Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 120, No. 311 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
SCULPTURE HONORS N.M. SOLDIER SANTA FE (AP) — The man Santa Fe calls its hometown hero doesn’t get to spend much time here. But Army Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry’s smiling face and outstretched hand will... - PAGE A2
TOP 5 WEB For The Last 24 Hours
•A winter wonderland •NWS predicts cold •New Mexico ski areas welcome winter storms •City’s holiday trash pickup schedule •Another snowstorm to hit N.M.
INSIDE SPORTS
ROMO’S SWELLING SUBSIDING IRVING, Texas (AP) — All the negative tests on quarterback Tony Romo’s bruised throwing hand are positives for the Dallas Cowboys. Coach Jason Garrett said... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Economy to pick up, but still vulnerable
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy will grow faster in 2012 — if it isn’t knocked of f track by upheavals in Europe, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists. Unemployment will barely fall from the current 8.6 percent rate, though, by the time President Barack Obama runs for re-election in November, the economists say. The three dozen private, corporate and academic economists expect the economy to grow 2.4 percent next year. In 2011, it likely grew less than 2 percent. The year is ending on an upswing. The economy has generated at least 100,000 new jobs for five months in a row — the longest such streak since 2006.
TUESDAY
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AP Photo
In this Dec. 14 photo, Nathan Nettler polishes a tank, in Canby, Ore. The number of people
applying for unemployment
lowest level since April
2008. The trend suggests
stopped and hiring could pick up. And the economy avoided a setback when President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday extending a Social Security tax cut that was to expire at year’s end. But Congress could agree only on a two-month extension. The economists surveyed Dec. 14-20 expect the country to create 177,000 jobs a month through Election Day 2012. That would be up from an average 132,000 jobs a month so far in 2011. Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital, says the U.S. economy remains vulnerable to an outside shock. A big threat is the risk that Europe’s debt crisis will trigger a worldwide credit freeze like the one that hit Wall Street
in late 2008. A shock to the U.S. economy, he says, might not be as dangerous if it were growing at a healthier 4 percent to 5 percent annual pace. But when growth is stuck at 2 percent or 3 percent, a major global crisis could stall job creation and raise unemployment. Beyond Europe, troubles in other areas could also upset the U.S. economy next year, the economists say. Congressional gridlock ahead of the 2012 elections and unforeseen global events, like this year’s Arab Spring protests, could slow the U.S. economy. Three economists said rising nuclear tensions with Iran are a concern. Even without an outside jolt, the economists expect
Lunar probes to study gravity field Man in LOS ANGELES (AP) — The moon has come a long way since Galileo first peered at it through a telescope. Unmanned probes have circled around it and landed on its surface. Twelve American astronauts have walked on it. And lunar rocks and soil have been hauled back from it. Despite being well studied, Earth’s closest neighbor remains an enigma. Over the New Year’s weekend, a pair of spacecraft the size of washing machines are set to enter orbit around it in the latest lunar mission. Their job is to measure the uneven gravity field and deter mine what lies beneath — straight down to the core. Since rocketing from the Florida coast in September, the near-identical Grail spacecraft have been independently traveling to their destination and will arrive 24 hours apart. Their paths are right on target, so engineers recently decided not to tweak their positions. “Both spacecraft have per for med essentially flawlessly since launch, but one can never take anything for granted in this business,” said mission chief scientist Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
benefits has dropped to the
The nail-biting part is yet to come. On New Year’s Eve, one of the Grail probes — short for Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory — will fire its engine to slow down so that it could be captured into orbit. This move will be repeated by the other the following day. Engineers said the chances of the probes overshooting are slim since their trajectories have been precise. Getting struck by a cosmic ray may prevent the completion of the engine burn and they won’t get boosted into the right orbit. “I know I’m going to be nervous. I’m definitely a worrywart,” said project manager David Lehman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $496 million, three-month mission. Once in orbit, the spacecraft will spend the next two months flying in for mation and chasing one another around the moon until they are about 35 miles above the surface with an average separation of 124 miles. Data collection won’t begin until March. Previous missions have attempted to measure lunar gravity with mixed success. Grail is the first mission dedicated to this goal. As the probes circle the
Frosty, the alien
OBITUARIES •Dorothy Allman •Shirley Tays •Donohoo Slaughter •Christopher Martinez
- PAGE A7
HIGH ...55˚ LOW ....27˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
INDEX CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 FINANCIAL .............B5 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 NATION .................A7
December 27, 2011
Courtesy Photo
A local family living on the 600 block of Heights Drive took some time out from typical Christmas activities to build an alien snowman, Sunday. The frosty E.T. took almost two hours to build.
that layoffs have all but
known as Grail-A and Grail-B. Several months ago, NASA hosted a contest inviting schools and students to submit new names. The probes will be christened with the winning names after the second orbit insertion, Zuber said.
