Fire and Water: The Las Conchas Fire
Column by State Representative Jim Hall
On June 4 and 5, I attended a conference “Impacts and Lessons Learned from the Las Conchas Fire,” sponsored by New Mexico’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NM EPSCoR–https:////nmepscor.org/).
NM EPSCoR is funded by the National Science Foundation, and this year their focus was to research the impacts of climate change on Northern New Mexico water resources.
The Las Conchas Fire broadened their focus to the environmental impacts of wildfire–with water and water quality as an important subtext. Read More
I = IR + SE Innovation Results from Intelligent Risk Taking and a Supportive Environment
Column by Dr. Harry Hertz
Like many people in many companies and organizations, I have been thinking a lot about innovation lately.
In my case, the effort has been a prelude to thinking about upcoming revisions to the Baldrige Program’s 2013–2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence.
I consulted works by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Clayton Christensen, Jeff Dyer, and Hal Gergersen, as well as numerous articles and blogs.
And my conclusion was that innovation (I) is the result of intelligent risk taking (IR) and a supportive environment (SE): I =IR + SE.
In this column, I will explore each of Read More
Letter to the Editor: What Happens When Mike Grabs George by the Ego?
My friend Mike grabbed me by the ego, put me hard up against reality, and forced me to face my shortcomings.
Conceptually, the dialogue went something like this: “George,” he said, “you guys look like you’re hiding something. You can’t just say that signing those petitions will cost people their right to vote on the Charter Amendments. You have to explain it.”
“But Mike,” I wailed, “this is a complicated issue. I can’t put all that information in a $68 dollar ad or a leditter. People have to do some of their own research.”
“George,” he replied, twisting my rationality, “don’t tell me Read More
Canyon Rim Trail: June 5, 2012
PAJARITO RAMBLER…
Column by Nina Thayer
Bone dry. Los Alamos is bone dry and there are only a few wildflowers to be found.
But I will gladly share a “secret trail” and the wildflowers I found there this morning.
A friend and I are both recovering from recent knee replacement surgery, so we strolled at a leisurely pace the lovely new Canyon Rim Trail that parallels N.M. 502 entering town.
We parked at the eastern trailhead immediately across the road from the Coop. There is no sign but one turns right (south) into the paved parking lot between two yellow and black striped poles. Read More
Letter to the Editor: Why doesn’t LANL patch its potholes?
Dear Editor,
I’m wondering why Los Alamos National Laboratory lets West Road, near the Ice Rink, get so full of potholes?
There are now several in the eastbound lane that I go into the other lane to avoid.
In the past when I’ve called Los Alamos County to report the potholes, I discovered that this is a section of West Road that is the responsibility of the Lab to maintain.
Locating the responsible person at the Lab is always an “interesting” (time-consuming) process.
I can’t understand why the Lab doesn’t do routine checks of West Road to assess the potholes Read More
Letter to the Editor: Why do a few individuals so distrust the citizens of Los Alamos?
Why is a small special interest group afraid of the voters?
The Charter Review Committee in good faith made its best recommendations to the Los Alamos County Council for improvements to the Charter.
These were intended to clarify, remove ambiguities and to rationalize the processes that had slowly become obsolete over the years.
Council agreed that the separate recommendations had sufficient merit to warrant sending to the voters for their approval or disapproval.
A small group of people in an organization called LAGRI does not want to let the citizens vote on the CRC recommendations. Read More
Hearing Forces NM Secretary of State to Obey Law
By Cynthia B. Hall, Candidate for PRC
Chief Judge Barbara Vigil of the First Judicial District Court of New Mexico will hear arguments at 4 p.m. today (May 31) from publicly-funded PRC Candidate Cynthia B. Hall and others concerning whether New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna J. Duran should release matching funds as required by state law.
Hall hopes for a decision today on the Temporary Restraining Order and Amended Petition for Writ of Mandamus she filed over the last week.
This hearing has the potential to remedy the damage the Secretary of State has done to Hall and other publicly-financed Read More
