Here’s a look at today’s headlines:

In observance of the Christmas Holiday, all schools in the Silver Consolidated School District, including the Cliff Schools, will be closed from Monday, December 21, 2015, through Friday, January 1, 2016.  Regular class schedules will resume on Monday January 4, 2016.  Dismissal times for students are as follows: December 17th and 18th, La Plata Middle School will release at 11:30 and Silver High School will release at 11:43.  Silver Elementary Schools will release at 11 am on December 18th.  All schools and Administrative offices will close at noon on Friday, the 18th.

Private well owners in Grant County are invited to stop by the Grant County Extension Office at 2610 N. Silver St. in Silver City and pick up a free water sampling kit from 8 a.m. to noon or 1-5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The kit includes an instruction sheet explaining how to collect your sample and submit it for free testing.

In sports action: the WNMU Mustang Basketball team will be hack home this weekend for their first FMAC home games of the season against Colorado State University-Pueblo and Western State Colorado University.  Live video, audio and stats will be available for the game. The game can be heard locally on 92.9 FM KSCQ or streaming live on the web at www.silvercitysports.com. Broadcast begins at 7 p.m. both nights.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the availability of $17.6 million in funding to support research and outreach activities that will help growers, producers, and processors find innovative ways to improve organic agriculture. The grants are being funded through the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), a program that is administered by USDA’s National Institutes of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) is leading the effort to fully repeal a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) known as the “Cadillac Tax,” which would tax high-cost health insurance plans and impact health benefits for New Mexicans. He spoke on the Senate Floor with U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-Nev.) last night to call for the elimination of this excise tax before the end of the year and to discuss the bipartisan legislation they introduced, the Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2015.