War in Mexico: The Need for Law Enforcement Flexibility

From the El Paso Times - When shooting started in Juárez across from the University of Texas at El Paso last week, all it took was one call to shut down Paisano Drive. City, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies have the unique ability to communicate with each other during a crisis along the border. They have radios that allow them to patch into a special channel used by all the agencies to collaborate and respond directly to emergencies. That channel helped U.S. authorities react quickly when a gunbattle between Mexican federal police and criminals erupted near the border Aug. 21.

Border Patrol agents and police worked together to shut down a U.S. highway next to the area. The agents alerted police of the danger through a dispatch operator, who explained that gunfire had broken out in a Northwest Juárez neighborhood, directly across from UTEP and the Sunset Heights neighborhood in El Paso.

The agents rushed to Paisano Drive and blocked the road with their vehicles. About five minutes later, police joined them. Police roped off the area with red tape, redirected traffic and used their public-address system to warn onlookers of potential danger.

"If they can see you, then they can shoot you," police warned. Read more here:

War in Mexico: The Need for Law Enforcement Flexibility

Kyle Doperalski Joins News NM Team

Kyle Doperalski

Veteran sports broadcaster Kyle Doperalski has joined the News New Mexico team. Doperalski will head up the sports department at NewsNM and appear regularly each week on the 7:00 - 9:00am weekday radio show. Doperalski is best known for his work with the New Mexico State Aggies. He broadcasts volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball, soccer, and softball. Doperalski also fills in on football and men’s basketball. For his work, Doperalski was named the National Volleyball Broadcaster of the year in 2008. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2005 with a bachelor of journalism degree with an emphasis in broadcasting. At Nebraska, Doperalski earned All-Big XII honors in track and field and contributed to the 2004 Big XII championship when Nebraska scored a Big XII record 174 points, which still stands. Doperalski and his wife Elizabeth, an NMSU graduate and faculty member were married earlier this summer in Las Cruces.

Kyle Doperalski Joins News NM Team

War Continues - Two Car Bombs Go Off In Tamaulipas

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Two car bombs exploded on Friday at the same time in different places of Ciudad Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas state in northeast of Mexico with no injuries. One of the bombs blasted early Friday morning outside the building of Mexican TV channel Televisa in the south of Ciudad Victoria, while the other explosion occurred near the facilities of the Municipal Transit Direction.
During the broadcasting of Televisa's news program "Primero Noticias" its conductor Carlos Loret said that the bomb in Televisa building in Ciudad Victoria only caused material damages. Read more here:

War Continues - Two Car Bombs Go Off In Tamaulipas

Opening Night H.S. Football Wrapup

8-27-10 High School Football Recap - Mayfield Cruises, LCHS Wins, Onate Humbled, Hatch Dominates, MVCS Loses Tough One

Mike Bradley's Mayfield Trojans returned Chapin's opening kickoff for a touchdown out of their dangerous starburst return play and the beating began. MHS never stopped pouring it on until the final gun. When it was all said and done El Paso Chapin was on the short end of lopsided 51-8 loss at Irvin High School Stadium.

At the Field of Dreams in Las Cruces Jim Miller's Las Cruces Bulldawgs made just enough big plays to outlast a talented El Paso Eldorado squad. LCHS quarterback Jeremey Buurma had a huge night in the Bulldawgs 23-20 win with 280 yards of total offense split almost evenly between running and passing.

The Onate Knights 2010 debut was a humbling one in El Paso last night. El Paso Franklin dominated the line of scrimmage from start to finish in an easy 49-2 win over Kelly McKee's squad which lost most starters off last year's solid 9-3 team.
Mesilla Valley Christian School dropped its opener on the road at Marfa, Texas. The final score was 40-30.
Hatch Valley Dominates Second Half, Downs Tucumcari
8-27-10 HATCH, N.M. - Hatch Valley High School’s running game wore out Tucumcari High School in the second half en route to a 35-18 win on Friday. In the second half, the Bear rushing attack accounted for 266 yards and four touchdowns, two each by Miguel Herrera and Joshua Chavez.
Tucumcari led 12-7 at the half but the off season conditioning paid off for the Bears following halftime as they dominated the second half on the ground.
“We hang our hat on the running game,” Hatch Valley Coach Jack Cisco said. “Our boys pull tires in the offseason with the rim, a chain and a harness. I was pleased to see them get after it in the second half after being so nervous in the first half tonight.”
The Rattlers scored back-to-back touchdowns in the first half on passes from senior quarterback Dalton Wood to climb out of an early 7-0 deficit. At the beginning of the second half the Bears took control. Hatch Valley needed less than two minutes to take the lead for good when Chavez scored his first touchdown to give his team a 13-12 advantage. With 1:44 left in the third Herrera broke a 78 yard run for a score to make it a 20-12 contest. The Rattlers didn’t give up and mounted a drive that finished as Wood connected Jakus Martinez on their second touchdown combination of the night. The two point conversion failed, leaving the score at 20-18 with 6:10 remaining in the fourth quarter. From that point on, it was all Bears, with the crushing blow coming as a Wood pass was intercepted by Hatch Valley’s Chavez with 4:47 remaining.
Combined with the dominance on the ground in the second half, the Bear defense limited Wood and the Tucumcari passing attack to just 34 yards.
Cisco made defensive adjustments at halftime.
“We changed the front and switched our stunt angles,” Cisco said. “We played man to man defense in the second half, which we didn’t do in the first half.”
Wood finished the game 12-27 passing for 128 yards and three touchdowns with the one ill-timed interception, while Bear quarterback Geno Angel didn’t attempt a pass in the second half completing just two of his six passes in the game for 65 yards.
Hatch Valley from Class 3A moves to 1-0 and will travel to Lordsburg next week while Tucumcari of Class 2A is 0-1 and plays at New Mexico Military Institute next week.

