Free Republic

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who helped draft the immigration reform bill currently being discussed in the Senate, says he will walk away from the negotiations if it includes a controversial amendment to provide immigration benefits for gay couples. "If this bill has in it something that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I'm done," said Rubio during an interview on the Andrea Tantaros Show on Thursday. "I'm off it, and I've said that repeatedly. I don't think that's going to happen and it shouldn't happen. This is already a difficult enough issue as it...

To paraphrase William Shakespeare, there’s something rotten in Washington, and the odor is emanating not just from the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department. It’s also coming from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies accused of colluding with radical environmental groups to write regulations that are threatening the livelihoods of millions of Americans. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce study has found that the EPA has given green groups a seat at the table when drafting environmental regulations, but it has excluded the people and industries most likely to be affected. The Sierra Club has participated in “closed-door...

The arrest of an Albuquerque political consultant on child pornography charges stemmed from a search warrant served on his home in November by FBI agents looking for evidence in the investigation of the alleged theft of Gov. Susana Martinez’s campaign emails. The home of Jason Loera, 44, in the 6200 block of St. Joseph’s Court NW, initially was searched on the morning of Nov. 20, 2012, by agents looking to seize Loera’s computers so they could be searched for information about hundreds of emails to Susana2010.com that federal prosecutors allege were illegally intercepted. FBI computer experts began examining CDs seized...

While Texas and North Dakota's boom in oil production have been well-publicized, five other western U.S. states made a notable contribution to the growth in U.S. oil production since 2010, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Tuesday. Onshore oil production, including crude oil and lease condensate, grew by over 2 million barrels of oil per day (bopd), or 64 percent, in the U.S. Lower 48 from February 2010 to February 2013. Production in the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Texas' Eagle Ford play and Permian Basin outpaced other regions. However, gains in other Lower 48 states added up...

Gov. Susana Martinez has been crying foul ever since political opponents started trotting out emails sent to an old campaign account. The governor has long contended the emails — ranging from topics such as the controversial Downs at Albuquerque racino deal to an underwear purchase order — were illegally hijacked. Her political adversaries have said they were sure they had been legally obtained. Federal prosecutors weighed in Thursday, releasing an indictment accusing a former Martinez campaign manager with illegally intercepting the emails that ended up in the hands of a union-backed political activist, a lawyer who would become the state...

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s long-anticipated plan for the Oregon & California Railroad trust lands amounts to a bold call for — input. Anyone who thought that Wyden would propose something specific has to be disappointed. Nevertheless, people as prominent and impatient as Gov. John Kitzhaber dutifully issued stilted remarks thanking Wyden for his “leadership.” Tongues had to be firmly in cheek. No one dared point out that the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee had again failed to do anything to help the people who inhabit a large part of his state. Instead of legislation, Wyden offered...

Published on May 22, 2013 Test flight of the New Mexico Tech Sounding Rocket Design Team's rocket. This team of Mechanical Engineering students includes senior, junior, and sophomore students who have worked throughout the 2012-2013 academic year to design and build a rocket capable of carrying a 10 lb payload to 10,000 feet above ground level. The team will be competing in the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association student competition in June 2013. This video is from the first test flight of the team's competition rocket. (Comments from the video link page.)

The activist who threatened to lead an armed march on Washington July 4 has canceled the event but is urging people to converge on the 50 state capitals to protest gun regulations, according to a recent appearance on an Internet talk show. “Please don’t come to Washington, D.C.,” Adam Kokesh, an Iraq war veteran, urged in an interview on the Pete Santilli Show. “Appeal on a state level. We shouldn’t be begging the government to change. We should be hoping they respect our rights.” In the interview, which was first reported by the Media Matters web site, Kokesh said a...

The Senate Judiciary Committee has increased the already-sizable length of the “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill to more than a thousand pages during the markup process ... The first version of the bill that was filed by the eight senators--Marco Rubio (R-FL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), John McCain (R-AZ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Bob Menendez (D-NJ)--totaled 844 pages. An updated version, filed just before the bill went to the committee markup, stretched 867 pages in length. The new bill towers over previous versions in length, clocking in at 1,076 pages. It...

SANTA FE — The vast, stunning swath of northern New Mexico split by the Rio Grande Gorge had barely been named a national monument when a Colorado utility began reaching out to local leaders about building a power line through the area. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is eyeing the possibility of running a line from a substation north of Alamosa, Colo., to a site somewhere west of Taos. “We are in the very initial stages of studying this project,” and no route has been identified, said Tri-State spokeswoman Sarah Carlisle. But the company’s study area for the Valley Corridor...

