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Opinion

  • Letter: Ways to open up the...

    I also fell in love with this wonderful city. It was not in our retirement plans to move, but we did.

    I understand the statement of a closed community. The only way I know to deal with this is to open it up.

  • As It Is: People are watching

    Shortly after his arraignment, former Robertson High School teacher and coach Jay Quintana secured the money for his release from jail. His bail had been set at $100,000 cash-only.

    A day later, the manager of a Wagon Mound gasoline station told me that she had seen Jay Quintana, who is accused of sexually abusing a student, filling up.

    I called a magistrate judge and he told me that Quintana was allowed to go anywhere in New Mexico under the conditions of his release.

  • Editorial: Consider victims

    The four remaining defendants in the Robertson High School football assaults case are now seeking separate trails. Their attorneys say a single trial for all of them would make a fair trial difficult, if not impossible.

    We hope they don’t get their way.

    We understand that these defendants have the right to a fair trial, but severing these cases would be unfair to the victims. Imagine having to testify four times — once will be difficult enough. And once should be all that’s needed.

  • Mil Gracias letter

    The 2009 Apple Harvest is now history and the last event was very successfully completed.

    Thank you parishioners for buying apples during the recent fund-raising to benefit the Heating and Air Conditioning Project at the Our Lady of Sorrows Church and thank you very much to the individuals who helped selling the apples: Bernie and Dora Duran, Robert Tyrrell, Marty and Michael Sweeney, Lettie Martinez, Albert and Lorraine Gallegos, Gloria Roman and Ernie Montaño.

    Juan A. and Alice Sandoval

    Las Vegas

  • Editorial Thumbs

    Thumbs UP for ... STAYING PREPARED. Government always operates better when it takes the long view, rather than just responding to the latest crisis. Recently, San Miguel County Commission Chairman David Salazar asked to see what existing county rules may apply to any permits for oil and gas drilling.

  • Editorial: A giant in state politics

    Politics is a full-contact sport, especially in New Mexico. It’s all about power, competition, compromise, persuasion and relations, and in this rough-and-tumble world, Bruce King was a real pro.

  • Editorial: Prepare for cuts

    Last week, fears surfaced that more than $1.5 million in state funding may be lost to the city of Las Vegas because of budget cuts, but there’s good reason to think that’s only the beginning. The state is facing more than a half-billion dollar shortfall and the legislature is going to have to deal with it by cutting expenses, raising taxes or doing both.

  • Editorial: Guns escalate...

    Las Vegas lost a beloved member of the community last week in an act of violence that didn’t have to happen. And it wouldn’t have happened if a gun hadn’t been readily available.

    Now, a young and promising life is lost and another young man — Richard Baca, 21, of Los Lunas, who had been serving his country — is facing the possibility of years in jail.

  • Work of Art: Happy over haplology

    There’s little more flattering than receiving a letter, call or e-mail from a reader in a “gotcha” moment. “I caught a typo in your last column. You were supposed to have spelled it ‘proofreader,’ not ‘poofreader.’”

    Well, yes, the first spelling is what you’ll find in the dictionary. The second — done for effect, honest — usually appears in this column.

  • Letter: Professor, program has...

    In John Loehr’s Nov. 13 column, he rightly praised the efforts of Dr. David Olivas to improve the developmental and introductory math program at Highlands. However, John incorrectly described those improvements as the result of an individual effort on the part of Dr. Olivas, with no support from the Highlands administration, and with no equivalent effort in the English program.

  • Mil Gracias letter

    I recently had surgery in Alta Vista Hospital. I want to thank and praise Dr. Malik, Dr. Chaffee and the entire surgical team and hospital staff for their comforting, professional care. I am proud we have such a wonderful regional hospital in Las Vegas, so we don’t have to travel elsewhere for great medical care.

    On all other occasions at Alta Vista, I have always been treated compassionately and professionally.

    Thank you, Alta Vista Regional Hospital.

    Marylena Melton

    Las Vegas

  • Letter: The 'good people of...

    I read the letter to the editor (about prayer at Las Vegas City Council meetings) titled “Why fix what isn’t broken?” OK, supposing many of us do think it is broken. Then what?

  • Editorial: A good move by the county

    More than two years ago, employees at Alta Vista Regional Hospital overwhelmingly approved a union to represent them. But the hospital — run by Tennessee-based Community Health Systems — has refused to talk with the organization, District 1199 of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees.

  • As It Is: It shouldn't have...

    I didn’t know either Benito Lemos or Richard Baca. And apparently they didn’t know each other.

    A week ago today, Baca, 21, was charged with killing Lemos at National Avenue and 12th Street.

  • Editorial: Water funding vulnerable

    Every government entity in the state is vulnerable to statewide budget cuts for building projects. The city of Las Vegas is no exception.

    The budget ax may well strike the $1.3 million designated for a rebuilding of the city’s dam on the Gallinas River, a project designed to make the diversion of water more efficient.

  • To The Point: Somebody doing it...

    Highlands professor David Olivas, a retired Los Alamos engineer, has undertaken an heroic project to drag, pull, push, or otherwise cajole the math department he now chairs into the 20th Century (no typo here: 20th is correct).

  • Editorial Thumbs

    thumb UP for ... NOW THAT’S REAL SCHOOL SPIRIT! Members of the student councils at Robertson High School and West Las Vegas High School gathered on the field just before kickoff of Saturday’s Vegas Bowl for the traditional exchange of keys.

    The purpose of the exchange is to symbolize unity as a community rather than a rivalry between school districts. Cody Romero of RHS and Krystle Montaño of West are the leaders of the respective student councils.

  • Letter: 'Closed community...

    I fell in love with Las Vegas the minute I laid eyes on it 15 years ago. I loved the people, the architecture, the trees, the sky, the homes, the sun, rain, wind and the snow. I loved it all. I loved it so much that I talked about it wherever I went.

    My job required me to travel all over Central and Northern New Mexico and you know how it is when you’re in love. You can’t stop talking about the object of your affection, and mine was Las Vegas!

  • Mil Gracias letter

    On behalf of the board and the children of La Plaza Little League, we would like to thank the following sponsors. Without their support, the District 4 Tournament held at La Plaza would not have been a success.

  • Editorial: Good television

    Television is a two-edged sword. It has been both a contributor to and a detractor of the quality of life in America. On the one hand, television made us more closely connected as a nation and to our world, but on the other, it has also pulled us inside, so that our sense of community is more distant. We don’t know our neighbors as we used to, we don’t just sit and around and talk like before, because of the neverending temptation to withdraw into the world of television.