New Mexico

NM Dems have ‘severed ties’ with Democrat lawmaker

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According to a report from the Albuquerque blog called “The Paper,” the New Mexico Democrat Party has severed ties with Democrat state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto of Albuquerque amid a barrage of claims by women that he sexually harassed them, claiming “credible accusations and subsequent investigation” led to the break.

“To date, there have been accusations of eight incidents of harassment, sexual and otherwise, by Ivey-Soto against several women, many of them lobbyists, and a few of which were witnessed by others,” claimed the outlet. 

“DPNM has severed ties with Senator Ivey Soto within our internal party affairs. He has been told by phone that he is not welcome at our events,” the Party wrote to the outlet in a statement.

“We have individually disinvited him from past and future DPNM events and he no longer serves on any DPNM committees or caucuses or as the regular DPNM parliamentarian, which he was for years. After being highly involved in internal DPNM affairs for years, he is no longer welcome to have any role within DPNM,” the statement concluded, according to The Paper.

Ivey-Soto has vigorously denied the allegations, saying to the blog, “I am befuddled and bewildered” by the Democrats’ move. 

Fringe far-left national groups recently penned a letter to all groups associated with the senator asking them to sever ties with him. Signers included the Women’s March (led by antisemite Linda Sarsour), the National Women’s Law Center, and other low-profile “national” groups.

“As lvey-Soto has been credibly found to break basic rules of workplace conduct, he should not be in any position of power. To avoid any conflicts of interest and humiliating situations for women and survivors of sexual violence, we call upon your organization to sever ties and take any other appropriate action within your power to support the many women and survivors, including removing Ivey-Soto from panels, boards, committees; ending contracts with him; and finally, to call on him to resign from the State Senate,” the group wrote. 

Ivey-Soto has served in the New Mexico Senate since 2013 and previously served as Associate Deputy Secretary of State of New Mexico for Elections, Ethics & Legal. He was also reportedly the New Mexico State Elections Director.

Dems continue eating fellow Dem alive

NM Dems have ‘severed ties’ with Democrat lawmaker Read More »

In stunning move, Attorney General Torrez turns on Gov. Lujan Grisham

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In a stunning move of opposition to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced a new Civil Rights Division in his office, a proposal the governor pocket vetoed from the 2023 Legislative Session.

“We are going to establish the first dedicated office focused on protecting the rights of everyone in this country, but particularly the children of this country, and that includes Latino children,” Torrez said before the start of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) convention, where he is being honored. 

Torrez says the division, vetoed in S.B. 426, will concentrate on civil rights cases and prioritize protecting children.

According to KRQE 13, he told the crowd, “Now, we didn’t get that bill over the finish line, but when we had the veto, I made a promise to this community, and I’m going to make a promise to my extended community across the country: we’re going to create the civil rights division in the Attorney General’s Office anyway!”

“We are re-allocating within the agency, and frankly, it’s a position that I didn’t want to be in. I didn’t want to be in a position where I had to repurpose some of the resources that we had dedicated to other issue areas, but I think it’s so important to start better protecting children and start improving education that we take a more affirmative role and build out this institution,” Torrez said to the ire of the governor, who expressed the Division would “muddy the waters for agencies already tasked with child welfare and that no funding was set aside for the division,” according to the report.

Because of the route the Attorney General is taking, Torrez said his prosecutors won’t be able to gather evidence ahead of litigation, but rather only after they make a public filing. “One of the other things that we don’t have that was included in the bill is the ability to gather discovery before litigation. A civil investigative demand. Where we could quietly gather information before we decided whether to initiate a formal action,” Torrez says, “Now, because we don’t have that power, we’re going to end up like all other civil rights plaintiffs—we’re going to file an action which is a big public process and then go through the discovery procedures after that.”

KOAT 13 added, “Torrez said he’s already hired two attorneys for the division and hopes to hire several more and a division director before the year is up. He added that the new office will also focus on equity in education and jail conditions.”

