Kelly Farrell News-Sun According to Hobbs police statistics, car crashes are down 27 percent citywide this year. When comparing year-to-date number of accidents from January through July to last year’s tally, the numbers reflect a decrease of 132 crashes — a drop from 487 during the same time last year to 355 this year. Hobbs police say it’s a result …

Gas leak cause of home explosion TODD BAILEY NEWS-SUN On Thursday, Victor and Alma Dominguez saw what was left of their home following Tuesday night’s explosion in South Hobbs. “It was a sad thing to see,” Dominguez said. Hobbs Fire Marshal Shawn Williams was still conducting his investigation as HFD officials searched through the debris looking for a cause.

Officer former News-Sun employee New Mexico State Police have identified the Artesia police officer who fatally shot an armed man last week. Former Hobbs News-Sun reporter and current officer Beth Hahn shot and killed 36-year-old Juan Reynaldo Duran after responding to a call about shots being fired. According to police, Duran pointed a firearm at Artesia police officers several times …

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Subhead LEVI HILL NEWS-SUN You shouldn’t speed in Hobbs, but if you do, don’t do it after Sept. 5. That’s when the city’s new traffic code goes into effect and the fines for traffic violations will increase almost threefold. Monday night the Hobbs City Commission threw out the old traffic code and adopted a new one that is more in …

The New Mexico State Police has released the identity of the suspect who was shot by a Eunice police officer Tuesday. The NMSP preliminary investigation indicates that Eunice officers responded to a home on the 600 block of South Main in reference to a domestic violence call. One officer entered the home and found Roberto Granados Ocona, 41, armed with a knife. …

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Levi Hill News-Sun Nearly one in every 10 Lea County workers is unemployed. According to numbers from the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, Lea’s unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent (unadjusted). Unadjusted numbers do not include seasonal jobs not yet tallied by the state. It’s an unemployment rate the likes of which Lea County hasn’t seen since 1999 when …

Eunice residents and motorists may have witnessed billowing smoke Saturday afternoon as a fire engulfed a home located east of town, but no one was hurt. The Eunice Fire Department responded to a structure fire on 5th Street and Texas Avenue at 4 p.m. Saturday and firefighters had the blaze under control about 5:30-5:45 p.m., according to Eunice fire chief …

Levi Hill News-Sun Waste Control Specialists may be ahead of Lea and Eddy counties in landing a long-term storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, but there could be room for both projects. That was the word from WCS Communications Director Chuck McDonald this week as he touted the latest developments in WCS’s attempts to land a spent fuel storage facility …