NCI STRUGGLES TO GAIN budget approval

The Gallup City Council convened Aug. 14 for the regular meeting and began with action on the contract reopener agreement between the Gallup and the United Mine Workers of America Local 1629.

There are currently 131 city employees affected by the agreement and Klo Abeita, human resources director, said they are all non-probationary employees.

She said the parties came to an agreement Aug. 1, after discussing wage rates and insurance health costs.

The employees will receive a two percent increase that will be effective the first full pay period after council approval, Abeita said, which would be Oct. 8.

“The current agreement expires 2019...

Care 66 cites lack of funding as reason

Community Area Resource Enterprise, also known as CARE 66, is closing the doors to the Lexington Hotel on Sept. 30.

Staff is currently meeting with residents one-on-one to transition tenants to other housing possibilities, according to executive director Sanjay Choudhrie.

Thirty tenants are affected by the closure, most of them disabled, recovering addicts and formerly homeless people getting their lives back in order. Most of them are Native American.

“We hope to have everyone placed by the middle of September,” he said.

The annual budget for Care 66 is $500,000 to provide case management, employment placement, administration and other...

Attorney General Hector Balderas secured a guilty plea Aug. 15, from a nursing home office manager at rehabilitation center, who stole thousands of dollars from elderly patients who suffered from dementia. Leanne Bennett worked at the Rehabilitation Center of Albuquerque, and between 2012 and 2013, she used her position as office manager to steal more than $30,000 from elderly residents.

Bennett gained access to residents’ checking accounts, ATM accounts and debit cards, and wrote checks to herself and made cash withdrawals from victims’ accounts from ATMs.

Bennett could face up to three years in prison, and will be required to pay more than $44,000 in restitution to the victims...

Family fighting to help him remain in the U.S.

When Nery Alejandro Amador Contreras, 30, was booked for his second DWI last November, it should have been a routine DWI case with court appearances, possible jail time and fines – or complete dismissal.

Instead, Contreras is now facing possible deportation to Mexico, pending the verdict of a trial set for Aug. 30.

Contreras’s mother, Elvira Amador, spoke about how his family and attorney are preparing their case to allow him to remain in the United States, and why their best opportunities are here.

“The life in Mexico is hard,” Amador said. “What will we do [if he is deported]?”

Specifically, Amador is referring to...