By: Steve Pearce

 Our grandson returned to Arkansas yesterday after spending 2 weeks with Cynthia and me in New Mexico.  About a month ago our granddaughter was with us for a couple of weeks.

We had him tag along to campaign events.  He got to meet Susana Martinez, Matt Chandler and a couple of the other candidates here in New Mexico.

We managed to work in a “couple” of grandson type things.  Joe and Sarah Yue have been long time friends of the family and have watched over our daughter like she was their own, she referred to them as “Uncle Joe and Aunt Sarah”. 

Now, they have a full relationship with our grandkids.  Two or three days Uncle Joe, Preston and I went fishing.

  There were bass and blue gill in abundance.  

 …and “big catfish”.  Preston landed this one.

Preston started this puzzle one night so almost every night our spare minutes found us puzzling over the pieces. 

 Calls on Teague to Take a Position 

HOBBS, NM – Following the passage of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Steve Pearce said:

By: Steve Pearce

The mission of our C-130 unit in country was to fly things around.  We flew food, ammunition, people, vehicles, etc.  We hauled “stuff”.  In the GI vernacular we were trash haulers. 

Two of the most desired commodities were mail ferried in from home and feature films which made their way from one base to the next.  Each small outpost would have its own version of a movie theater so Army and Marine troops would meet the planes with high expectations of what films and mail would be there. 

One day, in late 1971 our crew was on such a mission.  When we hit the ground all 4 of us crew members helped get the cargo off so that our turnaround time was minimal.  It cut the exposure time to both the oppressive heat and to enemies who might want to take advantage of the big slow targets but who would need precious minutes to get themselves in position for our departure.

By: Associated Press

Retired state worker Joyce Pankey cast her absentee ballot in New Mexico's primary election last month thinking that she alone knew which of the candidates she favored.

Wrong.

For Pankey and hundreds of voters in New Mexico, and potentially those in a handful of other states, the secret ballot is not so secret. It's possible to learn the identities of voters and which candidates they supported by checking public records.Detailed election data, which that lawmakers have demanded to help them with their campaigns and redistricting, often is the culprit .

"It shocks the hell out of me," Pankey said when an Associated Press reporter recently told her how she had voted and how that could be determined. She was the only person to cast an absentee ballot in her Santa Fe precinct.

Ballot secrecy is a bedrock principle of the nation's electoral system, but it's compromised in places like New Mexico, Florida and California, where election results are broken down with precinct-by-precinct tallies for different types of ballots.

In New Mexico, there are absentee ballots that can be returned by mail, early in-person voting and Election Day balloting at polling locations.