Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 123, No. 64 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
March 14, 2014
Liquor license delayed; e-cigs move ahead JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
The American Legion’s request for a liquor license was pulled from the City Council meeting at the last minute Thursday. The council may reconsider it at its next meeting in April. American Legion Commander Orlando Padilla said he was disappointed. The club is seeking to sell liquor at its location on North Montana Avenue.
Pilot picnic
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“We were prepared to present our case,” Padilla said. “We were surprised it was left off the docket for some reason. Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” The liquor license application was preliminarily approved by the state Alcohol and Gaming Division. To receive final approval, councilors must hold a public meeting and vote in favor of granting the license. Padilla attempted to ask councilors and City Attor-
ney Barbara Patterson the reason why the issue was removed from the meeting’s agenda. “What was explained to me, we’re a quasi-judicial body,” Mayor Dennis Kintigh said. “We must operate differently than a judicial body. We can’t receive any infor mation outside of the hearing. There was a recommendation made by staff that this matter be postponed.” Patterson was asked to remind council how to conduct a public hearing.
She informed the council that councilors cannot take information from outside of the hearing and have contact with anyone related to the issue. She instructed the council not to discuss matters on the agenda with anyone outside of the hearing, in order to “render a fair decision.” “You can’t say, ‘I’m going to vote this way or that way.’ You have to wait until everything is done,” Patterson said. “To be fair to the process, you need to wait and hear the evidence pre-
FRIDAY
sented at the hearing.” In other action, councilors voted to move forward with publishing an amendment to the city’s Clean Air Ordinance, to include banning electronic smoking devices in public places. The move will allow the council to hold a public hearing on the change at its meeting in April. Councilor Steve Henderson, who proposed the change, instructed councilors not to discuss the matter until April.
Military pilots in training load up on a barbecue feast provided by Xcel Energy during the Roswell Economic Development Committee appreciation picnic at AV Flight, Thursday.
Leadership change at WIPP ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — The president of southeastern New Mexico’s troubled nuclear waste dump has been demoted as investigations into a truck fire and radiation release that contaminated 17 workers near completion. Farok Sharif has been replaced by Bob McQuinn as president and project manager of the Nuclear Waste Partnership, said URS Corp., the contractor that runs the underground dump for the U.S. Department of Energy. In a statement Thursday, the company said McQuinn has 35 years of experience in Department of Energy nuclear and high-hazard operations, including six years in charge of nuclear operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sharif has been moved to
a new job overseeing the program to move nuclear waste to other locations while the Waste Isolation Pilot Project is shuttered. He also will work with other Department of Energy sites to develop plans for the temporary storage of their waste, the company said. In an inter nal memo, James Taylor, general manager of global operations for URS, said he also expects to appoint a recovery manager in the next few days. “As I mentioned to the NWP workforce last week, we are committed to retur ning WIPP to safe, compliant operations,” Taylor said. “I am confident these structural realignments will strengthen our recovery efforts.” Donavan Mager, spokesman for the Nuclear Waste Partnership, said
company officials would have no further comment on the job changes. The Waste Isolation Pilot Project is the nation’s only deep underground nuclear waste repository and a cornerstone of the Energy Department’s $5 billion-ayear program for cleaning up waste scattered at federal labs across the country from decades of nuclear bomb making. Waste shipments to the dump were halted after a truck caught fire in the mine Feb. 5. Nine days later, a radiation release shuttered all operations. Seventeen workers tested positive for radiation exposure after the alarm sounded and emergency filtration systems were activated. Crews currently are work-
Henderson then went ahead and discussed the matter.
“This is a fairly easy amendment,” Henderson said. “These e-cigarettes are a different animal. It was felt we needed to amend or adopt an ordi-
Hung jury in homicide trial JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Mark Wilson Photo
“For the new council members, this is the procedure for the publication for the hearing next month, that’s when we have the debate,” Henderson said.
After nearly three hours of deliberation, the jury could reach no verdict in the case of New Mexico v. Joel Cordoba-Lopez on two counts of homicide by vehicle in the deaths of Mandy Miranda and her son, Joe Albaraz III. The verdict was greeted by stunned silence from family members of both the defendant and victims. However, Cordoba-Lopez was found guilty on the charges of knowingly leaving the scene of an accident, resulting in great bodily harm or death, and speeding. The crash occurred on Aug. 5, 2012, around 3:54 a.m. when a 2007 Cadillac Escalade driven by Cordoba-Lopez ran over a blue
See COUNCIL, Page A3
Hyundai Sonata at the intersection of Brasher Road and S.E. Main Street, crushing the two victims. The state rested its case after both defense and prosecution stipulated to accept the results of autopsy findings for the two victims. The autopsy revealed both had suf fered from multiple fractures of ribs and long bones, wounds to several vital organs and major blood vessels, including liver, spleen and kidneys for Miranda and liver for Albaraz. Both had punctured aortas, the main artery leading from the heart. The final ruling from the Office of the Medical Examiner was death by accident. Defense presented its
Overturned Ford
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Mark Wilson Photo
Police respond to an accident in the parking area of the Lions Hondo baseball fields on S. Sunset Avenue, after an unidentified 17-year-old male overturned a Ford Explorer Thursday afternoon. There were no injuries and police are unsure of the cause.
Rudloff apprehended State high-risk health pool rates to increase ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Insurance rates for people covered by New Mexico’s high-risk pool will go up nearly 24 percent, partly because enrollment is shrinking as more previously uninsurable people find coverage through a new health insurance exchange.
Brian Rudloff, 36, was apprehended in the 6800 block of Golder in Odessa, Texas.
He was involved in an incident in Roswell on Monday, where an officer was dragged 30 feet and two patrol units became involved in a crash when they attempted to come to the first officer’s aid.
The officer who was dragged by a vehicle did not sustain severe injuries; neither did the two of ficers involved in the traffic accident.
See WIPP, Page A3
The head of the pool created by the state in 1987 said another reason for the premium increase taking effect July 1 is that the premiums are being brought more in line with those of other insurance products on the market, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Rudloff
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TODAY’S FORECAST
“Once the exchange was fully rolled up and you could see the difference in prices, we were no longer in line with what the market was,”
• ELIZABETH LEE LARA • JOHN “DUKE” PETERSON
said Deborah Armstrong, the pool’s executive director. “This still doesn’t bring us exactly in line, because rating factors (such as age and where the enrollee lives) aren’t exactly the same and the policies aren’t comparable.” Armstrong said the pool’s costs for each person covered are rising because some previously enrolled people have obtained other insurance as a result of the federal health care law. The pool now has 8,300 people enrolled, down from 10,000 before insurers began issuing policies under terms of the law. Those ter ms include requiring insurers to issue policies to anyone, outlawing caps on medical payments
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CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B4
over the life of the insured and prohibiting pricing of insurance based on the customer’s gender or medical condition. The pool is administered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico. Companies that are licensed to sell health insurance in New Mexico are required to help pay the pool’s costs. The pool’s board of directors last set the rates in the middle of 2013, before anyone knew what companies would of fer on the insurance exchanges. New Mexico residents can buy insurance from the pool if they have a qualifying medical condition, such as end-stage renal disease, or they have been denied individual coverage.
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2 HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2 OPINION .................A5
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8 WORLD ..................A4