Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 120, No. 250 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
October 18, 2011
TUESDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Strong Sunshine Laws help fight corruption JULIA BERGMAN RECORD STAFF WRITER
SANTA FE WOMAN’S PASSION FOR FASHION
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Corruption levels decrease and the probability of corrupt acts being detected increases in states that have a strong Sunshine Law, otherwise known as an open record law, according to a research paper entitled, Sunshine as Disinfectant: The Effect of State Freedom of Information Act Laws on Public Corruption, which
was published on the Social Science Research Network on Aug 2. The authors of the paper, Patrick Warren, assistant professor in the Economic Department at Clemson University, and Adriana Cordis, assistant professor of Economics at University of South Carolina Upstate, evaluated the impact of switching from a weak to a strong state-level Freedom of Information Act law, in regard to the prosecution of
state and local officials by the Department of Justice. New Mexico was one of twelve states listed as switching from a weak to a strong FOIA law between 1986 and 2009.
According to the paper, corruption was measured, “using annual state-level data for 1986-2009 reported by TRACfed, which compiles information on corruption convictions from the Department of Justice Public Integrity Section.”
Cordis and Warren spent six months researching FOIA laws in all 50 states. Each state was scored based on the strength of its FOIA law. Warren emphasized that he and Cordis evaluated the strength of FOIA as it is written in each state’s law, rather than how it is practiced in each state.
Twelve different criteria were used to assess each state’s score including whether or not a state had
David Vega receives sentence
SANTA FE (AP) — She’s strong, fantastic and independent. She’s an unconventional businesswoman with an artistic spirit. She’s ageless. She may be 70, but she feels 20. She has carved out a niche for herself, and she’s really in her groove. - PAGE A2
WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
INSIDE SPORTS
Jessica Palmer Photo
Westlake sets up Zombie zone
Roswell’s Zombie Central conveniently located at Westlake Hardware in the 2800 block of North Main Street.
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Westlake T ruValue Hardware, 2810 N. Main St., has gotten into the spirit of All Hallow’s Eve season, by setting up a Zombie-friendly zone, with products to help them deal
RACING WORLD MOURNS WHELDON
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Race car drivers always know the worst can happen whenever they get behind the wheel. On Sunday, it happened to one of IndyCar’s biggest and most popular stars. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • • • • • • •
Lonnie Ray Tidwell Ray Hall Dan Jacobs Fred Vanover Gregory Salas Melvin Jenkins Paul Perkins - PAGE A7
HIGH ...68˚ LOW ....43˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
See LAWS, Page A3
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
TOP 5 • Buddy Walk raises awareness • Fun in the Pumpkin patch • Orozco, the only woman to achieve Capt. rank • You can’t see me! • Broncos never say die in 46-42 win
a provision for criminal penalties for an agency’s noncompliance with its disclosure obligation, a provision for the award of attorneys’ fees and costs to a successful plaintif f in a public records case, and the required time to respond to a request for access to public record. A point was given for each criteria a state met. States that scored above
with their most immediate needs. The campaign was initiated in September with a website at: westlakehardware.com /zombies. Store manager Scott Simons said, “This is turning into a bit of a phenomenon. The first
time I visited the site we had 4,000 followers. Two hours later we had 5,000 and by the next day, we had 10,000. The store offers everything for the living impaired from nuts, screws and bolts for bro-
Judge Charles C. Currier sentenced David Vega, 48, to two consecutive life sentences for the murder of his son, Christopher Vega, 25, and his son’s girlfriend, Michelle (Alisa Michelle) Montgomery, 31, on May 10, 2010, at 1007 Rancho Road after a day of domestic disputes. Life sentences usually carry a 30year minimum before the convict is considered for parole. Two consecutive sentences means 60 years. Currier estimated that Vega would be 108 years old before he would be eligible for parole. Vega was found guilty on Aug. 21 by the jury not only on two counts of firstdegree murder, but also on three charges of the attempted murder of Ted Sandoval, Doyle Baker and Keith Rightsell, Roswell police of ficers wounded in the shootout that followed. Defense attorney Jesse Cosby spoke passionately for his client, saying “I don’t like to speak badly about the victims.” Then he proceeded to repeat elements of his defense before the jury,
Occupy protesters Local law enforcement movement grows to hold Drug Take Back ATLANTA (AP) — Jason Woody immediately recognized a shared struggle with many of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators: The 2007 college graduate has been out of work for two years, and it’s been longer since he’s seen a doctor. He also noticed something else — the lack of brown faces on the front lines of the Occupy movement. “When I started out here ... I realized there was not a lot of diversity out here,” said Woody, who is black and graduated from Morehouse College and has camped in a downtown Atlanta park with other protesters for more than a week. “It’s changed in the course of the past week. I’d like to see that grow.” The outcry against the
nation’s financial institutions that has swept the country in recent weeks has crossed many boundaries, including class, gender and age. But a stubborn hurdle in many cities has been a lack of racial inclusion, something noted by organizers and participants alike. “We, the 99 percent, have to be reaching out to the cross section of the communities that we live in,” said Tim Franzen, one of the organizers of the Occupy Atlanta movement. “If you come down to the park and spend a day I think you might have a hard time saying this is an all-white movement. We are reaching out, but we’ve got some bridges to build.”
See ZOMBIE, Page A3
See VEGA Page A3
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
On Saturday, Oct. 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Roswell Police Department, Chaves County Sheriff’s Office and Neighborhood Watch, along with the Drug Enforcement Administration will hold the second “Drug Take Back” day. People are invited to bring their old unused prescription medications to the old Conoco Building, 426 N. Main, across the street from the District Court Building at the corner of Fifth and Main streets. Courtesy Photo Last April, Americans tur ned in 376,593 The prescription drugs collected last year totalled 90 pounds according to Chaves County Sheriff Office estimates; however, the DEA estimates that Roswell conSee DRUGS, Page A3 tributed 100 pounds to the local district totals.
Branson and NM officials dedicate space terminal See OCCUPY, Page A3
CLASSIFIEDS..........B3 COMICS.................B7 FINANCIAL .............B6 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
AP Photo
Guests stand outside the new Spaceport America hangar Monday, in Upham, N.M.
UPHAM, N.M. (AP) — With his usual flare, British billionaire Richard Branson rappelled from a balcony, shook up a big bottle of champagne and took a swig while christening the world’s first built-fromscratch commercial spaceport on Monday. Branson’s Virgin Galactic will stage its commercial space tourism venture from Spaceport America in a remote patch of desert in southern New Mexico. Branson was joined by Gov. Susana Martinez, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and scores of would-be space
travelers at the terminalhangar for the dedication. It had been nearly a year since Branson was in New Mexico to celebrate the completion of the runway. “The building is absolutely magnificent,” he said. “It is literally out of this world, and that’s what we were aiming at creating.” With the spaceport and mothership completed, the company is now finalizing its rocket tests. “We’re ticking the final boxes on the way to space,” Branson said. He hopes enough powered test flights of Virgin
Galactic’s sleek spacecraft can be done by the end of 2012 to start commercial suborbital flights from the spaceport soon after. More than 450 people have purchased tickets to fly with Virgin Galactic. About 150 of them attended the ceremony. Before getting to enter the hangar, the crowd was treated to a flyover by WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership that one day will help take space tourists on suborbital flights. The $209 million taxpaySee TERMINAL, Page A3