Roswell Daily Record
Political leaders feeling the heat
Vol. 119, No. 312 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
ATTACK OVER CARTOONS THWARTED COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Police in Denmark and Sweden said they thwarted a terrorist attack possibly hours before it was to begin Wednesday arresting five men they say planned to shoot as ... - PAGE A7
TOP 5 WEB
For The Last 24 Hours
• Gonzales set to hold New Year’s Day celebration • Man arrested by task force • E-mails, letters favor pardon for Billy the Kid • Larceny reported • Passengers still stranded; NY digging out
INSIDE SPORTS
ROCKETS SOAR PAST PANTHERS
When a coach talks about playing aggressive basketball, he’s usually talking about defense. For the Goddard boys basketball team, coach Kevin Jones wanted his team to play aggressively at both ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • • • •
Sarah Houston Stuart “Dale” Karnes Virginia Marsh Clovis Drake Busselle
- PAGE A3
NEW YORK (AP) — With many streets still unplowed, New Yorkers are griping that their billionaire mayor is out of touch and has failed at the basic task of keeping the city running, while New Jersey’s governor is taking heat for vacationing at Disney World during the crisis. The fallout against two politicians who style themselves as take-charge guys is building in the aftermath of the Christmas-weekend blizzard that clobbered the Northeast, with at least one New Jersey newspaperman noting Gov. Chris Christie’s absence in a column headlined: “Is Sunday’s storm Christie’s Katrina?” Across New York, complaints have mounted about unplowed streets, stuck ambulances and outer -borough neighborhoods neglected by the Bloomberg administration. “When he says New York, he means Manhattan,” said Hayden Hunt of Brooklyn, a borough of 2.6 million people where many streets were not cleared for days. “He’s the man in charge. ... It’s foolishness, come on.” Bloomberg, a third-term Republican-turned-independent who is occasionally mentioned as a long-shot presidential candidate,
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
THURSDAY
www.roswell-record.com
Cars are stuck on unplowed 56th Street in the Boro Park neighborhood of the Brooklyn Borough of New York, Wednesday.
spent the first day after the stor m on the defensive, testily dismissing complaints and insisting the cleanup of the 2-foot snowfall was going fine. But he later adopted a more conciliatory tone. On Wednesday, as stories began to sur face about people who may have suf-
fered serious medical problems while waiting for ambulances, the mayor was his most apologetic, without actually apologizing. “We did not do as good a job as we wanted to do or as the city has a right to expect, and there’s no question — we are an
Cons are usually played out on TV sitcoms like cable channel TNT’s critically-acclaimed Leverage. The Attorney General’s Of fice of Gary King released a statement Monday war ning consumers about a Goodwill Industries of New Mexico and Salvation Ar my sweepstakes scam making its r ounds. Accor ding to King’s deputy director of communications, L ynn Southard, some are calling it the “grandpar ents” scam. Her e’s how it works: Unsuspecting seniors receive a call from a scammer posing as a representative for Goodwill Indus-
tries or The Salvation Army. Callers are told that they have won $800,000, but must pay an $800 fee to claim their winnings. A consumer in Indiana who witnessed the scam, told the scam artists that she could not afford the $800 fee, so they offered her $3,100 of the money up-fr ont. Accor ding to reports, the consumer was an unsuspecting elderly woman who took the $3,100 check to the bank, which happened to be a fake. “They told her that she had won $800,000 from the sweepstakes,” Southard said. “In order to get that money, she was going to have to send them $800. She told them that she didn’t have $800.” This classic con plays
on the good-hearted elderly of the community, who ar e seeking to give to charitable organizations over the holidays. “These ar e [charities] people usually give money to,” Southard said. “We got this infor mation out, because it’s the holidays. Elderly folks that get these sort of calls...seem to be the ones that are hit [with the scam]. The scammers are smart.” If you feel like you have been conned or are a victim of the “grandparents” scam, contact the attorney general’s of fice at (505) 222-5000. The attor ney general’s of fice is also encouraging consumers to file a r eport with their local police department.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first baby boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare Jan. 1, and many fear the program’s obituary will be written before their own. A new Associated PressGfK poll finds that baby boomers believe by a ratio of 2-to-1 they won’t be able to rely on the giant health insurance plan throughout their retirement.
The boomers took a running dive into adolescence and went on to redefine work and family, but getting old is making them nervous. Now, forty-three percent say they don’t expect to be able to depend on Medicare forever, while only 20 percent think their Medicare is secure. The rest have mixed feelings. Yet the survey also shows a surprising willingness
administration that has been built on accountability,” he said. “When it works, it works and we take credit, and when it doesn’t work, we stand up there and say, ‘OK, we did it. We’ll try to find out what went wrong.”’ The city sanitation commissioner promised that
AP Photo
every last street would be plowed by Thursday morning. Christie, meanwhile, has not been heard from publicly since he left New Jersey on vacation with his wife and four children. His spokesman, Michael Drew-
Elderly targeted in scam Tip leads to arrest Jonathan Entzminger Record Staff Writer
Boomers fear outliving Medicare
j.entzminger@roswell-record.com
among adults of all ages to sacrifice to preserve Medicare benefits that most Americans say they deserve after years of paying taxes into the system at work. Take the contentious issue of Medicare’s eligibility age, fixed at 65, while the qualifying age for Social Security is rising gradually to 67. See FEAR Page A2
HIGH ...58˚ LOW ....22˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B5 COMICS.................B3 ENTERTAINMENT.....B5 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B5 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 WORLD .................A7
December 30, 2010
INDEX
AP Photo
In this Dec. 8 file photo, RoxAnne Christley is seen in her home office in Roanoke, Va. Christley, a self-employed businesswoman, is a health adviser to mothers, who are breast-feeding their infants, is on the young end of the Baby Boom, and doesn't believe she'll be able to rely on Medicare when she turns 65.
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Josefina Horton, 30, was apprehended on Monday as a result of a tip to Crime Stoppers. New Mexico State Police asked for information about the suspect in
Josefina Horton/Franco
See HEAT Page A2
an article published in the Daily Record on Dec. 22. Horton (aka Josefina Franco) was wanted in connection with the Sept. 2 stabbing that took place on Railroad Road northeast of Roswell, said Sgt. A.J. Fouratt of the New Mexico State Police. She had been at large for four months. The arrest warrant was issued on Sept. 17 on charges of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. According to the Affidavit for Arrest filed in Chaves County Court,
See TIP Page A2
Local man charged with sexually contacting a minor JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Mercedes Rodriguez, 54, is facing charges on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor. The charges date back to 2004 and the investigation spans two states. The alleged incidents took place in Roswell. The initial reports, though, were taken in Arizona on Sept. 20, 2010. The victim was interviewed by the Phoenix Police Department, Detective Normal Campbell. The charges were filed in Chaves County because Rodriguez still resides in the county, said Lt. Britt Snyder, of the Chaves County Sheriff’s Office. According to transcripts of the interview, the victim was between 10 and 11 years old when the abuse began and 15 at the time of the last incident. “The dates often can be vague when dealing with children. They will often remember it happened during the sum-
Mercedes Rodriguez
mer or in the fall,” said Snyder. Now 18, the victim described a series of incidents of inappropriate contact without penetration, which the subject called “playing.” According to the criminal complaint filed in November, the victim’s testimony was corroborated by her sister who witnessed some of the incidents. The sister said during the inverview that one time when the suspect was “hugging” the victim, “her eyes were pleading for help.” The sister also stated See MAN Page A2