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Participants in a recent shale gas energy conference held in Hobbs, New Mexico, referred to a whirlwind trip to Lea County, NM, as “exhausting” but “enlightening.” Bradford County Commissioners Doug McLinko, Mark Smith, and Daryl Miller, Susquehanna County Commissioner Mary Ann Warren and Pennsylvania state Rep. Tina Pickett were among local elected officials to partake in discussions and serve as guests on informative panels.

A family of four – Rick Reese, his wife Terri, and their two sons, Ryin - 24 and Remington - 19 – was arrested in Las Cruces, New Mexico on August 30, 2011. They have been held in four separate county and federal detention facilities without bond ever since. Their alleged crime is that, over the course of several months, they sold between 15 and 30 guns to people they knew, or should have known were gun traffickers for Mexican drug gangs. The Reeses insist that they are innocent of any crime. Shortly after they were arrested in Las Cruces,...

Mexico arrests figure in Fast and Furious gun-smuggling scandal REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- Mexican authorities have arrested a reputed enforcer for the country's most powerful drug cartel -- a man also alleged to have amassed weapons from the U.S. government's failed Fast and Furious gun-smuggling operation (link, in Spanish, includes video). Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, 33, is also wanted by U.S. officials on drug-trafficking charges in El Paso. Mexican and U.S. authorities say he served as a top lieutenant to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel and was in charge of operations in the border state of...

You know the border is a place where drugs and illegal immigrants transit every day. But you have no idea how bad things really are.

New Mexico Republican Governor Susana Martinez apparently has “no intentions” of accepting presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s invitation to be his vice president running mate if he wins the nomination. Mr. Romney mentioned the New Mexico governor as a possible running mate during an interview on Fox News Friday, but Governor Martinez says she will not be accepting offers from any of the candidates to be their possible running mates. “I have no intentions of doing anything different other than being governor,” said the New Mexico governor in an interview with ABC News 7 on Friday. Mr. Romney also mentioned New...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Federal Court Upholds Obama/Holder Gun Registration Scheme; Congressional Action Needed   Friday, January 13, 2012   Moments before this alert was to go out, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. issued a ruling upholding an Obama administration policy that requires federally licensed firearms retailers in states bordering Mexico to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles.  The case was brought by two NRA-backed firearms retailers and by the National Shooting Sports Foundation acting on behalf of its affected members.  Plaintiffs plan to appeal immediately—but in the meantime, your help is urgently...

I met some illegal Mexicans last night at a party. Several years ago I stayed with a couple of wonderful Mexican families in the Baja below California. These were well-off people. The homes, on average were beautifully tiled and some of them had mahogany inlaid walls, bookshelves and cabinetry that would cost a hundred-thousand dollars here. So, I’m guessing if they aren’t rich they’re very comfortable. The elderly not as well-off grandfather, while living in Mexico was receiving Social Security from the United States and owned a rent-free apartment in California which he used as his address to receive several...

No one knows exactly why, but a lot of people are interested in packing heat. In fact, FBI data suggest that gun sales in New Mexico and nationally will hit record levels in 2011. Will Hogsett, sales director at Calibers Shooter Sports Center said strong sales at his store may be due to an improving economy or lingering fears about stronger gun control before the 2012 elections. Sales of handguns and shotguns continue to be the big sellers among people looking for protection in their homes, he said. “The big thing people come to us for is home defense.” The...

Romney Would Veto Immigration "Dream" Act By Jane Sutton … LEMARS, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said on Saturday he would veto a proposal granting U.S. citizenship to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children, a pledge that won hearty applause from Iowa conservatives he hopes to win over. A young woman asked Romney about the bipartisan proposal known as the Dream Act, during an appearance at a crowded restaurant in Le Mars, a conservative Republican stronghold in western Iowa. "The question is if I were elected and Congress were to pass the Dream...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney says he would veto legislation that would allow certain illegal residents to become American citizens. During a campaign stop in western Iowa, Romney answered "yes" when he was asked whether he would refuse to sign what is known as the DREAM Act. Romney has said before that he would oppose the legislation, which would allow some illegal immigrant youths to earn permanent residency and eventually citizenship if they attend college or serve in the military.

