Analysis: Commissioners fill vacant seat with fellow native before imminent departure of three members
The questions the City of Truth or Consequences city commissioners asked applicants who were competing to fill an empty commission seat revealed the officials’ settled beliefs that the native born are best suited to lead, public comment directed to the city commission is useless and often bilious and city commissioners work as a team in support of city staff.
New Mexico Senate committees advance two redistricting maps
Senate Bill 1 would make significant changes to the three Congressional districts by grouping much of northern New Mexico with a portion of the southeast part of the state. The bill also suggests including rural areas like Carrizozo with much of the urban Albuquerque area. But more rural areas of Albuquerque would be included in the southern Congressional district. Senate Bill 2 proposes adoption of a map creating three Native American-majority Senate districts.
State House map backed by tribal governments heads to House floor
Representatives of sovereign nations, pueblos and tribes have expressed their unified support for the map put forward by Daymon Ely (D-Corrales) in House Bill 8.
H.E.L.P.
This postmortem of a case involving a 75-year-old women who went missing from her home in Hillsboro last September sheds light on the bounds of law enforcement’s capacity to respond, especially in large rural jurisdictions such as Sierra County, and underscores the critical role the public, as well as concerned family and friends, can play in assisting a missing person’s search.
Poetry as catharsis
This small volume of poetry reveals its author to be a woman of unfettered passions and ideals, unafraid of exposing herself to a troublesome but beautiful world.
Reader at Large: October 8–29, 2021
A digest of some of the best and most thought-provoking articles and books enjoyed by the author in the past several weeks
Tenet
If you are looking for an escapist spectacle (with the added attracting of a mind-bending plot), the latest entry from writer-director Christopher Nolan (“Memento,” “Inception,” “Intersteller”) will do the trick.
The Underappreciated Comic Genius of Anthony Michael Hall
Anthony Michael Hall, the guest celebrity at this weekend’s Truth or Consequences Film Fiesta, is not simply a great actor. The author makes the case here that Hall, who appeared in such iconic teen comedies of the 1980s as “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club,” was the funniest kid ever on film.
Welcome to Searchlight New Mexico
High-impact journalism is expensive. Keep the Sun alive in spirit by joining the Searchlight New Mexico community of readers and contributors.
Sun to close, pass torch to Searchlight New Mexico
Upon the Sun’s dissolution, our board of directors will distribute the preponderance of our remaining financial assets to the Sun’s content-sharing partner, Searchlight New Mexico, a Santa Fe-based news site devoted to investigative reporting.
An appropriate wrap-up
Federal and state laws require tax-exempt organizations, upon closing, to distribute their assets to another not-for-profit organization with a similar mission.
The soft vigilantism of Frances Luna
The Truth or Consequences City Commissioner used her other bully pulpit in the Sierra County Sentinel last Friday to call for local-government critics to be verbally assaulted in stores and on the street.
“I wish one day there wouldn’t be no drugs here”
Addiction, resilience and hope in Chimayó
Analysis: How New Mexico’s appellate court gave Copper Flat Mine a boost
New Mexico Copper Company lost its bid in the New Mexico Court of Appeals to retain pre-basin-declared water rights for the Copper Flat Mine project, but the court’s November ruling has given the company another shot at “vested” water rights.
Understanding New Mexico’s proposed new social studies standards for K-12 students
“The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.”
—National Council for the Social Studies
Ethos closing in on broadband construction start date
Ethos Broadband continues working with the Bureau of Land Management to obtain a construction permit to install a fiber-optic network that will bring internet access to rural Sierra County, while Sierra Electric Cooperative, a partner in this venture, has begun using the $2.1 million provided by the county to replace the electric poles needed as the physical supports for fiber-optic lines.