Politics

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. 

Gov. Lujan Grisham named as likely 2024 candidate

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Embattled Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has been under constant fire over her scandal-ridden administration. Everything from her Children, Youth, and Families Department deleting government documents under her direction to $250 million “missing” funds from the Department of Workforce Solutions, which the Governor’s office called “minuscule.” 

She used $62,500 in campaign funds to pay off her alleged groping victim and then used over $6,000 in cash to pay her daughter for styling and cosmetology, which are not appropriate campaign expenses. 

Lujan Grisham repeatedly skirted her pandemic directives, including having a shuttered jewelry shop open up so she could buy luxuries while no one else could and businesses closed for good. She feasted on $200 per pound Wagyu beef steaks and fine wine with her expense accounts while New Mexicans were forced to stand in hours-long freezing bread lines for food and necessities. 

While New Mexicans were standing out in the cold, her office claimed they were just “Republican talking points,” adding that “The state is not forcing anyone to stand in a crowded line, as you suggest.” That was not true, per the countless photographic pieces of evidence proving the contrary.

Lujan Grisham gave tens of thousands of dollars in raises to her staff while New Mexicans sat in line for unemployment.

She constantly shut down and reopened counties using a nonsensical “red to green to turquoise” system, which forced businesses to reopen at limited capacity then close down entirely again and again. This resulted in some of the highest unemployment numbers in the country, and New Mexico small businesses died. 

Lujan Grisham punished people of faith, forcing them to close down operations. Those who did not comply with her edicts were fined tens of thousands of dollars and taken to court. All of this scandal is just the tip of the iceberg for Lujan Grisham, who has done whatever she can, by any means, to advance her career and the far-left agenda.

But now, according to Politico, she’s on the list of possible 2024 presidential candidates, appearing next to names such as Kamala Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Stacey Abrams, and others. 

Politico claims Lujan Grisham “improved” her “national standing” from her response to the virus. Ballotpedia also listed Lujan Grisham as a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

She would first need to win re-election in New Mexico in 2022 despite her laundry list of scandals and improprieties while serving as governor. 

Two Republicans have already filed to run against her, including Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block and businesswoman Karen Bedonie.

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.” 

‘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.

Bishop of Gallup backs ‘eucharistic sanctions’ on pro-abortion politicians

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On Friday, it was reported by LifeSite News that the Most Reverend Bishop James Wall of Gallup had come out against giving pro-abortion politicians Holy Communion. The Bishop’s statements came out in response to liberal pro-abortion Bishop Robert McElroy’s recent op-ed titled “The Eucharist is being weaponized for political ends. This must not happen.”

His title suggests that political motives are driving the bishops’ current discussion of pro-abortion politicians and worthy reception,” Bishop Wall wrote. “But while I don’t presume to know what’s in the mind and heart of my brother bishops, I am not motivated by political ends, nor are those with whom I have discussed the subject.”

Bishop Wall said, “Our concern is not political but pastoral; it is for the salvation of souls. This issue has political ramifications, but that is not an excuse to shy away at this crucial moment,” he said.

McElroy claimed that denying pro-abortion supporters is an “extremely expansive” litmus test, but Wall wrote, “It surely is not ‘expansive’ to put this evil in the category of grave sin.”

In response to McElroy’s claim that denying Coly Communion is an “assault” on the unity of the Church, Wall said, “Speaking the truth at times appears to create division, but often it simply exposes the division that already exists.”

“If Catholics cannot agree on protecting the helpless unborn, then our unity is superficial at best and illusory at worst,” he wrote.

Wall said, “In the past few months, several Catholic bishops have issued statements on the question of whether to publicly deny pro-abortion politicians the Eucharist. I am grateful to all my brother bishops who have courageously spoken out on this thorny subject.”

The U.S. bishops have been clear that “abortion is the great evil of our culture,” including by recognizing abortion as a “preeminent threat” in 1998 and the “preeminent priority” in 2019, he said. 

“Pro-abortion political leaders have not heeded these calls, and now we seek to apply the last remaining and most severe medicinal option we have: eucharistic sanctions,” Wall concluded.

Bishop Wall has long been a supporter of the right to life of children in the womb, sharing multiple posts and pro-life sentiments over the years. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is set to convene to vote on whether pro-abortion politicians, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and other leaders should receive the sacrament of Holy Communion.

The Eucharist is the most sacred tenet of the Roman Catholic faith, with the bread and wine offered through the sacrament of Holy Communion not merely representative of the presence of Christ — but through transubstantiation, the bread and wine transform into the true presence of Jesus Christ. 

According to the USCCB, “The Body and Blood of Christ present under the appearances of bread and wine are treated with the greatest reverence both during and after the celebration of the Eucharist.” 

“Before one steps forward to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion, one needs to be in a right relationship with the Lord and his Mystical Body, the Church – that is, in a state of grace, free of all mortal sin,” the USCCB continues. 

Bishop Wall also promoted the Most Reverend Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin’s words calling out pro-abortion Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with Hying writing, “Pelosi says she’s ‘pleased’ with Vatican letter to U.S. bishops on Communion. So, in other words, Nancy, we bishops should just be quiet about your radical pro abortion stance, as you facilitate the continuation of the murder of millions of unborn lives.” 

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