Regional

The city of Santa Fe has launched a $1 million project aimed at improving the city's broadband infrastructure and boosting the availability of high-speed Internet connections.

City officials announced Friday that they have issued a request for firms to compete for the opportunity to design, build, own and operate a fiber-optic link from downtown Santa Fe to the St. Michael's corridor.

With its ranks deeply divided, the Boy Scouts of America is asking its local leaders from across the country to decide whether its contentious membership policy should be overhauled so that openly gay boys can participate in Scout units.

The proposal to be put before the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA's National Council on Thursday, at a meeting in Texas, would retain a ban on gays serving in adult leadership positions.

A man arrested in a 51-year-old killing is being held in Louisiana's Calcasieu Parish jail without bond.

Authorities arrested 73-year-old William Felix Vail Friday for the October 1962 killing of his wife, Mary Horton Vail. Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier says he intends to seek Felix Vail's indictment for second-degree murder.

Authorities reopened an investigation into Mary Vail's death after stories written by The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss. Until recently, Vail lived in Mississippi.

New Mexico health officials are urging parents to tell children not to handle wild animals.

The warning comes after a bat found in northeast Albuquerque tested positive for rabies. A number of children were reportedly near the bat and took photographs of it on the evening of May 11, but it's not clear if any of them touched or handled it.

Letters were sent to the parents of children who attend two nearby schools and flyers have been posted in the neighborhood, but the state Health Department says no known exposures have been reported.

A 50-year-old man goes on trial Monday in Las Cruces in the 2010 killings of a New Mexico couple and their business partner from California.

First-degree murder charges accuse Eugene Ferri of fatally shooting 69-year-old Gilles Delisle, 72-year-old Helga Harries Delisle and 68-year-old Peter J. Weith of San Diego.

Ferri had worked for the Delisles as a contractor, and they and Weith had sued Ferri for $1.3 milion.

The victims' bodies were discovered at the Delisles' Mesillas home after they didn't go to a court hearing.

Graduates at Navajo Technical College got to hear from Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, during their commencement ceremony Friday.

A longtime educator, Biden shared some lessons about the importance of community and told the graduating class to continue to reach out to each other for support and encourage one another.

Biden marks the second big name to visit the school on graduation day. Last year, it was U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

The Department of Workforce Solutions reports that New Mexico's unemployment rate dropped last month and that job growth has improved.

State officials said Friday the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in April. That's down from 6.9 percent in March and 7 percent in April 2012.

New Mexico has gained about 7,900 jobs during the past 12 months, for a 1 percent growth rate.