New Mexico

Gov. MLG forcing masks on toddlers, jabs for teens to attend campaign event

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Embattled Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is poised to formally launch her 2022 campaign for governor on June 3rd at the Albuquerque Museum on Mountain Road in Albuquerque.

However, for fans of the scandal-ridden governor to get through the door, attendees must both be fully vaccinated and wear masks, which goes against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. 

“This will be a limited capacity event due to COVID-19 restrictions. You must register in order to join us in person. Registrations are handled on a first-come, first-served basis and general admission tickets are sold out for now. By registering for a waitlist ticket, you will be notified as soon as spots become available. Vaccinations are required for attendees over the age of 12. Masks are requested for those older than two,” reads the invitation.

In the invite for the event, Lujan Grisham’s campaign writes, “New Mexico has accomplished so much — but we’re not done yet.” 

The Governor also tweeted out an invitation video to the 2022 campaign launch, saying, “You’re not gonna want to miss this.” 

One concerned New Mexican who lives in the Albuquerque area recently wrote a letter to the Albuquerque Museum concerned over the event’s requirements, which go against the CDC guidelines. 

“It is particularly concerning that anyone over the age of 12 needs to mask and be vaccinated to enter. Children are considered at low risk for covid, both in terms of transmission, contraction and long-term effects. As a parent myself, I would not sign my child up for an experimental, non-FDA approved shot for a virus that likely would not affect them. I may reconsider once it is FDA-approved and/or research shows that it is risk-warranted. The governor has been recommending masking and vaccinating children against the advice of national experts, and by hosting her event, your organization is complicit in replicating this unethical recommendation,” they wrote. 

“I have long been a patron of the museum and am shocked and disappointed that you would tarnish your otherwise upstanding reputation by hosting this event under the present conditions. I urge you to either reconsider hosting this or revising the guidelines for it. As a taxpayer, patron and one who hosts visiting guests in my business work, I will not be visiting or recommending the museum to others any longer, should this go forward. Medical discrimination in a public facility, perpetrated by a political figure that should be acting in the best interests of her constituents is not something I wish to support,” the letter continued.

Lujan Grisham already has two Republican challengers, including Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block and businesswoman Karen Bedonie.

Data shows marijuana poisoning soaring in New Mexico

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During the 2021 Legislative Session, New Mexico legalized recreational marijuana, which will likely see a boom in the usage of the drug across the state.

According to KOB 4, “From 2014 through 2016, the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center averaged about 70 calls of people consuming too much marijuana. Those numbers doubled from 2017 through 2019.” 

Marijuana-related poisonings have already been on the rise in New Mexico, and with the new law taking place in April of 2022, there will be an even greater boom.

Dr. Susan Smolinske, director of the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center, says the current rise is a combination of availability and acceptability by the public.

“We’re trying to look at our data more closely, we think that our double jump occurred when Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, and we started to see more pediatric accidental exposures,” said Dr. Smolinske.

Kids are at risk of being poisoned by the substance. “We had four severe cases last year and children aged one to two who needed a ventilator,” according to Dr. Smolinske.

Dr. Smolinske urged, “These need to be treated as medications and kept out of reach and locked up away from the kids.” 

The report comes as the State of New Mexico is still formulating rules regarding the implementation of the recently passed recreational pot bill. It is unclear if concerns related to child safety will be put on the docket as items necessary to address in the rollout of the new legal marijuana law.

One marijuana proposal during the 2021 Legialture had a loophole giving minors access to the drug. “ “It is not a violation of the Cannabis Regulation Act when: a parent, a legal guardian or adult spouse of a person under twenty-one years of age serves cannabis products to that person under twenty-one years of age on real property, other than licensed premises, under the control of the parent, legal guardian, or adult spouse,” read the passage. 

As marijuana becomes more readily available on the open market in New Mexico, time will tell if preventative measures by the state will help stave off poisonings. 

