Magistrate heads to trial this week on rape charge
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - There's no question that a Dona Ana County magistrate met up with a woman at a Las Cruces bar and the two returned to his car together. What happened in the car will be argued in court this week.
The woman, who was previously married in his courtroom, was celebrating her 21st birthday at the bar with a friend on Aug. 25. Her husband was in jail awaiting trial on a battery charge for allegedly punching her.
Prosecutors charge that Magistrate Reuben Galvan, 43, demanded sex in exchange for dismissing charges against the woman's husband and to allow the woman's friend to visit her own brother in jail. They allege Galvan raped the woman in his Porsche after she told him to stop.
Passenger bus crashes into tractor-trailer rig near Belen
BELEN, N.M. (AP) - More than 30 people were injured when a passenger bus struck a tractor-trailer rig on Interstate 25 early Sunday morning.
The Americano bus was traveling northbound near Belen when it apparently changed lanes and hit the end of the tractor-trailer rig, state police Lt. Jimmy Glascock said.
A total of 38 people on the bus, including the driver, were injured, Glascock said. One person was airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital, while 32 others were transported by ambulance.
"The more severe injuries occurred near the front of the bus," said Glascock, who added that none of the injuries were life-threatening.
Population growth in NM expected to slow down
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SANTA FE (AP) - New Mexico faces a potential shock if the Census Bureau's crystal ball proves accurate about population growth over the next three decades.
The federal agency projects a dramatic slowdown in the rate of growth in New Mexico's population between 2000 and 2030.
According to projections released last week, New Mexico's total population is expected to grow only about 15 percent over three decades and just 0.7 percent from 2020 to 2030. A slight decline is projected from 2025 to 2030.
U.S. prison population grew between 2003 and 2004
WASHINGTON (AP) - Growing at a rate of about 900 inmates each week between mid-2003 and mid-2004, the nation's prisons and jails held 2.1 million people, or one in every 138 U.S. residents, the government reported Sunday.
By June 30, 2004, there were 48,000 more inmates, or 2.3 percent, than the year before, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Frist: It's not radical to ask senators to vote on judges
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday it was not "radical" to ask senators to vote on judicial nominees as he hardened his effort to strip Democrats of their power to stall President Bush's picks for the federal court.
Frist, speaking at an event organized by Christian groups trying to rally churchgoers to support an end to judicial filibusters, also said judges deserve "respect, not retaliation," no matter how they rule.
Insurgents launch attacks in Tikrit, Baghdad killing 21
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An emboldened Iraqi insurgency staged carefully coordinated dual bombings in Saddam Hussein's hometown and a Shiite neighborhood of the capital Sunday, killing at least 21 people.
Lawmakers loyal to the new prime minister said he was ready to announce a Cabinet that would exclude his interim predecessor, Ayad Allawi. An American soldier was killed in a separate attack.
New pope says he will not ignore voices of followers
VATICAN CITY (AP) - In a broad message of outreach to formally begin his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI stressed his church's shared bonds with Jews and other Christians and promised followers Sunday he would not ignore their voices in leading the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
The pope's first major homily in St. Peter's Square also was noteworthy for what it left out: no mention of any current political issues or direct overtures toward Muslims although he paid respects "to believers and non-believers alike."
Saudi crown prince visits Bush at Texas ranch today
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Sky-high oil prices and the prickly issues of terrorism and bringing democracy to the Middle East could provide some tense moments between old friends when Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah visits President Bush at his Texas ranch Monday.
The two men also were expected to discuss Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip, Syria's role in Lebanon and a U.S.-Saudi economic agreement that would speed the kingdom's entry into the World Trade Organization.
