Regional

By KRWG News

Texas – A $500 bonus for about 250,000 retired educators and state workers in Texas won't happen because legislators improperly appropriated the funds.

Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday issued an opinion that says normal procedures for distributing the $155 million were not followed by the 2009 Legislature.

Lawmakers can set up one-time payments to retired teachers and state workers. But the ruling says legislators wrongly bypass trustees and sent the $155 million to the state comptroller's office, not to state pension funds.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The New Mexico Environment Department has fined Los Alamos National Laboratory nearly $1 million for failing to monitor nearby groundwater and surface water for pollution.

The department announced Monday it would assess a $960,000 penalty against the northern New Mexico nuclear weapons lab.

Environment Secretary Ron Curry says reliable monitoring is needed to determine whether hazardous pollution from the lab's radioactive waste dump is reaching groundwater or the Rio Grande.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – Gov. Bill Richardson says he has appointed the acting Human Services secretary to head the department.

Richardson says Katie Falls has served as acting human services secretary for the past two months since the departure of former Human Services Secretary Pam Hyde for a federal appointment.

The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Hyde as administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

By KRWG News

Taos – A judge who jailed more than two dozen people for contempt of court after an outburst in his courtroom last week has dismissed the charges.

Thirty-two people who faced the contempt charges were in the courtroom of state District Judge Sam Sanchez again Monday afternoon.

Sanchez told them his court demands respect from all who enter.

He then dismissed the charges.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – One of the founders of New Mexico's Apache Point Observatory and a driving force behind the Sloan Digital Sky Survey recently received a presidential award.

President Barack Obama awarded James E. Gunn with the National Medal of Science for his work with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at a ceremony at the White House in October. Gunn is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – ConocoPhillips recently made a combined donation of $22,500 to the New Mexico State University Colleges of Business and Engineering.

The donation is just one of the many ConocoPhillips has made during its 24 years of consecutively giving to NMSU. ConocoPhillips delivered the check during a reception with the faculty and deans. The donation took place the week of the career fair, where they have been a popular destination for NMSU graduates.

By KRWG News

El Paso – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the El Paso port of entry apprehended a pair of female travelers from New Mexico after they discovered the women transporting ecstasy and ketamine across the border from Mexico. Three others in the car were released following the Saturday morning seizure.

By KRWG News

Santa Teresa, NM – At 4:30am Monday morning, deputies with the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department were dispatched to the 320 block of Avenida Mirador in reference to a robbery.

When deputies arrived, they learned the residence is inside a gated community in the Santa Teresa Country Club area.

During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that the four suspects forced entry into the home and threatened the victims with firearms. The suspects then tied the victims up with plastic ties and demanded money.

By KRWG News

New Mexico – The state of New Mexico has spent more than a half-million dollars investigating and monitoring a giant cavern in southeastern New Mexico, and now it wants the company responsible for the property to pay up.

State officials say the extraction of millions of barrels of brine from a salt layer deep underground has resulted in the cavern in Carlsbad.

By KRWG News

Texas – A U.S. program that offers trusted trucking companies speedy passage across American borders is attracting just the sort of customer who places a premium on avoiding inspections: Mexican drug smugglers.

Most trucks enrolled in the program pause at the border for just 20 seconds before entering the U.S. Nine out of 10 do so without their cargo inspected.

By KRWG News

Las Cruces – Every Monday on Morning Edition at 7:51, Fred Martino speaks with Brook Stockberger, Business Editor at the Las Cruces Sun News.

By KRWG News

Santa Fe – A World War II veteran whose body went unclaimed has been buried by fellow veterans in the National Cemetery in Santa Fe.

The veterans made sure John Quincy Lott who spent 25 years in the military received an honor guard, a folded American flag, prayers and a rifle salute.

Lott, who was born in 1917, died Oct. 12 at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Albuquerque.

His only child, a daughter living in Massachusetts, didn't have the money to come claim the body, and he had no other relatives.

By KRWG News

Texas – The Army psychiatrist charged in one of the worst mass shootings on a U.S. military base has been placed in pretrial confinement but will remain in a military hospital.

A military magistrate made that decision Saturday during a hearing in Maj. Nidal Hasan's hospital room at a San Antonio military hospital. It's where Hasan's been recovering since the Nov. 5 shooting at Fort Hood that killed 13 and wounded more than two dozen. Hasan was shot by civilian members of Fort Hood's police force.

By KRWG News

Taos – A judge who warned people in a courtroom gallery to remain quiet during a hearing for a convicted rapist jailed nearly 30 people for contempt of court when he said they became unruly and defiant.

District Judge Sam Sanchez charged the crowd with contempt of court Thursday and sent them to jail, where they remained until being released Friday.

The state Supreme Court granted an emergency writ to release them after a petition from the public defender's office.

The office argued they weren't given individual hearings.

By KRWG News

Moriarty, NM – Former president Bill Clinton joined more than 2,000 mourners at a funeral for former Gov. Bruce King, New Mexico's longest serving governor.

Clinton delivered a eulogy Saturday, recalling King as an astute politician with a sharp sense of humor and a common touch.

Clinton called King "my generation's Will Rogers" because of his wit.

King was a farmer and rancher who served three terms as governor over three decades.

He died last week at age 85.