State OKs bond sales for capital projects

The state Board of Finance says it is netting a nearly historic low rate on bonds to finance almost $51 million in capital improvements across New Mexico.

The board on Tuesday accepted bids from JP Morgan Securities that provide for a "true interest cost" of 1.68 percent on state bonds backed by severance tax revenues.

The bonds will pay for projects approved during a special legislative session in September. Included are senior citizen projects across New Mexico as well as upgrades to state prisons, a nursing care unit for Alzheimer's patients at the New Mexico State Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences and construction of a long-term care center at New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M.

Valencia County beefs up patrols

LOS LUNAS — Law enforcement agencies in Valencia County are conducting saturation patrols and a warrant roundup this weekend as part of an operation that targets crime in the county south of Albuquerque.

Police from five cities, the county sheriff's department and detention center and state police are participating in the operation.

Los Lunas Police Chief Ray Melnick says in a news release Saturday that the operation is designed to combat current crime and deter future criminal activity in Los Lunas, Bosque Farms, Peralta, Belen, Isleta and across Valencia County.

Police will work to clear outstanding warrants, stop methamphetamine trafficking and target vehicle violations and drunk drivers.

State police will focus on Interstate 25 and state roads as well as the El Cerro Mission and Meadowlake areas.

Two dead, others hurt in highway crash

BLOOMFIELD — Two people were killed and several others badly hurt in a head-on crash on U.S. 550 in northwestern New Mexico triggered by an alleged drunken driver.

Authorities say a van's driver allowed his vehicle to the center line and it struck a small sports utility vehicle carrying seven people Friday evening about 25 miles south of Bloomfield.

An adult passenger in each vehicle were killed. San Juan County sheriff's Sgt. Danny Clugston says four children and an adult were in the backseat of the sports utility vehicle, with two children badly hurt. They were flown to Farmington and then to a hospital in Albuquerque.

The van's driver was 36-year-old Howard Haceesa Jr., of Nageezi, N.M. He was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, seven counts of great bodily injury by DWI and other charges.






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