Editorials

Unearthing a Buried History: The Untold Story of the Free Apache (Nde)

By Ruben Leyva

What are the implications for Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. whose history has been omitted from our textbooks? Does their lack of representation among Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) tribes lead to political marginalization? Are they at an economic disadvantage, unable to access land and compete for funding due to their lack of official recognition? My research aims to address these inquiries. As a member of a non-federally recognized tribe, our narrative, like many others, is often misunderstood from a historical and cultural perspective.

By Paul J. Gessing

"It's not what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just isn't so." - attributed to Mark Twain

The rich don't pay their fair share of taxes. This has been said or written by politicians from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris, Sen. Martin Heinrich, to Rep. Melanie Stansbury and many others. "Soak the rich" forms the basis of "progressive" economic thinking in the United States.

What constitutes "fair" in the world of taxation is an open question, but many of these politicians make the unfounded claim that the rich pay taxes at a lower rate than do low- and moderate-income taxpayers.

That is simply not the case. For starters, I'd encourage anyone who DOES believe the rich pay lower taxes than the poor to check out the latest "tax burden" distribution chart from the Joint Committee on Taxation.

By Denise Torres and Lee Hunt

American political scientist Larry J. Sabato said, "Every election is determined by the people who show up."

Showing up – and voting – are particularly important for judicial retention races. Under state law, once a New Mexico Supreme Court Justice, Court of Appeals Judge, District Judge or Metropolitan Court Judge has won a partisan election, they go into our judicial retention system. When their term expires, a judge stands for retention. They do not face another candidate, but instead are either retained or not retained by voters. Each judge must receive 57 percent voter approval to remain on the bench.

The concept behind this system is that judges will improve their performance on the bench as they gain experience, and that voters should be able to assess their performance in deciding whether to retain them.

The real reason Senator Siah Correa Hemphill announced she is resigning her seat (which she has NOT yet resigned months later) is because she was found out about her illegal use of tens of thousands of dollars of campaign funds for personal use in extreme violation of the state Campaign Reporting Act forbidding it.

The chronology:

On April 22nd Senator Siah Correa Hemphill apparently used personal funds to quietly reimburse her campaign for $11,000 of improper expenses she had made. (See the attached snapshot of her campaign expenditures report.) And that is just the tip of the iceberg of her wrongful spending.

Two weeks later on May 2nd, she suddenly announced she was withdrawing her candidacy to be on the 2024 ballot "to explore new career opportunities" instead. The truth is that she knew she would be in deep legal trouble if she tried to remain a senator when the reimbursement became public, which it did on May 13th. But nobody cared by then since she had quit.

Always Just Blaming Others Gets Nothing Done and Leaves New Mexicans Hurting

Nella Domenici, Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate

An influential Senator has meaningful, professional relationships with members who belong to the other party in the Senate. An effective Senator also has good working relationships with members in the House of Representatives. These relationships enable a really good Senator to get things done, cut deals, call in favors, persuade, horse trade—all skills needed to take care of you—the constituents. Martin Heinrich can do none of these things, but he habitually blames others for his own ineffectiveness and failures.

This week he was blaming the expiration of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) on the Speaker of the House. A couple of weeks ago, he was blaming Republicans for other bills' failure to pass and a few months ago he was blaming others—never taking responsibility himself.

With permission:  https://pinonpost.com/gov-lujan-grisham-cares-more-about-abortion-than-abused-children/

 By David Gallegos / September 22, 2024 / Opinion

The safety and well-being of our children are more important to me than being “politically correct” or whatever negative feedback my words here will bring about.

Unfortunately, the opposite is the case for Governor Lujan Grisham. Her administration is more interested in placating their political party than advocating for and protecting the neglected and abused children in our state. Regardless of your personal views on this sensitive subject, no one can deny that New Mexico is the worst state to be in for disadvantaged children. We have the worst child well-being rating in the nation in large part due to the administrative failures of the Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD). 

By Paul J. Gessing

Like clockwork, every presidential election we see a new set of attacks on the Electoral College. The Electoral College is the system by which the United States has elected every president since the Founding. As you may be aware, the Electoral College was the result of compromise among the Founding Fathers to resolve conflicting interests among the colonies that ultimately agreed to adopt the US Constitution, thus becoming the first 13 American states under the Constitution.   

While the Electoral College has several components, the most salient to voters is the fact that instead of a popular vote each state’s overall influence is calculated based in part on population and in part on simply being a US state. New Mexico receives 5 votes in the Electoral College (of 538 in total) because it has two US senators and three representatives in the House. California has 54 electoral votes for its 52 members of Congress and two senators while Texas has 40 electoral votes for its 38 members of Congress and two senators.

By Ruben Leyva

I come from the Leyva and Elías Apache families. I was not raised on a reservation. Many of my ancestors evaded capture by the U.S. and Mexican governments in the Mogollon Uplands and the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental. My Leyva Chihene (Číhéne) Apache roots are in Quemado, New Mexico, over 250 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. I am also an Elías descendant with ancestors closely connected to the Leyva and other families, who together fled rather than be removed east by the U.S. as prisoners of war.

We call ourselves Chihene or Red Paint People. Some of us have been called "Broncos" or "Sierra Madre Apache." Bronco is used pejoratively to dehumanize us as wild, untamable horses, knowing our families resisted abandoning our homelands. Historians align the Sierra Madre name with the Nednai band of Mexico. This description isn't entirely incorrect, but it neglects to describe our continued presence in the U.S.