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Fatal shooting in New Mexico park casts pall over Legislature and its ability to contain crime

Fatal shooting in New Mexico park casts pall over Legislature and its ability to contain crime

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Efforts by New Mexico lawmakers to contain violent crime took center stage Saturday at the conclusion of an annual legislative session — just hours after three people were killed and 15 injured in an outburst of gunfire at a public park in Las Cruces.
The events transformed an ordinarily celebratory day for legislators at the close of a 60-day session into a somber affair.
'This tragedy reminds us that it's going to take all of us to continue to come together to address these senseless acts of violence,' said Democratic House Speaker Javier Martinez of Albuquerque.
Republicans legislators in the legislative minority said the state is in crisis and urged Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to exercise her authority to bring the legislators back to the Capitol to seek solutions to violent crime. Lujan Grisham said she was considering it, amid feelings of anger and disappointment.
'I cannot ignore that we failed to adequately address the public safety crisis in our state,' Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
At the same time, legislators have delivered an array of crime-related bills to the governor that aim to enhance criminal penalties, expand the state's authority to prosecute organized crime and provide new precautions when criminal defendants are deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial.
A bill won legislative approval on a 38-0 Senate vote this week that would expand the state's racketeering law to address activity ranging from human trafficking to smuggling contraband into prisons and cock fighting. Lujan Grisham said she lobbied legislators aggressively to deliver the bill.
A public safety law signed by the governor in February included enhanced penalties for mass-shooting threats, fentanyl trafficking and repeated vehicle thefts, while also banning devices — such as the Glock switch — that convert guns into automatic weapons.
Lawmakers overhauled the state's red-flag gun law, under which firearms may be temporarily removed from people who may pose a danger. The update explicitly authorizes police officers to file petitions and removes a 48-hour waiting period for firearm relinquishment.
Legislators also sent the governor bills that establish a trust fund to underwrite an expansion of addiction and mental health services, while identifying gaps in the system. Legislators are grappling with public concern about not only crime but also the proliferation of homeless encampments in New Mexico.
Beyond New Mexico, a tough-on-crime approach is back in political favor, with Republicans and Democrats alike promoting new law enforcement initiatives in state capitols.
Nationwide, nearly 8 in 10 voters in the U.S. said they were 'very' or 'somewhat' concerned about crime in their own communities, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters conducted during the fall election. The percentage saying they were very concerned was higher than the national rate in New Mexico and several other states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and California.

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Public employees in Iraq's Kurdish region caught in the middle of Baghdad-Irbil oil dispute
Public employees in Iraq's Kurdish region caught in the middle of Baghdad-Irbil oil dispute

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time20 minutes ago

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Public employees in Iraq's Kurdish region caught in the middle of Baghdad-Irbil oil dispute

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'When He Least Expects It': Michael Cohen Warns Elon Musk Of Trump's Revenge
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Former Biden press secretary is ready to tell Americans the truth? Give me a break.
Former Biden press secretary is ready to tell Americans the truth? Give me a break.

USA Today

time31 minutes ago

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Former Biden press secretary is ready to tell Americans the truth? Give me a break.

Former Biden press secretary is ready to tell Americans the truth? Give me a break. | Opinion The knives are now out inside the Democratic Party. And the party is bleeding, not only Americans' support and trust but also its last remaining drops of honesty and truth. Show Caption Hide Caption Karine Jean-Pierre talks exit from Democratic party in new book Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre talks about leaving the Democratic party in her upcoming book slated for release in October. The Democratic Party continues to self-destruct, and I am here for it. Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has teased a tell-all memoir about former President Joe Biden and the administration she served for nearly three years. 'Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines' is stoking claims that Jean-Pierre is a grifter, profiting off her time in the administration by trashing the former president and the political party that gave her prominence. Knives are out among Democrats for one of their own who has now betrayed them. Like other books that have recently exposed details about Biden's poor health, Jean-Pierre's book raises questions about the White House cover-up that attempted to hide the president's mental and physical decline from voters. It also calls into question Jean-Pierre's honesty: Why did she wait until now, when she can profit from it, to tell the truth about the former commander in chief? Former White House colleagues turn on former Biden press secretary Democrats are now a minority party in America. The GOP controls the White House, the Senate and the U.S. House along with a majority of governor's offices and state legislatures. The Democratic Party has lost Americans' trust because of its leaders' penchant for gaslighting, not just about Biden's health but also on issues like immigration, border security and the economy. Jean-Pierre, who now claims to be an independent, certainly isn't helping her former colleagues rebuild that lost trust. Details from the book are still sketchy, but Jean-Pierre should provide readers with an inside look at what happened after Biden's disastrous debate with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump a year ago this month. Jean-Pierre's coworkers have already reacted to the book with contempt. "Former colleagues expressed confusion at how Jean-Pierre seemingly intends to paint Biden as a victim while pinning her own decision to leave the party on his 'broken' White House," Politico reported, citing multiple former Biden administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Opinion: Biden's cancer diagnosis raises the question: Was he ever in good enough health? Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist who worked on the Commerce Department's communications team during Biden's presidency, took umbrage with Jean-Pierre's assertion that the Democratic Party betrayed Biden. 'Kamala Harris and the entire Biden/Harris campaign did hero's work to avoid losing 400 electoral votes and giving Republicans a supermajority in Congress, which is what would have happened if he stayed on the ticket,' Legacki told Politico. 'It's more productive to focus on that, and thank Biden for doing the responsible thing by stepping aside, than it is to pretend this was an unwarranted act of betrayal.' But party insiders continuing to squabble over whether a now former president was or was not betrayed by fellow Democrats entirely misses the larger point. Opinion: Guess who Americans want to run the economy? Hint − it's not Democrats. Far too many Democrats, Jean-Pierre included, worked hard to deceive Americans. Their willful lack of self-awareness about their gaslighting and dishonesty is why the party has shown no signs of recovering from the last disastrous election cycle. Karine Jean-Pierre's book about Biden isn't the first Jean-Pierre's book will be far from the first to address the deception at the heart of the Biden White House. On May 20, journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson released "Original Sin," which describes in detail Biden's cognitive decline and the mind-boggling efforts with which his inner circle and the Democratic Party tried to hide the truth from Americans. Opinion: Texas woman's death would have been prevented if Biden had secured the border Conservatives had long been suspicious about Biden's health, but journalists with White House access failed to ask tough questions then. Now that it's too late to make a real difference, those who were silent when it mattered most are more than ready to profit from belated exposés about the former president's failing health. The knives are now out inside the Democratic Party. And the party is bleeding, not only Americans' support and trust but also its last remaining drops of honesty and truth. Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.

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