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Opinion

  • There’s no excuse for not...

    My husband and I  frequent the East Park dog park several times a week with our two dogs.  It’s a wonderful place for dogs to be able to run and play, but it also seems to have become a wonderful place for owners not to pick up after their dogs.

    It has become quite a trick to navigate the park without getting ones’ shoes soiled as happened to me this morning. East Park itself, where people walk and children play also suffers the same indignity.

  • Jobs, not drugs draw immigrants

    Imagine the scene. Two poverty stricken, uneducated men are chatting somewhere in Mexico. One says, “Ese, vamos p’ Albuquerque pa’ cometer delitos.”

    The other replies, “Que buena idea!”

    Such was the primary election portrayal among Bernalillo County Republican sheriff candidates. Drug cartel types aside, the occasional immigrant may come to New Mexico with an explicit criminal purpose. But not many. Getting here is too much work. For nearly all, jobs are the attraction.

  • Obama should have asked for advice

    Your editorial of Sunday, June 20, prompts a reply. It is so unfortunate that President Obama has not sought your advice. Had he done so, many of our national problems would be saved by now, in particular the oil leak.

    Pat Blewett

    Los Alamos

  • Unsigned editorials not acceptable

    I find that recent unsigned and undocumented editorial comments to be more the rule than the exception in the Monitor these days.  Sunday, June 20, “The sinking of the presidency,” was unsigned and one-sided and may indicate the bias of the current Monitor editorial staff, while Wednesday, June 23, “Obama and Clinton: The best and brightest” was written by a Jeffry Gardner. Just who is Gardner, what are his credentials and why are such vitriolic and poorly written opinions allowed to be presented undocumented?

  • No to new taxes, yes to budget cuts

    America has a money crisis. Yes things are tight for governments now, things are tight for most families also.  In the real world where the ability to borrow money is limited and heavy debt carries a heavy cost, most will do the right thing and live within their means.  

    This means cutting spending and altering your lifestyle to your ability to pay for it.  Government feels it has an ace in the hole by their ability to tax. And tax they do!  They sometimes justify taxes by stating public health will improve as they have done with tobacco.

  • When governing becomes a circus

    None of our governments — national, state, local — was designed for expeditious and orderly action.   

    But when any of them becomes so disorderly as to resemble a circus you have to wonder.

    Briefly last week, key functionaries, civilian, military and judicial, in our national government had a great many people wondering if the circus hadn’t become a zoo.

  • An atmosphere of excellence

    As a recently retired teacher from LAPS, I have with interest followed the search for a new high school principal and assistant superintendent. With 38 years of teaching experience at the middle school level in three different states, including 12 years at a National Blue Ribbon School in lrvine, Calif., a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a major writer of the Baldrige award for LAMS and the LAPS, I feel that I understand what it takes to create an atmosphere of excellence within a school and district.

  • Should we end the war in...

    Obama says he will begin withdrawing troops in 2011, but some feel we should end this illegal and immoral war much sooner. This earlier withdrawal would make sense since our invasion and occupation of Afghanistan appear to have been from the very beginning about controlling natural gas pipelines, as well as controlling a lot of previously known resources such as lithium, gold and copper. The pipeline scenario has been well served by both Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice who worked deals with Afghanistan during their tenure with Halliburton and Chevron, respectively.

  • What a difference a year makes

    SANTA FE — One year ago, in June 2009, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish was sitting in the catbird seat. She had announced for governor more than two years earlier and had already raised more than $2 million.

    A poll had just been published by Harstad Strategic Research of Boulder, Colo., showing Denish leading both Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson by identical 57-35 margins.

       Pearce and Wilson were both well known to voters statewide, better known than Denish, in fact. Both had given up their U.S. House seats to seek the Senate seat of the retiring Pete Domenici.

  • Mining laws should accomodate...

    Green jobs get most of the attention these days, but lately there’s news from an old and not-so-green industry, mining. Here, we have good news, bad news, and no news.

