[imgbelt img=2010081800000035.jpg]The mayor of Hico, Texas, led a rally yesterday (above) that aimed to convince New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to pardon Billy the Kid (aka William H. Bonney, Patrick McCarty and Bill Roberts). The Kid spent his final years in Hico, according to some, and the town has adopted the outlaw and his cause.New Mexico Gov. Lew Wallace (the guy who wrote Ben-Hur) made a deal with Billy: If he would testify in a murder case, he might get a pardon. The pardon never came through and Bill Richardson has been asked to reconsider. That’s gotten Richardson in trouble with descendants of the lawman Pat Garrett, who shot Billy in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in 1881. Hicoites are urging Richardson to keep Wallace’s promise. • A bad economy is good for military recruitment. In fact, it’s never been better, according to the Dallas Morning News. Rural areas have sent a disproportionate number of people into the military, but now unemployment rates in rural America are slightly lower than in the cities. The South does now send a slightly higher percentage of young adults into the service, according to the newspaper. • The U.S. Senate race in Kentucky is a lot about coal. There is coal in both the eastern and western parts of the state, and people there worry about more strict environmental policies that could diminish employment, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Bill Estep. • U.S. Department of Agriculture egg inspectors were at the Iowa egg processors for at least 40 hours every week. So why didn’t they catch the outbreak of salmonella in eggs coming from Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms?The USA Today’s Alison Young writes about the holes in how eggs are inspected.