Santa Fe New Mexican
DOOM AND BLOOM
No bites on the fishing line and lack of shade on the shoreline of this snow-fed lake in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains factored into Rita Sanchez and her family’s decision Friday to pick up their belongings and look for a new spot....
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REZ BALL REVIVAL
Look out from most anywhere in this Navajo Nation town, over neighborhoods where asphalt is reserved for small basketball courts and hoops hang over dirt and gravel. You will see it. The stone monolith that gives this place its name towers some 1,500...
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Wildfire smoke from Canada engulfs D.C.
NEW YORK — Millions of people in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states muddled through another day of unhealthy air from uncontrolled wildfires on Friday. The thick smoke enveloped the nation’s capital in a gloomy, eerie haze and prompted...
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Wildlife center soaring high with 40 years of animal care
Black-footed ferrets Phoenix and Verga scurried down tubes in their habitat at the New Mexico Wildlife Center in Española while Anna Tobin fed them small, pink mice. The endangered ferrets are spending their retirement from a breeding program in...
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Man guilty in sword slaying case
Isaac Apodaca didn’t wield the 3-foot sword used in a grisly slaying on Santa Fe’s south side in 2022. Still, prosecutors convinced a jury he had manipulated his girlfriend to carry out the killing. Jurors deliberated for about two hours Wednesday —...
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Ashes to dust at St. Kate’s
The claw of an excavator sent brick walls tumbling and rubble cascading as clouds of dust ascended, until nothing remained of a historic edifice that housed generations of Catholic boarding school students. The sizable girls’ dormitory at the St....
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‘Just a brilliant satirist’
Pat Oliphant, a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist whose cutting sketches critiqued power and corruption in U.S. politics over a lengthy career that made him one of the most recognizable and lauded artists in the newspaper business, died...
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Still waiting for period products
Looking back at her four years at Santa Fe High School, recent graduate Ari Sandmel isn’t convinced public school districts are complying with a state law requiring them to stock bathrooms with free menstrual products. “As far as I know, there’s never...
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At St. Kate’s, memories left in ashes
WSANTA CLARA PUEBLO alter Dasheno’s mind drifted toward the distant past as he studied the small black-and-white photograph, with 11 serious-looking Native American teens staring back at him. Dasheno still knows the names of the other 1965 graduates...
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IN FOR A LONG HAUL
Standing atop one of three empty water cubes on the truck trailer, Dana Carlisle gripped the pipe hard as the sudden rush of liquid poured from the bulk water station and the surrounding parched desert glinted with heat. Carlisle was hauling water for...
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PASA DAY
◆ Santa Fe’s Desert Chorale and Chamber Music Festival season kickoffs ◆ ‘Eugene Onegin’ operatic study guide ◆ Folk art market award winners
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‘Isaac is the architect’
Deputy District Attorney Haley Murphy opened the state’s case against Isaac Apodaca by reading his own text messages into the record. “With the dagger, bring it up. Turn flat, south to north, and with the hilt, east to west, hilt north to south, and...
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Fueling Cuba cultural projects
Apair of Cuban painters who have sold art at Santa Fe’s International Folk Art Market for more than a decade credit the event with providing them the money and recognition needed to launch a constellation of cultural institutions in their home...
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Booked and released?
Three Santa Fe County inmates in a general population housing area sweated through push-up drills in beige jail fatigues as other men lounged around a table, studying their playing cards. Those men, incarcerated in late June, likely weren’t behind...
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‘That street is unsafe’
Roadway closures around the Santa Fe Plaza are frequent in summer months, when the park plays host to an increasing number of events — major art markets, Fiesta de Santa Fe, Pride on the Plaza festivities and a series of free concerts. If the Santa Fe...
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Milestone at Miles
The City Different’s Fourth of July celebration began a little differently this year. Instead of gathering near Santa Fe Place mall as residents have for years, thousands spread across Franklin E. Miles Park for the city’s first Independence Day...
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Tailgating in style
Tom Maguire, John Berkenfield and Gerard Martinez have been tailgating on opening night at the Santa Fe Opera for about 30 years. In the parking lot of the scenic venue north of the city Friday evening, about two hours before the curtain was set to...
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St. Kate’s burns
City firefighters battled a blaze for hours Thursday afternoon at the historic campus of the former St. Catherine Indian School near downtown Santa Fe. The fire was reported at about 3:45 p.m., and more than two dozen firefighters were still on scene...
