Earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the application by a Florida-based company named Holtec to build a new waste storage facility in Lea County. The license authorizes Holtec to store 500 canisters holding 100,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, though Holtec plans to eventually store up to 10,000 canisters, shipped in from nuclear power plants around the country.
The United States government has a nuclear waste storage problem, and it sees its solution in southeast New Mexico.
Earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the application by a Florida-based company named Holtec to build a new waste storage facility in Lea County. The license authorizes Holtec to store 500 canisters holding 100,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, though Holtec plans to eventually store up to 10,000 canisters, shipped in from nuclear power plants around the country. My unsolicited advice for this year’s graduates is simple: move slow and fix things.
In 2014, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg coined the phrase, “move fast and break things” to describe the mentality of our new 20-year-old tech-sector corporate leaders who believed all human knowledge gained over the centuries had been made obsolete by quantum computing. I doubt there are many people over the age of 50 who grew up in this country and have not experienced some form of hazing, including the governor.
I still remember sprinting home following the last day of class in elementary school to avoid the horrors of having lipstick smeared over my face, which had somehow become a tradition. The timing may seem odd, given the recent turmoil in the men’s basketball program, but New Mexico State University was wise to give Athletic Director Mario Moccia a five-year contract extension.
The move brings stability to the department as the university is in the process of replacing its current leader. Moccia’s previous contract was set to expire next summer. His top priority now must be to restore a men’s basketball program that had clearly spun out of control. In 1981 Sally Field won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of an ambitious and reckless newspaper reporter in the film “Absence of Malice.”
The reporter uses information leaked by a federal prosecutor for a front-page story wrongfully accusing the character played by Paul Newman of the murder of a union boss. The evil newspaper gets away with it because of a 1964 Supreme Court ruling. Do we have the right to see Donald Trump’s mugshot? Do we have the right to see anybody’s mugshot if they haven’t had their day in court yet?
The second question came up during this year’s Sunshine Week event, which featured an outstanding panel of local journalists talking about crime reporting. The consensus was that, while we all have the right to view any public document, the media also has a responsibility as to what it publishes. I had hoped that legislators would take advantage of the unprecedented $9.4 billion budget this year to begin the transition away from an economy that is dependent on oil and gas revenue, but I don’t think that was ever on the agenda.
The governor had promised before the election that we would all get checks in the mail if she won, so that was a given. Legislators also passed new tax credits for the film industry, and a phased-in reduction of the gross receipts tax. I’m not at all comfortable with my new position to the right of Republican leaders on foreign policy.
As a child who grew up watching the Vietnam War on the nightly news and fearing it would still be raging when I turned 18, I have always opposed the military adventurism of Republican leaders, whether it was Richard Nixon in Vietnam and Cambodia; Ronald Reagan in Central America or George W. Bush in Iraq. New Mexico’s unpaid, part-time Legislature has 15 members who are attorneys, including both the speaker of the House and the majority leader of the Senate. There are only two medical doctors, and one of them is retired.
Perhaps that’s why our medical malpractice laws are so skewed in favor of the lawyers. Of the four general obligation bonds approved by Las Cruces voters in the November, 2022 election, two addressed critical needs (affordable housing and a new fire station) and two addressed wants (improvements to city parks.)
Incredibly, the City Council has prioritized our wants ahead of our needs. And so, park improvements will go ahead as scheduled. And, thankfully, so will construction of a new fire station on the north side of the East Mesa. |
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