Editorials

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.

 September 2024

http://www.liberato.us/property-rights-report-2409.html 

Green Energy Transmission Corridors - Huge Land Grabs and Eminent Domain Fights Ahead
by Nathan Descheemaeker

The Department of Energy (DOE) finished their triannual National Transmission Needs Study in October of 2023. DOE is now finished with phase 2 of the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETC) Designation Process establishing a preliminary list of potential NIETCs issued pursuant to section 216(a) of the Federal Power Act. As noted by the 9th circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2011,

“. . . NIETCs . . . create new federal rights which includes the power of eminent domain that are intended to, and do, curtail rights traditionally held by the states and local governments.[1]

By Mandi Torrez

In 2022, 79% of New Mexico fourth graders could not read proficiently according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). New Mexico's fourth grade cohort has never reached more than 24% reading proficiency since NAEP's inception in 1998.

Yet, one strategy implemented in other states has not been tried in New Mexico: smaller class sizes. The nonpartisan think tank Think New Mexico, along with a bipartisan group of legislators, will propose legislation to cap grades K-3 at 20 students. This will help give our youngest students the best chance to read at grade level by the end of third grade, which means they are four times more likely to graduate from high school.

 Low Elevation and Supersonic Airspace Over Rural Communities and Tribal Lands in Southern Arizona and Southwest New Mexico

This week the Air Force will host four public hearings on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for expanding its airspace for its Arizona missions. Conservation organizations in New Mexico and Arizona are expressing their serious concerns with its proposal to authorize low-elevation fighter jet maneuvers as low as 100 feet above ground level (AGL) and supersonic flights as low as 5,000 feet AGL in southern Arizona and southwest New Mexico.