Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 120, No. 235 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
Germany keeps alive hopes for euro’s future
The vote strengthened Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center -right coalition,
LOS ANGELES (AP) — If you’re worried about a killer asteroid wiping out Earth, NASA has some good news. The space agency said Thursday it has identified more than 90 percent of giant near-Earth asteroids, including ones as big as the one thought to have killed the dinosaurs... - PAGE A6
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BERLIN (AP) — Germany kept alive hopes that the 17-nation euro currency can survive the sprawling debt crisis when lawmakers in Europe’s largest economy voted overwhelmingly on Thursday in favor of expanding the powers of the eurozone’s bailout fund.
NASA IDS 90 PERCENT OF ASTEROIDS
September 30, 2011
which had struggled to win support from a bloc of rebellious members, and could bolster her ability to negotiate new European crisis measures.
While many investors and experts believe new steps will be required in Europe, such as letting Greece write off more of its debt pile, Ger many’s approval of the fund’s new powers and scope was nec-
The state rests its case on Herrera
essary to avoid a new bout of massive market turmoil. “The support of the Bundestag is an important step for stabilizing the eurozone,” Michael Kemmer, head of Germany’s Bank Federation, told the news agency. “With that, they have set a course that leads out of the debt crisis.” The (euro) 440 billion ($600 billion) fund will be
able to buy gover nment bonds and lend money to banks and gover nments before they are in a fullblown crisis, making Europe’s response to market jitters more rapid and pre-emptive.
Germany, which pays the lion’s share of European bailouts, became the 13th member of the eurozone to support the expansion of the rescue fund, the so-
called European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF. Cyprus and Estonia also passed the proposed expansion on Thursday.
Austria’s parliament is widely expected to pass the measure on Friday, the same day Germany’s upper house of parliament is set to finalize Thursday’s vote, while the Netherlands is See EURO, Page A3
‘Let’s do the Wave!’
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
The State rested its case against Israel Herrera, Thursday, after receiving the testimony of two expert witnesses. Herrera is charged with felony murder after the Nov. 22, 2010, shooting of Stephen Foster, 25. Steven P. Guerra, ballistic expert for the Department of Public Safety testified that the lans and grooves found on the spent shell casing found in the front yard at 1104 W. Walnut Street matched those on the rifle located under the residence. The lans and grooves refer to striation marks that appear on a projectile after it has been shot. “There were four lans and four groves with a right hand twist on each,” said Guerra. However, he did qualify his statement saying that many SKS-type rifles have this configuration and only a microscopic test could conSee HERRERA, Page A3
Mark Wilson Photo
Mary Lou Glass decorates the Historical Center for Southeast New Mexico Museum booth in the Agriculture Building at the Eastern New Mexico State Fairgrounds Thursday, preparing for next week’s Eastern New Mexico State Fair.
US-Mexico governors conference languishes GHS SERVES ITS WAY TO A WIN
Most of the time, when a high school volleyball coach is talking about serves after the game, it’s usually a discussion about missed serves. That was not the case on Thursday when Goddard volleyball coach...
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TODAY’S OBITUARIES • • • •
Lois Ann Clements Georgia Ann Watters Clifton Roger Gray Paul Stevens - PAGE A6
ENSENADA, Mexico (AP) — New Mexico is again the only U.S. state that sent its chief executive to an annual conference of governors from the Mexican and U.S. states along the border, fueling questions about whether the 30year-old tradition has lost its way. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer canceled last year’s gathering in Phoenix after Mexico’s border governors boycotted the event because she had just signed a tough law against illegal immigration. The New Mexico governor at the time, Bill Richardson, convened a meeting in
Santa Fe, but he was the only one of four U.S. border governors to show up. Richardson was also the only U.S. governor at the 2009 conference in Monterrey, Mexico. “The governors are in a position to set the agenda for border issues, but they haven’t quite figured out how to do it,” said Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute in Washington. “This could be the one conference a year that everyone who cares about the border has to be at. It hasn’t become that.” Current New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is
the only U.S. governor at the 29th meeting, which began late Wednesday and ends Thursday in the Mexican port city of Ensenada, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of San Diego. Three of Mexico’s six border gover nors attended the opening ceremony at a vineyard in the rustic Valle de Guadalupe region. Brewer backed out Tuesday, depriving the gathering of some potential excitement after last year’s fiasco. Her spokesman, Matthew Benson, said she needed to catch up on state business after a 10-day trip to
Have it ‘your way’ now!
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Mark Wilson Photo
A long line of cars form a traffic jam in the Burger King parking lot as hungry customers slowly proceed through the drive thru Thursday as the restaurant opened for business.
Califor nia Gov. Jerry Brown considered going but is busy in Sacramento reviewing hundreds of bills for his signature, said his spokesman, Gil Duran. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is raising money ahead of Friday’s filing deadline for presidential campaign finance reports. He had fundraisers in Tennessee on Wednesday and in Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia on Thursday. “Conversations about border issues between Texas and other states See CONFERENCE, Page A3
UFO Fest brings attention to local talent and artists JULIA BERGMAN RECORD STAFF WRITER
TODAY’S FORECAST
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China that ended Saturday. The most important item on Brewer’s schedule was a briefing Wednesday on refor ming the state Child Protective Services agency, Benson said. He insisted that last year’s meeting and the Mexican government’s opposition to Arizona’s immigration law played no role in her decision to stay home. “There are a number of other new governors on both sides of the border. She was looking forward to meeting some of those governors and having a chance to sit down with them,” Benson said.
Besides attracting alien enthusiasts from New Mexico to New Zealand, the 2011 UFO Festival also drew attention to a relatively new group of attendees: local artists from Roswell and the surrounding areas, that otherwise go unnoticed. Thirty-two acts were featured at the 2011 festival, most of whom were local performers, according to Greg Neal, co-chair of the UFO Festival. In past years, the festival has garnered talents from all over the country, at a cost upwards of $40,000, without seeing much receptiveness in retur n. “Why spend that kind of money when we have a lot of good local talent,” Neal said. This year’s festival focused on acquiring local musicians, and for the first time, brought in a talent agency, Anderson Model and Talent Agency, based in Amarillo, Texas, due in large part to Neal’s
initiative. With hopes of drawing attention to the wide array of talent in Roswell and the surrounding areas, Neal began approaching various talent agencies in New Mexico and Texas to attend the festival. Pitching the mutual benefit for agency and artist, Neal told them, “You as an agent never get down to the Southwest, conversely we got a lot of unknown talent down here that can’t afford to go to Dallas, and other big cities, to play so it might work both ways,” adding, he wanted to show these agencies and others, “Roswell is more than a place to stop and get gas on the way to Albuquerque.”
With a limited number of venues in the area to perform at, the festival serves as an opportunity for local artists to showcase their talents on a larger scale. Neal says most of the local artists are amateurs and don’t receive the positive notoriety they would like from performing in bars and other small See UFO FEST, Page A3