Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 123, No. 42 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
February 16, 2014
Legislature enters final stretch with no budget Also pending are proposals to shore up a lotteryfinanced college scholarship program, pay for capital improvements, raise the minimum wage and overhaul retirement plans for judges. The Legislature hasn’t voted on a new gambling compact to allow the Navajo Nation to operate more casinos. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, a Belen Democrat, said Saturday he was “concerned but I am not panicked” there’s so much unfinished business with a few days left in the session. If the Legislature and the governor fail to agree on a budget, lawmakers
SANTA FE (AP) — The Legislature is running out of time in its 30-day session as the top issues remain unresolved, including a $6 billion budget to finance public schools and government services starting in July. The session ends on Thursday, but neither the House nor the Senate have approved a budget. Much of the dispute is over how much control Republican Gov. Susana Martinez should have over money for educational programs such as merit pay for teachers, assistance for struggling schools and initiatives to recruit and retain math and science teachers.
Smoke in the orchard
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have no choice but to return to work in a special legislative session. “I’m the eter nal optimist. I know how things can get done her e very quickly if we put our minds to it. But compromise is the key word. It’s got to be compromise, not capitulation,” Sanchez said. The Senate Finance Committee is working to assemble a budget after the House couldn’t finish the task. A pr oposed budget in the House failed on a tie vote after Republicans and one Democrat opposed the measur e because they said it shortchanged the
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governor’s school initiatives.
House Democrats later rebuffed a GOP offer for a possible compromise that would have added $17 million for educational programs under the contr ol of the Martinez administration. Most Democrats and school groups favor distributing state aid to schools through a funding formula that leaves it to local districts to decide how to spend the money.
House GOP Leader Donald Bratton of Hobbs said the odds ar e “no better than 50-50” that a special session can be avoided.
AP Photo
Teachers, parents and other school workers march around the New Mexico Capitol in Santa Fe, Saturday, in a show of support for public education and to voice opposition to policies of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. Education funding is one of the main unresolved issues in the Legislature's 30day session, which ends on Thursday.
March of Dimes to hold kickoff for annual fundraiser JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Mark Wilson Photo
The March of Dimes will hold a free kickoff lunch 12 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28, for those interested in registering for the annual March for Babies. The luncheon will be hosted by Pioneer Bank, 3000 N. Main Street. This year’s march will take place on April 12, starting at Cielo Grande Park on West College Boulevard. The march is a time when hundreds of families and business leaders will join together to help children across New Mexico. According to event organizer Becky Hor ner, last year, more than 120 people
attended the March for Babies and raised more than $38,000 to support the March of Dimes. The March for Babies is the largest annual fundraising event for the March of Dimes and takes place in over 900 communities nationwide. Funds raised by March for Babies in New Mexico help support prenatal wellness programs, research grants, newborn intensive care unit (NICU) family support programs and advocacy ef forts for stronger, healthier babies. Anyone wanting to sign up can attend the luncheon where supplies, informa-
Udall, Heinrich: Misconduct forcing more soldiers out Federal drought aid to be expedited Smoke obscures pecan trees as workers burn leaves and debris, cleaning up the orchard, Thursday.
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — New Mexico's two U.S. senators say ranchers will soon be able to sign up for drought disaster aid made available through the federal farm law signed last week.
Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich say the assistance is being expedited. Signups will begin in 60 days.
Across the West, livestock producers have been struggling with several years of drought. In New Mexico, conditions reached unprecedented
levels last year.
The senators say New Mexico's statewide herd size has been reduced by 50 percent as a result of the last few years of drought.
The federal assistance is aimed at helping ranchers who had grazing and livestock losses due to drought. The far m law makes assistance retroactive and renews the disaster aid program for another 10 years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence than on character. Data obtained by The Associated Press shows that the number of officers who left the Army due to misconduct more than tripled in the past three years. The number of enlisted soldiers forced out for drugs, alcohol, crimes and other misconduct shot up from about 5,600 in 2007, as the Iraq war peaked, to more than 11,000 last year. The data reveals stark differences between the military services and underscores the strains that long, repeated deployments to the front lines have had on the Army’s soldiers and their leaders. It also reflects the Army’s rapid growth in the middle part of the decade, and the decisions to relax
standards a bit to bring in and retain tens of thousands of soldiers to fill the ranks as the Pentagon added troops in Iraq and continued the fight in Afghanistan. The Army grew to a peak of about 570,000 soldiers during the height of the wars, and soldiers represented the bulk of the troops on the battlefields compared with the other services. “I wouldn’t say lack of character was tolerated in (war) theater, but the fact of the last 10 or 12 years of repeated deployments, of the high optempo — we might have lost focus on this issue,” Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s top officer, told the AP last week. “Sometimes in the past we’ve overlooked character issues because of competence and commitment.” His comments mirror concer ns aired by Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, several times in recent months. The ethical lapses, Dempsey said, can be
Army vet returns home, starts new career JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
When Derek Swickard was a young soldier, his supervising corporal told him to always remember where he was, where he came from and where he was going. “Life isn’t going to hand you things. You have to get after it and go for it,” Swickard said. “It’s just a matter of setting goals. Nobody gives you anything.” After 21 years in the Ar my — pursuing and
achieving every goal he has set for himself — Swickard has returned to Roswell with his own family to begin a new chapter in his life. While attending local schools, he had always thought about entering the U.S. Army and flying helicopters like his father, Jack. Swickard attended Goddard High School his first few years, but had a chance to spend his final high school year at New Mexico Military Institute, where he graduated. “I had always wanted to
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go to NMMI,” he said. “I finally had the opportunity my senior year. I enjoyed it. It was a little bit unique in that my ‘rat’ year was my senior year. But I chose that and I’m glad I did.”
He debated his choices about college but decided to enlist in the Army. He was sent to basic training
See MARCH, Page A3
attributed in some ways to 10 years at war when the military failed to properly balance character and competence. “It is not the war that has caused this,” Dempsey said. “It is the pace, and our failure to understand that at that pace, we were neglecting the tools that manage us as a profession over time.”
Over the past year, a series of high profile scandals — from sexual assault and damaging leadership to mistreatment of the enemy and unauthorized spending — has dogged the military, leading to broad ethics reviews and new personnel policies.
Those scandals included the demotion of Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward for lavish, unauthorized spending; sexual misconduct charges against Brig. Gen. Jef frey Sinclair; and episodes of gambling and drinking by other general officers.
at Fort Sill, Okla., and from there his first assignment was in air defense artillery at Fort Campbell, Ky. It was there that Swickard first applied for helicopter flight school but was turned down, possibly he thinks for lack of education. See SWICKARD, Page A3
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGES A8 & A9 • LARRY MICHAEL • DEKKA RUTH CLEM • GLEN RAYMOND HOUSE MILLER PAYNE • HARRY BOGGS • KENT VERNON SCOTT • MICHAEL LA BELLA • PORFIRIO JIMENEZ • C.L. FAUBUS SR. • VELMA LEE KERR
Swickard
CLASSIFIEDS ..........D1 COMICS .................C5 ENTERTAINMENT .....C2 FEATURE ................B9
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2 HOROSCOPES .........D6 LOTTERIES .............A2 OPINION .................A5
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ............A10
WORLD ..................A8