Here’s a look at today’s headlines:

Officers at the Grant County Detention Center on Monday had to pepper spray 8 inmates when tensions rose among the inmates in the male unit of the facility.  Several inmates began behaving aggressively toward officers, banging on and throwing things at the pod windows.  Officers calmed down most of the unit, but the 8 inmates who were eventually pepper sprayed continued to act out and threatened a stand-off with the officers.  Despite calling reinforcements out to the Detention Center, the officers there handled the entire situation.  No injuries were reported.

This weekend is Tax-free Weekend as students prepare to go back to school for the fall.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday, participating retailers will not charge sales tax on purchases of certain products in order to help parents buy the school supplies their children need for school.  Tax-free items include shoes and clothes, school supplies, and computers and other hardware.  Parents should be aware of the price limit of Tax-free supplies at any given store, however.

The City of Bayard is in the process of constructing the city’s first Cemetery off U.S 180 just outside of town.  The project is scheduled to be completed September of this year.  The update received at Monday’s Bayard City Council Meeting from Engineers Inc. stated that they are putting down curbs and gutters, and will then work to complete the entrance road to the cemetery.

PNM added Outage Alerts with the launch of its enhanced website earlier this year.  With the monsoon season reaching its peak, PNM encourages customers to sign up to receive the alerts via email, text, or phone.  Customers will receive a message whenever there is a known outage at their home or business.  The message will include an initial estimate for power restoration and additional messages if the restore time changes by more than 30 minutes.  Customers will also receive a message when power is restored.  Customers can sign up for outage alerts at PNM.com/outage.

Feeling thirsty?  Tune in to KSCQ, 92.9 and KNFT-FM 102.9 all week for your chance to win during the “Share a Coke” giveaway.  Listen each day this week for your chance to win great Coca Cola products, and head out to Food Basket in Bayard on Friday morning, and Food Basket in Silver City Friday afternoon for your chance to win a ‘year supply’ of Coke!  It’s a summer of sharing.  Find a Coke with your name on it, and grab one for everyone you know and love while you’re at it. Keep the fun going all summer long by creating your own custom virtual Coke at www.shareacoke.com.  And, stay tuned to Silver City Radio for your chance to win Coca Cola T-shirts, coolers, beach towels – and the grand prize of a ‘year supply’ of Coke!

Here’s a look at today’s headlines:

School Board President Trent Petty and board member Tony Egan will meet with the Silver Consolidated Education Association members in a closed meeting.  Silver Schools’ Superintended Lon Streib and the school board’s lawyer are also expected to attend.  The purpose of the meeting is for the board and SCEA to sit down and be able to talk as equals – to open up conversation about what is going on in the district.  SCEA out-going president Wecks said the “SCEA may put the grievances they are filing on hold briefly, but they still expect to file their grievances with the state labor board.”

GRMC recently appointed two new members to their board of trustees: Dr. John Stanley and Joe Ramirez.  Dr. Stanley has been on the board of trustees before.  Also at the meeting, the Board of Trustees honored several GRMC medical professionals for their service, over 200 years between only seven loyal employees.  A representative from Horizon Home Health also spoke briefly about the transition of patients from GRMC’s home health care.

Two students from Silver High School recently traveled to Europe this summer as student ambassadors with People to People.  They visited four countries, including Italy, France and Austria.  The two teenagers from Silver High were also accompanied by other students from Tennessee and Texas through the People to People, locally of Las Cruces.  Students had to raise $7,500 to go on the trip.

The Govina Fire burning in the Reserve Ranger District, started July 24^th, is 53 acres and burning slowly on all sides in grass, mixed conifer, ponderosa pine, and Pinion Juniper north of John Kerr Peak.  The fire is currently being confined within existing road systems and natural barriers.  Smoke may be visible in Apache Creek and Aragon areas, and smoke from the Tige and Sycamore fires in southeast Arizona may also still be visible.  To learn more, contact the Reserve Ranger District.

LULAC Council 8003 has been helping students achieve their potential by awarding educational scholarships to students wishing to continue their studies in higher education. With the vision of its original founders, the council began hosting fundraisers to collect money for the annual student scholarships. The first award amount was $250 and quickly escalated to several $1,000 scholarships a year.  Past recipients are spread throughout the country as students had the freedom to utilize the award at any college or university of their choosing. Past recipients include doctors, engineers, business owners, and many more including New Mexico Senator Howie Morales.

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6 Mexican wolves were released into the Gila Wilderness last week as part of a 15-year effort to reintroduce the endangered predator into the Southwest.  Among the released wolves is a female wolf who was recaptured in May and has six pups with no wilderness experience.  Numbers from earlier this year show there were 83 Mexican wolves in the wild – 46 in New Mexico and 37 in Arizona.

