Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 123, No. 121 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
May 20, 2014
TUESDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Relatives of Arnett registered to vote at family business BY TIMOTHY P. HOWSARE RECORD EDITOR
Records at the Chaves County Clerk’s office show that the parents of District 1 magistrate judge candidate Bobby Arnett, Eddie and Amy Arnett, in March used the address 227 E. Darby Road in Dexter, which is the location of a large, metal building for the family’s fireworks business, Amy’s Fireworks to register to vote. In April, Bobby Arnett’s sister, Manon, registered to vote at 227 E. Darby Road, according to the Clerk’s Office, which oversees elections in the county. Bobby Ar nett faces
incumbent K.C. Rogers in the June 3 Republican Primary. Early voting began on Saturday. Eddie and Amy Arnett own a house at 7 Stephens Circle, which is of f Mescalero Road in Roswell, according to the Chaves County Assessor’s Office. The house is located in Magistrate District 2. The warehouse-style building with a large “Amy’s Fireworks” sign over the front door is in Magistrate District 1, which covers much of the southern part of the county and the southwest portion of Chaves County that looks like a “dog leg.” The building in Dexter
was closed on Saturday afternoon. A Facebook page for Amy’s Fireworks calls the business a fireworks retailer and gives 1501 E. Second St. as the address. Eddie Arnett said any questions about his and his wife’s voter registration or place of residency would have to be referred to his attor ney, Tandy Hunt. Bobby Arnett said in a written statement, “I understand Keith Bell has chosen sides in the Magistrate Judge election by challenging my parents’ and my sister’s voter regis-
Timothy P. Howsare Photos
Above: A large warehousestyle building in Dexter with signage that states it is part of a business operated by Amy’s Fireworks and Amy’s Tents for Rents. Left: Amy, Eddie and Manon Arnett recently registered to vote at this address, 227 Darby Road, which is in Magistrate District 1. Amy and Eddie Arnett own a house at 7 Stephens Road, which is in District 2, according to county records.
See ARNETT, Page A3
Art comes alive at Dexter High BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Randal Seyler Photo
Dexter High School art student Alizia Villarreal, foreground, created the sculpture named “Ed,” which was the namesake for the recent art display in the school library.
FBI seeking public’s help to identify woman’s body
The FBI and Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety are seeking the public’s help in identifying a woman whose body was found in Shiprock, on Sunday. The body was discovered in a concrete irrigation ditch near Mesa Farm Road at approximately 7:30 p.m. The woman is described as a Native American in her late teens or early 20s, with long black hair and a tattoo of a star on her neck. She was wearing a black T-shirt.
No identification was found on the body, which could have been in the ditch for up to 24 hours. The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Anyone with information about this woman’s identity or who recalls seeing something suspicious in the area is asked to call the Albuquerque FBI at 505-8891300, NNDPS at 505-3681300, or send a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — After a nearly 10-year campaign by environmentalists, hunters and tourism officials to gain wilder ness protection for the Organ Mountains and Desert Peaks in souther n New Mexico, the White House said Monday that President Barack Obama will declare almost 500,000 acres of mountain ranges above the Chihuahan Desert a national monument this week. Supporters hailed Obama’s announcement,
planned for Wednesday, as crucial for preserving important historical, cultural and nature sites while creating new jobs and generating millions of dollars annually in new revenue from tourism and outdoor recreation. Opponents, however, fear the designation will interfere with ranchers’ grazing rights and result in road closures that will impede law enforcement access, making it easier for Mexican drug cartels to open new smuggling routes
HIGH 103 LOW 62
See ART, Page A3
State: 57 nuke containers could be threat ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Los Alamos National Laboratory packed 57 barrels of nuclear waste with a type of kitty litter believed to have caused a radiation leak at the federal government’s troubled nuclear waste dump, posing a potentially “imminent” and “substantial” threat to public health and the environment, New Mexico officials said Monday. State Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn issued a formal order giving the lab two days to submit a plan
for securing the waste containers, many of which are likely stored outdoors on the lab’s northern New Mexico campus or at temporary site in west Texas. The order says 57 barrels of waste were packed with nitrate salts and organic kitty litter, a combination thought to have caused a heat reaction and radiation release that contaminated 22 workers with low levels of radiation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad in February. The kitty litter soaks up
Obama to designate Organ Mountains as landmark
TODAY’S FORECAST
The Dexter High School Library was r ecently transfor med into an art gallery. Students at Dexter High School displayed their artwork during the r ecent semester throughout the school as part of their class requirements. The gr oup’s final art show, featuring their tribal mask sculptures, was displayed in the school library. The students in Charmaine Hall’s art class, mostly fr eshmen and sophomores, were charged with cr eating not only tribal masks, but the artwork had to be a 3-D
sculpture as well. “We wer e working on sculptures with wood and pieces of automobiles,” Hall said. “The students worked in the auto shop and learned how to weld metal armatures for their pieces.” Hall also teaches English and reading at Dexter High, and she has been with the school district for a year, she said. Hall said she wanted her class to get a wide range of art experience in the one-semester class, and she had them work with painting and chalk pastels, as well as sculp-
across the border. “The drug cartels in Juarez are just happier than all get-out because this gives them 500,000 free acres they will be able to drive through,” said Jack LeVick, executive director of the New Mexico Sheriffs’ Association. New Mexico Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, both Democrats, had proposed legislation to protect the region that includes popular hunting areas and features steep rock outcroppings, petroglyphs,
• RUBY LOU WICKERSHAM • WILLIAM “BILL” WELLER • SUSAN ZUMWALT
any liquid before drums of waste are sealed and shipped. Of ficials are investigating whether a switch from non-organic to organic litter is to blame for the leak. According to the order, two of those containers are known to be at WIPP. It doesn’t say where the rest of the barrels are, but Los Alamos was in the process of transferring the last of thousands of barrels of waste from decades of nuclear bomb making to the underground dump when the leak shuttered
the half-mile-deep mine. Some containers were then transferred to temporary storage at a commercial nuclear waste dump in Andrews, Texas. But all shipments were stopped when investigators earlier this month zeroed in on the Los Alamos container as the likely source of the leak. “Based on the evidence presented to NMED, the current handling, storage, treatment and transportation of the hazardous
This
ancient lava flows and sites such as Billy the Kid’s Outlaw Rock, Geronimo’s Cave and the Butterfield Stagecoach T rail. Republican Rep. Steve Pearce, whose congressional district covers the region, meanwhile, had proposed the designation for just 55,000 acres.
AP Photo
undated
photo provided by
Organ Mountains Desert
National
Peaks
Monu-
ment shows the
landscape at the
Organ Mountain
The president will take the action using his authority under the Antiquities Act, administration officials said.
Desert
National
Peaks
Monu-
ment, near Las
See LANDMARK, Page A3
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
See WIPP, Page A3
Cruces. CLASSIFIEDS ..........B5 COMICS .................B4 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B3
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8