11-02-11 PAPER

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Roswell Daily Record

Greek govt OKs referendum THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY

Vol. 120, No. 264 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday

INSIDE NEWS

BROWN’S ESTATE STILL NOT SETTLED

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Trustees who say they were unjustly removed from the charitable trust of the late soul singer James Brown urged South Carolina’s Supreme Court on Tuesday to strike down the estate settlement.

- PAGE B7

TOP 5 WEB

For The Past 24 Hours

• Accident results in fatality and injuries • 1 teen killed, 5 others injured in NM rollover • Ruidoso officials declare emergency • Sunset celebrates Red Ribbon Week • Author speaks at Dexter Elem.

INSIDE SPORTS

AP Photo

Protesters dressed as prisoners gather during an event to protest against austerity measures outside the Greek parliament in Athens, Tuesday.

NM to get $13.2M in fed funds

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — gover nment Greece’s spokesman says a marathon Cabinet meeting has concluded with ministers expressing unanimous support for Prime Minister George Papandreou’s surprise decision to call for a referendum on a hard-won European plan to rescue the Greek economy. Ilias Mossialos said early Wednesday that the referendum will be held “as soon as possible” once the basic tenets of the debt agreement have been reached.

TODAY’S OBITUARIES

• James Lodoza • Maria Isabel Rios • Charlotte A. Gwinn • H. Jean Prince • Eloy Gutierrez Torrez • Jim R. Collier • Anonio “Tony” Trujillo • Bill P. Carrigan • Gertrude Newsom - PAGES A8, A9

for a referendum, the ripples reached from Athens, where some of his own lawmakers rebelled against him, to Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average plunged almost 300 points. Papandreou said the Greek people were being called on to deter mine whether or not they wanted the new deal and to remain in the euro currency used by 17 European Union nations. The prime minister See GREEK, Page A3

JULIA BERGMAN RECORD STAFF WRITER

New Mexico will receive nearly $13.2 million in federal funds for programs that help finance creditworthy small businesses and manufacturers. On Oct. 11, Jon Barela, New Mexico Economic Development Department secretary, announced that New Mexico has been approved by the U.S. Department of Treasury to participate in the State Small Business Credit Initiative Program. The Federal Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 provided an allocation of funds to each state in order to provide support to banks, and New Mexico is slated to receive $13,168,350 over the next two

Mark Wilson Photo

A welder works on beams for the second floor of the new Missouri Avenue Elementary School, Tuesday morning.

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — The irrigation season is officially over for thousands of farmers in the heart of New Mexico. Those growing crops in the Middle Rio Grande Valley didn’t have it as bad as farmers in other corners of the parched state, where the irrigation season lasted only a few weeks and wells were the only source of water. Still, farmers in the valley face the same grim prospects heading into next year — forecasts for a dry winter, more limited allotments and legal wrangling. “What we’re going to have to do is manage the water,

whatever we have available to us from the storage and the native flows,” said Subhas Shah, the chief engineer for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. The district had been parceling out water on a rotating schedule since March 1 to ensure its canals would remain wet through Monday, which marked the close of the season. By scheduling the water, Shah said the district was able to bank about 94,000 acre-feet of water at El Vado Reservoir in northern New Mexico. That will help supSee IRRIGATION Page A3

Former NM pension board chair files damage lawsuit

SANTA FE (AP) — A former New Mexico pension fund official on Tuesday sued financial firms, an ex-state investment officer and dozens of others for damages because of an alleged pay-to-play scheme over pension program investments. The lawsuit by Bruce Malott, former chairman of the state Educational Retirement board, is the latest in a series of allegations that politically influenced investments generated large fees for supporters and friends of for mer Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson. Many of the same defendants have been sued in a whistleblower lawsuit by the pension fund’s former chief investment officer. And a state government agency, the State Investment Council, brought a lawsuit earlier this year claiming its former top manager, a financial advisory firm

Autumn leaves

and others improperly steered New Mexico investments to Richardson supporters. Richardson, who served as governor from 2003 through 2010, has not been named as a defendant in the investment lawsuits, including the one brought by Malott. Malott said he brought the lawsuit “to clear my good name ... and discourage this kind of fraud in the future.” Federal investigators have been looking at state investment dealings, and Malott said he has cooperated with them. “Like the citizens of New Mexico, I was victimized by these people. With this lawsuit, I want to hold them accountable,” Malott said in a statement.

Mendoza changes plea, gets 5 years from judge

See PENSION, Page A3

JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER

HIGH ...74˚ LOW ....33˚

TODAY’S FORECAST

CLASSIFIEDS..........B7 COMICS.................B4 ENTERTAINMENT.....B7 FINANCIAL .............B6 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B7 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ............A10

Earlier, Papandreou said the referendum would be on the debt deal, Greece’s European course and its participation in the euro currency used by 17 European Union nations. The Greek government teetered and stock markets around the world plummeted Tuesday after a hardwon European plan to save the Greek economy was suddenly thrown into doubt by the prospect of a public vote. One day after Prime Minister George Papandreou stunned Europe by calling

Putting a school together

Middle Rio Grande irrigation season ends At the beginning of a season, all a coach and team can ask for is a chance to advance at the end of the season. After a convincing threegame victory over Loving on Tuesday, the Dexter girls volleyball team has that chance. Dexter won by ... - PAGE B1

WEDNESDAY

www.rdrnews.com

See FUNDS, Page A3

DEXTER DEFEATS LOVING

November 2, 2011

INDEX

Mark Wilson Photo

Autumn colors are popping up on trees all over town, including this one on Tuesday morning.

Cesar Mendoza, 36, changed his plea to guilty on charges for 21 counts of sexual exploitation of a child in 5th District Court last week. Judge Charles C. Currier sentenced Mendoza to five years in the Department of Corrections on Oct. 28. He received an additional 11 years of probation, but investigating officer Deputy Sgt. Daniel Ornelas said, “He will probably be deported as soon as he gets out of DOC.” Mendoza was arrested in December as a result of an investigation conducted by Chaves County division of New Mexico Task Force Internet Crimes against Children. In April 2010, the Task Force received a tip from another law enforcement agency about activity on Gnutella2 Network and peer-to-peer (P2P). Officials obtained a search warrant for Cable One to gain access to Mendoza’s IP address. Later they received a warrant to search Mendoza’s premises in the 400 block of South Main Street. Detective Jason Tudor and Ornelas found 21 different sexually explicit images, both video and photographic, of male and female children ranging in age from 5 to 13 years old on the suspect’s two computers and several flash drives. During the initial interview, Mendoza admitted to looking for See MENDOZA, Page A2


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