Roswell Daily Record
Weather hampers firefighters THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 122, No. 134 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
JAZZ MUSICIAN KILLED IN CAR CRASH
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Musician Ben Tucker performed with stars from Quincy Jones to Peggy Lee before he settled in the 1970s in Savannah, where the jazz bassist became one of the Georgia city’s bestknown working musicians. He was killed in a car crash Tuesday at age 82. - PAGE A8
June 5, 2013
WEDNESDAY
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PECOS (AP) — Two massive columns of smoke hovered over norther n New Mexico on Tuesday as more than 1,100 firefighters worked to build lines across rugged mountainsides and keep flames from pushing closer to summer homes and cabins. Haze from the fires drifted across New Mexico, leading residents to worry that the state might be in for a third consecutive record-breaking fire season. Fire managers and forecasters said conditions are
worse than during previous years. Sparked by a downed power line, the Tres Lagunas Fire north of Pecos was 7 percent contained after charring more than 13 square miles in Santa Fe National Forest. Crews were concentrating efforts on Holy Ghost Canyon, where the flames of an over night spot fire had raced through a few dozen acres. No structures have burned, but an evacuation
AP Photo
This photo released courtesy Zach Bryan shows a massive plume of smoke rising from the Thompson Ridge Fire burning in the Jemez Mountains north of Rio Rancho, on Tuesday.
See FIRES, Page A3
‘COLOR ME DANCE’
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
• Man found shot • Accident on Country Club • NMMI, alumni board face nasty divorce • Nature: beautiful and terrifying • Free legal advice draws crowd
INSIDE SPORTS
Mark Wilson Photo
The Studio Plus youngsters rehearse for their production of Color Me Dance featuring a second act of Cinderella at Pearson Auditorium on the NMMI campus, Friday afternoon. The dance production will feature around 200 entertainers ranging in ages from 3-18 and a wide range of music. Showtimes are set for this Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m and tickets can be obtained at the auditorium.
OSU PRES RETIRES
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State University President Gordon Gee abruptly announced his retirement Tuesday after he came under fire for jokingly referring to “those damn Catholics” at Notre Dame and poking fun at the academic quality of other schools. The remarks were first reported last week by The Associated Press, and Ohio State at the time called them unacceptable and said it had placed Gee on a “remediation plan” to change his behavior. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Donna Jean Fulkerson • Yolanda Duran • Doris Meek - PAGE A6
HIGH ...98˚ LOW ....67˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 ENTERTAINMENT.....A8 FINANCIAL .............B5 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
Drug-scare numbers grow nationally IRS spent
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed 24 patients in four states reported infections after being injected with the medication implicated in a federal investigation and recall. Roswell Family Clinic on North Main Street was the only medical facility to receive the drug in New Mexico and no adverse reactions were reported from clinic patients, officials reported. State health department officials confirmed only 32 patients received a shot of the steroid medication from the suspicious batch, though 53 in all were administered a dose of the drug recently. “The Roswell clinic had two lots of meds from the pharmacy,” said New Mexico Department of Health spokesman David Morgan Tuesday. “Only the one they had administered to the 32 was felt to be contaminated and was part of the recall.” No reports of meningitis or other life-threatening infections were reported. The drug—used to treat inflamma-
tion, asthma, allergic reactions, joint and upper respiratory issues—was produced by Main Street Family Pharmacy in Newbern, Tenn. The company voluntarily issued a recall of its entire stock of sterile products manufactured after Dec. 6, 2012, following initial reports that seven patients suffered skin abscesses at injection sites. Main Street is now undergoing a federal investigation into its manufacturing processes. Main Street spokesman Joe Grillo said the company is doing everything possible to ensure that all potentially affected compounded medicines are recalled and no longer used by consumers or health care providers. “We’re trying to do everything in our power to cooperate,” Grillo told the Record. “It’s still inconclusive according to the FDA.” The 24 patients, in Arkansas, Florida, Illinois and North Carolina, were injected with a compound that included the drug methylprednisolone acetate, the same medication involved in the deaths of more than 55 people last year. However, the medication was not
compounded or distributed by the same manufacturer. The Main Street batch was released to 13 states—Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, California, Louisiana and Alabama. The majority of affected patients developed skin and soft tissue infections at the injection site, according to the CDC. “It’s still inconclusive as to where this medicine is the cause,” Grillo said. “It’s fair to say it’s suspected, but it’s not conclusive.” The suspected batch of medication continues to be located and returned, he said. Any Roswell Family Care patients with concerns can call 575-6225705. The FDA encourages health care providers and consumers to report adverse events or quality problems experienced with the use of any Main Street products to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm
$4.1M on training conference
WASHINGTON (AP) — Already heavily criticized for targeting conservative groups, the Internal Revenue Service absorbed another blow Tuesday as new details emerged about senior officials enjoying luxury hotel rooms, free drinks and free food at a $4.1 million training conference. It was one of many expensive gatherings the agency held for employees over a threeyear period. One top official stayed five nights in a room that regularly goes for $3,500 a night, and another — who was later promoted —
France, Britain confirm use of sarin gas in Syria AP Photo
This Friday, May 3, 2013, citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows an anti-Syrian regime protester holding up an Arabic placard reading, “If America does not know who used the chemical weapons, so it could be flying saucers from another planet,” during a demonstration in Sarmada town, in Idlib province, northern Syria.
See IRS, Page A3
PARIS (AP) — France said Tuesday it has confirmed that the nerve gas sarin was used “multiple times and in a localized way” in Syria, including at least once by the regime. It was the most specific claim by any Western power about chemical weapons attacks in the 27-month-old conflict. Britain later said that tests it conducted on samples taken from Syria also were positive for sarin. The back-to-back announcements left many questions unanswered, highlighting the difficulties of confirming from a distance whether combatants in Syria have crossed the “red line” set by President Barack Obama. The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has refused to allow U.N. investigators into the country. The French and British findings, based on See SYRIA, Page A3