Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 122, No. 111 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
‘Y&R’ STAR DIES AT 84
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jeanne Cooper, the enduring soap opera star who played grande dame Katherine Chancellor for nearly four decades on “The Young and the Restless,” has died. She was 84. Cooper died Wednesday morning in her sleep, her son the actor Corbin Bernsen wrote on Facebook. The family confirmed the death ... - PAGE B5
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
May 9, 2013
Legislators receive pensions, no salary
SANTA FE (AP) — Voters booted Republican Dan Foley from of fice after a decade in the New Mexico Legislature, and within months he began collecting taxpayer-financed pension benefits — even though he was only 39 years old. By the time he turns 67 and qualifies for full Social Security benefits, Foley will have received nearly $450,000 in pension payments in exchange for the $5,000 he contributed to the plan while serving in the state House of Representatives. New Mexico’s unique and generous legislative retire-
THURSDAY
www.rdrnews.com
ment program has raised questions as lawmakers have trimmed pension benefits for some government workers, yet resisted scaling back their own program. “Pensions are for people when you are old and are not able to ear n a living anymore,” said former Rep. Dennis Kintigh, a Roswell Republican who pushed unsuccessfully last year to establish a minimum retirement age of 62 for legislators. New Mexico is the only state in the nation where lawmakers don’t receive a salary, but collect a pen-
sion. Supporters say the pension partly compensates lawmakers for their unsalaried work and offers a financial incentive for legislators to leave of fice rather than cling to power as career politicians. The job is supposed to be part time, but lawmakers regularly devote long hours to their duties attending legislative sessions and committee meetings. Legislators can receive retirement benefits at any age after leaving office provided they’ve served 10 years. That allowed Foley to begin collecting retirement checks in 2009 even
though he was in the prime of his life. “At the end of the day, we paid money into it. It was a retirement plan that was available,” said Foley, a Rio Rancho insurance agent who represented a Roswellarea district. “We signed up for and took advantage of the opportunity that was there for it.” The Legislature’s pension plan differs significantly from what’s offered to other public employees in New Mexico. No teacher or state workSee PENSIONS, Page A3
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
• Police seek Smith • Vets’ transport back on the road • Old Timers kick off Party for 1st time • Whimsical UFO crash • Willis, Engelhard win district titles
INSIDE SPORTS
Amy Vogelsang Photo
Eli Lynn, far right, holds his first-place trophy while runners up Remington Hunter and Hunter Irvin, center, proudly display their second-place trophies and Brisa Pacheco takes third at the East Grand Plains Elementary School talent show, Wednesday.
EGP kiddos just loaded with talent AMY VOGELSANG RECORD STAFF WRITER
In a display of various talents, 50 students at East Grand Plains Elementary School per for med Wednesday morning for teachers, parents and fellow students in their school’s talent show.
FIRST-ROUND LOSS
ALBUQUERQUE — There are plenty of things that make sports great, but there are also things that make it less enjoyable. One of those latter things is how fans and athletes have a tendency to focus on the end result, rather than the entire body of work. Doing that is an injustice to everyone involved, and that is especially true in the case of Goddard freshman Brittany Maidment. Yes, Maidment fell in the first round of the girls singles tournament at the NMAA Class 4A State ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S • • • • •
OBITUARIES
Bob R. Lamontine Diana Sue Shull Emilia B. Martinez Barbara Reinhardt Robert H. Mulkerink - PAGE B5
HIGH ...80˚ LOW ....56˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B3 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
This year’s contestants had to go through an audition process. Around 45 acts tried out, and after scoring at least 14 out of 20 points from a rubric, 20 were chosen for the final production. From dancing and singing to tumbling acts, the kids demonstrated a variety of talents. Adults
were instantly in love with Maya Campazano who sang “Hopelessly Devoted for You,” while even dressing the part in a red poodle skirt and sweater like Olivia NewtonJohn. And the audience was brought to laughter when Adam McClelland gave Donald Duck a
AP Photo
Former Republican New Mexico lawmaker Dan Foley attends a press conference in Santa Fe, January 2004.
