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Ethics complaint filed against SOS Maggie Toulouse Oliver: Report

9 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

According to a report from the website “Estancia.News,” an ethics complaint has been filed against New Mexico’s Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver over her attempts to crush referendum petitions challenging the state’s far-left laws recently passed during the 2023 Legislative Session.

The outlet reported that referendum organizer Ramona Goolsby “filed an ethics complaint against the New Mexico Secretary of State for dereliction of duty, malicious abuse of process, and abuse of power. Goolsby also filed a judicial complaint against District 13 Judge, James Noel, for improperly closing a case dealing with the referendum, apparently for purposes of a media campaign to discredit the effort,” reported the outlet. 

“The organizers allege that the SOS has purposely misinformed the public about the referendum process to serve her personal political agenda.”

Although none of the six laws attempting to be challenged were labeled for the “preservation of the public peace, health or safety,” which are exempt from referendum, Toulouse Oliver is using this as a pretext to try and stop them from going forward. 

Bills attempted to be overturned via referendum include legislation trying local jurisdictions’ hands from regulating abortion, an expansion of school-based health centers pushing abortion and “gender-affirming care,” bills weakening New Mexico elections, a bill harboring criminal abortionists, and legislation expanding the “Human Rights Act.” Read more about the referendum petition project being organized by Better Together New Mexico here.

Goolsby told Estancia.News, “The reason I filed the ethics complaint against the SOS is that she is being dishonest with the courts and dishonest with the public. I think she has become used to saying things that aren’t true and people don’t question her and go along with it. New Mexicans are fed up with being lied to and having their rights dismissed by the elected class who are supposed to be working for us.”

Even left-wing columnists have decried Toulouse Oliver’s attempts to thwart the referendum petition, claiming they are attacks on democracy by the Democrat official. 

The Albuquerque Journal previously reported, “The Secretary of State’s office has directed county clerks not to provide voter lists to those pushing the repeal effort, and warned voters that current petitions circulating are not valid since they have not been approved.” 

Goolsby concluded, “We are very disappointed that the SOS has not been willing to work with any of the grassroots organizations that have reached out to her. She continues to openly block a constitutional right the citizens of New Mexico were provided with by the founders of this great state. Her attitude smacks of elitism which is not sitting well with the average New Mexican.”

U.S. Census Bureau report sounds the alarm on NM’s long-term poverty

9 Comments / New Mexico, News / By

A newly published report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows where New Mexico stands regarding long-term poverty. 

The report “incorporates poverty estimates from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, the 2005–2009 American Community Survey (ACS), 5-year estimates, and the 2015–2019 ACS, 5-year estimates.”

“While most previous studies used three datapoints, this report uses four datapoints to more accurately count persistent poverty areas and to use roughly equal periods between readings,” it noted.

It revealed that New Mexico has 21.3 percent of the population (434,600 people) suffering from persistent poverty since 1985, with nine of the state’s 33 counties with long-term poverty.

The persistently impoverished counties include Cibola, Doña Ana, Luna, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Roosevelt, and Socorro.

New Mexico was only beaten by Mississippi, which had a 24.4 percent poverty rate. 

The Census Bureau noted, “For the 1989 to 2015–2019 period, 8,238 census tracts (11.3 percent) were persistently in poverty. There were 28.5 million people living within these tracts, which is 9.0 percent of the total population for whom poverty status could be determined in 2019.”

That means New Mexico’s poverty level is 236.6 percent of the national average — an abysmally high number for the state.

According to the World Population Review, 21,317 out of every 100,000 New Mexicans is on welfare, approximately 21.3 percent. 

MLG takes full credit for NM’s lackluster jobs numbers trailing most states

14 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Friday, Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham erroneously claimed her far-left “policies” were leading to job growth in the state — with a heavy spin.

She claimed that because of her, the state is now seeing the highest number of jobs in its history.” 

She wrote, in a press release, “The robust job growth in New Mexico is proof positive that we are enacting all the right policies to grow our economy,” adding, “We are paying people a livable wage, providing child care for working parents, and making it easier for employers to find prepared candidates by putting more people through college and technical training.”

Ironically, the press release admits that the state’s multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-funded “free” daycare is, indeed, “child care” — not the “Pre-K” that she previously claimed. 

The higher minimum wage has resulted in a higher cost of living in New Mexico, especially in more urban areas where rents and mortgages have ballooned to levels working-class citizens cannot afford. Her taxpayer-funded “free” college programs is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. 

