OP/ED

Op-Ed: Celebrating Our 236th

by

By JOHN PAWLAK
Los Alamos

Back in high school, several math-nerd friends of mine and I were in the Debate Club. To tell the truth, we didn’t really like formal debating. Being fans of axiomatic thinking, we just liked to argue!

One year, we tackled the question of “When did the United States of America become a country?” Having battled many math problems in my life, I learned that the declaration of a propositional “truth” was not considered complete until the final victory flag was waved with a QED.

And so we declared the Declaration of Independence to be just that, a declaration, a proposition, a Read More

Op-Ed: Response To Matthew Jeremy’s Response To James Rickman’s Op-Ed

by

By DAVE WILSON
Los Alamos

Mr. Jeremy brings up some valuable and useful insights in regard to the Fourth Amendment, and the expectation of personal privacy when an individual is in a public space (link). I appreciate the time he took to do so. He is indeed correct that the courts have ruled that there is no legal presumption or expectation of privacy when you walk out your front door and into public areas. Indeed, you compromise your expectation of privacy even when you exit your home and go into your backyard.

“At the time it was adopted, the Fourth Amendment prohibited the government from entering Read More

Op-Ed: One Million Metric Tons—What It Took And Why It Matters

by

By AMANDA HEHR
COO
Kathairos Solutions

On May 30, Kathairos Solutions crossed a milestone we have been working toward since the company was founded: one million metric tons of CO2 equivalent eliminated through our nitrogen venting elimination systems. I wanted to take a moment to explain what that number means, how we got here, and why we think it matters beyond our own balance sheet.

Methane venting during oil and gas operations is one of the more tractable emissions challenges in the energy sector. It is not a problem that requires shutting in production or waiting on breakthrough technology. Read More

Op-Ed: ‘County Shows It Doesn’t Give A Flock About Surveilling Citizens’

by

By JAMES RICKMAN
Los Alamos

Perhaps I should feel grateful that County leaders dispatched their official Spin Doctor to reply to my letter about the emergence of a network of Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) in our community (link). But outside of Mr. Krueger’s “Trust Us, We’re the Government” response, the County continues to sidestep the issue of why the cameras were installed in the first place.

Is Los Alamos facing some kind of underlying existential threat that necessitates its citizens giving up some of their liberties to gain a little more security?

The way the County tells it, Read More

Op-Ed: New Mexico Doctors And Patients Are Being Held Hostage By Insurance Profits—Not Lawsuits

by

By CHERIE LACOUR
Principal
Bencoe & LaCour Law

For years, a familiar ghost has been used to haunt the halls of the Roundhouse in Santa Fe: “litigation crisis.” We are told that greedy trial lawyers and “runaway” juries are driving doctors out of New Mexico and forcing medical malpractice premiums into the stratosphere.

But according to the American Medical Association’s (AMA) own latest data, that ghost doesn’t exist.

2024 Data from the National Practitioners Data Bank paints a different story.

  • Total medical malpractice lawsuit compensation for victims – NM ranks 15th nationally
Read More

Op-Ed: Protecting Our Right To Read

by

By Rep. KATHLEEN CATES
District 44
Bernalillo & Sandoval Counties

Imagine walking into a library filled with thousands of books and never finding one with a character who looks like you. Out of all the books in a public library, not one featured a character who shared your lived experience.

Banning books is harmful because everyone should be able to easily find books with characters that represent them.

In the last year, 4,235 unique titles were challenged, making this the second highest number in the history of the American Library Association. The same report stated, ”39% of these challenged Read More

Op-Ed: The Facts About Project Jupiter’s Water Usage

by

By JULIA ROBIN
Head of Infrastructure Planning and Sourcing
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

In southern New Mexico, water is a precious resource that touches everything. It touches families and businesses. It touches agriculture and the food we eat. It touches public health and safety.

And ultimately, it touches the region’s long-term future. We take our responsibility to preserve water very seriously, so we want to help clarify and correct the record about the Project Jupiter’s water use. We updated the project’s power design last month and want to give residents of Doña Ana County the most Read More

Op-Ed: To Grow Up And Leave Los Alamos…

by

By Sal DeWitt
From Los Alamos 

I never knew there was a part of life I was missing until I left Los Alamos.

Maybe it’s a part of becoming an adult, but now I understand what everyone meant

When they talked about it being a 

Sheltered,
Quiet,
Town.

Los Alamos is like a ray of sunshine hidden in a dark alley. Sometimes even unnoticed, but too small to see beyond the walls of the buildings surrounding it. Not able to reveal how dark the world could really get.

I moved to Los Angeles
After rehab,
After the drugs,
After realizing the darkest addiction existed in places people call “perfect.”

And now I find myself Read More

Op-Ed: Don’t Join The Flock

by

By JIM RICKMAN
Los Alamos

Big Brother is relentlessly watching the citizens of little Los Alamos, but who is watching Big Brother?

Over the past months, a growing network of surveillance cameras have been mysteriously installed on lamp posts along Trinity and Diamond drives. These cameras ostensibly are automatic license plate readers, Flock cameras, or some cheaper knock off. Regardless of the brand, these systems are entirely self-contained, never blinking or running out of power—watching every coming and going every minute of every day.

Data about your travels, the configuration of Read More

Currier: Voting Shapes NM’s Future—Your Voice Matters

by

By MISSI CURRIER
President & CEO
New Mexico Oil and Gas Association

Every election cycle brings debates about candidates, policies, and politics. But at its core, voting is about something much bigger: shaping the future of New Mexico and ensuring your voice is heard on the issues that matter most to you, your family, and your community.

Primary elections are now underway across New Mexico, and this year’s races will help determine decisions about our economy, education system, healthcare, infrastructure, public safety, energy policy, and job creation for years to come. Those choices Read More