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Two NM towns make Travel + Leisure’s ‘most charming’ in the Southwest

2 Comments / New Mexico, News / By

According to Travel + Leisure Magazine, two New Mexico towns have made its top ten list of the most charming small towns in the Southwest. 

Taos, New Mexico, ranked number four on the magazine’s list.

Taos Earthship Biotecture An Earthship is a type of passive solar house that is made of both natural and upcycled materials such as earth-packed tires, pioneered by architect Michael Reynolds. Leon Bublitz via Unsplash.

The magazine wrote, “Abutted by the scenic Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Taos is a high desert town with vistas to write home about, a deep Indigenous history, and a thriving community in Taos Pueblo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s been inhabited for more than 1,000 years.”

According to UNESCO, “To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria.”

Multi-level adobe dwelling, Taos Pueblo, Taos New Mexico, United States. John Mackenzie Burke via Wikimedia Commons.

Travel + Leisure continued, “After you’ve visited the pueblo, consider viewing the landscape via hot air balloon or by taking a dip in the nearby Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs. In town, try Manzanita Market or La Cueva Cafe for a delicious meal. If you’re up for a nice walk, trek Rio Grande Gorge West Rim Trail.”

Taos, New Mexico. Isa Macouzet via Unsplash.

Silver City, New Mexico, ranked number fifth on Travel + Leisure’s list for its beautiful scenery and delicious food. 

Overlooking downtown Silver City, New Mexico from Boston Hill. Matthew Kowal via Wikimedia Commons.

“At 6,000 feet and just south of Gila National Forest, the Southwestern town of Silver City is a solid base camp for all kinds of adventures. Walk the historic downtown and pop into galleries — this is an active arts community — and restaurants like Adobe Springs Cafe or Jalisco Cafe,” it wrote.

Scenic view of the Western New Mexico University (WNMU) campus in Silver City via Wikimedia Commons.

“Get out your hiking shoes and trek in nearby City of Rocks State Park or the slightly further Catwalk Recreation Area, known for its awesome canyon views.”

The complete list from Travel + Leisure is as follows:

  1. Idyllwild, California
  2. Joshua Tree, California
  3. Ojai, California
  4. Taos, New Mexico
  5. Silver City, New Mexico
  6. Virginia City, Nevada
  7. Moab, Utah
  8. Springdale, Utah
  9. Telluride, Colorado
  10. Crested Butte, Colorado

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Woman who birthed, killed newborn in hospital bathroom charged with murder

12 Comments / New Mexico, News / By

19-year-old Alexee Trevizo went to the Artesia General Hospital in Artesia, New Mexico on January 27, where she was complaining of back pain. 

According to KOB 4, “She reportedly denied being pregnant before doctors did lab work and found she was pregnant. For an extended period of time, Trevizo allegedly locked herself in the restroom.” 

After Trevizo came back, a housekeeper found blood splattered across the bathroom and the dead child in the trash can.

“Trevizo reportedly told doctors her baby wasn’t breathing when he came out of the womb. She allegedly claimed she didn’t know what to do with the baby because he wasn’t crying.” 

Investigators found that the child was, indeed, born alive and died shortly after birth. They suspected the baby died because he was trapped inside the bag without air. 

“An OMI autopsy ruled March 28 the baby’s death was a homicide. Police charged and arrested Trevizo with first-degree murder Wednesday,” the KOB 4 report continued. 

Lapel camera of police questioning Alexee Trevizo via KOB 4: https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/video-shows-moments-after-newborn-found-in-hospital-trash/

The Artesia Police Department wrote, “Our officers and crime scene investigator, along with the hospital staff, experienced a heartbreaking situation on that January morning and have been coping with what they encountered. One of the worst calls any first responder or public service person has to respond to, is the severe injury or death of a child.  We are expected to be “tough” in those types of incidents because of our job titles, but in all actuality, we are quite the opposite after we have time to process what happened.”

“Our routine calls of service or emergency responses are usually carried out easily with commitment and dedication to our city, but a call like this can be a breaking point for some or all of those involved. It’s important that we provide the very best resources, counseling, and stress management tools to help our staff cope with this traumatic event, so that they may continue their dedicated service.”

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NM city’s housing market surges with one of highest price gains in nation

1 Comment / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

According to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a New Mexico metro area has ranked in the top 10 for home price gains in the first quarter of the year. 

The Santa Fe metro area saw a large 11.7 percent jump in single-family home values, with the median sales price year-over-year at $608,700.