The latest Youth Mural Dedication will be held at the Murray Ryan Visitors Center this Sunday.  Head out to celebrate the dedication of Silver City’s newest mural, completed by the Mimbres Region Arts Council Youth Mural Project.  The first phase of the mural was completed by Cobre High Students and Jose Barrios 5^th graders for the 2012 Clay Festival.  The second and third phase of the mural project were completed by Aldo Leopold Middle and High Schools and Jose Barrios Elementary.

The Copper Cowbelles are now taking scholarship applications for the 2014-15 school year.  Applicants must be entering their sophomore or higher year in college and be pursuing a degree in an agricultural field.  They must also be a graduate of a Grant County High School.  The Cowbelles are a non-profit organization whose interests are providing educational information about the beef industry and preserving the western lifestyle.  They encourage students studying courses such as range management, animal and veterinary sciences, and agricultural economics to apply.

The Grant County Sheriff’s Office recently conducted a School Trends Training for the Cobre District, instructing students what to do and look for in case there were ever a critical incident at school.  The main focus of the training was preparation for an active school shooter incident.

A resident of Hurley was recently arrested at his home after witnesses identified him as the person who was driving a Dodge truck aggressively, recklessly, and with excessive speed causing a motorcyclist to crash.  The accident occurred on Highway 180 just north of North Hurley early Wednesday afternoon.  According to the report, there was no collision, but the truck attempted to pass another vehicle and failed to see the motorcycle coming.  The motorcyclist took evasive action to avoid the truck and lost control of his bike.  He was airlifted to an El Paso hospital for treatment.  The driver of the truck was charged with great bodily harm with a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident, and child abuse/endangerment for having his 4 year-old son improperly belted in a booster seat in the vehicle when the crash took place.

Four Grant County Youth recently traveled to Albuquerque for the annual Rooted in Community Summit to promote food justice through sustainable communities, rural and urban agriculture, food security, and racial, ethnic, economic, and social equity. During the Summit, youth learned about media influence on food choices, the impact of access to health foods on rural and urban communities, farm worker rights, organic gardening techniques, growing and cooking culturally relevant foods and much more.

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Senior Citizens from Grant County recently brought home a total of 40 medals from the New Mexico Senior Olympics in Roswell.  Mario Quintana earned seven medals and three ribbons, and was honored as the Golden Male Athlete of the New Mexico Senior Olympics.  Quitana earned two gold medals, two silver medals, and three bronze medals, but was more impressed with the 40 medals his team came back with.  The Grant County Senior Olympics have now qualified to compete at the national Senior Olympics next summer in Minnesota.

Residents of Silver City should expect to see some road work beginning in August, according to Town Manager, Alex Brown.  Among the roads to be worked on is a bridge on Highway 90 between Broadway and Richard Street.  Work on the bridge is expected to last eight months to a year, and will require traffic to be redirected.  Other roads include11th and 12 streets near Pope, 16^th and 17^th Streets between Swan and Silver Heights, 21^st, 23^rd, and 25^th near Juniper, Broadway from Hudson to Gold, Cactus, Corbin, Juniper and Yucca Streets near Silver Heights Boulevard, Main Street starting at 21^st, Swan Street from Broadway to 12^th Street, and Pope Street beginning at 19^th Street.

In cooperation with the Silver City Public Library, the Silver City Museum will be transferring its library of resource materials to the Public Library’s reference section for use by the general public.  The move is scheduled to take place through August with an anticipated completion by mid-September for most of the materials.   It is anticipated that the reference book collection will be cataloged and fully accessible to the public by December of this year.

The Lordsburg City Council decided to cancel its contract with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Agency at a council meeting earlier this month.  Despite cancelling the contract, the city of Lordsburg will continue its participation in Operation Stone Garden.  With the assistance of the Operation Stone Garden Grant, the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department has received new body cameras for deputies.  The equipment is intended to provide indisputable evidence and will be used at all times when a deputy makes contact with the public.

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Western New Mexico University Museum and the Francis McCray Gallery of Contemporary Art will be the joint venues for Neo-Mimbreño 2014, a Silver City Clay Festival exhibition, on Saturday, August 2. Neo-Mimbreño 2014 is a juried fine art exhibition of contemporary works influenced or inspired by designs of the ancient Mimbres potters of the Southwest. Artists entering the exhibition were encouraged to creatively reinterpret, personalize, or carry the Mimbreño vision into new formats and media.  Neo-Mimbreño 2014 will run from August 2 through August 30, 2014, and is made possible in part by contributions from the New Mexico Humanities Council, Western New Mexico University Museum, the Town of Silver City, and Western New Mexico University. Western New Mexico University Museum is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and closed University holidays.