While Texas and North Dakota's boom in oil production have been well-publicized, five other western U.S. states made a notable contribution to the growth in U.S. oil production since 2010, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Tuesday. Onshore oil production, including crude oil and lease condensate, grew by over 2 million barrels of oil per day (bopd), or 64 percent, in the U.S. Lower 48 from February 2010 to February 2013. Production in the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Texas' Eagle Ford play and Permian Basin outpaced other regions. However, gains in other Lower 48 states added up...

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel voted Tuesday to provide weapons to rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the first time lawmakers have endorsed the aggressive U.S. military step of arming the opposition. ... "The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world is unfolding in and around Syria," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), the committee chief. ". . . The United States must play a role in tipping the scales toward opposition groups and working to build a free and democratic Syria." Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the panel's top Republican, implicitly criticized the Obama administration as he...

The former U.S. Attorney for Arizona could be disbarred, after an investigation found he lied to the Justice Department about his role in trying to discredit the federal whistle-blower who exposed the botched gun-running scheme known as Fast and Furious. An Office of Inspector General report showed that Dennis Burke -- the former chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed as U.S. Attorney for Arizona by President Obama in September 2009 -- lied when asked if he leaked sensitive documents to the press meant to undermine the credibility of ATF whistle-blower John Dodson. The IG report also...

The Homeland Security Department has granted legal status to 99.2 percent of all illegal immigrants who have applied under President Obama’s new non-deportation policy for young adults, according to the latest numbers released Friday. That’s a slight drop from the 99.5 percent approval rate reported last month. The policy, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, grants legal status to most illegal immigrants under the age of 31 who came to the U.S. before age 16 ... DACA is seen as a test-run should Congress pass a broad legalization for the 11 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the...

The court must be wary of “manufactured” government arguments masking its own “impropriety,” as well as mindful of attempts to “drive a wedge” between defendants and “impos[e] unnecessary financial burdens,” lawyers for the Reese family of gun dealers cautioned in a joint response in opposition to the government’s opposed motion for ruling on joint representation filed Tuesday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Jailed for allegedly knowingly selling guns to cartel members, all family members were found not guilty on the most serious charges of conspiracy, and money laundering charges against them were dismissed. Husband...

The New Mexico Republican Party said Wednesday that Sen. Tom Udall was among Democratic senators who wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service asking it to “target” conservative groups, but a Udall spokeswoman said the letter was aimed at potential misuse of nonprofit tax status by all political organizations. Marissa Padilla, Udall’s spokeswoman, said the letter asked the IRS to scrutinize all “social welfare agencies” to ensure they weren’t breaking laws that bar them from “substantial” political activity. It also proposed new IRS rules, such as capping political spending by such groups. Udall on Monday denounced the IRS for...

The mother of a 5-year-old girl who was forced into a car by a would-be abductor chased the man for more than seven miles through the city, eventually ramming the suspect’s car to a halt and triggering a Wednesday night manhunt in Southeast Albuquerque. Police said the incident developed around 6:30 p.m. in the North Valley when the suspect shoved the girl into his gray sedan. He pushed her out about half a block later along the 1700 block of Indian School NW. She was not injured. When the girl’s mother saw her child being abducted, she jumped in her...

The demonized chemical compound is a boon to pant life and has little correlation with global temperature. Of all of the world's chemical compounds, none has a worse reputation than carbon dioxide. Thanks to the single-minded demonization of this natural and essential atmospheric gas by advocates of government control of energy production, the conventional wisdom about carbon dioxide is that it is a dangerous pollutant. That's simply not the case. Contrary to what some would have us believe, increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will benefit the increasing population on the planet by increasing agricultural productivity. The cessation of observed...

A Defendant’s Motion for Partial Release of Assets was filed Monday by attorneys in the District Court of the United States for the District Of New Mexico on behalf of the Reese family of gun dealers to substantiate reasons why doing so is not only critical to the family’s defense, but also why legal precedent requires it. “Defendants, Rick Reese and Terri Reese … move this Court to enter an order authorizing the release of a portion of their seized assets to pay for upcoming legal expenses as well as to provide life subsistence,” the motion begins. Assets listed which...

