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Opinion

  • Community is wonderful

    Dear Editor,

    I would like to thank the local businesses and the community for their efforts during the recent search and rescue of the lost snowboarder at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. The Volunteer Ski Patrol did an unbelievable job searching for the lost person. The NM SAR Team also did an outstanding job. The very special, behind the scene support from the local businesses was above and beyond the call of duty.

  • Downward and downward it goes

    Dear Editor,

    Two problems among many contribute to the downward spiral of the current recession. One is in the real economy-people are unemployed and more are fired every day. Their potential production is lost to the economy. The second is in the flow of money in the currently clogged financial system.

  • Thank You President Obama

    Dear Editor,

    (Inspired by the thank you letter sent from over 250 health and human rights organizations on the recent Executive Order reversing the Mexico City global-gag rule.)

    Thank you for restoring funding for agencies which promote the idea that it is the preferred option that women kill the baby in her womb rather than take responsibility. It is preeminently obvious that this issue is more important than the banning of cluster bombs, elimination of land mines, expansion of a food stamp program, or establishment of positive measures relative to climate change.

  • Central lighting a bad idea

    Dear Editor,

     

    The pedestrian lighting recently installed on Central Avenue is ridiculous.  What would inspire a town of smart people to make such a foolish decision?

     

    On-line I found minutes from a county meeting from October 2007 in which the pedestrian lights were mentioned.  At the same meeting was a discussion of the town motto, “Where Discoveries are Made” and mention of the idea of “branding” Los Alamos.

     

  • Mr. Phelps think on the future

    Dear Editor,

     

    First, I’d like to congratulate Ralph Phelps on his appointment to council. He’ll do the job to the best of his ability with honor and integrity.

     

     Personally, I’m not all that dissappointed that I wasn’t appointed. But from a policy perspective, I am a bit surprised and a bit dismayed the Debbie Gill was not selected, for she has a solid understanding of the need to broaden the economic base of Los Alamos.

     

  • Slim pickings in assignments

    Tom Udall, New Mexico’s newest U.S. senator, seems to have made a poor deal in his desire to be a  U.S. Senator.

    This week, his committee assignments were released and we are unimpressed.

    When he decided to run for the Senate – at the urging of state and national Democratic leaders – it seems that he did not hold out for much of a deal.

  • Stop pushing me, I know the divide...

    OK, a quick test ... what’s 44 percent of 25? Most adults know how to do this, but might have some trouble doing it in their head. 

    Now suppose you ask them to find 25 percent of 44. Ah, that’s a horse of a different math! 

    Virtually every adult knows that 25 percent is 1/4th and so 25 percent of 44 is 11. But percentage is simply a multiplicative factor. It means that you divide by 100.

  • Open it up

    It was good to read that President Obama has ordered heads of executive departments and agencies to side with openness in administering the Freedom of Information Act.

    “All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open government,” he wrote.

    Good to hear. We hope the state was listening.

  • Safety is not the real issue

    Dear Editor,

  • Domestic partnerships

    Dear Editor,

    In a recent letter to the editor, Mr. Kuropatwinski suggests that Gov. Richardson’s support of domestic partnership rights is given out of obligation to Hollywood interests. While I neither desire nor am able to address the governor’s motivation, I would like to say something about the domestic partnership legislation that our legislature will be considering.

  • To-do list for Los Alamos

    Dear Editor,

    Capital Expenditures:

        1)  Reconstruct/restore the Municipal Building.

        2)  Downsize and re-design the JPJ as an adjunct to a restored Municipal Building.

        3)  Restore our reservoirs.

     Airport Basin is one of those monster projects you do when you don’t need to be doing anything else.  So, for quite a while, other projects will have to wait. When at least two of the three listed above are done and paid for, then we can add a new project to the list.

  • Help save children

    Dear Editor,

    According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, there are 17 children killed in the state of New Mexico everyday! By way of comparison, only two convicts have been executed in the state of New Mexico in the last 40 years!

  • Vote for the future

    Dear Editor,

    I can’t believe that people who have been educated in some of the finest schools in our country are arguing about whether to support a school bond in Los Alamos – home to one of the finest national labs around!

    Of course we should support the school bond. And I say this as an absentee landlord who would pay higher taxes without reaping the direct benefits of this bond issue.

  • Council has a tough choice

    In fulfilling its legal role in filling the vacant county council seat left by the resignation of Jim West, the council has a tough task before it.

    With applications from 11 local residents, many of whom have considerable community experience and knowledge, their task is not an easy one.

    The vacant seat has been the subject of discussion and dissension for a couple of months now. And in all honesty, it will be a surprise if that debate ends Tuesday.

  • Superintendent responds

    Dear Editor,

    I am writing in response to the questions that were posed by Don Willerton in the Jan. 8th edition of the Monitor.

    • The Board did not “write off six million dollars in missing money.”  The audit for SY 06-07 indicated that a system was not in place to track and inventory our fixed assets which were valued at approximately $6 million. However, a system is now in place and our audit for SY 07-08 reflects the inventory tracking our fixed assets.  None of these assets were missing.

  •
    FRIED LIGHT: A failed state in the...

  • ‘An Impending Catastrophe...

    Dear Editor,

    Those are the words of Dr. Carl Djerassi, the co-creator of the contraceptive pill. He goes on to say that modern families are “wanting to enjoy their shnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it.” Now, I’m not certain what a “shnitzel” is, but the comment certainly does not sound like a compliment.

    Many studies collaborate the following facts in countries which contracept:

    • population decline,

    • intelligence immigration,

    • increase in cervical cancer, and

  • Problems with bond issue

    Dear Editor,

    Here’s how to make sure I vote against the school bond.

    DO preach doom and gloom if one does not vote for the bond.

    DO tell me the quality of the education that our kids get will deteriorate because they are not being taught in a new classroom.

    DO put the importance of a classroom above the importance of a teacher.

  • Go with experience

    Dear Editor,

     The county council is going through an elaborate procedure to select a replacement for Jim West. Well and good, but the fact is Ken Milder has already been elected. He received 5,072 votes in the recent election, 1,409 more votes than the remaining candidate. In other words, 5,072 people have already voted for Ken.

  • Few questions about bond

    Dear Editor,

    1)  Isn’t the school board that’s wants the bond money the same school board that recently “wrote off” six million dollars of missing money?

    2) If there is overwhelming urgency right now to fix the school’s 60 year old  buildings, why wasn’t there this much urgency 10 years ago when the buildings  were 50 years old?  It seems that the urgency is more the fear that REAL economic bad times are ahead and maybe people really won’t have the money (even all the Los Alamos millionaires!).