In the statement, she pointed to the fact that there were 869,400 jobs in New Mexico, which she says is the highest in history. 

However, according to historical data, jobs had increased in New Mexico for decades, including a high of 863,400 during the Donald Trump administration in January 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, when Lujan Grisham locked down the state and plunged the number of available jobs to 758,100 in May of 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

During this extreme plunge during the Lujan Grisham lockdown, the unemployment rate ballooned to a massive ten percent, with it leading the nation during many months of her shutdown. She forced 40 percent of all small businesses in the state to close their doors due to her pandemic-era edicts, according to her own New Mexico Department of Tourism.

Also, during the Trump administration, the labor force participation rate was a healthy 58.1 in 2019 and 2020 (right at the start of Lujan Grisham’s tenure in January 2019), while now (with supposedly 869,400 jobs available), it sits at only 56.9. 

At 3.5 percent, New Mexico’s unemployment rate sits as the 34th-lowest out of all 50 states. 

Weak-on-crime policies by Lujan Grisham and her leftist allies in the Legislature have forced businesses to close due to shoplifting and unsafe environments for both patrons and employees. 

“The economic policies of Gov. Lujan Grisham and this administration are working,” claimed Economic Development Department Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes. 

“Gov. Lujan Grisham’s administration is not only growing our economy at a historic pace, but making the investments in higher education and career training we need to ensure that New Mexicans are ready to enter these high-skill, family-sustaining jobs,” chimed in Higher Education Department Secretary Stephanie M. Rodriguez.

Despite New Mexico’s employment failures under her administration, Lujan Grisham’s appointed cabinet secretaries are singing her praises, claiming she alone is responsible for any uptick in economic vitality in the state beleaguered by her failed far-left policies. 

Leftists celebrate NM law harboring criminal abortionists taking effect

8 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Friday, the far-left George Soros-funded group ProgressNow New Mexico (PNNM) gleefully celebrated an extremist law, S.B. 13, taking effect. 

S.B. 13, signed by Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, will harbor criminal abortionists in New Mexico who are wanted for extradition to other states. 

Section 4 of the legislation reads, “It shall be a violation of the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Protection Act to request from a third party, or for a third party to transmit information related to an individual’s or entity’s protected health care activity with the intent to: . . . (6) deter, prevent, sanction or penalize an individual or entity for engaging in a protected health care activity.” 

Section 9 of the bill expressly exempts from extradition criminal fugitives who commit or conspire to commit illegal abortions, so long as the perpetrator remains in New Mexico during the commission of the crimes. 

PNNM hailed the extreme law, writing, “SB13 Protects information of New Mexico abortion and gender-affirming care providers, seekers and helpers. This includes protecting New Mexican’s health care information, health care providers’ licenses, prohibiting extradition for the provision of in-state abortion and gender-affirming care, and preventing the state from cooperating with out-of-state investigations.”

On Twitter, the extremist group wrote, “Oh Happy Day,” sharing what they like about the new law.  

The Soros dark money organization claimed, “Gender affirming medical care is safe, evidence-based and medically-necessary,” which is not true. 

The bill is currently being put up for referendum if organizers get enough signatures to have it put on the ballot.

See where NM ranked in child well-being on ‘The Kids Count’ report

14 Comments / New Mexico, News / By

The Baltimore-based nonprofit, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, recently released its annual “The Kids Count” report. The report examines data across 16 total indicators in four broad categories: education, health, economic well-being, and family and community. New Mexico was once again ranked last overall. The data is derived from the years 2021 to 2022. 

The state ranked 49th in economic well-being, with 24 percent of children in poverty — a mere once percent change from last year’s 25 percent.

35 percent of New Mexico children’s parents lack secure employment, an increase of three percent from the last year at 32 percent.

Children living in households with a high-cost burden remained the same at 26 percent, but still very high.

Teens not in school and not working shot up one percent to 12 percent from last year’s 11 percent.

In the category of education, New Mexico ranked 50th, with 59 percent of children ages three and four not in school (the same percentage as last year), 79 percent of fourth-graders not proficient in reading (up from last year’s 76 percent), 87 percent of eighth-graders not proficient in math (up from 79 percent last year), and 23 percent of high school students not graduating on time, a slight improvement from 25 percent previously.

