Today's Top Stories: Juarez death toll nears 800

The homicide count is up to nearly 800 for the year in the border city of Juarez, Mexico, where 15 people were killed this week, the El Paso bureau of the Las Cruces Sun News reports.

 

In what has been described as the deadliest attack this year, eight men were slain and another five were injured when a commando-style group attacked a rehab center where people had gathered for a religious service, the paper reports. Among those slain was a pastor.

 

Seven others were killed in separate attacks this week, the paper said.

 

San Miguel County's popular Safe Ride program, which had provided up to 25 rides a weekend to those who'd had too much too drink, has been abruptly suspended by the San Miguel County Commission, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports. The commission reportedly is concerned that the program is a liability and promotes drinking, but said it would take input form the community while the service is on hold.

 

Heirs of the Abiquiu Land Grant will share in the ownership of an additional 32 acres that is being returned to the centuries-old entity. The Associated Press reports that the state Game Commission, which had acquired ownership of the tract from the Department of Transportation, will hold a ceremony to deed the land back to the land grant.

 

A spokesman for the Game Commission told the AP the parcel had no particular value in terms of wildlife. The story added that:

 

The property could go to the Abiquiu land grant because land grants became political subdivisions of the state in 2004. ... In addition, a measure approved by the Legislature two years ago allows governments that are preparing to dispose of land to give land grant associations the first right of refusal.


The Spanish and Mexican governments for centuries granted property to families in what is now New Mexico as an incentive to settle here. The U.S. government was supposed to honor the grants under the 1868 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, but land grant heirs contend some land—largely that once held in common—was wrongly taken for national forests or lost through machinations of land surveyors and tax collectors. Land grant heirs have long struggled to reclaim ownership of the land.

 

Three adults and 14 children have been rescued after 19 hours in the Gila National Forest, the AP reports. The group was from a Silver City charter school that routinely opens the school year with a hike to acquaint students with each other and their environment, the report said.

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