Each year, the month of October brings cooler weather, pumpkin-spiced foods, costumed trick-or-treaters, and breast-cancer-awareness activities.

Since the initial breast-cancer movement began some 25 years ago, various shades of pink, among other symbolic pink awareness artifacts, have lobbied for our attention during the month of October. It’s a not-so-subtle reminder that October has become an annual time everywhere to raise people’s conscience about breast cancer.

Why does this disease get so much attention when it comes to women’s health? What is it about breast cancer that transforms the national conscience? The color pink is everywhere this month, and it’s hard not to...

This November, voters in McKinley County will be asked to invest in New Mexico’s public colleges, universities, and specialty schools. General Obligation Bond C (referred to as GO Bond C) is asking voters to release $131,106,200 statewide to New Mexico’s institutions of higher education.

Here in McKinley County, $1.5 million is being requested for the University of New Mexico-Gallup Campus to be used for planning, designing, construction and equipping of a new physical plant facility.

While approval of funding for a new physical plant building will bring enormous benefit to our campus and community, a vote for GO Bond C will not increase taxes.

Our current physical plant building...

Part 2 of 2; continued from last week

The path to public investment

The path to a strong New Mexico begins with making smart investments. There are many common-sense ways to raise new money, create jobs, and bolster our economy:

• Require all out-of-state corporations to pay income tax on their profits in New Mexico

New Mexico is one of the few states that still allows out-of-state corporations to shift their New Mexico profits on paper to another state to avoid paying taxes here. We lose millions in revenue, and local businesses lose out. A partial fix (called Mandatory Combined Reporting) to this was enacted in 2013, but it exempted many profitable corporations such as...

NM has highest rate of young children receiving SNAP benefits in nation

ALBUQUERQUE - A report released the week of Oct. 11 by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls the food assistance program Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps, the single largest provider of nutrition assistance to children in struggling families across the country.

The report also shows that 46 percent of New Mexico’s young children—ages zero to four—receive SNAP benefits. That’s the highest rate in the nation.

“Getting a healthy, adequate diet is especially important for our youngest children, because nutrition plays a huge role in brain development,”...