Tag: new mexico

UFO records archive finds new home with Rio Rancho Public Schools

The City of Vision is home to the largest collection of records about UFO sightings in North America.

KOB 4 found out you’ll soon be able to read through all of them yourself, and it sounds like they’ll need a lot of time.

“How you interpret what a UFO is, you know, is it miss identification of something prosaic? Is it alien? Is it something else? It doesn’t matter, at the end of the day it’s history,” said David Marler, executive director of the National UFO Historical Records Center.

Marler believes that history belongs to everyone.

“Whether you relegate UFOs, to fact fiction or folklore, it’s part of our history, it’s part of our culture. And I feel that regardless of belief, or non belief in the subject, we need to preserve this element of our culture,” said Marler. 

Marler built an addition to his Rio Rancho home to house the thousands of documents he’s collected over the years. Everything from declassified Project Blue Book files to newspaper clippings, air traffic control radio recordings are all packed inside a small room.

“It is essentially a traditional historical archive, albeit dedicated to a non-traditional subject,” said Marler. 

His collection, officially known as the National UFO Historical Records Center, is growing. Marler says more archivists are sending him their collections, so everything is under one roof.

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New ‘compelling evidence’ found at Roswell UFO site could prove alien craft crashed in 1947, experts say

America’s most famous UFO case is still producing more evidence as scientists and civilians are on a mission to prove that the Roswell crash was not of this world. 

The 1947 incident made headlines when the US Army Air Force issued a press release stating that it had recovered debris from a ‘flying disc’ — only later to reverse course, claiming that the material had really just belonged to a downed weather balloon.

Geologist Frank Kimbler is among the many experts who have challenged the military’s official version of what crashed on the outskirts of this New Mexico town, where he has scoured the alleged UFO’s crash site with a metal detector since 2010.

Kimbler has since uncovered over 20 unusual scraps of metal material, most no bigger than a fingernail, and has now submitted one uniquely odd metal for testing to the Discovery Channel’s new series ‘Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction.’

Testing revealed that the metal was ‘100-percent pure aluminum,’ which experts said was ‘compelling evidence’ that could prove aliens crashed in the area decades ago.

‘I was really trying to champion truth throughout,’ the new series’ cohost, Chrissy Newton, told DailyMail.com, adding that she was not afraid to debunk a few celebrated UFO cases, if that’s where the facts led.

‘I want to prove that it’s identifiable,’ Newton said, ‘not everyone’s gonna like that.’

Nevertheless, Newton found the tests on the pure aluminum mystery metal to be compelling, she said, in part because a former Pentagon UFO investigator has told her that ‘pure aluminum has been connected to multiple other UFO crash sites.’

While Newton did not name her Pentagon source, she described them as ‘a source formerly from AATIP,’ the US military’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which from 2007 to 2012 had been tasked (in part) with studying UFOs.

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Congressman Seeks To Block Feds From Seizing Marijuana From State-Legal Businesses Amid New Mexico Border Patrol Controversy

U.S. border patrol agents would be prevented from using its funds to seize marijuana from state-licensed businesses under a newly filed amendment to a large-scale spending bill.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) submitted the amendment for consideration as part of 2025 Fiscal Year appropriations legislation covering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The move appears to be responsive to recent reporting about Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents seizing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cannabis from state-legal businesses in New Mexico over recent months.

The amendment, which would need to be made in order for floor consideration by the House Rules Committee, reads:

SEC_. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to seize cannabis or products containing cannabis that are possessed, sold, or transferred by a cannabis distributor, licensed by a State, or a business in a State where cannabis has been legalized for recreational or medicinal use.

This is the latest in a series of drug policy-related amendments to be filed from lawmakers across the aisle that they’ve sought to attach to spending bills. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) has also filed an amendment to the DHS measure—as well as to separate appropriations legislation covering State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs—that would prevent the relevant agencies from testing job applicants for cannabis in states where it’s legal.

While Garcia has repeatedly attempted to enact that reform as part of numerous legislative packages, this is the first time that the language of the Vasquez amendment has been introduced.

The Rules committee is expected to meet next week to decide which amendments to the bills can receive floor votes.

The controversy over CBP seizures of marijuana from state-licensed businesses has prompted responses from multiple levels of government.

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Woman, 24, who grew up in a CULT lifts the lid on all the ‘extremist’ rules she was forced to follow as a member of the religious sect

A young woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has taken to TikTok to speak out about her upbringing in a Christian cult.

Marissa Martin, 24, was spurred to address her childhood after admitting she was lucky for the lack of ‘hate’ she has usually received on her posts – but with one major exception: Christians on the defensive.