At Acoma pueblo thousands of cattle and even a few residents are still stranded by deep snow. The pueblo continues to dig out from last week's blizzards. Most of the 3,000 cattle on the Acoma pueblo have been isolated since the storms last week with no extra feed or access to unfrozen water. Ranch hands have not been able to get out there as the extreme cold of the high country keeps the deep snow from melting. Tractor crews are attacking it, but there are miles to go. Not only is access important for care of the livestock, but many...

A Los Alamos family is mourning the loss of their pet dog after a mountain lion attacked and killed it in their backyard on Christmas Eve. Police Capt. Randy Foster said that when Hari Viswanathan heard the family dog, named Gwennie, barking outside and found a mountain lion trying to pull it through wooden slats in the fence, he frantically tried to get the big can to let go and even hit it over the head with a shovel. Even after four officers responded and the dog was dead, the mountain lion wouldn't let her go,

"The purpose of this conference is to bring together shale gas and conventional gas producing counties to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the regulations, economics and energy security surrounding this natural resource," says conference co-organizer, Lisa Hardison, President and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Lea County.

Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar told The Daily Caller that Attorney General Eric Holder’s race-card play to attack his critics is “absolutely horrendous.” But Gosar said he thinks race may have played a role in the Department of Justice’s execution of Operation Fast and Furious — but in a different way from how Holder is framing it. “He [Holder] brought up the race card, and while I think it’s absolutely horrendous that he would bring up the race card, in Fast and Furious, we were in fact impugning the Mexican people,” Gosar said in a phone interview. “About 300 people...

State Police and Lincoln County emergency management officials say five people are dead and two others are injured after a plane apparently overshot the runway and crashed Thursday morning at the Ruidoso airport in south-central New Mexico. The tail number shows the airplane is registered to Rod Aviation in Granbury, Texas.

A survey from a right-leaning polling company says Gov. Susana Martinez’s approval rating is “sky high” as she finishes her first year in office. Some 65 percent of those surveyed by Public Opinion Strategies said they approve of the job Martinez is doing, while 29 percent said they disapprove. The survey of 500 registered voters was conducted Dec. 12 and 13 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points. Read the polling memo here.

These days if you don't like the polls, wait a few minutes. Another will be along shortly. Speaking of which, here's a new one this morning that could presage the start of a significant move by one candidate (or not), as well as some fresh insights into the thinking of those New Hampshire voters who'll hold the nation's first Republican primary early next month. Suffolk University is out with a new survey showing Newt Gingrich gaining and Mitt Romney slipping there, which we already knew. What it also shows though is Jon Huntsman making a push into third place with...

As a candidate, Barack Obama once endorsed a ban on handguns and favored restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms. So when gun owners heard of Operation Fast and Furious, many feared the worst. Now, newly revealed emails suggest that if the gun-running operation didn't start out with that intent, as administration officials insist, the program certainly led to discussions on new gun regulations. "There's a lot of talk that President Obama stated that he is working for gun control with alternative methods," said Arizona gun dealer Jeff Serdy. "I hope this isn't one of them." Serdy and others...

Johnson has told a reporter that this is something he’s looking at and that he will be in New York tomorrow to do “as many media appearances as they can wind me up and send me in that direction.” But he said he wasn’t announcing the switch tomorrow. Stephen Gordon, who identifies himself as the Southern Regional Director of the Gary Johnson 2012 campaign, told me: “I personally spoke with Governor Johnson a couple of days ago and outlined many of the pros and cons of running for the LP’s presidential nomination. It’s my opinion that certain senior leaders within...

On Tuesday morning, the braintrust of President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign gathered a select handful of reporters to make a simple case: the incumbent has a number of different paths — five, to be exact — he can follow to win the 270 electoral votes necessary to secure a second term. Since we’ve spent lots and lots of time breaking down the electoral map — and making the case that Obama is stronger than his job approval ratings indicate — we thought it might be fun to look at each of the paths laid out by his team to see...

