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Today's Opinions

  • N.M. 502 thoughts

    Recently, Councilor Kristin Henderson stated that “And yes, the federal and state highway people are all good with a roundabout. New Mexico just put one in on the bypass.” There has been no roundabout put on the N.M. 599 bypass.

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  • Not the Apology We Were Expecting

    It is with sadness that I feel I must respond to Mr. Pawlick’s apology to all of the NRA members, gun owners and law abiding citizens of our United States. I really expected more from a man that is tasked with educating our children at the Los Alamos High School.
    It would appear as though Mr. Paveluk’s knowledge of the NRA and what it stands for as well as what it has accomplished since November of 1871 is based on fiction.
    He said that “the NRA knows more about education that the rest of us and it’s our patriotic duty to skip to the gun store and buy as many 50-round clips as we can carry.” First, there is no such thing as a “50-round clip.”
    Second, and more importantly, I have to agree, based on his ramblings about nuclear weapons and military vehicles armed with machine guns, with his statement that the NRA knows more about education than he does.
    When the United States Military has needed firearms training over the past century, they go to the NRA. When federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have a need for specialized training or additional firearms instructors, they go to the NRA for help.

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  • They died happily ever after

    OK children, bedtime!  I’m going to help you go to sleep by telling you a wonderful love story.
     Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young princess who lived in a beautiful castle.  Her parents were captured by an evil witch who gutted them like fish and then ate their livers and hearts.
     Oh, and her brothers were all killed too.  Horribly.  Yeah, lots of pain.  Um, you sleepy yet?
     What is it with children’s stories?  The families are always dysfunctional or dead.  I can still remember how I felt when Bambi’s mother died.  As luck would happen, my uncle had just returned from a hunting trip the week before with his quota of deer.
     There seems to be an endless choice of tragedies and miseries for children to enjoy.  Let’s start with some classics.
     Cinderella is a charming story of love and acceptance.  Her parents are dead at the beginning of the movie.  She’s mentally and physically abused by her step sisters and step mother.  Cinderella is beloved by all animals except for the family cat, Lucifer, who delights in tormenting her.

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  • Finishing the job of PRC reform

    The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) touches the lives of every New Mexican who pays a gas, electric, or landline telephone bill, or buys home, auto, or health insurance, among many other things. Unfortunately, the PRC has had a troubled history ever since it was created about 16 years ago.
    In late 2011, Think New Mexico published a policy report entitled “Rethinking the PRC,” which proposed a strategy for reforming the agency. Our report concluded that the PRC’s poor performance was due, in part, to a fundamental structural problem: it was the most powerful state regulatory agency in the nation, yet it had very few qualifications for commissioners (they are only required to be at least 18 years old, residents of New Mexico for at least a year, and not convicted felons).
    During the 2012 legislative session, with the help of good government, consumer, and business groups, Think New Mexico successfully won legislative passage of three bipartisan constitutional amendments to restructure the PRC.

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  • Slight growth seen in 2013, maybe

    Not much happening for a while. That’s the outlook for the New Mexico economy from the annual economic outlook conference presented last week by New Mexico State University and Wells Fargo Bank.
    Eugenio Aleman, Wells Fargo senior economist, offered the national outlook, beginning with a tautology.
    “We’re closer to a recovery today than we were yesterday,” he said. Aleman sees gross domestic product growth at 1.7 percent this year, about in the middle of projections from other groups.
    Not so much for New Mexico.
    Jim Peach, NMSU Regents Professor of Economics, estimates the state’s 2013 job growth at between zero and one percent.
    That is, if the federal sequestration problem — the across the board spending cuts — gets fixed. Then number of wage jobs in the state might — just might — return to pre-recession levels by 2018. 
    At the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Peach found support for his view.
    The bank tracks the business cycle in each state and also groups statistics with behavior, suggesting state economic performance six months in the future.
    For New Mexico these leading indictors show no improvement in the economy and perhaps a decline. Since dropping in 2008, the state’s business cycle has flat lined.

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  • Prepare now for natural disasters

    Natural disasters are inevitable, unpreventable and often come without warning. No part of the world seems to be spared, whether it’s a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, drought or flood.
    Even though such catastrophes can’t always be predicted, their likely aftermaths often can, including property loss, power or water service disruption, scarcity of food and supplies or overtaxed relief organizations.
    Superstorm Sandy was a powerful reminder of why it’s vital to develop a family disaster plan.
    By planning ahead and knowing what you might need under dire circumstances, you can save yourselves a lot of time, money and grief.
    The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers great suggestions for developing a family emergency plan, building an emergency supply kit, and learning what to do before, during and after emergencies — even a plan for family pets (fema.gov).
    Once your physical safety has been assured, you’ll inevitably need to access important financial and legal records, whether to file insurance claims, apply for loans or simply withdraw cash.
    Taking these few steps now will make accessing such information much easier when the time comes:

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  • Alternative health care

    Workers’ compensation insurers are starting to pay for meditation classes for injured workers.
    That’s a milestone worth noting, because work comp is a pretty conservative system and the last place you’d expect to find anything outside the box of conventional medicine.
    In most cases, a claims adjuster has to review and approve anything unorthodox before it’s authorized for payment. When work comp payers are paying for alternative therapies, something important is happening in the healthcare system.
    There are no statistics, and the numbers are probably small, but alternative therapies are beginning to be accepted, according to presenters at a recent meeting of the New Mexico Workers’ Compensation Association.
    “Mind-body is the future of medicine,” said Dr. David Lyman, a 20-year occupational medicine physician.
    “The acute care models no longer meet our needs.” For workers who don’t recover with conventional treatment, he employs an interdisciplinary approach that includes mental techniques such as biofeedback.
    David Lang, a massage and neuromuscular therapist and a former member of the New Mexico Massage Therapy Licensing Board, said New Mexico is a leading state in the development of integrative medicine.

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  • Political follies roll on in D.C.

    SANTA FE — If there is anything that can make the New Mexico Legislature look good, it is the follies going on in Washington, D.C.
    Both groups share one commonality. There’s a lot of talk but not much is going to get done.
    In Santa Fe, House Democrats can stop Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s meager agenda. Senate Democrats also are the majority party but some of those Democrats have joined with a united Republican party and it appears that coalition is going to be able to stop anything Democrats want to get to the governor’s desk.
    To demonstrate that politics is equal opportunity, the situation in Washington is reversed but the partisanship is unchanged. A Republican House and a Democratic Senate that requires a 60 percent vote instead of 51 percent means little can be accomplished in that body.
    Congress came back to do a little work this week but will spend most of its time fighting. By Friday it has to figure out how to avoid the big boulder it put in its road, called sequestering. They won’t let it happen because that cuts everything equally, which means too many pet projects get hurt.
    Congress will waltz around that boulder, somehow, only to run into the expiration of a continuing resolution that runs the government out of money.

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