New Mexico news

• ‘Force Awakens’ on path for $100M Friday, $200M-plus weekend

  18-12-2015 23:35
  
  NEW YORK — The Walt Disney Co. is forecasting that “The Force Awakens” will make more than $100 million in North America on Friday and is headed for a weekend total beyond $200 million. Disney says the new “Star Wars” film will possibly overtake the $208.8 million record of “Jurassic World” set in June, based […]
  
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• US spending bill may aid economy just as Fed is pulling back

  18-12-2015 23:34
  
  WASHINGTON — Just as the Federal Reserve is pulling back slightly on the economic accelerator, Congress is pressing down a bit harder. The spending and tax-cut package that Congress approved Friday stands to modestly boost growth next year. It could also help drive a shift away from government as a drag on economic growth to […]
  
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• Pharma’s bad boy: Livestreaming, rap-fan CEO faces charges

  18-12-2015 23:31
  
  NEW YORK — He’s the enfant terrible of pharmaceuticals, a 32-year-old CEO who unapologetically raised the price of the only approved drug for a rare disease from $13.50 to $750 per pill. He’s a millionaire music aficionado who riled rap fans by buying the only known copy of an album by the Wu-Tang Clan. He’s […]
  
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• Jackpot-fixing investigation expands to more state lotteries

  18-12-2015 23:17
  
  DES MOINES, Iowa — The allegations read like a movie plot: a lottery industry insider installs undetectable software giving him advance knowledge of winning numbers, then enlists accomplices to play those numbers and collect the jackpots. And they secretly enrich themselves for years — until a misstep exposes them. Eddie Tipton, former security director of […]
  
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• Apartments proposed near Unser-Ladera

  18-12-2015 23:15
  
  A 230-unit apartment complex has been proposed for nine acres of vacant land near Unser Boulevard and Ladera Drive, according to a site plan submitted to the City of Albuquerque. The project, called 40 West, has been the focus of several Environmental Planning Commission meetings, where the public has registered some opposition to the development […]
  
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• Mountain West tourney cut to top 8 seeds, will remain in Thomas & Mack

  18-12-2015 22:44
  
  The Mountain West Conference announced Thursday that while the conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will remain at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev., through 2019, fewer teams will actually be making the trip. The league’s Board of Directors last weekend met and approved a proposal to allow only the top eight […]
  
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• ELV-is is in the building

  18-12-2015 22:16
  
  It’s not every day you see The King with pointy ears, but that’s exactly what you’ll find on the stage in Teatro Paraguas’ “A Musical Piñata for Christmas,” with shows continuing through this weekend. And, no, we’re not talking about the King of Kings, although the holy baby appears at a more reverent point in […]
  
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• News outlets seek release of clinic shooting documents

  18-12-2015 22:15
  
  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — News organizations are asking a judge to unseal details of the case against Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear. Attorney Steven Zansberg, representing The Associated Press and other media outlets, made the request in a Thursday court filing. He says there is no basis to keep arrest and search warrants […]
  
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• NASA: Spacewalk likely needed to move stalled cart

  18-12-2015 22:15
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Two Americans aboard the International Space Station are gearing up for a possible spacewalk early next week to free a stalled cart. Flight controllers in Houston were moving the cart on the outside of the orbiting lab when it got stuck Wednesday. It stalled just 4 inches from its lock-down position. […]
  
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• Congress backs bill banning microbeads in soap, body wash

  18-12-2015 21:03
  
  WASHINGTON — Plastic microbeads used in soaps, body washes and other personal-care products will be phased out starting in 2017 under legislation approved by Congress and sent to the president. The Senate approved the bill Friday following House approval last week. Lawmakers said the bill was needed to protect fish and wildlife that are ingesting […]
  
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• Officials: No plane crash in Guadalupe Mountains

  18-12-2015 21:02
  
  GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK, Texas — Federal officials say reports of a single-engine airplane crash earlier this month near the highest peak in Texas were erroneous and that wreckage found near the peak is from an earlier crash. Authorities initially said the plane went down Dec. 8 in Guadalupe Mountains National Park at an elevation […]
  
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• Air Force officers describe rescue of copter crash survivor

  18-12-2015 21:02
  
  PHOENIX — The shattered wreckage of a crashed medical helicopter was perched precariously on a rocky mountainside and the sole survivor was on the ground immediately below in a spot where he would have been crushed if the debris rolled downhill. The survivor was suffering in the cold and in severe pain with what paramedics […]
  
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• Mother pleads guilty in death of girl found in refrigerator