Scandal: Senate Democrats, including supporters of the Disclose Act, provided the names of groups they wanted targeted in a taxpayer-funded witch hunt overseen by an IRS employee and Obama campaign donor. Using the Citizens United case as a pretext, retiring Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., on July 27, 2012, wrote IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to investigate 12 conservative groups he accused of violating their tax-exempt status and engaging in coordinated political activity. The groups Levin asked to be targeted for special scrutiny were Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, Priorities U.S.A., Americans Elect, American Action Network, Americans for Prosperity, American Future Fund, Americans...

When I first heard about plans this coming Fourth of July for an armed protest march from Arlington, Virginia, into and around the heart of Washington, D.C., I was all for it, and excited about it. I even thought I might join it, if the organizer’s stated sufficient numbers (10,000 people with guns) showed up for the event to be attempted. Of course, I learned immediately that the march is supposed to be led by none other than the Alex Jones-like, rabble-rousing Iraq veteran & anti-war activist Adam Kokesh, a person of whom I have been pretty leery during these...

One of the advantages of having fought conservative battles in the blogosphere for a decade and in traditional media for more than two decades is that I never forget a fraudster. Many gullible gun-rights activists have been promoting a July 4th armed march on Washington organized by Adam Kokesh. Just stop it. I’m also flabbergasted at others on the Right who are either ignorant or have forgotten Kokesh’s sordid history with Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Chris Crane, president of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers union, spoke to Mark Levin on The Mark Levin Show Thursday evening. Crane recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the immigration bill working through Congress. Crane explained how President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano have, since the administration’s start, “attempted to shut down” border enforcement and “absolutely” tied law enforcement’s hands.

The tawdriness of American identity politics reached a new low this week as former New Mexico governor, frustrated 2008 democrat presidential candidate, and serial corruption suspect Bill Richardson offered his take on the junior senator from Texas. On Sunday, Richardson was a guest on ABC’S This Week when he said that because Ted Cruz doesn’t support amnesty for illegal aliens, he shouldn’t be considered an Hispanic! “Almost every Hispanic in the country wants to see immigration reform. No, I don’t think he should be defined as a Hispanic,” Richardson said. Such a politically perverse statement reminds me of how a...

Residents of a small New Mexico border town woke Wednesday to the sounds of helicopters, bangs and screaming as federal and local agents conducted an early morning sweep on at least two homes. Anthony police spokeswoman Mary Hall said a team of local and federal law enforcement agents, including SWAT teams, served several warrants around town before dawn. She said she did not know what type of warrants were served or any of the targets.

A 16-year-old initially charged as a conspirator was also charged with murder Sunday after she and two others are accused of stabbing a man, putting his body in the trunk of his own car and eluding police until they were caught in Valencia County. Julia Martinez, 16, of Gallup, was charged Sunday afternoon with first-degree murder in the death of Maurice Gonzales, 51, of Albuquerque. Also charged were Ashlee Gurule, 20, and Jennifer McKee, 18, both of Albuquerque, all of whom were homeless, according to what McKee told police. According to the criminal complaint, Martinez, Gurule and McKee planned to...

Before we get started on this story, I would like to take a moment to point out that you’d be hard pressed to find any point where I’ve been anything but a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, as I would hope most regular readers know. I’ve taken flack for it from a lot of people this year, ranging from family members to folks in the media. But even approaching it from that sort of position, I’ve got to say that this is a really bad idea. A march on Washington with loaded rifles "Libertarian activist and radio host Adam...

On the same day that the 2013 NRA Convention began in Houston, TX Barack Obama was in Mexico telling an audience that “most of the guns used to commit violent crimes here in Mexico, come from the United States.” What he didn’t tell that audience was that his administration is responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, a program in which the ATF told reluctant gun store owners to sell high-powered guns to bad guys who would then ‘walk’ those guns to drug cartels in Mexico. Yet, Republicans and gun rights activists have avoided bludgeoning those in the administration and on...

The southern New Mexico plant that has been fighting for more than a year for permission to slaughter horses will open soon, unless Congress reinstates a ban on the practice, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Vilsack said his department was working to make sure the process was handled properly for the opening of what would be the first domestic horse slaughterhouse in six years. “We are going to do this, and I would imagine that it would be done relatively soon,” he said. The Valley Meat Company sued the Department of Agriculture...

