Albuquerque news

• Updated: Zika? It hasn’t gone away, but some travelers are shrugging

  22-02-2017 23:51
  
  Zika hasn’t gone away, but as the mosquito-borne virus has faded from the headlines, travelers seem less concerned about it than they were last year. “We had a big downturn in honeymoon business last year,” said Hans Pfister, who owns the Lapa Rios Lodge in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. This year, he says, “is the […]
  
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• Updated: Dolphins sign Dan Marino to 1-day contract

  22-02-2017 23:50
  
  DAVIE, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins have signed free agent quarterback Dan Marino. Yes, that one. More than 17 years removed from his final NFL pass and 12 years after his enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Marino “re-signed” with the Dolphins on Wednesday — as were five other prominent former members of […]
  
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• Updated: Away from Iraq’s front lines, the Islamic State is creeping back in

  22-02-2017 23:48
  
  RAMADI, Iraq – The Islamic State is nearing defeat on the battlefield, but away from the front lines its members are seeping back into areas the group once controlled, taking advantage of rampant corruption in Iraq’s security forces and institutions. Police officers, judges and local officials describe an uneven hand of justice that allows some […]
  
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• Updated: T.J. Maxx parent steps up expansion, plans new home chain

  22-02-2017 23:47
  
  FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Department stores just got a double dose of bad news. The parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, which have taken a bigger share of clothing spending by selling popular brands at deep discounts, plans to expand even faster and test a new home store that’s different from its highly successful HomeGoods […]
  
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• ABQ Health Partners changes name, opens flagship clinic

  22-02-2017 23:46
  
  The healthcare provider formerly known as ABQ Health Partners is having a busy February. The multi-specialty medical group officially launched a new name this week — DaVita Medical Group — and earlier in the month opened a new flagship clinic. Nearly a year after the organization said it would build an 85,000-square-foot facility near the […]
  
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• Las Cruces council votes to oppose Trump’s border wall

  22-02-2017 22:57 via krqe.com
  
  LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — The Las Cruces City Council has passed a resolution opposing President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
  The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the City Council on Tuesday voted 6-1 in favor of the resolution opposing a wall along Dona Ana County’s southern border with Mexico.
  Mayor Pro Tem Greg Smith says a wall would harm the area’s economy by hurting its relationship with Mexico.
  City Councilor Ceil Levatino vo
  
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• Fed officials discussed possible rate hike ‘fairly soon’

  22-02-2017 21:51 via krqe.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials earlier this month discussed the need to raise a key interest rate again “fairly soon,” especially if the economy remains strong.
  Minutes of the discussions in minutes released Wednesday showed that while Fed officials decided to keep a key rate unchanged at their Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting, there was growing concern about inflation if the economy out-performed expectations.
  “Several” Fed officials expressed worries that unemp
  
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• The Latest: Police arrest protesters at Dakota Access camp

  22-02-2017 21:46 via krqe.com
  
  BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Latest on plans to close a protest encampment near the Dakota Access pipeline construction site in North Dakota (all times local):
  4:20 p.m.
  Police are arresting Dakota Access pipeline protesters who’ve failed to meet a deadline to clear a camp on federal land in North Dakota.
  The Army Corps of Engineers ordered all protesters to leave by 2 p.m. Wednesday, citing concerns about potential spring flooding. About 150 people met that demand about 1 p.m. when the
  
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• The Latest: Police: About 20 fires set at Dakota Access camp

  22-02-2017 21:46 via krqe.com
  
  BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Latest on plans to close a protest encampment near the Dakota Access pipeline construction site in North Dakota (all times local):
  6 p.m.
  Authorities in North Dakota say Dakota Access pipeline protesters set about 20 fires on the day their longstanding camp was scheduled for closure.
  They say at least two explosions resulted. A 7-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were taken by ambulance to a Bismarck hospital to be treated for burns.
  Police say they arrested abo
  
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• Updated: Fed officials discussed possible rate hike ‘fairly soon’

  22-02-2017 21:44
  
  WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials earlier this month discussed the need to raise a key interest rate again “fairly soon,” especially if the economy remains strong. Minutes of the discussions in minutes released Wednesday showed that while Fed officials decided to keep a key rate unchanged at their Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting, there was growing […]
  