  18-12-2015 21:01
  
  HOUSTON — A Houston woman faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty to the neglect-related death of her 9-year-old daughter, whose emaciated body was found in a refrigerator. Amber Keyes pleaded guilty Friday to felony injury to a child by omission. The 36-year-old Keyes remains in custody pending sentencing by a judge in […]
  
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• Medical examiner: Scott Weiland died from toxic mix of drugs

  18-12-2015 21:00
  
  MINNEAPOLIS — Former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland died of a toxic mix of drugs that included cocaine, according to a medical examiner’s office in Minnesota where he was found dead on his tour bus in early December. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday that the 48-year-old Weiland had cocaine, ethanol and […]
  
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• Le Monde: Diack tells police of Russian political donation

  18-12-2015 21:00
  
  PARIS — The Russian doping scandal took a new twist Friday when a French newspaper reported that former IAAF President Lamine Diack asked Russia for more than $1 million to fund the political opposition in his native Senegal. Diack told French police that he asked for 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) from Russia in 2011 […]
  
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• New: Gov. Martinez to police dispatcher: Call off your officers

  18-12-2015 20:39
  
  Gov. Susana Martinez can be heard telling a police dispatcher there is no reason for police to be dispatched to a Santa Fe hotel room in which she and others are present, in a phone recording obtained by KRQE-TV. According to the recording, police apparently responded to the Eldorado Hotel in response to a call […]
  
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• Updated: The Latest: Obama praises House Speaker Paul Ryan

  18-12-2015 20:35
  
  WASHINGTON — The latest from President Barack Obama’s year-end news conference with reporters at the White House. All times are local. 2:52 p.m. Obama is praising new House Speaker Paul Ryan and other top Capitol Hill leaders for the orderly negotiations of the just-passed budget and tax deal. Obama also gave Ryan’s predecessor as speaker, […]
  
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• Memorial honoring Tucson shooting victims moving forward

  18-12-2015 20:06
  
  TUCSON, Ariz. — The large memorial honoring the victims of a mass shooting in Tucson of which former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords was the target is moving forward. Leaders of the January 8th Foundation say they will break ground on the first phase of the project next year. The memorial will be in Tucson’s historic […]
  
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• Updated: Sanders files suit to regain access to DNC voter database

  18-12-2015 20:01
  
  WASHINGTON — The presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to regain access to a Democratic National Committee voter database. The DNC temporarily barred the campaign this week from the massive trove of voter information after Sanders’ staff improperly accessed data compiled by the campaign of rival […]
  
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• Flu season off to slower start this year; might be milder

  18-12-2015 20:01
  
  NEW YORK — This year’s flu season seems like old times. There’s not much flu going around so far — unlike the last three seasons when doctors’ offices were filled with patients before Christmas and illnesses peaked by late December. “It really is off to sort of a slow start” compared to that recent history, […]
  
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• AP Source: Records: Sanders aides saved Clinton voter data

  18-12-2015 20:01
  
  WASHINGTON — A summary of computer logs shows that four aides to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign accessed proprietary voter data compiled by the campaign of rival Hillary Clinton and some of the aides saved the voter information. That’s according to a person familiar with the data logs and the breach. The person said […]
  
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• Lawyers for Gallup Diocese say deal in bankruptcy case near

  18-12-2015 20:00
  
  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Attorneys for a New Mexico diocese say they are finalizing a settlement in the case that has kept it in bankruptcy court for two years. The Gallup Independent reports (http://bit.ly/1jl8YBA ) lawyers for the Diocese of Gallup and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents clergy sex abuse claimants, confirmed in […]
  
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• Cowboys help rescue deer from Arizona canal

  18-12-2015 20:00
  
  PEORIA, Ariz. — Two cowboys are being credited with riding to the rescue of a deer stuck in an Arizona canal. The Arizona Game and Fish Department received several calls Thursday reporting a deer was trapped in a canal northwest of Phoenix near Lake Pleasant. Game and Fish officer Reuben Gonzales says two cowboys with […]
  
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• Lip balm containing pot ingredient thrown out at air base

  18-12-2015 19:59
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Officials say they had to discard hundreds of tubes of lip balm that were distributed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richards after they were found to contain trace amounts of THC, an active ingredient in marijuana. The base’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office had been distributing the lip balm as it typically does […]
  
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• Ex-Subway pitchman Fogle moved to federal prison in Colorado

  18-12-2015 19:58
  
  LITTLETON, Colo. — Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle has been moved to a low-security federal prison in Colorado where his attorneys had sought to have him serve out his more than 15-year sentence. The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator shows Fogle was moved from a facility in Oklahoma to suburban Denver’s Federal Correctional Institution […]
  
