A strong cold front will bank up against the east mountains tomorrow afternoon.  This front will fuel brutally strong winds in the metro area from early afternoon through tomorrow night.  Winds will be sustained from the east 40-50 with gusts to 70+ mph.  Please take precautions and avoid being outside Thursday afternoon and evening.  We will have a chance for snow over the weekend as a storm moves through.

New Mexico State Police are closing the northbound lanes of Interstate 25 one mile south of Watrous because of an accident.

A crash on northbound Interstate 25 has blocked all but one lane at the Jefferson Street overpass in Albuquerque.

The crash happened about 6 p.m.

New Mexico Department of Transportation webcams show traffic backed up to the Big I interchange with I-40.

Details of the crash are not yet available.

Update 7:15 p.m.:  All lanes are open although it will take a while for the backup to clear.

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NMDOT image from NMRoads.com.

Bernalillo County is launching a new program to go after people who neglect or abuse their pets.

The effort by county Animal Care Services has been dubbed PET-Proactive Enforcement Team.

The goal is to spot animal abuse cases and address them quickly without waiting for someone to report the situation.

“If you have an animal, you have a responsibility,” Matt Pepper, director of Bernalillo County Animal Care, said.  “And that is to understand what’s required of you and understand the needs of your animal and fulfill the needs of your animal.”

The case of Ferdinand the calf led to the new project, according to officials.

When Ferdinand’s mother was found stuck in a mud pit, the owner shot and killed her and then left the calf to die.

Ferdinand was rescued and today is healthy.

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Got something going on in your community? When you see it happening, when you know it’s going on: ReportIt@krqe.com or Email–e-mail, text, photo, video.

Should Albuquerque police cruisers stay red, white, and blue or go to black and white?  The city wants you to decide

Today the city showed off a sleek prototype of the black-and-white version.

At the beginning of the new year the police department will begin to integrate the new Dodge Chargers into its fleet as it phases out the old Ford Crown Victorias.

This prompted the idea of maybe changing the colors of the cruisers

The prototype will be out on the streets in the next month so you can see it for yourself

To vote on which color scheme you prefer, visit the city’s website.

News 13 photo by Mike Lovely.

Prototype of possible APD car design. News 13 photo by Mike Lovely.

Broadcast engineers and utility crews are working to restore the KRQE and KASA broadcast signals to a number of communities in southern New Mexico.

Both KRQE and KASA are off the air in Carrizozo, Truth or Consequences, Caballo, Deming and Silver City.

The KASA signals serving Roswell, Artesia, Carlsbad, Hobbs, Ruidoso and Alamogordo also have been disrupted.

The engineers currently estimate it will be Thursday afternoon before the signals are restored.

The outage began about 3 p.m. today and is due to a damaged power pole on M Mountain above Socorro.

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Got something going on in your community? When you see it happening, when you know it’s going on: ReportIt@krqe.com or Email–e-mail, text, photo, video.

A Ruidoso man is among 24 people arrested in a marijuana growing and distribution operation in the Permian Basin of West Texas, according to the FBI.

A statement released by the FBI office in El Paso, Texas, names Cody Lyn Timmons, 37, of Andrews, Texas, as the ringleader of the network and David Pace, 37, of Ruidoso as the supplier of hydroponic marijuana.

The other defendants are charged with conspiracy to distribute the illicit product.

The cultivation occurred at a home in Andrews with the distribution handled from a home in Midland, federal prosecutors alleged.

In hydroponic cultivation plants grow in nutrient-rich liquid instead of soil.

Agents of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Texas Department of Public Safety reported seizing 160 pounds of marijuana, 29 firearms and $61,000 in cash during the investigation.

All of the those arrest are from Texas except for Pace and one man from Boulder, Colo., accused of being part of the distribution network.

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Got something going on in your community? When you see it happening, when you know it’s going on: ReportIt@krqe.com or Email–e-mail, text, photo, video.

The state police helicopter has spotted what looks like the wreckage of a plane in a heavily wooded area near Ruidoso.

But crews are having a hard time getting to the location to confirm if it is a missing plane that took off from west Texas.

Police say a pilot and one passenger left Synder, Texas Saturday headed for Ruidoso.

No word yet on survivors.

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Got something going on in your community? When you see it happening, when you know it’s going on: ReportIt@krqe.com or Email–e-mail, text, photo, video.

The tense situation that shut down a major intersection for more than two hours and brought the SWAT team to an Old Town restaurant is now over.

At about 9:30 a.m. a man with a gun came into the Little Anita’s restaurant at Mountain Road and Rio Grande Boulevard NW and demanded money.

The cashier went to get the manager, and when they returned the gunman was gone, according to Albuquerque police.

No one actually saw the man leave, however, so the restaurant was evacuated and police called in.

Police determined the man had left but still searched the building to be sure.

“We did access video of the restaurant, and it appears he left out a door,” APD Sgt. Trish Hoffman said.

Around 11:30 the sound of flash-bang grenades exploding inside the building could be heard.

With the search completed about noon, police confirmed the man was not in the building and reopened the streets.

The gunman is only described as a Native American.  Police said they will be using the video from the security camera in an attempt to track him down.

From photojournalist Dominic Crespin:

From reporter Scott Daniels: City deploying snow plows. Stay tuned to KRQE at 12 p.m. for the full story.