Biden endorses Dem who made racist anti-Navajo statements for CD1 race

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On Tuesday, former vice president Joe Biden announced his support for far-left Democrat state Rep. Melanie Stansbury in the June 1st special election to replace Deb Haaland in the First Congressional District, who left the job to work at the Department of the Interior.

Biden said in a statement, “As a scientist and state legislator that works on land, water and community issues, Melanie Stansbury has fought for New Mexico her entire career.” He added, “I am proud to endorse Melanie for Congress because I know she has the grit and determination to deliver real results for all New Mexicans.”

Stansbury has been a Washington, D.C. staffer for the last nearly twenty years, moving to New Mexico in 2017 to run for a state House seat and consulting on the side for many eyebrow-raising outfits.

According to state Sen. Mark Moores, the Republican nominee for the congressional race, “Stansbury’s original House Personal Financial Disclosure listed her as a “consultant” and receiving at least $5,000 for the TerraMar Project in Woburn MA (1). The TerraMar Project was founded by Jeffrey Epstein’s madame Ghislaine Maxwell who is currently on trial for sex trafficking teenagers.” 

Stansbury has also come under fire for her anti-Navajo comments, including one comment which said displaced Dinè energy workers should just sell “your art or your wool” to make ends meet, a statement many have denounced as racist. 

According to the Albuquerque Journal, Haaland and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have also endorsed Stansbury for the congressional race. She also has the full support of “Russian collusion” conspiracy theorist Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Politico reported on Wednesday that Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff will join Stansbury to campaign ahead of the Tuesday special election, which is projected to be too close for comfort for Democrats.

Firefighter critically injured in Hidalgo County while battling forest fire

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On Tuesday, it was reported by the Associated Press that a firefighter was critically injured while battling a wildfire on private land in southwestern New Mexico near the U.S.-Mexico border, state officials said Tuesday.

“The firefighter works for the U.S. Forest Service and was injured Monday while fighting a fire in the Animas Mountains in Hidalgo County, the Forestry Division of the state Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department said in a statement,” the AP writes.

Although the identity of the firefighter was not released, “division spokeswoman Wendy Mason said during a telephone interview that the firefighter is a member of an elite hotshots crew but that information on how the firefighter was injured wasn’t immediately available.” 

According to a statement from the Forest Service, the firefighter was in critical condition Tuesday at a hospital in El Paso, Texas. 

“The fire had burned 350 acres in very rugged terrain along the Continental Divide and its case was under investigation,” reported the AP.

Once more details are released, this report will be updated. 

Rep. Herrell invites Kamala Harris to tour southern border, join Central American trip

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On Monday, Republican Congresswoman for New Mexico’s Second District Yvette Herrell sent a letter to Kamala Harris inviting her to visit the southern border in New Mexico to see first-hand the humanitarian crisis happening on the border with Mexico. In the letter, she said if Harris does not plan to see the border herself, she should bring a bipartisan delegation of border-area lawmakers with her as she seeks to reach a solution with foreign leaders.

“I believe it is imperative that your discussions with the governments of Mexico and Central American countries include members of Congress, especially those members from border communities and those on both sides of the aisle,” Herrell wrote in her letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. “This crisis can only be solved with bipartisan input and perspective from those who represent areas along the southern border.”

“I would be pleased to host you in New Mexico’s Second District as well as join you on your trip to Mexico and Guatemala to bring firsthand knowledge of what the border crisis means for those who live there and are affected daily,” the congresswoman wrote.

She posted a video of her signing the letter, saying, “…we do have a crisis at the border, and that’s why I’m inviting you to come to New Mexico so you can see it for yourself firsthand.” 

WATCH:

‘Political problem’: Santa Fe-area DA defends letting obelisk topplers go free

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On Thursday, the district attorney for the First Judicial District, Mary Carmack-Altwies, announced she would not be seeking jail time for any of the domestic terrorists who toppled the 153-year-old obelisk in Downtown Santa Fe dedicated to Union soldiers who fought against the Confederacy in the Civil War.