Congressman attempts to transfer Fast and Furious blame onto NRA ‘radicals,’ the Senate — Holder obliges Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson accused the tea party movement and the National Rifle Association of creating an “manufactured” controversy over Operation Fast and Furious Thursday. Johnson’s comments came during an interview with The Daily Caller outside the House Judiciary Committee hearing room. Attorney General Eric Holder was testifying before the committee about Fast and Furious — a Justice Department program where Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents facilitated the sale of about 2,000 guns to Mexican drug cartels. “I think this...

President Obama’s uphill battle to re-election is getting steeper. A report released today by the centrist think-tank Third Way showed that more than 825,000 voters in eight key battleground states have fled the Democratic Party since Obama won election in 2008. “The numbers show that Democrats’ path to victory just got harder,” said Lanae Erickson, the report’s co-author. “We are seeing both an increase in independents and a decrease in Democrats and that means the coalition they have to assemble is going to rely even more on independents in 2012 than it did in 2008.” Amid frustrating partisan gridlock and...

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the potentially powerful Hispanic vote in the upcoming presidential election remains "up for grabs" because neither President Barack Obama nor Republicans have convinced these voters that they are on their side. The one-time GOP presidential hopeful, whose own 2008 candidacy was shaped in part by immigration, said that large Hispanic populations in his home state of Arizona and elsewhere are listening carefully to what Republican candidates have to say on immigration and could become a "major factor" in 2012. "I think that the Republican Party has to discuss this issue in as humane way...

New probe into another failed 2008 presidential bid -- of New Mexico governor BILL RICHARDSON has a decidedly JOHN EDWARDS flavor du jour. He allegedly ponied up campaign funds to silence a woman’s affair claims.

A federal grand jury is investigating former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson over possible campaign-finance violations stemming from his 2008 presidential run, including allegations that he arranged for supporters to pay off a woman who planned to say they had engaged in an extramarital affair... Several of Mr. Richardson's close associates have been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The New Mexico Attorney General's Office cautioned parents against an Internet image they said is really a sexual menace called the "pedobear." It started out as a joke, but authorities said the bear has spiraled into something much darker and more evil than they could've imagined. Some images depict the pedobear snatching a little girl, dangling a carrot over two children and joking about not using condoms. "This is the most disturbing one of all, it has the bear and it says, 'Too young to talk, too young to testify,'" said Lynn Southard with the AGO. Authorities...

Democrats in Congress have proposed a new racial profiling ban that could thwart state and local laws on immigration enforcement, such as the controversial Arizona law currently tied up in federal court, by witholding federal funding for state and local law enforcement agencies engaged in "racial profiling" and empowering the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file lawsuits against state and local governments. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and lead sponsor Ben Cardin, D-Md., are pushing the End Racial Profiling Act of 2011, which would, among other things, "withhold federal law enforcement funding if local and state governments failed to adopt effective...

NBC News has confirmed with a source familiar with the matter that Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, will endorse Rick Perry this week. Arpaio will campaign with Perry in New Hampshire this week, the source said. The Arizona sheriff is known as a vehement backer of tough immigration laws and was a vocal supporter of his own state's controversial enforcement laws. Perry critics have described him as soft on immigration since the Florida debate, when he called opponents "heartless" for deriding his policy of in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants in Texas. .

Authorities say Mexican drug cartels are becoming a growing presence in parts of northern New Mexico. The Farmington Daily Times reports ( http://bit.ly/sTqxR7 ) that Region II Narcotics Task Force Director Neil Haws says the Juarez cartel has been operating for two years in San Juan County, for example, but that the Sinaloa and Michoacan cartels also have gained ground

The Mexican drug cartels have supply lines, distribution networks and operational cells in hundreds of communties throughout the United States, and in New Mexico the state's Region II Narcotics Task Force Director Neil Haws has a dire warning as reported by Leigh Irvin for The Daily Times: "What's happening here is reflective of what's occurring in Mexico," said Haws. * * * Drug-related crimes such as kidnapping, homicide and money laundering are picking up. * * * "These people are already here . . . and I believe it's just a matter of time before what's happening in the U.S....

