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EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The man responsible for stabbing and killing an on-duty Las Cruces Police officer had a long history of violent and drug-related offenses, Las Cruces Police said during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 13. LCPD Patrol officer Jonah Hernandez, 35, was stabbed shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 11, after responding to a trespassing call on the 300 block of South Valley Drive. Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story said Armando Silva, 29, stabbed Hernandez with a “large kitchen knife.” After Silva stabbed Hernandez, he then tried to attack a bystander who witnessed the...

A New Mexico police officer died after he was stabbed by a suspect who was shot and killed by a witness to the attack on Sunday evening, police said. Las Cruces Patrol Officer Jonah Hernandez was stabbed at least once shortly before 5 p.m. after responding to a report of a trespasser, the Las Cruces Police Department said in a statement posted on social media . A witness to the attack used the officer's police radio to call for help after the stabbing, but Hernandez died after he was taken to MountainView Regional Medical Center in Las Cruces, police said....

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – A pair of small explosions just 20 minutes and a few miles apart shocked congregants Sunday morning at two churches in southern New Mexico. There were no injuries or deaths from the blasts outside Calvary Baptist and Holy Cross Roman Catholic in Las Cruces, Las Cruces police spokesman Danny Trujillo said. Each building sustained minor damage. Authorities are working to determine who planted the explosives, what materials were used and whether the blasts were related. "It doesn't appear to be coincidental because of the timing, but you never know," Trujillo told The Associated Press. Several agencies...

The FBI is reported to be investigating bombs that exploded minutes apart at two Las Cruces, New Mexico churches Sunday morning.

I can't post this story direct because of copyright issues but the "Las Cruces Sun-News" is reporting TWO EXPLOSIONS NEAR CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH AND HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CHURCH IN LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO THIS MORNING. THE EXPLOSION CALLS CAME IN BETWEEN 8 AND 9AM LOCAL TIME. NO APPARENT INJURIES WITH A POLICE SPOKESMAN SAYING THE EXPLOSIONS INVOLVED A LOT OF SHREDDED PAPER APPARENTLY FIREWORKS. SERVICES WERE GOING ON AT BOTH CHURCHES AT THE TIME OF EXPLOSIONS. CHURCHGOERS WERE EVACUATED AND TOLD NOT TO USE THEIR CARS TO LEAVE.......

Las Cruces, N.M. — A man arrested June 1 on charges that he sexually assaulted a 3-year-old relative is now charged with threatening to injure the young girl’s mother and grandmother. Andres Baca-Linares, 29, now faces one count of criminal solicitation to commit bribery of a witness, a third-degree felony offense. Baca-Linares was incarcerated from June 1 until he posted bond on June 5. Las Cruces Police detectives learned that while Baca-Linares was in jail, he placed a telephone call in which he made threats directed at the child’s mother and grandmother. Police re-arrested Baca-Linares this past Saturday on...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) -- City animal control officers have started removing hundreds of large, feral rats from inside a Las Cruces rental home. Animal shelter director Beth Vesco-Mock said the rats - some sickly and displaying evidence of fighting - are about the size of a four- to five-month-old kitten.

Persistent Pepe Le Pews Pester Clients, Staff at State Health Department Satellite [Office]. The West Las Cruces Public Health Office, bothered by skunks burrowing beneath its portable building home for at least three years, will shut down Tuesday for at least a week in an attempt to deal with the smelly problem once and for all, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported. "They've removed I don't know how many skunks and released them pretty far from the area," Health Department spokesman Chris Minnick told the Sun-News. "Inevitably the skunks come back; they're pretty persistent." Although no skunks actually have entered the...

We freep polls all the time, but now we need to freep an online petition. Brianna lopez, killed by her own parents in 2002 after being brutalized in ways unimagineable to a half-normal human being. She was just 5 months old when she died in July 2002. Her body laid in the morgue, no one claiming it until the community came together to claim the little girls body and bury her. Her parents and uncle that brutalized and killed her are in prison, but other family members have come forward, claimed the gravesite and erected a cage around it, blocking...

Regarding the 07 Apr 09 Sound Off! comment: “In one week, mass shootings have killed over 30 people. The shooters are well-armed. Automatic weapons and assault rifles need to be taken out of gun show and retail sales. There is not “right” to own an assault rifle in the Constitution.” Hm, let’s take this apart and see how truthful this statement is. The 2ND Amendment of the Constitution reads as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” So, obviously...

