Regional

A draft five-year contract would pay Garrey Carruthers a $385,000 annual salary to be New Mexico State University's president.  The salary is the same as former NMSU President Barbara Couture received, and she got $453,000 under a separation agreement with the regents.

The final gun for passing legislation proposed by lawmakers in the Texas House has sounded, killing hundreds of bills.

Many never even made it to the floor for debate.

Some could live again. Any issue still has time to win approval in the Senate, or could be revived as an amendment to something else that becomes law at the last minute.

But many bills that once seemed vitally important are dead. The body count is impressive.

Otero County has determined that, in order to protect the health, safety, and welfareof the citizens of Otero County due to existing drought conditions, current fire activityand minimal moisture received within Otero County, the present fire danger hasincreased, and hereby enacts a Burn Ban within Otero County effective 6:00 AMMay 11,2013. This ban prohibits fireworks on all lands within the boundaries of the Lincoln NationalForest and all burning of open flames, fires, trash, rubbish, shrubbery or othermaterial of any kind within the affected unincorporated area of the County.Fireplaces i

  U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) is an original cosponsor of a joint resolution, introduced by U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-M.D.) and Mark Kirk (R-I.L.), to remove the deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

A federal agency is offering about $2 million to health clinics in New Mexico to help uninsured residents obtain medical coverage.

The Health and Human Services Department said Thursday that said 15 community health centers were eligible to apply for the funding.

The clinics are in communities ranging from Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe to Lordsburg, Hatch and Portales.

The New Mexico State University Board of Regents is hosting a community reception Friday to welcome former Gov. Garrey Carruthers as the 27th president.

The reception is scheduled from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday in the lobby of Hadley Hall.

The community and the campus are invited to attend.

The NMSU Board of Regents voted 3-2 Monday for Carruthers to lead the state's second-largest four-year university.

Carruthers has been dean of NMSU's College of Business since 2003. He was governor from 1987 to 1990.

Experts says the skeleton folk saint known as La Santa Muerte will likely continue to grow in New Mexico and other U.S. states despite a Vatican official recently calling the saint a blasphemous symbol.

Andrew Chesnut, an author of a book on the underground saint, says La Santa Muerte's popularity will keep gaining in the United States and might even get more popular after the Vatican official's comment.