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‘FRONT-ROW SEAT’
A250th anniversary Independence Day celebration in your backyard? Some Santa Fe residents who live near the new site of the city’s July Fourth fireworks show were irked to learn they have to apply for a pass to get into their own neighborhood after 4...
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Weighing cost of opting out
Mayor Michael Garcia is making good on a campaign promise to make developers pay more — a lot more — to forgo building affordable housing units. An ordinance he is sponsoring would raise the fee developers pay in lieu of building affordable units as...
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‘We need solutions’
Joyce Benavidez never thought she would become homeless. But after her fiancé died in 2013, she started drinking heavily. Alcohol turned to hard drugs and a downward spiral that ultimately resulted in “losing everything and everyone that I cared...
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Aging into crisis
New Mexico doesn’t have enough daycare — and not just that kind of daycare. The state’s adult daycare centers play a critical role in ensuring aging New Mexicans — particularly people with dementia — can age with dignity and in their own homes, while...
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‘Trying to make it illegal to be homeless’
Desiree Martinez was charged twice in Santa Fe when she lived on the streets: once for violating the city’s ban on camping on public property and once for trespassing. Both incidents led to additional charges as Martinez, in the grips of a fentanyl...
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Wanted: Livestock docs
Manny Encinias and two of his daughters led cattle into pens at his Buffalo Creek Ranch. Dust blew in the wind while he sprayed the cows with ivermectin to protect them from flies. The ivermectin spraying is part of his routine, Encinias said. But...
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‘Everybody’s on edge’ for fires
Residents of the Sierra Los Pinos community in the Jemez Mountains, who had gathered at shelters in nearby La Cueva, nervously watched a plume of smoke Thursday as crews battled a wildfire not far from homes they had fled. “There’s a lot of worry,”...
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FIRST-CLASS RIDE
In the late 1920s, the Central Railroad of New Jersey launched a high-speed, luxury line from Jersey City that was designed to transport wealthy riders from New York to the seaside resort of Atlantic City in classy, even luxurious surroundings. Now,...
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‘FIND THE MONEY’
Santa Fe city councilors have shot down a request from city staff to terminate a contract with the nonprofit Urban Alchemy to provide street outreach to people in the homeless community. The city had approved a four-year, multimillion-dollar deal with...
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Closer to kickoff
As hype for the 2026 World Cup continues to heat up in soccer-loving Santa Fe and worldwide, the city moves closer to expanding its fields, with plans to break ground on a longawaited project later this year or in early 2027. A watch party for the...
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CENTER OF ATTENTION
“No AI data center.” A movie theater marquee sign voicing opposition to a proposed development greets Raton residents and visitors of this small northeastern New Mexico city. Elsewhere in town, project opponents are gathering signatures on petitions...
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READY TO RIDE
Scottie Knapp drew a bull named Lucifer, an ominous assignment for a man who kneels to pray after riding bulls for eight seconds — provided he is not gored first or tossed into the air in a dusty arena. But Knapp found himself in want of prayer as...
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Affordable housing holdup
Aprocess to dole out money from the city of Santa Fe’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund to nonprofits will start from scratch after an apparent breach by an official involved in making the awards. “We will not be moving forward at this point with...
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‘A more holistic approach’
The Adinkra symbol sankofa is commonly depicted as a bird walking forward with its head turned backward. Originating from the Akan people of Ghana, West Africa, the symbol literally translates to the phrase “go back and get it.” For the New Mexico...
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‘LIFE IS POLITICAL’
When developing this year’s Pride concert, Aaron Howe knew he wanted the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus to make a statement. The chorus, a nonprofit, cannot be partisan or tell people who to vote for. But — aligning with the tradition of gay and lesbian...
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‘It’s time’: Wirth declines to seek new term in 2028
After serving 22 years in the New Mexico Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth said Tuesday he won’t seek reelection in 2028 and will pass the baton as floor leader — unleashing a change in political power and igniting what promises to be a...
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‘Where’s the humanity?’
Today, 79-year-old Carmelita Topaha is a nationally recognized professor of Indigenous pottery at Santa Fe Community College. But just over a decade ago, she was in her late 60s, honing her work with micaceous clay as a student at the Institute of...
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Fine pairing takes root
As the agricultural director for the Pueblo of Santa Ana, Ryan Garcia didn’t have to think long when asked why he thought officials at Lescombes Family Vineyards were interested in striking a deal on grapes for new varietals. “They like our story,”...
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A Catholic revival?
While the coronavirus pandemic raged in 2020, just one person was participating in a class at Gallup’s Sacred Heart Cathedral for adults interested in joining the Catholic Church: an 80-year-old woman whose children and grandchildren were...
