Fronteras: A Changing America

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Lydia Mendoza has been called the first lady of Tejano and Conjunto Music. On Wednesday the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a Forever Stamp in her honor as part of a music icons series.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — States aiming to run their own health insurance exchanges will be in need of federal grants to get those exchanges launched, and are facing a deadline. New Mexico's application is in, but there's still a question of whether or not the exchange will be run by the state, the federal government, or both.

New Mexico's federal grant request totals about $20 million, and will be used for marketing, public relations, and outreach. With much of the state's population living in rural areas, that outreach will be critical to the exchange's survival.

SAN DIEGO — People who regularly cross the United States-Mexico border know waiting for hours on foot can be hot, uncomfortable, even exhausting.

Penelope Quintana, a researcher at San Diego State University, says it's made worse by "not being able to sit down, not having restrooms, not having water available."

Benjamin Franklin is generally revered as one of the most brilliant of our Founding Fathers -- the inventor of the lighting rod and bifocals, an accomplished musician, and a political theorist who helped shape the U.S. Constitution. But his thoughts on one immigrant group seem at odds with America's identity as a "nation of immigrants."

The fall out from the Heritage Foundation Senior Policy Analyst, Jason Richwine’s doctoral dissertation, "I.Q. and Immigration Policy" continues to hurt the Republican Party.

This month, The Council on Foreign Relations, a non-partisan think tank, released a study entitled, “Managing Illegal Immigration to the United States.”

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Federal officials told reporters Monday they are preparing for the worst this fire season. Severe drought conditions and beetle ravaged trees throughout the west combined with reduced firefighting budgets do not bode well for the coming weeks.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Forest Service will have 500 fewer firefighters this season. That’s five percent less manpower.

SAN DIEGO — Victor Sivilla, a Tijuana perfume salesman convicted of smuggling drugs across the border will get a new trial after the government destroyed evidence in his case.

In 2010, Border agents discovered $160,000 worth of cocaine and heroin hidden in the engine of Sivilla’s jeep.

Sivilla said he didn’t know the drugs were there, and suspected his sister-in-law’s boyfriend. He had borrowed the car shortly before Sivilla made one of his regular border crossings to buy perfume for his business.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Northern Arizona University biologists have pinpointed the source of one of the deadliest plagues of all time. The discovery not only solves some ancient mysteries about the first pandemic, but could also provide answers in the event of a bioterrorism threat. Their results were just published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS Pathogens.

Disney Want(ed) To Trademark "Dia de los Muertos"

Disney Enterprises, Inc., a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, filed trademark applications to secure the phrase "Dia de los Muertos" across multiple platforms for an upcoming Pixar film.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — With drought affecting much of the Southwest, the Navajo Nation is working to bring water to its citizens with the tribal government recently approving more than $8 million for water infrastructure projects.

The Navajo Nation is roughly the size of West Virginia, has a population of around 170,000 people, and much of the Nations citizens are in need of water.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In what is thought to be the first housing program of its kind brought to a tribal community, the Pueblo of Zuni in western New Mexico has broken ground on a series of homes financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Grand Canyon National Park and other federal agencies are going to great lengths to save a homely fish in the Colorado River Basin. The latest is translocation, which involves several trucks, helicopters and biologists.