Opinion

Stradling: Allowed, Forbidden, Compelled?

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By GARY STRADLING
Republican Candidate for County Council
White Rock

Allowed, forbidden, compelled?

As we were finalizing the negotiations on the Open Skies Treaty technical implementation protocols, the question was asked, “What about areas not specifically allowed by the Guidance Document?” The Russians immediately responded, “If it is not permitted by the agreement, it must be forbidden!” The Americans said, “If it is not explicitly forbidden, then it is permitted!” This was the third year I had been the Chairman of this 26-nation technical negotiating group, which met in Vienna Austria.  Read More

Winegar: Golf Course Improvements A Win For Everyone

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By SCOTT WINEGAR
Los Alamos

Our County’s largest recreational facility and central open space area needs long overdue deferred maintenance and upgrades to its infrastructure.

Built in 1947, the Los Alamos Golf Course, is the County’s largest and most used recreation facility. As one of the oldest courses in northern NM, it continues to be a county treasure where friends and family can enjoy the social and medical benefits of outdoor exercise. The appeal of the course is increasing as daily rounds are expected to reach 30,000 this year, doubling the 15,000 reached in 2016. In fact, if you include Read More

Devolder: Using Metrics To Measure Effectiveness Of Government & Political Candidates

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By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

I feel a certain amount of frustration these days when I observe how the Federal, State, and Municipal governments operate. 

Given the complexity of each entity, it is difficult at times to determine the effectiveness of each level of government as well as the effectiveness of new and/or incumbent political candidates. Therefore, what is needed is some method to measure that effectiveness. 

Up until the 1930’s, big business was a dominant force in America. American Government was becoming increasingly dominant too (for example, America’s Great White Fleet Read More

Collord: Small Group Creates Petition Against Pueblo Canyon Bike Skills Park & Multi-Use Trail But Majority Of Town Supports Projects

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By CHRIS COLLORD
President
Tuff Riders

A small but vocal group has created a petition to oppose the development of a bike skills park and multi-use trail in Pueblo Canyon, and even force the tabling of all future discussions of trail building in Pueblo Canyon. 

View the final proposal here: Final Proposal.

Even though the petition is signed by only 125 people in a town of 15,000 (<1%), these types of tactics are difficult for County Councilors to ignore. People who enjoy Los Alamos trails and would like to see them maintained and expanded (which, I think, is by far the majority of the people Read More

Devolder: Operating Issues With Bear-Proof Dumpsters

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By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

A new, tan bear-proof dumpster is located west of Fuller Lodge. The dumpster has a number of issues which require attention:

1) There are no instructions (that is, printed instructions or a graphic) on how to open the doors on top of the dumpster. This has led users to discard garbage in the adjacent blue recycle dumpster (for example, black plastic bags containing garbage, broken glass, and yard trimmings). The bear-proof dumpster is provided with two each steel doors on top of the dumpster. There is a “C”-shaped channel attached to the top of each door. Beneath the C-Channel Read More

Warren: Proposed Golf Course Expansion Is Destructive & Expensive

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By BRUCE WARREN
Los Alamos

You would think that golfers in Los Alamos would be overjoyed to live in a small community with a beautiful 18-hole golf course, heavily subsidized by the taxpayers of this county.

Apparently for some, enough is never enough. For several years now a faction of the golfing community has been pushing the County to expand the golf course into the wooded Open Space south of the present boundaries. This area is a forest of mature, healthy trees and contains the highly popular and well-used Walnut Canyon Rim Trail.

In a meeting of the Parks and Recreation Board (PRB) July 14, this Read More

Wesner: Big Tech Steamrolling America’s Newspapers

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By BRETT WESNER
Chair, National Newspaper Association
President, Wesner Publications
Cordell, Okla.

Google and Facebook have enormous economic and political power in society – especially over the news industry. Many ask if they have played a role in the misinformation that erodes our free press and plagues our democracy.

Google and Facebook have a duopoly of the distribution of digital news content, which drives people to their platforms where they make money. The platforms hoard critical data and use clever tactics, like reframing stories in rich previews, to keep users on their sites Read More

Thank You For Supporting Senior Appreciation Night 2022!

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Scenes from 2022 Senior Appreciation Night. Courtesy photos

By VERONIKA MAGNELIND AND VERA JARAMILLO
The Family YMCA and Los Alamos Parks and Recreation Department

It’s been a little over a month since we pulled Senior Appreciation Night, SAN, 2022 off. It has been
three years (2019), two graduations (2020 and 2021) since we successfully pulled off the event in its
entirety.

A lot of things have changed in Los Alamos since last time we did SAN. Venues previously open and
available for us to use have been closed or are still temporarily closed due to the pandemic. This was my
first year working on Read More

Gessing: Think Twice About Universal Pre-K

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By PAUL J. GESSING
President
Rio Grande Foundation

As we move beyond a contentious series of primaries in both parties and look to the fall election, one of the big issues on the fall ballot is the plan to “tap” New Mexico’s permanent fund to provide universal preschool.

For years this has been an agenda item for the State’s left-leaning interest groups. But it only received legislative support with the retirement of Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith. 

This November voters will decide whether to: “allocate 1.25 percent of the five-year average of year-end market values of the Read More

Reilly: LANL, Why Didn’t Oppie Win A Nobel Prize?

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By DOUG REILLY
Los Alamos

I enjoyed this article in last Thursday’s Daily Post printed edition (link). However, I think it left off the principal reason he was never awarded the prize.

Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, was distressed by its military uses. He stipulated in the Nobel Prize instructions that it must never be given for anything that had military applications.

While Oppie had scientific work outside nuclear weapons, especially the paper co-written after the Manhattan Project that described what we now call Black Holes; he was so connected to Los Alamos and the atomic bomb, I believe Read More