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• Court rules Riverton not part of Indian Country

  22-02-2017 21:37
  
  CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has ruled that the City of Riverton and surrounding lands are not part of the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming. A three-judge panel of the court on Wednesday rejected the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision that Riverton was part of Indian Country. The […]
  
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• Updated: As Indiana governor, Pence failed to stop Syrian refugees. His administration is trying again

  22-02-2017 21:36
  
  INDIANAPOLIS – When the Trump administration unveiled an executive order trying to bar Syrian refugees from coming to the United States, many who have resettled here in the American heartland felt a familiar sense of dread: Mike Pence is trying to ban us. Again. Fadi Lababidi was shocked. He and his family arrived here in […]
  
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• Fed officials discussed raising interest rates soon at January meeting

  22-02-2017 21:36
  
  WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve said the economy’s continued growth might convince it to raise its benchmark interest rate soon, potentially at an upcoming meeting, according to new documents released Wednesday, even as it acknowledged that the ambitious policies proposed by the Trump administration could have unforeseen effects on the U.S. economy. Minutes released this […]
  
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• New travel ban with ‘mostly minor technical differences’ likely won’t cut it, analysts say

  22-02-2017 21:35
  
  WASHINGTON – Senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban will have “mostly minor technical differences” from the iteration frozen by the courts, and Americans would see “the same basic policy outcome for the country.” That is not what the Justice Department has promised. And legal analysts say it might not […]
  
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• Immigrants fearing deportation under Trump change routines

  22-02-2017 21:20 via krqe.com
  
  In Orange County, California, dozens of immigrant parents have signed legal documents authorizing friends and relatives to pick up their children from school and access their bank accounts to pay their bills in the event they are arrested by immigration agents.
  In Philadelphia, immigrants are carrying around wallet-size “Know Your Rights” guides in Spanish and English that explain what to do if they’re rounded up.
  And in New York, 23-year-old Zuleima Dominguez and other members
  
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• Immigrants change up their routines, brace for arrest

  22-02-2017 21:20 via krqe.com
  
  In Orange County, California, dozens of immigrants have signed powers of attorney authorizing relatives and friends to pick up their children from school and access their bank accounts to pay their bills in the event they are arrested by immigration agents.
  In Philadelphia, immigrants are carrying around wallet-size “Know Your Rights” guides in Spanish and English that explain what to do if they’re rounded up.
  And in New York, 23-year-old Zuleima Dominguez and other members of
  
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• Gabby Giffords steps into New Mexico firearms debate

  22-02-2017 21:16 via krqe.com
  
  SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – Former U.S. Congresswoman and mass shooting survivor Gabrielle Giffords is stepping into a tense debate about whether to require background checks on most private gun sales in New Mexico.
  Giffords and her national gun-safety advocacy group Americans for Responsible Solutions on Wednesday threw their weight behind efforts to build a broader support in New Mexico for bills designed to keep guns out of the hands of convicted criminals, perpetrators of domestic violence a
  
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• Gabby Giffords speaks at Roundhouse in support of gun control

  22-02-2017 21:16 via krqe.com
  
  SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords of Arizona spoke at the New Mexico State Capitol Wednesday in support of tighter gun laws in the state.
  Since the attempted assassination of Giffords in 2011, during which she was shot in the head and six people were killed, Giffords has started a nationwide group to stop gun violence. The group is called Americans for Responsible Solutions.
  On Wednesday in Santa Fe, Giffords helped launch a New Mexico-specific subset group w
  
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• Man ordered to repay Old Town business owners he stole from

  22-02-2017 20:25 via krqe.com
  
  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A man who stole a lot of money from businesses in Old Town will not go to jail but will have to pay his victims back.
  Wednesday, David Rendon also known as “Red Feather”, pleaded no contest to embezzlement and issuing a worthless check.
  Shop owners in Old Town say Rendon stole more than $30,000 from the Old Town Shop Merchants association, then left New Mexico with their money.
  What fellow shop owners didn’t know when they put Rendon in charge i
  
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• 7 Earth-size worlds found orbiting star; could hold life