New Mexico ranked 44th in health, with 9.4 percent low birth weight in newborns, slightly up from the previous 9.3 percent, six percent of children without health insurance (the same figure from last year), 43 teen deaths per 100,000 (up from 36 previously), and 36 percent of teens ages 10 to 17 who are overweight or obese (up from the previous 32 percent). 

In the family and community category, 44 percent of children in New Mexico live in single-parent households (the same as before), 12 percent of children live in households that lack a high school diploma (slightly better than the previous 14 percent), 19 percent of children living in high-poverty areas (up from 22 percent), and 19 teen births per 1,000 (down from 42 previously).

Leftist columnist rips Toulouse Oliver over thwarting referendum effort

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A leftist columnist, Walt Rubel, the opinion page editor for the Las Cruces Sun-News, wrote a recent op-ed supporting organizers collecting petitions for a referendum vote on laws passed in the 2023 Legislative Session.

He wrote regarding the failure to get 2014 a wage-related bill on the ballot in Las Cruces that it “relied on slimy legal tricks” to stymie the effort.

Regarding the current referendum drive by conservative groups, he opined, “Unfortunately, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver has greeted this effort of citizen involvement with the same obstructionist mindset as our former City Council. More specifically, she has decided that one of the new laws can never be repealed, regardless of how many citizens support it.”

“Toulouse Oliver is arguing that the bill can never be overturned by the citizens because it falls into a protected class of legislation necessary for the ‘preservation of the public peace, health or safety’ of the state. That seems like an enormous stretch. Does anybody believe the peace, health and safety of residents in Hobbs or Carlsbad will be endangered if they don’t have an abortion clinic? I suspect the opposite is true. Any facilities in those towns would surely draw protesters.” 

He added the caveat, “To be clear, I don’t agree with the proposed referendum, and would vote against it if given the chance. I’m just saying I should have that chance, if the referendum organizers collect the necessary number of petitions.”

“Toulouse Oliver said if any of those efforts are successful, they will be thrown out as well, because referendum organizers have not followed the proper procedure to begin a petition process. She may be right. But this sure looks like a Democratic secretary of state doing everything possible to thwart an effort by her political opponents. And I’m not sure why. I don’t think any of these five proposed referendums would pass if put to the voters. But lawmakers simply can’t stand to have their decrees challenged by the unwashed masses.”

Legendary author Cormac McCarthy, 89, passes away in New Mexico

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Legendary author of “Blood Meridian,” “The Road” and “All the Pretty Horses,” Cormac McCarthy, passed away on Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the age of 89.

The famed American author died of natural causes, according to his publisher, Penguin Random House. 

“Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature,” Nihar Malaviya, the CEO of Penguin Random House, said in a statement.

“For sixty years, he demonstrated an unwavering dedication to his craft, and to exploring the infinite possibilities and power of the written word,” Malaviya said. “Millions of readers around the world embraced his characters, his mythic themes, and the intimate emotional truths he laid bare on every page, in brilliant novels that will remain both timely and timeless, for generations to come.”

McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Road,” as well as the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

“McCarthy’s style and thematic preoccupations drew from disparate influences, ranging from the haunting Southern Gothic prose of William Faulkner to the lyrical intricacy of James Joyce and the fire-and-brimstone intensity of Scripture,” wrote NBC News.

His 1985 masterpiece “Blood Meridian,” which is a horrifically violent epic about bloodthirsty bounty hunters, is considered by many to be his crowning achievement.

Other books he wrote, such as “No Country for Old Men,” 2005, gained acclaim after its initial release.

The film adaptation of the book directed by the Cohen Brothers won four Academy Awards, including best picture. 
“Death is the major issue in the world. For you, for me, for all of us,” he said during an interview with Vanity Fair. “It just is. To not be able to talk about it is very odd.”

Navajo landowners repel Haaland’s Chaco Canyon ban celebration

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An event celebrating the crushing of Native American sovereignty via a 20-year drilling ban around Chaco Canyon by Joe Biden’s Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland, a former New Mexico congresswoman, was thwarted by Navajo protesters, primarily made up of landowners.

“Haaland had to quickly regroup and relocate after a group of Navajo landowners blocked the way to the sacred site,” KOB 4 reported.

“Six and a half hours later, over 150 miles away, those celebrating the moratorium gathered outside of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Southwest Regional Office in Albuquerque in the late afternoon instead, surrounded by federal police officers on the outskirts of the area,” another source said.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported, “Social media posts showed protesters yelling ‘Go Home!’ as some held signs that read no trespassing on allottee land.”

