Regional

By KRWG News

El Paso – Mexican authorities have recovered the body of a New Mexico man from the Rio Grande after he had been hunting and went into the water to retrieve a duck.

The body of Ezequiel Roman Lesa, who is from the Las Cruces area, was located Thursday. Bernardo Escudero Ortega, director of Ciudad Juarez Ecology and Civil Protection, says the body was recovered near the Bridge of the America. The cause of death is pending, but rescue crews believe Lesa drowned.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – New Mexico has been so cautious in licensing and regulating growers under its 3-year-old medical marijuana law that the small number of providers can't grow enough, creating a shortage that has forced some patients to the street buy illegal drugs.

The dilemma could have ramifications elsewhere because the state's program has been held up as a national model, with other states looking to replicate its strong regulatory structure to avoid the chaos that has prevailed in places like California.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – New Mexico spaceport officials say they're taking steps to solve problems for ranchers who saw their water supplies cut off or curtailed because of heavy pumping tied to spaceport construction.

The four households, located about seven miles north of the spaceport site, reported declining water supplies in April, after a contractor acquired access to a nearby private well and began using it to supply water for construction.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – U.S. Forest Service regional offices in the West are considering whether to close bat caves to help prevent the spread of a disease that is fatal to the mammals.

Officials with the agency's Rocky Mountain and Southwest region offices say they have been discussing the matter with other federal and state agencies.

Rocky Mountain region spokesman Dave Steinke says the office in Denver hopes to have a decision on the bat caves within a couple of weeks.

By KRWG News

Juarez, Mexico – Gunmen shot and killed the nephew of the governor-elect of the Mexican border state of Chihuahua in what authorities say was a botched kidnapping in the drug-plagued state.

Mario Medina was the 42-year-old nephew of Governor-elect Cesar Duarte. State prosecutors' spokesman Eduardo Esparza says Medina was shot in the back Wednesday as he tried to escape from his assailants in the state capital, also named Chihuahua.

By KRWG News

Berino – Dona Ana County Sheriff's Investigators earlier this afternoon arrested and charged ERICA SIGALA, age 26, of the 120 block of Feathergrass Road, Berino, with one count of First Degree Child Abuse - Intentional (Resulting in Death or Great Bodily Harm).

According to Sheriff's Investigators, on July 5, at approximately 11:30 a.m. Central Dispatch received a call that a one year old child, male, was not breathing.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – New campaign finance reports show that Democratic Congressman Harry Teague and Republican challenger Steve Pearce each have at least $1 million stockpiled for their 2nd Congressional District race.

Teague reported a cash balance of almost $1.2 million in his campaign account as of the end of June. Pearce had cash-on-hand of slightly more than $1 million.

Teague won the southern New Mexico congressional seat in 2008, when Pearce left the House to run for an open Senate seat.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – New Mexico will host a meeting of U.S. and Mexican border governors, providing a new venue for a conference that was scrapped in Arizona because of a dispute over its new immigration enforcement law.

A spokesman for New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson says the meeting will be held in Santa Fe in late September.

The governors of six Mexican states are expected to attend, but the governors of Arizona and Texas say they won't attend the rescheduled meeting.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – The New Mexico State University Center for the Arts is being designated as a centennial building for the state of New Mexico.

The announcement came at the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday at the corner of Espina Street and University Avenue, the site of the new arts center. It will be the first building in the state to receive this designation.

By KRWG News

Texas – Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has filed a legal brief on behalf of nine states supporting Arizona's immigration law.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate said Wednesday that Michigan is the lead state backing Arizona in federal court. Michigan is joined by Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia, as well as the Northern Mariana Islands.

Cox says states have the authority to enforce immigration laws and protect their borders.

By KRWG News

Texas – Texas' Republican Gov. Rick Perry has picked plenty of battles with Washington, D.C. Lately, Democrats in the nation's capital are hitting back.

In the past two weeks, President Barack Obama's administration overturned Texas' air permitting program, and U.S. House Democrats restricted how the state can spend $800 million in federal education money.

Perry says he won't stop criticizing what he sees as excessive federal spending and interference with states' rights by an activist federal government.

By KRWG News

Texas – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says she was being firm and not testy with Gov. Rick Perry during a recent conversation about National Guard troops on the Texas border.

Napolitano said Thursday during a Laredo visit that she perhaps needed to get Perry "more information" on what she called a record amount of security resources given to the southwest border under President Barack Obama's administration.

By KRWG News

Silver City – The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) is currently conducting Chip Sealing operations in the Grant County area. The work will be from mile post 55 to 35 between Cliff and Silver City, NM.

The NMDOT has placed temporary pavement tabs, and will placing permanent pavement markings once the project is complete.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman said a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report suggests that American taxpayers might be over-subsidizing corn-based biofuels, even while failing to provide any tax credit for algae-based fuels, which hold great promise for the nation's environment and energy security, and for Southern New Mexico's economy.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – The Las Cruces Police Department and a multi-agency task force are continuing to investigate Tuesday morning's shooting death of 23-year-old Lance G. Hummell who threatened officers with a 4-foot long samurai-type sword.

Hummell, who resided at the Mesilla Manor Apartments, was fatally shot just after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 13, after he aggressively closed distance on two Las Cruces Police officers at the apartment complex at 1101 E. Boutz Road.