Regional

By KRWG News

New Mexico – Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish says the W. K. Kellogg Foundation has given New Mexico a $400,000 grant to support early childhood education.

Denish says the grant will be used to establish the New Mexico Early Childhood Partnership.

The partnership between her office and the United Way of Santa Fe County will develop expanded public financing strategies for early childhood development in the state.

Denish says the partnership will work to find permanent funding for early childhood programs.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – These are exciting times for freshman students at New Mexico State University.

Students are starting to move-in as the school's largest freshman class in history, along with their families and friends, hustled to unload belongings in their new dwellings Sunday.

University Director of Housing and Residential Life Julie Weber said the school's dormitories are "beyond full" as more than 2,240 freshmen enrolled at NMSU last week.

The school had to assign two to three freshmen to each dorm room.

By Marco Grajeda

Las Cruces, NM – A statewide advocacy organization is urging lawmakers to consider ways of raising revenue and not rely exclusively on spending cuts when fixing the budget. As KRWG's Marco Grajeda reports, a recent revenue forecast revealed the state's budget dipped another 400-million this fiscal year.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – A jury in Las Cruces, N.M., has convicted a former Sunland Park municipal court judge of three counts of election fraud.

The jury returned the verdict against Horacio Favela after deliberating for less than three hours on Friday afternoon.

Evidence at the weeklong trial showed that Favela voted in both El Paso, Texas, and Dona Ana, N.N., counties in the November 2004 election. He was living in El Paso but ran for the judgeship in Dona Ana County and voted in both elections.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – Police say they've solved the murder of a 74-year-old Farmington woman whose body was found bound and gagged in her home 20 years ago.

Farmington police Sgt. Robert Perez says detectives arrested 46-year-old Jimmie Lee on Thursday and charged him with murder and kidnapping for the 1989 death of Thelma Kline.

Perez says a cold-case unit reviewing old crimes sent evidence to the state police crime lab for analysis. The crime lab matched a DNA sample to Lee, an inmate at the state prison in Grants.

By KRWG News

El Paso – El Paso police have identified the woman who was killed in a wreck and named the suspect facing charges in her death.

Thirty-one-year-old Emiliano Villanueva was arrested and charged with suspicion of intoxicated manslaughter. His bond was set at $50,000 but it was not immediately known whether he had an attorney.

Police said 79-year-old Arline Yonack was killed in Friday's wreck. Police said Villanueva ran a red light and drove into the passenger side of the car Yonack was riding in.

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By KRWG News

New Mexico – Federal highway officials have ordered the state to demolish an illegal billboard owned by New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan by the end of next week.

By Melissa Aguilera

Las Cruces, NM – New Mexico State Auditor Hector Balderas announced recently that a northern New Mexico School District employee may have embezzled close 3.4 million dollars from the school's budget; and as KRWG's Melissa Aguilera reports, Balderas is now urging school districts to check their books often.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – From NMSU:
U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will be one of the keynote speakers at New Mexico State University's and honorary co-chairman Congressman Harry Teague's initiative to explore America's energy future at a two-day conference titled "Re-Energize America: Policy, Practice and Possibility for America's Future" Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 at NMSU's Corbett Center Ballrooms.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – From NMSU:
Renewable energy from any of the potential sources requires adaptability for the current system in electrical production and delivery. Critical to these requirements are the electrical codes and standards that ensure safety of the users, installers and operators.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – From NMSU:
Local business owner Connie Hines has dedicated many of her volunteer hours during the last 10 years to the arts at New Mexico State University, including, along with her husband, Jerry, donating $100,000 to the Center for the Arts project.

By Melissa Aguilera

Las Cruces, NM – Researchers at New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute announced a new variety of pepper this chile season; and as KRWG's Melissa Aguilera reports, they say it's sure to win the taste buds of many New Mexicans.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The state Public Education Departments says 10th graders in public schools will be able to take college board exams for free during the upcoming school year.

The department said all school districts, on a voluntary basis, will have the opportunity to have 10th graders participate in the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test for free. This will save the districts about $13 per participating student.

By KRWG News

Texas – Drought has damaged crops across Texas, but another weather problem earlier this year added to the trouble for wine growers.

Freezing temperatures devastated some grapes at the Driftwood Vineyards, about 20 miles southwest of Austin.

Owner Gary Elliott told KXAN-TV that he started 2009 with an estimated 60 tons of fruit, but in early April the temperature dropped below freezing and "pretty much wiped out all the fruit."

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The Elephant Butte Irrigation District plans to shut off irrigation water at a month earlier than usual, and blames a dry summer and less runoff from snow last winter.

The district, which usually releases irrigation water until late September or into October, will end the season Aug. 28 this year.

Irrigation district manager Gary Esslinger says rains that typically come in July and August have not arrived, and water demand has remained high. In addition, temperatures have remained hot.