News

The University of New Mexico says it has reached an agreement in principal with former men's basketball coach Steve Alford over his buyout.

Alford said in April he was willing to pay a $200,000 buyout for leaving the Albuquerque school to take a job at UCLA, but he wouldn't pay the $1 million payment that New Mexico wanted.

The dispute stemmed from the timing of his announcement and a term sheet he had signed just weeks before agreeing to a new 10-year contract with New Mexico that included a $1 million buyout.

Military officials say three Fort Bliss soldiers and one from Fort Stewart in Georgia were killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device.

Fort Bliss officials said that William Joseph Gilbert and Mitchell Kirk Daehling, both 24-year-old specialists from Fort Bliss, and 29-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey C. Baker, a Hesperia, Calif., resident based at Fort Stewart, were killed in the Tuesday attack.

A Fort Bliss spokesman says a third Fort Bliss soldier was also killed in the blast but his identity was not immediately released.

The city of Santa Fe has launched a $1 million project aimed at improving the city's broadband infrastructure and boosting the availability of high-speed Internet connections.

City officials announced Friday that they have issued a request for firms to compete for the opportunity to design, build, own and operate a fiber-optic link from downtown Santa Fe to the St. Michael's corridor.

With its ranks deeply divided, the Boy Scouts of America is asking its local leaders from across the country to decide whether its contentious membership policy should be overhauled so that openly gay boys can participate in Scout units.

The proposal to be put before the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA's National Council on Thursday, at a meeting in Texas, would retain a ban on gays serving in adult leadership positions.

A man arrested in a 51-year-old killing is being held in Louisiana's Calcasieu Parish jail without bond.

Authorities arrested 73-year-old William Felix Vail Friday for the October 1962 killing of his wife, Mary Horton Vail. Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier says he intends to seek Felix Vail's indictment for second-degree murder.

Authorities reopened an investigation into Mary Vail's death after stories written by The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss. Until recently, Vail lived in Mississippi.

New Mexico health officials are urging parents to tell children not to handle wild animals.

The warning comes after a bat found in northeast Albuquerque tested positive for rabies. A number of children were reportedly near the bat and took photographs of it on the evening of May 11, but it's not clear if any of them touched or handled it.

Letters were sent to the parents of children who attend two nearby schools and flyers have been posted in the neighborhood, but the state Health Department says no known exposures have been reported.

A 50-year-old man goes on trial Monday in Las Cruces in the 2010 killings of a New Mexico couple and their business partner from California.

First-degree murder charges accuse Eugene Ferri of fatally shooting 69-year-old Gilles Delisle, 72-year-old Helga Harries Delisle and 68-year-old Peter J. Weith of San Diego.

Ferri had worked for the Delisles as a contractor, and they and Weith had sued Ferri for $1.3 milion.

The victims' bodies were discovered at the Delisles' Mesillas home after they didn't go to a court hearing.

Graduates at Navajo Technical College got to hear from Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, during their commencement ceremony Friday.

A longtime educator, Biden shared some lessons about the importance of community and told the graduating class to continue to reach out to each other for support and encourage one another.

Biden marks the second big name to visit the school on graduation day. Last year, it was U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

The Department of Workforce Solutions reports that New Mexico's unemployment rate dropped last month and that job growth has improved.

State officials said Friday the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in April. That's down from 6.9 percent in March and 7 percent in April 2012.

New Mexico has gained about 7,900 jobs during the past 12 months, for a 1 percent growth rate.

A former Gallup paramedic convicted of raping of an 11-year-old boy in an Albuquerque arroyo has been sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.

State District Judge Kenneth Martinez sentenced Genaro Sandoval on Friday in Albuquerque District Court to 41 1/2 years in prison for criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13, kidnapping and sexual exploitation of a child.

The 39-year-old Sandoval was convicted in January following a two-week long trial.

Hundreds of motorcyclists are being greeted by honks and waving flags as they make their way across parts of central and southern New Mexico.

The riders are passing through New Mexico as part of the annual Run For The Wall, a cross-country trip in honor of military veterans, prisoners of war, those killed in action and their families.

The riders are stopping at memorial parks, veterans' hospitals and schools along the way. They will finish in Washington, D.C., on May 25. The ride traverses routes that are nearly 3,000 miles long.

Former State Insurance Superintendent Chris Krahling has been named to a panel that will select New Mexico's top insurance regulator.

A nine-member committee will select the next superintendent of insurance, who starting in July will be in charge of an independent office regulating insurance rates and policies.

The committee meets next Tuesday in Albuquerque, and is accepting applications for the superintendent's position until the end of the month.

A new version of Carl Sagan's 1980 Public Broadcasting Service series "Cosmos" will be filming in Santa Fe through early June.

State film officials say the production of "Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey" will mean jobs for at least 80 New Mexico crewmembers, principal actors and background talent.

Writer, director and producer Seth MacFarlane and Sagan's widow and collaborator, Ann Druyan, have teamed for the new 13-part series. It's scheduled to premiere on Fox in early 2014.

The series will be hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Operations of an appointed advisory commission that investigates citizen complaints against the Albuquerque Police Department would be suspended while the City Council considers the commission's future.

Councilors Trudy Jones and Brad Winter plan Monday to propose that the Police Oversight Commission's operations be put on hold. A decision would come later.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that critics of the commission range from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico to the police union.

New Mexico State Police say a 17-year-old Glorieta girl is accused of trying to blackmail a 43-year-old man over consensual sex by threatening to falsely report that he raped her.

According to police, the man said the girl demanded that he pay her $1,500.

State Police says the girl made incriminating statements during an arranged phone call with the man and was arrested when she arrived at a store parking lot, supposedly so the man could pay her.