The first ever Medical Marijuana & Natural Health Expo is underway this weekend at the Convention Center and it's attracting quite a crowd.

From KOB-TV.com - By: Heather Mills, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - The first ever Medical Marijuana & Natural Health Expo is underway this weekend at the Convention Center and it's attracting quite a crowd. Medical marijuana is a growing industry in New Mexico and judging by the long line of people hoping to get a medical marijuana card at the Expo, it's likely to continue the pace. KOB Eyewitness News 4 wanted to know, what does it take to get a pot card? The process is difficult. To start, in New Mexico there are 16 qualifying conditions including cancer, Crohn's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, epilepsy, even severe anorexia. To receive a card is expensive. The card can cost as much as $280 an individual can get the necessary doctor approvals and there is a yearly renewal fee. The pot itself is also expensive. Mario Gonzales owns Budding Hope. He said it costs about $40 for an eighth of an ounce. Card holders can legally possess 6 ounces. That would be nearly $2,000. Read more

The first ever Medical Marijuana & Natural Health Expo is underway this weekend at the Convention Center and it's attracting quite a crowd.

Another Fort Hood Massacre Averted

Naser Jason Abdo

Aljazeera - Police in the southwestern state of Texas have arrested a US soldier for planning what they called a "terror plot" against Fort Hood, the military base where a fellow serviceman went on a deadly shooting rampage in 2009. Army private Naser Jason Abdo, who gave several television interviews last year saying he was opposed to deployment in Afghanistan, became the target of suspicion after a gun shop owner noticed his unusual purchases of weapons and tipped off police. Police tracked down the 21-year-old to a motel near Fort Hood and arrested him on Wednesday afternoon, police said on Thursday. A Texas native, Abdo served at Fort Campbell in Kentucky but had deserted since July 4. He had gone AWOL since early this month after being charged with possessing child pornography. "I would classify this as a terror plot," Dennis Baldwin, the police chief of Killeen, Texas, located next to Fort Hood, told the AFP news agency. "We have interviewed him and the information as a result of the interview and other leads ... leads us to believe that military personnel were targeted," Baldwin told reporters, adding that the suspect acted alone. "I can tell you that we would probably be here today giving you a different briefing if he had not been stopped." He called the suspect "very dangerous" and noted he had only been in Killeen for a "relatively short period of time." Read full story here: News New Mexico

Another Fort Hood Massacre Averted

Judge Murphy arrested on new bribery charge



Michael Murphy

From NM Politics.net - by Heath Haussamen - Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy, already indicted on bribery charges and suspended from the bench, was arrested this morning on a new bribery charge. Murphy was arrested at 8:45 a.m. and booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center on a $10,000 unsecured bond. He’s facing a new felony charge of bribery of a public officer or public employee. Murphy has bonded out of jail and was released just after 10:30 a.m. Special prosecutor Matt Chandler, whose office filed the charges, said Murphy is alleged to have offered “several promises” to District Judge Lisa Schultz in December 2010 if she would agree to be the tie-breaking vote to make Douglas R. Driggers the chief district judge in Las Cruces. Chandler said prosecutors have an audio recording of the conversation between Schultz and Murphy. Read more

Judge Murphy arrested on new bribery charge

Need for Open Government is NOT Partisan

Sarah Welsh

Veritas New Mexico -  By Sarah Welsh, Executive Director, New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Well, we’ve come full circle. Five years ago, Bill Richardson’s administration was asked for state e-mails about an audit of the driver’s license program. It refused, claiming executive privilege, and the Republican Party of New Mexico filed suit. This year, Secretary of State Dianna Duran was asked for state e-mails about a similar audit – a cross-check between drivers’ licenses and voter rolls. Duran’s office refused, citing executive privilege, and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has now filed suit.
It’s a stunning parallel, and the bipartisan principles underpinning open government are rarely on such obvious display. Open government is not a tool of the left or the right, of Democrats or Republicans. It’s simply a tool to hold powerful people accountable. Read full column here: News New Mexico

Need for Open Government is NOT Partisan

Chavez: Obama's Leadership Deficit

Linda Chavez

Townhall - When the history of the debt limit fight is written, the failure of presidential leadership will constitute a major chapter. Once again, President Obama has proven himself lacking in the most fundamental attribute necessary to the office he occupies: leadership. His idea of leading his party and the American people in a crisis is to give a speech, as he did earlier this week in prime time. But when it comes to fashioning a concrete plan or rallying support of his own troops, he's missing in action. Contrast President Obama's leadership to that of House Speaker John Boehner, who not only has worked diligently to come up with real numbers matched to federal programs to reduce future debt but has been personally engaged in trying to persuade skeptics within his party to go along.

