Columns

Catch Of The Week: FBI Warns Users About A New Scam Costing Millions

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By REBECCA RUTHERFORD
Los Alamos
For the Los Alamos Daily Post

The FBI is warning users to watch out for a fast-spreading scam that has already cost people more than $260 million this year. Yikes!

The scheme is simple and convincing, which is exactly why it is working- Scammers reach out by text, phone, or messaging apps and pretend to be someone you trust. They often pose as Apple Support, your bank, a delivery service, or even a government agency. Their goal is to get you to click a link or hand over personal information that lets them break into your accounts. This is known as ATO (Account Take-over) Read More

McQuiston: Insurance Companies Settle 95% Of Injury Claims — Three Things The 5% Who Litigated Did Differently

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By ALLEN MCQUISTON
Jemez Insurance Agency
Serving Los Alamos Since 1963
Most people don’t realize this, but injury claims almost never go to trial. About 95 percent of them settle, often quietly and without fanfare. A settlement spares everyone the stress, uncertainty, and time that come with going to court.
But then there’s the other 5 percent — the claims that don’t settle.
These are the ones that drag on, end up in litigation, and usually come with far more frustration for everyone involved.
So what separates the 5 percent from the 95 percent?
What specifically made those cases break the pattern?
Read More

Rabbi Jack: Traditionnnnnnn – Tradition?

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Hanukkah menorahs during a previous holiday celebration. The community is invited to gather Tuesday, Dec. 16 and Sunday, Dec. 21 at 5:30 p.m. to light candles, sing some Hanukkah songs, and distribute a few Hanukkah trinkets. Also on Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Los Alamos Jewish Center, starting at 5:30 p.m., for a party including candle lighting, songs, and some traditional oil-fried Hanukkah treats like latkes and sufganiot (potato pancakes and jelly donuts). Please RSVP on the website, www.lajc.org. Courtesy photo

By Rabbi Jack Shlachter 
Los Alamos Jewish Center

The familiar song from Read More

Martinez: Challenges Of Grandparents, Kin Raising Children

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Jeramay Martinez

By JERAMAY MARTINEZ
Health Care Specialist
Los Alamos County

Most of us know how the adoption and foster care system works, but kinship care is somewhere in the middle. It’s when grandparents, extended family members or even family friends take in, become legal guardians, and care for the children when their parents can’t. Kinship care is more common than you may think in New Mexico. A recent report from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation found that 8 percent of all kids in New Mexico are in some type of kinship care arrangement. That is more than double the national Read More

Home Country: No Squirrel Problems

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Home Country
By SLIM RANDLES

When Steve and Dud got up to go get a paper, it left just Doc and Bert sitting at the philosophy counter of the Mule Barn truck stop. Bert turned his head and smirked a little, being careful not to let Doc see him. Doc also didn’t see Dud outside, punching in a number on his cell phone while Steve stood by as a cheerleader.

“Doc,” said Loretta, from the cash register, “phone call for you, Hon.”

“Here? Okay…” Doc walked over and picked up the phone.

“This here Doc?” said the caller. “The Doc what lost his squirrel?”

“Uh …” Doc looked around for help. There was none. “Yes. Yes it is.” Read More

 Weekly Fishing Report: Dec. 8, 2025 

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By GEORGE MORSE
Sports and Outdoors
Los Alamos Daily Post 

The beautiful, melodic calls of migrating sandhill cranes echoed through the sky in the Espanola Valley this past week. They are headed south where they will spend the winter at the Bosque de Apache National Wildlife Refuge South of Socorro. Winter is a good time to visit the Refuge and be amazed at the numbers of cranes and snow geese that migrate there. 

Snow is now beginning to fall in the higher elevations and the beautiful white covering on the mountains is a most welcome sight. When planning a trip it will be increasingly important to Read More

Dannemann: Where Are All The Government Employees?

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By MERILEE DANNEMANN
Triple Spaced Again

DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has been disbanded as of late November. What a relief.

DOGE was supposed to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in government. It may have fired as many as 260,000 federal employees, although many were rehired because, as it turned out, their jobs were important and they were needed.

The DOGE fiasco points to a critical issue in the endless debate about why government agencies exist. Among some conservatives, there’s a basic disrespect for government agencies and the people who work in them – the notion Read More

Robinson: Policing Fraud In New Mexico’s SNAP Program

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By SHERRY ROBINSON
All She Wrote
© 2025 New Mexico News Services

During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Texas and Oklahoma farmers who lost everything headed west. Before they joined the great exodus to California chronicled by John Steinbeck in “Grapes of Wrath”, they were hoping to find work picking cotton in New Mexico or harvesting beets in Colorado.

They were not welcomed. The Depression had brought hard times to everyone. Charities were tapped out, and locals didn’t want competition for the modest benefits of the government’s New Deal programs. Even so, people held deeply conflicting views. Read More