Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords Meets With Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard Of Los Alamos On Gun Bill
Gathered together at the Roundhouse Tuesday to discuss House Bill 50 (gun bill), from left, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard of Los Alamos and New Mexico House Speaker Brian Egolf. Courtesy photo
STATE News:
Dist. 43 Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard of Los Alamos met Tuesday afternoon with former U.S. Rep. Gabby Gifford of Arizona and New Mexico House Speaker Brian Egolf at the state capitol in Santa Fe.
Garcia Richard and Gifford met to discuss House Bill 50, which seeks to require that all commercial firearm sales in gun shows and via the Internet Read More
Senate Bill 140 Rewarding High Performing Public Schools Is Voted Down In Senate
GOP STATE News:
ALBUQUERQUE – Sen. John Sapien and fellow Democrats have voted against Senate Bill 140, which would have provided high-performing school districts the same additional flexibility provided to charter schools in New Mexico.
The legislation would have given school districts with grades of A or B for two consecutive years flexibility on several legal requirements of public schools in New Mexico, including the length of the school day, class load, and subject areas covered by the curriculum. These requirements are already waived for New Mexico charter schools.
When the legislation Read More
Bipartisan Compromise To Fund New Mexico Courts Goes To Governor For Action
STATE News:
SANTA FE – Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives concurred with a Senate-amended proposal to provide emergency funding to New Mexico’s judiciary branch.
House Bill 261, as amended by the Senate, makes supplemental appropriations for the New Mexico Supreme Court and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). It will provide $80,000 to the Supreme Court to help meet a projected $82,600 shortfall in its current year budget, and it gives $1.6 million to the AOC to pay for jury and witness fees as well as other operational needs. The bill is sponsored Reps. Nate Gentry (R-Bernalillo) Read More
Udall Celebrates Contributions Of African Americans
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall Bill To Support NM Businesses Passes House
STATE News:House Passes Legislation To Raise Awareness On Link Between Animal Abuse And Intra-family Violence
HOUSE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS News:
SANTA FE – Tuesday evening, the House of Representatives unanimously approved House Joint Memorial 6 sponsored by Rep. Jim Dines (R-Bernalillo).
The memorial requests that the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) and the Department of Public Safety (DPS) consider training their providers on the connection between animal abuse and intra-family violence.
Studies have identified a link between animal abuse and violence against family members. Individuals with a history of animal abuse are approximately three times more likely to commit Read More
Heinrich Rallies For Wind Power
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich Letter To The Editor: Character Attack Requires Rejection
A Concerned CitizenMr. Antos,
I had intended to put the dispute incited by your letter to rest, but your last character attack requires rejection.
I think my reply to you stands on its own – it invites civil discourse and is not spineless. Unfortunately your reply to my anonymous letter reflects exactly the reason why I am not publishing my name. Unlike you, I do not have the privilege of being the descendant of an immigrant (I guess you are the better immigrant), I am an immigrant myself. Language like yours and language used by the present administration normalizes character attacks, Read More
AFT-NM Responds To House Bill 2
AFT-NM News:“It is no secret New Mexico is in an unprecedented budgetary crisis, and no part of State government has been held harmless during throughout the several rounds of deepening cuts. Public education funding in New Mexico has been hit particularly hard – from early education through higher education – with roughly $125 million dollars in lost funding since the New Mexico Legislature passed the budget for the 2017 fiscal year.
NNSA Elite Unit Marks 20 Year Anniversary
NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz. Courtesy/NNSA
NNSA News:
Counter, respond, and if necessary mitigate a nuclear or radiological incident quickly. This critical mission is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration’s (DOE/NNSA) JTOT (Joint Technical Operation Team) Program, which marks its 20th anniversary this month.
JTOT is an agile, task-organized unit, ready to react at a moment’s notice to support nuclear and radiological weapons of mass destruction incidents. The program taps into technical and scientific expertise Read More
House Advances Bill To Expand NM Broadband
STATE News:Rescue Therapy Dogs, Animal Advocates To Assemble For Animal Protection Lobby Day At Roundhouse
Courtesy photo
STATE News:
Santa Fe – Animal Protection Voters (APV) will host Animal Protection Lobby Day, Wednesday, Feb. 22, joined by a troupe of registered therapy dogs offering cuddles and photo opportunities for lawmakers, Roundhouse staff and lobbyists alike.
