Virgin Galactic completes final test flight before launching paying customers to space By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M (AP) — Virgin Galactic completed what’s expected to be its final test flight Thursday before taking paying customers on brief trips to space, marking what the space tourism company described as a “fantastic achievement.” Six of the company’s employees, including …

New Mexico gunman who killed 3 and injured 6 shot randomly at cars, houses, police say By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, KEN RITTER and MORGAN LEE Associated Press FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — An 18-year-old man armed with at least three guns roamed through a northwestern New Mexico community firing randomly at cars and houses, killing three people and injuring six others …

By ACACIA CORONADO and JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Facing new pressure over gun violence in Texas after two more mass shootings, Republicans on Monday unexpectedly allowed a bill that would raise the purchase age for semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 to advance out of a House committee — even though the proposal has almost no …

By ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas schools could offer stipends of up to $25,000 to staff members who add the role of armed campus “sentinels” to their regular duties under a proposal advanced Tuesday by state lawmakers in response to the Uvalde classroom attack last year. With U.S. mass shootings on a record pace so far …

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A small New Mexico town near Albuquerque adopted an ordinance Wednesday aimed at blocking the distribution of abortion medication or supplies by mail, extending a wave of local government restrictions on abortion. The ordinance won approval by a 4-1 vote of the town commission in Edgewood, a community of about …

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s public health order related to COVID-19 is coming to an end. The state Department of Health announced Friday is the last day of an executive order that had been extended by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The agency had declared a public emergency and maintained measures like mask mandates for public indoor spaces and …

SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday signed into law the New Mexico Voting Rights Act. “Today, New Mexico is leading the nation by example, declaring that we believe, unequivocally, in the fundamental right of every American to choose those who represent them,” Gov. Lujan Grisham said. “The provisions of this bill related to Native Americans in particular …

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday signed legislation to provide free school meals to all students regardless of family income, as New Mexico and several other states look to fill the gap left by lapsed federal pandemic-era benefit programs and address the strain to family budgets caused by food prices. …

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press A student group at a university in the Texas Panhandle said in a federal lawsuit filed Friday that the school’s president violated their constitutional right to free speech when he canceled their planned drag show. Walter Wendler, president of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, located just south of Amarillo, said this week in a …

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s governor signed an abortion-rights bill Thursday that overrides local ordinances aimed at limiting access to abortion procedures and medications. Reproductive health clinics in New Mexico offer abortion procedures to patients from states, including Texas, with strict abortion bans. The new law also aims to ensure access to gender affirming healthcare related to distress …