Las Cruces News

Big Band Dance Club: 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday at the Court Youth Center, 402 W. Court Ave. Dance ballroom, country, swing and Latin styles.

The Las Cruces Railroad Museum will host Railroad Days with student tours today and a variety of community events from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

LAS CRUCES >> A Las Cruces woman who admitted leaving a developmentally delayed girl home alone in what police described as a wooden cage was sentenced to a six-year suspended sentenced for her crimes, provided she completes a rehabilitation program.

Sweet Ghosts, a new Americana/Folk band from Tucson, Ariz. will hit Las Cruces for the first time, opening for pop music iconoclast, singer-songwriter AJ Croce on May 2 at the Rio Grande Theatre.

The second annual Las Cruces Country Music Festival and Rodeo, headlined by the legendary Charlie Daniels Band and rising country music superstar Cassadee Pope, is set for this weekend.

The band Radioactivity will perform at the TrainYard on Tuesday at 9 p.m. The line up also includes Beasts, Low Culture and Germ House.

LAS CRUCES >> A series of three public input meetings on oil and gas development and lands with wilderness characteristics will take place in the next few days in Sierra, Otero and Dona Ana Counties.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. >> New Mexico State University student Savannah Lee was crowned Miss Native American NMSU 2014-2015 during the university's celebration of American Indian Week in April.

Courtesy Photo Father and son team, Michael and Sean McCormick, display one of the many "creatures" they created through the years.

LAS CRUCES >> After a recent soil and water conservation district election marred by long lines and frustrated voters, Dona Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins announced this week he's looking into possible reforms to state laws guiding special district elections.

LAS CRUCES >> La Frontera, an Arizona firm brought in last year to care for the mentally ill and those struggling with addiction across southern New Mexico, laid off or fired 20 employees last week, including 11 in Las Cruces.

The entity will hear about Federal Emergency Management Administration flood insurance rate maps, Rio Grande levee improvement maps, a river management plan for the Rio Grande Canalization Project and Rio Grande sediment removal activities, according to an agenda for the session.

April Schmauder of Massachusetts and Avis Johnson of Wisconsin chat inside the newly refurbished Mesilla plaza bandstand Tuesday afternoon.

LAS CRUCES >> Crispin Fierro, 32, of Deming, pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon in Las Cruces federal court to a marijuana trafficking charge under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

LOS ALAMOS >> Organizers of the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge say two high school students from Albuquerque have taken the top prize at this year's competition.

Lupe Jimenez holds a photo of her fiance, Tony Rios, who died last year while waiting for a kidney transplant.

Denise Chavez holds a ceramic corn mother bowl at the Border Book Festival headquarters in Las Cruces.

LAS CRUCES >> New Mexico State University's Dancers Unlimited will present "True Life: I'm A D.U. Dancer" at 7 p.m. May 2-3 in the LCPS Performing Arts Center at Onate High School.

An Indian-American doctor in New Mexico has been arrested following his indictment by a federal grand jury alleging unlawfully dispensing of prescription drugs resulting in the deaths of two patients, and health care fraud.

A Las Cruces-based organization says the city needs to catch up with other major cities across the state in terms of how much employees make.