Opinion

Asterman’s Movie Reviews for The Master and Argo

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The Deal Down Movie Review
By Rick Asterman: I am not affiliated with the Reel Deal Theater, or any other financial entity. My mission is to provide concise, honest reviews of movies playing at the Los Alamos Reel Deal Theater, plus parental advisement on the films content and advise on which interested parties you should or shouldn’t take with you to the movie. Scores for the films will be either +1, 0, or –1. By spring, when the year’s award ceremonies start up, I’ll analyze this year’s movies in greater detail, and give a special score of +2 or –2. There is no limit to the number of films from the year
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Letter to the Editor: Furious at Icons on Ballots

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By JJ Maier

I just returned home from voting early here in my home town of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

I was furious to discover that the ballot had “icons” in front of the presidential candidates – not their party icons, but icons selected by the New Mexico Secretary of State:

1. Obama had a distorted eagle

2. Romney had the American Flag

When I called our local County Clerk, they said the local government has no control over how the ballot looks or what is on it and that this ballot format is being used by all precincts throughout the state.

This seems way over the top in attempting to influence citizens at the Read More

Letter to the Editor: The Importance of Voting ‘NO’ on Charter Ballot Questions

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By Patricia Max

There have been several posts regarding the four ballot questions designed to amend sections of the Charter that concern Initiative, Referendum, and Recall.

I urge voters to vote No on all four ballot questions for several reasons.

The first reason is that Council is required by law to present only legal questions to the voters. These four questions are not legal questions because each one was derived from a number of ordinances that were voted on as a group, not individually. This is in direct violation of the following sections of the Charter:

203.2.1 which describes the introduction Read More

Letter to the Editor: Vote ‘NO’ on Charter Amendments

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By Jack and Colleen Hanlon

We are going to vote NO on all four proposed Los Alamos County Charter Amendments for the following reasons:
 

  • The Charter Review Committee (CRC) process was flawed. We believe the County Council (CC) formed the CRC because the CC was uncomfortable about their decision to reject a petition signed by 2,000 citizens. An over-whelming majority of the CRC members supported the CC view to reject the petition, and consequently, the CRC gave little credibility or voice to the petitioners. What a surprise! The CRC was even more repressive then the CC. They proposed Charter
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Letter to the Editor: LAGRI Logic

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Robert A. Pelak and Skip Dunn
Los Alamos Governmental Review Initiative

In a recent letter Fire Chief (Doug) MacDonald questions “LAGRI logic” and cites its opposition to the current charter amendments.

Let’s set the record straight: “LAGRI logic” (Los Alamos Governmental Review Initiative) is founded on its commitment to public participation in local government.

The original LAGRI petition sought to provide voters brand new opportunities to vote on capital projects.

The opportunities to vote on projects indirectly through bonds essentially disappeared Read More

Letter to the Editor: Responding to Lies in Super-PAC Mailers

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By Stephanie Garcia Richard
Democratic Candidate for NM House District 43
Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Sandoval and Rio Arriba Counties

Dear Voters,

As a mother and a teacher, I find the recent tactics employed by Reform New Mexico Now unacceptable, no matter how grave the stakes are in our race for State House.

Many of you have received the recent mailers claiming I would support the largest tax increase in New Mexico history, yet none of the attacks cite actual facts.

That is because it couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth is that since 2010, I have stood up for taxation reform that would Read More

Letter to the Editor: Vote ‘Yes’ on Charter Ballot Questions

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By Kevin Holsapple
Los Alamos

Amongst the various elective office contests and ballot questions on the slate for November’s election are four local Charter ballot questions deserving of your attention and affirmation.

 
They deal with making improvements to the County Charter provisions dealing with citizen initiatives, referendums, recalls, and future Charter revisions.
 
A group formed by the County Council called the Charter Review Committee (CRC) performed a comprehensive review of the County Charter over the past few years, held a whole bunch of public meetings
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Letter to the Editor: Charter Amendments Clarify and Unify the Process

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By Kyle Wheeler
Los Alamos

The charter amendments on the ballot group the various processes for initiative, referendum, recall, and future charter amendments into more sensible groupings within the charter, so if you want to start a petition to recall an elected official or start some other petition, and these amendments pass, the process for how you do it will be spelled out more clearly within the charter.

The amendments clarify and unify the process. Even Rob Pelak agreed at a recent League of Women Voters Forum that the way the Charter Review Committee grouped the items makes sense.

His objection Read More

Letter to the Editor: Vote for Charter Amendments to Improve Local Government

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By Lawry Mann

The four amendments to the Charter seem reasonable to me. For more than two years, they have been discussed in open meetings by the Charter Review Committee and the County Council. 

The Charter Review Committee was selected by the Council to represent a wide cross section of our community. Many meetings were held by the Committee so the public could present and persuade. 

The Charter Committee members themselves had many different viewpoints. The amendments, the product of all those meetings, were presented to the County Council. 

After vetting the proposals Read More

Letter to the Editor: Straightening Record on Several Levels

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By Jim Hall
State Representative, District 43

I noticed the column by Ms. Gunther in the Los Alamos Daily Post. It is an unfortunate combination of rehashing a past issue and conflating political posturing with practical policy.

Since I strongly support New Mexico based businesses (see the business-related bills that I advocated) and have a strong record of encouraging New Mexico business development, the column is particularly disingenuous.

A forthcoming column (perhaps columns—this is not a simple subject) will discuss my corporate tax policy position in detail. However, in the interim, Read More