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Today's Opinions

  • The battle heats up

    Gov. Susana Martinez has been hauled into court again, although this time it’s Martinez’s Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla who is targeted in a case filed in Santa Fe state district court.
    The suit cites Padilla for implementing the governor’s directive to dispatch some 10,000 letters seeking proof of residency from New Mexico licensed drivers presumed to be illegal immigrants.
    Such licenses may be legally obtained by foreign nationals in New Mexico under a state law passed in 2003.
    Martinez doesn’t like that law and promised to have it repealed during her campaign last year.

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  • Chile Pepper Institute reflects the future

    The slash of bright red peeking above a brick wall certainly will catch the eye of some drivers in west Las Cruces. It is red and it is bright.
    A closer look brings something a bit magnificent. The something, a sign claims, is the world’s largest chile. At 45 feet long, it may be. Red indeed, it is.
    It’s that time in New Mexico, the time of picking and processing of the vegetable that is central to our unique cuisine and perhaps to New Mexico’s very soul.

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  • Senate race gets revved up

    SANTA FE — The Labor Day weekend usually is the kick off for the following year’s major political campaigns. This year may be a little different however.
    The state legislature’s special session on redistricting undoubtedly will grab many of the headlines for a few weeks. That likely means no major announcements by the candidates but it won’t stop behind-the-scenes jockeying.
    The wide open U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Bingaman picked up four major candidates very quickly last spring but has been rather quiet since then.

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  • Reapportionment key for LA

    The Los Alamos Monitor story on the future of House District 43 was a great story and it showed the Los Alamos community was alert and concerned about the redistricting of our House seat.
    The presentations were right on with  the strongest being the economic impact of Los Alamos on northern New Mexico. U.S. Senators Clinton Anderson and Pete Domenici knew this well and they were always able to provide support for a strong laboratory as the engine of healthy job and local spending on local economies. The New Mexico House and Senate representatives for Los Alamos took care to work with the state on the important issues of maintaining support for the lab and as an offshoot the workforce.

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  • Water, water not quite everywhere

    When I was a kid I was “born again,” a process that involved being fully and totally immersed in water.
    Much more recently I was on the home stretch of an eight-mile walk in the hot sun when the minister I was walking with kindly poured her drinking water on my hot little head.
    Seldom does water feel so good as when splashed on an overheating noggin in the summertime. As soon as my hair was sopping wet, I certainly felt born anew, able to complete the walk with at least a tiny smidgen of spring in my step.
    Just a cup or two of water, supplied at the crucial time and applied to best advantage, made all the difference in the world.

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  • Fair wages are an American tradition

    The first Monday of September, Americans celebrate the workers who make our country strong.
    On Labor Day, we are proud of the traditions that brought us the eight-hour work day, paid vacation and sick days and minimum wage and overtime protections.
    These basic labor standards helped to make our country the wealthiest in the world by creating a vast middle class able to buy the goods and services that kept our economy growing.
    Unfortunately, 129 years after the first Labor Day celebrations, more and more American workers find themselves without some of these basic labor protections.

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  • Just A Wag 09-02-11

    Prime appointments

    We have learned that House Speaker Ben Lujan has appointed a certain state representative to the powerful Appropriations Committee and other prime committees.
    Watch for the full story  next week in the Los Alamos Monitor.

    Send us your wags

    “Just a wag” features initial snippets of news heard around town.  The wags may grow to larger stories or simply remain snippets, either way this is meant to spark interest and provide food for thought.
    E-mail wags to lanews@lamonitor.com.

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  • Addressing the source

    There’s been a lot of discussion lately about roundabouts, most of it lambasting the county council for galactic stupidity and financial irresponsibility.  
    But I’m here to fight for the other side. Yes, I’m going to argue for roundabouts!  
    I’ve decided that they are a very viable solution. We need to increase throughput and we need to calm people down.
    Any sensible person would agree with the council that Trinity Drive is a death zone, more dangerous than the streets of Fallujah.  
    You take your life in your hands when you come within 20 miles of it.  It’s only a matter of time before the government declares Trinity a disaster area and hires Arizonian lawmakers to build a wall around it.

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