  22-02-2017 19:59 via krqe.com
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For the first time ever, astronomers have discovered seven Earth-size planets orbiting a nearby star — and these new worlds could hold life.
  This cluster of planets is less than 40 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, according to NASA and the Belgian-led research team who announced the discovery Wednesday.
  The planets circle tightly around a dim dwarf star called Trappist-1, barely the size of Jupiter. Three are in the so-called habitable zone,
  
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• Teen to spend 25 years behind bars for Albuquerque man’s murder

  22-02-2017 19:50 via krqe.com
  
  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – One of the teens involved in the murder of an Albuquerque man has been sentenced.
  Jeremiah King was just 16 at the time of the shooting back in 2015. King confessed to the killing to police. It happened after police say King and five others spent the night “mobbing” the night he pulled the trigger and murdered Steven Gerecke in his driveway after Gerecke came out to confront him.
  King, 18, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and six lesser charges i
  
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• Breaking: Teen in ‘mobbing’ murder gets 25 years

  22-02-2017 19:45
  
  The teen who admitted shooting and killing Steven Gerecke during a night of "mobbing" wa ...
  
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• New voter ID bill prompts Texas to ask court for more time

  22-02-2017 19:41
  
  AUSTIN, Texas — Texas wants a long-running voter ID lawsuit put on hold now that Republican lawmakers are proposing legislation that would comply with a federal court’s ruling last year that found the existing law discriminatory. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday asked a federal judge to delay an upcoming court hearing until summer. […]
  
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• Updated: Manga, Mario and now ninja: Japan’s hopes for wooing tourism

  22-02-2017 19:40
  
  TOKYO — Japan is turning to those hooded samurai-era acrobatic spies known as ninja to woo tourism. The Japan Ninja Council, a government-backed organization of scholars, tourism groups and businesses, said Wednesday that it’s starting a Ninja Academy to train people in the art of ninja, and building a new museum in Tokyo devoted to […]
  
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• Reince Priebus is having a very good week

  22-02-2017 19:40
  
  In my inaugural rankings of the four most powerful advisers to President Trump last week, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus finished dead last. Priebus was under fire for the chaos surrounding the president and his policies and there was open speculation not only that he might be fired but also of who might […]
  
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• Man gets 5-year term for New York Giants seat license scam

  22-02-2017 19:39
  
  FREEHOLD, N.J. — A New Jersey man has been sentenced to five years behind bars for defrauding more than a dozen people out of $116,550 in a New York Giants seat license scam. John Gorman admitted last May that he conned 16 victims into believing he had more than two dozen personal seat licenses at […]
  
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• ‘Monster’ ex-USA Gymnastics doctor charged with sex assault

  22-02-2017 19:16 via krqe.com
  
  LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan sports doctor who treated elite female U.S. gymnasts was charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting nine girls, including some too reluctant to speak up about the alleged abuse years ago because he was considered a “god.”
  Roughly two dozen charges were filed against Dr. Larry Nassar, the first criminal cases related to his work at Michigan State University where he was the preferred doctor for gymnasts in the region who had back or hip injuries.
  
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• Former USA Gymnastics doctor charged with sexual assault

  22-02-2017 19:16 via krqe.com
  
  LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A doctor who specialized in treating female gymnasts at Michigan State University and through the elite USA Gymnastics organization was charged Wednesday with sexual assault.
  Online records show Dr. Larry Nasser is facing nine charges in Ingham County, including first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2015 against a victim under age 13.
  Nasser is also charged in nearby Eaton County, where three females say he molested them with his hands at a gymnastics club during tr
  
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• House speaker getting firsthand look at US-Mexico border

  22-02-2017 19:15 via krqe.com
  
  MCALLEN, Texas (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan is visiting the Rio Grande valley for a firsthand look at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Trump administration steps up immigration enforcement and prepares to ask Congress to pay for a border wall.
  It’s the first time the Wisconsin Republican has visited the border, and protests have been announced to meet his arrival in McAllen, Texas, on Wednesday. Ryan is leading a small group of lawmakers on the trip.
  In McAllen, Ryan will come fa
  
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• House speaker gets firsthand look at US-Mexico border

  22-02-2017 19:15 via krqe.com
  
  MCALLEN, Texas (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan visited the Rio Grande valley on Wednesday for a firsthand look at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Trump administration steps up immigration enforcement and prepares to ask Congress to pay for a border wall.
  It was the first time the Wisconsin Republican had visited the border, and protesters gathered to meet his arrival in McAllen, Texas, with hand-painted signs protesting Trump policies. Ryan led a small group of fellow Republicans on the
  