More than 150 animal advocates are expected to take part in Animal Lobby Day, calling for the passage of legislation to help animals and people including:
- Cracking down on horrific animal cruelty and neglect;
- Securing much-needed funding for low-income spay/neuter services; and
- Banning
House Passes Bill Removing Teacher Leave Penalty
STATE News:
SANTA FE – Monday evening, the House of Representatives approved House Bill 241, a bill sponsored by Reps. Jason Harper (R-Sandoval) and Dennis Roch (R-Quay) to allow teachers to use their contractually-allotted sick leave without the fear they will be docked points in their evaluations.
House Bill 241, known as the “Teachers Are Human Too” bill, would allow teachers to use up to ten days of sick leave and all personal days without it negatively affecting their annual performance evaluations. The bipartisan bill is cosponsored by Representatives Stephanie Garcia Richard (D-Los Read More
Letter To The Editor: We Can Censor Tone While Not Censoring Ideas
By KHALIL SPENCERI agree with Mr. Nebel (link). Censorship is a bad idea and drives ideas underground rather than testing and dispensing with them out in the open. But that’s not what I was getting at in my letter.
There is a vast difference between attacking someone personally, i.e., ad hominem, and blasting their ideas out of the water when their ideas are, to put it nicely, sitting ducks for rhetorical ammunition. Frankly, I share some of Mr. Antos’ excruciating disdain for some of the ideas put forth by my fellow liberals but I much prefer to dissect
Bill Helping Firefighters With PTSD Passes House
STATE News:
- HB 157 Establishes PTSD as Disease that May Result from Firefighters’ Duties
HB 157, legislation that establishes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a disease that—when diagnosed in a firefighter without previous health issues—can be presumed to have been caused by the firefighter’s service, passed the New Mexico House of Representatives Monday.
“Yes, our firefighters are heroes, but they are also human,” bill sponsor Rep. Debbie Armstrong said. “We ask so much of them—from running into burning buildings to pulling victims out of mangled cars. It’s time we let them know that Read More
Letter To The Editor: Censoring People Won’t Help
By RICHARD NEBEL
Los Alamos
While I agree with Mr. Spencer that the Post has the right to publish or not publish whatever it wants, I’m glad that it has published Mr. Antos’s letters.
I don’t agree with much of what Mr. Antos said, but I think he needs to be heard. The fact that a large segment of the population feels that they haven’t been heard has a lot to do with the present acrimonious
situation in Washington. Censoring people isn’t going to do anything to help that situation.
Listening is a better idea, even if it isn’t reciprocated. Read More
Letter To The Editor: Ok. Will You?
By JIM BOWIEMr. Antos,
Just to clarify, rather than attempt to respond to what I said to you, you chose to attack me personally. My point, sir, was to show you that if you do not keep things civil, those who are smarter than you may choose to use their superior command of the English language to give you a taste of your own medicine.
Just because you lack whatever sense of self-preservation prevents people like me from writing outlandish, offensive, and inaccurate letters, does not mean that my words are somehow less poignant for withholding that my name. Yet somehow you seem to think that Read More
Heinrich, Collins Introduce Two-Generation Economic Empowerment Act To Address Poverty In America
U.S. SENATE News:Letter To The Editor: Why Should We Settle For Anything Less Than Excellence?
By KHALIL J. SPENCERThere has been quite a bit of back and forth on Mr. Antos letters in response to those with whom he disagrees. I suggest a simpler solution than ones offered by other letter writers: Screening.
Back when I first started writing letters to the editor in the late 1980’s in Honolulu, these had to be printed out, signed, put in an envelope, and mailed. I suspect that weeded out a lot of bad copy. Further, one assumed that the editorial staff of the newspaper was under no obligation to print our two cents, so we were very careful to write compelling, A-student prose. Unfortunately Read More
Today Is Presidents’ Day
HOLIDAY News:
Today is Presidents’ Day, an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government.
Traditionally celebrated Feb. 22—Washington’s actual day of birth—the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the Read More
