Eitzen of Albuquerque. Martinez, who chairs the investment council, first proposed last month that Rawson be elected vice chairman. Council members rejected Rawson then, also on a 5-4 vote. This time, the council’s governance committee suggested that anybody interested in being vice chairman place his or her name in nomination. Frank and Rawson were the only contenders for the job. Frank, 69, of Santa Fe was educated in the Ivy League. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He retired from Daymon Worldwide Inc. as chief financial officer and an executive vice president. He previously worked for 35 years for PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was on the firm’s global leadership team. Read More News New Mexico

Investment council elects Peter Frank vice chair

WSMR, Holloman: Union workers threaten strike

Las Cruces Sun-News - Employees from one of White Sands Missile Range's largest contractors threatened Monday to strike after union negotiations hit a rocky spot. A portion of the 325 employees who belong to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge No. 2515 also work at Holloman Air Force Base, outside Alamogordo. The union claimed its employer, TRAX International LLC, didn't follow through on verbal agreements about wages and cut back on health insurance benefits, according to an email from the union's business representative, Charles Jaramillo. He said negotiations reached a "critical juncture." The union and TRAX International "failed in their attempts to come to an agreement," he said. "This failed agreement has resulted in the union membership voting overwhelmingly to initiate a strike against the company," if negotiations don't improve. The Las Vegas, Nev.-based company provides a variety of operations-related services to WSMR, including in missile launch support, technical services, engineering services and laser research, according to its website. The missile range is in contact with TRAX International LLC and is keeping tabs on the negotiations, WSMR spokeswoman Monte Marlin said. The facility is "confident both parties will work to resolve the differences as soon as possible," she said. Read More News New Mexico

WSMR, Holloman: Union workers threaten strike

Feinstein: Intelligence Leaks Coming from White House

Newsmax - The Democratic leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Monday that the White House appears to be responsible for some leaks of classified information. "I think the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks," Sen. Dianne Feinstein told a World Affairs Council forum.

The California lawmaker said she was certain that President Barack Obama, who receives a daily intelligence briefing, isn't disclosing secret information, but she was uncertain about others at the White House. "I don't believe for a moment that he goes out and talks about it," she said.

Republicans have criticized the disclosures, arguing that members of the Obama administration were intentionally leaking classified material to enhance the president's reputation in an election year. Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed two attorneys to lead the investigation into who leaked information about U.S. involvement in cyberattacks on Iran and about an al-Qaida plot to place an explosive device aboard a U.S.-bound airliner.

That hasn't satisfied some Republicans who have pressed for a special prosecutor. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Feinstein: Intelligence Leaks Coming from White House