Politics

House Advances Bill To Expand NM Broadband

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STATE News:
 
SANTA FE ― Monday night, the New Mexico House of Representatives approved a bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Smith (R-Bernalillo, Sandoval and Santa Fe) to establish a statewide broadband network in New Mexico and help create new job opportunities in communities across the state.
 
House Bill 113 would direct the State Chief Information Officer to work with state government and educational institutions to coordinate funding for the network and pool demand. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Bernalillo) who also has introduced a duplicate measure
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Rescue Therapy Dogs, Animal Advocates To Assemble For Animal Protection Lobby Day At Roundhouse

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Courtesy photo

STATE News:

Santa Fe – Animal Protection Voters (APV) will host Animal Protection Lobby Day, Wednesday, Feb. 22, joined by a troupe of registered therapy dogs offering cuddles and photo opportunities for lawmakers, Roundhouse staff and lobbyists alike.  

More than 150 animal advocates are expected to take part in Animal Lobby Day, calling for the passage of legislation to help animals and people including:

  • Cracking down on horrific animal cruelty and neglect;
  • Securing much-needed funding for low-income spay/neuter services; and
  • Banning
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House Passes Bill Removing Teacher Leave Penalty

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STATE News:

SANTA FE – Monday evening, the House of Representatives approved House Bill 241, a bill sponsored by Reps. Jason Harper (R-Sandoval) and Dennis Roch (R-Quay) to allow teachers to use their contractually-allotted sick leave without the fear they will be docked points in their evaluations.

House Bill 241, known as the “Teachers Are Human Too” bill, would allow teachers to use up to ten days of sick leave and all personal days without it negatively affecting their annual performance evaluations. The bipartisan bill is cosponsored by Representatives Stephanie Garcia Richard (D-Los Read More

Letter To The Editor: We Can Censor Tone While Not Censoring Ideas

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By KHALIL SPENCER
Los Alamos

I agree with Mr. Nebel (link). Censorship is a bad idea and drives ideas underground rather than testing and dispensing with them out in the open. But that’s not what I was getting at in my letter.

There is a vast difference between attacking someone personally, i.e.,  ad hominem, and blasting their ideas out of the water when their ideas  are, to put it nicely, sitting ducks for rhetorical ammunition. Frankly,  I share some of Mr. Antos’ excruciating disdain for some of the ideas put forth by my fellow liberals but I much prefer to dissect

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Bill Helping Firefighters With PTSD Passes House

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STATE News:

  • HB 157 Establishes PTSD as Disease that May Result from Firefighters’ Duties

HB 157, legislation that establishes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a disease that—when diagnosed in a firefighter without previous health issues—can be presumed to have been caused by the firefighter’s service, passed the New Mexico House of Representatives Monday.

“Yes, our firefighters are heroes, but they are also human,” bill sponsor Rep. Debbie Armstrong said. “We ask so much of them—from running into burning buildings to pulling victims out of mangled cars. It’s time we let them know that Read More

Letter To The Editor: Censoring People Won’t Help

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By RICHARD NEBEL
Los Alamos

While I agree with Mr. Spencer that the Post has the right to publish or not publish whatever it wants, I’m glad that it has published Mr. Antos’s letters.

I don’t agree with much of what Mr. Antos said, but I think he needs to be heard. The fact that a large segment of the population feels that they haven’t been heard has a lot to do with the present acrimonious
situation in Washington. Censoring people isn’t going to do anything to help that situation.

Listening is a better idea, even if it isn’t reciprocated. Read More

Letter To The Editor: Ok. Will You?

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By JIM BOWIE
Los Alamos

Mr. Antos,

Just to clarify, rather than attempt to respond to what I said to you, you chose to attack me personally. My point, sir, was to show you that if you do not keep things civil, those who are smarter than you may choose to use their superior command of the English language to give you a taste of your own medicine.

Just because you lack whatever sense of self-preservation prevents people like me from writing outlandish, offensive, and inaccurate letters, does not mean that my words are somehow less poignant for withholding that my name. Yet somehow you seem to think that Read More

Heinrich, Collins Introduce Two-Generation Economic Empowerment Act To Address Poverty In America

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U.S. SENATE News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. ― U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) reintroduced the bipartisan Two-Generation Economic Empowerment Act to give states, local governments, and tribes more flexibility to create partnerships that invest in families living in poverty.
 
The bill aligns and links existing systems and funding streams to target both parents and children with support aimed at increasing economic security, educational success, social capital, and the health and wellbeing of whole families.
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Letter To The Editor: Why Should We Settle For Anything Less Than Excellence?

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By KHALIL J. SPENCER
Los Alamos

There has been quite a bit of back and forth on Mr. Antos letters in response to those with whom he disagrees. I suggest a simpler solution than ones offered by other letter writers: Screening.

Back when I first started writing letters to the editor in the late 1980’s in Honolulu, these had to be printed out, signed, put in an envelope, and mailed. I suspect that weeded out a lot of bad copy. Further, one assumed that the editorial staff of the newspaper was under no obligation to print our two cents, so we were very careful to write compelling, A-student prose. Unfortunately Read More

Today Is Presidents’ Day

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HOLIDAY News:

Today is Presidents’ Day, an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government.

Traditionally celebrated Feb. 22—Washington’s actual day of birth—the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the Read More