As Ruidoso area residents return to their homes — or what’s left of their homes — we’ll be watching FEMA. For the past two years, since the disastrous Hermit’s Peak Calf Canyon Fire, we’ve heard more about what FEMA hasn’t done than what it has done. This year the agency began changing its New Mexico […]
Commentary
Posted inColumnists, Commentary
What’s Next for Spaceport America?
It was glamour and glitz again as Virgin Galactic sent its last space tourists into the heavens this month. Now the company will fade away for two years to build the next generation ship – not here but in Mesa, Arizona. What’s next for Spaceport America? Maybe it’s time to go back to Plan A. […]
Posted inColumnists, Commentary
Who Wins, Who Loses
It’s hard to know who the biggest loser in the Hunter Biden trial might be. Hunter Biden, of course, who was convicted on three felony counts on June 11 by a jury of his Delaware peers, lost the legal case. Donald Trump lost something bigger; his complaints about two-tiered justice were stopped cold. During the […]
Posted inColumnists, Commentary
Let’s Not Even Call This a Debate
At 7 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time on June 27, more than four months before Election Day, Joe Biden and Donald Trump will spend 90 minutes on CNN airing rehearsed talking points in front of a moderator in two-minute soundbites in a studio empty but for the production crew and campaign staff. Happily, I will be […]
Posted inColumnists, Commentary
Another Non Event High-Profile Felony Conviction
The President’s son, Hunter Biden, was convicted this week on three federal charges stemming from a 2018 handgun purchase where he was found to have lied on his application to purchase the firearm. Pretty much what we learned from the trial and speedy verdict is that Hunter Biden is a mess. There was very little […]
Posted inColumnists, Commentary
Keeping Affordable Housing Affordable
I’m haunted by an online post I saw recently. A young woman said she’d been homeless for months and living in her car. She had lost her apartment because she couldn’t afford it. “Yes, I’m working,” she informed readers. A Good Samaritan had given her a camper shell, and she found a place to park […]
Posted inColumnists, Commentary
Half Truths, Outright Lies and Gas Stoves
In a campaign season filled with distortions, half truths and outright lies, the least I can do is correct my own mistake. I made a factual error in my last column by writing that state House District 31 had three Republican candidates and no Democrat. I missed Vicky Estrada-Bustillo, Democratic candidate for that seat. The […]
Posted inCommentary, Housing & Homelessness, Opinion
Letter to the Editor: City Charter Amendments Need Review by Blue Ribbon Task Force
This letter is provided as opinion/commentary from the authors. You can submit your own: editor@citydesk.org Foundational changes got minimum hearings, little public input. The recent changes proposed to the City Charter by several City Councilors require more public input and education than allowed by the current council president. These changes would reduce the votes needed […]
Posted inCommentary, Letters to the Editor, Placitas
Letter to the Editor: USFS Placitas, Sandia Burn Plans Need 2nd Look
This letter is submitted as reader commentary by the author. Have an opinion? Of course you do! Send it to editor@sandovalsignpost.com Dear Editor: I am contacting you in regards to the proposed “Controlled Burn” that the US Forest Service is proposing in the canyon directly south of Placitas and the San Antonio de las Huertas […]
Posted inColumnists, Commentary
Tax Foundation Calls New Mexico Tax Ranking Respectable
Let’s start with the good news: New Mexico is number one on an important ranking. We have the nation’s lowest property taxes, and they’ve been the lowest for a long time. The reason goes back in history to the 1800s when New Mexicans lost land to tax sales because they didn’t understand American taxation imposed […]