DALLAS, Texas — President Donald Trump said Thursday he would pursue an executive order to encourage police departments to meet “current professional standards for the use of force,” while slamming Democrats for broadly branding police as the problem. He also defended his calls on governors and mayors to aggressively quell violent protests that erupted across
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — New Mexico’s state Attorney General Hector Balderas on Wednesday called for police reforms amid protests throughout the nation over excessive force and a recent case in Las Cruces that has resulted in an officer facing manslaughter charges. Balderas said state lawmakers should create uniform use of force policies that would be
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HOUSTON (AP) — A Republican activist in Texas under fire for posting a Martin Luther King Jr. quote next to a banana following George Floyd’s death says he won’t take over as the county leader of the GOP in Houston. Keith Nielsen was elected in March to take over as chairman of the Harris County
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WASHINGTON, DC — Former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that President Donald Trump has “drifted away” from the Constitution, adding to a growing list of former top military officials who have strongly criticized the president’s response to the nationwide protests surrounding the police killing of George Floyd. “We have a Constitution. And we have to follow
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HOUSTON, Texas — George W. Bush will not support the re-election of Donald Trump, according to people familiar with his thinking, The New York Times reported late Saturday. The paper said the former president and Texas governor won’t vote for Trump’s reelection and that his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, “isn’t sure how he’ll vote.” The
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WASHINGTON, DC — Joe Biden formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Friday, setting him up for a bruising challenge to President Donald Trump that will play out against the unprecedented backdrop of a pandemic, economic collapse and civil unrest. “It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Three promoted a Facebook post suggesting George Floyd’s death was staged. Another shared a Martin Luther King Jr. quote over a picture of a banana. A fifth nudged followers to consider that liberal billionaire George Soros pays black people to riot to keep “race wars” flaring. All of them are local
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Volunteers in Doña Ana County were kept busy well into Wednesday afternoon, tabulating thousands of absentee ballots submitted as part of the New Mexico primary. Administrators involved in the organization and tabulation of the ballots were impressed with voter turnout, adding that it was higher than expected. It was especially
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AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday afternoon announced his third phase of reopening Texas during the coronavirus pandemic, allowing virtually all businesses to operate at 50% capacity. That is effective immediately, and there are “very limited exceptions,” Abbott’s office said. Restaurants were already permitted to be open at 50% capacity. Abbott is allowing them to
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — Local election officials struggled Wednesday to fully tally an avalanche of absentee ballots as voting surged in a primary election that locked in a progressive uprising in the state Senate. Two key leaders in the New Mexico Senate lost their primary bids amid a push by liberal advocacy groups to
Continue Reading LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — The incumbent state senate president is struggling in her bid for the Democratic nomination to gain re-election in her southern New Mexico district. New Mexico Senate President Mary Kay Papen of Las Cruces was locked in a tight race as ballot counting resumed on Wednesday. The Dona Ana County Clerk’s
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RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico has moved closer to possibly sending a historic delegation of all women of color to the U.S. House. According to unofficial results from Tuesday’s primary, Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Latina, won a seven-way race to capture her party’s nomination for the Democratic-leaning seat in northern New Mexico.
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CLICK HERE FOR ELECTION RESULTS 1:40 A.M. UPDATE: With 3,000 more absentee ballots to count, the Doña Ana County Clerk’s Office will resume counting ballots Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., according to candidate Carrie Hamblen. The clerk’s office received a total of 18,000 applications for absentee ballots during the 2020 primary, according to Chief Deputy
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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Latest on the New Mexico primary election (all times local): 11:05 p.m. Embattled state Sen. Richard Martinez has lost his bid for the Democratic nomination to primary challenger Leo Jaramillo. Martinez was seeking a sixth term but his political future became uncertain after being convicted and jailed for drunken
Continue Reading The Latest on Tuesday’s primary elections (all times EDT): 1:05 a.m. Former CIA operative Valerie Plame has lost her race in the Democratic primary for an open seat representing New Mexico in Congress. Attorney Teresa Leger Fernandez overcame six competitors to win her party’s nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján as he runs
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Former state Rep. Yvette Herrell has won the Republican nomination for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, setting up a rematch with Democrat U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small of Las Cruces. Herrell on Tuesday finished ahead of a field that included oil executive Claire Chase and Las Cruces businessman Chris Mathys
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — Democrat Joe Biden has won the New Mexico presidential primary, his latest victory in Tuesday’s voting as he marches toward earning enough delegates to claim the party nomination before the summer convention. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has pledged to help Biden connect with racial- and ethnic-minority voters in
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DALLAS, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday afternoon addressed the state’s response to the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck until Floyd lost consciousness and died. Abbott strongly condemned Floyd’s death as police brutality and called it “horrific.”
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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Joe Biden mounted one of his most aggressive attacks against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, deriding the commander in chief’s disregard of core constitutional values and blistering him for being “more interested in power than in principle.” “He thinks division helps him,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said in a speech at
Continue Reading (Editor’s note: Scroll down to the end of this article for the list of polling places in Dona Ana County.) LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Several longtime Democratic state legislators who have resisted initiatives ranging from spending increases to the legalization of recreational marijuana are facing challenges Tuesday as liberal advocacy groups try to push
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(Editor’s note: Scroll down to the end of this article for the list of polling places in Dona Ana County.) LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — The race for a swing U.S. House seat in southern New Mexico has seen a commercial using a cheerleader voice to mock one candidate. One hopeful has accused another of
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WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted Monday afternoon that the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis black man, is “clearly police brutality.” “There is no legitimate law enforcement purpose for what we saw in George Floyd’s case. It was clearly police brutality and it was not conduct we expect of any officer. Now, the
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EL PASO, Texas — Is El Paso really ready to continue reopening? State and local officials seem to disagree on that answer. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave El Paso County and the Amarillo area — two of the state’s biggest recent Covid-19 hot spots — a temporary reprieve from implementing Texas’ next phase of reopening.
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Dona Ana County Commissioners voted recently to make it mandatory for anyone out in public to wear a mask. This was much to the chagrin of Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima who is not in favor of forcing his constituents to dawn face coverings. “I dont feel like we need
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SANTA FE, New Mexico – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and state officials held a news conference Thursday afternoon to announce a limited reopening would soon be allowed for dine-in restaurants, indoor malls, gyms, salons and some other businesses. “Reopening our economy is not an invitation to forget about the risks of this virus – it
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is being criticized for a jewelry purchase from a store in Albuquerque that had closed its retail locations after she issued a public health order prompting the closure of all non-essential businesses. The governor’s office says the transaction was done remotely and didn’t violate the
Continue Reading AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Joe Biden will close out Texas Democrats’ virtual convention next month that was moved online over fears of the coronavirus. The announcement Thursday rounds out an unusual slate of big names that Texas Democrats have rounded up for their state convention. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A Democratic-leaning super PAC is jumping into the southern New Mexico contested GOP U.S. House primary and running commercials in support of a President Donald Trump ally that Democrats believe they can defeat in November. Patriot Majority PAC began airing television commercials recently attacking oil executive Claire Chase for previous
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas officials fighting to block widespread mail-in voting during the pandemic claimed victory after the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday that a lack of immunity to the coronavirus doesn’t qualify someone to cast a ballot by mail. The decision was unanimous by the Texas Supreme Court, which is stocked with nine Republican
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AMARILLO, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott and state and local health officials expressed confidence Wednesday that they have made major progress in containing a hot spot of the coronavirus in the Amarillo area, saying that the surge in state and federal resources that they sent to the region will be a model for how the
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