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• Trump administration to lift transgender bathroom guidance

  22-02-2017 19:14 via krqe.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is revoking U.S. transgender guidelines, stepping into an emotional national issue and stripping students of federal protections to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching gender identities that differ from their birth certificates.
  The administration is coming down on the side of states’ rights, revoking federal guidelines that had been issued by the Obama administration. Without the Obama directive, it will be up to states and school distr
  
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• Trump administration lifts transgender bathroom guidance

  22-02-2017 19:14 via krqe.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has lifted federal guidelines that said transgender students should be allowed to use public school bathrooms and locker rooms matching their chosen gender identity.
  The Wednesday decision is a reversal of an Obama-era directive issued in May. It will now be up to states and school districts to interpret whether federal sex discrimination law applies to gender identity.
  A letter sent to schools nationwide Wednesday by the Justice and Education dep
  
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• Source: Administration to lift transgender bathroom guidance

  22-02-2017 19:14 via krqe.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will revoke federal guidelines telling public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their chosen gender identity, a government official said Wednesday.
  The decision, not yet announced, would be a reversal of an Obama-era directive issued in May requiring public schools to grant bathroom access even if the student’s chosen gender identity isn’t the same as what’s in the student’s record.
  
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• Navajo officials: Plan in place to fix vets housing program

  22-02-2017 19:05 via krqe.com
  
  WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) – Navajo Nation officials say they have a plan for improving a problem-plagued veterans housing program.
  Tribal President Russell Begaye’s office says the Navajo Nation Veterans Administration submitted a corrective action plan in response to critical audit findings.
  The findings included poor accountability for building materials, selection of ineligible veterans for homes, poor construction management and uninhabitable homes.
  Begaye’s office says the v
  
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• Deal to streamline world trade takes effect

  22-02-2017 18:17 via krqe.com
  
  GENEVA (AP) — The first multilateral trade agreement reached under the World Trade Organization since it was created over a generation ago has taken force, aiming to streamline cross-border trade to the benefit of the developing world in particular.
  WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said Wednesday that the required two-thirds of member states have ratified the accord. He said estimates show that full implementation of the deal would reduce trade costs globally by an average of more than
  
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• Updated: Health care’s future: Turning patients into savers, shoppers

  22-02-2017 18:15
  
  The U.S. government may soon lean on someone new to help lower health care costs: you. The idea is that when your money is on the line — and not the insurance company’s — you’ll look for the best value and do your part to curb national health care spending. The Affordable Care Act’s fate […]
  
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• Updated: Justices side with Michigan girl in dispute over service dog

  22-02-2017 18:12
  
  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a Michigan girl with cerebral palsy who wants to sue school officials over their refusal to let her bring a service dog to class. The justices ruled unanimously that federal disability laws might allow Ehlena Fry to pursue her case in court without first having to […]
  
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• Republicans’ dream of tax reform is in big trouble

  22-02-2017 18:11
  
  There are only two certainties in life: death, and Republicans cutting taxes. That, after all, is what Ronald Reagan did, it’s what George W. Bush did, and it’s what Donald Trump has promised to do – which, with a Republican House and Senate, looks like as sure a bet as there is. What’s less clear, […]
  
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• High court ruling limits international reach of patent laws

  22-02-2017 18:11 via krqe.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with California-based Life Technologies Corp. in a patent infringement case that limits the international reach of U.S. patent laws.
  The justices ruled unanimously that the company’s shipment of a single part of a patented invention for assembly in another country did not violate patent laws.
  Life Technologies supplied an enzyme used in DNA analysis kits to a plant in London and combined it with several other components to make k
  
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• Updated: ‘Sometimes people change’: Maryland shop covers racist tattoos for free

  22-02-2017 18:10
  
  In prison and on the street, he said, some people are forced into hate groups and gangs to avoid becoming victims themselves. But later in life, a tattoo memorializing that hatred and violence works against them. “Once you do something like that, you’re always going to be a victim,” Cutlip said. “If I can help […]
  
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• Updated: An Uzbek journalist spent 18 years in jail. Today, he’s free.