Regarding the 07 Apr 09 Sound Off! comment: “In one week, mass shootings have killed over 30 people. The shooters are well-armed. Automatic weapons and assault rifles need to be taken out of gun show and retail sales. There is not “right” to own an assault rifle in the Constitution.” Hm, let’s take this apart and see how truthful this statement is. The 2ND Amendment of the Constitution reads as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” So, obviously...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Come April 3, the voters of this sun-baked area near the Mexican border will have an unusual question to answer: Are they happy enough as home to some hardy cotton and chile farmers, a branch of the state university and a growing population of retirees from up north? Or do they want quite literally to blast into a very different future? In a referendum, the people of Las Cruces and surrounding Do?a Ana County will be voting on a proposal to slightly raise their county sales tax, a highly unpopular idea these days. But in return,...

Federal judge denies effort to remove symbol from Las Cruces logo. U.S. District Judge Robert Brack has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Las Cruces resident Paul Weinbaum seeking to remove Christian crosses from city logos and vehicles, and Weinbaum has vowed to appeal, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported today on its Web site. Brack acknowledged in a 30-page opinion released Thursday that it was a difficult call, the Sun-News reported. "Under any theory or application of the First Amendment to a governmental display of a religious symbol, the difficult question is to draw the line," Brack wrote. But Brack went...

Las Cruces logo case set for trialhttp://www.sacbee.com/24hour/religion/story/3334161p-12278315c.html http://tinyurl.com/rlt35 The Associated Press Published 11:56 am PDT Thursday, July 20, 2006 LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - This New Mexican city is being sued in an effort to force officials to remove three crosses from its logo. Paul Weinbaum and Martin Boyd of Las Cruces filed a lawsuit against the city last year in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. The lawsuit alleges the emblem violates the constitutional separation of church and state by placing religious symbols on public property and spending public money to promote religion. Las Cruces is Spanish for "the crosses."...

The man with five aliases: five years' probation. The mother in the flip-flops and saggy green jail jumpsuit: credit for time served. The mobile-home builder with four U.S.-born children: 90 days behind bars. It's 10 a.m. on a Wednesday, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie C. Smith is doing what he's done literally thousands of times before— doling out punishment in another batch of misdemeanor immigration cases. "You've been in jail and seen what that's like. Don't come back unless you can come back here legally," Smith tells one of the detainees, all of whom are charged with illegal entry into...

This morning I have authorized the filing of briefs to the U.S. District Court on behalf of the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico. As you will recall, several weeks ago members of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Las Cruces city seal. That seal depicts three crosses as part of its presentation. When translated into English, “Las Cruces” actually means “the crosses.” AU and its allies have made the determination to remove this reference to the religious heritage of New Mexico. Below is the content of a letter that I...

Hartford, CT (PRWEB) September 26, 2005 -- UP Aerospace, Inc. (www.upaerospace.com), the world's only operational, private space-launch company, will exhibit its renowned "SpaceLoft" rocket at the upcoming Countdown to the X PRIZE CUP. The X PRIZE CUP event will take place at the Las Cruces International Airport, New Mexico, on Sunday, October 9th, from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Visitors can take photos along side a SpaceLoft rocket, and discuss the space-flying capabilities of this unique spacecraft with the principals of UP Aerospace. The SpaceLoft rocket will make history on March 27, 2006, as it will be the first rocket...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - The city of Las Cruces' official emblem has three crosses that a federal lawsuit alleges are unconstitutional religious symbols on public property. The lawsuit, filed Sept. 16 in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, seeks the removal of the crosses. "The crosses serve no governmental purpose other than to disenfranchise and discredit non-Christian citizens," said the lawsuit filed by Paul F. Weinbaum, who lives in the Las Cruces area, and Martin J. Boyd of Las Cruces. Defendants include city officials, city councilors, Mayor Bill Mattiace, District Attorney Susana Martinez, state Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Gov....

OSHKOSH, Wis. - When SpaceShipOne rocketed into space over Mojave last year, claiming the $10 million Ansari X Prize, the feat represented, not the end of a journey to create the first privately funded, manned space program, but the launch a new era of human spaceflight. "We're on the verge of the most amazing period of human evolution ever," where humankind begins to move off this planet and into space, said Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation. Going into space is a "moral imperative," Diamandis told visitors to the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2005 on Thursday. The annual...

PALOMINAS - Future U.S. Border Patrol agents may have been among 14 Explorer Post 869 Scouts who graduated Wednesday night from a three-month training program sponsored by the Border Patrol's Naco Station. At least that's the thinking of some of the young men and women who turned out for the graduation ceremony at Valley View Elementary School. "I have an uncle with the Border Patrol. I think it's a good program," 16-year-old Corey Roddey of the Three Canyons area told a Herald/Review reporter before the ceremony. "I learned a lot." Asked what the most useful lesson was, Roddey said, "As...