‘I want to talk about the fact that I don’t ever get hate on my videos, which is amazing, I have really amazing viewers,’ she began, also simultaneously testing out a recipe combining raspberry syrup and iced matcha.

‘But the one kind of video that I make that I get hate on every time is when I talk about the cult I grew up in,’ she described.

‘This cult I grew up in, yes it was a Christian cult. So a lot of Christians that watch my videos or see the video get personally offended by me saying, “I grew up in a cult,”‘ she went on.

‘But here’s the thing – it was an extremist Christian religion. Extremist, okay?’

Specifically, her family had been in the Independent Fundamental Baptist church.

The organization, composed of local churches preaching deeply fundamentalist Christian messaging, was the subject of 2023 docuseries Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals.

The harrowing docuseries highlighted in particular the unchecked sexual abuse of women and children running rampant across the congregations.

Marissa went on to elaborate on the strict dress code that only permitted ‘solid white’ casual shoes – while ‘dress shoes’ could be solid black.

She continued: ‘We had to wear skirts down to the mids of our calves. We couldn’t show our ankles. We had to wear crew socks. We also had to wear pantyhose [under skirts].

‘We couldn’t show our shoulders. We couldn’t show our collarbones.’

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Raunchy Drag Show During New Mexico Prom Leads to Principal Being Removed and Several Employees Placed on Leave

A New Mexico high school principal has been removed, and several employees were placed on leave after a raunchy drag performance at the prom left parents outraged.

Students say that the drag performer flashed their crotch, “did twerk on a couple of students,” and “let students twerk on them.”

The lewd performance took place at the prom for Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in Albuquerque on April 20.

NBC News reports, “In a video on TikTok, students can be seen gathering around the performer in thigh-high black boots and a matching body suit, as the performer is bending over, squatting and dancing provocatively.”

The performer has been identified by local station KOB 4 as “Mythica Sahreen.”

“Honestly, it was really interesting, and I didn’t mind it. But the thing is it’s the place and where it happened, full of minors, you know, it wasn’t very appropriate for prom,” a student told the station.

Another student added, “Could have kept it more on the side of like it being more PG with the fact that they kind of did twerk on a couple students it wasn’t exactly the best, but it was something that did happen. And they did let students twerk on them.”

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Federal Officials Are Suddenly Seizing Marijuana From State-Licensed Businesses, Leaving Industry Perplexed

Federal officials have been seizing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana from state-licensed cannabis businesses in New Mexico in recent weeks—detaining industry workers in what appears to be a localized escalation of national prohibition enforcement even as the federal government has largely refrained from interfering with the implementation of state legalization laws in recent years.

New Mexico marijuana businesses report that the more than dozen U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seizures, particularly at interior checkpoints around the Las Cruces area, are a relatively new phenomenon. Since adult-use marijuana sales launched in the state in 2022, the operators say they’ve generally been able to transport their products to testing facilities and retailers without incident.

Starting around two months ago, however, the agency has evidently taken a more proactive approach to enforcing federal prohibition, taking hundreds of pounds of cannabis at the checkpoints inside the state. CBP is able to carry out its activities within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

“There’s a lot of really successful important cannabis producers and cannabis manufacturers operating south of those checkpoints,” Ben Lewinger, executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, told Marijuana Moment. “Basically, every road that you could take from the southern to the northern part of the state, you have to go through one of these checkpoints—and it’s just bifurcating the industry and making it impossible for people in the southern part of the state to get their products to anywhere in the central or northern part of the state.”

CBP has made at least 13 stops and seizures of state-legal marijuana products since February, Lewinger, said adding that he “wouldn’t be surprised if it’s twice that number.”

“I’m certain that it’s underreported,” he said. “I think there’s lots of people who still have that fear and the stigma, and they don’t want to rattle cages.”

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Judge Rules New Mexico Officials Violated Federal Law by Restricting Access to Voter Data

A federal judge has ruled that New Mexico officials violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by refusing to provide voter data to a conservative-backed group named Voter Reference Foundation.

In a 329-page ruling on March 29, Albuquerque-based U.S. District Judge James Browning said the New Mexico secretary of state’s office and the state’s attorney general had violated the Public Inspection Provision by denying the group’s request for voter data.

The court documents named New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Attorney General Raul Torrez as the defendants.

The ruling states that the Voter Reference Foundation created a “searchable” database online that includes voters’ names, dates of birth, registration addresses, registration dates, party affiliations, registration statuses, precincts, and voting participation histories.

The group said that voter information is required to “provide public access to official government data pertaining to elections, including voter registration rolls,” according to the court’s ruling.

New Mexico election law bans the publication of voter registration data. It restricts the use of the data for political campaigning and noncommercial government purposes.

