Opinion

Around Houston Medical Center are six billboards inviting its employees to come to New Mexico, where they will be “Free to Provide.” The message is repeated in full page ads in the Sunday editions of dailies in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston.

The American dream seems to be dying. No matter how you define it—whether it means owning a home or making it big—advancing in America seems harder to achieve. A parent’s ultimate goal has always been to see their child prosper more than they did. Upward economic mobility means giving your child the tools to be better off. It doesn’t always work. But why? What makes mobility possible and why do we fail? After over a decade of research, economists at Harvard published a paper last week that gives insight to the poverty trap and a way out. If our city and state are to improve, we must concentrate on one thing: jobs.

Almost daily as a State Representative, I hear from someone about their troubles with a regulator. This to often has to do with a construction project being stopped while waiting for one of the required construction permits. Typically, this delay is caused by the Construction Industries Division which headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Delays are costly and in most contractor’s opinion, it is unnecessary and unwarranted.

By Sherry Robinson Former Gov. Susana Martinez once described her first legislative session, in 2011, as “handto-hand combat.” A former DA, Martinez had no experience with the Legislature, and went in swinging.

By Merilee Dannemann Healthcare companies should never have profit as their primary mission, don’t you think? There’s a genuine conflict between the profit motive and what healthcare is supposed to accomplish: providing a service that heals people’s illnesses or helps them stay healthy. For a healthcare institution to be successful, profit has to be tempered with giving priority to the wellbeing of patients.