分类: Commentaries

Walt Rubel Commentary: NBA’s gambling problem is likely to spread

10/28/2025

To me, the Kentucky Derby really is the most exciting two minutes in sports. Twenty horses fire out of the gate, each trained precisely for this moment and willing to give every drop of energy to be first to the finish, a mile and a quarter away.

But, horse racing has always been more about gambling than sport. And so, it’s seen as being shady. And with good reason. Medina Spirit, the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby, was disqualified after failing the post-race drug test.

Walt Rubel Commentary: State gets Holtec to cry “uncle”

10/14/2025

New Mexico may not become the nation’s nuclear dump site after all. I suppose that’s a good thing.

Holtec International spokesman Patrick O’Brien announced last week that it is giving up on plans to build a nuclear waste storage facility near Carlsbad, “due to the untenable path forward for used fuel storage in New Mexico.”

Walt Rubel Commentary: Health care continues to vex GOP

10/7/2025

No matter how much the president and his supporters want to focus on crime and immigration, going so far as to send Black Hawk helicopters on a nighttime raid into Chicago last week, health care continues to be the issue that has vexed him and his party since the Obama administration.

It is the reason the federal government is now shut down, as Democrats try to prevent the expiration of tax credits that would mean huge increases in health care insurance premiums. A worker making $45,000 a year would see their health care premiums nearly double, from $2,475 to $4,311. Those making $28,000 would have their premiums nearly quadrupled, from $325 to $1,562.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Skids were greased for Project Jupiter

9/30/2025

I feel like we just got suckered into buying a timeshare based on the sales pitch that it’s a one-day-only deal and if we don’t act now we’ll never have this chance again.

I don’t know enough about Project Jupiter, an AI data center campus to be built in Santa Teresa, to have a well-informed opinion as to whether the benefits will outweigh the obvious dangers to our air and water. And, I don’t think I’m alone.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Limit special session to H.R.-1

9/9/2025

There are typically two types of special sessions of the Legislature called in New Mexico, one to address circumstances that didn’t exist when lawmakers adjourned and can’t wait until January; the other to punish legislators for not passing a bill the governor wanted.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham attempted the latter when lawmakers wouldn’t go along with her public safety agenda last year, and it failed miserably. This year is different.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Case management deadlines needed

9/2/2025

As a candidate running for district attorney last year, Fernando Macias argued that the reason the office was unable to comply with caseload deadlines imposed by the state Supreme Court was mismanagement by Gerald Byers, the beleaguered incumbent, leading to chronic understaffing of the office.

“Right now, there are 70 employees at the DAs Office,” Macias said during a community radio interview last October. “There are 21 attorney positions, if you include the DA. There are basically eight out of the 21 that are actual attorneys in court handling thousands of cases over the course of the year. So how can an office like that truly operate effectively?”

Walt Rubel Commentary: New threat, little help for workers

8/26/2025

This Labor Day seems like a good time for a reminder that the minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour for those living in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. The last time they saw a raise was 2009.

The costs of goods and services have increased by about 150 percent since the last time the federal minimum wage was raised, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most states have taken it upon themselves to set a livable wage for full-time workers. But for those in states that have not acted on their own, prices keep going up while wages stagnate.

Walt Rubel Commentary:CPB cut about politics, not savings

8/12/2025

During a recent committee meeting at Las Cruces Community Radio, we discussed what impact the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will have on us.

Since the mid-1960s, the CPB has provided funding and stability for public radio and television stations throughout the nation. Today, there are more than 1,000 member stations for National Public Radio and more than 350 public television stations, reaching nearly every corner of the nation.

But that’s about to change.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Is CD2 now a safe seat for Dems?

8/5/2025

Does the decision by Yvette Herrell to accept a position in the Trump administration rather than run for her old seat in Congressional District 2 mean that seat is now as safe for Democrat Gabe Vasquez as it once was for Republicans Joe Skeen and Steve Pearce?

Democrat Harold Runnels had held the seat for a decade before his untimely death in August, 1980, less than three months before the election. His hold on the seat was so tight that Republicans didn’t bother nominating a candidate to run against him.

Walt Rubel Commentary: Nostalgic look at childhood starvation

7/29/2025

CNN is now airing a special series about Live Aid, the global concert held in 1985 to combat mass starvation in Ethiopia.

The series features interviews with a healthy young woman and her proud father today. She was a withered baby starving to death and her father was desperate for help when the two were first filmed by news crews during the famine.

The series isn’t over yet, so I’ll reserve final judgment. But thus far it seems to suggest the greatest rock stars in the world all came together on one day and combined their massive popularity and talent to forever end world hunger.

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