Regional

New Mexico children could win a trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom or ride in a hot air balloon with Gov. Susana Martinez under a program that state officials hope will encourage students to read when they aren't in school.

The governor is to announce several reading contests on today in Albuquerque. The state is partnering with private and public organizations, including the city of Albuquerque, the University of New Mexico and the Albuquerque Isotopes.

The governor's office says the goal is to prevent a drop in the reading proficiency of students during the summer months.

The New Mexico Game Commission will be meeting in Roswell to consider revising the hunting season for squirrels and grouse and the renewal of a lease that would allow access to state trust land.

The daylong meeting is scheduled for Thursday at the New Mexico Military Institute.

The grouse and squirrel proposal is aimed at simplifying the current hunting seasons, which are divided into north and south zones with different dates.

  Oil production in New Mexico has increased by nearly 50 percent over the last three years, making it one of five western states that have helped boost national production over the last three years.

Statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show onshore oil production increased nationally by more than 2 million barrels a day — or nearly two-thirds — between February 2010 and February 2013.

North Dakota and Texas have been the driving forces, but New Mexico along with Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah account for 15 percent of the growth.

The University of New Mexico hospital is sending a 26-member team of medical, computer and security specialists to Moore, Okla., to help with the response to Monday's massive tornado hit.

Medical personnel who are part of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team include doctors, nurses and medical managers.

The deployment could be for up to two weeks.

According to the hospital, the team is part of a national system that deploys medical support to events of national significance.

A proposed ban on sales of sugary sodas in public elementary and junior high schools is on its way to the governor.

In a 24-6 vote on Tuesday, the Senate approved a bill intended to help the state's youngest students develop nutritious drinking habits. It would allow schools to sell only water, low-fat milk and pure juice.

Democratic Sen. Carlos Uresti of San Antonio said the change will save the state untold millions in health care costs.

New Mexico is slipping further into drought, having marked the driest two-year period in nearly 120 years of record-keeping.  National weather forecasters and water managers shared the latest statistics on New Mexico's devastatingly dry conditions during a meeting Tuesday. They say the last 12- and 24-month periods have eclipsed even those dry times of the early 20th century and the 1950s.

For the first four months of this year, New Mexico has seen less than half of its normal precipitation, with communities in the south and along the Rio Grande Valley seeing even less.

A judge has ruled that a North Texas lesbian couple can't live together because of a morality clause in the divorce papers of one of the women.

The clause is common in divorce cases in Texas and other states. It prevents a divorced parent from having a romantic partner spend the night while children are in the home. If the couple marries, they can get out from under the legal provision, but that is not an option for gay couples in Texas.

The trial for an Albuquerque teenager accused of killing his father on a November 2010 hunting trip in the Gila National Forest has been pushed back.

Trial had been scheduled to begin in July for 18-year-old Thomas Manning. But attorney Stacey Ward says a witness critical to the defense won't be available to testify until early next year.

The Silver City Sun-News says State District Judge J.C. Robinson vacated the July trial date and will rule later on Ward's brief about the availability of the defense's key witness.