Albuquerque's Popular Luminaria Tour Sells Out In Hours - The Associated Press
Tickets for Albuquerque's annual luminaria tour have sold out in record time.
The city's transit system, ABQ RIDE, says the 3,600 tickets that were available for the Christmas Eve event were gone in about four hours. It took 12 hours to sell out last year.
ABQ Ride has been helping with the tour for more than 50 years.
Six separate tours will leave from the Albuquerque Convention Center on Christmas Eve, the first at 5:30 p.m. and the last at 7:25 p.m. Each will last about 45 minutes.
Participants will get to see countless luminarias — or candles that are placed inside paper bags weighted with sand — and other Christmas lights on their tour through historic and other well-known neighborhoods in Albuquerque.
New Mexico Court Orders New Trial In Excessive Force Case - The Associated Press
The New Mexico Court of Appeals is ordering a new trial in a civil case against the city of Clovis and three police officers accused of using excessive force in restraining a man in 2006.
The court ruled this week that a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of the estate of Juventino Hernandez of Mexico should be heard again.
Among the arguments, the court said Hispanics were unconstitutionally excluded from the jury when defense lawyers were allowed to use peremptory strikes against prospective Hispanic jurors.
The defendants argued their selections were racially neutral, but the appeals court says the challenges indicted a pattern.
The lawsuit accused the officers of hog-tying Hernandez after he suffered a psychotic episode and attacked them while they responded to a family's call for help.
Ski Santa Fe Opens To Crowds, Bus To Slopes Mostly Empty - The Associated Press
Ski Santa Fe opened to crowds of skiers but the new bus route from downtown Santa Fe to the ski basin remained mostly empty.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that about 2,000 showed up to the slopes on Thursday, which was the opening day of Ski Santa Fe's 2015-16 winter season. The resort doesn't always open on Thanksgiving, but recent storms have brought 58 inches of snow already this year.
As for the bus, North Central Regional Transit District public information officer Jim Nagle says ridership numbers have been disappointing since the service began in late September.
Nagle says the bus was advertised as a year-round route to give people access to the national forest and trail system for biking, hiking and skiing.