NMSU officials say president on "annual leave"
 
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — After a week of questions, New Mexico State University employees have now been told that university President Barbara Couture is taking voluntary annual leave. 

Couture's unexpected absence and the silence it has brought from the Board of Regents has stoked speculation on the Las Cruces campus and criticism about an apparent lack of transparency.

Board members have told the Las Cruces Sun-News that they will discuss Couture at a public meeting on Monday.

Employees received an email from NMSU Vice President Ben Woods on Thursday saying Couture initiated the leave. That came after three days of evasive answers to inquiries about the nature of her absence. The email said it was sent to counter incorrect reports that she was been placed on leave.

Holloman AFB to lose 250 jobs when F-22 leaves

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An estimated 250 jobs will be lost at Holloman Air Force Base next year when the base loses its F-22 Raptor fighters.  The detachment of the 44th Fighter Group and its fleet of F-22s is moving to  Tyndall Air Force Base. Col. Scott Crogg says the detachment is an Air Force Reserve unit that will support a new F-22 combat squadron standing up at Tyndall in spring 2013.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that Holloman has been a
schoolhouse for F-22 pilots since mid-2008. The Air Force announced the base outside Alamogordo would lose its F-22s in a consolidation effort after a 2009 decision to stop buying the costly planes in favor of the new F-35 fighter.