The state's top Corrections Department official says all of New Mexico's prisons are on lockdown and no prisoners are being transported between correctional facilities as state police investigate what led to the escape of two inmates last week from a transport van. Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel also said Monday that all inmates in the state are being interviewed amid a broad, in-depth review of the state's prison system. He said charges will be filed this week against people who aided in the escape. The escape of inmates Joseph Cruz and Lionel Clah has raised a series of questions about prison security. Authorities say the two fled a fortified prisoner transport van last week as guards stopped at an Artesia gas station. Cruz was convicted of first-degree murder, and Clah is serving time for armed robbery and other crimes. They were taken back into custody over the weekend in Albuquerque and are being held at the state prison facility in Santa Fe.
Authorities say two state transportation workers have died after being struck by a motorist while working in northeastern New Mexico. State police say the workers were repairing potholes along State Road 120 in Harding County when they were hit by the vehicle Monday. The New Mexico Department of Transportation identified the workers as Anthony Rivera of Rainsville and David Eggert of Wagon Mound. Both were stationed with the department's Roy patrol. Transportation Secretary Tom Church says the tragedy is reminder that transportation workers have difficult jobs and are at risk each day.
Two Mississippi probationers on the run for two weeks are in custody now in Las Cruces. Multiple news outlets report 25-year-old Christopher Brown and 23-year-old Christopher Livingston were convicted in Warren County and assigned to the Hinds County Restitution Center when they fled supervision. The two are being held in Dona Ana County on fugitive warrants and as suspects in a carjacking and aggravated assault on March 5. They were arrested in New Mexico Saturday.
The New Mexico Environment Department wants the federal government to reimburse the state for what it spent responding to the Gold King Mine spill. The department announced Monday that it has sent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a request for more than $1.5 million — the money New Mexico spent on emergency activities in the wake of the spill. The EPA has assumed responsibility for a cleanup crew that triggered the release of 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater at the mine in southwestern Colorado last August. Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah were fouled. Local and state emergency workers, specialists, engineers, scientists and others teamed up to respond to and monitor the plume that deposited heavy metals as it progressed downstream.
The New Mexico Supreme Court says that private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America may be held liable for compensatory damages to three victims who were raped by a guard. The opinion was released on Monday and could influence an appeal of damages against the company pending before the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. A federal jury in 2012 awarded more than $3 million in damages to three former inmates at the Camino Nuevo Women's Correctional Facility that was run by the Nashville, Tenn.-based company. The New Mexico Supreme Court is affirming that the prison company can be held vicariously liable because private corrections officer Anthony Townes was aided in the sexual assaults by virtue of his job position. Townes is serving a 16-year state prison sentence.
New Mexico's unemployment rate is still near the bottom nationally, improving only slightly in January. The state now has the third worst rate. The Department of Workforce Solutions reports that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.5 percent in January, down from 6.6 percent in December. The department says total non-farm payroll employment shrank by 1,800 jobs between January 2016 and January 2015. That decrease represents a fifth of a percentage point. According to the agency, the global decline in oil prices continues to result in layoffs in businesses that serve that industry throughout the US. Industries that produce goods lost 8,100 jobs over the year, with the mining industry alone losing 7,700 jobs. The good news: jobs in the service industries increased by 6,300. The education and health services industry had the biggest gain at 7,300 additional jobs.
A collection of rarely seen watercolors painted by Georgia O'Keeffe during her time in West Texas will be part of a new exhibition at the O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. The artwork will be on display next month. The watercolors were created about a century ago when O'Keeffe was teaching art at what is now Texas A&M University. The artwork includes landscapes, abstractions and nudes and curators say the pieces mark a defining moment in the American painter's commitment to the abstraction she came to be known for. The O'Keeffe Museum says it holds the majority of work she created during this period, but the show will also include pieces on loan from the Amarillo Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and others.
In National News: U.S. retail sales slipped last month, pulled down by sharply lower gas prices, and Americans spent much less in January than previously estimated. The figures suggest that consumers remain cautious about spending despite steady hiring.
The U.S. is loosening rules on travel to Cuba and the Cuban government's use of the dollar. And that removes some of the obstacles to closer ties between the two countries, five days before President Barack Obama makes a historic trip to Havana. The Obama administration announced today that Americans can now take "people-to-people" trips to Cuba on their own instead of on expensive group tours. That means any Americans can legally go to Cuba as long as they fill out a form asserting that their trip was for educational purposes instead of tourism. The measure is expected to help fill demand for direct flights that U.S. airlines hope to launch in coming months. The new measures also allow U.S. banks to process Cuban government transactions that pass even momentarily through the U.S. banking system. A ban on those transactions crippled Cuba's ability to buy and sell goods internationally. It became one of Cuba's biggest complaints about the U.S. trade embargo on the island.