Dozens of residents gathered at the Cliff High School Gym to hear the final reports from the Bureau of Reclamation concerning the decision on whether or not the Gila River will be diverted as part of the Arizona Water Settlements Act.  The report focused on the three main diversion plans from the Gila Basin Irrigation Commission, the City of Deming, and the Hidalgo County Off-Stream Project.  Many citizens feel the analysis is not complete enough to go to a preliminary decision next month.  For example, none of the reports have taken evaporation, climate change, or endangered species impact into consideration.

Horizon Hospice is making plans to step up and take on those who will need care once Gila Regional Medical Center closes its hospice and home health care programs.  Wanda Hall, owner of Horizon Hospice, was with the hospice program at GRMC at the start of the program, believes her staff is up to the task of taking on many of the patients from GRMC.  GRMC and Horizon Hospice are continuing to work together to make the transitions as easy as possible for the patients.

Grant County Commissioners met on Tuesday to approve Charlene Webb as the new County Manager.  Webb is currently the County Manager for Roosevelt County, but accepted the position recently after negotiating a contract with the interim manager, Abbey Robinson.  Robinson has been serving since the May resignation of former County Manager Jon Saari.  Also at the meeting, the Commissioners voted to appeal the US Forest Service’s Gila National Forest Travel Management Plan.  The reasons for the appeal state the Forest Service did not cooperate with local agencies, and some roads closed by the Forest Service were not included in the travel management plan.

An NMSU Chemical Engineering student recently designed and developed water filters to be installed in houses and schools in Palomas.  Palomas Mexico and Columbus, New Mexico, draw their water supplies from the same arsenic and fluoride contaminated aquifer.  Columbus has installed a reverse osmosis system to provide residents with clean water, but Palomas’ water supply is only disinfected with chlorine.  The NMSU student developed a combination of activated alumina and activated carbon to create a filter which reduces the amount of arsenic and fluoride levels in the water, and also serves to improve the waters’ taste.  He also taught members of Border Partners, an area non-profit, how to build and install the filters.

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The Girl Scouts of the Desert Southwest will hold a workshop for girls who were in grades 1 through 5 for the last school year.  “It’s Fun to Be Me” will help girls learn about self-esteem, how to make friends and keep them, and what good deeds are.  The workshop will be held at the Girl Scout Office, 302 West 11^th Street, on July 29^th through the 31^st.  Space is limited, and the workshop is free to all girls, whether registered or non-registered Girl Scouts.  RSVP to Annette at 538-2481.

The Silver City Ranger District implemented a temporary closure for Cherry Creek and McMillan Campgrounds due to flooding as a result of the Signal Fire.  The low-water crossing entrances at these campgrounds pose a flooding safety hazard to visitors.  All other campgrounds on the Silver City Ranger District remain open.  Visitors are encouraged to check with local ranger district offices for conditions and closures before going into the forest and recreation areas.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reminded producers yesterday that changes mandated through the 2014 Farm Bill require them to have on file a Highly Erodable Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Certification.  The Farm Bill re-linked these certifications with eligibility for premium support paid under the Federal Crop Insurance Program.  For more information, visit: www.usda.gov/farmbill

There will be an advocacy and legal training for non profits on July 29^th.  During the training, non-profits will learn how the organization can advance its mission by advocating for or against public policy issues, build an organizations capacity, learn how to get community members engaged in elections, and maintain compliance with IRS advocacy rules and regulations.  The training will be at the Commons, 501 East 13^th Street on July 29^th from 8:30 to noon.

The Silver City Town Council had a meeting last night, where they listened to concerns during the public input portion of their agenda.  Concerns were raised about the passage of stringent regulations regarding the trailer park near Market and Montana streets.  Another resident brought up the deteriorating conditions of Starsky Ridge and Ursa Major.  The council also selected Tim Heidrick as the new Silver City Fire Department Chief.  The council then reported that many town streets are scheduled for chip-sealing during the month of August.  After approving a preliminary budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year, the Town Council adjourned until the August 20^th meeting, set for 6 pm.

A lightning strike from recent thunderstorms cause the Tige Fire in Catron County near the New Mexico and Arizona state line.  The fire was reported at 63 acres last night and is burning in ponderosa pine forest on the northwest rim of Bear Canyon.  The nearby Sycamore Fire on the Apache National Forest in Arizona is contributing to smoke in the San Fransisco watershed that is visible to the communities of Alma, Glenwood and Pleasanton.  Contact the Glenwood Ranger District office for further information.

Deming will hold a series of two amateur rodeos as part of the New Mexico Rodeo Association’s 2014 circuit.  The first evening performance will be September 19^th at the City Arena, and will coincide with an NMRA rodeo in Duncan Arizona.  The second will be the two-day state finals rodeo on November 14^th and 15^th.    The hope is that the rodeo will bring people into Deming and positively impact the city’s economy.  The city arena dates back to the 1970’s, and will likely see some maintenance and an upgrade before the September show, including parking, stables and bleachers, as well as adding lighting and shade canopies.