WESLACO, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, speaking in Weslaco on Thursday, said, “The Biden Administration’s open border policies have created an open season for human traffickers, for drug smugglers, for cartels and gangs.” Abbott held a news conference after visiting the south Texas border to discuss Operation Lone Star, the state’s effort to ramp
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas State Senate advanced a far-reaching elections bill early Thursday with several provisions placing new restrictions on the voting process, particularly for those living in densely populated counties. The vote on Senate Bill 7 was 18-13 after more than seven hours of debate and several amendments to the legislation. The final
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UPDATE: A New Mexico bill to legalize recreational marijuana in the state for adults ages 21 and older was approved by legislators in special session Wednesday night. The measure was being sent to a supportive Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for her signature as New Mexico was set to become the latest state to legalize marijuana. The
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — The increasing number of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border can be explained by poverty, violence and climate change, according to U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. “Until we address this strategically with humanity and with compassion, and with thought about our entire hemisphere, we will be having the same
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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas state Senate on Tuesday approved five bills restricting access to abortion, including a priority measure that could ban abortions before many women know they are pregnant. The measures, which abortion rights advocates call some of the most “extreme” nationwide, are among the earliest bills to be debated by the full
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — If New Mexico legalizes recreational marijuana, a Las Cruces addiction specialist hopes that lawmakers will provide increased funding for treatment and education on the substance. “If you’re going to introduce a substance and make it legal, the numbers are going to go up for the possibility of addiction,” said Ryan
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DONNA, Texas — The Biden administration for the first time Tuesday allowed journalists inside its main border detention facility for migrant children, revealing a severely overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,000 migrants, including children and families, were crammed into pods and the youngest kept in a large play pen with mats on the floor
Continue Reading SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico lawmakers are responding to the call of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to try and forge an agreement on legalizing recreational marijuana in a special legislative session that convened on Tuesday. Legalization has won state House approval for three consecutive years but failed to gain full approval, despite support from
Continue Reading As a congressional candidate last year in Nevada, Dan Rodimer pitched himself as “a small business man, a family man, living in the suburbs.” Now as a candidate for the US House of Representatives in Texas, gone is the suburban family guy in a transformation impossible to overlook. Rodimer is now pitching himself as a
Continue Reading SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico lawmakers are embarking on an unusual legislative session that may focus entirely on the legalization of recreational marijuana. Efforts at legalizing the sale of cannabis to adults 21 and older faltered during the regular annual session that ended March 20, amid divergent views about government oversight of a
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Two separate groups of lawmakers are traveling to Texas on Friday to spotlight the surge of unaccompanied children crossing the US-Mexico border in recent weeks. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas are leading a delegation of 17 Republican senators on Friday to tour a US Customs and Border Protection facility in Donna, Texas,
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — After one year of virus restrictions and rolling closures in New Mexico, dozens of Las Cruces residents gathered downtown to protest the effects on the business community Saturday morning. Their main purpose was to commemorate businesses that have had to close permanently as a result and use them as an
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico legislators closed out a 60-day legislative session that charts an economic exit from the Covid-19 pandemic after checking off progressive priorities on policing reforms, abortion rights, medical aid in dying and attacking child poverty by tapping a state trust fund. In the session’s final hours, legislators ramped up state tax
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EL PASO, Texas — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso on Friday with a group of bipartisan senators. Typically on such a trip, a cabinet secretary and lawmakers would be accompanied by reporters or a member of the White House press pool to feed notes back
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin-based actor Matthew McConaughey is again making headlines for flirting with a run for Texas governor — and this time he says he is serious about the possibility. Belying the hubbub, though, is something activists have increasingly buzzed about: Little is known about McConaughey’s politics, or at least his partisanship. State voting
Continue Reading SANTA FE, New Mexico — A proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in New Mexico appeared to falter in the final hours of a 60-day legislative session as the state Senate postponed a floor debate and turned to other bills. Legislators had until noon Saturday to send the legalization initiative to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Advocates for broad
Continue Reading SANTA FE, New Mexico — With fewer than 24 hours left in this year’s legislative session, senators are expected to vote on a bill that will legalize recreational cannabis in New Mexico. At noon on Friday, the New Mexico Senate was set to consider a number of bills, including House Bill 12, otherwise known as
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a bipartisan group of U.S. senators visited the Mexican border in El Paso on Friday amid growing controversy over how the Biden administration is dealing with a surge in migrants, especially unaccompanied children. Mayorkas made his second trip as secretary to El
Continue Reading UPDATE: The New Mexico Senate ended an hours-long session, that stretched until 3 a.m. Friday, without taking a vote on the bill that would legalize cannabis in New Mexico. The senate was discussing other bills Thursday night and did not get to the marijuana bill. The senate adjourned until noon Friday, at which time it
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WASHINGTON, DC — Otero County Commissioner and Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin has pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges stemming from the U.S. Capitol siege on Jan. 6, NBC station WRC-TV in Washington reported Thursday. New Mexico county commissioner Couy Griffin has pleaded NOT GUILTY to charge in connection with US Capitol
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas and Montana are suing the Biden administration for revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit. According to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the lawsuit alleges that President Joe Biden doesn’t have the unilateral authority to change the permitting, saying the power resides with Congress. “Since his first day in office, President Biden
Continue Reading DALLAS, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott spoke on Wednesday about the influx of unaccompanied children crossing into the state across the U.S.-Mexico border. Abbott made his remarks at a news conference in Dallas, one of two Texas cities the Biden administration has recently identified to host temporary shelters for thousands of migrant children. The Washington Post reported the locations
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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas attorney general says a lawsuit he filed against the energy company Griddy will keep about 24,000 Texans from having to pay $29.1 million in unpaid bills related to last month’s winter storms. “My office sued Griddy Energy, under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, to hold them accountable for their
Continue Reading PERMIAN BASIN, Texas — Deep in the heart of Texas, above an oil patch about the size of Kansas, a little team in a small plane is trying to reveal a big problem. They are methane hunters. With an infrared camera and a Picarro Cavity Ring-Down Laser Spectroscope, they fly spirals over pumps and compressor
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EL PASO, Texas — El Paso Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar on Monday sparred with Republican U.S. House leaders in dueling news conferences after the GOP toured the Texas-Mexico border in El Paso and labeled the current immigration situation “a crisis.” U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy led the 13-member congressional delegation’s visit. Those Republicans claim
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WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary, making her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet department and the first to lead the federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation’s tribes for nearly two centuries. Haaland was confirmed by a 51-40 vote.
Continue Reading HOUSTON, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was in Houston on Monday, buoyed by key Republican ally state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, to address voting integrity legislation, ABC affiliate KTRK reported. Despite Texas Republicans retaining control of the state senate and house, not to mention the Texas Congressional delegation remaining in the GOP majority, the party
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — El Paso’s Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar on Sunday pushed back on claims that the Biden administration is responsible for an influx of migrants at U.S-Mexico border. President Biden announced over the weekend that he is sending the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to help manage and care for the growing
Continue Reading WASHINGTON, DC — Last weekend, a prominent Republican senator, Ted Cruz of Texas, and the second-ranking Democratic senator, Dick Durbin of Illinois, had an argument on the Senate floor about whether undocumented immigrants are eligible to receive checks from the pandemic relief bill President Joe Biden signed on Thursday, the American Rescue Plan Act. Cruz
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EL PASO, Texas — While many in the Borderland will receive a one-time $1,400 payment from the Covid-19 relief bill, that is just one small piece of the pie that makes up the American Rescue Plan. The bill passed by Congress and signed Thursday by President Joe Biden aims at American economic recovery. “We’ve lost
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