Columns

Education 101: School Board Passes Budget that Reflects Community Standards for Class Size

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Education 101: School Board Passes Budget that Reflects Community Standards for Class Size

By Save Our Schools Los Alamos

The Los Alamos Public School Board recently authorized a $37.9 million budget for the 2014-2015 school year. This increase of $1.3 million over last year’s budget came directly from funding provided by the State of New Mexico, a development we wrote about in this column during the Legislative session.

Save Our Schools Los Alamos is an informal group that organized nine months ago after we were surprised to learn – on the first day of school — that K-12 funding shortfalls Read More

Column: PAC Attack Ads Help No One

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By ROBERT GIBSON, Chair
Republican Party of Los Alamos

In these final days of the primary election campaign, Republican households have received mailed flyers attacking one of the GOP candidates for state representative in our district. 

These mailings originated from a political action committee (PAC) outside Los Alamos with no connection to the opposing candidate and obviously no appreciation for our tradition of civil and respectful political discourse.

The same sort of PAC advertising on both sides marred the general election campaign for the same office two years ago.

Professional Read More

This Week at the Reel Deal

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Column by JIM O’DONNELL
Reel Deal              

This week we are opening Maleficent, andA Million Ways to Die in the West. We will hold X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, and Blended. Blended has only one matinee each day so do check our schedule. Million Dollar Arm will end this Thursday.

From what I’ve seen of our two new movies, Maleficent lead by Angelina Jolie, and Elle Fanning, should be great fun for all ages while A Million Ways to Die in the West is both hilarious and vulgar, so I would give it a fairly strong R rating. Read More

Title Insurance Discounts Expanded for Homeowners Who Refinance Mortgages

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By FRED NATHAN
CEO Think New Mexico

The Superintendent of Insurance has signed an order expanding enhanced title insurance discounts to every homeowner who refinances a mortgage in New Mexico. The discounts were advocated for by Think New Mexico, the independent statewide think tank that successfully championed a reform to the state’s title insurance laws in 2009. The enhanced discounts are scheduled to take effect July 1.

Title insurance, which is required by banks before they will approve or refinance a mortgage, is one of the largest elements of a homebuyer’s upfront closing costs.

Before Read More

Food on the Hill: Hawaiian Style Chinese Chicken Salad

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This week’s Recipe: Hawaiian Style Chinese Chicken Salad
 
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.com
 
Ingredients:
 
2 cups of cold chicken, sliced long and thin
4 cups of lettuce, sliced long and thin
¼ of a cup of carrots, sliced thin and about3/4 inch long
wonton strips
Creamy Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing (recipe follows)
2/3 cup thousand island dressing (I use Kens,it has less pickles)
2 tablespoon peanut sauce
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
Water, enough to thin it a little bit the next day
 
Directions:
 
Mix together the dressing the day before
Read More

Hygea Healthy Bite: Why I’ll Never Use Regular Shampoo Again

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By LISA BAKOSI, MS, CHC

I haven’t used shampoo in two months – well the traditional kind anyway. This column is all about why I’ll never go back to expensive traditional products.

What have I been doing instead, you ask?

I’ve been washing my hair with a mixture of baking soda and water. More recently I tried a new recipe called Sweet Tangerine and I LOVE it. Then for conditioner I use a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water to boost shine. I was surprised at how much I like this method. I never thought I could go two days between washings but alas it’s possible. Not to mention how much money I’m saving by Read More

How the Hen House Turns: Wild Neighbors – Ground Squirrel

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How the Hen House Turns
Wild Neighbors: Ground Squirrel
Column by Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D.

One day, while searching for something under the house, husband Don opened one of the small doors to the crawl space and found it totally blocked with dirt. He shoveled out two full wheelbarrow-loads, but didn’t find the cause of the dirt eruption.

Two days later the same crawl space was blocked again. Another two wheelbarrow-loads had mysteriously appeared in the crawl space. Again he shoveled it out and filled the empty space, adding moth balls. The next day the dirt was piled up again, with the moth Read More

Sydney’s Corner: The Ancient Greek Games

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Sydney Frazier and her mom, Kerri Frazier race on the Olympic track at the Panathenaic Stadium. Photo by Jason Frazier
 
The flame that starts the modern Olympic Games is still first lit at Olympia, where the Games began. Sydney Frazier poses in front of the site. Photo by Jason Frazier
 
The Temple of Zeus at Olympia. Photo by Jason Frazier

Sydney’s Corner: The Ancient Greek Games

By SYDNEY FRAZIER

Sydney Frazier is the granddaughter of Los Alamos resident Teralene Foxx and is traveling the world with her parents for two years. As part of her home schooling during the trip, she is Read More

Pawlak: Children of the NRA

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By JOHN PAWLAK
Los Alamos

Do you remember the last time you bit your tongue? When you do bite your tongue, you can’t seem to stop biting it. You start focusing on the pain and consciously trying to avoid chewing on it, and in doing so, you find that you almost can’t help biting it again. It’s like the bitten area has swollen to the size of a grape and it’s impossible for you to close your mouth without clamping down on it.

It’s human nature to zero in on that which most offends us, and in doing so we give its existence a strange sort of credence.

Enter one of the strangest and

Read More

Solo Traveler: Fun with Billboards

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Solo Traveler: Fun with Billboards
By SHERRY HARDAGE

A few years ago I wandered across the United States to the east coast and drifted back over a period of three months. I camped in my van (basically a tent-on-wheels) or stayed with friends and relatives along the way. It was a wonderful time-alone trip that allowed me to get a visceral feel for just how big this country really is.

Along the way, I drove in silence, listened to music, or “read” a recorded book. I learned the hard way that fiction was a bad idea. Happily visualizing voracious vampires while listening to an Anne Rice novel, I almost slammed Read More