Holiday hiring picking up, slowly

New Mexico’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in October 2016, unchanged from September, but up from 6.5 percent a year ago, according to information from the state Department of Work Force Solutions.

In McKinley County, the unemployment rate was 8.8 percent for October. That figure was down from a 9.2 percent unemployment rate in September. Likewise, the unemployment rate in neighboring Cibola County, about a 55-minute drive for Gallup, was 8.3 percent in October and 8.4 percent in September.

Unemployment statistics are a month behind due to the amount of time it takes to compile them.

Seasonal hiring

“What you see in...

GPD personnel now at 58

Three new hires have been brought aboard at the Gallup Police Department, officials confirmed. Ransom James, Adrian Quetawki and Francis Collins graduated from the New Mexico  Law Enforcement Academy on Nov. 16 and will soon start work as regular officers, Marinda Spencer, public information officer at GPD, said.

Spencer did not give information on where the three officers are originally from. Salary information on the three was not immediately available from the Gallup Human Resources Department.

The hiring comes a few months after new Gallup Police Chief Phillip Hart promoted a slew of personnel to higher positions, among them career police employee...

Kenneth Riege, a veteran of the U.S. Air force and general manager at Comfort Suites on Gallup’s east end, is a finalist for the 2016 New Mexico True Hero award.

Four individuals will be chosen for the honor, and the four honorees will be announced Nov. 29 at 1:30 pm at a ceremony at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, acting city tourism and marketing manager Jennifer Lazarz said. The ceremony will be hosted by Gov. Susana Martinez and state Tourism Secretary Rebecca Latham.

A New Mexico True Hero is someone who was chosen for his or her contributions for making New Mexico a better to live, work or raise a family, Lazarz said.

“We sincerely hope that (Ken) is...

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — It was recently announced that Elouise Cobell will be one of 21 recipients to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony on Nov. 22.

Cobell had passed away on Oct. 16, 2011, at 65 years of age from cancer.

The Blackfeet community leader spent nearly 15 years advancing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 500,000 Indians against the Interior Department. The lawsuit claimed that the Interior Department had stolen or squandered billions of dollars in royalties owed to individual tribal members in exchange for oil, gas and other leases.

The case was settled in 2009 when the Interior Department agreed to the $3.4 billion settlement.

“The...