We’re not making this up, but some of the news from around the state sounds like something out of the National Enquirer.

Streets in affected neighborhoods around Las Cruces are being painted greenish yellow as vehicles squish thousands of crawling caterpillars, reports the Las Cruces Sun News, which posted graphic pictures and an up-close-and-personal YouTube video of the creeping critters that have arrived by the millions, thanks to abundant rainfall and food sources.

A New Mexico State University expert says they’re the precursor to the white-lined sphinx moth, a beneficial pollinator, and probably won’t been seen in numbers like this again for at least 20 years.

Meanwhile, a massive sinkhole continues to grow southeast of Artesia, according to the Roswell Daily Record, which posted a photograph of the still-growing crater.
 

"You can see the earth along the hole’s edges still cracking," said an employee of the Artesia Chamber of Commerce. "It’s getting bigger and bigger … who knows when it will stop."

State and federal officials first became aware of the hole July 18 when they were notified by a well driller that his brine well had been swallowed up at the site. Brine well drillers inject water into salt formations to create brine for oil drilling.

The Record reports that last week, Energy and Minerals Department Secretary Joanna Prukop directed the Oil Conservation Division to re-evaluate the rules and regulations governing brine wells and ordered "an audit of existing wells."

Now 500 feet in diameter, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman told the Record that "It’s an actively growing hole that people should stay away from." Some nearby roads have been closed for miles around the site, the Record adds.

In the not-so-odd department, Gallup’s 87th Inter-Tribal Ceremonial is in full swing, with activities through Sunday. According to the Gallup Independent, attendance at opening ceremonies Wednesday indicated a greater-than-usual number of tourists from around the U.S. had decided to include the ceremonial in their travel plans.

The event draws Native Americans from around the nation to Gallup every August for a massive inter-tribal ceremonial. Here’s a schedule and details on how to attend.

And on a serious note, a nuclear watchdog agency and the National Nuclear Security Administration have settled a three-year Freedom of Information lawsuit, with the latter agreeing to post 10-year site plans for nuclear research, testing and production sites on the Internet within 60 days of their acceptance by the agency’s headquarters, the Los Alamos Monitor reports.

“In the future, as 10-year site plans are accepted and approved by NNSA Headquarters in Washington, we will place them on the Internet,” Department of Energy media contact in Albuquerque confirmed in an e-mail this morning. “As the stipulated order says, that will begin with the Fiscal year 2009 plans.”

The article continues:

In a press release Wednesday, Nuclear Watch said they began filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for these documents in December 2004, but did not get even a partial response until they filed a suit in March 2006.

In November 2007, U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Black ruled that, “ A bona fide request for production of documents under FOIA must be honored in a timely fashion or the purpose of the Act is vitiated. Information is often useful only if it is timely.”

He added, “Thus, excessive delay by the agency makes a mockery of the 20-day target set by the Act and violates congressional intent.”

His decision paved the way for additional hearings to develop remedies for the “violation” of FOIA.