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March means spring break is just around the corner, and for New Mexico it means mild temperatures and fresh snow — perfect conditions for visiting area ski resorts.

A growing number of resorts are now offering programs that cater to vacationers with disabilities, and resort owners say it has proved to be a boost for business.

At a Taos Ski Valley chairlift, Barbara and Philip Logan prepare their son, Tilghman, for his first day of ski lessons.

The Logans traveled from New York City to Taos, N.M., for a winter vacation, and Tilghman can't wait to begin his ski lesson.

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Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai claims the U.S. is holding talks outside Afghanistan with the Afghan Taliban.

The allegations come as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel continues his first visit to the nation as Pentagon Chief – and after a deadly explosion in Kabul on Saturday that the Taliban called a message to the new defense secretary.

Karzai made his claims in a nationally broadcast address just hours before he was to meet with Hagel, reports NPR's David Welna, who is traveling with Hagel.

"Karzai claimed the U.S. has been meeting daily elsewhere with the Taliban," Welna reports. "He also accused the U.S. of collaborating with the Taliban to stoke fears about coalition forces pulling out of Afghanistan next year."

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a blast outside the Afghan Defense Ministry on Saturday that killed nine people. A second bombing in eastern Khost Province, also on Saturday, killed two police officers and eight children.

"The explosions in Kabul and Khost yesterday showed that they are at the service of America and at the service of this phrase: 2014," Karzai said. "They are trying to frighten us into thinking that if the foreigners are not in Afghanistan, we would be facing these sorts of incidents."

American Gen. Joseph Dunford, who commands those forces, denied the charges, Welna says.

"President Karzai has never said to me that the United States was colluding with the Taliban, so I don't know what caused him to say that today," Dunford said. "All I can do is speak for the Coalition and tell you that it's categorically false."

Security concerns caused the cancellation of a joint news conference with both Karzai and Hagel on Sunday, a U.S. official said. Instead, the two men are scheduled to have dinner together, Welna reports — their first meeting of this trip.

Lucy is a stereotypically giddy black labradoodle. She's not what you picture when you think of a military dog serving on the front lines in Afghanistan. She wiggles around the room chasing her tennis ball and thinks my microphone cover is a chew toy.

But her handler, Spc. Heath Garcia, says when Lucy is on a mission, she's all business. She's highly trained to sniff out improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which are the No. 1 killer of civilians and troops in Afghanistan.

"I always tell the guys that work the mine detectors, 'Hey, you can pick up metal; I can't. I can pick up explosives; you can't. So if you want to do a coin flip, see who wants to be in the front, let's do it,' " Garcia says.

Leading The Patrols

Lucy has shown she deserves to be out front on patrols and road-clearing missions. In her 10 months in the southern province of Kandahar, she's found four different IEDs.

Afghanistan

New Afghan Challenge For U.S.: Shipping Stuff Out

In the 1940s and '50s, Tadd Dameron worked with everyone who was anyone in jazz, from Miles Davis to Artie Shaw, Count Basie to John Coltrane. Everything Dameron touched had one thing in common, says Paul Combs, author of Dameronia: The Life and Work of Tadd Dameron.

"A penchant for lyricism," Combs says. "Almost everything that he writes has a very lyrical grace to it."