In brief: Mexico says new U.S. border law will divide nations

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government says it regrets Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to sign into law an $800 million border security package that will mean more state troopers, cameras and a spy plane to patrol the U.S. state’s 1,200-mile border with Mexico.

One of the provisions will toughen punishments for convicted human traffickers.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said Wednesday the new law will “promote division between our societies, and runs contrary to the principles and values governing the U.S.-Mexico bilateral relationship.”

Abbott signed the measure Tuesday. It should accelerate the hiring of 250 additional state troopers who will patrol the border, replacing National Guard troops deployed there last summer.

Mexico didn’t appear to object to moves to replace the National Guard troops. It has long opposed any militarization of the border.

Bay Area officials release steamy water-saving ads

SAN FRANCISCO – Too sexy for the drought?

No such thing, according to San Francisco Bay Area water officials who are rolling out a new line of racy public awareness ads coaxing an already water-thrifty metropolis to give it up just a bit more.

“Go full frontal” blares one ad featuring a photo of a front-loading washer – sleek, steel and up to half as water-guzzling as a top-loading machine.

“Short and steamy,” another ad urges about showers, a follow to last summer’s request to “Make it a Quickie.”

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission intends to run the ads on billboards, buses, TV and social media. Meanwhile, officials in Southern California have gone with celebrity-heavy campaigns to urge water saving as the four-year drought drags on.

Mildly risqué, the San Francisco-area ads are designed to catch the eye and lighten the mood, commission spokesman Tyrone Jue said Wednesday.

“It’s a tongue-in-cheek play in what grabs people’s attention. This topic” – the drought – “should be grabbing people’s attention,” Jue said.

Baby born of brain-dead woman finally sent home

OMAHA, Neb. – The infant son born of a brain-dead woman who was kept on life support so he could develop and survive has left an Omaha hospital.

Angel Perez was released from Methodist Women’s Hospital on Tuesday, Methodist Health System spokeswoman Claudia Bohn said Wednesday. He went to his new home in Waterloo, Nebraska, with his maternal grandparents, Modesto and Berta Jimenez, in an arrangement that Bohn said had been approved by the boy’s father.

Angel weighed a little less than 3 pounds when he was delivered by cesarean section April 4 and has gained nearly 4 pounds since. His mother, 22-year-old Karla Perez, collapsed at home in Waterloo in early February after complaining of a bad headache. Doctors discovered a brain bleed and determined she was brain-dead.

Family members told doctors they wanted the fetus saved. The fetus was just 22 weeks along and couldn’t survive outside of the womb when Perez died, doctors said.

Days after the procedure, Perez was pronounced dead and her organs were donated.

Police trace text to find kidnapped woman

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Beaten and raped and her cellphone taken away, a woman who was kidnapped in Tennessee was able to finally get access to a phone and send a text message to her sister, giving police an electronic trail to the Louisiana hotel where she was being held.

Lee Meadows, 34, of Clarksville, Tennessee, was arrested Saturday and charged with battery by strangulation, second-degree battery, false imprisonment and forcible rape, multiple news media outlets reported.

The attacker took the woman’s cellphone and other belongings, but when he briefly left the room, the woman got hold of a phone and sent a text to her sister indicating she was being held near New Orleans, according to police in Slidell, Louisiana.

Police said Tennessee authorities were able to trace the text, leading officers to the hotel.

When police reached the hotel, they found the victim badly beaten and in need of medical attention,” Seuzeneau said. He said she was treated at a hospital for “multiple” injuries, including broken bones.

Meadows surrendered and was arrested, Seuzeneau said.