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A celebration of soccer
Throw a rock in any direction these days, and you’re bound to find a watch party of some sort taking shape. Partial credit goes to the NBA Finals and the feeding frenzy among New Yorkers hungry for a championship, but it seems it doesn’t take much to...
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FROM PERILS TO PEACE
The wall-mounted crucifix loomed above Phillip Romero as he recalled that wretched night in 1994 when a dozen members of the West Side Locos gang battered down the door of the room where he was partying in a Cerrillos Road Motel 6. In a flash, he was...
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Hearing every voice
The streets in Edgar Talavera Campos’ neighborhood are so dark, he told Santa Fe Mayor Michael Garcia, residents can’t see the gaping potholes — let alone dodge them. “Along Vereda de Valencia, we don’t have a single streetlamp,” he said in Spanish....
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‘WE REALLY COOK’
When students spring out of class and head for the cafeteria at Nina Otero Community School, Rosie Mendoza doesn’t call them by name. She calls them mi amor. “What does your mom call you? Mi amor,” she explains to students. “What does your mom do? She...
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‘Women are winning’
Men have long dominated politics in New Mexico. Over the last two decades, however, women have not only made inroads in the political sphere but have seized control. More than half of all lawmakers elected to the Legislature are female, and women —...
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FREE LIFESAVERS
Eight months after installing “naloxboxes” throughout Rio Arriba County, a county health official is ready to call the program a success. Overdose-related 911 calls and overdose deaths have both dropped since the October launch of the initiative to...
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A river doesn’t run through it
This week was not the first time Duke City residents saw the Rio Grande run dry. But after a particularly disappointing winter and warm spring — and following two prior dry years — the parched river in Albuquerque is a harbinger of challenges to...
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In for the long haul
After securing the Republican nomination for governor in Tuesday’s primary election and after more than a year on the campaign trail, Gregg Hull turned off all the alarm clocks when he got home around midnight to try to get some rest. But as they say,...
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Haaland vs. Hull in Nov.
DALBUQUERQUE eb Haaland, a darling of Democrats, clinched the party’s nomination for New Mexico governor Tuesday night — and a path to become the nation’s first Native American woman to serve as governor. But it won’t be a cakewalk. While Haaland...
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Chasing accountability
The Santa Fe Institute could be forced to hand over information on its links to Jeffrey Epstein under a subpoena from a legislative commission investigating Zorro Ranch. The prestigious scientific research center in Santa Fe is among 14 public and...
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Eyeing ‘innovation’ models
Top officials at Santa Fe Public Schools visited the competition one day last fall. They arrived at the private Santa Fe School for the Arts and Sciences curious about its project-based “expeditionary learning” approach, in which students in preschool...
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Remains of LANL worker missing for nearly a year found near Taos
TAOS — New Mexico State Police have identified human remains found off Rio Chiquito Road southeast of Taos as Melissa Casias, a Los Alamos National Laboratory worker who was reported missing June 26. A hiker discovered the remains in the McGaffey...
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Man quickly reconvicted of murder in 2018 slaying
A Santa Fe jury deliberated for less than two hours Friday afternoon before convicting a man for the second time in the 2018 shooting death of a local businessman during what prosecutors say was a break-in attempt. The state District Court jury of six...
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FIRING UP FUEGO SEASON
Over its 14 years of existence, the Santa Fe Fuego and the Encinias family have walked in lockstep. From the first pitch in 2012 to Thursday’s short-circuited season opener against the Grand Junction (Colo.) Razorback Suckers, the family has been part...
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PRESCRIPTION FOR PRODUCE
Yazil Rodriguez remembers “the carrot girl.” The toddler stood out among the participants of Northern Roots, a food program Rodriguez helps administer at Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center, offering fresh fruits, vegetables and pantry items for...
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Moving on maintenance
An announcement earlier this month of the city of Santa Fe’s plans to close Salvador Perez Pool indefinitely, due to problems with its aging infrastructure, was met with disappointment by swimming enthusiasts. Officials shut down the pool in March for...
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Price of securing liberty
Paul Anaya and his friends and fellow soldiers in the Vietnam War flew combat missions in helicopters. On bad days, some of them didn’t come back. Anaya, who was 20 at the time, visited the Santa Fe National Cemetery with his family Monday morning to...
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‘Care they are owed’
Jack Brooke has done a lot of living in his nearly 88 years. As a child, he listened to the advent of rock ’n’ roll on a plastic radio. He s pent two years in the Coast Guard in the 1960s. He sold life insurance before building his own business as a...
