In brief: Mexican gray wolves rebounding

Albuquerque, N.M. – There are now more Mexican gray wolves roaming the American Southwest than at any time since the federal government began reintroducing the endangered predators.

An annual survey released Friday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows at least 109 wolves are spread among forested lands in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona.

The population is more than double what it was in 2010. Last year, the survey turned up at least 83 wolves.

Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle described the increase as a monumental milestone that has resulted from a combination of management changes made in recent years, experiments such as cross-fostering pups among different wolf packs and more social tolerance for the animals.

A subspecies of the gray wolf, the Mexican wolf was added to the federal endangered species list in 1976. It wasn’t until 1998 that the first captive-bred wolves were released into the wild.

Christie head winds stiffen, poll finds

Washington – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has had a tough winter, and it’s not getting any better with a new poll showing his favorability dropping sharply in his home state.

Christie, who hopes to get his party’s presidential nomination, wins a favorable view from only 37 percent of registered New Jersey voters in the latest survey from Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics, one of the state’s leading polls.

That’s a 7 point drop in two months. For the first time, a majority in the Rutgers-Eagleton survey, 53 percent, viewed him negatively.

Christie has a lot of problems beyond poll numbers.

He has a difficult fight ahead with Democratic legislators over the state budget. Investigations into the role that his appointees played in blocking traffic on the George Washington Bridge appear to have widened into other allegations of wrongdoing. And a recent trip to London generated unfavorable headlines about Christie’s remarks on vaccinations.