Police say a man stabbed four people at a Catholic church in Albuquerque as a Sunday mass was nearing its end. Police says a man in his 20s jumped over several pews at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church around noon Sunday and walked up to the choir area where he began his attack. An off-duty police officer and others at the church subdued the attacker and held him down until police arrived. Some of those who were stabbed were members of the choir.

Encana Corp. Tuesday announced positive results from its San Juan Basin oil exploration, saying the testing had “reached commerciality” with production expected to exceed 1,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The Canadian company said it may add a rig by year’s end to the two now operating in the basin, according to the Farmington Daily News.

A dentist in Santa Fe will fix your teeth for a fraction of the cost, provided you don’t mind him working with tools from a dirty tackle box. Eliver Kestler Eliver Kestler, or “El Dentista” as he’s allegedly known to clients, is in Santa Fe County jail on charges including practicing without a license, distribution of a controlled substance, attempt to commit a felony, conspiracy and a warrant in a traffic case. Kestler, 36, of Santa Fe, is accused of running an unlicensed dental practice, making home calls to clients in his red 2001 Chevrolet, according to a report written...

President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned speech Thursday at the memorial service for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. But that was to be expected. We all know Obama can give a stem-winder. What wasn’t expected was that this would be by far the toughest week of the Obama presidency—the first time I can remember the president being dealt an unequivocal policy defeat. Only the “shellacking” of the 2010 midterm comes close, and even there a case can be made that achieving the decades-old progressive dream of universal health care was worth losing the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof...

Rep. Louie Gohmert today warned the world that “radical Islamists” are being trained to “act like Hispanic[s]” to get into the United States from Mexi “We know al Qaeda has camps over with the drug cartels on the other side of the Mexican border,” the Republican from Tyler said on C-SPAN Wednesday morning. “We know that people that are now being trained to come in and act like Hispanic when they are radical Islamists. We know these things are happening. It is just insane not to protect ourselves, to make sure that people come in as most people do. They...

A 122-page bill prepared for sponsorship by Pueblo’s Democratic Sen. Angela Giron would alter the way Coloradans vote, and its provisions are canted toward Democratic candidates. Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican, opposes the bill because of four provisions it contains. They are: 1. It allows for people to register on Election Day, leaving no time to verify a person’s identification or to check whether he or she is registered in more than one county. This is an invitation for fraud on a massive scale. 2. It virtually mandates mail ballots, which are sent automatically to every registered voter....

In an order granting a motion "supported by good cause" to amend conditions of release filed yesterday, Judge Robert C. Brack of the District Court of the United States for the District of New Mexico in Las Cruces ordered that “ankle monitoring devices worn by Rick Reese and Ryin Reese are to be removed.” “It is further ordered,” the judge mandated, “that the Defendants … shall be allowed to travel freely within the boundaries of the State of New Mexico [and] that the curfew imposed upon the Defendants … shall be modified to be from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m....

Apple (AAPL) tumbled to its lowest level in over a year as investors continued to dump shares of the tech company amid worries over second-quarter iPad mini shipments. The once-darling tech giant of Wall Street shed more than 3 percent Wednesday, falling to its lowest level since last January, following a report from DigiTimes that iPad mini shipments could fall 20 to 30 percent quarter-over-quarter to 10 to 12 million in the June quarter due to "lacking demand in the market." "We continue to see risks to [Apple's] consensus estimates, primarily with respect to the June quarter," wrote Edward Parker...

Dozens of resorts with permits to operate on national forests have bought or acquired rights to use nearby bodies of water for snowmaking. The Forest Service had adopted a clause that said those resorts had to transfer their water rights to the federal government ... After the National Ski Areas Association sued, a judge ruled last year that the agency violated procedure in not seeking public comment before adopting the clause. The agency now plans open houses April 16 in Lakewood, Colo., on April 17 in Salt Lake City, and April 18 in Lake Tahoe, Calif., to get input.

The immigration debate takes a technological turn with a new cell phone device that helps illegal immigrants crossing the desert into the U.S. find water. The Transborder Immigrant Tool was developed by UC San Diego prof and activist Ricardo Dominguez and UCSD lecturer Brett Stalbaum. Both believe it will save the lives of hundreds of people who die each year during their trek across "Devil's Highway." Here's how the tool works. The phone, loaded with free GPS software, displays a digital compass that locates water stations installed by John Hunter, founder of the Water Stations project. Stations that are too...

