Football bowl season kicks off today, including the New Mexico Bowl Sports, B-1
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Locally owned and independent
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SFPS below average for testing time New Mexico students in grades 3-11 spend more than 20 hours a year taking tests. PAGE A-7
New Mexico sees strong job growth State added 14,100 jobs, but decline in oil prices could mean 2015 will be rough for energy sector By Bruce Krasnow The New Mexican
Homeless who died are remembered
New Mexico job growth looks like the real deal. Powered by health care and the energy sector, the state added 14,100 jobs over the 12 months ending in November. With growth picking up in 10 of 13 sectors, it was the big-
gest expansion of nonfarm payrolls since the end of the recession. “Net job gains have increased substantially since turning positive in June 2014 with this month’s total nonfarm employment exceeding that of all previous post-recession months,” the state Department of Workforce Solutions said in a statement.
From November 2013 to November 2014, the growth represented a boost of 1.7 percent of all nonfarm payroll jobs and 2.3 percent of private-sector jobs. Education and health care provided almost half of the new jobs, with 6,100, while the mining and energy industry surged 8 percent, or 2,100 jobs. Retail and financial services were strong, as well as construction, which added 700 new jobs after nine straight months of declines.
Twenty people who died this year were remembered at a ceremony at a Santa Fe shrine. PAGE A-7
Government, manufacturing and professional services continued to shed jobs. After watching the state trail the United States in job growth for the first three years of her administration, Gov. Susana Martinez is now seeing some catch up in hiring. A similar trend is playing out in Wisconsin and Arizona, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The percentage growth moves
Please see JOB, Page A-4
Insurance fees to pay for health exchange
Caramel apples kill 4, sicken scores Health officials urge people to avoid the treat. PAGE A-3
$8M will replace bad water meters
BAPTIST CHURCH RE-ENACTS NATIVITY SCENE TOP LEFT: Abigail Wagner, 3½, from Santa Fe, smiles as she sees a camel for the first time Friday evening at the live Nativity scene at First Baptist Church. The display will be held again from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at 1605 Old Pecos Trail. Members of the congregation take turns appearing in costume as shepherds, Roman soldiers, wise men, Mary and Joseph and an angel or two.
City swapping out 34K devices that fail to electronically detail use By Daniel J. Chacón The New Mexican
The city of Santa Fe’s Water Division plans to replace 34,000 water meters, spending more than $8 million to buy, install and maintain a new meter reading system over 10 years. The new system will allow the city to replace defective Firefly datatransmitting devices purchased at a cost of $4.9 million about 10 years ago from a now bankrupt company in Texas. The devices, which were installed on water meters around town, were intended to allow utility workers to use a laptop computer to read meters without getting out of their vehicles. But nearly 13,000 units installed since 2004 have stopped working. “What they had bought were complete lemons,” said Santa Fe attorney Stephen Hamilton, who filed a lawsuit on the city’s behalf against the company that sold the defective devices. “It’s really sad because they
TOP RIGHT: Edwin Snell of Clovis feeds his camel, Caesar, on Friday. Caesar is a rare 3,000-pound Bactrian camel, or a two hump camel, native to Asia. Snell also had a ‘zony’ — a cross betwen a zebra and a pony — named Sassy. LEFT: Lori Hansen portrays Mary and Steve Alarid portrays as Joseph on Friday in the live Nativity scene. PHOTOS BY LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO THE NEW MEXICAN
Board approves plan to aid state program for small-business owners By Patrick Malone The New Mexican
Beginning Jan. 1, taxpayers, insurance companies and, in turn, their customers will help shoulder the cost of the state’s small-business insurance marketplace, the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange Board decided Friday. After two years of federal funding to get off the ground under the health care overhaul known as “Obamacare,” the state insurance exchange’s Small Business Health Options Program must sustain itself starting in 2015. But the plan approved to help SHOP achieve self-sufficiency will rely mostly on government Medicaid funding, with consumers contributing about one-fourth of the cost. To raise the anticipated $5.5 million needed in yearly operating costs for SHOP, which currently has only 800 people enrolled, the exchange board overwhelmingly approved a plan to impose a fee on every major medical policy issued by insurers in the state — not just the handful of insurance companies participating in the exchange. The costs to insurers are likely to be passed on to their customers, according to the insurance industry. Medicaid policies, funded in part by the federal government and in part by the state, will not be exempt from the fees. In fact, fees collected from Medicaid will constitute about 75 percent — roughly $4 million — of SHOP operating revenue during the calendar year ahead. The highest
Please see FEES, Page A-4
Please see METERS, Page A-4
Internal report: FBI evidence is often mishandled By Matt Apuzzo and Michael S. Schmidt The New York Times
FBI agents in every region of the country have mishandled, mislabeled and lost evidence, according to a highly critical internal investigation that discovered errors with nearly half the pieces of evidence it reviewed. The evidence collection and retention system is the backbone of the FBI’s investigative process, and the report said it is beset by problems. It also found that the FBI was storing more weapons, less money and valuables, and 2 tons more drugs than its records had indicated.
Obama criticizes Sony for pulling film
Pakistan executes 2 after massacre
The FBI says North Korea behind hacking over the movie. PAGE A-12
The military also attacks militants in response, killing 77. PAGE A-3
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Santa Fe Alternative Gift Market
Obituaries Donna Gilcrease Cady, Dec. 3 Elizabeth Lakind John Aloysius, 92, Dec. 13
A charitable-shopping event; select tax-deductible gifts from local nonprofit organizations providing medical help, shelter, food and other services; 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., DeVargas Center, 564 N. Guadalupe St.
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-6
Comics B-12
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 986-3035
Arquimedes “Kimo” Castro, Dec. 6 PAGE A-10
Today Mostly sunny and clear at night. High 42, low 20. PAGE A-12
Please see FBI, Page A-4
Index
Shirley Reed Holzer, 86, Santa Fe, Nov. 2
Crosswords B-7, B-11
Lotteries A-2
Opinion A-11
Sports B-1
Time Out B-11
Man avoids jail time in 1992 rape Accused waited year to face trial By Phaedra Haywood The New Mexican
Gilbert Romero, who was charged in January with rape and kidnapping after police used DNA evidence to link him to a 1992 attack on teen girl in Santa Fe, pleaded no contest Friday to battery and false imprisonment as part of a plea deal that calls for him to serve two years
Stocks B-5
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on probation. Police have said that in October 1992, Romero offered a ride to the girl, 16, and then took her to a park on Navajo Street, where he raped her at gunpoint. “This is a plea deal we’ve come to given the enormous amount of time that has passed,” Assistant District Attorney Susan Stinson said Friday. Stinson said medical records and police reports in the case
See RAPE, Page A-4
Two sections, 24 pages TV Book, 32 pages 165th year, No. 354 Publication No. 596-440