In stunning move, Attorney General Torrez turns on Gov. Lujan Grisham Read More »

Another Lujan Grisham Cabinet secretary jumps ship

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In the latest blow to the severely unstable administration of Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, another Cabinet secretary has jumped ship just weeks after Economic Development Department (NMEDD) Secretary Alicia J. Keyes left the administration.

The governor’s office announced the abrupt departure of New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department Secretary Katrina Hotrum-Lopez Monday, saying she had retired Monday, the same day as the announcement.

Hotrum-Lopez was one of the longest-serving officials in the administration, being at the Department since August 2019.

The former Cabinet secretary said, “It has been the great privilege of my life to work with the incredible team at Aging and Long-Term Services, as well as all the incredible state workers throughout New Mexico.”

“During my tenure, our department navigated an unprecedented global pandemic, historic wildfires, and all the everyday challenges of providing services throughout New Mexico,” she added.

Lujan Grisham’s health policy advisor Gina DeBlassie will step into the role and serve as acting secretary.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported, “Hotrum-Lopez’s retirement is the latest in a long series of departures of Cabinet secretaries under Lujan Grisham’s administration. Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Deborah Romero left at the end of 2022, followed in January by secretaries in the Public Education, Human Services and General Services departments. In June, the secretary for the Department of Information Technology was reassigned.”

Another Michelle Lujan Grisham cabinet member resigns

Another Lujan Grisham Cabinet secretary jumps ship Read More »

Biden to visit NM for first time since 2022 campaign stop for Lujan Grisham

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Joe Biden will travel to New Mexico next week as part of a three-state excursion to Arizona, Utah, and the Land of Enchantment between Monday and Wednesday.

Biden previously visited New Mexico in 2022 to stump for far-left Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in her narrow yet successful reelection bid.

Lujan Grisham was one of the first public officials to formally endorse Biden’s announcement that he will seek another term in the White House.

“In next week’s visit, a White House official said, Biden is expected to tout provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act addressing climate change and promoting clean energy and manufacturing,” reported the Albuquerque Journal.

The Associated Press wrote, “Vice President Kamala Harris heads to Wisconsin this week with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to talk about broadband infrastructure investments. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack goes to Oregon to highlight wildfire defense grants, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will go to Illinois and Texas, and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona heads to Maryland to talk about career and technical education programs.”

Lujan Grisham, Biden lie repeatedly during ABQ campaign stop

Biden to visit NM for first time since 2022 campaign stop for Lujan Grisham Read More »

Dems gaslight on GOP’s parental notice form as gov’s DOH, Ed. chiefs stay mum

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This month, New Mexico House Republicans released a notification form for parents and guardians to fill out to require notification before their child accesses medical and behavioral health services or some instructional materials. The move came after the passage of recent legislation, including H.B. 7 and S.B. 397. 

The form gives multiple fields for notification, including “any health care services, referral for services, class, lesson, instruction, curriculum, assembly, guest speaker, activity, assignment, library material, online material, club, group, or association concerning transgender ideology, gender affirming care or gender identity,” “abortion,” “contraception and other family planning,” “primary health care,” and “mental or psychiatric care.”

However, the Democrats are now trying to gaslight parents, claiming the form is not binding while asserting they care about parental-teacher collaboration.  

Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Department of Health Secretary (NMDOH) Patrick Allen and Department of Education (PED) Secretary Arsenio Romero wrote a July 14 letter to school officials charging, “The notification and consent school form offered to parents by the New Mexico House Republicans does not have any legal effect.”

According to a Santa Fe New Mexican report, parents have cause for concern about their child being exposed to abortion and gender-affirming care at schools.

It read, “But state law allows for a few circumstances in which youth can consent to medical care on their own. Teens 14 and older, for instance, can consent to taking psychotropic medications or engaging in certain forms of therapy and counseling. The Children’s Code requires clinicians in such cases to promote the ‘healthy involvement of a child’s legal custodians and family members in developing and implementing the child’s treatment plan.’ New Mexico has no laws requiring parental consent for minors to receive abortions.”

