Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 123, No. 293 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
December 6, 2014
Supreme Court to decide dairy hearing fight BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER
A legal move by an environmental group to have a dairy rule-making hearing held in Santa Fe rather than Roswell has sparked a political fight between environmentalists and some local members of the emerging Republican majority in the New Mexico House of Representatives who represent the heart of the state’s dairyland. The legal dispute has
made its way to the New Mexico Supreme Court, which is scheduled to convene Dec. 15 for an expedited hearing to decide the location of the rule-making hearing that had been scheduled to take place in Roswell next Tuesday morning. Local lawmaker Candy Spence Ezzell says the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club is trying to stack the deck against local dairies by requiring area dairy far mers to drive
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three-plus hours each way to attend the hearing in Santa Fe.
“That’s crazy,” said Ezzell, R-Roswell, who is also a Roswell-area cattle rancher. “There’s a hidden agenda there. There’s not a dairy north of Bernalillo.”
The Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club says the dairy rule-making hearing of the Water Quality Control Commission of the New Mexico Environment Department must be held in Santa Fe because of the
hearing’s statewide significance.
“The Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club is concerned that because our Water Quality Act requires WQCC’s rule-making hearings of statewide significance, at least the technical portions, be held in Santa Fe, and the WQCC had scheduled the entire rule-making hearing for Dec. 9-12 in Roswell, any outcomes from the illegal hearings would be null and void, requiring a complete
re-do of the expensive and time-consuming process in Santa Fe,” said Daniel Lorimier, conservation coordinator of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The WQCC in September determined that the hearing on the proposed dairy rule amendments would be held in Roswell. The WQCC said Roswell is the ideal location for the hearing because Roswell, the county seat city of Chaves County, is centrally located
in the heart of the state’s dairy industry and the people who would be most impacted by the proposed dairy amendments.
“We believe a hearing in Roswell will allow the greatest level of participation by those substantially impacted by the proposed amendments,” said Secretary of Environment Ryan Flynn. “Discharges at dairies are localized and impact primarily the dairies themselves
Johnson, academic director of ILEA, succumbs to cancer
See DAIRY, Page A3
Colleagues recall Johnson’s compassion, professionalism BY TIMOTHY P. HOWSARE RECORD EDITOR
Randal Seyler Photos
Members of the Roswell Yucca Karate class get their game faces on for some “Karate Kid” kicks during Thursday’s class for children 3 to 6-year-old. The class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 p.m. at the Yucca Recreation Center. For more photos, visit the Roswell Daily Record Facebook page. Right: Karate instructor Cesar Obesa teaches his students how to block and punch during Thursday’s class for 3- to 6-year-olds at the Yucca Recreation Center in Roswell.
Yucca karate program keeps kids kicking Becker is excited about karate. He just doesn’t have a lot to say. Wearing a black uniform Four -year -old Caleb a tad too big for him and a
BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD CITY EDITOR
white belt, he sits, fidget- Roswell. Finally the anticipation ing, next to his mother while waiting for his class is too much, and Caleb to start at the Yucca Recreation Center in See KARATE, Page A2
The academic director of the Inter national Law Enforcement Academy in Roswell died on Tuesday. Dr. Lili K. Johnson succumbed to cancer in Charlotte, North Carolina. She had worked for BlueLaw International at ILEA since 2012. ILEA in Roswell is one of four international police academies administered by the U.S. Department of State where U.S. law enforcement can instruct local police and criminal prosecutors from participating countries in counterterrorism, narcotics interdiction, detection of fraudulent documents and border control practices. The academies were established in 1995 as a means of bringing together international law enforcement to reduce crime, combat terrorism and share in knowledge and training. Prior to working with BlueLaw at ILEA, Johnson
Johnson
served as associate dean for Public Safety programs at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte and was responsible for instruction in initial and in-service training for public safety disciplines, as well as shared responsibilities for criminal justice and fire protection associate
State sues nursing Next mission for general: Raise funds home chain on care
