Feds to search laptop in case against New Mexico rescue team

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

January 16, 2016 12:58 PM

Feds to search laptop in case against New Mexico rescue team

The Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. —

Federal investigators are looking for evidence that a New Mexico search-and-rescue team falsified training certifications to qualify for funding.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports (http://bit.ly/1OVTEw3) that Federal Emergency Management Agency officials filed a search warrant request this week in U.S. District Court.

The warrant allows officials to search a laptop computer to see if it was used to print out false training certificates.

New Mexico Task Force 1 team, which deploys to disaster scenes, is accused of failing to properly account for funding.

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/business/article55076435.html#storylink=cpy

[left-of-center2012]

1. No surprise here

After all, it's New Mexico.

[tabasco]

2. Can you elaborate on that comment?

Is New Mexico a notoriously corrupt state?

[marble falls]

3. New Mexico gets D- grade in 2012 State Integrity Investigation Why New Mexico ranked.....

39th of 50 states

By Gwyneth Doland 12:01 am, March 19, 2012 Updated: 5:41 pm, November 2, 2015

Taos, New Mexico.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/03/19/18201/new-mexico-gets-d-grade-2012-state-integrity-investigation

<snip>

Unfortunately, corruption also has a long history here. For decades, “elections in many counties featured irregularities that would have made a Chicago ward committeeman blush,” says the Almanac of American Politics. An oft-told story from a long-ego election night detailed how an Associated Press reporter worked the phones trying to nail down vote totals from Spanish-American precincts in the mountains up north. “How many votes you got up there” he asked. “How many you need?”came the reply.

Sadly, the reputation endures. Just over the past five years the state’s image has been repeatedly marred by high-profile corruption cases. Among them: two former state treasurers sentenced to federal prison for what prosecutors said was a ‘pay-to-play’ scheme; a former state senator who pleaded guilty in a plan to steal $4.4 million from a courthouse project, and a former secretary of state indicted for fraud. A federal investigation of ‘pay-to-play’ allegations that caused Gov. Bill Richardson to withdraw his nomination as President Obama’s Commerce secretary ended without an indictment, but a second investigation is now looking at alleged campaign finance violations.

<snip>

And in December there were two more scandals to hit.

[tabasco]

7. Thank you!

Very interesting.

[left-of-center2012]

5. Where would I begin?

New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran (now resigned) just got of jail for stealing money from her campaign fund and blowing it at casinos throughout the state.

Gov. Susana Martinez threw a staff Christmas party where the cops were called because they got too rowdy, threw bottles off a 4th floor balcony, and refused four times to quiet down when confronted by hotel staff. The Governor could be heard on tape telling 911 to not send cops because "I'm the Governor of New Mexico".
Headlines in the paper said "COP SAYS: GOVERNOR INTOXICATED".

Superintendent of Albuquerque schools had to resign because he hired a friend of his as an assistant. His friend refused fingerprinting and a background check.
Come to find out he had been arrested in Colorado recently (and awaiting trial) for molesting young boys.
(Working in a school job was probably his dream job)

etc

[tabasco]

8. I knew about the governor.

I hope NM can clean up its act.

[PasadenaTrudy]

6. It's pretty darn corrupt nt

[pasto76]

4. a lot of the FEMA regional teams are basically the local Fire guys

plenty of conservatism in those groups.

But I can totally see from where they are coming (being familiar with the CERF-P training requirements)...it takes a lot of time to remain CERTIFIED which is how you keep that door to federal funding open. Who wants to do all that.

I worked in EMS for 9 years, and am pushing 20 in the army. plenty of people serve and work these fields to actually help people and make a difference. unfortunately, there are plenty who dont. They want that "hero" title lauded on them everywhere they go. They need to feel special, but like Kylo Ren, havent really done all that much to earn the notoriety.

Keep in mind that Fire agencies are run like a business these days, not a service. They charge for everything that they can, and inflate numbers so that they can tell the local, county and state officials "how much more busy they are than last year" (how they do that is by sending a truck, an EMS wagon and two supervisor cars to each traffic accident, which they report as '4 runs yesterday'. Parker, CO has 35K "runs" every year.)

And this alleged fraud is one of the results from that system. kiss your jobs goodbye fools. Hard to work EMS - and these folks are likely heavily invested in these careers - when you have a felony conviction. Schade.

[Beartracks]

9. +1 for the Kylo Ren analogy. n/t