RUIDOSO — Monday was a good day for firefighters fighting the Little Bear fire near this tourist city. Favorable wind conditions and increased humidity allowed crews to hold the lines around the roughly 35,000 acre fire. Crews were expected to ramp up burnout operations overnight – particularly on the southern and eastern lines – in an effort to contain the fire, said Brad Pitassi, a spokesman with the Southwest Area Incident Management Team

  RUIDOSO, NM — The governor of New Mexico Sunday evening addressed a packed gymnasium full of Ruidoso-area residents, promising all available state resources to help fight the massive forest fire ravaging Lincoln County. Outside the gym, national guardsmen directed traffic as the smoke from the Little Bear fire towered overhead. “We are here. We stand with you,” Gov. Susana Martinez told the crowd. The blaze has scorched roughly 27,000 acres and damaged at least 36 structures.

The Texas Tech Rawls College of Business has a new dean to go with its new building. The university Friday announced Lance Nail will head the business school, replacing Allen McInnes. “It’s a great honor and it’s very exciting and I think we can take that college to some incredible heights,” Nail said. He has served as the dean of the University of Southern Mississippi College of Business since 2008.

A small lizard could prove to be a big hassle for oil companies if it’s listed as an endangered species later this month. The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard lives in the shinnery oak dunes of Eastern New Mexico and West Texas. The lizard is a habitat-specific species and that habitat is being affected by oil, gas and ranching operations, said Lesli Gray, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Production could be halted in the lizard’s habitat if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides to list the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard as an endangered species.