.....Advertisement.....
.....Advertisement.....

Today's Opinions

  • COLUMN: Divorce doesn't go through

    SANTA FE — I’ve told this one before but it is even more appropriate now. It illustrates how politics works, anywhere, at the most basic level.

    It was 1994. Gov. Bruce King was running for a second consecutive term. Lt. Gov. Casey Luna had left the fold. Patricia Madrid and Diane Denish were the leading contenders to replace Luna.

    On primary election night, Democrats met at the Hilton Inn, by the Big I, in Albuquerque. Much of the interest centered on the close race for lieutenant governor. Both candidates had big hospitality rooms.

    Click here to read more...
  • EDITORIAL: Openness can only help

    For years, the Las Vegas City Council and city staffers have discussed the thoughts and statements of Floyd Duran, a federal official with great power over the local housing authority.

    The Las Vegas native placed the authority on troubled status in 2005, which meant greater federal scrutiny. But he has said nothing publicly about the process since that time.

    Click here to read more...
  • COLUMN: We have failed as an industry

    I’ve been reading the Albuquerque Journal for more than two decades; as the state’s largest newspaper, it’s been my bible for New Mexico news.

    But the Journal, like the rest of us, is having to make serious cutbacks in this recession.

    In last Friday’s Journal, tucked away on the bottom of the business page deep inside the Journal, the paper ran a story with the headline, “Journal announces newsroom changes.”

    Click here to read more...
  • COLUMN: Float again carried humor

    SANTA FE — Humor carried the day again for New Mexico in the 2009 Rose Parade. Our float, depicting Wile E. Coyote rocketing down Route 66 after New Mexico’s state bird was selected by judges for the Bob Hope Humor Award.

    It’s the second year in a row that a whimsical theme has won an award for New Mexico. Traditionalists were mortified last year when the state Tourism Department selected a topic promoting New Mexico’s Spaceport America, with an assist by three little green men from Roswell.

    Click here to read more...
  • LETTER: A personal reaction to terrorism in Gaza

    I spent the first years of my life in northern England living below the flight path of Luftwaffe planes as they flew back and forth from Germany in an effort to “take out” the docks, canals, mills and mines of industrial Lancashire and to use fear to demoralize the population.  Air-raids, sirens, nights spent in shelters and in darkness, explosions and making my way to school passing bombed and burned-out buildings were the norm.

    Click here to read more...
  • EDITORIAL: Compromise needed

    Our society needs to eliminate any unnecessary bureaucracy that keeps officers from doing their jobs. Unfortunately, a policy at the San Miguel County jail may be keeping cops off the streets.

    Both state and city police officials have criticized a jail policy that requires medical clearances for all DWI offenders. The jail’s warden insists the policy has been in place for years, while the police agencies contend it has been in effect for just a few weeks. Maybe the jail enacted the policy long ago, but it appears that jailers hadn’t been enforcing it until lately.

    Click here to read more...
  • LETTER: Choice decoration along Interstate 25

    It’s been a pet peeve of mine for several years. On and off the air. Every time I drive into town to check the mail, go to the bank or run other errands, I hop on Interstate 25, exit 347 and off the middle exit. And every time I admire the choice decorations of wrecked cars, old trucks, gutted school buses, single wides with their roofs flapping in the breeze, 18-wheelers and mountains of wooden pallets along that stretch of I-25.

    Click here to read more...
  • EDITORIAL: Growing the economy

    Last week President-elect Barack Obama laid the hammer down. On Thursday he called upon Congress to “act boldly and act now” to address an economy in peril, by enacting tax cuts and government spending measures totaling as much as $1 trillion. Using his strongest words so far, Obama outlined a nightmare scenario that included a recession that lasts for years and unemployment in the double digits.

    Click here to read more...

Copyright © 2013

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.