- SUICIDE RATE
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — State health officials say New Mexico had more suicides in 2018 than any other year in at least two decades.According to data provided by the state's Department of Health, 535 people died by suicide last year.
That a rate of 24.8 per 100,000 residents and represents a 6.7% increase over the state's 2017 suicide rate.
Mental health experts told the Albuquerque Journal that the 2018 numbers represent the highest suicide rate on record in New Mexico since the state began consistently keeping track in 1999.
According to an analysis released by the Violence Policy Center, New Mexico had the fourth highest suicide rate in the nation in 2017 at 23.51 per 100,000 people.
Authorities say there's an association with firearm ownership and firearms use and deaths connected to suicide.
- ELECTION 2020-TRUMP-NEW MEXICO
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Donald Trump is steering his political offensive to a major oil-producing state on the border with Mexico where local Republican politicians have almost nothing left to lose.Trump will rev up his New Mexico fan base Monday at an arena in conservative-leaning Rio Rancho. He is pushing back against a wave of local Democratic midterm victories in 2018 that flipped a congressional district and won back the governor's office after eight years of Republican control.
Local Democratic contenders are taking aim at the president with bravado as they hope to hold onto open U.S. House and Senate seats.
Among those is former CIA operative and congressional candidate Valerie Plame, who says she has a few scores to settle with the president in a swaggering new ad.
- TAOS-HOMICIDE ARREST
TAOS, N.M. (AP) — Authorities say a Taos man gunned down when he went to feed his livestock and the man arrested in the early morning killing previously had disputes.The New Mexico State Police said Gregg Steele was arrested Friday on suspicion of second-degree murder, armed robbery and tampering with evidence in the Aug. 27 killing of 63-year-old Patrick Larkin .
The State Police said Steele identified as a person of interest and then arrested after investigators found evidence of Larkin's blood in Steele's vehicle and determined that the men "previous disputes with each other."
According to the State Police, Steele used a handgun to shoot Larkin but then stole one belonging to Larkin before discarding both weapons.
Court records don't list an attorney for Steele who could comment on the allegations.
- FATAL CAR CRASH-RESTAURANT
RUIDOSO, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico authorities say a car driven by a woman attempting to leave a restaurant's parking lot crashed into the building, killing one patron inside and injuring two others.According to the State Police, "for reasons still under investigation," the car accelerated and drove forward into the restaurant in Ruidoso (REE-uh-DOH-soh) Friday night.
The State Police said Saturday that 58-year-old Tammy Lynn Ford of Clovis was killed while a 58-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman were injured.
The State Police said alcohol wasn't a factor in causing the crash.
It said the car's driver was a 70-year-old Ruidoso woman who wasn't injured and that her name wasn't being released because she hadn't been charged.
Ruidoso is 118 miles (190 kilometers) northeast of El Paso, Texas.
- URANIUM CONTAMINATION-VIRTUAL REALITY
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — Activists are using virtual reality technology to focus on areas of the Navajo Nation affected by uranium contamination.The Gallup Independent reports the arts collective Bombshelltoe has collected 360-degree footage of Churchrock, New Mexico, to show how people and the land have changed since a 1979 uranium mill spill.
The project started four years ago after Washington, D.C.-based nuclear policy program manager Lovely Umayam met Navajo activist Sunny Dooley at an event in Santa Fe.
Umayam says the group wanted to use the new technology of virtual reality with the stories to show the impact of uranium mining.
In 1979, a dam on the Navajo Nation near Church Rock broke at an evaporation pond, releasing 94 million gallons (356 million liters) of radioactive waste to the Puerco River.