Feds nab 22 in NM-Tex drug sweep
ANTHONY (AP) — Twentytwo people were arrested on drug traf ficking and other charges Wednesday during an early morning border town roundup that woke residents with the sounds of helicopters, bangs and screaming. “At 5 a.m. we heard a big boom,” said Angie Marquez, 19, who lives across the street and three doors down from a home that had its front door busted in. “It was really loud. My mom was the one who told me to get up because there were a lot of cops.” Another neighbor, Aurelia Morales, 49, said she saw four helicopters circling overhead. At an afternoon news conference in nearby Las Cruces, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Terry Wade said 29 people were charged in 13 criminal complaints with distributing cocaine, heroin,
Wyo. Senator: Bill protects states’ cash from feds
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming’s senior U.S. senator said he plans to unveil legislation today that would allow states to collect royalties directly from companies that produce minerals from federal lands. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his bill would not only block the federal government from cutting the mineral payments states receive, but it
also would allow states to avoid a 2 percent federal collection fee. The U.S. Department of Interior recently informed 35 states that it would cut their share of royalties from the sale of minerals on federal lands by just over 5 percent this year. The federal agency said the $110 million in cuts were necessary under recent mandatory federal budget reductions.
As the nation’s leading coal-producing state, Wyoming stands to take the biggest hit: losing more than $50 million in federal mineral royalty payments this year. New Mexico is second, facing a loss of about $25 million. Enzi said he takes the position that the federal mineral royalty payments are legally state money that never should have been subject to federal cuts. He
See EGP, Page A3
said he’s working to round up co-sponsors for the bill. “I thought the law was very clear to begin with,” Enzi said of his position that the royalty payments to the states should be offlimits. However, he said the federal officials are being as “liberal as they possibly can,” in applying the budget cuts to a range of federal programs. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., questioned Interior Secre-
See FEDS, Page A3
tary Sally Jewell about the cuts at a hearing Tuesday, telling her that he also regards the royalty payments as state money. Udall said New Mexico state of ficials are upset about the loss of funding that goes to the state’s education system. Jewell responded that her agency didn’t have any choice in the spending cuts under
Senate rejects firearms Former US official describes attack on more federal lands
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate rejected an effort Wednesday to expand the use of firearms on some of the nation’s most frequently visited federal lands, handing gun control advocates a modest success. The measure, backed by the National Rifle Association, represented one of two efforts Wednesday by gun rights supporters to take the offensive in Congress. Across the Capitol, a Republican-run House committee voted to make it easier for some veterans with mental difficulties to get firearms. The rejected Senate proposal would have let people use guns for any legal purpose on lands managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees nearly 12 million acres that abound in lakes, rivers,
campsites and hiking trails. Currently, guns on those properties are limited to activities like target-range shooting and hunting, and weapons must be unloaded while being carried to those activities. Senators voted 56-43 for the proposal by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., but it fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage. Eleven Democrats and one Democratic-leaning independent voted for Coburn’s plan, underscoring the party’s divisions on the gun issue. Those voting for Coburn’s proposal included all four Democrats who opposed the bipartisan bill expanding required federal background checks to more gun buyers that the Senate See GUNS, Page A2
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former top diplomat in Libya on Wednesday delivered a riveting minute-by-minute account of the chaotic events during the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi last September, with a 2 a.m. call from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and confusion about the fate of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. In a slow, halting and sometimes emotional voice, Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission who was in T ripoli, described for a House committee how a routine day on Sept. 11, 2012, quickly devolved as insurgents launched two nighttime attacks on the facility in eastern Libya, killing Stevens and three other
See CASH, Page A3
AP Photo
Gregory Hicks, former deputy chief of mission in Libya, testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing on the deadly assault of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi in Washington, Wednesday.
Americans.
The hours-long hearing produced no major revelation while reviving disputes over the widely debunked comments made by U.N. Ambassa-
dor Susan Rice five days after the attacks and the inability of the U.S. military to respond quickly. The session exposed See LIBYA, Page A2