Regional

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The Albuquerque Journal has filed a lawsuit alleging that Gov. Bill Richardson's office violated New Mexico's open records law by withholding documents about 59 appointive state workers who lost their jobs because of budget cuts.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The New Mexico Education Trust Board will receive $67 million from OppenheimerFunds to settle an investigation into the firm's management of a college savings program.

The board and Attorney General Gary King approved the settlement on Wednesday.

The $67 million will be distributed to plan participants who invested in a bond fund that suffered big losses because of risky mortgage-backed securities. The fund had been promoted as a conservative investment.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Congressman Harry Teague announced that the Las Cruces Housing Authority has been awarded a grant for $338,895. The funding, allocated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development through the 2010 Capital Fund Program, can be put towards capital and management projects, including modernization and development of public housing.

By KRWG News

Juarez, Mexico – Gunmen slaughter 19 men at a rehab clinic. Sixteen bodies are dumped in a northern city. Twelve police officers die in an ambush. Soldiers kill 15 gunmen outside a tourist town.

All this in less than a week, yet President Felipe Calderon believes Mexico is getting a bad rap and wants to hire a public relations firm to improve its image. He might want to start with convincing his own countrymen, who are frustrated by assurances that the drug war is going well.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart finally have tied the knot in a wedding presided over by New Mexico's governor.

Gov. Bill Richardson confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the couple, who have been together for several years and got enganged last year, were married at the governor's mansion in Santa Fe.

Richardson presided over the ceremony Tuesday afternoon.

The governor and his staff were tightlipped about details of the ceremony, saying it was "a private matter."

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Dona Ana County Sheriff's investigators are looking into the death of a 10- month-old boy who drowned while at his residence on the East Mesa Tuesday evening.

Authorities said the 19-year-old mother found the child and called 911 while her parents attempted to perform CPR.

The child died while being airlifted to University Medical Center in El Paso from Mountain View Hospital in Las Cruces.

The child's body was sent to the Office of the Medical Investigator in El Paso for an autopsy.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Helena Chemical will hold public meetings this summer to explain why the company is appealing a New Mexico Environment Department decision that denied the firm's effort to operate without a state air quality permit.

The meetings will be July 6 in Santa Fe and July 21 in Mesquite.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – Wildfires burning around New Mexico have prompted state officials to issue a statewide smoke advisory as well as health advisories for some areas of the state.

The Health Department recommends that sensitive groups, such as the elderly or people with respiratory or heart problems, leave the area where smoke levels are within the unhealthy range until the smoke dissipates or stay inside as much as possible.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Officials say a fire that began during a training exercise at Fort Bliss has consumed 1,500 acres and is likely to grow as firefighters wait for it to move past areas of unexploded ordnance.

The fire began Monday on the northwest corner of the Dona Ana Range. Officials haven't said exactly what sparked the blaze, which is not threatening any structures.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – A fire in a remote area of the Organ Mountains caused by a military training exercise on Army property has burned an estimated one thousand acres. Smoke could be seen over the Organ Mountains all day Tuesday and by nightfall, the heavy smell of smoke was in the air in Las Cruces.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – Businesses in New Mexico will pay higher taxes starting in January to shore up the program that provides jobless benefits, but a top state official warns that another tax increase probably will be needed next year to keep the unemployment program solvent.

Workforce Solutions Secretary Ken Ortiz said Monday the agency expects the unemployment fund will run out of money in late 2011 if the economy remains weak and there's little change in the number of jobless New Mexicans.

By KRWG News

Texas – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has now told two companies to deal directly with the federal government for their operating permits, bypassing the state.

The latest development in the battle between Texas and the federal government over clean-air permits for petrochemical companies involves the ChevronPhillips Cedar Bayou plant and Garland Power & Light, a utility in north Texas.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – The New Mexico Spaceport Authority has a new executive director, and he's no stranger to the job.

The spaceport board met Tuesday in Truth or Consequences and voted unanimously to hire Rick Homans. He will take over as permanent director on July 1 after stepping down from his position as head of the state Taxation and Revenue Department.

Homans served as the first chairman of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority from 2005 to 2007 and was briefly its executive director in 2007.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Three men who attempted to elude police after stealing beer from an area convenience store abandoned their vehicle and the 5-year-old boy who was in the car with them.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Instructors at New Mexico State University and Do a Ana Community College are seeking volunteers to participate in a Community Adobe Education Day at the historic Phillips Chapel CME church on Saturday, June 19.