The Artesia Arts & Cultural District recently finished the 11th mural in our Downtown Mural Program! “Dancing Downtown” is also the third mural in our Student Mural Program and was designed by recent Artesia High School graduate Savana Watts. Project leaders/art instructors/ artists Brandi Cox and Juli Newton worked with art students Watts, Andrea Alvarado and Alison Greene to install the mural on the west wall of The Derrick Floor sculpture park's pump house.

SANTA FE – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) New Mexico State Office recently held a competitive oil and gas lease sale, offering 19 parcels covering 3,128 acres in New Mexico and Kansas. In total, 451 bids were received, with 14 parcels covering 2,768 acres leased, roughly 88.5% of the total acreage available.

ROSWELL -- A Roswell man was arrested on charges of murder Friday following a shooting at an apartment complex in the southwest part of the city. Paul Ybarra-Romero, 40, stands charged with first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated assault upon a household member, and three counts of child abuse in connection with the shooting death of 26-year-old Christopher Bargas. Roswell Police Department (RPD) officers were dispatched around 11:30 p.m. Friday to the Valle Encantada Apartments in the 2000 block of South Sunset Avenue in response to the shooting. There, they found Bargas unresponsive inside an apartment with a gunshot wound to his chest. He was transported by EMS to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries a short time later.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Devon Energy and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation hosted more than 80 educators recently at a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Summit in Oklahoma City, Okla.