Columns

Compiled by The Associated Press
The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle on 100-year checkup (March 9):
Audits are a fundamental tool to hold government and quasi-government entities accountable.
Without thorough examination by independent parties, citizens would have to rely on the agency’s word that its operations and accounting are above-board.
When it comes to the activities of the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, verbal assurances just aren’t good enough.

By Paula Garcia

For the Optic

After years of diligence and teamwork, the Mora County Complex will be on its way toward completion in the coming weeks. The final pieces of a delicate puzzle of funding and partnerships have come together with the anticipated signature of Gov. Susana Martinez on the final $245,000 of Capital Outlay funding passed by the 2014 legislature.

Compiled by The Associated Press

The Denver Post on the Keystone XL pipeline (March 3):
It may be the most overhyped controversy of the past few years: to build or not to build the Keystone XL pipeline.
Those in favor of the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast to transport oil from the Alberta tar sands have sometimes exaggerated the project’s potential for economic development, and particularly new jobs.
Those who oppose the project have exaggerated its potential impact on the environment.

The 2014 legislative session will be dubbed the “no-nonsense session.”

Legislators worked extremely hard to forge compromises on everything from the $6.2 billion state budget to proposals to ensure that college students still get help from the lottery scholarship program; from paying for water projects statewide to saving our local hospitals; and from banning texting while driving to protecting schoolchildren from life-threatening allergic attacks.