Melanie Dabovich

• Grave-Looting Leads to Dig at Civil War-Era Fort

By Melanie Dabovich The Associated Press

• The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA
• April 09, 2008

• Ornamental Chili Adds Heat, Color to the Holidays

ALBUQUERQUE -- Watch out, poinsettia growers. With their vibrant colors and spicy edible peppers, small chili plants developed by a New Mexico researcher are turning up the heat on traditional holiday plants in greenhouses and on nursery shelves. These ornamental chili plants go far beyond the green and red of the state's signature crop.

• Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
• November 23, 2007

• Cows From Mexico Worry N.M. Ranchers

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Longtime New Mexico cattle rancher Judy Keeler is keenly aware of how tough it is to raise livestock in the dusty desert near the U.S.-Mexico border. Drought, intense heat, security and illegal immigrants who cut down ranchers fences and drink water meant for livestock are constant concerns.

• The Commercial Appeal (2007-Current)
• June 22, 2009

• New Mexico Wildlife Refuge Celebrates Its Avian Guests While Improving Habitat

BOSQUE DEL APACHE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.M. -- Dozens of photographers and birders stood at the bank of the shallow pond, patiently waiting in the biting cold for the main act to take the stage. Suddenly, as if trigged by an unseen instinctual cue, hundreds of snow geese and sandhill cranes began calling to each other as the sun peeked over the desert horizon.

• Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
• December 01, 2007

• Calf Walks Again On Prosthetic Legs: ; Yearling Had Lost Limbs Because of Severe Frostbite

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Meadow the yearling Black Angus calf spends her days frolicking in northeastern New Mexico's cattle country, all with her prosthetic hind legs. The bucolic scene seemed impossible just a few months ago, when rancher Nancy Dickenson and her stepdaughter, Martha, found Meadow on a neighbor's property. The 11-month-old calf had lost her back hooves and half of her ears to severe frostbite.

• Charleston Daily Mail
• November 05, 2009

• Study Targets High-Altitude Cattle Deaths

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- More than 100 young Angus and Hereford bulls are on a working vacation at 8,700 feet above sea level in northern New Mexico, chomping on lush, high-meadow grass, helping researchers and ranchers get a handle on a disease that causes 75,000 cattle deaths each year across the West. In a study by New Mexico State University and the New Mexico Beef Cattle Performance Association, researchers are conducting high- altitude cattle performance testing on the bulls to determine which are susceptible to high-altitude disease. The findings could help ranchers develop a genetic line of altitude-resistant cattle.

• Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
• August 27, 2009

• Chili Harvesting Takes Mechanized Turn

LAKE ARTHUR, N.M. - Workers no longer stoop over to hand-pick the red chili crop on Cecil Conklin's farm. They drive a mechanical harvester that plows through row after row of chili plants, methodically pulling off the peppers. The machine harvests about seven acres a day," said Conklin, one of the first farmers in New Mexico to make the switch to mechanical harvesting more than a decade ago. "That's about the same acreage that it took 40 to 50 workers to pick each day before we had the machine.

• Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
• January 06, 2008

• 3 Buffalo Soldiers to Get Proper Funeral in N.M.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Until a few years ago, the memory of three African-American soldiers was buried beneath the sandy, desert in New Mexico, their remains left behind by the military and to the mercy of looters. With some investigating and modern forensics, government archaeologists excavated the remains and identified them as Army Pvts. Thomas Smith, David Ford and Levi Morris. They were among the famed Buffalo Soldiers, African-American members of the U.S. Army who served at remote outposts on the Western frontier.

• Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
• July 19, 2009

• Tales of Looted Graves Haunt Historic N.M. Fort ; Federal Archaeologists Follow Informant's Tip

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Working in secret, federal archaeologists have dug up the remains of dozens of soldiers and children near a Civil War-era fort after an informant tipped them off about widespread grave-looting. The exhumations, conducted from August to October, removed 67 skeletons from the parched desert soil around Fort Craig 39 men, two women and 26 infants and children, according to two federal archaeologists who helped with the dig.

• The Record, Bergen County, NJ
• April 18, 2008

• Former Candidate Endorses Nelson in Race

ALBUQUERQUE - A week after a state district judge ended Democrat Eli Chavez's hopes of running in the 1st Congressional District primary election, the one-time hopeful has announced his support for opponent Miles Nelson. I am not going to allow myself to swim in a cesspool of politics," Chavez said during a news conference Thursday. "It's time to unite the Democratic party, and we're going to do it together. I give Nelson the best wishes, and I will be at his side.

• The Santa Fe New Mexican
• May 20, 2004