After being exposed to months of campaigning, and in some cases mud-slinging at whatever cost, McKinley County voters will pick winners June 7 in a number of interesting primary races, from possible new persons in the District 3 McKinley County Board of Commissioners seat to perhaps somebody equally new in seats related to District 5 and District 4 of the New Mexico House of Representatives and Senate.

In McKinley County hundreds of poll workers are set to start working. Besides who will win each of the races, and there are quite a few that pertain to McKinley County, one question yet to be answered is how many registered votes will actually turn out to vote. Early voting numbers around...

A two-generation approach gives parents tools to better their situations

Back in 2013 when New Mexico fell to 50th in the nation for child well-being, advocates hoped that the state’s policy-makers and administrators would finally rally together and take up the cause of improving child well-being in a concerted manner. We hoped the state would launch a comprehensive plan to ensure that our impoverished children have all of the opportunities, supports, and protections that middle- and upper-income children have, which would also give them the best shot at becoming successful adults.

Nearly three years later the state has launched PullTogether—a campaign seeking to “make New...

Credit Lt. Pat Salazar of the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office for doing his part in keeping the heat on McKinley County’s drug dealers who operate under the radar of other drug-fighting agencies.

Street level drug activity isn’t done by the kingpins, but by the people who sell and use illegal narcotics. “Druggies” at whatever level are the scourge of every neighborhood. They attract crime and violence like a dead animal attracts vultures.

The people who do such illegal are fairly blatant in some areas of Gallup and McKinley County. This observation is maddening, but it is something that Salazar has grabbed by the horns and something that doesn’t appear that he’ll rest on...

Signs that the school year is coming to end have been arriving in mailboxes throughout greater McKinley County the past few weeks, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service.

Usually stiff and hand-addressed, the missives come in those smallish colored envelopes that scream “invitation.” Graduations are wonderful moments.

And that’s what graduation invitations are, no matter if they’re from Gallup High or Miyamura High or Tohatchi, Rehoboth or Monument Valley high schools. “Your presence is requested at my high school or college commencement,” a typical invitation reads, followed by the place, date and time.

Be there, is the message.

Each of us has been to our share of graduation...