Today's Opinions

Although the odds of having your identity stolen remain quite low, anyone who’s ever had their bank or credit card account compromised knows what a pain it can be to unravel the mess. Sometimes enterprising hackers just need your Social Security number, address and date of birth to start opening new accounts in your name.
Many victims don’t realize anything’s wrong until they apply for a new account and find their credit has been trashed or they start getting calls from collection agencies regarding unfamiliar accounts. More and more people have begun blocking access to information in their credit reports, even if there hasn’t yet been any fraudulent activity, by instituting a “security freeze.”
A credit security freeze is where you instruct the three major credit bureaus to disallow new creditors from viewing your credit report and score. Because most businesses won’t lend without first checking your report, a freeze can deter identity thieves.
Before going to the trouble and expense of doing a credit freeze, however, learn how the process works and be aware of several possible inconveniences:

My father, Raphael Alonzo Montaño, is a decorated World War II vet and followed General George S. Patton his whole military career. He landed in Normandy on the USS Omaha and was the radio operator for the D-Day invasion. He helped free England, Italy and other countries Hitler ran over. He was at the Battle of the Bulge, where the United States Army did not send winter gear to our troops — especially socks and boots. My father has had foot problems since then, but never complained.
At the time of his departure from the U.S. Army, he was promised $45 from U.S. General Patton to help with coming home. He has never received it.
Since October 2010, we have been trying to get help from the Albuquerque Veterans Administration — but to no avail.
Thanks to Senator Tom Udall — we have seen more progress. Did you know that the Veterans Administration and Medicare will not talk to each other and will not help one another — even if a U.S. vet’s life is on the line?
This is a U.S. law passed by our Congress. One other tidbit of information — did you know that all WWII vets paperwork was lost to a fire in St. Louis, Mo.?
The VA will not help a vet unless the VA Administration has a current picture of the vet taken at any VA facility.

Sheriff Frank Bojorquez, who held forth in Sierra County after 1916, was a good man with his fists and his gun, but nobody can remember him using either.
“Frank always spoke slowly and gave everyone a long time to understand what he had to say,” according to those who knew him. One memorable act was his arrest of two Germans involved in a plot to blow up Elephant Butte dam during World War I.
Archeologist Karl Laumbach, who’s spent years documenting the life of Bojorquez, told the lawman’s story during the annual meeting of the Historical Society of New Mexico last weekend in Las Cruces.
Inundated with news from Boston, where police and the FBI emerged from their manhunt as heroes, it was an interesting time to reflect on law enforcement then and now. Usually in such comparisons, we like to say it was a simpler time, but it wasn’t. Economic downturns were severe, hardship was widespread, and criminals – who were often as young as the Tsarnaev brothers – were ruthless.