Other signs spotted listed Haaland, Biden, and other politicians who lauded the decision as “China and Russia oil lovers.”

The Navajo Nation pled with the DOI to make a compromise, but they were flatly ignored by Haaland, leading them to rescind their support for the compromise and to oppose the drilling ban that will mean hundreds of millions of dollars being robbed from the tribe over time.

The Navajo Nation Council wrote in opposition to the proposed ban, “If the buffer zone is adopted, the Navajo allottees who rely on the income realized from oil and natural gas royalties will be pushed into greater poverty.” It stressed the “detrimental impact to Navajo Nation allottees by preventing the development of new oil and gas resources on allotments as a result of the allotments being landlocked,” exposing the fallacy from DOI that the withdrawal will not impact Navajo lands. 

“The financial and economic losses that are impacting many Navajo families as a result of the secretary’s recent land withdrawal are nothing to celebrate,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said. “As leaders of the Navajo Nation, we support the Navajo allottees who oppose the withdrawal of these public lands.”

Heinrich comes ‘back home’ to frolic through ABQ streets for ‘LGBT Pride’

29 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Saturday, Democrat New Mexico politicians frolicked through New Mexico’s largest city to promote “LGBT Pride,” which has been pushed in recent years to force gender ideology, primarily transgender ideology, on families and children. 

Democrat Sen. Martin Heinrich made a rare appearance at the parade, which is uncommon for the lawmaker who rarely visits the state. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“Happy Pride!” he wrote, adding, “No better way to celebrate than back home with @NMDEMS and @ABQ_Pride!”

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-CD-01) wrote a “Happy Pride” greeting from her official account, while on her campaign Twitter profile, she appeared to be attending “Pride” in Washington, D.C.

Albuquerque’s Democrat Mayor Tim Keller also posted a “Pride” greeting, writing, “Can always count on ABQ to show up and show out for #Pride! Here in our city, we choose love over hate. We uplift one another, and we’re committed to supporting and celebrating our incredible LGBTQ+ community.”

Like in other posts, young children could be seen wearing “Pride” gear in Keller’s tweet. 

Other politicians showed up to the parade, including appointed Democrat Albuquerque-area District Attorney Sam Bregman, who posted about the event from the official District Attorney’s account: 

Even the University of New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall lit up its building in rainbow celebrating “LGBT Pride.”
https://twitter.com/Popejoy/status/1667535851167924225?s=20

ABQ Target caught in the middle of ‘LGBT’ product scandal

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In recent weeks, Americans have been massively boycotting Target after it was caught pushing the LGBT agenda on kids as young as toddler age by selling inappropriate products targeted toward children.

According to The Daily Mail, “This year’s collection features a range of clothes and home goods, including lime green adult romper suits with the word ‘gay’ on the back; a ‘Live Laugh Lesbian’ t-shirt; and a mug emblazoned with the words: ‘Gender Fluid.’” 

“The Minneapolis-based company is selling T-shirts for children with the slogan: ‘Trans People Will Always Exist!’ It is offering rainbow-striped tutus for toddlers for $13, and $10 baby gros which read: ‘Bien Proud.’” 

Now, an Albuquerque Uptown Target store finds itself in the midst of the woke controversy.

According to a report from KRQE 13 News, “A woman says an Albuquerque Target refused to sell her a pride shirt for her granddaughter, even though it was out on display. Jessica Corley headed to Target in Uptown to buy shirts for her family to wear to Albuquerque’s Pride Parade. She found matching shirts for herself and her three-year-old granddaughter that said ‘Bien Proud.’ When she got up to the register, the kids’ shirt wouldn’t ring up.”

“She called the manager, the manager came over, and he scanned the item. The same message came up: ‘Do not sell.’ And he said I’m sorry, I can’t sell this to you,” Corley said.

Apparently, Corley began “shaking and burst into tears,” telling the outlet, “It was just an astounding experience and not one that I would expect to be coming from our community.”

“It’s about, you know, my right to purchase an item of clothing for myself or my loved ones that has (sic) a message that I believe in, which is to be proud of myself and to be proud of who I am and to spread that message of inclusivity,” Corley added.
Since launching the woke LGBT clothes and then subsequently pulling them from many stores, Target has lost billions in market share.

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