Democrats’ House Whip Reena Szczepanski (D-Santa Fe) gaslit concerned parents, telling the outlet the form is a “divisive tactic for political gain” to bring “national political lightning rod issues” to New Mexico, where she claims such concerns do not exist — despite the same report admitting underage children can access gender-affirming care and abortions without parental consent due to these new laws.

“I’m a mom with school-aged children, and one thing I have learned over the years is that the most important thing to help a child succeed is great communication between school, parents, teachers — everyone being involved in education is a great thing,” Szczepanski continued. 

It is unclear how Szczepanski claims to want “great communication” between stakeholders yet opposes measures to ensure such communication happens at schools between parents/guardians and educators.

A July 19, 2023 letter signed by 23 of the 25 New Mexico House Republicans asked Secretaries Allen and Romero why they sent the July 14 letter, which caused further alarm and confusion among schools and parents.

One question asked by the GOP lawmakers included, “Are you advising school leaders to reject, or ignore, the explicit request by parents to be informed via the parental notification/consent form?”

Neither Cabinet secretary has yet given a response to the House Republicans’ questions, but it appears the two are hoping to push parents into confusion about what rights they have over their children’s well-being.

NM Health Dept. school survey asks children disturbing sexual questions

Dems gaslight on GOP’s parental notice form as gov’s DOH, Ed. chiefs stay mum Read More »

New Mexico’s back-to-school tax holiday announced

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The New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD) announced this year’s back-to-school tax holiday beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 4, and ending at midnight on Sunday, August 6, 2023.

“Coming soon to a retail store near you is the annual New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax Holiday.  If you have school-age children, it’s nothing short of a bonanza,” wrote TRD. “For that weekend the state suspends collection of gross receipts tax on sales of qualifying items so you can buy the items tax free. Because many merchants also absorb the tax on a number of non-qualifying items, you are the beneficiary all around.”

The press release from the Department noted, “To qualify for the deduction, clothing or shoes must be priced at less than $100 per unit. The price limit for desktop, laptop, tablets or notebook computers is $1,000, and for related computer hardware it is $500. School supplies for use in standard, general-education classrooms must be under $30 per unit. There are items specifically excluded by statute in all categories. Those items are always taxable.”

According to the details, “To qualify for the deduction, clothing or shoes must be priced at less than $100 per unit. The price limit for desktop, laptop, tablets or notebook computers is $1,000, and for related computer hardware it is $500. School supplies for use in standard, general-education classrooms must be under $30 per unit. There are items specifically excluded by statute in all categories. Those items are always taxable.”

“The law specifically excludes watches, radios, compact disc players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable desktop telephones, copiers, office equipment, furniture, or fixtures. The law does not consider such items to be school supplies that students normally use in a standard classroom. Sales of those items are taxable during the three-day period.”

For more details about the tax holiday, click here.

New Mexico’s back-to-school tax holiday announced Read More »

UNM offering ‘Critical Whiteness Studies’ course

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According to the University of New Mexico’s  (UNM) Fall class offerings, the course “Critical Whiteness Studies” is being offered, where students will learn about how the professor believes white people are evil.

The course, taught by Bethany “Beth” Davila, Ph.D., “will explore the interdisciplinary field of whiteness studies. We will learn about whiteness as an ideology of supremacy and domination that functions, in part, by labeling what white people do, think, and value as superior and normative.”

“With the understanding of whiteness as an ideology—as opposed to a racial identity, experience, or skin color—whiteness studies is relevant for people of all backgrounds in order to examine how whiteness shapes society, beliefs, and practices,” the course description notes.

Davila’s bio on the UNM website reads, “My primary areas of interest are in race, whiteness, standardness, and perceptions of student identities. I use my scholarship, teaching, and administration to explore opportunities for valuing linguistic diversity in writing classrooms in order to challenge ‘standard’ English.”

