New Mexico’s “fully integrated tax and claims system” launched Jan. 6. Because the switchover was done Jan. 1 to Jan. 6, those collecting unemployment benefits were unable to recertify or file new claims for unemployment from New Mexico during that time.

Because of the shutdown, the number of claims the state reported to the federal government is way down, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is showing a 75 percent decrease in New Mexico claims for the week ending Jan. 5 from the number of claims filed the previous week.

The staff recommended David Silverman of Geltmore LLC, representing UR 205 Silver LLC, which presented a four-story building of 60,000 square feet. The first floor would have a 6,000-square-foot grocery, and the rest would be one- and two- bedroom apartments.

The report by the Food Research and Action Center says 70 percent of low-income students in New Mexico who receive lunch also got breakfasts during the 2011-2012 school year.

Martin said he currently offers health insurance to every employee after a 90-day period. He’s unsure how the ACA will affect what he already does.

“I know to ask more questions,” Martin said. “I plan to do more research and ask a lot more questions.”

Contractors for the Air Force sank two wells six inches in diameter more than 500 feet into the ground adjacent to the base’s old fuel loading area, where in 1999 the Air Force discovered that an underground pipe had been leaking for decades.

Vacuum units will suck fuel vapors from the layers of soil above the groundwater, and the furnace unit will then burn it off, explained Brent Wilson, Kirtland’s civil engineer.

The city’s governing body has awarded two-year contracts to its police chief and city clerk despite objections from one councilor who argued that the contracts violate state law and the city charter.

"After talking to a lot of people, having some of the professionals from the State Forestry, BLM, other entities like the village come and talk to us, our board decided that we would back-burner this at this point" Weaver told those at the meeting. "What we've been told by most of these entities is that if air support is needed, it's close and it's pretty easy to get through the (fire dispatch) command center. We still would really like to have something close by, just an insurance that fires can be put out but we have to rely on the expertise of our fire personnel, state, local, county. They've assured us that they can get that kind of equipment if they need it. So we still are interested in that kind of support if we can get it. It's designated through the (fire severity designation) that they do and there's a process for getting that. We'll kind of leave it up to them to continue pushing for that. As individuals we all can continue to let people know that we're interested in just making sure the community's protected from fire any way they can do it."