County budgets 22 new jobs, 2% raises
Sandoval County Commissioner Michael Meek, front left, presented a proclamation designating May as Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Rio Ranchoan Kristelle Siarza, front right, read the proclamation at county commission meeting Thursday. She is CEO of Siarza Digital, volunteer executive director of the Asian Business Collaborative and a member of the local Filipino-American community. Photo by Stephen Montoya.
BERNALILLO Sandoval County Commissioners have approved a $232 million preliminary budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
At their meeting Thursday night at the Sandoval County Administration Building, commissioners voted unanimously to approve the budget. It’s due to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration by May 31.
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The suspect in the murders in Atlanta, and others in the police department, news outlets and countless other places, deny these murders were hate crimes motivated by racism. We believe they cannot see this racism because of the invisibility of Asians and discrimination against Asians in the United States, and the accepted normalization of Asian womxn as objects in our society. The suspect’s belief the eradication of Asian womxn would “remove the temptation” of sex addiction is a direct result of a society that hypersexualizes Asian womxn. Sexual objectification is the lived experience of Asian womxn in social and professional settings in this country. At the same time any sex educator will note our remarkable absence in literature and resources on body positive, healthy sexuality. This duality is the Asian American experience of being defined only as it serves the dominant white culture:
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Of all the issues facing New Mexico, the limited access to broadband service should be at the forefront of the Legislature’s agenda. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it abundantly clear that New Mexico can no longer afford to punt this issue to another year. The Federal Communications Commission found that nationwide, approximately 19 million Americans do not have broadband service in their area. Rural areas face even more dire statistics, with almost one-fourth of the population going without internet access.
Unfortunately, broadband coverage in New Mexico falls behind even these averages. According to comprehensive studies done by the New Mexico Department of Information Technology, 20% of the state does not have internet connection. In the digital age, access to internet connection is a human necessity – one that should be equally available to all citizens. When internet service is inac