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• CBI investigates excessive force claims in La Junta

  18-12-2015 19:58
  
  LA JUNTA, Colo. — State authorities are investigating whether police in La Junta used excessive force after picking up a man for being drunk in public. Donovan Duran, a mixed martial arts fighter from La Junta, says police took him to Arkansas Valley Medical Center on Dec. 7 and beat him as he got out […]
  
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• A Hezbollah recruiting push covers its deeper role in Syria

  18-12-2015 19:58
  
  BEIRUT — At tightly guarded facilities in south Lebanon, men as young as 17 undergo training by the Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah on weapons and anti-insurgent tactics before being sent to Syria to fight alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces. Hezbollah has been conducting a large recruitment drive, a sign of how the war in Syria […]
  
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• Gun buyer in massacre mused on Facebook of troubles he faced

  18-12-2015 19:57
  
  RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Less than a month before his friend carried out the San Bernardino massacre, the man who bought the assault rifles used in the attack wondered when the multiple lives he was leading would come crashing down. “Involved in terrorist plots, drugs, anti-social behavior, marriage, might go to prison for fraud, etc,” Enrique […]
  
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• Q&A: A look at the search for Texas teen in ‘affluenza’ case

  18-12-2015 19:56
  
  DALLAS — A manhunt is underway for a Texas teenager sentenced to probation in 2013 for killing four people in a drunken-driving wreck after his defense lawyers claimed he suffered from “affluenza.” Authorities say he missed an appointment last week with his probation officer and the juvenile equivalent of an arrest warrant was issued for […]
  
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• PARCC leads to drop in school grades

  18-12-2015 19:07
  
  The controversial PARCC exam continues to impact local schools. For the first time, the assessment is a factor in school grades, and data released Friday shows it has led to dip in performance. Forty percent of the state’s 848 public schools saw grades fall. High schools were hit hardest: 58 percent dropped. Overall, fewer schools […]
  
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• Shkreli resigns as Turing CEO after securities fraud arrest

  18-12-2015 18:56
  
  TRENTON, N.J. — Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical executive arrested Thursday on charges of securities fraud, has resigned as the head of one of the companies he runs, Turing Pharmaceuticals. He’s being replaced on an interim basis by Ron Tilles, who has been chairman of Turing’s board of directors since the company was founded late last […]
  
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• Updated: The Latest: Disgraced New Mexico official checks into jail

  18-12-2015 18:30
  
    SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The latest on the prosecution of New Mexico’s former secretary of state in a campaign finance scandal (all times local): 9:15 a.m. Former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran has checked into a county jail to serve out a 30-day sentence as partial punishment for siphoning money from […]
  
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• Updated: Duran reports to jail for embezzlement term

  18-12-2015 18:15
  
  SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran surrendered to deputies and was booked into jail Friday to serve a 30-day sentence for siphoning money from her election account to fuel a gambling spree. Her arrival at the Santa Fe County jail also starts the clock on an elaborate five-year […]
  
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• Sitel adding 200 jobs at call center

  18-12-2015 18:14
  
  Sitel is hiring another 200 people at its Albuquerque call center, the company announced this week. The company is adding the permanent, full-time jobs to support a “leading national satellite television provider.” The company does not release the names of its clients. “These new job opportunities reflect the fantastic work done by the Albuquerque team […]
  
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• NM has nation’s highest unemployment

  18-12-2015 17:20
  
  The state's rate of 6.8 percent for November was unchanged from the month before, but that figure pushed the state to the No. 1 spot,
  
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• Isis Pharmaceuticals changes name to Ionis

  18-12-2015 17:18
  
  NEW YORK — Isis Pharmaceuticals, which shares a name with the Islamic State extremist group, has changed its name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals after resisting to do so for some time. The drug developer says its old name was a distraction since it was associated with the Islamic State, which is commonly known by its acronym […]
  
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• Commissioners approve bond resolution for Southwest Cheese

  18-12-2015 16:54
  
  Clovis City Commissioners approved a resolution for a taxable industrial revenue bond up to $160 million to help Southwest Cheese with its third expansion. Southwest Cheese President George Chappell said the expansion would “without a doubt” make the plant the largest one in the world. “There are some other cheese plants that come close (to […]
  
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• Women are out-earning men in corporate finance

  18-12-2015 16:49
  
  Women may be badly outnumbered in the top ranks of corporate America, but at least they aren’t underpaid. Compensation for female chief financial officers at S&P 500 companies last year outpaced that of their male counterparts, according to an analysis by executive compensation firm Equilar and the Associated Press. It follows a similar trend seen […]
  
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• Holiday sales show online shift