    Good news: Lea County will get its first new potash mine in four decades, Santa Fe Gold Corp. will begin processing ore near Lordsburg, and reclamation will begin soon at abandoned coal mines near Raton.

  • Martinez worries state workers

    SANTA FE - If you like political surprises, you should love the next six months of the 2010 campaigns.

    Sure, attack ads will fill the air. They’ve already started in the gubernatorial race and we will be able to add the 1st and 2nd congressional district races to that soon. But expect some almost unpredictable twists also.

    Remember the last gubernatorial race in 2006? Gov. Bill Richardson was sailing toward his second term when Republicans suddenly switch horses after they already had nominated Dr. J.R. Damron as their candidate. That was an all- time first.

  • The facts about legal narcotics

    The medical cost of prescription opioid abuse in the United States is estimated to be more than $300 billion a year. That’s billion with a “b.”

    This statistic, which almost knocked me out of my chair, was presented recently at a conference of the New Mexico Workers’ Compensation Association by Dr. Charles Kennedy of Corpus Christi, Texas, an expert on occupational medicine issues. This part of his talk was subtitled “Pain Medication Crisis.”  

    No kidding.

    A few more statistics from Kennedy:

  • Learn, baby learn

    Urtabulak and Ixtoc — two obscure names that can be found in the dusty (and unread) journals of historic blunders. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Let’s go back 47 years and see how little we’ve learned.

  • An open letter to Bingman, Udall...

    Will we be able to secure the U. S./Mexico border, or will it be impossible? With the U. S. Border Patrol denied access for routine patrol in federally designated wilderness areas along Arizona’s border and with new corridors and safe havens for illegal activities in wilderness along the border in New Mexico, how would securing the border be possible?

  • Media to be or media not to be

    KRSN AM 1490 is Los Alamos’ radio station. It has been here since 1947.

    It has been a part of the fabric of this community for 63 years. It entertained Manhattan scientists after long days of inquiry. It grew to include news, sports and entertainment. It grew to be “the talk of the town.” It is a piece of living history continuing to bring you news, sports and entertainment.

  • Obama and Clinton: The best and...

    We put a man on the moon and returned him safely to Earth. More than once, even.

    Inspired yet? More Nobel laureates and millionaires are in the Obama administration than ever before. Feel a tingle down your leg maybe?

    All of the pieces are in place for a remarkable turn of events.

    For the first time in our history, a sitting president will face a primary challenge from a member of his own cabinet. If this isn’t hope and change, what is?

  • Questions surround gov.’s...

    SANTA FE — Gov. Bill Richardson still has Billy the Kid on his mind. This time, instead of trying to dig him up, he’s wanting to pardon him for his sins.

    The governor invited me to his office a few months ago to ask if I would help him gauge public opinion, especially among the Billy community, about his project.

  • Over commitment to code poses a...

    Friday (June 18) the Monitor underscored the problems of economics going forward we face.

    The Hannemann/Holsapple debate will, I suspect go on about how well business development happens here.

    But the lead story about our station, KRSN, still having antenna placement problems, shows the difficulties that many here, including myself, see as over commitment to code and under commitment to community needs.

  • LAPS is beginning to look like...

    I opened Thursday’s Monitor and read where the LAPS administration is getting comfortable in its new nest. Was I surprised to find out that the nest is a “building from owner Elmo C de Baca with the intent to buy it.”

    More taxable property out of the tax bucket. Silly me; I thought my tax dollars had just been spent to provide them with spanking new pads in upscale “Pajarito Cliffs.” Oh, those digs are just for the worker bees; not the higher ups.

  • Ceded control of the Gulf is...

    British Petroleum is denying our media access to some of the areas affected by the Deep Water Horizon oil rig disaster. It has also violated OSHA regulations designed to protect cleanup workers’ health and safety.

    BP refuses to issue respirators to cleanup workers, who are being sickened and hospitalized for exposure to toxic fumes from oil and from a chemical dispersant, banned in other countries, which is being used in defiance of an EPA order. Training time for these workers is less than that required by OSHA regulations.