SANTA FE (AP) — New Mexico’s attorney general on Friday sued one of the nation’s largest nursing home chains over inadequate resident care, alleging that thin staffing made it numerically impossible to provide good care. The novel approach in the lawsuit filed by outgoing Democratic Attorney General Gary King could be applied in other states if it succeeds. It targets seven nursing homes run by Preferred Care Partners Management Group L.P. of Plano, Texas, a privately held company with operations in at least 10 states: Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. “We hope that this action sends a message to nursing homes across the nation that the failure to provide the care that patients need and that homes are paid for will not be tolerated,” the state attor ney general’s office wrote in response to questions from The Associated Press. Under both the company and a previous owner, Cathedral Rock Management L.P., the attor ney
general alleged that the nursing homes profited by skimping on staff “at the expense of the physical well-being of vulnerable nursing home residents.” Preferred Care Management Partners said in a statement that it had not yet seen the complaint, but believed the attorney general is targeting practices at its facilities that date to the time before it bought them. The nursing chain operator is structured as a manager overseeing a series of private partnerships. Its chairman, Thomas Scott, who was named defendant in the lawsuit, is the only listed individual investor in publicly available Medicare data. His company is considered to be the 10th largest nursing home chain in the country. Since 2008, the company’s facilities have collected $229 million in fees — mostly from the state and federal government — for the more than 1 million days residents cumulatively stayed there. To get that money, the nursing homes had to promise to comply with federal and state regulations requiring adequate care.
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TODAY’S FORECAST
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series about Gen. Jerry Childress, former superintendent of NMMI. The second part will appear Sunday. BY JEFF JACKSON RECORD STAFF WRITER
Whether selling doughnuts to make a buck or soliciting for millions of bucks, Jerry Childress always has been able to raise money. After a distinguished military career in which he earned a chestful of medals and awards, Childress launched a tour of fundraising missions at a time he also served as superintendent of New Mexico Military Institute. He estimates his efforts reach well into the millions for causes mostly in Roswell but also at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California. Locally, his volunteer time has benefited programs from the First Tee of the Pecos Valley to hospitals and the United Way. “It makes me feel that I can contribute my time and
• DR. LILI K. JOHNSON
Jeff Jackson Photo
Jerry Childress, left, talks with NMMI college golfer Eddie Geernaert on the driving range at the Institute golf course where the First Tee of the Pecos Valley holds golf clinics for youths. Childress helped found the program 10 years ago and serves as board president.
energy to a project that will affect primarily our youth,” Childress said. “We do that on a yearly basis. My whole motivation is to ensure that the opportunity is available here in Roswell to provide our youth a safe place to go and learn the skills that the First Tee has to offer. “So I get charged up.” The 84-year-old former brigadier general honed his salesmanship while a cadet at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, now VMI, in the early 1950s. “My senior year I became an entrepreneur. I ran a doughnut business,” said
• LARRY TOM HARRIS
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE B4
Childress, who was raised on a farm near Clintwood in southwest Virginia. “Cadets are very hungry when study hall is over at 10 o’clock at night. They were looking for something to eat and it was not exactly legal for me to have a crew of people selling doughnuts through the barracks.” Though he earned money to pay his way through VPI, the staff there wasn’t fooled. “I thought I was getting away with something. (They) could’ve given me enough demerits I’d still be walking tours. But that taught me a lesson in that
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....B6 FINANCIAL ..............B3
See JOHNSON, Page A7
no matter how slick you think you are there are people who know what you’re doing.” Some 50 years later, Childress and Marty, his wife of 58 years next February, developed connections at the highest level in political, social and entertainment worlds as the development director of the Betty Ford rehabilitation clinic in Rancho Mirage, California. The goal was to raise $5 million in two years; by the 22nd month he, working closely with Betty Ford, had $6.5 million in donations to build a renewal center for alcohol and/or drug addicts who needed extensive treatments. Many of those who pledged were also clients of the facility. “One individual that I approached that was recovering, his friend that was in recovery with him gave the first $1 million. I hit him up and he said ‘I’m good for half-million but I want to have tea with Mrs. Ford in her home, can you arrange that?’ I said ‘be prepared.’ I get him over there and get him through all the security and after it was all over I got the half-million. See CHILDRESS, Page A3
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........B6 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8