And when the Congressional Budget Office determined the GOP numbers didn't add up as claimed, Boehner went back to the drawing board to come up with new ones that delivered what they promised. As of this writing, the vote on the Boehner plan has yet to occur -- but win or lose, the speaker has demonstrated he's willing to lead.But Obama's only contribution to the debt-ceiling debate has been partisan, class-warfare rhetoric. In his televised address earlier this week, Obama blamed Republicans for failing to produce a bill he'd be willing to sign because it would not include a tax rate increase on families and small businesses earning more $250,000 a year. Those Americans already foot the bill for more than 60 percent of all federal income taxes collected in the U.S., despite constituting less than 5 percent of taxpayers. The wealthy pay their fair share and then some.
Even if fairness weren't a consideration, a tax increase at a time when the nation's economy is hovering on the brink of a double-dip recession is a dangerous idea. But it plays well to Obama's political base, which wants someone else to pay for their entitlements. Read full column here: News New Mexico

Chavez: Obama's Leadership Deficit

Angry crowd meets, Medicaid concerns

From KRQE-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE - Keep your hands off my Medicaid. That was the message to state officials with the New Mexico Human Services Department during a public meeting on the future of Medicaid Thursday in Albuquerque. "If you agree with me stand up and yell," one woman said at the meeting held at the University of New Mexico Center for Continuing Education building. Dozens and dozens at the meeting said they do not want cuts of any kind to Medicaid, a program that provides health care to those living in poverty. "With the implementation of national health care reform we are going to have between 130-170,000 people eligible for Medicaid in the state," said Humans Services Communications Director Matt Kennicott. Those changes are not until 2014, but Kennicott said in the end, it could cost an additional $300 million to $600 million in state payouts by 2019. Right now one in four people in the state are on Medicaid. Read more

Angry crowd meets, Medicaid concerns

Federal charges against 2 in NM voter project

From KOB-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales says a Texas-based political consultant and a former New Mexico lobbyist have been indicted for allegedly stealing federal election money by overbilling for services in a voter education project administered by former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron. The grand jury indictments were announced Thursday against Armando Gutierrez of Corpus Christi, Texas and Joseph Kupfer of Rio Rancho. The three defendants and Vigil-Giron have pleaded not guilty to state charges brought in 2009 in connection with the voter education campaign. Gutierrez was hired by Vigil-Giron. He received more than $6 million in federal election money from 2004 to 2006, but the indictment alleges he defrauded the government by charging $2.5 million for work never performed. Read more

Federal charges against 2 in NM voter project

Mexico suspends police aid to Juárez

From the Las Cruces Sun-News - (AP) CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Mexico's federal government has suspended aid for a police-training program in the violence-wracked border city of Ciudad Juarez, saying authorities there haven't followed reporting rules and have trained few police. Mexico's National Public Safety System says it has suspended 57 million pesos ($4.85 million) in aid scheduled to be delivered this year, because the city has done little to actually train local police. It said Thursday that from 2008 to 2010 the city trained only about 6 percent of its police force, and none of its commanding officers. "It is unfortunate that the federal government is not showing solidarity with Ciudad Juarez in the serious problem of insecurity," city clerk Hector Arceluz Perez told a Thursday hearing. The announcement comes amid rising tensions between local and federal authorities, after federal police shot at a vehicle carrying Ciudad Juarez police chief Julian Leyzaola. Read more

Mexico suspends police aid to Juárez

A big win for Gary King

From Capitol Report New Mexico - One day after a rambunctious committee meeting hearing in the Roundhouse in which whistleblower Frank Foy and his attorney Victor Marshall once again called for the recusal of state attorney general Gary King from taking the lead in a lawsuit aimed at recovering millions of dollars in alleged “pay to play” schemes, a district court judge declared that Foy’s objections to King don’t have any standing. King is heading an amended lawsuit on behalf of the State Investment Council (SIC) and district court Judge Stephen Pfeffer announced that the SIC has sole responsibility to decide if there is a conflict of interest and that Foy, therefore, has no standing to request a recusal. Foy and Marshall have called for King to step aside because of what they say could be a conflict of interest on King’s part because the attorney general received $54,848 in campaign contributions from then-Gov. Bill Richardson’s campaign in 2006. A number of Richardson associates have been named in the amended SIC lawsuit in connection to “pay to play” schemes. Read more

A big win for Gary King

Marita Noon: Increase Revenues = Better Economy Not Higher Taxes



Marita Noon

Commentary by Marita Noon, Executive Director of Energy Makes America Great - Admittedly, we, as a country, need to get past this debt-ceiling crisis and, consequently, it has consumed the news cycle. But, the proposed solutions focus mainly on two elements of the problem, while the rating agencies seem to be looking at the bigger picture. So, how’d we get here? The over-simplified answer is basically the same way any household account gets into trouble: too much spending and not enough income. Despite the bad numbers, the administration’s policies continue to discourage a true revenue increase while the President continues to support raising taxes. A variety of business and industrial groups are working together to point out the detrimental impact of the EPA’s proposed new ozone ruling, calling it, “one of the greatest threats to U.S. economic growth and job creation.” If implemented, the new rule will put most of the country, including nearly all of California, in a non-attainment status, which will require, as estimated by the EPA, $20-90 billion annually. Companies would be punished by having to obtain emission offsets (doing through regulation what—at the prodding of the people—Congress didn’t support in cap-and-trade proposals), install controls, and face expensive retrofits just to be allowed to continue current operations. Read more

Marita Noon: Increase Revenues = Better Economy Not Higher Taxes