Jet from Holloman AFB crashes - pilot OK

From KRQE-TV.com - EDDY COUNTY (KRQE) - F-4 Phantom jets were once the pride of the U.S. Air Force. The supersonic stars that were a mainstay of the air war in Vietnam. But now there are only a few left, and they're used them as flying electronic targets. Wednesday morning, one of the old Phantoms from Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo crashed in eastern New Mexico and touched off a range fire. The pilot ejected before the crash and was reported by base officials to be in good shape with only minor injuries. Response teams say the location of the crash delayed their arrival. "It's rolling hills, a lot of dry brush, cactus, two rut roads, a lot of bumps, a lot of big rocks to maneuver around," said Brian Powell with the Roswell Fire Department. Rough as it was, firefighters from Roswell and other departments did get there because the crash started a range fire. Read more

Jet from Holloman AFB crashes - pilot OK

Los Alamos Residents Return And Find Bears

NewsNM - Swickard: remember the saying, a fed bear becomes a dead bear. Do not feed them because quickly they become a pest and are moved into another bear's area which causes a fight to the death between the bears. Also, Wednesday a Mountain Lion was roaming near my house near the Farm & Ranch Museum on the southeast side of Las Cruces. Officials said don't shoot it, shoo it away. Yeah, right.

From KOAT-TV.com - This is not the kind of welcome home that Los Alamos residents were expecting. Some are being greeted by hungry bears. The Department of Game and Fish and the Los Alamos Police Department are distributing brochures instructing residents how to deal with bears. The highly mobile nature of black bears is making it impossible to determine how many bears are in town. Wildfire officials say the natural food supply in the Las Conchas Fire area has been reduced by the fire, and the bears are on the move looking for something to eat. Read more

Los Alamos Residents Return And Find Bears

Dixon's Apple owners talk about damages from Las Conchas fire

From KOB-TV.com - Dixon's Apple Orchard in Cochiti Canyon is speaking out about how the Las Conchas fire impacted their crop. For the most part, the apple orchard was spared, but the orchard's owners say flooding is now posing an even bigger threat than fires. The fire left the canyon barren, and any rain will now be rushed directly towards the orchard. Contract workers are being brought in to clear out the brush from the ditch that runs through the orchard and expand it, hoping it will just channel the flood-waters through. Dixon's Apple Orchard co-owner Jim Mullane said they are trying to prepare for flood waters as much as they can. Out of the orchard's 3,000 apple trees, 300 were lost. The orchard's owners Becky and Jim Mullane lost their home in the fire and several employee buildings. Read more

Dixon's Apple owners talk about damages from Las Conchas fire

A help or a hindrance? Wildfires fan flames over environmental policies

From Capitol Report New Mexico.com - This year has proved to be the worst season ever for wildfires in New Mexico and now the rhetoric between environmentalists and critics of recent forest management policies is blazing as well, with charges that eco-friendly policies have actually made wildfires more devastating while environmental groups counter that such charges are baseless. Last week at a Water and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Sen. Clint Harden (R-Clovis) called for legislators to start looking into whether efforts to remove underbrush and thin forests are being hampered by environmental policies. While everyone agress that the state’s drought conditions are the main culprit in the actual number of fires, “the density, the undergrowth, the fuel that’s a big piece of the fires that are going on,” Harden said, are contributing to the intensity of wildfires and need to be trimmed. (You can click here for more on that story.) Read more

A help or a hindrance? Wildfires fan flames over environmental policies

LANL footage surveys damage to evacuee homes

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - As the Las Conchas Fire made its most threatening swipe at Los Alamos National Laboratory, administrators there deployed homegrown aerial surveillance technology known as Angel Fire to take both a wider and closer view of the situation. The project was intended to give thousands of evacuated residents reliable visual information on their homes and residences and to share with the public a detailed picture of the contours of the fire. "Users went wild," said Stephen Suddarth, one of the developers of Angel Fire and director of Transparent Sky, the company that donated the equipment and time for the flights. "There were 34,000 hits in the first hour." As of Tuesday, lab officials had recorded 1.1 million clicks on and within the website. LANL put the site together quickly with returning evacuees in mind. Included are panoramic swatches that can be magnified to a scale at which people and cars are visible, should there be any in the abandoned landscape. Read more

LANL footage surveys damage to evacuee homes

Willie Nelson's plea bargain rejected by judge

NewsNM - Swickard - Yes, treat him like every other citizen, please. From the El Paso Times - AP - A West Texas judge has rejected country singer Willie Nelson's plea bargain that would have resolved his marijuana possession case with a fine. Hudspeth County Judge Becky Dean-Walker told The Associated Press Wednesday that she rejected prosecutor Kit Bramblett's suggestion that Nelson plead guilty and pay a $500 fine for possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor not punishable with jail time. Dean-Walker says, "It's not right simply because he doesn't do that for anybody else." She wants Nelson charged with the misdemeanor of possession of marijuana, which could mean up to one year in jail. Nelson was arrested in November at a Border Patrol checkpoint when an agent searched his tour bus. He was later released on bail. Read more

Willie Nelson's plea bargain rejected by judge

Denish Endorses Balderas For US Senate

From publicbroadcasting.net -Citing his record of bringing accountability to government in order to invest in education and economic opportunity, former New Mexico Lt. Governor and 2010 Democratic nominee for Governor Diane Denish today endorsed Hector Balderas for United States Senate. In an email to supporters Denish said, "The Senate needs more leaders like Hector Balderas. Leaders who reject the premise that 'fiscal responsibility' and 'accountability' are Republican words. Leaders who recognize that typical Washington, D.C. insider politics will not solve the problems that are hurting the hardworking families of New Mexico. I'm confident that leader is Hector Balderas." More News New Mexico

Denish Endorses Balderas For US Senate

Wilson Passed on VP Job at Sandia Labs for Senate Run

From capitolreportnewmexico.com -The New Mexico Senate race could have looked drastically different had Bingaman waited a day, even a few more hours, to announce his retirement. Wilson, who began taking a hard look at the race in early January, was at an event at Sandia National Laboratories on Feb. 18 when the news broke of Bingaman’s retirement. Three hours later, Sandia offered Wilson the position of vice president for defense and intelligence. Wilson took the weekend to decide, but the open-seat opportunity was too tempting for her to turn down. She said timing is everything: “Had they offered the job four hours earlier, I would’ve taken it.” More News New Mexico

Wilson Passed on VP Job at Sandia Labs for Senate Run

Balderas Raises $400,000 in Q-2

Hector Balderas

NM Independent - State Auditor Hector Balderas raised $400,000 in the first two months of his candidacy for an open U.S. Senate seat in 2012, showing that he could mount a serious challenge to Rep. Martin Heinrich. The total reflects his fundraising from late April until the end of the quarter, according to numbers from his campaign. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Balderas Raises $400,000 in Q-2