Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 121, No. 101 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
April 27, 2012
FRIDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Rebates from health care law will top $1B WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 3 million health insurance policyholders and thousands of employers will share $1.3 billion in rebates this year, thanks to President Barack Obama’s health care law, a nonpartisan research group said Thursday.
The rebates should average $127 for the people who get them, and Democ-
FEDS CRACK DOWN ON BORDER TOWNS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
rats are hoping they’ll send an election-year message that Obama’s much-criticized health care overhaul is starting to pay dividends for consumers. Critics of the law call that wishful thinking.
The law requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they collect on medical care and quality
‘The play’s the thing ...’
More than 3 million individual policyholders will reap rebates of $426 million, averaging $127 apiece.
improvement or return the difference to consumers and employers. Although many large employer plans already meet that standard, it’s the first time the government has imposed such
a requirement on the entire health insurance industry. “This is one of the most tangible benefits of the health reform law that consumers will have seen to date,” said Larry Levitt, an
SUNLAND PARK (AP) — While much of New Mexico is west of the Rio Grande, this dusty enclave of 14,000 residents is the only U.S. city located on the Mexico side of the river, on the same side as — and just across the border fence from — Juarez. - PAGE A8
Still, health insurance is
Bonds get AA ratings
See REBATE, Page A3
JULIA BERGMAN RECORD STAFF WRITER
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
• Club gets new Old Glory, flag etiquette ... • NMMI Ropes emphasizes teamwork • The Rambler shoots in film-friendly Roswell • Cops, schools share info • Bulldogs edge Rockets, 8-6
INSIDE SPORTS
expert on private insurance with the Kaiser Family Foundation, which analyzed industry filings with state health insurance commissioners to produce its report. Kaiser is a nonpartisan information clearinghouse on the nation’s health care system.
Mark Wilson Photo
NMMI cadets let off steam Thursday during the Shakespeare Festival coordinated by the English department in their annual spring event celebrating the life and work of William Shakespeare.
Roswell lear ned of its financial standing and bonding opportunities Thursday evening. Indicating the stature of a third-party verification of Roswell’s financial performance, the city’s bond adviser, Kevin Powers, said, “You have managed through the past three years quite well. Consequently you’ve got an Aa2 rating by Moody’s for your General Operating Bonds, you’ve got an AA rating by S&P on the Gross Receipts Tax Bonds and you’re Aa3 on your utilities. You’re in the AA category on all three of your rated bonded debt, which is excellent.” Powers, of RBC Capital
Ariz. migrant case could German POW’s daughter visits city lead to sweeping changes
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Forget the comparisons, the predecessor and the hype. Andrew Luck can’t wait to start playing football in Indianapolis. Less than 90 minutes after officially becoming Peyton Manning’s successor, Luck promised to do everything he could to turn around a storied franchise that started last year with Super Bowl aspirations and wound up with the No. 1 pick, largely because Manning couldn’t play. At least Indy was lucky enough to get what many expect ... - PAGE B1
NFL DRAFT
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Lena Webb • Virgil Leo Sowell • Emigdio Vargas - PAGE A8
HIGH ...92˚ LOW ....56˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B5 ENTERTAINMENT.....B6 FINANCIAL .............A7 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ......A10 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ............A10 WORLD .................A9
INDEX
PHOENIX (AP) — The United States could see an official about-face in the coming months in how it confronts illegal immigration. Supreme Court justices, weighing arguments over Arizona’s tough immigration law, seemed to find little problem Wednesday with provisions that require police to check the legal status of people they stop for other reasons. Over the past several years, states frustrated with the country’s porous borders have rejected the long-held notion that Washington is responsible for confronting illegal immigration. They passed laws to enable local police to address the problem. If the court upholds those parts of Arizona’s law, the ruling would codify that type of local enforce-
ment and open the door to such tactics in states with similar laws, such as Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah. A federal judge put parts of the Arizona law on hold shortly before they were to take effect in July 2010. Other states followed with similar legislation and — combined with other state immigration laws and an ailing economy — played a part in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants moving elsewhere. Arizona has argued it pays a disproportionate price for illegal immigration because of its 370-mile border with Mexico and its role as the busiest illegal entry point into the country. The Obama administration said the law conflicts
WASHINGTON (AP) — The gover nment said Thursday that 68,000 guns recovered by Mexican authorities in the past five years have been traced back to the United States. The flood of tens of thousands of weapons underscores complaints from Mexico that the U.S. is responsible for arming the drug cartels plaguing its souther n neighbor. Six years of violence between warring cartels have killed more than 47,000 people in Mexico. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firear ms and Explosives released its latest data covering 2007 through 2011. According to ATF, many of the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to ATF for tracing were recovered at the scenes of cartel shootings while others were seized in
raids on illegal ar ms caches. All the recovered weapons were suspected of being used in crimes in Mexico. At an April 2 North American summit in Washington, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the U.S. government has not done enough to stop the flow of assault weapons and other guns from the U.S. to Mexico. Calderon credited President Barack Obama with making an effort to reduce the gun traffic, but said Obama faces “inter nal problems ... from a political point of view.” There is Republican opposition in Congress and broad opposition from Republicans and gunrights advocates elsewhere to a new assault weapons ban or other curbs on gun sales. The Obama adminis-
Mark Wilson Photo
Leoni Jansen, gathering research for a book on her father who spent time as a prisoner of war in Roswell in 1944, gets a view of the Iron Cross at POW/MIA Park, Thursday.
NOAH VERNAU RECORD STAFF WRITER
Dutch singer Leoni Jansen came to Roswell on Thursday to investigate the three months her father spent in the city as
Mexico seized 68,000 US guns since ’06 See SCOTUS, Page A3
tration says it is working to tighten inspections of border checkpoints in the absence of an assault rifle ban that expired before Obama took office. For more than a year, ATF has been reeling from accusations that some of its agents in Arizona were ordered by superiors to step aside rather than intercept illicit loads of weapons headed for Mexico. The Justice Department’s inspector general and Congress have been looking into the Arizona gun probe, Operation Fast and Furious. The issue of gun control legislation hasn’t been part of the Republican-led probe of Fast and Furious by the House Oversight and Government Reform CommitSee GUNS, Page A3
a German POW, stopping at the site where he performed rock work along the banks of the North Spring River in 1944. Jansen’s father was captured by American troops in North Africa during
See BONDS, Page A3
World War II, and was held prisoner for about two years at various locations in the United States. “This is where he worked, on this river,” Jansen said, standing at POW/MIA Park, formerly known as Iron Cross Park. “...I am very sorry that I could not take him to the strip, because that would have relieved a lot of his pain.” After Jansen’s father died in 1999, Jansen was left knowing very little about her father’s experiences during the war. She said he had always told her he was a POW in Mexico, but she later lear ned there were no camps in the country. Jansen says she began to dig deep into her father’s history about six weeks ago, uncovering military See POW, Page A3
Centennial mosaic
Mark Wilson Photo
Nancy Phillips, center, and Siegfried and Valinda Klepp, work on a mosiac celebrating the New Mexico Centennial and history of Roswell in front of Washington Avenue Elementary, Thursday. Fifth-graders at the school designed, drew, lettered and painted the tiles as part of the Legacy Project.