The Albuquerque Public Schools superintendent is speaking out after a seven-year-old autistic boy was handcuffed at school. Maria Quesada spoke with KOB Eyewitness News 4 Monday night and said she was outraged to find her son cuffed at school. Photos showed marks left on his wrists. According to APS police documents, the boy was out of control and unplugging cords from outlets, throwing chairs and kicking a teacher and a police officer at Mary Ann Binford Elementary School. Quesada said she does not think the 4-foot tall, 50-pound boy deserved to be handcuffed. Superintendent Winston Brooks spoke Wednesday afternoon, weighing...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Former Norte Dame Coach Bob Davie has been hired to replace Mike Locksley as UNM’s Head Football Coach. Davie worked as Norte Dame head coach from 1997-2001 and currently works as a football analyst for ESPN.

Joule Unlimited ready to start construction on biofuels demonstration plant in Hobbs, New Mexico, that will convert sunlight, CO2 waste into up to 75 million gallons of biodiesel, 125 million gallons of ethanol per year Nov 11, 2011 – as Headlines are rewritten for editorial clarity. The original story and headline begin below. Original Headline: Construction to begin on NM biofuels plant HOBBS, New Mexico, November 11, 2011 (as) – A Massachusetts company is ready to start construction on a biofuels demonstration plant in New Mexico. Joule Unlimited Inc. plans to convert sunlight and carbon dioxide waste into biofuel at...

State football playoffs kick off on Friday in nearly all states which didn't start them on the first weekend of November. That's the case in New Mexico, too, though one school is fighting to put some of the state's scheduled matchups on hold until it can have a blown call rectified … and possibly be added to the playoff mix itself. As reported by KOB-TV and KOAT-TV, among other New Mexico outlets, Atrisco (N.M.) Heritage High parents filed an injunction on behalf of the school's football team after it was kept out of the New Mexico Class 4A state playoffs...

In head-to-head matchups, Romney leads Obama among registered voters in swing states by a single percentage point The swing states just aren't swinging President Obama's way. Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Herman Cain are either winning or are neck to neck with Obama in the states deemed the most critical to winning the 2012 presidential election, a USA Today/Gallup poll released Friday found. In head-to-head matchups, Romney leads Obama among registered voters in swing states by a single percentage point, 47% to 46%. But the commander in chief is ahead against Perry in those states by a...

Since finding out about Operation Fast and Furious, Arizona Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has been anything but amused. With no regard for local law enforcement, the Obama Justice Department supplied the most dangerous criminals in North America with high powered weapons, including .50-calibur sniper rifles and AK-47s, leading to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and at least 200 innocent Mexican citizens. Now with the Southern border still wide open, Babeu and his deputies will face the barrels of those guns as they do their job to combat Mexican drug cartels illegally operating in Arizona. Today, Babeu's...

[It's] that time when hanging tough can be such a bear. A big black mama bear. And that’s the time to think about that bear. Because if you want to learn something about tenacity and the will to keep on keeping on in spite of everything, you need to hear the story of Bear No. 56. In reality, she is more brown than black in color, probably 14 years old. She’s called Bear No. 56 because that’s the number on the ear tag she’s worn since 2002 when the state Game and Fish Department relocated her for the second of...

A New Mexico woman repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend after accusing him of cheating during a Monopoly game early yesterday, according to police. Laura Chavez, 60, and her boyfriend were playing the popular board game at her Santa Fe apartment when the dispute occurred. Chavez, pictured in the mug shot at right, allegedly admitted stabbing her beau, Clyde "Butch" Smith, with a kitchen knife. Police reported that both Chavez and the 48-year-old Smith appeared to be intoxicated. The man, who cops found bleeding heavily from wounds on his head and right wrist, was hospitalized yesterday in stable condition. Smith told investigators...

Laura Chavez is shown in this Santa Fe County Jail booking photo. (Santa Fe County Jail) Laura Chavez, 60, of Santa Fe, N.M., is accused of repeatedly stabbing her boyfriend, Clyde “Butch” Smith, 48, when a family game of Monopoly went terribly awry. Chavez began to argue with Smith while playing the board game with her 10-year-old grandson. The boy told police that Chavez accused Smith of cheating at Monopoly, and then sent the boy to bed around 11 p.m. mid-argument. According to a probable cause statement released by police, the couple’s argument escalated until Chavez hit Smith over the...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Unitarian church in New Mexico sends supplies to the border for recent deportees. A coalition of church leaders gathers under a statue of colonial America religious figure Anne Hutchinson at the Massachusetts Statehouse to denounce immigration checks by police. A Methodist minister in Texas recites Isaiah 58:6, a passage about loosening the bonds of injustice, as she's thrown in jail after protesting alongside illegal immigrant students outside a U.S. senator's office

