Roswell Daily Record
Congress rushes to finish bills THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 119, No. 302 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
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MADOFF’S VICTIMS TO GET $7.2B
December 18, 2010
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Rushing to finish by Christmas, congressional Democrats worked Friday to secure Senate ratification of a new arms control treaty and to end the military’s ban on openly gay service members as they neared the end of two tumultuous years of single-party government. Legislation to keep the federal government running until mid- to late February was also on the agenda, a matter for negotiations with emboldened Republicans who will take control of the House and add to their numbers in the Sen-
ate come January. President Barack Obama seized one legislative triumph in the lame-duck session as Congress voted early Friday to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits. He was looking for several more on his wish list — the arms control treaty and repeal of the military gay ban — to close out a politically tough year. But the fate of those items were less certain as hard feelings lingered in the Senate. “This body operates in an environment of cooperation and comi-
ty. That very much is not in existence today,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Angering Republicans was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s addition of two issues long considered done — whether to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays in the military and a bill granting a path to legal status for foreign-born youngsters brought to this country illegally. Both bills are crucial for the party’s liberal base but left Republicans crying partisanship. Sen. Bob Corker, R-T enn., hinted
NEW YORK (AP) — Many of Bernard Madoff’s victims who thought they lost everything could get at least half their money back after the widow of a Florida philanthropist agreed Friday to return a staggering $7.2 billion that her husband reaped from the giant Ponzi scheme. - PAGE A5
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Students re-enact nativity scene Children at Valley Christian Academy re-enact Las Posadas, a Latin American Christmas living nativity celebration, Friday morning.
JONATHAN ENTZMINGER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Valley Christian Academy students re-enacted the nativity scene on Friday by performing a posada. “There’s so much more to (Christmas) when you re-enact it,” said Sally Green, principal of Valley Christian Academy’s elementary campus. “We still stick
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EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
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to the fact that the true meaning of Christmas is the birth of Christ.” The posada was organized by Shelly Rubinstein and Amanda Zamora, K-5 kindergarten teachers at VCA. The school’s 97 K-4 through fourth grade students participated in the re-enactment. Students sang traditional Christmas songs and wore angel, king, sheep, shepherd and wise men
costumes. The posada included a live 30-year -old donkey, Zeb, owned by Ray and Karen Melton of Roswell. “Most of the time, school kids get to dress up for halloween,” Rubinstein said. “I like to see the kids dress up and re-enact a historical event and get a glimpse of the pathos of Mary and Joseph’s See NATIVITY, Page A6
The Roswell Police Department has received the drug test results for the 2-year-old child who was left in a vehicle for more than 20 minutes in 38-degree weather. The child tested positive for methamphetamine and cocaine. The mother, Veronica Meraz, 19, was arrested on Nov. 29 after her toddler was left unattended in a car with possible drug paraphernalia within the child’s reach. An anonymous caller reported the child inside the car, which was parked outside an apartment complex at 105 S. Ohio Ave. “The child was crying, upset and the big thing that caught the officers’ attention was that the child was playing with a digital scale, which we see commonly used to weigh narcotics,” said Travis Holley, RPD spokesman. A search of the vehicle revealed a digital scale with a white, powdery residue, two baggies, also with white, powdery residue and a small bag of marijuana. “The scale that the child was playing with was found to have a white, powdery residue,” Holley said. Officers took custody of the child and the Children, Youth and FamiSee CHILD, Page A6
Sherwood and his four kidneys celebrate with cake
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Child tests positive for drugs
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JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
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strongly that bringing them up again could undercut support for the arms control treaty, which the Senate debated on Friday. “It poisons the well on this debate on something that’s very, very important,” Corker said. The U.S.-Russian treaty to cap nuclear warheads for both countries and resume weapons inspections is Obama’s top foreign policy priority. The pact, known as New STAR T, requires support of twothirds of the Senate. All 58 sena-
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Thomas Sherwood receives a plaque celebrating 27 years of dialysis treatment at Southeastern New Mexico Kidney Center, Friday.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the past two and a half decades, Thomas Sherwood has put a needle in his upper right ar m and slept for four hours while a kidney dialysis machine pumps clean blood into his veins. This Friday, he woke up from his session to a party being thrown in his honor. The Southeastern New Mexico Kidney Center celebrated Sherwood’s 27th year of receiving dialysis at the Roswell station operated by Fresenius Medical Care. The 55-year -old was feted with chocolate cake and non-alcoholic drinks, plus a plaque and a gold medal, in the office lobby. “I was totally shocked,” Sherwood said, who was all smiles.
The manager of the care center, Fidelia Montanez, said that each day is a cause for celebration for people whose kidneys have failed, and that the center tries to celebrate each patient who has had more than 25 years of dialysis. Sherwood’s anniversary is extraordinary, she said, given the longevity of his treatment for his end-stage renal disease. “It proves that patients can live a long life,” Montanez said. “We’re very proud to have him because he’s been an excellent patient.” Sherwood, who was born and raised in Dexter, first became sick in 1977. The doctors in Dexter initially misdiagnosed him as a diabetic. It was only until he sought out a specialist in Roswell that he discovered he had rheumatic fever, which eventually
affected his kidneys. The former farmer has had two kidney transplants since then. He currently has four kidneys in his body: two of his own, one from his older brother and the other from a deceased organ donor. The two donor kidneys are located on the front side of his body, just above the hip bone and below his appendix. None of the kidneys are fully functioning. He was on a transplant list for a hospital in Albuquerque, and recently received two phone calls telling him there was a kidney there waiting for him for renal transplantation. But since the city is about three hours away from Roswell, he couldn’t make it in time. A donated kidney is only See SHERWOOD, Page A6
Carrillo serves fellow veterans from behind the wheel EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
When Frank Carrillo enlisted in the U.S. Army two days after he graduated high school in 1970, he signed up to be a truck driver. He was flown to Vietnam instead. “I found out after training that that’s not how the Army works,” he said, chuckling at his own 19-year-old naivety. “You don’t always get what you want in the military.” It is only now, 40 years later, that Carrillo finally broke into the transportation business. And the tattooed veteran with a white beard down to his chest is driving cargo that is close to his heart — fellow veterans. Carrillo, the sergeant-at-arms and life member of Vietnam Veterans of America Post No. 968 in Roswell, has helped his brothers of war get to and from VA hospitals in Albuquerque, Artesia, and Amarillo, among others, free of charge for the past five years. It is the only free transporta-
tion service for veterans in southeastern New Mexico. The operation, originally called “Veterans Helping Veterans,” began in 2005 with Carrillo and six other veterans. In the beginning, all they had was $35 and their own vans. The founding president of the group, Frank Ramirez, said the need for transportation from Roswell was so great, they made about 10 to 12 runs a week, totalling to 1,200-1,400 trips in the first nine months. “We were very, very busy then,” Ramirez said. “It was a very much needed service here.” After the group garnered popularity and media attention, the veterans received financial help from organizations like the VA, New Mexico VetSee CARRILLO, Page A6
Mark Wilson Photo
In this Record file photo, Frank Carillo rides a 2006 Harley Deluxe with the Vietnam Veterans of America, Roswell Chapter, motorcycle group.