New Mexico oil country struggles as cities boom

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — The oil field trucks and big rigs rumble through morning and night, creating a first-ever rush hour in this otherwise sleepy 1960s-era tourist and mining town. Hotel rooms along the clogged two-lane highway are mostly booked, some of them fetching nightly rates that rival those in Manhattan.

Businesses desperate for workers will hire anyone who can pass a drug test, locals say. Finding a house, however, is another issue. So is getting a hamburger at the local McDonald’s, where crowds make a meal a drawn-out ordeal.