Santa Fe was only beaten by Hickory-Lenoir-Morgantown, North Carolina, at 12 percent; Appleton, Wisconsin, at 12.4 percent; Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Alice, Wisconsin, at 13.7 percent; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at 14.7 percent; Elmira, New York at 14.7 percent; Burlington, North Carolina at 14.7 percent, Warner Robins, Georgia at 16.2 percent; Oshkosh-Neenah, Wisconsin at 16.5 percent; and the highest jump in homes prices at 18.9 percent in Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, Virginia, and Tennessee. 

NAR states, “Compared to a year ago, the national median single-family existing-home price decreased 0.2% to $371,200. In the previous quarter, the year-over-year national median price increased 4.0%.”

“Generally speaking, home prices are lower in expensive markets and higher in affordable markets, implying greater mortgage rate sensitivity for high-priced homes,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

Yun noted that western cities, like San Francisco, San Jose, and Reno saw home prices drop by at least 10 percent from a year ago whereas prices rose by at least 10 percent from the previous year in cities like Milwaukee, Dayton, and Oklahoma City.

“First-time buyers found a small measure of relief when looking to purchase a typical home during the first quarter with the quarterly declines in prices and mortgage rates. For a typical starter home valued at $315,500 with a 10% down payment loan, the monthly mortgage payment fell to $1,825, down 5.4% from the previous quarter ($1,930) but an increase of almost $450, or 32.5%, from one year ago ($1,377). First-time buyers typically spent 37% of their family income on mortgage payments, down from 39.5% in the previous quarter. A mortgage is considered unaffordable if the monthly payment (principal and interest) amounts to more than 25% of the family’s income,” the group continued. 

However, in contrast to before Joe Biden’s White House reign, inflation was low, and therefore, interest rates were low. When President Trump left Washington, interest rates were hovering around 2.73 percent. Currently, U.S. interest rates under Biden are at a massive 6.35 percent, which could be discouraging buyers from purchasing or attracting them to more affordable areas. 

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Gov. Lujan Grisham again under fire from Dems — this time about alcohol

14 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is once again under fire by leftists. Previously, they were angered over her veto of an electric vehicle tax credit in the omnibus tax package passed during the 2023 Legislative Session.

This time, however, they are angered that she vetoed an increased tax on alcohol that would have increased the alcohol tax rate by a massive 20 percent, with proceeds going to “harms reduction” programs. 

She is now under fire from her own party over the tax hike veto.

State Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque) attacked the governor’s veto as “a serious misstep,” according to a report from New Mexico InDepth. 

“We’ll have to try again,” he added, “but it sure would have helped if the Governor’s staff had reached out to explain what was behind her decision,” he added.

“Neal Bowen, who since 2019 has directed the Behavioral Health Services Division, which oversees much of the state’s treatment and prevention services, called the outcome a ‘missed opportunity.’ Even that ‘trivial alcohol tax hike,’ Bowen wrote in an email to New Mexico In Depth, would have put the state in ‘a position to support an expansion of screening, treatment, and recovery services specific to alcohol,’” the outlet reported.

“I would expect an increase in alcohol excise tax would be welcome in light of the harm to the communities and cost to the state due to alcohol,” state Sen. Sedillo Lopez (D-Bernalillo) told The Santa Fe New Mexican.

In response to criticism of the veto, InDepth reported that the governor’s spokesperson Maddy Hayden claims Lujan Grisham “‘believes unequivocally’ that New Mexico needs to devote more resources to addressing alcohol misuse, according to Hayden. The governor felt the Legislature’s tax package represented ‘a potentially untenable hit to the general fund’ and vetoed the reallocation of alcohol tax revenues ‘out of fiscal responsibility,’ Hayden said, declining to clarify why the governor didn’t then retain the alcohol tax hike, which would have generated $10 million annually.” 

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Lujan Grisham kicks can down the road on border crisis

55 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Thursday, ahead of Title 42’s expiration, which helped quell the border catastrophe, Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is kicking the can down the road to Congress instead of helping in New Mexico to alleviate the crisis, as Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is doing. Abbott declared a state of emergency and deployed the Tactical Border Force to help with the crisis.

Instead of helping alleviate the human suffering from the border crisis, Lujan Grisham wrote on Twitter, “I want New Mexicans, especially those on our southern border, to know we are in close communication with cities and counties to make sure they are supported as Title 42 ends tonight.”

She continued, “I’ve emphasized to the federal government the importance of coordinating a comprehensive humanitarian response, and I urge Congress to embrace a longer-term solution by passing immigration reform legislation immediately.”

A plan the U.S. House voted on Thursday evening to fix the humanitarian border catastrophe received no Democrat support at all, including from any of New Mexico’s three Democrat Reps. Gabe Vasquez (who represents the state’s border district), Teresa Leger Fernandez, or Melanie Stansbury. 

State Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) urged Lujan Grisham to deploy the state’s National Guard to the border after she yanked them from the post shortly following her installment as governor in 2019. 

“Send the National Guard to the Southern Border to help stop the catastrophe, as you should have years ago. That is precisely how you can help alleviate the horror the Biden regime has inflicted upon our country by neglecting the border and creating a humanitarian crisis,” he wrote. 

New Mexico has over 53 miles of border that are unsecured by barriers or any kind of security apparatus, making the state extremely vulnerable to an invasion pushed by Joe Biden’s policies that have resulted in a massive surge in illegal immigration.

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Scathing ABQ Journal editorial NUKES Dems’ sniveling over Holtec’s green light

9 Comments / New Mexico, News, Opinion, Politics / By

A recent editorial from the Albuquerque Journal’s editorial board ripped opponents of Holtec International’s safe temporary spent fuel storage facility a new one. 

This week, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted a license to Holtec International for the multi-billion-dollar interim storage facility in Eddy and Lea Counties.

Democrat politicians whined and bellyached about the move, erroneously claiming the safe fuel storage facility would make New Mexico a “dumping ground” of spent “nuclear waste,” among other melodramatic rhetoric. 

The Democrats in New Mexico’s congressional delegation and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raúl Torrez complained about it.

The board wrote that these whining Democrats didn’t “offer any alternatives for the storage of spent commercial nuclear fuel.” 

It wrote that despite Democrats referencing S.B. 53 passed during the 2023 Legislative Session despite bipartisan opposition, Holtec will challenge the law trying to stymie the company’s operations, and it “will likely win.”

It continued, “Sen. Martin Heinrich said in a separate statement Tuesday no regulatory commission “should be using interim standards to approve indefinite storage” until there is a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel. Fair point. But Heinrich, the rest of the state’s delegation, the governor and the AG conveniently do not mention the U.S. lacks a permanent storage site because their fellow Democrat, the late Sen. Harry Reid, blocked the truly permanent storage site in Yucca Mountain after Congress quite literally sank $15 billion of taxpayer money into what is now the most expensive, empty parking garage in America. So there is nowhere to transfer more than 70,000 metric tons of used reactor fuel from commercial power plants at 73 sites across 39 states — even though U.S. law requires one. How about enforcing that law?” 

The board concluded with the following: 

Heinrich ended his statement: “New Mexicans didn’t sign up for this.”

Except many have. Give Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway or Hobbs Mayor Sam Cobb a call. They’ll fill you in on the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance that southeastern New Mexico leaders formed in 2006 and the thousand acres of remote cattle grazing land ELEA bought expressly for Holtec between Carlsbad and Hobbs. And then there are the nuclear experts who work in our three national labs and at WIPP and Urenco.

It’s time for state leaders to put their politics aside, recognize the science and the scary fact we have spent nuclear waste sitting on water tables across the country, and support the bridge carbon-neutral nuclear power offers. And it’s time for our delegation in D.C. to move beyond cheap partisan sound bites and actually do something about safely storing nuclear waste.

Now that the Holtec International project is a go, there is nothing the seething Democrats can do about the facility that will provide safe interim storage while bringing billions of dollars in investment to New Mexico. 

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AOC loses it as President Trump dominates CNN town hall

12 Comments / National / By

On Wednesday, 45th President Donald Trump crushed it in his town hall with CNN, having an answer for all of the deceptive questions lobbed at him by the network’s Kaitlan Collins.

The President unequivocally refused to let CNN get away with saying the 2020 election was not rigged, while Collins repeatedly butted in, claiming it was not. 

She also repeatedly butted in and did not let him answer questions, to which he dubbed her a “nasty person.”

Here are some clips from the night:

But even more amusing was socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) freaking out on Twitter for the network hosting the town hall at all — a sign it was a slam dunk.

“CNN should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost total control of this “town hall” to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host,” she tweeted.

She added in a subsequent tweet, “This falls squarely on CNN. Everyone here saw exactly what was going to happen. Instead they put a sexual abuse victim in harm’s way for views. This was a choice to platform lies about the election & Jan 6th w/ no plan but to have their moderator interrupted without consequence.” 

She then went on MSNBC to bemoan CNN for having the 45th President on the network for the town hall, saying, “I know you said earlier that you will not comment on the platforming of such atrocious disinformation, but I would. I think it was a profoundly irresponsible decision … it was shameful.” 

WATCH: 

President Trump currently holds a 41-point lead over his GOP primary rivals and the CNN town hall is likely to further cement his dominance in the race to reclaim the White House from Joe Biden, given the positive reviews from Republicans and Democrats alike. 

Former Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang wrote, “This #CNNTownhall is shaping up to be a clear win for Trump, certainly in the Republican field and probably overall.”

