Regional

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Transportation police with the state Department of Public Safety are cracking down this week on aggressive and distracted drivers as part of a nationwide effort to improve highway safety.

Officers will be using marked and unmarked vehicles during the special operation. Both commercial and noncommercial vehicles will be targeted.

The department says a similar effort by motor transportation officers last year resulted in 266 citations for speeding, following too close and other moving violations.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – A Vietnam War veteran from New Mexico and the other surviving members of Alpha Troop, First Squadron, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, have been honored with the Presidential Unit Citation.

The award was presented by President Barack Obama during a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall today applauded the passage of a bill that supports several of New Mexico's national security initiatives.

The Senate approved the fiscal year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill; this measure can now be sent to the White House for signature.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – JUAN JARAMILLO JR., age 24, of Milagro, was apprehended earlier Tuesday at approximately 4:00 p.m. at the Border Patrol Checkpoint north of Las Cruces on Intestate 25, for Kidnapping in the First Degree and other related Domestic charges.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – Several Democratic Senators are expressing their strong frustration over the limitations imposed on their deliberations by the Governor's Proclamation convening the special session.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Edward M. Avalos will be Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Avalos was raised on a family farm in the Mesilla Valley where they grew cotton, wheat and a variety of specialty crops. He is a member of several agricultural promotion organizations in the state and received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from New Mexico State University.

By KRWG News

El Paso – An attorney for a Mexican human rights official jailed by immigration officials says his client doesn't want asylum in the U.S. and wasn't seeking it when he crossed the border last week.

Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson is the human rights official for Chihuahua state, which includes Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Although he has complained about abuses by the Mexican army and has said he fears for his life, he often visits El Paso legally.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Thousands of acres will be up offered this week at the Bureau of Land Management's regional oil and gas lease sale, but some of the land near the Organ Mountains is being held back.

Fifty-one parcels will be available in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas although the agency has pulled back a dozen parcels in New Mexico that are near a national park and proposed wilderness.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The New Mexico Department of Insurance has approved rate reductions in workers' compensation premiums for the fourth year in a row.

Workers' Compensation Administration director Glenn Smith says such rate reductions make it cheaper to purchase insurance and, hopefully, make New Mexico more attractive to businesses.

He credits efforts by employers and workers for reducing on-the-job injuries.

By KRWG News

Portales – Eastern New Mexico University has adopted two rescued former racing greyhounds to become the school's official animal mascots.

Eastern's athletic teams are nicknamed the Greyhounds.

The university is accepting name suggestions for the male and female dogs, starting Friday and running through Nov. 6. Also, interested students can apply to become handlers for the dogs.

The ENMU Foundation has donated $1,000 and the ENMU Bench Club has donated $2,000 as seed money for the dogs' adoption and care.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – New Mexico Tech scientists believe they've found the largest spring discovered so far in the upper Rio Grande, a few miles south of the Colorado border near Ute Mountain.

Researchers call it the Lava Tube Spring.

They say the spring's crater is 12 feet deep and bubbles 6,000 gallons of water a minute into the Rio Grande. It is the largest of 170 springs and seeps the scientists have documented so far in the 80-mile river reach from the Colorado border to the Embudo measuring gauge.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Las Cruces Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the woman involved in Friday's theft of an expensive piece of jewelry from a local gallery.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Branigan Cultural Center announces that it has been selected as one of forty institutions nationwide to host "Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made in America." The world-class traveling exhibit, organized by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, will be in Las Cruces November 20 - December 18, 2009. The next nearest stops for the exhibit are in Dallas, Denver, and the Los Angeles area.

By KRWG News

El Paso – CBP/Border Patrol Agents throughout the El Paso Sector were on high alert battling drug smugglers this past weekend with the most notable events occurring in Lordsburg, New Mexico when agents seized over 500 pounds of marijuana in two separate incidents.

By KRWG News

Texas – A plan to improve the number of Latinos attending college will be considered later this month by the state higher education board.

A recent report from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board indicates Hispanics are the least likely group to attend college and are "well below" meeting improvement goals, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.

State figures also indicate male college graduates also lag behind women across all races.