Opening Night H.S. Football Wrapup

Zuckerman - Most Fiscally Irresponsible Gov't in History

Mort Zuckerman

Mort Zuckerman in U.S. News and World Report - There is an instinctive conclusion among the American public that President Obama's stimulus package has failed to create a sustained recovery. Unemployment has increased, not declined; consumers have retrenched; housing starts have crashed along with mortgage applications; and there is a fear that a double-dip recession may very well be in the pipeline. The public perception, reflected in Pew Research/National Journal polls, is that the measures to combat the Great Recession have mostly helped large banks and financial institutions, and that's a view common to Republicans (75 percent) and Democrats (73 percent). Only one third of either political leaning thinks government policies have done a great deal or a fair amount for the poor.

There is another instinctive conclusion among the American people. It is that the national deficit, and the debts we have accumulated, are of critical political importance. On the national debt, the money the government has spent without the tax revenues to pay for it has produced mind-numbing numbers so large as to be disconnected from reality. Zeros from here to infinity. The sums are hard to describe; it is hard to describe an elephant, but you know one when you see one. The public knows that, shuffle the numbers as you may, the level of debt is unsustainable. Read more here:

Zuckerman - Most Fiscally Irresponsible Gov't in History

Miller - Worried About a "Franken" Incident

Al Franken

Conservative political phenom Joe Miller is warning that the national Republican establishment is dispatching attorneys to aid incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the looming battle over absentee votes in Alaska's GOP Senate primary, adding: "It concerns us anytime that somebody lawyers up and tries to pull an Al Franken, if you will." Republican officials confirmed Thursday that Sean Cairncross, the chief counsel for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is traveling to Alaska to help Murkowski prepare for the absentee-ballot count on Aug. 31. "We're up against a machine," Miller told Fox News Thursday evening. "Clearly, they're putting their pressure to bear. But I think we're going to prevail in the end." Miller stunned political insiders Tuesday when he appeared to edge out Murkowski for the GOP Senate nomination, despite the fact that she outspent his campaign by an estimated 10-to-1 margin. With all Alaskan precincts reporting in, Miller has a 1,668 vote lead. However, an estimated 7,600 absentee ballots remain to be counted. Some observers have speculated Miller may be at a disadvantage in the absentee balloting, because absentee ballots were mailed in before the last-minute surge in voter sentiment that appeared to put Miller over the top. But Miller, a West Point graduate who was awarded a Bronze Star in the first Gulf War, told Fox News Thursday evening that "we feel pretty good about those [absentee ballots]." Read more here:

Miller - Worried About a "Franken" Incident

Debra White - Why Run for Office?

Debra L. White

Friday morning NewsNM guest Debra White, a candidate for the New Mexico House of representatives posted her views on NMPolitics.net.
From NMPolitics.net - Ok, so here I am one day sitting on the couch and I realize I’m screaming at the television. Why, you ask? Well, it’s like this: I’m so frustrated with the way the country’s going; the state is out of money; folks are losing jobs left, right, and center; and businesses are leaving the state in droves. Our schools are broke, teachers are being furloughed, you have to wait three hours to get a new driver’s license, state government is corrupt, and if that’s not bad enough let me catch my breath and I’ll add some more to the list. Read more here:

Debra White - Why Run for Office?

Progressive Magazine: Iraq a Complete Failure

The United States is ending its combat mission in Iraq, leaving it in a complete mess. On virtually every count, the country is in the doldrums. Back in March, some commentators crowed about the parliamentary elections there, and how this vindicated the Bush Administration’s “nation-building” afterthought of a project.

Wall Street Journal alum (and, I’m embarrassed to admit, a schoolmate of mine) Tunku Varadarajan claimed at the Daily Beast website that “what Iraq has achieved in five years is a political wonder, and those who would deny that are being very, very dishonest.” Resident New York Times Middle East expert Thomas Friedman declared, “Former President George W. Bush’s gut instinct that this region craved and needed democracy was always right.” Read more here:

Progressive Magazine: Iraq a Complete Failure

Browns: How Many More BORDER Deaths?

Floyd & Mary Beth Brown

The shocking discovery of 72 murdered Hispanic migrants on a ranch just south of the U.S. border should be a wakeup call to all Americans that the security of our beloved nation begins at home. Here in Arizona we have seen firsthand the bloody consequences of the crime and violence being imported by criminal aliens across our borders. Peaceful Phoenix has been transformed into the kidnapping capital of America. A cadre of dedicated state and local officials has attempted to quell the violence. The result has been to watch these local leaders be sued, investigated and harassed by the police powers of the Obama administration. When will this insanity end? Read more here:

Browns: How Many More BORDER Deaths?

Ken Blackwell - The Tea Party

Ken Blackwell

Editors' note: this piece is co-authored by Robert Morrison. Michael Gerson is a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He’s now a columnist for the Washington Post. He’s taken on the TEA Party movement in several recent columns. Mike Gerson was entirely right to commend the TEA Party for giving a quick axe to a local activist who wrote a parody of slaves asking “ Massa ” Lincoln not to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a wholly offensive and witless piece that only fueled the left’s false claims that the TEA Party is racist. If only the left would give such a quick heave-ho to such thoroughly offensive characters as Bill (Mocker) Maher. Read more here:

Ken Blackwell - The Tea Party