Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 120, No. 39 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
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Push is on to save Youth ChalleNGe MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
GULF CLAIMS UNDER FIRE
February 15, 2011
Local city officials and state lawmakers are pressing the Legislature to save the Youth ChalleNGe Academy in Roswell from possible closure. In an effort to raise awareness of the program, 34 cadets and some of the organization’s program officials spent Monday at the Roundhouse to show lawmakers their presence in the state. They were accompanied by two members of the New Mexico Youth ChalleNGe Academy Foundation Inc., who are
part of a group of officials fighting to raise the $2 million needed to keep the program open and build the cadets a new housing facility.
“We went around to the legislators, just like we did last week and plan to do again in a week ... to let them know about the program,” said Judy Stubbs, a Roswell city councilor and president of the Youth ChalleNGe Academy Foundation. “What we did was educate many people around the state about the benefit of the program.”
Stubbs is part of a team of officials attempting to raise the money after it was announced nearly one
year ago that the program would continue to run, but was in a crisis stage.
The National Guard’s top commander told city officials in March 2010 that the military-style program that serves at-risk youth would close. The official cited funding and the condition of the facility as two major concerns.
Since that time, the program received the necessary operational funding, however it lacks the about $4 million needed to renovate its facilities. Currently, community leaders are attempting to collect the between $2.2 and $2.5 million
needed to construct new barracks. “Money for the building is what we need right now,” said Rita Kane-Doerhoefer, secretary of the Youth ChalleNGe Academy Foundation, who accompanied Stubbs during the trip. “Unfortunately, if we can’t get this building we don’t know how much longer this program is going to last,” she said. The pair are lobbying the Legislature for $2 million in capital outlay. Senate President Pro Tem Tim
Panel OKs public school budget bill
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Barack Obama vowed during a White House speech last June that the $20 billion he helped coax out of BP for an oil spill compensation fund would take care of victims “as quickly, as fairly and as transparently as possible.” - PAGE A6
TOP 5 WEB For The Last 24 Hours
• Vets press Pearce on transportation • Sage Day festivities set for 2/26 • Kintigh’s curfew clears committee • ‘We love you this much!’ • Montoya and Montoya enter burglary pleas
INSIDE SPORTS Matthew Arco Photo
From right, Magistrate Court Judge Eugene M. De Los Santos weds Andy and Alma Hernandez, Monday, at the Chaves County Administrative Center.
Couples tie the Valentine’s Day knot BRONCOS RALLY FOR WIN The New Mexico Military Institute men’s basketball team entered Monday’s game with conference foe Frank Phillips College as losers of three straight and 10 of the last 11 games. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • Ramona Garcia Leyva • Helen Rita Sanchez • David Alexander - PAGE B3
HIGH ...76˚ LOW ....31˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 ENTERTAINMENT.....B6 FINANCIAL .............B5 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 WORLD .................A3
INDEX
See PUSH, Page A6
Church bells may not have been ringing, but that didn’t stop a steady stream of soon-to-be newlyweds from taking advantage of Chaves County’s special Valentine's Day event. Officials transformed the Chaves County Administrative Center’s rotunda into a wedding hall Monday as Magistrate Court Judge Eugene M. De Los Santos wed couples struck by Cupid’s arrow. “We’ve been together 20 years and
I love him,” said P.J. Marshall, who attended the event to marry George Riese. “We decided to do (it),” she said. Officials say they decided to host the event after brainstorming on how best to use the county building’s large rotunda. Someone suggested the Valentine’s Day event and a handful of county workers pitched in by making decorations and even building an arbor from scratch for couples to
gather under.
“We’re having fun,” said Georgiana Hunt, a county official who helped organize the event, adding that all the workers volunteer their services to make the event happen during their personal time.
“It’s so cool to see people starting out their lives like this,” she said. “We’re just making the most of what this county has to offer.”
SANTA FE (AP) — State spending on public schools would be cut by more than 1 percent next year under a budget proposal approved by a House committee Monday. The House Education Committee recommended spending nearly $2.4 billion on schools, the Public Education Department and education programs such as pre-kindergarten in the fiscal year that starts in July. That’s about $30 million, or 1.2 percent, less than this year’s spending on public education. Committee chair man Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque, said the panel tried to protect school funding as much as possible. But he said, “Times are tough. We are going to be cutting.” The panel’s spending recommendations could force schools to eliminate one professional development day for teachers and other employees. About $5 million of the proposed cuts are expected to come from administrative cost-savings. However, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has proposed trimming school administrative costs by $30 million next year. The department’s See BUDGET, Page A6
Strikes spread after Egypt uprising Obama’s budget: Some cuts, no slashes WASHINGTON (AP) — Putting on the brakes after two years of big spending increases, President Barack Obama unveiled a $3.7 trillion budget plan Monday that would freeze or reduce some safety-net programs for the nation’s poor but turn aside Republican demands for more drastic cuts to shrink the government to where it was before he took office. The 10-year blueprint makes “tough choices and sacrifices,” Obama said in his official budget message. Yet the plan, which sets the stage for this week’s nasty congressional fight over cuts in the budget year that’s already more than one-third over, steers clear of deeply controversial long-term problem areas such as Social Security and Medicare. The budget relies heavily on the recovering economy, tax increases and rosy economic assumptions to estimate that the federal deficit would drop from this year’s record $1.6 trillion — an astronomical figure that requires the government to borrow 43 cents out of every dollar it spends — to about $600 billion after five years. Obama foresees a deficit of $1.1 trillion for the new budget year, which begins Oct. 1, still very high by historical benchmarks but moving in the right direction. The president claims $1.1 trillion in deficit savings over the coming decade for his plan, a 12 percent cut from the federal deficits the administration otherwise projects. But that figure includes almost $650 billion in spending cuts and new transportation revenues the administration won’t specify. Obama would trade cuts to some domestic programs to pay for increases in education, infrastructure and research as necessary investments that he judges to be important to the country’s competitiveness in a global economy. But he also raises taxes by $1.6 trillion over the See OBAMA, Page A6
CAIRO (AP) — Thousands of state employees, from ambulance drivers to police and bank workers, protested on Monday demanding better pay, in a growing wave of labor unrest rekindled by the democracy uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Egypt’s military rulers asked for an end to the protests in what could be a final warning before an outright ban.
The military said it needed calm to implement what it promises will be an eventual handover to civilian rule under a new, more democratic system. It has set a swift timetable, saying it aims to have constitutional amendments drawn up within 10 days and a referendum to approve them within two months ahead of elections for a new parliament and ultimately a new civilian government, according to youth activists who met two of the top generals. The coalition of young activists who organized the unprecedented protest movement pressured the military for new steps to ensure the autocratic system that has pervaded Egypt for the past 30 years is dismantled. Protesters welcomed the military’s takeover after Mubarak’s
AP Photo
Demonstrators try to prevent Egyptian policemen, background, from marching inTahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Monday.
resignation, but many remain wary of its ultimate intentions.
In a list of demands Monday, they called for the dissolving of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party and for the creation of a Cabinet of technocrats within 30 days. They want it to replace the current caretaker gover nment, appointed by Mubarak after the protests erupted Jan. 25. “It is unacceptable that the same gover nment which caused this revolu-
tion with its corrupt ways oversees the transitional period,” said Ziad al-Oleimi, a member of the coalition. A number of youth organizers met Sunday with two generals from the Ar med Forces Supreme Council, now the country’s official ruler. They called the meeting positive and were further encouraged by the military’s dissolving of parliament and suspending of the constitution, two of See EGYPT, Page A6