OP/ED

Kyrala: Response To ‘Appeal For Legitimate Art In Art Tunnel’

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By GEORGE KYRALA 
Los Alamos

I am very upset by Rabbi Shlachter’s mail to the Los Alamos Daily Post (link), it is reprehensible and hurts many feelings beyond misstating some facts.

The comment and feeling expressed by a Rabbi “to erase expressions from some people’s comments and aspirations on the underpass tunnel” is racist. Erasing people and their feeling just because you feel “repugnant” to an idea that expresses freedom for an abused nation is so undemocratic, uncivilized, unbecoming, and inhumane. That feeling may reflect, and may explain, the total abuse that is been inflicted on Read More

DeVolder: Los Alamos Community Not Interested In Preserving The Environment

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By Mark DeVolder
Los Alamos

The latest Los Alamos “Trail” Project once again demonstrates the community’s lack of interest in preserving the environment.  

The project prompted me to consider the following:

  1.  The project trades off grass/sod for concrete. There is less grass to absorb carbon dioxide and offset global warming. The concrete absorbs heat from the sun which adds to global warming versus grass which creates oxygen through photosynthesis. The area in front of Fuller Lodge has less grass which reduces the amount of open space for the pleasure of adults, children and pets. (Note: If
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Op/Ed: Excluding Volunteer Firefighters From New Mexico’s Cancer Presumptive Law Poses Serious Health Risks

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By JONATHAN SHARP
Chief Financial Officer
Environmental Litigation Group, P.C.

Without a doubt, firefighting is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. Firefighters are susceptible to smoke inhalation, burns, and crush injuries from collapsing structures. However, a more insidious health threat they regularly face is toxic exposure, which is often responsible for cancer.

When extinguishing blazes, firefighters can breathe in formaldehyde, asbestos, benzene, carbon monoxide, as well as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Often dubbed PFAS or “forever Read More

Op-Ed: HB 114 – Destruction Of State Firearm Industry Act

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By ERIK RASMUSSEN
President
NM Firearms Industry Association

This dangerous legislation, prefiled at the Roundhouse by Los Alamos State Representative Christine Chandler, targets the already heavily regulated firearm industry with potential litigation intended to make it impossible to remain in business in New Mexico.

This specific, aggressive targeting of the singular industry necessary for the citizens to exercise a constitutionally protected right weaponizes the civil justice system and will create a vacuum into which unlicensed and unregulated persons and entities will likely Read More

Op-Ed: Don’t Write Off Electric And Related Technology Vehicles; They May Be Our Salvation

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By Peter LaDelfe
Los Alamos

I’m writing this in response to Doug Reilly’s Op/Ed, “Electric Vehicles Not Quite the Panacea…,” LA Daily Post, January 4, 2024 (link). While I disagree with none of what Mr. Reilly says, I believe he has overlooked important factors. Most notably, he treats battery-electric vehicles as the apex technology for transportation, ignoring the hydrogen technologies and other emerging developments.

With regard to hydrogen, I will admit from the outset that charging a battery from the electrical source will always be more efficient than converting electricity to hydrogen Read More

Hanrahan: Dreams Of Long Lasting

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By LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

Another good bye. I first became aware of Triatomics, the Los Alamos Multi-sport club, twenty years or so ago when we would be driving home sleepy from floaty night at East Park Pool and they would be running down Canyon Road in the gloaming in their bathing suits. Seemed a little weird but a few years later all the kids would be running alongside them.

Triatomics will probably become a thing of the past this month. Times change, membership dwindles, people move on. This breaks my heart. I can’t imagine having raised my family without this club. There is Logan who by running
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Op/Ed: Response To ACLU Regarding Antisemitism

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By KRISTINA HARRIGAN 
Class of 1978
Harvard Law School

The ACLU “Gov’s dangerous executive order could silence protected speech in New Mexico” (link) warns that the Governor’s Executive Order’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s definition of antisemitism, adopted by the Federal Government and over 40 countries around the world, threatens Constitutionally protected free speech.

This is a blatant misrepresentation.

The Order does not aim at speech but at acts that accompany the speech. Its purpose is to determine whether an act that, on its own, violates Read More

DeVolder: Experiments With Snow Shoveling

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By Mark DeVolder
Los Alamos

I have been manually shoveling snow for years. There have been a number of problems with shoveling snow. It wears me out and is hard on my body. I park my vehicles on the street. I spend a great amount of time (hours) clearing away the snow on the street so that my vehicles can be moved with losing traction, tearing up mechanical parts on the vehicles, etc. Then, the Los Alamos County snow plows come along during initial and / or “mop-up” plowing efforts and spray snow back under and against my vehicles (in seconds).

I have repeatedly contacted the County about this issue, and Read More

Op-Ed: Gov’s Dangerous Executive Order Could Silence Protected Speech In New Mexico

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By KRISTIN GEER LOVE
Senior Civil Liberties Attorney
ACLU of New Mexico

As the war between Israel and Hamas intensifies, students in New Mexico, as across the country, have shown support for Palestinians’ rights.

They have walked out of classrooms, published an open letter, marched, and held signs in protest, using their constitutionally protected rights to call for an immediate ceasefire. They have also called on New Mexico’s state government to stop subsidizing worker training programs for one of the country’s leading weapons manufacturers whose weapons have fueled Israel’s attacks Read More

Op-Ed: Take & Bake Pizza And Armed Insurrection

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By LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

It has happened before but not in a while. Was waiting on my couple of pizzas after a really trying day and the conversation began again. The customer asked the pizza guy what he thought of all the state supreme courts giving poor ex-President Trump such a terrible, hard time.

Of course the pizza guy responded that they were all crazy law-breaking nuts! Hey, what else. What else? 2024 terrifies me. I can’t be the ONLY one who remembers our ex-President in his creepy long black coat making the call to arms that cost people their lives. Their lives. People died. It really Read More