At the time, she claimed, “The Obelisk case defendants meet the criteria I set out for diversionary programming. We have reached a resolution after months of careful investigation and negotiation between defendants, their attorneys, and my office that ensures justice while working toward community healing.”

But her decision to not go after the ardent criminals who very deliberately and knowingly tore down a centuries-old piece of New Mexico culture and history was met with much fury from the public. 

Former city councilor Ron Trujillo said it was a “crock of crap” that Carmack-Altwies was letting the vandals go free, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. 

However, Carmack-Altwies claimed the toppling of the obelisk was “a political problem that got forced upon the criminal justice system” in her defense of her weak prosecutorial decision to let the criminals slide.

Some pointed out her tone-deaf comments, with one person writing, “Well, I suppose the storming of the national capitol was ‘a political problem that got forced upon the criminal justice system’ too. For that matter, were the bombings of abortion clinics, vandalism of fur farms, and burning of draft offices ‘political problems’? No. They were crimes.”

In her defense, the district attorney made clear she did not want a “punitive” result for the domestic terrorists. She said her “restorative justice” approach was “supposed to bring both sides together and get everyone to come to a resolution or conclusion about what they should do as part of their punishment. And it is a punishment.” She added, “It’s not punitive, necessarily, in that it’s not jail. But it is a punishment — they have to participate in this. And if they drop out and they don’t do it, then we lift the stay and prosecution keeps going.”

Many would say Carmack-Altwies is speaking out of both sides of her mouth if she says she does not want a “punitive” outcome while also saying the vandals having to merely talk it out with community leaders while they pick up a few pounds of trash is “punishment.” 

The Santa Fe New Mexican notes, “Carmack-Altwies said that while it will be difficult to identify the specific victims in the toppling of the obelisk on Oct. 12, anyone is welcome to present their grievances to the program’s mediator, Debra Oliver.”

Still, people are not happy with her weak-on-crime approach to holding these vandals accountable. One commenter said, “Mary, It is called ‘you let em go free.’” These words ring loud and clear for many New Mexicans, especially those in Santa Fe who will now have a chance to kick out Mayor Alan Webber, responsible for letting the obelisk get toppled as he commanded the police to stand by and watch. 

Out-of-state climate alarmists lobby against PNM transferring power plant to Navajo Nation

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A recent report from the Santa Fe New Mexican details far-left anti-energy “climate change” alarmist groups opposing Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) transferring its share of the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant to the Farmington-based Navajo Transitional Energy Co. (NTEC). 

These extreme anti-energy groups opposing the transfer include the radical “350.org,” which wants to “Stop and ban all oil, coal and gas projects from being built” and the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club, which has endorsed the expensive, economy crippling Green New Deal. 

The radical groups that comprise what they call the “Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy” contend that transferring the plant from PNM to the Navajo Nation-owned NTEC would let the economy stabilize powerplant “ stay open and keep polluting.” 

The groups opposing the transaction are hell-bent on closing the powerplant for good, by hook or by crook, with claims that PNM’s proposed contract with NTEC “will make it harder to shut down the power plant, said the adviser,” according to the Sierra Club’s technical adviser Jeremy Fisher of Oakland, Calif.

Fisher, who doesn’t even live in New Mexico, said, “the plant is the state’s largest stationary source of greenhouse gas emissions,” reports the New Mexican.

Another out-of-state Sierra Club representative, Matt Gerhart of Denver, Colorado, claimed the plant’s transfer to NTEC is “flawed,” arguing that it is “a bad deal for ratepayers and for the environment and for the people who live in the shadows of the Four Corners plant.”

PNM’s vice president, Tom Fallgren, Fallgren “said the deal with NTEC would preserve jobs at Four Corners, benefit the Navajo Nation, save PNM customers money and enable PNM to move to carbon-free energy faster. He also lauded the decision by plant owners to reduce emissions by 20 percent to 25 percent by going to seasonal operations in 2023,” according to the New Mexican.

