Nation in brief: Guard recruitment highest in 6 years
New recruiting techniques and appeals to patriotism have helped the National Guard achieve its highest level of troops since 2001.
The Guard, which has struggled to fill its ranks during the war in Iraq, pins its success on a new recruitment program, which includes paying members $2,000 for every recruit they sign up and who enters boot camp.
The Guard also:
“Hired more recruiters. It had 2,700 full-time uniformed recruiters in August 2004, the same as in 1989. That number grew to 5,100 by December 2006.
“Boosted enlistment bonuses from a high of $6,000 in 2004 to $20,000 today, said Manny Pacheco, a Guard spokesman.
“Sent recruiters to more high school sporting events, NASCAR races and shopping malls.
SALT LAKE CITY
Officials lift evacuation order
An evacuation order was lifted for a string of small northeastern Utah communities on Wednesday while firefighters worked to tame a blaze that has burned more than 62 square miles.
The fire is burning on public and private land, including parts of the Ashley National Forest, 100 miles east of Salt Lake City. It was 20 percent contained Tuesday night, with more progress expected Wednesday.
More than 700 firefighters and other personnel are working the fire, at a cost of $2.8 million.
LAS CRUCES, N.M.
Inmate briefly slips past security
A woman tried to escape from jail guards using baby powder, cocoa butter and lots of socks, deputies said.
Anita Rachel Thomas, 20, was able to wriggle out of leg irons because she was wearing six pairs of socks, authorities said. She used cocoa butter as a lubricant to slide the leg irons and handcuffs from around her ankles and wrists, officials said.
Thomas, freed from restraints in a jail transport van outside Las Cruces Magistrate Court on Tuesday, threw baby powder at an officer, pushed him out of the way and tried to run past him, Dona Ana County sheriff’s officers said.
She made it about two feet past the officer when he grabbed her, they said.
From wire reports