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‘Are we going to have jobs?’
Mutazz Jaber thought for years he would go to law school right after obtaining his undergraduate degree. Then he realized it would be unwise to incur a pile of debt before gaining work experience and saving up some money. “So, I made the decision...
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A CAPITAL COMMENCEMENT
COMING SOON ◆ For more graduation photos, pick up the June 7 edition for a special section celebrating the Class of 2026.
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PASA DAY
Pasa’s annual entertainment preview Old 97s to play at Santa Fe Brewing Co. Photo exhibit shows democracy in danger Johnny Vee: From Nuckolls to Salad Fe
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Honoring sacrifice
Norbert Lovata had loved seeing the military veteran banners that since 2019 have lined Santa Fe streets between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Lovata, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Army Security Agency — an intelligence branch that operated for...
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‘Can’t afford to get sick’
Johnny Mondragón first realized he was sharing his apartment with mice less than a week after moving in. The problem has only grown worse in the nearly two years since. Mondragón described finding mouse droppings all over the apartment — in his...
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Guard surge paying off?
More than nine months after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham intervened in what was deemed a “public safety emergency” in the Española Valley, millions of state dollars have been allocated to law enforcement agencies and increasing numbers of New Mexico...
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‘More than mourning’
Achorus of yells rang out Sunday evening on the Santa Fe Plaza. After three deep inhales, Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance Executive Director Kevin Bowen invited a gathered crowd to “let it all out.” Then came the screams — of despair, of anger, of...
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COP COMMUNITY
As Santa Fe police Officer Patrick Pinson’s family started to grow, they decided to move from their home in rural Pecos. They wanted to live closer to culture and amenities. They began house-hunting in Santa Fe in 2017 — after Pinson had been with...
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‘Intellectuals’ Coachella’
Renowned wordsmiths, voracious readers, the curious at large: The world of the written word is in the City Different this week for the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. But there’s another group visiting in numbers perhaps yet unseen in the...
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‘It’s not going away’
It was an odd introduction for an educational assistant. There is “great potential to make us dumber,” teacher Aaron Girdner told students in his Capital High School business pathway class as he acquainted them with the new tool on a recent day. And...
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‘Pretty big leap for a senior’
After two semesters, there it was: the head and shoulders of Our Lady Guadalupe, emerging from a block of basswood. “I feel like I’ve been living with her,” said Karen Swezey, a retired special education teacher who took the course at Santa Fe...
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Green-letter day at state tourney
GELEPHANT BUTTE reen was gold Tuesday, especially for the last team in the Class 1A/3A boys state golf championships. But so was red if you were Payton Woolf. And bronze is quickly becoming a metal Holden Hirsch would like to change for the...
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‘Been a long time coming’
More than two and a half years after entering into an exclusive negotiation agreement with a coalition called the Midtown Arts and Design Alliance, the Santa Fe City Council is set to vote next month on whether to approve a development agreement and...
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NOT EASILY RATTLED
Connor Sharp was supping at a Santa Fe restaurant when the call flashed over his phone: An Eldorado resident needed him to remove an irate and venomous prairie rattlesnake. Sharp, 35, was soon out somewhere in the juniper-covered foothills, the...
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‘I love to give love’
VALBUQUERQUE iviana Rivera knew from an early age she wanted to be a mom. “When we would play house, I was always the mom, and in my friend group, I was always the mom,” she said. “I think it’s just because I love to love people. I love to give...
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Maintaining the model
Afunding scare briefly threatened a treasured force in Santa Fe Public Schools late last month. A slate of volunteers, school staff and community organizers came to the April 23 school board meeting with a unified mission: convince board members not to...
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PASA DAY
This year’s Native Fashion Week designers Darrell Scott and Rob Ickes in Santa Fe Jacquelyn Helin plays Copland and others Douglas, Aletheia Preston on new project
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Reassurance, but few answers
NLAS VEGAS, N.M. ew Mexico Highlands University interim President Kimberly Blea attempted to assuage worries from faculty, students and staff at a campuswide forum Wednesday afternoon, after days of administrative upheaval at the university. The board...
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‘I WILL FIGHT THAT’
As he piloted his Toyota pickup down the familiar, winding Forest Service roads, Moises Morales spoke of generations of conflict between local ranchers and federal government employees who control grazing and timber permits. He served six months...
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Supporting S.F. strays
The city of Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society have reached a new deal for services nearly a year and a half after their last contract expired. Annual costs under the new contract, which the City Council approved last week, will...
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