Opinion

County: Community Q&A For Small Retail LEDA Initiative

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COMMUNITY News:

Los Alamos County will host a question-and-answer session, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 22, in Council Chambers at 1000 Central Ave., to introduce and discuss its proposed Small Retail Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) initiative.

The event is open to local business owners and interested individuals. A hybrid option will be available for remote participation via Zoom.

Staff from the Community and Economic Development Department will lead the presentation and answer questions about the proposed Small Retail LEDA initiative before it is formally presented to the Los Alamos Read More

Rabbi Shlachter: Promoting Peace Requires More Than Open Dialogue—It Requires Discernment, Responsibility, And An Unwavering Rejection Of Hate In All Its Forms

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By Rabbi Jack Shlachter
Los Alamos Jewish Center

I write today as a committed advocate of free speech and open dialogue. I fully support the rights of those who are organizing the upcoming Free Palestine Summer Series, which includes events scheduled at SALA and the Unitarian Church from now through September. Many of the individuals involved are sincerely dedicated to fostering peace in the Middle East—a goal that I, too, share, though I hold a markedly different perspective from that presented in the films and talks planned for this series. That difference, of course, is a legitimate subject Read More

Robinson: Red Tape & Indifference Slow Disaster Recovery

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

Exactly one day before the Rio Ruidoso swelled from 18 inches to 20 feet of death and destruction, Mayor Lynn Crawford told legislators that money they approved for disaster recovery is bottled up.

“The process is broke,” he said. “What you passed, we don’t have access to.”

The Village of Ruidoso is still rebuilding from last year’s fires and floods, reported Source New Mexico. Crawford told a July 7 meeting of the interim legislative Economic and Rural Development and Policy Committee that Ruidoso spent $16.8 million on repairs Read More

Think New Mexico: Why Is This Dark Money Group Fighting Healthcare Reform?

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By FRED NATHAN JR.
Executive Director
Think New Mexico

Recently the New Mexico Ethics Commission sued a secretive, dark money group calling itself New Mexico Safety Over Profits (NMSOP) for violating state laws that require the disclosure of the source of funds used to influence legislation.

The lawsuit alleges that NMSOP spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertisements opposing medical malpractice reforms designed to center the needs of patients and bring down malpractice premiums for doctors, which are about twice as high in New Mexico as in our surrounding states.

Earlier this year, Read More

Op-Ed: A Poem For The Times

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By REBECCA SHANKLAND
Los Alamos

2025 Version of “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor”
[original on the Statue of Liberty by Emma Lazarus]

Give me your rich, your white

Your upper classes taxed for their great wealth

Your moneyed techies full of snobbish spite

Send these, the wealthy upper crust in stealth

Their visas get them in the golden door. Read More

Skolnik: Dr. Shin – Please See The Whole Truth, Not Part Of It

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By RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

Healthcare providers have a special obligation to follow data, science, and evidence. Thus, I remain deeply disappointed at the content of Dr. Lisa Shin’s letters to the editor.

In her latest letter to the editor (link), Dr. Shin ignores the impact on the federal budget of the “Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has just estimated that the Senate Bill would add $3.9 trillion to the federal deficit from 2025 to 2034.

Dr. Shin should also note that the annual growth rate of GDP in the US since the late 1940s has been higher under Read More

Public Invited To Shape Kinship Caregiver Pilot Program 

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ALTSD Cabinet Secretary Emily Kaltenbach

ALTSD News:

SANTA FE – The Aging and Long-Term Services Department (ALTSD) is inviting the public to weigh in on the rule for the new Kinship Caregiver Pilot Program.

Created through House Bill 252 during the 2025 Legislative session, the Kinship Caregiver Pilot Program is designed to assist those who are raising children outside of the traditional foster care system by helping them access services, legal resources, and financial support.

“Whether it’s grandparents stepping in, an aunt or uncle opening their home, or an older sibling keeping the Read More

Op-Ed: About Monday’s ‘We Love Public Lands Rally’

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By C&R FRES
Los Alamos

Ref: ‘We Love Public Lands Rally’ To Protest Proposed Public Land Sales & National Monument Reductions Monday, June 23.

And yet, last year when the BLM proposed transferring (via a lopsided trade arrangement) nearly 2,000 acres of BLM land to Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, practically no one made a peep.

If that transfer is completed, there will be nearly 2,000 acres of once publicly accessible land in northern NM that will be FOREVER cut off from public access. Unless, maybe, just maybe, you are allowed by the Pueblo to pay to access it as part of a Pueblo resort, golf course, Read More

Williams: Gray Wolves In West Need Federal Protection

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A pair of gray wolves. Courtesy photo

By TED WILLIAMS
Animal Wellness Action

On June 18, conservation groups urged Judge Donald Molloy of the U.S. District Court for Montana to overturn a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finding that western gray wolves do not merit listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The Administrative Procedures Act requires courts to declare unlawful any agency action that is “arbitrary and capricious.” The plaintiffs presented compelling evidence that the Service’s action was precisely that.

What’s more, the ESA requires that decisions to list or not list Read More

Scenes From ‘No Kings’ Demonstration At Ashley Pond Park

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Scene from the ‘No Kings’ demonstration Saturday afternoon around Ashley Pond Park. Photo by Kirk Weisbrod
Scene from the ‘No Kings’ demonstration Saturday afternoon around Ashley Pond Park. Photo by Kirk Weisbrod 

By KIRK WEISBROD
Los Alamos

The ‘No Kings’ demonstration (Saturday afternoon around Ashley Pond Park) was attended by a few hundred people who wanted to express their support for our democratic form of government, with the hope that the executive branch does not expand its powers further.

Raised posters addressed many concerns about institutions and freedoms that we’ve cherished

Read More