Opinion

A few years ago, Cinder Road was blacktopped with asphalt. The makeshift design by the county made little or no consideration for drainage or floodwater runoff. These problems were brought to the attention of county officials, with our concerns falling on deaf ears. After several heavy rains caused damage to my property and the county commissioner of District 1 did nothing to alleviate the problems caused by poor maintenance and design, I contacted Sen. Pete Campos.

On behalf of the Our Lady of Sorrows Church Confirmation Program, we would like to thank all the people who donated money, oranges and water for our annual Good Friday pilgrimage. We would also like to thank the Knights of Columbus and other volunteers for their assistance in traffic control and for providing water and oranges to our participants.

In addition, we want to thank Richard Vigil for providing two buses and to the West Las Vegas School District for providing an additional two buses to transport the walkers from Las Vegas to Tecolote.

As a student at Robertson High School, I learned a lesson from Ms. Florence Hernandez (my literature teacher) that has been especially poignant through my 15-year journalism career.

It was Ms. Hernandez’ theory that the more languages a person knows, the more valuable they are. Following that lesson, I felt pretty puffed full of pride to know that as an English and Spanish speaker I was worth two people according to her theory. That is until one of my classmates proclaimed they spoke English, Spanish and French.

A little more than a month ago, I wrote a column in which I criticized and defended our online comments feature, all in the same space. I was hoping that if I encouraged a more civil tone and told readers how to police the comments themselves, we could raise the discussion to a more responsible level.

I was wrong.

Thumbs UP for ... A GOOD MOVE ... Highlands University regents passed a policy regarding the naming of buildings on campus. Wisely, it excludes current employees or politicians while in office.

Thumbs DOWN for ... A MOVE THAT COMES UP SHORT. However, Highlands property can still be named after sitting regents — a provision that we wish had also been prohibited. Best to take politics completely out of the naming of facilities, we think.

On April 15, Tax Day, two of my dogs were apparently taken out of their dog run.  These dogs mean a lot to me.  They used to belong to my son.  I contacted the city police and Valerie at the Animal Shelter.  Fortunately both dogs have all of their shots, tags, and are spayed or neutered. Valerie took my report and put up a notice.  Later, I contacted Tina at the Animal Welfare Coalition. A “lost dogs” notice was put into their website. I received several phone calls and eventually found the dogs.

“Six degrees of separation” is a concept that tries to show that everybody is connected to everybody else by just six steps.

The observation, of about 1994 vintage, is also called “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon,” the “Footloose” actor who’s been in just about every other movie. The task, when it became a game, would be to show a connection between any actor and Bacon.

In the old Westerns, sheriffs didn’t have to contend with anything resembling a bureaucracy. The sheriff was a county’s top lawman.

Maybe that’s the way it was, but not anymore.

At a recent sheriff candidates forum, San Miguel County Sheriff Benjie Vigil told the audience that his deputies would start carrying Tasers in June. Never mind the County Commission’s opinion.

Of course, the sheriff still has latitude in how he runs his department. But the County Commission indisputably holds the purse strings.

In 2008, a pollster called me to ask about the presidential race. The first question: “Do you belong to a media organization?”

I answered yes.

The caller said, “Thank you very much,” and hung up.

In other words, someone didn’t want the media finding out about the poll. It was likely a push poll, in which the caller asks questions with a bias — an example of a question on abortion: How do you feel about Barack Obama’s position in favor of killing babies?