Columns

Robinson: Another Community Faces High Costs Of Disaster Recovery

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By SHERRY ROBINSON
All She Wrote
©2024 New Mexico News Services

As news spread about a freak storm in Roswell that dumped nearly six inches of rain in as many hours, we worried about people and places. My husband was living in Roswell when I met him, and I’d visited many times.

Safe in a dry house, we were talking about this disaster when it occurred to us: We’re all vulnerable. Before, we could watch the news about fires and hurricanes, but if you don’t live in the mountains or on the coast, it’s a bit removed. The Roswell flood brings climate change to everyone’s front porch.

Roswell City Manager Chad Read More

Fr. Glenn: Saints And Sinners

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By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Whew! Big couple of weeks coming up. Of course, all in the news is the coming election on Nov. 5. People have said that this is the most important election of our time, and that the partisanship is worse than ever. Well, maybe … but it seems we hear that every four years. But it is a civic duty—are responsibility of citizenship—to make each of our voices heard on election days. We may feel like we’re “a voice in the wilderness” in this third most populous country on earth, but as is said, each pebble helps make up the mountain.

With all the quadrennially-rampant vitriol, it’s a bit ironic Read More

Tales Of Our Times: Halloweens And Politicking Deal With Dark News Clips 

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Tales Of Our Times:
By  JOHN BARTLIT
Los Alamos

Halloweens And Politicking Deal With Dark News Clips

Election day, November 5, is mighty few days away. The airwaves have long been filled with everything that can be said before the election. Portions of news have been spun every which way and then some. The time to do better has passed. A calmer topic is Halloween, which has had its own dark spells with the news.

The proximity of these two traditions—Halloween and election day—brings factors to consider. Halloween costumes and masks make for a sense of unreal. Masked wording and varied

Read More

All Shall Be Well: Letting Go

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Clergy from left, Deacon Amy Schmuck, The Rev. Lynn Finnegan, The Rev. Mary Ann Hill, Pastor Nicolé Raddu Ferry and Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com

By Deacon Amy Schmuck
Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church

Grace and peace to you, readers of this weekly article. I pray in the spirit of our column title, “All Shall Be Well” that you are finding ways to feed your souls with comfort, with gratitude, with joy, and with community in order to live into that mantra as you are able. Pr. Nicole’ Raddu Ferry wrote last week about remaining faithful during the election Read More

Mead: ‘Power Humor’

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By William Mead
Los Alamos

At election time it might be good to have some “power” humor.

We have a friend in White Rock who recently had a computer zapped by a power “outage”, even though it was on a surge suppressor. That got us wondering how you can tell if a surge suppressor still works. In the search, we happened on this great (perhaps apocryphal) story.

“Here’s a story: Back when I was doing power supplies one product needed a qualification test to see if it would safely isolate itself from the AC line for a fault. Isolation was achieved by using a huge (size of a frozen orange juice can) SCR to short the Read More

Denish: A Bouquet For Bret Baier

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By DIANE DENISH
Corner to Corner
© 2024 New Mexico News Services

Research shows most of us watch network or cable stations whose reporting or commentary we find most appealing and with which we agree – especially in election season. I rarely watch Fox News.

Nevertheless, last week I saw an alert reminding me Vice President Kamala Harris was about to do her first ever interview on Fox News. I decided to tune in, as did 7.8 million other viewers – over half of them women.

The event was promoted as an interview but what the vice president got was a debate – and a contentious one. She also experienced a lot of Read More

Day: Los Alamos Needs A County With A ‘Can-Do’ Philosophy To Help Small Business Thrive 

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By ROBERT DAY
Los Alamos

I appreciated the editorial by Allen Saenz published in the Sept. 24 Los Alamos Daily Post (link). It confirms many of the concerns that I have regarding Los Alamos County’s lack of support for our business community. I have had my permanent address in Los Alamos for over 70 years and have seen our town proceed from having a thriving business community with a wide variety of stores to a few stores of very limited commodities.

This erosion seemed to begin in the 1980s and proceeded on a downhill path ever since. It appears to have been advanced by LANL being able to rent space at Read More

Robinson: Bipartisan Index Shows Which Members Of Congress Work Across The Aisle

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By SHERRY ROBINSON
All She Wrote
© 2024 New Mexico News Services

Entertainer-turned-politician Kinky Friedman was asked in 2006 about getting the Democrats and Republicans to work together. He responded, “I’m running for governor, not God.”

After months of political advertising that’s more punishing than enlightening, the likelihood of anybody working together to get something done seems remote, despite all their fine language about “reaching across the aisle.”

And yet, sometimes they do. There’s even a measure of how often this happens in Congress.

In 2015 two organizations created Read More

House Speaker Javier Martínez: Kamala Harris And Tim Walz Have A Plan For New Mexico Families

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By JAVIER MARTÍNEZ
Speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives
(D-Albuquerque)

Growing up, I learned the value of hard work from my parents. I also saw that sometimes, no matter how hard they worked, they struggled to get by. One of the reasons I eventually ran for office was to help make it easier for people like my parents to make ends meet.

I am proud to support Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz this election because they share my passion for helping hardworking families thrive. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz grew up in working families themselves. They understand Read More

Posts From The Road: Travels & Reminiscing

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Balloon Fiesta: Beautiful southwestern blue skies were present every day during this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Slightly breezy winds prevented the larger special shaped balloons from flying on some days but it did not prevent them from inflating and remaining on the ground for visitors to enjoy. The standard sized balloons flew every day of the nine day fiesta. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

Special Shapes Glow: A special shapes glow was held on Thursday and Friday evening during the 52nd annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. The glow allows visitors to walk Read More