  18-12-2015 16:39
  
  NEW YORK — More often shoppers are making the decision to sit on their couches than head to stores this holiday season. Online sales growth so far this holiday season is surpassing growth in sales at physical stores, according to First Data, which analyzed online and in-store payments from Oct. 31 through Monday. Sales growth […]
  
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• Sexual assault evidence languishes in New Mexico

  18-12-2015 16:38
  
  SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico state auditors have identified 5,406 evidence kits from rapes and sexual assaults that never were tested for DNA to help identify criminals. The Office of the State Auditor announced Friday the results of the exhaustive search for untested sexual assault kits at police agencies and evidence vaults across New […]
  
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• New Mexico Supreme Court won’t rehear textbook case

  18-12-2015 16:38
  
  FARMINGTON, N.M. — The New Mexico Supreme Court says it will not rehear a case about the state’s practice of buying textbooks for private and religious schools. The New Mexican reports (http://bit.ly/1Id3Saz) that the court on Thursday reiterated its mid-November ruling that the practice violates the state constitution by using public funds for private schools. […]
  
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• Pride vies with sadness as Britain’s last coal pit closes

  18-12-2015 16:35
  
  LONDON — Coal once fueled the British Empire, employed armies of men and shook the power of governments. On Friday, workers at Britain’s last operating deep coal mine finished their final shift, emerging — soot-blackened and live on television news channels — to cheers, applause and tears. Some of the men carried lumps of coal […]
  
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• Killeen man charged in death of son, 2

  18-12-2015 16:35
  
  KILLEEN, Texas — A Central Texas man faces charges following the death of his 2-year-old son who doctors say was severely malnourished and dehydrated. Bell County jail records show 29-year-old George Ryan Murphy of Killeen was being held Friday on a charge of injury to a child with serious bodily injury. Online jail records do […]
  
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• Updated: Nutrisystem buys South Beach Diet for $15M, plans relaunch

  18-12-2015 16:34
  
  FORT WASHINGTON, Pa. — The weight-loss company Nutrisystem is buying the South Beach Diet brand for $15 million. Arthur Agatston, the Florida cardiologist who created the South Beach Diet and wrote the best-selling book by the same name in 2003, will join Nutrisystem’s science advisory board after its acquisition from SBD Holdings Group Corp. More […]
  
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• NM man gets 10 years for violating federal firearm laws

  18-12-2015 16:34
  
  LAS CRUCES – A 27-year-old Las Cruces man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday in federal court for violating the federal firearms laws, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Anthony J. Herrera also was sentenced to three years of supervised release. On April 8, Herrera was arrested on […]
  
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• Updated: US stocks keep sliding on global economic worries

  18-12-2015 16:33
  
  NEW YORK — U.S. stocks were trading lower Friday morning as investors continue to worry about global economic growth. Shipping companies stumbled, while used car dealership CarMax fell after it reported weak quarterly results. KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 170 points, or 1 percent, to 17,325 as of 10:19 a.m. Eastern time. […]
  
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• El Tovar at Grand Canyon set for major renovations in 2017

  18-12-2015 16:33
  
  GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — A landmark hotel at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon will close for a few months in 2017 for a major renovation. Crews will replace carpet, paint guest rooms, upgrade electrical and plumbing systems, refinishing wood flooring and make other improvements at El Tovar. The work will last […]
  
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• Arizona Snowbowl to open first chairlift in 30 years

  18-12-2015 16:33
  
  FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Arizona Snowbowl is opening its first chairlift in three decades. The Flagstaff area resort is launching the Humphreys Peak chairlift Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony shortly before noon. The lift can seat up to four people per seat and spans a half-mile. Season pass holders will have unlimited access to the […]
  
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• Audit: Denver nonprofit serving disabled misspent millions

  18-12-2015 16:32
  
  DENVER — An audit has found that a nonprofit that serves Denver residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities misused millions of taxpayer dollars. The Denver Post reports (http://dpo.st/1NrTdYp ) that the audit, released Thursday, shows that Rocky Mountain Human Services overcharged the city $650,000 for administrative expenses above its 15 percent cap between January 2014 […]
  
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• 2 Florida men accused of shoplifting $26K in merchandise

  18-12-2015 16:31
  
  PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Two Florida men are in the Jackson County, Mississippi jail accused of shoplifting goods from Ross department stores in Gulfport and D’Iberville. Sheriff Mike Ezell says the men are also accused of shoplifting at Ross stores in Texas, Louisiana and Florida. Ezell tells The Sun Herald (http://bit.ly/1lW4zLm) 26-year-old Lauro Mesa and 27-year-old […]
  
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