From the Las Vegas Optic New Mexico continues to have one of the highest rates of suicide in the country, and experts worry the COVID-19 pandemic could cause the state’s suicide rate to increase in 2021. In 2019, New Mexico lost 515 people to suicide, according to research by the Legislative Finance Committee released this…
From the Las Vegas Optic By the time the sun set on Monday, Sept. 21, Cassandra Lucero’s family had begun to worry. Her father hadn’t seen her all day, and she hadn’t called. He contacted police, and friends and family began searching for the 29-year-old Las Vegas woman. Investigators with the Las Vegas Police Department…
From the Las Vegas Optic Las Vegas police officers escorted a parade supporting President Donald Trump through the streets of Las Vegas Saturday. The escort was authorized by top members of the Las Vegas Police Department, but some city leaders are voicing concerns about that decision. City Councilor David Romero told the Optic his main…
From the Las Vegas Optic Fifteen weeks after Shana Storey was reported missing, city code enforcement officers discovered her badly-decomposed body under the floor of a home on Romero Street. The discovery wasn’t a complete shock, however, especially not to Storey’s family who’d been told by several people that her body was in the house,…
From the Las Vegas Optic He was more than an average resident. Skip was a part of Las Vegas — an intrinsic fixture seemingly plucked from the pages of a novel about a quaint small town in northern New Mexico. Visitors and locals alike could see him all over town, and he’d usually offer a…
From the Las Vegas Optic Las Vegas City Schools has again violated the state’s public records law, according to the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, a nonprofit dedicated to government transparency. The district was chided by the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General in late January for charging illegal fees for access to…
From the Idaho Business Review Garrett Lofto has been working for the J.R. Simplot Company for more than 28 years. In fact, it’s the only company he’s ever worked for. His lengthy, and ongoing, career with the private family-owned company began in his native Canada in 1992, and he and his family relocated from Manitoba…
From the Idaho Business Review From an early age, Odette Bolano knew she wanted to enter health care administration. After graduating from Texas Christian University with a nursing degree, she went on to pursue a master’s degree in health care administration from the University of Houston. She’s worked as a critical care nurse and as…
From the Idaho Business Review Karen Baker attributes her career successes to other great leaders willing to share knowledge with her. “From the very beginning, I think it came down to mentors,” Baker says. “I’ve been fortunate to always have a great leader around me that really wanted to share their wisdom.” Baker’s career began…
From the Las Vegas Optic Adelina Tafoya liked to sing and had even recorded a song in a studio. She also liked to make short videos and post them to the popular social media app TikTok. For Briana Saiz, her sister, Tafoya was someone she could always count on for a laugh. “My sister was…