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Biden’s Horn of Africa diplomat visiting New Mexico next week

Leave a Comment / New Mexico, News / By

Next week, Joe Biden’s Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa (SEHOA) Ambassador Mike Hammer, is traveling to Santa Fe to speak at Global Santa Fe and the Santa Fe World Affairs Forum (SFWAF).

The forum is set for May 18th and will be held at the Santa Fe Community College Board Room.

Hammer was named the United States Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa on June 1, 2022. His most recent assignment abroad was as the U.S. ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 2018 to 2022.

“Ambassador Hammer is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service class of Minister-Counselor.  His over three decades of service include serving as Acting Senior Vice President of the National Defense University (NDU) and Deputy Commandant of NDU’s Eisenhower School. He [was] U.S. ambassador to Chile from 2014-2016. Prior to his appointment in Chile, Ambassador Hammer served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from March 2012 to August 2013,” wrote SFWAF. 

This is the latest visit from a Biden administration official to the state after U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited New Mexico in April.

Interestingly, Hammer has been appointed by both Republican and Democrat presidents to various roles, beginning in the Obama administration. President Donald Trump appointed him to be the DRC ambassador in 2018, a role he served in until 2022.

More information about the event can be found here.

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Biden releases illegal immigrants into U.S. without tracking as Title 42 expires

6 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

In the latest concerning development in the U.S. southern border crisis, the Joe Biden regime is now planning to release apprehended illegal immigrants into the country “without court dates or the ability to track them,” as NBC News reports.

“The Biden administration began releasing migrants without court dates to alleviate overcrowding in March 2021, but had previously enrolled those migrants in a program known as Alternatives to Detention, which required them to check in on a mobile app until they were eventually given a court date. The new policy would release them on ‘parole’ with a notice to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office but without enrolling them in the program.” 

The move comes after 11,000 illegal immigrants were caught crossing the southern border on Tuesday — a record that surpasses expectations of 10,000 per day previously predicted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“We’re already breaking and we haven’t hit the starting line,” one DHS official anonymously told NBC News. 

The increase in illegal immigrant crossings is already ravaging ports of entry in New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Texas, as well as gaping holes left in the border barrier left unfinished by the Biden administration.

Title 42, a pandemic-era program that allowed the swift deportation of illegal immigrants, is set to end on Thursday, leaving the country in a crisis as limp Biden regime immigration policies have resulted in historic illegal immigrant crossings and a humanitarian crisis exploding on the border. 

Congress is set to vote on Thursday to extend Title 42, but it is unclear at the moment if the proposal will make it across the finish line to Biden’s desk by the 11:59 p.m. deadline when the program is set to expire.

Biden releases illegal immigrants into U.S. without tracking as Title 42 expires Read More »

El Pollo Loco expanding to New Mexico with nine new locations

21 Comments / New Mexico, News / By

The popular fast-food chicken restaurant ​​El Pollo Loco, specializing in Los Angeles-style fire-grilled Mexican chicken, is opening new locations in New Mexico with the signing of new development agreements. 

“A deal with Mass Equities EPL LLC will result in 10 units over eight years with the first restaurants due by December 2024 for Larimer County and portions of Boulder, Broomfield and Weld Counties in northern Colorado. The second and third deals, signed by CB Pollo NM 1 and CB Pollo Tx 1, respectfully, includes nine units for New Mexico and seven in El Paso,” wrote FastCasual.com.

“El Pollo Loco’s corporate team has made it an easy decision to grow our franchise operations with them,” Mass Equities Founder and CEO Drew Sobel said in a company press release. “The brand’s growth over the past few years is evident and its unique offering supported by excellence in operations is a strategic fit for our portfolio of businesses. Fueled by the brand’s initial success in the Colorado market, we look forward to bringing the El Pollo Loco experience to northern parts of the state.”

El Pollo Loco (“The Crazy Chicken”), Houston via Wikimedia Commons.

The chain is looking to increase its national footprint by featuring its latest dining room design options, an enhanced digitized experience with self-ordering kiosks, mobile to-go and delivery pick-up areas, and digital menu boards.

Since 1980, the restaurant has operated 490 company-owned and franchised locations across the United States. 

El Pollo Loco describes its food as the “SoCal lifestyle meets Mexican heritage. It’s better-for-you choices like fire-grilled chicken and tradition-inspired temptations like Overstuffed Quesadillas. It’s burritos, taquitos and tacos with a fresh California Twist. It’s a menu that can meet any dietary need from paleo to vegetarian to straight out craving. Simply said, it’s L.A. active, it’s Mexican proud and it’s exactly what you’ll find at El Pollo Loco.” 

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