But Stephanie Dzur, an attorney for the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy, demeaned the powerplant, saying PNM has chosen an odd way to unload the “crappy old, polluting” Four Corners plant. “They want to abandon the plant to a coal company,” she said.

This is not the first time a coal-powered generating station has been closed due to out-of-state influences on the Land of Enchantment, most corrosively through 2019’s Energy Transition Act (ETA), the most extreme state-wide anti-energy bill in the country to install the “Green New Deal.” 

Previously, UNM was forced to close the San Juan Generating Station (pictured) due to the ETA. According to the Farmington Daily Times, the 2022 closure of the powerplant will “mean the loss of one of the major economic drivers in the county as well as approximately 1,500 direct and indirect jobs, with [a] high proportion of that workforce being Navajo.” 

It appears that far-left Democrats and out-of-state anti-energy groups are doing whatever necessary to displace more Navajo energy workers from their jobs to the chagrin of public officials, such as state Rep. Melanie Stansbury who said these displaced workers can just “sell your art and your wool.” 

Gov. Lujan Grisham praises Jeffrey Epstein-linked Branson, Richardson during space launch

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On Saturday, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic completed its first space launch in over two years from Spaceport America in Sierra County with the launch of VSS Unity, making New Mexico only the third state to send humans to space.

To mark the occasion, former Gov. Bill Richardson, Branson, and current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham came together to see the launch. While Richardson was governor, he had the State of New Mexico pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the creation of the Spaceport. 

But Branson and Richardson did not likely only know each other from the space launch transaction. They both were included in allegedly slain pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s “little black book.” Epstein was a sexual degenerate and pedophile who used strong-arm tactics to feed the sexual desires of powerful people and latch onto economic wealth. 

In a 2016 deposition, Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein sex worker claimed she was instructed “to go to (former U.S. Sen.) George Mitchell, (modeling agent) Jean-Luc Brunel, Bill Richardson, another prince that I don’t know his name. A guy that owns a hotel, a really large hotel chain, I can’t remember which hotel it was.” She claims she was told by Epstein and the billionaire’s “madam” Ghislaine Maxwell to give the former governor “erotic massages.” 

Dozens of accusers say they were underage, some as young as 14, when Epstein allegedly sexually abused them.

Although Richardson denies the allegations, the accusations remain. 

Epstein purchased a secluded, 10,000-acre Zorro Ranch in southern Santa Fe County, which according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, “he purchased from former Gov. Bruce King in the early 1990s. On that property is a 26,700-square-foot hilltop mansion as well as a small airplane hangar and airstrip.” 

Epstein called on Richard Branson and Bill Gates to appear alongside him during a 2014 panel about money’s origins at Arizona State University according to an email from theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss at the time.

According to the Daily Mail, “It was Krauss who revealed this news in a 2013 email to Jim Simons, asking the famed mathematician if he might be interested in a spot on the same panel.

Krauss wrote to Simmons that Epstein was coordinating the panel on the Origins of Money, and said ‘right now he has Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Larry Summers on board.’”

It is unclear if Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had any connection to the pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. 

After the space launch, Lujan Grisham did praise Branson and Richardson in a statement, writing, “On behalf of proud New Mexicans everywhere, I’m incredibly grateful to so many dedicated and visionary collaborators in this effort, not east Sir Richard Branson and former Governor Bill Richardson the entire Virgin Galactic team and Spaceport America team who made this long-awaited day possible.” 

New forest fire starts near Marble Canyon outside of Alamogordo

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On Saturday, it was announced by the National Forest Service (NFS) that another fire had started north of Marble Canyon near Hershberger Peak outside of Alamogordo. 

Approximately 35 crew members have been dispatched to respond to the fire, around five acres in size. The cause of the blaze is currently under investigation. 

