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Today's News

  • Agencies seek to aid rape victims

    A Highlands University student says she struggled to get clear answers on what to do after she was raped earlier this year.

    That’s the type of situation local officials want to change.

    The woman said she didn’t immediately report her assault to authorities. She said she wanted to clean up first.

    “I was in such shock,” she said.

    The student knew the terminology and asked Alta Vista Regional Hospital if it had a sexual assault nurse examiner, or SANE. The hospital didn’t, she was told, but it had rape kits available.

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  • COLUMN: New energy, old feuds

    Las Vegas City Manager Timothy Dodge took the helm more than a month ago after having served several years as the manager in Santa Rosa.

    So far, he has been receiving good reviews. He has been credited with getting citizen input in the Lee Drive area about a controversial roundabout and acting on their concerns. And he has also gauged residents’ views on various issues in the area of Robertson High School, especially when it comes to traffic.

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  • LETTER: Swift punishment is effective

    I am responding to the debate about the death penalty. If you believe the absoluteness of so-called science fiction, you are strongly deluded. Anyone who has studied science and statistical analyses should know that you could interpret and make numbers (percentages, significance, error, etc.) say whatever you want them to say!

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  • School fund for breakfast dries up

    State funding for the West Las Vegas school district’s breakfast program has dried up, an official said last week. It’s not clear whether the programs will continue next year.

    The district was hit with a 2.5 percent reduction in the 2008-09 allocation, the district’s budget director, Doug Hendrickson, told the school board at a meeting.

    Board President Christine Ludi asked if there was a way to make sure the program continues.

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  • Dem chief beats challenge

    A statewide Democratic Party committee on Saturday rejected a challenge to the San Miguel County party chairman’s recent re-election.  

    But the attorney for the challenger promised to seek a court’s determination on whether the party should seat certain delegates.

    Earlier this month, Chairman Martin Suazo, who has headed the local party for eight years, was elected to another two-year term, getting 84 delegates’ votes to Ambrose Castellano’s 10.

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  • Lujan visits Vegas

    U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., was in Las Vegas Friday to open a constituent office that will be headed by Pam Garcia.

    The office is on the the Highlands University campus across the street from Ilfeld Auditorium. Lujan said the office is one of six he is opening in the 3rd Congressional District.

    “We are opening up offices throughout the district that will be accessible to the constituency and in areas that we can provide a high level of service. We have offices opening in Santa Fe, Tucumcari, Gallup, Farmington, Rio Rancho and Las Vegas,” Lujan said.

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  • County won’t take over road

    The U.S. Forest Service has officially backed off from a petition asking the county to take over a forest road in the Pecos area.

    This week, the County Commission unanimously voted to accept the federal agency’s request to withdraw the petition.

    In November, the Forest Service requested the county take over Forest Road 223. But a county road-viewing committee recommended against doing so, saying the agency needed to obtain the proper easements from landowners and settle all issues involving the road.

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  • COLUMN: Seeking computer illiteracy?

    Whenever there’s an error in the Optic, some readers likely  think we messed up. And they holler, “Hire a proofreader!”

    But isn’t it possible that we merely plant a typo here and there? Why? To give readers something to talk about and us something to write about. Like now.

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  • EDITORIAL: AG won't let Block escape

    The state attorney general’s office stepped up to the plate when Jerome Block Jr. admitted to the Optic last fall that he had lied on his campaign finance report. The AG immediately launched an investigation of Block, who won a seat on the state Public Regulation Commission in November.

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  • 2006 election may have been illegal

    In late 2006, then-Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Gallegos was the subject of a recall election, but he beat it back.

    Now it turns out the recall election may have been illegal in the first place. An expert in municipal government told the council last week that the city wasn’t supposed to have provisions to recall an official in the city charter.

    Randy Van Vleck, an attorney for the New Mexico Municipal League, said that the city is not a home-rule community, so it is limited by state law about what it can have in its charter.

    Click here to read more...

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The Las Vegas Optic is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in San Miguel County and Las Vegas, NM, and the surrounding area.