Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 122, No. 179 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
July 27, 2013
Solis retires from Police Department JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
LINCOLN MEMORIAL VANDALIZED
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Roswell Police Chief Al Solis announced his retirement from the department on Friday. “I talked to the City on Wednesday.” His retirement will take effect on August 31. He is leaving the department for reasons of health. Solis was diagnosed with cancer in 2012. “I know I have cancer; it’s contained, but it’s not going away. I could have months; I could have 10
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“He will be missed. He came in at a pivotal time when our emphasis was on crime. ... he gave consistency and continuity to office.”
years; I could have 20.” However, Solis remains philosophical and looks back upon a long and productive career in law enforcement. He started as a deputy in the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department. In the military, he served with the military police, later moving onto the Army’s investigation
- Mayor Del Jurney
division. He spent 21 years with the U.S. Marshals Service. He was an inspector of the Witness Protection Program. Solis worked his way up the ranks until he became assistant director of the Investigative Services. He oversaw all investigative matters. Solis then was assigned
to be the assistant director of Prisoner Services. In 1987, he was nominated by Sen. Pete Dominici as the presidential marshal for the District of New Mexico. The appointment was confirmed by President Ronald Regan and he served until 1992. When he retired from See SOLIS, Page A3
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Lincoln Memorial was temporarily closed Friday after someone splattered green paint on the statue of the 16th president, though the National Park Service said... - PAGE B3
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INSIDE SPORTS Mark Wilson Photo
Councilor Jason Perry receives a fade haircut from barber John Olivas, a response to Bible school students who raised more than $1,300 in a fundraising effort, during a block party at Tabernacle Baptist Church, Friday evening.
Faith, western ga m e s and he a d sh a v e h i g h l i g h t T B C ’s B i b l e s c h o o l c a r n i v a l
AMY VOGELSANG RECORD STAFF WRITER
BRONCOS DRAFT SMITH ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos drafted Quanterus Smith to replace Elvis Dumervil, yet he just might spend his first month as a pro helping to fill the big cleats of All-Pro pass... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Mary Pauline (Polly) Whiting Cox • Williard Donnie David Parsons - PAGE B3
HIGH ..93˚ LOW ...72˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 ENTERTAINMENT.....A8 FINANCIAL .............B5 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 NATION .................B3 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
Popping balloons with darts, a cupcake walk and jungle gyms: All the games and activities were swarmed with hyped-up
kids with painted faces at Taber nacle Baptist Church’s sixth Vacation Bible School carnival, Friday night. Every year holds a theme, and this year was High Noon on the Pecos —
in other words, cowboys. People were sporting cowboy boots, hats and handkerchiefs, really getting into the theme. Also supporting the western atmosphere, kids were able to ride ponies
and a particularly challenging “bull ring toss” game consisted of swinging a thick rope ring strung up by a thin rope in an attempt to latch it
S e e C A R N I V A L , P a g e A3
US seeks to move No death penalty for 2 Gitmo detainees Snowden, US says WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is planning to transfer two Guantanamo Bay detainees to Algeria, the first movement of terrorist suspects from the prison since the president announced a renewed push to close the contentious military-run facility in Cuba.
The White House said Friday it was starting the transfers as part of President Barack Obama’s goal to close the prison, a campaign promise that has eluded him since he took
office. The move signaled a new push to reduce the population of 166 detainees at the prison, where dozens are on a hunger strike to draw attention to their indefinite detention. The White House said the two detainees will not be identified until after the transfer, which can’t come until after a 30-day waiting period. Administration officials also wouldn’t say what security assurances they had from the Algerian government as part of the arrangement.
WAS H IN GT ON (A P ) — S tr ivin g t o get E d war d Snowden back to America, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has assured the Russian government the U.S. has no plans to seek the death penalty for the former National Security Agency systems analyst. In a letter dated Tuesday, the attorney general said the criminal charges Snowden now faces in this country do not carry the de at h p en alt y an d t h e U.S. will not seek his execu t i on even i f he is charged with additional
Abortion opponents want ban similar to Texas law Solis
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Anti-abortion activists behind new state laws to ban abortions after 20 weeks are taking their fight to the municipal level in New Mexico, turning in more than twice the needed signatures to get such a ban placed on the ballot for Albuquerque’s local elections. Tara Shaver, who helped organize the effort, says Albuquerque is the first city being targeted because it is home to one of the few clinics in the country that offers late-term abortions and because the Democrat-controlled Legislature has failed to seriously consider its requests for restrictions at the state level. The city attorney has said he doubts such a city ordinance could trump the federal law guaranteeing women a right to abortion, and the American Civil Liberties Union has vowed to challenge the ordinance should it pass. “We agree with the Albuquerque city attorney that this proposal is an unconstitutional violation of women’s privacy,” ACLU of New Mexico attorney Alexandra Freedman
serious crimes. Holder’s letter followed news reports that Snowden, who leaked details of top secret U.S. surveillance programs, has filed papers seeking temporary asylu m in R u ssia on grounds that if he were r et u r n ed t o th e Un i ted States he would be tortured and would face the death penalty. S n owd en h as been charged with three offenses in the U.S., including espionage, and could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
See ABORTION, Page A2
The attorney general’s letter was sent to Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov, the Russian minister of justice.
Holder’s letter is part of a campaign by the U.S. government to get Snowden back. When Snowden arrived at Moscow’s international airport a month ago, he was believed to be planning simply to transfer to a flight to Cuba and then to Venezuela to seek asylum. But the U.S. canceled his passp or t , stranding him. Besides ap plyin g for t em p or ar y asylum in Russia, he has said he’d like to visit the countries that offered him p er m an en t asylu m — Ven ez u ela, B olivia an d Nicaragua.
Despite discrimination, WAC Phillips served with pride AMY VOGELSANG RECORD STAFF WRITER
Her white hair thickly curls around her head, and her eyes hide behind large framed glasses as she stares off into space, caught up in memories. For a moment, she isn’t in her room at La Villa, rather, lost somewhere in North Africa, circa 1944 and the Second World War that changed her life. “If I told my kids some of the stuff, they wouldn’t
believe it,” she says. Doris Phillips is 93, and she not only lived through WWII, she participated in it. She grew up in Iowa, but after the Women’s Auxiliary Ar my Corps (WAAC) was created in May 1942, she decided to
check it out. Leaving college with a friend from Kansas, the two set out to Omaha where “they talked us into it,” she chuckled. “I started college, and I thought I didn’t want to be tied down.” So she enlisted and was sent to Fort Des Moines.
It was a regular cavalry fort and the barracks had just previously been used as horse stables. Their training was the same as any Ar my personnel, Phillips says. “We walked the post at midnight when snow was fanny deep, and I think we were supposed to stoke the fires but I didn’t get in on that because I don’t know a thing about those furnaces. So I let some-
See SPOTLIGHT, Page A3
Phillips