Here’s a look at today’s headlines:
A the GRMC Board of Trustees meeting held on Friday, interim CEO Alfredo Ontiveros put to rest rumors that there were plans to sell the hospital, saying the rumors are “totally unfounded,” and no such plans exist. Ontiveros also stated that the Meditech 6 upgrade is still on schedule to go live on June 1st.
Santa Clara received an award on Friday in recognition of the Village of Santa Clara’s efforts to preserve the history of the Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Bayard. The award was presented to Mayor Richard Bauch by the New Mexico Office of African-American Affairs for outstanding vision, dedication and commitments in preserving the history of the Buffalo Soldiers and Fort Bayard.
New Mexico State Police were dispatched in reference to a fatal motor vehicle accident around 8:15 Thursday evening on I-10 just west of Las Cruces. The preliminary investigation revealed than an eastbound semi-tractor trailer crossed the median and entered the westbound travel lanes of I-10 where it collided head-on with a passenger vehicle driven by Kathryn Armijo, 54, of Deming. Armijo sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene. Two other fatal motor vehicle crashes occurred on Thursday – one on I-10 near mile marker 46 in Grant County where two of three occupants in the vehicle fleeing from Border Patrol agents were ejected and killed, and the third at mile marker 11 near Lordsburg. In this instance, a semi was traveling west through a low-visibility dust storm when he rear-ended a four-door passenger vehicle, pushing it into the rear of another semi and killing both occupants inside.
In sports action, Angelo State University defeated the WNMU softball team 22-2 in five innings on Friday afternoon. The teams battled again on Saturday in a double-header where WNMU lost 3-1 in the first game, and 11-6 in the second.
In basketball, the Mustangs lost a close 79-73 game on Senior Day for the last game of the season. The Lady Mustangs lost 93-80.
In legislative action, the House of Representatives on Friday passed House Bill 174, a bill that would create a uniform process for local elections and require that those elections be held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday of November in odd-number years, and would apply to elections for school districts, community college districts, special hospital districts, water conservation districts, and water sanitation districts, among others. The bill was developed to streamline the local election process and encourage voter turnout. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.
The House Business and Industry Committee approved a measure that would ban small loans with payback periods under 120 days and cap interest rates at 175 percent on certain installment loans issued by lenders that are not federally insured.