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A 5th Albuquerque Cop Resigns Amid Widening DWI Corruption Scandal

Another Albuquerque police officer resigned last week amid a widening scandal involving cops who allegedly conspired with a local defense attorney to make drunk driving cases disappear in exchange for payoffs. Joshua Montaño, who had been employed by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) for 19 years, is the fifth officer to quit after being placed on administrative leave. His March 20 resignation letter, which City Desk ABQ obtained through a public records request, sheds light on the extent of the alleged corruption within the APD’s DWI unit, the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation as well as an APD probe.

“When I was put on administrative leave, I thought there would be an opportunity for me to talk to the department about what I knew regarding the FBI’s investigation,” writes Montaño, who missed several scheduled interviews with APD investigators prior to his resignation. “I thought there would be a time [when] I could disclose what I knew from within APD and how the issues I let myself get caught up in within the DWI Unit were generational. I thought there would be a time where I could talk about all the other people who should be on administrative leave as well, but aren’t.”

Montaño says he ultimately decided against cooperating with APD investigators. “In order for me to talk to the City about what I knew,” he writes, “I needed to not be the City’s scapegoat for its own failures.” He complains that Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, who has promised to “make sure that we get to the bottom of this” but is himself under investigation for causing a February 17 accident that severely injured a driver whose car he broadsided, “has made it seem like there are just a few bad officers acting on their own.” That is “far from the truth,” Montaño says.

Among other things, the FBI reportedly is investigating claims that officers deliberately missed court dates, resulting in the dismissal of DWI cases. But according to Montaño, “officers all know that our attendance, or non-attendance, at Court is watched over and monitored.” While “I take responsibility for my actions,” he says, the responsibility for the alleged misconduct extends up the chain of command and more than a few years back in time.

Medina “has made numerous public statements concerning APD’s knowledge of the FBI’s investigation of various APD personnel and made commitments to complete parallel investigations,” Montaño’s lawyer, Thomas Grover, writes in a separate letter to the department. “However, as is evident in the investigations of Ofc. Montano, the department responded to the FBI’ s inquiries in a manner that is haphazard at best and artificial at worst.”

Although Montaño wanted to share “his knowledge of how widespread the issues of concern to the FBI are, how far up the supervisory chain they go, and other personnel they involve,” Grover says, he “could not provide such a statement because of the myriad of deficiencies APD plagued its investigations of him, and presumably others, with. From procedural errors concerning notice requirements to police officers, to timeline violations by APD, it seems at every turn, the department could not follow basic practices for internal affairs investigations.”

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New Mexico Senate Passes Psilocybin Therapy And Research Resolution In Unanimous Vote

The New Mexico Senate has unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution requesting that state officials research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and explore the creation of a regulatory framework to provide access to the psychedelic.

The body voted 37-0 to pass the measure from Senate Minority Whip Craig Brandt (R) and Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D).

The action came days after the Health and Public Affairs Committee had approved the legislation, also unanimously.

As “memorial” legislation, the proposal isn’t binding. Rather, it would represent a formal request for the state Department of Health to “study the efficacy of using psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic treatments and the establishment of a program for psilocybin mushrooms to be used for therapeutic medical treatments.”

The whereas section of the resolution cites various studies supporting the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin for conditions such as major depression and substance misuse, while pointing out that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the psychedelic as a “breakthrough therapy.”

To that end, the measure states that the health department should look into “necessary statutory or regulatory framework for developing” a state-level psilocybin program.

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New Mexico Senate Committee Unanimously Approves Psilocybin Therapy And Research Resolution

A New Mexico Senate committee has unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution requesting that state officials research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and explore the creation of a regulatory framework to provide access to the psychedelic.

The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee voted 7-0 to pass the resolution from Senate Minority Whip Craig Brandt (R) and Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D) on Saturday.

As “memorial” legislation, the bicameral proposal wouldn’t be binding. Rather, it would represent a formal request for the state Department of Health to “study the efficacy of using psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic treatments and the establishment of a program for psilocybin mushrooms to be used for therapeutic medical treatments.”

The whereas section of the resolution cites various studies supporting the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin for conditions such as major depression and substance misuse, while pointing out that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the psychedelic as a “breakthrough therapy.”

To that end, the measure states that the health department should look into “necessary statutory or regulatory framework for developing” a state-level psilocybin program.

“This can help people very potentially, and so what we’re trying to do in a bipartisan way is ask the Department of Health to recognize that we want them to get going to start looking at this,” Steinborn said during Saturday’s committee hearing.

The measure “really seeks to expand therapeutic options for New Mexicans,” he said.

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