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Today's News

  • Guest column: Tax junk, not healthy, food

    The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce recently proposed that New Mexico reimpose the tax on food. If the GACC wants to raise taxes, a wiser strategy would be a targeted tax on junk food, rather than making necessities like fruits, vegetables and baby food more expensive for New Mexico families.

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  • NMHU back in town

    It’s been a while since New Mexico Highlands basketball fans got to see their favorite teams live in Las Vegas, but given the caliber of the upcoming weekend lineup of games at the Wilson Complex, the wait may be well worth it.

    Metro State College of Denver (11-2, 4-1 RMAC), ranked as high as 12th in NCAA Division II in preseason polls, will be here Friday night to take on the host Cowboys. The Roadrunners are led by wings Reggie Evans (17.2 ppg) and Donte Nicholas (16.8 ppg).

    Saturday the Cowboys face Regis (6-7, 1-4).

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  • West girls are No. 1

    As expected, West Las Vegas girls’ basketball has claimed sole possession of the No. 1 ranking in Class 3A.

    The latest New Mexico High School Coaches Association poll, released Wednesday, gives the Lady Dons (14-1) the nod. West had been tied with Lovington for the top spot but beat the Lady Wildcats in a head-to-head matchup last week. The team has since defeated Mora, Santa Fe and most recently Peñasco (64-42 on Wednesday night).

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  • Work of Art: Polyglot or polliwog?

    It’s always been fun to play with the language. Rather than being a drudge, English can be fascinating. It is to me.

    Let me explain: Several years ago, I served on a committee charged with the hiring of the editor for La Mecha, Highlands’ weekly newspaper. One of the applicants was Eva, an Austrian-born woman who spoke English, Spanish, German and French. She’d been my student in several journalism courses, and naturally, I recommended her. I told the group that Eva was a polyglot.

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  • City OKs housing contract

    The City Council voted last week to approve IHP Construction for a 10-unit renovation in the public housing authority. IHP beat two other bidders, but it wasn’t the lowest. Officials said the lowest bidder had some problems in its proposal.

    The contract is worth $258,000, slightly over the engineer’s estimated cost of $250,000, said Robert Pacheco, the city’s housing director.

    • • •

    The City Council recognized Helen Rivera of El Sombrero Restaurant, which offers free Thanksgiving dinners to the public every year.

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  • 'Cool cucumbers' take part in school's bee

    The words became more difficult as the spelling bee progressed at Paul D. Elementary School last week. And the younger kids began to drop out.

    But third-grader Austen King finished in the top three and stood with fifth-graders A.J Larrañaga and Connor Houdek, who won took first and second places respectively.

    In all spelling bees, there are lessons learned even when kids misspell a word. For example, one of the younger children spelled “honest,” O-N-E-S-T, which makes perfect phonetic sense, and was a lesson in silent consonants and vowels. 

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  • Cardinal grapplers get healthier

    Troy Estrada’s return from an injury came at a welcome time for the Robertson High wrestling team.

    Estrada racked up a 5-0 record over the weekend, boosting the Cardinals to a fourth-place finish in the Moriarty Duals.

    “Troy has been out with an injury, and we are really glad to have him back in the lineup,” said coach Richard Martinez.

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  • Decision on chamber audit delayed

    A dispute between two local business groups made its way to the City Council last week.

    At Councilman Andrew Feldman’s request, the council discussed a possible performance and fiscal audit of the Las Vegas-San Miguel Chamber of Commerce. He has said that he had heard about “serious problems” at the chamber, but he hasn’t said what they were.

    However, the chamber’s president and a top city official responded that no one has brought concerns about the group to them.

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  • Letter: Baca Jr. running on his own accord

    Our son Joseph P. Baca Jr. has decided to enter the race for City Council in Ward 4. He did so after several people encouraged him to seek the position. Both my wife and I were very surprised when he informed us that he was seriously considering entering the race.

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  • Editorial: West should send message

    It shouldn’t take a newspaper to get action on an allegation of drunken driving. But that’s what happened over the last couple of weeks.

    Three weeks ago, the Optic started asking around about a crash involving a West Las Vegas vehicle, which occurred in early August in Moriarty. We then got the Torrance County Sheriff’s Department’s full report.

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