The course notes that the “goal” of “Critical Whiteness Studies” is “to learn how to identify and challenge whiteness as part of an antiracist practice. In this course we will largely focus on whiteness in relation to colonialism, educational contexts, and language practices. Class work will include regular readings, informal homework and reflections, and a final research project.”

Similar courses are being offered at the University of Colorado, Denver, titled “Problematizing Whiteness: Educating for Racial Justice.”

Last year, the University of Puget Sound hosted a “Critical Whiteness Studies” course that “engages with ‘whiteness’ as a category of identification in order to develop a theoretically informed understanding of the history, function, and effects of racial encoding within literature.”

The University of Wisconsin Madison offered a now-deleted course titled “The Problem of Whiteness,” according to a report from the Daily Wire.

It is unclear what the blatantly racist course will teach in regards to supposed “whiteness” shaping society, especially from Davila, who is white. 

UNM’s Black Lives Matter-supporting President Garnett Stokes recently fumed after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed racist affirmative action college admissions.

UNM president fumes after SCOTUS outlaws racist college affirmative action

UNM offering ‘Critical Whiteness Studies’ course Read More »

Reports show projections for NM’s cash cow: Oil and gas

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New Mexico’s far-left legislative majorities in the legislature and two-term stronghold on the governorship have achieved extreme policies thanks to the billions garnered from the oil and gas boom. 

The Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) released a July 21 report showing revenue at $8.99 billion through March for Fiscal Year 2023, running from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. That figure is up $1.9 billion or 27 percent. 

However, the IHS Markit and Moody’s Investors Service reports show a projected decline in oil and gas production after peaks between 2028-2033.

“This could mean the start of a decline in New Mexico’s now-booming oil and gas production, dropping from a forecast 2 million bopd in 2030 to as low as about 500,000 bopd by 2050, according to the presentation,” reported the Carlsbad Current-Argus.

New Mexico’s Chief Economist Leo Delgado said, “You can see New Mexico is currently on the upslope of that oil production trendline with production expected to increase in the next couple of years,” adding, “You see that it’s on the upslope, but it does start to plateau in the early 2030s before it starts to gradually decline.”

He noted that New Mexico’s wells are “highly-productive” in “the first few months of operations, but taper off quicky, meaning more wells must be drilled and put into service,” the report noted.

“New Mexico has some very productive wells, very high-yield wells, very conducive well economics, low break-even points,” he said. “In order to maintain those levels of production, that activity must continue.”

“The expectation is production will slow. It will be at a much slower pace and that’s where we start to see New Mexico production still at elevated levels but at a declining rate year over year when we look at the long-term,” he continued, according to the Current-Argus.

With anti-energy Democrats currently in charge of the state, their eco-left, job-killing policies cause the projected decline and thus their cash cow for high-ticket investments, including taxpayer-funded “free” college and “universal” free daycare. 

Reports show projections for NM’s cash cow: Oil and gas Read More »

NM Health Dept. school survey asks children disturbing sexual questions

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An intake survey recently uncovered by the New Mexico House Republicans shows that Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) is using an intake survey with disturbing sexual questions at the state’s 80 school-based health centers.

There are two survey versions, one for children up to 11 and one for 11 and up.

“Young people like you can be seen for their sexual and mental health without permission from their parent or guardian,” the survey reads.

The one for the younger kids asks whether the student is “male, female, or transgender,” and the one for children 11 years and older asks if the child is “straight, gay/lesbian, or bisexual.”

Other questions from the 11 and up survey ask questions including relationship status, with the option for an “open relationship,” whether the child has had sex, including anal, vaginal, or oral, whether the child has ever “sexted,” whether the child has had sex with transgender men or transgender women, whether the child has had vaginal, oral, or anal sex [with definitions of what these terms mean], and whether the child’s sex partner has sex with both men and women.

