Author Archives: merilee

The long haul after Covid

 NOTE: This column was written and published before the delta variant surge in 2021. Some days, only one person dies of Covid in the whole state of New Mexico. Good news, right? No, it most emphatically is not. It is … Continue reading

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Millions of school lunches

It’s been a tough year for New Mexico schoolchildren, but through it all, they have at least had access to meals. That will continue through the summer. The school meal program has been chugging on, month after month.  Students who … Continue reading

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Can a business require masks?

Some years ago, I went to a “dollar” movie theater a few days after having seen a report on TV about children with head lice. Thinking maybe dollar movie theaters were not as clean as full price theaters, I looked … Continue reading

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Let’s teach people to read

Almost half of New Mexico adults can’t read well enough to understand this paragraph. The statistics from 20 years ago are not showing improvement . New Mexico’s school children are also behind. According to the Kids Count Data Book for … Continue reading

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Badly written legislation

Old saying: nobody is safe when the legislature is in session. This year, I agree more than usual. My top concern was bad bills in good causes. I read several. A bill can originate in many ways. A legislator or … Continue reading

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Clean rest stops and good roads

“The rest stops were built in the 1950s and cleaned in the 1970s.” So commented New Mexico State University economist Jim Peach in a recent talk about the state’s economy. He got a good laugh. He was talking about New … Continue reading

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Lawyers in the legislature

“You’re not a lawyer and you’ve never been in the legislature,” said the line in the TV commercial. This line helped get Garrey Carruthers elected governor in 1986. Toney Anaya, former state attorney general, was the unpopular incumbent governor that … Continue reading

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The sick leave law is out of balance

The American workplace is undergoing a revolution. The workplace is not a place simply to do a job and receive a paycheck. If that wasn’t clear before, it has been made abundantly clear in the last year. Some of the … Continue reading

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Avoiding poison and saving bees

If you eat local honey, somebody told me, you will not develop allergic reactions to local pollens. This is either true or a harmless superstition. It’s one of several reasons to choose local New Mexico honey. Honey sold internationally is … Continue reading

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Workers’ comp bill does not protect workers

In the second year of Covid, we agree that we want to reward our heroes, right? We want to support the doctors and nurses, the grocery clerks and others who have risked their health to take care of the rest … Continue reading

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