GPS-enabled mobile to aid migrants (UKPA) – 10 hours ago A group of California artists are developing a GPS-enabled mobile phone to help dehydrated illegal migrants find water as they trek through harsh deserts into the US. The Transborder Immigrant Tool created by faculty at the University of California, San Diego, is part technology endeavour, part art project. It introduces a high-tech twist to an old debate about how far activists can go to prevent migrants from dying on the border with Mexico without breaking the law. The designers want to load inexpensive phones with GPS software that takes signals...

Sneak Into The U.S? There’s An App For ThatSarah Buduson - Reporter, KPHO.com UPDATED: 9:26 pm MST December 2, 2009 PHOENIX -- A California professor has created a cell phone application to help guide immigrants across the border. The Transborder Immigration Tool is meant to reduce the number of border crossing deaths. The application can be downloaded onto low priced Motorola phones. It uses GPS technology to guide users through the desert and pinpoints locations where food, water and shelter is available. Security consultant Karl Delaguerra said the so-called safety tool is dangerous. **SNIP** Delaguerra has trained security forces around...

A professor at the University of California, San Diego says he has developed a cell phone tool that aims to help Illegal immigrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Art professor and activist Ricardo Dominguez tells the North County Times on its Web site Saturday that the application he calls the Transborder Immigrant Tool uses global-positioning technology to chart the best route for dangerous desert crossings.

That’s what Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., said in a press call today hosted by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee regarding the president’s new budget proposal.The call, which also featured Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was intended to be a warning to the administration to back away from the budget’s modest entitlement reforms. Grayson argued they could doom the party by undercutting its rhetoric on entitlements: Based upon the budget the Republicans submitted, the [Paul] Ryan budget, it was pretty clear up until this point that the Republicans were the party in favor of cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, and the...

A plan to drop a recognizable logo in this part of the country — the Forest Service’s iconic shield — generated so much outrage among the agency’s retirees that the idea has been dropped. In early January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture quietly introduced a policy to phase out all of its sub-agencies’ logos, including the Forest Service’s, and replace them with the USDA symbol. But that policy was kept so under wraps that not even Pacific Northwest forest supervisors were told. Some of them only heard about it in retrospect late last week — after the USDA had decided,...

One admitted to kidnapping and ransoming hostages in the Ivory Coast. Others said they had molested children or committed rape. And one, as he prepared for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, contemplated assassinating President Barack Obama. These are among the thousands of applicants who have sought sensitive law enforcement jobs in recent years with the U.S. Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection. In many cases, these people made it all the way through the hiring process until one of the last steps – a polygraph exam. Once sitting with a polygraph examiner, they admitted to a...

Mandatory registration coming to state’s largest wilderness area . Visitors to the Weminuche Wilderness are going to be required to register before entering the almost 500,000 acres that stretch from Silverton to Wolf Creek Pass. Use and abuse of the pristine mountains, valleys and waterways through the years now require switching from voluntary to mandatory registration at trailheads, the San Juan National Forest said in a news release. “During the first two to three years of the new requirement, we’re going to educate the public on the reasons,” Forest Service spokeswoman Ann Bond said Saturday. “After that, rangers can issue...

Senate Republican staffers estimated Thursday that the annual cost to taxpayers of legalizing illegal immigrants could be in the billions, if they use their status to apply for federal benefits from Medicaid and ObamaCare. The claim, though, was challenged by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a key Republican engaged in immigration bill talks. Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee -- responding to an emerging immigration proposal that includes a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants -- had estimated that the cost could total up to $40 billion in 2022, "just for Medicaid and ObamaCare." "The net costs would be...

Alamogordo, New Mexico – An atheist activist group is targeting a city in New Mexico for its recent decision to post the motto “In God We Trust” on in city hall. The Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin sent a letter to city officials in Alamogordo, New Mexico warning that the motto should not be established. “It is inappropriate for the city commission to adopt a proposal that would place ‘In God We Trust’ at City Hall,” wrote president Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Statements about a god have no place in government buildings.” She asserted that officials could not use...

BELLEVUE, WA — The Second Amendment Foundation has won a preliminary injunction against a part of the State of New Mexico’s concealed carry statute on the grounds that it violates the right of equal protection under the law. The ruling, handed down by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, was signed by M. Christina Armijo, the chief district judge. SAF filed the legal action on behalf of John Jackson, a permanent legal resident alien who could not obtain a concealed carry permit under existing New Mexico statute because he is not a U.S. citizen. SAF has...

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — The oil and gas industry is getting excited about a potential boom in northwestern New Mexico.