Other disturbing questions include pronouns that include “They/Them/Their,” “Zi/Hir/Hirs,” and “No pronouns, just my name.”

The questionnaire also asks multiple questions about various illicit drugs and whether these drugs have been used before or after sexual intercourse. 

A letter obtained by the New Mexico House Republicans showing NMDOH’s communications director outlining the specifics of the survey reads, “The survey is administered on an iPad either the day of the SBHC visit or through a web link that is designed to only be valid 24-hours prior to a scheduled visit ensuring up-to-date data for clinical use.”

“The surveys are designed to assure patients feel safe and are easy to use. Patients can answer questions they feel comfortable with and skip those they do not want to answer. Questions are added as health risks are identified. They also have the choice not to respond to the questionnaire at all.” 

During the 2023 Legislative Session, fiery debate ensued over these school-based health centers pushing abortions and gender-affirming care on children, accusations that Democrats denied. These new revelations show merit in the concerns of conservative legislators.

The House Republicans have released a consent form for parents and guardians to mandate notification before their child accesses medical and behavioral health services or some instructional materials.

Amid radical woke agenda, NM House GOP offering parents legal option

NM Health Dept. school survey asks children disturbing sexual questions Read More »

Criminal who fatally shot Alamogordo Officer Ferguson formally charged

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On Tuesday, the New Mexico State Police formally charged Dominic De La O in the fatal shooting of Alamogordo Police Department Officer Anthony Ferguson last Saturday. 

Officer Ferguson via the Alamogordo Police Department.

The State Police wrote, “Twelfth Judicial District Attorney Scot D. Key, announced today that an Otero County Grand Jury returned true bills of indictment on 10 counts against Dominic De La O, in connection with the incident on July 15, 2023, which resulted in the death of Officer Anthony Ferguson of the Alamogordo Police Department.”

“True bills included one count of First-Degree Murder (Willful & Deliberate) a capital felony; Tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony; Aggravated Fleeing a Law Enforcement Officer, a fourth-degree felony; two counts of Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, fourth-degree felonies; two counts of Resisting, Evading or Obstructing an Officer, both misdemeanors; two counts of Criminal Trespass, both misdemeanors; and Improper Equipment — Driving a Vehicle at night without Lighted Lamps.” 

Mugshot of Dominic De La O via New Mexico State Police.

The Department added, “Although De La O has been held in custody on a separate case, following this indictment, District Attorney Key filed an Expedited Motion for Pretrial Detention. Similar to a motion filed by the State in October 2022, DA Key is requesting that De La O be held in custody pending trial. In the Expedited Motion, Key cited De La O’s criminal history, argued that he continues to be a danger to the community, and petitioned the court to make a finding that no conditions of release will adequately protect the community.”

De La O was previously arrested in January after brandishing a gun on a police officer but was allowed pretrial release under the state’s failed laws that have removed cash bail — allowing violent offenders back on the streets.

He violated his pretrial release Wednesday by attending a party where a warrant was issued for his arrest. The perpetrator was stopped on Saturday during a routine traffic stop where he pulled the gun, which was obtained illegally, on Officer Ferguson, causing the fatal injury to the esteemed law enforcement officer. Officer Ferguson was transported to Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center and later flown to the Univeristy Medical Center of El Paso, where he passed away.

According to New Mexico State Police, “New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau agents are working to independently determine the series of events leading to the shooting, including collecting evidence and conducting interviews. Throughout the process, investigative findings will be shared with the district attorney for their review and consideration.”

Officer Ferguson is the first Alamogordo Police Department officer killed in the line of duty since Clint Corvinus in 2016. Officer Ferguson was nominated for Officer of the Year in 2019 and has honorably served Alamogordo throughout the years.

Alamogordo officer succumbs to his injuries after Saturday shooting

Criminal who fatally shot Alamogordo Officer Ferguson formally charged Read More »

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