Regional

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The New Mexico Game and Fish Department is putting the results of hunting license drawings online starting Wednesday.

Hunters who applied for 2010-2011 deer, elk, antelope, ibex, javelina, bighorn sheep and Barbary sheep licenses can check drawing results on the department's website, www.wildlife.state.nm.us.

The department will mail licenses and tags to successful hunters and will refund license fees to unsuccessful applicants.

Game officials say the state received 132,761 applications for 62,471 licenses.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The state Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing later this month on whether to remove Public Regulation Commissioner Carol Sloan from office because of her recent felony convictions.

Attorney General Gary King asked the state's high court to oust Sloan after she was convicted last month of battery and burglary.

The court on June 23 will consider the attorney general's request.

Sloan was convicted of attacking another woman, Brenda Yazzie, who she alleged was having an affair with her husband.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – The Las Cruces City Council has awarded a contract to a Washington, D.C., company to audit the police department.

The Police Executive Research Forum will begin its one-year $49,600 contract on July 1.

Councilors, in approving the contract Monday, were following a recommendation made nearly a year ago by a consulting firm that conducted an independent review of the Las Cruces Police Department.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Every Monday, Fred Martino speaks with Las Cruces Sun News Business Editor Brook Stockberger.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – The Las Cruces Police are asking for the public's help in locating a 27-year-old man whose whereabouts have been unknown since May 30.

Sergio D. Robledo was last seen May 27, 2010, at the Gospel Rescue Mission at 999 W. Amador Ave. in Las Cruces. Robledo was said to be in Tucson, Ariz., on May 30 when he called members of his family. He has not been heard from since.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – New Mexico's tax department is promising relief from sleeplessness, panic attacks, high blood pressure and other ills: Just pay your back taxes.

The Taxation and Revenue Department unveiled a tax amnesty program Monday that will allow New Mexico businesses and residents to avoid interest and penalties while catching up on unpaid taxes.

The program began Monday and runs through Sept. 30.

It's for tax years prior to 2010.

State tax officials estimate the amnesty program could bring in $7 million.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The New Mexico Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday afternoon in a legal battle that has been brewing over an effort by an environmental group to establish a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in New Mexico.

The state Environmental Improvement Board and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center are asking the justices to order a district court judge in Lovington to reverse an earlier decision that halted the effort.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The State Film Office wants Hispanics and Native Americans to find out about job opportunities in New Mexico's film industry.

The agency plans a tour around the state starting on Tuesday to educate New Mexicans about available training and possible jobs as film crew members or other positions.

A local labor union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, is helping with the tour.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – It's Monsoon Awareness Week in New Mexico.

Gov. Bill Richardson says the state and the National Weather Service want to decrease the potential for loss of life and weather-related injuries by making people aware of potential dangers during the summer monsoon season in New Mexico.

State Homeland Security and Emergency Management Secretary John Wheeler urges New Mexico residents to make a plan and an emergency kit with supplies for at least three days.

By KRWG News

Deming – Some Luna County officials say alternative energy could be the future for the southern New Mexico area.

San Diego-based Sapphire Energy has already taken steps toward establishing a plant to produce fuel from algae.

Groundbreaking is expected later this year on the facility, which will bring 30 full-time jobs.

Luna County Commission Chairman Javier Diaz hopes the plant will lead to a ripple effect, with business showing increased interest in Luna County.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – Applications from high school students wanting to attend the 2010 summer New Mexico Hispanic Youth Symposium rose 54 percent over last year.

Some 656 students from throughout New Mexico applied online for the 3rd annual college empowerment program.

The program will chose 150 students to attend.

The June 15-18 symposium at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque is sponsored by New Mexico Mathematics, Engineering Science Achievement and UNM's college enrichment and outreach programs.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – New Mexico Attorney General Gary King has joined an effort asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that tossed out a verdict against a Kansas church whose members carried inflammatory signs while picketing the funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq.

King says the First Amendment was not intended, in his words, "to give extremists the right to attack private individuals the way this family was victimized."

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority says it will receive almost $1 million from federal stimulus funds to provide energy efficiency training.

The Mortgage Finance Authority announced the grant Friday and says the project is part of the $29 million in stimulus funds the U.S. Department of Energy is spending on clean energy.

The agency will use the funds to create a center in New Mexico that will teach workers weatherization and energy efficiency practices for homes.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says Rio Grande silvery minnows stocked in the Big Bend area of the river in Texas have successfully spawned a step in establishing the endangered fish outside the middle Rio Grande in New Mexico.

Biologists identified the river's Big Bend reach as the most likely spot to support the fish in the species' historic range.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have doubled the number of risky products they can find among the millions of imports arriving at U.S. ports each year, thanks to an innovative system developed at New Mexico State University with assistance from two small business consulting companies.

An open house at NMSU June 15 will showcase the PREDICT project, which has earned a 2010 FDA Honor Award.