Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 120, No. 27 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
TUESDAY
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Lawmakers walk out of House hearing MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
NO FORCE AGAINST PROTESTERS
February 1, 2011
A House committee meeting was the site of a partisan altercation on Monday that serves as a reminder of the minority party’s growing voice in the lower house, according to a local representative. Republican lawmakers walked out of the House Energy and Natural Resource Committee’s inaugural meeting of the 60-day session. The event took place after a committee member was told by the Democratic chair man that his questions were out of order. The House Republican caucus
accused the chairman of silencing Rep. Donald Bratton, R-Hobbs, while Chairman Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said he made his comments because Bratton was simply speaking out of turn. The event, in the evenly-divided, six Democrat and six Republican, member committee, highlights the minority party’s ability to have an even voice in committees where Democrats do not hold a solid majority. “Now, what’s radically different is that without all six of the representatives ... there is no quorum and that committee cannot conduct business,” said Rep. Dennis
Kintigh, R-Roswell, who compared the recent event to similar walkouts in recent years when Republicans didn’t hold as many seats in the House. Kintigh, who serves on the House Energy and Natural Resource Committee and took place in the walkout, said the event was not planned. He questioned Egolf’s intentions of the issues hearing after the presenters picked to address the committee spoke favorably of regulations such as the pit rule. Kintigh said he and fellow Republicans questioned the presenters’ qualifications.
“We got a lecture from an ‘expert’ ... (who) proceeded to give us a big lecture on how good the pit rule is,” he said. “When Rep. Don Bratton tried to make a point about this and he was cut of f by the chairman and, you know what, that was it.” According to the House Republican caucus, Bratton responded by saying, “If it’s out of order to question the credentials of a witness, then I’m wasting my time and the people’s money.” However, Egolf defended his actions by saying that Bratton
Hearing held in Vega case
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s military pledged not to fire on protesters in a sign that army support for President Hosni Mubarak may be unraveling on the eve of a major escalation — a push for a million people to take to the streets Tuesday to demand the authoritarian leader’s ouster. - PAGE A2
TOP 5
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
WEB For The Last 24 Hours
• Jerge crowned Miss Roswell 2011 • Rollover • School board elections • Ezzell pushing self-defense bill • Officials receive courthouse dog training
INSIDE SPORTS A newly installed sign on Southeast Main Street incorrectly spells Chaves County as “Chavez County.”
Matthew Arco Photo
Misspelled sign to be corrected MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
DJOKOVIC DOWNS MURRAY MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic gave his old friend Andy Murray a sympathetic hug and a few consoling words, then got on with the real celebrations. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • Mary Jo Lunsford • Sharnene Jay Brooks • Nena Porter • Pamela Harvey • Letha Gonzales • Salvador Barrio Saavedra - PAGE B8
HIGH ...30˚ LOW ....10˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B5 COMICS.................B3 ENTERTAINMENT.....A8 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B5 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 WORLD .................A3
INDEX
See HEARING, Page A6
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, but to the county’s namesake this one is unkind. Do this, misspell that, can’t you read the sign? Local state Department of Transportation of ficials say a newly installed directional sign containing a typo on Southeast Main Street will soon be corrected. The agency’s District Two office mistakenly spelled Chaves County as “Chavez County” in a sign telling
drivers the direction of the Chaves County Detention Center. “It was a new sign put in last week ... (that) did come out of our sign shop here,” said Manon Arnett, spokeswoman for New Mexico DOT’s District Two office on West Second Street. The facility is one of three in the state that has its own in-house sign shops, she said. The new road sign replaced an outdated wooden sign. “It should have never went up,” Arnett said. “The patrol supervisor said he saw that it was misspelled, but thought it best (to install it tem-
porarily) so they could still have an informational sign up.” Officials plan to build a new sign with the correct spelling in the coming days. The green and white sign is located south of Brasher Road and visible to motorists driving north into Roswell. “It will be corrected by the end of the week,” she said. “It was a mistake, even to put it up.” Costs for road signs run about $10 per square foot, Arnett said. The 2-foot by 3-foot sign will cost about $60 to replace. mattarco@roswell-record.com
A pre-trial conference was held in Judge Charles C. Currier's 5th Judicial District courtroom Monday afternoon for the trial of David Vega. Vega, 47, is accused of killing his son, Christopher Lee Vega , 25, and his son's girlfriend, Alyssa Michelle Montgomery, 31, on May 10. The shooting deaths followed a series of domestic disturbances on May 9. Roswell police officers were called to the home, at 1007 Rancho Road, twice before Vega was arrested around 8:30 p.m. on a petty misdemeanor charge of disorderly house. Vega paid his bond and retur ned home early on May 10. Police were again dispatched to Rancho Road after the nephew called the RPD and reported that shots had been fired. Vega was wounded during a subsequent shoot-out with police, and the bodies of his son and his son’s girlfriend were found upon entering the home. Judge Currier made specific inquiries about the See VEGA, Page A6
Winter storm takes aim at one-third of US School board elections today Voters will head to the polls today to decide who will serve on their respective school boards. Roswell Districts 2 and 4 have five precincts open to cast their ballots and Lake Arthur residents have one precinct location at the Lake Arthur Community Center. Residents of Dexter Consolidated School District No. 8, Hagerman Municipal School District No. 6 and Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell will cast their ballots at the Chaves County Administrative Center. Those residents must vote at 1 St. Mary Place because only one candidate filed a declaration of candidacy for each position needed to be filled.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A monster winter storm took aim at a third of the nation Monday, threatening to lay a potentially deadly path of heavy snow and ice from the Rockies to New England, followed by a wave of bitter, bone-rattling cold that could affect tens of millions of people. Cities including St. Louis, Kansas City and Milwaukee could be hardest hit, with expected midweek snowfalls of up to 2 feet and drifts piled 5 to 10 feet. Even hardy Chicago could be in for its third-worst blizzard since record-keeping began. “I wouldn’t want to be on the road in open areas tomorrow night,“ said forecaster Tom Skilling of Chicago television station WGN. ”I don’t think I’d want to be driving in the city either. The fact is people die in these things. They skid off the road and go wandering around in whiteout conditions.“ Warmer areas were not safe, either. The system could spawn tornadoes in parts of the South. While record snowfalls have pounded the Northeast in one of that region’s most brutal winters, the
AP Photo
The Battle Ground Volunteer Fire Department primary response vehicle sits in a ditch with front end damage after a three car accident near Battle Ground, Ind., Monday.
Midwest has been comparatively unscathed, until now.
At Edele and Mertz Hardware just a few blocks from the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, customers lined up by 7 a.m. Monday waiting for the store to
open. Snow shovels, ice melt and salt were all big sellers.
transportation of ficials readied street-clearing equipment, and some airlines encouraged travelers to rebook trips leaving from Chicago. Airlines canceled thousands of flights ahead
As the first flakes fell,
See STORM, Page A6
“‘Freaking out’ is a great way of putting it,” employee Steve Edele said. “The icing — that’s what scares people.”