Columns

 SANTA FE – Gov. Susana Martinez’s popularity is still climbing. A recent poll by Survey USA shows her at 66 percent popularity. The polling group isn’t one of the best in the nation but it seems to show a continued upward trend in the governor’s popularity.
It is difficult to pinpoint the source of that popularity. The state’s economy is the only one in the area not to be recovering. More people are leaving the state than arriving. And there seems to be a general acceptance of federal cuts in budget and personnel without much complaining.
Gov. Martinez was able to push through the 2013 Legislature a last-minute measure to cut business taxes. Then we were told the numbers on which the measure was sold were faulty. The cuts were supposed to keep businesses from leaving but so far those businesses have not been identified.
The oil boom in the Hobbs area is the one bright spot in the economy. Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship Two will bring us some notoriety when it finally gets off the ground.
Sir Richard Branson says that will be Christmas but he has been pushing back the date for five years. And the space travel won’t bring in much money right away.

Many people see their pet as their own child, but what do you do when you find that your little one will soon be having children of their own?
Knowing how to care for your pet during pregnancy and after childbirth is essential for any responsible pet owner.
So how do you tell if your pet is expecting? “Some telltale signs to watch for in a pregnant dog is lethargy, not wanting to eat as much, not playing as much as usual and enlarged nipples,” said Jean Laird, veterinary technician at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “These are attributed to a change in hormones and milk production.
If you believe your pet is pregnant, the first thing you should do is take her in to see a veterinarian. Certain conditions exist that may appear to be pregnancy, but in reality are alarming and may even be life threatening.
“One condition that can be deadly is called pyometra,” said Laird. “It is a bacterial infection that occurs during their heat cycle and results in the uterus filling with pus. This is a serious condition that requires immediate surgery and hospitalization. Symptoms include fever, lethargy and vaginal discharge that is commonly confused with standard pregnancy discharge.”

At this time last year, President Barack Obama was facing severe criticism for showing a lack of patriotism by not attending the commemoration ceremonies at Normandy on D-Day.
Let’s hope that by now all the people who were howling last year are squared away on how D-Day is commemorated in France.
If not, the following information may be helpful.
President Obama was accused of being the first president in 70 years not to attend the D-Day ceremonies. Obama cleared that up by noting that he indeed attended D-Day ceremonies his first year in office and caused quite a stir when French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited only Obama and not Queen Elizabeth.
The Queen made a big deal out of it because she is the only head of state, who saw service during World War II. She was a mechanic and truck driver.
The general consensus was that Sarkozy wanted Obama to himself all that day.
But then the refrain began that Obama did not attend any of the three commemorations since then, and that every other U.S. president had attended them all. That one didn’t hold water either. International protocol holds that heads of state do not enter another country unless invited by that country’s head of state. That’s something I hadn’t realized.

The little boy, age six, had two silver caps where his front teeth should have been. Speculation was he must have been raised on sugary drinks instead of milk.
He had awful, stale-smelling breath, such as I had never before experienced on a child. He could barely read and didn’t care. His attention span was impossibly short.
I was participating in a reading program for first-graders in a public school in a disadvantaged neighborhood. The program took place every day, with different volunteers on a rotating basis. We’d get a 10-minute training session and then meet our kids, one on one, two children, half an hour each.
The trainers asked us to work on specific reading skills each time, but this boy was too easily distracted. He made jokes or fussed.
I tried to find out if he knew how to brush his teeth. He said yes, but I didn’t believe him. I wondered if he was hungry. He never admitted to it.
The school had a free breakfast program, but the teachers told me some kids arrived too late and missed it; they implied this was another sign of chaos in the kids’ homes.