Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 121, No. 15 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
ZERO TOLERANCE
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. Border Patrol is moving to halt a revolving-door policy of sending migrants back to Mexico without any punishment. The agency this month is overhauling its approach on migrants caught illegally crossing the 1,954-mile border that the United States shares with Mexico. Years of enormous growth at the federal agency in terms of staff and technology have ... - PAGE A3
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
January 18, 2012
WEDNESDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Gov addresses Legislature, outlines agenda
AP Photo
Gov. Susana Martinez delivers her State of the State address during a joint session at the Capitol during the first day of the 2012 legislative session on Tuesday.
SANTA FE (AP) — Republican Gov. Susana Martinez outlined her agenda in her State of the State speech to a joint session of the House and Senate as the Legislature retur ned to work Tuesday. A main focus of the session is approving a budget to finance schools and government operations. The governor also is proposing $55 million in tax cuts for businesses and veterans. Martinez appealed to lawmakers to approve her proposal to require schools to hold back third-graders if they can’t adequately read rather than promoting
them to the next grade. Currently, parents can overrule a school that wants to retain a student. “Passing children who can’t read from one grade to the next is not compassionate. It is morally wrong,” Martinez said. Democrats and educational groups advocate an alternative proposal that will continue to give parents a voice in whether their child should advance to the next grade but require more intensive targeted instruction for students lagging behind in See MARTINEZ, Page A3
TOP 5 WEB
• Library gets new sign • Trey gets his wish • Afternoon stroll • Presidential hopeful Davis visits city • Thunderbirds escape with victory
INSIDE SPORTS
Mark Wilson Photo
Jaynes Structures employees continue construction work on the new Educational Center located on the ENMU-Roswell campus, just south of the Campus Union Building, Tuesday. The project is expected to be completed by mid-October.
Campus Educational Center under way VANESSA KAHIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jim Caldwell endured everything thrown at him during his first two seasons as the Colts’ coach — replacing a friend, rebounding from losses and fighting through injuries. Not having Peyton Manning around in 2011 was just too much. Caldwell was fired Tuesday, a little more than two weeks after the Colts’ worst season in two decades. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Bonnie Archuleta • Abram Chavez Jr. • Mary Charlene Francis • Atha Naomi Post • Kevin Kyle Rogers • Daniel Mandonado - PAGE A6
HIGH ...69˚ LOW ....31˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 ENTERTAINMENT.....B6 FINANCIAL .............B3 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
SANTA FE (AP) — House Speaker Ben Lujan has lung cancer and will not seek re-election this year, the 76year -old announced Tuesday in a dramatic opening of a 30-day legislative session.
The Santa Fe Democrat, who has been speaker since 2001, made his announcement as shocked lawmakers wept and his wife, Car men,
Local pols react to gov
See LUJAN, Page A3
JULIA BERGMAN RECORD STAFF WRITER
For The Past 24 Hours
COLTS AXE COACH
LUJAN HAS CANCER
Easter n New Mexico University-Roswell will be adding a bit of “curb appeal” to its campus this year. The construction of what will be the Educational Center is already under way. College Development Director Donna Oracion said the new structure will be located in front of what is now the
Student Services Center, directly south of the Campus Union Building on University Boulevard. According to a press release from ENMU-R, the new building is a $4.8 million project funded by a statewide and local general obligation bonds. Currently just an artist’s rendering, the Educational Center will be a 11,514square foot structure See CAMPUS, Page A3
Courtesy Photo
New Mexico’s 112 state legislators convened at the Roundhouse, Tuesday at 12 p.m., to commence the 50th legislative session. The concentration of the 30-day session will be balancing the state’s budget. In a dramatic opening to the session, House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, announced to the packed House chambers that he has been battling stage 4 lung cancer since 2009, and will not be seeking reelection. He attributed his diagnosis to asbestos exposure while working in Los Alamos. “Even if you don’t agree with his politics, which is my case, you have to admire the strength of character and the willingness to fight the battle that he has fought. You cannot fail to respect that,” Rep. Dennis Kintigh, R-Roswell, said. In her 42-minute State of the State address, Gov. Susana Martinez spoke
NM school grades are in; 3 RISD schools get A’s, 3 flunk VANESSA KAHIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
The grades are in—for New Mexico schools, that is. Schools in the Roswell Independent School District also received a rating, from A through F, on Jan. 10. The A through F grading system is based on the A-F School Grading Law passed by the New Mexico Legislature in 2011.
The system took into account whether or not a school met Adequate Yearly Progress and focused on schools’ overall growth, rating student achievement in the most recent school year. The system then assessed whether or not the students’ grade level performance had increased in the past three years. The grading system assessed how well the schools helped the top 75 percent of stu-
An artist’s rendering of ENMU-R’s new Educational Center.
Gottlieb said the A-F designations are a baseline, not necessarily a grade, as the RISD is still under the requirements of No Child Left Behind.
dents improve, and how well they had helped the bottom 25 percent of students improve. In addition to these assessments, high schools were evaluated on how well they contributed to on-time graduation and improved over time. High schools
were also evaluated on how well they prepared students for college, or for a career. For RISD, the only school to meet AYP was Sidney Gutierrez Middle School. The middle school, along with Roswell High and Goddard High received an overall grade of A.
See LOCAL, Page A3
B’s went to East Grand Plains, El Capitan, Military Heights, Missouri Avenue, Pecos, Valley View and Washington Avenue. Berrendo Middle, Del Norte and Mesa received a C overall grade. Monterrey, Mountain View, Nancy Lopez and University received D’s. Berrendo Elementary, Sierra and Sunset received an overall grade of F.
Take RDR survey online Coast Guard to capt: You go on board
RDR readers now have the chance to win prizes, including a 42-inch TV, just for letting the newspaper know how it’s doing. “We’re doing a readership survey to find out how people use the newspaper ... and other advertising media,” said RDR publisher Charles Fischer. The point of the survey, he said, is to find out how people use the RDR as well as how they respond to other forms of media. The RDR has conducted surveys before, Fischer said, to find out more about readers’ favorite features, comic strips and columns, for example.
Opinions were also sought about the RDR’s local, national and sports news. The current survey differs from previous surveys in two major ways. First, the survey can only be accessed online. Second, it’s the first RDR survey to give away prizes. After a survey-taker completes a survey, his or her name will be entered into a drawing. The first-prize winner will have a choice between a 42-inch high definition flat screen TV or $450 in cash. Other prizes will include remote control UFOs, New Mexico CentenSee RDR, Page A3
AP Photo
The Costa Concordia leans on its side Tuesday. Italian naval divers exploded holes in the hull to speed the search for 29 missing passengers and crew.
ROME (AP) — “You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?” the Coast Guard officer shouted as the captain of
See GRADES, Page A3
the grounded Costa Concordia sat safe in a life raft and frantic passengers struggled to escape after the ship rammed into a reef off the Tuscan coast. “It is an order. Don’t make any more excuses. You have declared ‘Abandon ship.’ Now I am in charge.” The dramatic recording made public Tuesday shows Capt. Francesco Schettino resisted orders to return to his ship to direct the evacuation, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping perilously. The exchange came to light as the death toll nearly doubled to 11 after divers pulled the bodies of four men and a woman, all wearing life vests, from the wreckage. Some two dozen people remain missing. See SHIP, Page A3