Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 123, No. 82 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
April 4, 2014
High court stays case over state investments
SANTA FE (AP) — New Mexico’s highest court has temporarily put on hold a lawsuit by a state agency seeking to recover money for investment deals it contends were influenced by political considerations during for mer Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration. The move by the Supreme Court came earlier this week at the request of for mer pension fund investment officer Frank Foy, who brought whistle-
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blower lawsuits in 2008 and 2009 alleging a pay-toplay scheme involving state investments. Victor Marshall, Foy’s lawyer, said Thursday that the latest dispute raises open-government questions that go beyond the investment case. He’s asking the high court to take further action, including forcing the State Investment Council to change how it handles settlements with brokers, money managers and other investment officials
sued by the agency in 2011.
Foy went to the Supreme Court after a district court judge in Santa Fe approved settlements of $525,000 reached by the Investment Council with four investment executives, who also are among the defendants in one of Foy’s whistleblower cases. The executives have denied any wrongdoing.
Foy, in his request to the high court, objects to an Investment Council policy
Making way for Family Dollar
that allows a three-person subcommittee to hold closed-door meetings to approve settlements. The settlements don’t have to be voted on publicly by the council if the subcommittee unanimously agrees to the financial deal. “There can be no doubt that many public bodies would love to delegate authority to secret subcommittees which would operate without any notice or records. This delegation maneuver would be a great
Mark Wilson Photo
Demolition work is under way at the sites of the old State Engineer’s building and its next door neighbor, the former Los Rancheros Restaurant, located in the 900 block of East Second, Thursday. A new Family Dollar store will eventually occupy the space.
FRIDAY
convenience to public bodies, as they would no longer have to act in public,” Marshall wrote in Foy’s filing with the Supreme Court. “There are many state agencies and county commissions and city governments and school boards that would love to adopt this tactic, if this court were to allow it.”
mine his efforts on behalf of the state to potentially recover larger amounts for investment losses suffered by the state.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a stay to temporarily block further proceedings in the Investment Council’s lawsuit while it considers Foy’s request.
The Investment Council’s settlements dismiss other legal claims against the executives, and Foy contends that would under-
“We don’t think it’s going to be a significant delay,” said Charles Wollmann, a spokesman for the Investment Council.
CARLSBAD (AP) — Crews investigating a radiation leak from the federal gover nment’s underground nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico hope to make a second trip into the half-mile-deep repository today. The Department of Energy detailed the plans at a community meeting Thursday evening. Of ficials said workers who went into Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on Wednesday to install air monitors and communications equipment found no airbor ne radiation. Today, however, they said workers are prepared to encounter contamination as they make their way further into the mine. If all goes well today, officials say that should set the stage for a third entry, when crews will try to figure out what caused the release.
The waste is stored in huge canisters in rooms carved into the salt of the ancient Permian Sea.
Second trip into WIPP facility expected today
The dump near Carlsbad has been shuttered since mid-February, when the mysterious leak sent low levels of radiation into the air and contaminated 21 workers. The leak occurred nine days after a truck hauling salt in the mine and repository caught fire on Feb. 5. A series of safety shortcomings were cited by a team that investigated the truck fire. But crews had been unable to get underground after the radiation release to find the source of the leak and determine if the incidents are related.
The dump is the federal government’s only permanent repository for waste from decades of nuclear bomb building.
Chief Smith speaks 2 Mexican gray wolf pairs being released with RHS students about leadership
On Tuesday, Roswell Police Department Chief Phil Smith met and spoke with a classroom full of students from Roswell High School. The students actively listened to Smith in his presentation regarding leadership and how teens can help enrich the quality of life within their own homes as well as the community. Part of the students’ assignment was to write what they lear ned from Smith. One student wrote: “I lear ned a lot about how
leadership, success, and culture play a big part and how they are all-some way or another connected to each other. I learned about how certain [characteristic] traits lead up to certain things and how they are important. I also learned that you can do anything if you just try.”
Another student’s response was “I lear ned that leadership is a bigger part of your life than you already think. Leadership plays a big role in someSee SMITH, Page A3
AP Photo
This undated photo provided by Glidden Lopez shows Army Spc. Ivan Lopez. Authorities said Lopez killed three people and wounded 16 others in a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, on Wednesday, before killing himself.
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TODAY’S FORECAST
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Two Mexican gray wolves have been released in southeastern Arizona, but another pair has been removed in New Mexico after roaming too far north, sparking more criticism from environmentalists about the way the wild population is being managed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed expanding the area where the predators are allowed to roam, but it could be months before a final decision is reached. Until then, the agency is required to capture those wolves found outside the nearly 7,000-square-mile wolf-recovery area that straddles the Arizona-New Mexico border.
gray wolves had been documented, said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity.
“This is excellent habitat. It’s remote country, and filled with deer,” he said. “This would have been an opportunity for the population to expand naturally.”
AP Photo
This July 16, 2004, file photo shows a gray wolf at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn.
That was the case with a pair that had traveled north to the El Malpais National Monument and Conservation Area near Grants. They had been in
the area since February before wildlife managers darted and captured them last Friday. This was the farthest north a pair of Mexican
Ranchers and community leaders in rural areas have opposed any plans that would expand the program and the locations where the wolves could be released. They say the wolves threaten the livelihoods and safety of residents who live in areas that border the reintroduction zone.
Argument may have preceded Fort Hood attack
FOR T HOOD, T exas (AP) — The soldier who killed three people at Fort Hood may have argued with another service member prior to the attack, and investigators believe his unstable mental health contributed to the rampage, authorities said Thursday. The base’s senior officer, Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, said ther e is a “str ong possibility” that Spc. Ivan Lopez had a “verbal altercation” with another sol-
• JAMES RICHARD “JIM” PETTY • WELDON WATSON • RITO RICARDO CASTILLO
dier or soldiers immediately before Wednesday’s shooting, which unfolded on the same Ar my post that was the scene of an infamous 2009 mass shooting. However, ther e’s no indication that he targeted specific soldiers, Milley said. Lopez never saw combat during a deployment to Iraq and had shown no apparent risk of violence before the shooting, officials said.
• GERARD ARNOLD NORVE • JACK HOOVER ALDRICH
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
The 34-year -old truck driver from Puerto Rico seemed to have a clean r ecor d that showed no ties to extremist groups. But the Army secretary promised that investigators would keep all avenues open in their inquiry of the soldier whose rampage ended only after he fired a final bullet into his own head. “We’re not making any assumptions by that. We’r e going to keep an open mind and an open
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investigation. We will go where the facts lead us,” Ar my Secr etary John McHugh said, explaining that “possible extremist involvement is still being looked at very, very carefully.”
Investigators were also looking into Lopez’s psychological background. He had sought help for depression, anxiety and other problems, military officials said.
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