Regional

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Josh Adkins hit Royce Caldwell on a 53-yard scoring strike late in the third quarter to give New Mexico State the cushion it needed to beat UTEP 27-20 in the Battle of I-10 on Saturday night.

New Mexico State (1-4) grabbed its first win of the season and administered the 16th straight loss to the Miners. It is the longest active losing streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Miners last won when they beat North Texas 52-24 in the final game of 2016.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A fugitive priest who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse has been returned to New Mexico to face charges after being arrested in Morocco last year, federal officials said Friday.

Arthur J. Perrault, 80, a former Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and a former Air Force chaplain, has been charged in a federal indictment with seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact between 1991 and 1992 at Kirtland Air Force Base and Santa Fe National Cemetery.

 There will be lane closures at the intersection of Del Rey Boulevard and Sand Castle starting Wednesday September 26, 2018. Kelly Cable will be making telecommunication improvements for Century Link.

The work is scheduled to take as long as five working days to complete. It is anticipated the lane closures will not be in effect the entire time.

Access to businesses will be maintained during construction. Motorists who want to avoid possible delays should seek an alternate route.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico election regulators are mailing nearly 55,000 postcards to eligible voters who are not yet registered.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said Friday in a news release that the notices include the Oct. 9 registration deadline to participate in elections that conclude on Nov. 6.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A fugitive priest accused of child abuse decades ago in New Mexico has been arrested.

Court documents show 80-year-old Arthur J. Perrault was arrested Thursday in New York, and has been charged with criminal aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact in assaults that federal authorities say happened at Kirtland Airforce Base and Santa Fe National Cemetery.

He is scheduled for a first federal court appearance Friday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Perrault had been a chaplain at the base in Albuquerque.

The multi-agency investigation into the Sept. 13 officer-involved shooting on Tiffany Drive is ongoing, but preliminary information has revealed that 47-year-old Gary Daniel McKinney was armed with a knife and had a slip-knot ligature wrapped around his mother’s neck when Las Cruces police officers entered the home.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The public comments period has ended on a proposal to expand the amount of radioactive and hazardous waste allowed at an underground nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports critics, however, are accusing the state Environment Department of rushing the approval process.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The University of New Mexico's top academic official says "hard decisions" loom due to a steeper-than-expected drop in student enrollment.

The Albuquerque Journal reports interim Provost Richard Wood announced in an email this week that the university's main campus enrollment dropped 7 percent this fall. That means the school would make $9.7 million less than projected in tuition and fees.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A $3.2 million federal grant has been awarded to construct a state veterans' cemetery in the northern New Mexico town of Angel Fire.

U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, along with U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, on Wednesday announced approval of funding for the cemetery through a grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Udall says the facility will make it easier for many veterans to visit the gravesites of loved ones. Angel Fire is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from the nearest national cemetery in Santa Fe.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An observatory in the mountains of southern New Mexico that mysteriously closed earlier this month sparking popular rumors of alien visitors appears to be linked to a child pornography investigation.

A search warrant filed in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces last week shows that the FBI began investigating after a wireless signal at the Sunspot Solar Observatory, located in the Lincoln National Forest, accessed child porn multiple times since January.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Candidates for governor of New Mexico drew sharp distinctions Wednesday about approaches to the statewide minimum wage, funding for public education and oil industry regulation — but they acknowledged one similarity: Neither has ever smoked pot.

In a televised debate — the first of the general election campaign allowing direct interaction between candidates — Democratic Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham and Republican Congressman Steve Pearce both denied using marijuana, but clashed on legislation concerning recreational use.

  Twice in less than a year, the federal government has lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children after placing them in the homes of sponsors across the country, federal officials have acknowledged.

The Health and Human Services Department recently told Senate staffers that case managers could not find 1,488 children after they made follow-up calls to check on their safety from April through June. That number represents about 13 percent of all unaccompanied children the administration moved out of shelters and foster homes during that time.

Silver City, NM – The Western New Mexico University Cultural Affairs fall season is packed with seven concerts, two artist lectures and exhibits, a documentary film, and one exotic visual performance. WNMU Cultural Affairs will be continuing its President’s Chamber Music Series and the Edwina Milner Women in the Arts lecture series this fall through this spring.

From throwback bands like Hotel California — A Salute to the Eagles to high-energy performances like SIRO A — Techno Circus, the WNMU Cultural Affairs fall lineup appeals to families and to university students.

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico – After analyzing customer traffic at all El Paso Electric (EPE) customer service locations, EPE will be closing the customer service office located at 1201 South Solano Drive in Las Cruces after 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 21, 2018.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The first cases of the flu season have been reported in New Mexico.

State Department of Health officials say all three persons who got the flu live in Quay County and reported no recent out of state travel.

The three are ages 8, 11 and 13.

Health officials say the exact timing and duration of flu season changes year-to-year, but flu activity often begins to heighten in October.

They recommend that everyone six months of age and older get the flu shot annually.