AP Photo
This undated artist rendering provided by NASA on Dec. 21 shows the twin Grail spacecraft mapping the lunar gravity field.
moon, regional changes in the lunar gravity field will cause them to speed up or slow down. This in turn will change the distance between them. Radio signals transmitted by the spacecraft will measure the slight distance gaps, allowing researchers to map the underlying gravity field. Using the gravity information, scientists can deduce what’s below or at the lunar surface such as mountains and craters and may help explain why the far side of the moon is more rugged than the side that faces Earth. The probes are officially
Besides the one instrument on board, each spacecraft also carries a camera for educational purposes. Run by a company founded by Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, middle school students from participating schools can choose their own lunar targets to image during the mission.
A trip to the moon is typically relatively quick. It took Apollo astronauts three days to get there. Since Grail was launched from a relatively small rocket to save on costs, the jour ney took 3 1/2 months.
Scientists expect the mission to yield a bounty of new information about the moon, but don’t count on the U.S. sending astronauts back anytime soon. The Constellation program was canceled last year by President Barack Obama, who favors landing on an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars.
See ECONOMY, Page A3
Santa suit kills 6, self
GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — Police in a quiet Fort Worth suburb worked Monday to piece together a family history after a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit apparently shot six relatives and himself on Christmas. Grapevine police spokesman Sgt. Robert Eberling said the shooter showed up in the costume shortly before gunfire erupted and that the family appeared to have been opening Christmas presents. Police responding to a 911 call found four females and three males dead. They also found two handguns. “We think he was just inside there celebrating Christmas with the rest of them and decided for whatever reason that’s how he’s going to end things,” Eberling told The Associated Press. Investigators worked through Sunday night and into Monday mor ning, meticulously searching the apartment where the bodies were found, along with vehicles parked outside. Police said they believe the victims were related, though some were visiting and didn’t live in the apartment.
South Korean mourning delegation meets with late Kim Jong Il’s heir
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea’s next leader burnished his diplomatic skills, welcoming a private South Korean mour ning delegation as state media called Kim Jong Un a “sagacious” leader and revealed a new title that gives him authority over political matters. Kim Jong Un has rapidly gained prominence since the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, on Dec. 17, and his brief meeting with a group led by a former South Korean first lady and a prominent business leader shows Seoul that he is assured in his new role. State media have showered Kim with new titles. On Saturday, the North referred to him as “supreme leader” of the 1.2 million-strong armed forces and said the military’s top leaders had pledged their loyalty to him. On Monday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper described him as head of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party — a post that appears to make him the top official in
the ruling party. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency also called Kim Jong Un a “sagacious leader” and “dear” comrade while reporting that he paid respects Monday to his father, whose body is lying in state at Kumsusan Memorial Palace. State media have already dubbed him as a “great successor” and an “outstanding leader.” It was the fourth time the North’s media reported that the younger Kim had visited the memorial palace since his father’s death, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. Also on Monday, a South Korean delegation stood in a line on a red carpet and bowed silently during their visit to the Kumsusan palace, where Kim’s bier is surrounded by flowers and flanked by an honor guard. Kim Jong Un gave the South Koreans his thanks after they expressed condolences and sympathy, KCNA said. Seoul’s Unification Ministry confirmed the
See TEXAS, Page A3
meeting in a statement but didn’t elaborate. The lead delegates were the widow of former South Korean President Kim Daejung, who engineered a “sunshine” engagement policy with the North and held a landmark summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, and Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, whose late husband had ties to the North. Their meeting with Kim Jong Un could be intended to push South Korea to pursue previously agreed upon cooperative projects that would give North Korea much-needed hard currency, said Yang Moojin, a professor at Seoulbased University of North Korean Studies. Footage from AP Television News in North Korea earlier showed the South Koreans being greeted by North Korean officials during a stop at a factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. North Korea sent delegations to See KOREA, Page A3