Hillary Clinton:‘No Evidence’ DOJ Sought Required License to Send Guns to Mexico in ‘Fast and Furious’ By Fred Lucas October 28, 2011 (CNSNews.com) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified in the House Foreign Relations Committee Thursday that there was "no record" that the Justice Department had given the State Department a "head up" about Operation Fast and Furious, in which guns were allowed to flow from the United States to drug traffickers in Mexico, and that the State Department had found "no evidence" that DOJ had applied for a license or waiver to send guns to a foreign country,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Thursday identified 17 sites in six Western states as prime candidates for solar energy projects on public lands, continuing a push for solar power despite the high-profile bankruptcy of a solar panel maker that received a half-billion dollar federal loan. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the latest "Solar Energy Zones" refine and improve on a draft released in December that identified two dozen areas in California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the Justice Dept. did not give the State Dept. a "heads up" about the botched gunwalking scandal known as "Operation Fast and Furious."

According to security officials in both Mexico and the United States, American law enforcement has built up a significant network of informants within the most powerful Mexican drug cartels. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Officials are now saying that the network of informants has grown substantially in Mexico and that these networks have enabled Mexican authorities to capture or kill approximately two dozen high and mid-level drug traffickers. They have also been helpful to American operations there. The new cooperation is historically uncharacteristic. Typically, Mexico is not told who the US informants are for the safety of the agents....

Enlargephoto illustration by: Todd Wiseman / Bob Daemmrich WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn asked congressional colleagues this week to investigate whether the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ran a gun-walking program in Texas, the latest in his months-long effort to put the heat on the Obama administration over the controversial Fast and Furious operation.His request came the week after he sponsored a measure in the U.S. Senate that received rare bipartisan support: an oversight requirement that would help bar any future operations like the Arizona-based Fast and Furious. And it got some traction on Wednesday as...

“We cannot have national security until we have border security,” Perry said.

A little before dawn on a sticky summer night in June, one of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's Ranger Reconnaissance Teams was running a clandestine operation along the Rio Grande when its surveillance squad came across a Dodge Durango pickup truck loaded with bales of Mexican marijuana. Alone among his Republican rivals running for president, the Texas governor has a small army at his disposal. Over the past three years, he has deployed it along his southern flank in a secretive, military-style campaign that his supporters deem absolutely necessary and successful and that his critics call an overzealous, expensive, mostly ineffective...

EL PASO, Texas -- Comments made about border security by former drug czar, retired general Barry McCaffrey, at a U.S. House subcommittee Friday caught the attention of U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso. "I really believe that it had a political purpose," said Reyes. McCaffrey testified that he participated in a seminar-style meeting in El Paso within the last 18 months alongside "100 people" from El Paso and Mexico. The topic was the threat of drug cartel-connected criminals operating in Texas. "People from both sides of the border said they feel intimidated and a senior police official in the city...

Cain's Gruesome (and Supposedly Humorous) Solutions for Illegal Immigration: At campaign stops in Tennessee yesterday, Cain put forward two separate plans for tackling the nation's immigration problem: An electrified fence along the border that would stop short the life of anyone trying to slip into the country illegally, and re-equipping border forces "with real guns and real bullets." This morning on Meet the Press he responded to the (unsurprising and immediate) backlash to his electric fence remarks, saying: "That's a joke. That's not a serious plan. I've also said America needs to get a sense of humor." Cain's Brainstorming Process:...

Aerial surveillance missions such as this one are part of Gov. Rick Perry's multifaceted law enforcement effort, which has operated along Texas' portion of the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border for five years. Unique to Texas, and put in place because of what Perry said was inadequate enforcement by the federal government, the operation is designed to marshal the forces of dozens of state, federal and local entities in a cooperative "boots-on-the ground" offensive in border counties. The Republican governor has repeatedly cited the law enforcement effort as a display piece in his presidential campaign, while warning that drug violence from Mexico...