  22-02-2017 18:02
  
  After nearly two decades of imprisonment, torture, beatings, solitary confinement and exposure to diseases like tuberculosis, the Uzbek journalist Muhammad Bekjanov has been freed. His release Wednesday morning was no amnesty – he has served his initial sentence of 15 years and then some. In the years following the fall of the Soviet Union, of […]
  
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• Health law created winners and losers when buying insurance

  22-02-2017 16:33 via krqe.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Schwarz is a self-employed business owner who buys his own health insurance. Subsidized coverage through “Obamacare” offers protection from life’s unpredictable changes and freedom to pursue his vocation, he says.
  Brett Dorsch is also self-employed and buys his own health insurance. But he gets no financial break from the Affordable Care Act. “To me, it’s just been a big lie,” Dorsch says, forcing him to pay more for less covera
  
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• Supreme Court orders new hearing for black Texas inmate

  22-02-2017 16:26
  
  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has ordered a new court hearing for a black Texas prison inmate who claims improper testimony about his race tainted his death sentence. The justices voted 6-2 Wednesday in favor of inmate Duane Buck. Buck had tried for years to get federal courts to look at his claim that his […]
  
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• MLB players’ union agrees to pitchless intentional walks

  22-02-2017 16:26
  
  NEW YORK — The players’ association has agreed to Major League Baseball’s proposal to have intentional walks without pitches this year. While the union has resisted many of MLB’s proposed innovations, players are willing to accept the intentional walk change. “As part of a broader discussion with other moving pieces, the answer is yes,” union […]
  
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• The Lakers must not have seen these Magic Johnson tweets before putting him in charge

  22-02-2017 16:25
  
  The Lakers made sweeping changes to their front office Tuesday, pushing out basketball operations chief Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak in favor of Magic Johnson. The dramatic moves lead to this important question: Have the Lakers ever looked at Johnson’s Twitter feed? The question is worth asking because Johnson has long been something […]
  
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• Analysis: Trump’s 3,000 websites – and what they say about his rise to power

  22-02-2017 16:25
  
  In Trump We Trust – .com, that is. Not your politics? Maybe check out ThrowOutTrump.com. Actually, they’re both empty websites, what you call parked domain names: bought and paid for, but not used. More interesting is that they both belong to the same guy – Donald J. Trump. A big hat tip to CNN, which […]
  
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• Texas graduate student discovers a Walt Whitman novel lost for more than 150 years

  22-02-2017 16:24
  
  For a month, Zachary Turpin “would sit there night after night, buzzing.” The graduate student at the University of Houston had spent the past few years digging through the digitized papers of American writer Walt Whitman, which contain 40 to 50 years worth of his personal notes. “He was more or less a hoarder,” Turpin […]
  
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• Italy faces potential fine from EU for rising debt

  22-02-2017 16:07 via krqe.com
  
  BRUSSELS (AP) — Italy’s unstable government was put on notice Wednesday that it may face a fine from the European Union for not getting the country’s debt levels down.
  In a report on Italy’s debt situation, the executive European Commission urged Rome to take more cost-saving measures, worth up to 0.2 percent of its annual GDP — that’s unlikely to go down well in the center-left government as it faces the possibility of elections this year or next.
  “The
  
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• New Mexico Senate panel to hear election primaries bill

  22-02-2017 15:58 via krqe.com
  
  SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – A New Mexico Senate committee is scheduled to debate a measure that would make it easier for independents to vote in primary elections.
  The Senate Rules Committee is slated Wednesday to hear a bill sponsored by Sen. John Sapien that would let voters not affiliated with any political party vote in primary elections by choosing to affiliate by requesting a ballot.
  Voters currently have to designate a party affiliation on the voter’s certificate of registration.
  Un
  
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• Santa Fe man gets 3 ½ years on federal assault convictions

  22-02-2017 15:56 via krqe.com
  
  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A man was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison for his guilty plea to assaulting a woman two years ago in a Santa Fe home.
  Patrick Yazzie-Tso was sentenced Tuesday for his earlier guilty plea on federal assault charges.
  Authorities say the 28-year-old from Santa Fe assaulted the woman in December 2015 by punching her in the face, hitting her over the head with a large painting canvas, choking her by wrapping his hands around her neck and threatening to kill her.
  
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