Today's News

By Jeri Clausing
The Associated Press

CARLSBAD — Officials investigating a leak from the federal government’s only underground nuclear waste dump tried to reassure skeptical southeastern New Mexico residents Monday night that their health is safe.

More than 250 people attended a two-hour meeting to ask questions about back-to-back accidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and the first-known release of radiation from the repository.

We’re baffled by the state Legislature’s failure to enact a law that makes it clear that each and every one of us is responsible for reporting child abuse if we’re aware of it.

Given the recent high-profile child abuse cases that have dominated television newscasts in recent months, we would have though that closing this legal loophole would have been high up on lawmakers’ list of priorities. Sadly, it took a back seat to other matters, and the most vulnerable children in our state may end up paying the price.

Admittedly it’s been more than a decade since I’ve been inside a public school classroom — not as a guest or guest speaker — but as the holder of the grade book.

By Matthew Lofton
NMHU Sports Information

Highlands sophomore Destiny Dilworth hit a pair of NCAA qualifying marks at the Joe Davies Open Saturday afternoon in the final tune-up for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The meet was held in Golden, Colo.