- ELECTION 2020-HOUSE-NEW MEXICO
New Mexico GOP hits US House hopeful for 'false statements'LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — The Republican Party of New Mexico sharply is criticizing one of its candidates in a closely watched GOP primary for a U.S. House seat in the southern part of the state.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports the state the party last week accused candidate Chris Mathys of Las Cruces of making "intentional misstatements of the facts and untrue accusations" against former state Rep. Yvette Herrell.
The party says Mathys was wrong for describing a bill introduced by Herrell filed during New Mexico's 2015 legislative session as "pro-abortion."
The bill called for a ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.
Herrell, who lost to Democratic U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in 2018, is seeking the GOP nomination again to challenge her.
Oil executive Claire Chase also is running in the Republican primary.
- VETERANS MEMORIAL-BRONZE SHOES
Bronze shoes at an Albuquerque veterans' memorial stolenALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities say bronze shoes have been stolen from an Albuquerque veterans' memorial that honors those who served in the U.S. war on terror.
New Mexico Veterans Memorial Foundation vice president James Lehner says the bronze shoes were stolen Friday night.
Michael Burd with the New Mexico Veterans Memorial Board of Directors says the five pairs of shoes are worth thousands of dollars. He says there's a growing need for physical security and electronic surveillance at the memorial park.
Lehner says thieves also had taken the M16 and helmet that were part of the Vietnam memorial.
Albuquerque police and officials with the New Mexico Veterans Memorial say no arrests have been made.
- HOUSE PARTY-FATAL SHOOTING
1 dead after shots fired outside Albuquerque house partyALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Albuquerque police are investigating a house party shooting that has left one person dead.
The shooting occurred early Sunday around 1 a.m.
Police Sgt. Tanner Tixier says officers responded after receiving multiple 911 calls about shots fired.
Tixier says officers did not find any victims but there were bullet casings outside.
A shooting victim showed up at a hospital a short time later.
Tixier says the victim died but did not release any additional information.
Albuquerque TV stations report that family members of the victim say he was a student at Sandia High School attending a homecoming party.
- AZTEC RUINS-HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS
Team to study historic inscriptions at New Mexico ruinsAZTEC, N.M. (AP) — A Colorado historian is leading a team to survey the historic inscriptions on the ceilings of the 900-year-old ruins in northwestern New Mexico.
The Farmington Daily Times reports Fred Blackburn and his team will study lengthy messages — or graffiti — left at the Aztec Ruins National Monument to shed light on how others saw the engineering marvel.
Blackburn wants to know the stories of those folks and add historical context to their inscriptions in as many cases as possible.
The Aztec Ruins National Monument is made of 400 masonry rooms and is an ancestral pueblo structure that dates back to the 11th to the 13th centuries. White settlers named it after mistakenly believing it was built by Aztecs from central Mexico.
- WILD HORSES-CONGRESS
Controversial wild horse plan headed to Senate floorRENO, Nev. (AP) — Congress is closer to approving a contentious wild horse initiative backed by national animal welfare groups and the livestock industry but condemned by leaders of the largest coalition of mustang advocates in the West.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $35 million last week for the program supported by an unprecedented alliance including the Humane Society of the United States, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and American Farm Bureau Federation.
They say it would eliminate the threat of slaughter for thousands of free-roaming horses and shrink the size of herds primarily through expanded fertility controls on the range.
Critics say it drops long-held opposition to the capture of mustangs across 10 western states and could allow for sterilization of mares — a hot-button issue with horse protection advocates historically.
- MISSING PLANE-SEARCH
Search continues for small plane missing near Santa FeSANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities continue to search for a small plane that might have crashed in the Pecos Wilderness northeast of Santa Fe.
Authorities have not identified the two people aboard the single-engine, four-seater plane that disappeared after a refueling stop.
They say the pilot and passenger were both from Colorado.
New Mexico State Police say the plane took off from Santa Fe Regional Airport at 5:49 p.m. Thursday and air traffic controllers lost radar contact with the aircraft 12 minutes later.
State Police say the plane's emergency beacon pinged a mile south of Tererro and that's the aircraft's last known location.
The air and ground search began Friday and included State Police, National Guard and Civil Air Patrol aircraft.
- IMMIGRATION-FAST-TRACK DEPORTATIONS
Judge blocks extension of fast-track deportations nationwideSAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's move to vastly extend authority of immigration officers to deport people without allowing them to appear before judges.
The policy would allow fast-track deportations to apply to anyone in the country illegally for less than two years. Now, they are largely limited to people arrested almost immediately after crossing the Mexican border.
Ruling late Friday in Washington, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson says the administration violated procedural requirements to first seek public comment and ignored flaws in how the policy has been used on a smaller scale at the border.
The Justice Department says the judge overstepped her authority and undermined laws enacted by Congress with careful consideration by the administration on how to enforce them.
- DRUG TRAFFICKING-POLICE LINK
Chief: No evidence of corruption in Las Vegas police forceALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A northern New Mexico police chief says his investigation found no evidence of corruption in his department in the wake of suspicions that word of a federal drug investigation was leaked to an alleged trafficker.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that Las Vegas Police Chief David Bibb said Friday there was "no evidence of any employee of the police department that would suggest corruption of any kind."
The Las Vegas Optic previously reported that a recently unsealed search warrant affidavit indicated that one or more employees of the Las Vegas department may have tried to help the alleged trafficker by providing word of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.
The affidavit cited information from a wiretap.