“Crews, including one hotshot crew and two engine staff, used ATVs and then hiked the rest of the way to reach the fire, where they discovered a 5-acre fire. They were able to assess the fire, terrain, and fuel conditions to begin their fire suppression efforts, which are expected to last into the night. Crews will sleep near the fire to continue fighting the fire as early as possible tomorrow morning,” wrote the NFS. 

“Fire activity has died down as the night progressed and temperatures dropped; however, the winds are still gusty. The fire is burning in an area with pinon-juniper, grass, and oak brush. Pinon-juniper trees tend to burn at hotter temperatures than other wood.” 

NFS reports that smoke is visible from Alamogordo, the High Rolls area, and West Side Rd.  Locals should expect smoke to be the heaviest in the mornings as it settles into drainages overnight. 

There are currently no evacuations in place at the moment.

Many on social media shared photos from their vantage points of the fire and smoke, writing well wishes to the firefighters. One man wrote, “May our firefighters fight this fire with the protection of our [L]ord and all his angels too putting this fire to rest as quickly as possible, may the lord cover you all with his blood and protection… let’s give our firefighters our protection as well…” 

The National Forest Service warns of an “above-normal fire year” in southern New Mexico “due to the extreme drought condition. Therefore, residents should begin preparing for a wildfire emergency by becoming familiar with the nationally-used Ready, Set, Go principles of evacuations.” 

The Three Rivers Fire in northern Lincoln County is near 100% containment, while two smaller new fires have emerged in the Gila wilderness. Read more about them here.

‘Retaliation’: After blowing whistle on Gov. MLG’s CYFD deleting public records, two top officials fired

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On Friday, it was reported that two high-level employees at New Mexico’s Children, Youth, and Families Division (CYFD) were fired for raising concerns over the Department encrypting and destroying public records.

According to Searchlight New Mexico, “over the past year, the CYFD used the secure text messaging app Signal to discuss a wide range of official business, including the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the care of children in state custody and concerns about private contractors. Department leadership then set many of those communications to automatically delete, rendering them forever inaccessible to attorneys, members of the public and journalists.” 

“Searchlight also found that the Office of the Governor and the state’s Department of Information Technology supported the systematic deletion of messages, according to emails and policy guidance obtained through an Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) request.” 

The Attorney General’s office is currently investigating CYFD’s use of Signal. New Mexico House Republicans asked Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to provide a report detailing “whether her office staff and/or cabinet level staff have been using data encryption and data dumping.”

Gov. Lujan Grisham’s press secretary Nora Sackett said the office recently conducted a refresher for staff on what counts as transitory, and that the governor takes transparency and open government “very seriously.”

After CYFD’s chief public information officer Cliff W. Gilmore raised concerns on April 22 over the use of the Signal app stating it was“detrimental to the credibility of and the public’s trust in government institutions and their leaders,” he was fired on May 6.

According to Gilmore, “At one point Secretary Blalock (pictured) told a group of roughly 30 of us staff members at a ‘leadership’ meeting that people who regularly submit IPRA requests would eventually find out we were using Signal and that, because when an IPRA request came in we would have to retain everything from that moment, we should set our Signal apps to 24-hour auto-delete.”  

Gilmore’s wife, Debra Gilmore, who led CYFD’s Office of Children’s Rights, confirmed that she had also raised internal concerns about Signal. She was also fired May 6.

The Searchlight New Mexico report further notes, “Although the department ceased using the app on April 29, according to an agency press release, many CYFD employees continue to have active Signal accounts on their phones. Meanwhile, the department has switched to Microsoft Teams, a platform that offers the agency the same ability to encrypt and automatically delete messages.” 

In response to the report, Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce decried the Department’s firings as “retaliation.” 

“These employees knew that CYFD was breaking the law by destroying important documents that may have impacted the lives of foster kids and parents. This Department knows no bounds and continues its corrupt behavior and ignores the notion of government transparency. There are countless instances of child abuse and injury that center around the poor decisions at CYFD. This agency has no watchdog, and there’s no true oversight as far as what goes on behind the CYFD doors,” he added.

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