Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 120, No. 178 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
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CHILEAN MINERS SELL STORY FOR MOVIE DEAL
NEW YORK (AP) — The story of the Chilean miners who were trapped underground for more than two months is on its way to the big screen. The 33 miners have sold the rights to their story to producer Mike Medavoy, the producer .. - PAGE A6
Obama: Halt ‘3-ring-circus’ of debt-limit debate
WASHINGTON (AP) — Decrying a “partisan threering circus” in the nation’s capital, President Barack Obama criticized a newly minted Republican plan to avert an unprecedented government default Monday night and said congressional leaders must produce a compromise that can reach his desk before the Aug. 2 deadline. “The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn’t
vote for a dysfunctional government,” the president said in a hastily arranged prime-time speech. He appealed to the public to contact lawmakers and demand “a balanced approach” to reducing federal deficits. Obama stepped to the microphones a few hours after first Republicans, then Democrats drafted rival fallback legislation Monday to avert a potentially devastating govern-
• From audition to final curtain in 5 days • More July fireworks • Bravo pleads guilty • Senior Olympians keep on playing • Noon Op 11-12 triumphs in extra innings
WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of public nastiness and private negotiations, of court filings and rulings, of players and owners squabbling over more than $9 billion a year, NFL fans finally saw the... PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • • • •
Donald L. Harcrow Michael J. Gibson Eudelia Linares R.C. Francis - PAGE A6
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CLASSIFIEDS..........B3 COMICS.................B6 ENTERTAINMENT.....A8 FINANCIAL .............B7 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B3 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
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rebuttal carried live on the nation’s networks. “The president has often said we need a ‘balanced’ approach, which in Washington means we spend more, you pay more,” the Ohio Republican said, speaking from a room just off the House floor. “The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today. That is just not going to happen.”
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik hoped to trigger a nationalist revolution in Norway. But his double act of mass murder and destruction seems to have stirred only dignified defiance in this wealthy, idealistic nation renowned for its commitment to peace. The capital’s heart remains shattered and cordoned off following Friday’s car -bomb blast. Communities up and down this sparsely populated land of fir forests and mist-shrouded fjords have yet to bury their 76 loved ones, mostly slain as Breivik gunned down defenseless teens and young adults at an island AP Photo retreat of the governing
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ment default in little more than a week. said the Obama approach unveiled earlier in the day by House Speaker John Boehner would raise the nation’s debt limit only long enough to push off the threat of default for six months.“In other words, it doesn’t solve the problem,” he said. The president had scarcely completed his remarks when Boehner made an extraordinary
Directly challenging the president, Boehner said there “is no stalemate in Congress.” He said the Republicans’ newest legislation would clear the House, could clear the Senate and then would be sent to Obama for his signature. The back-to-back televised speeches did little to suggest that a compromise was in the offing, and the
Dwyer gets Norway seeks to keep peace after attack sentenced
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July 26, 2011
People gather outside Oslo City Hall to participate in a "rose march" in memory of the vic-
See OBAMA, Page A3
Allen C. Dwyer, Jr., 20, was sentenced Monday to 20 years with five years suspended sentence for the killing of Tony Quici in a botched burglary attempt. The incident occurred on Jan. 22, 2008. Quici lived for about a week after the attack and told his daughter, Rachel, that he had not fallen. He then succumbed to his injuries early in February. Two years later, Dwyer tur ned himself in to the police. The daughter continued to call the police asking them to investigate the crime, but she told the Daily Record in a 2010 interview that of ficials insisted Tony was old and he had just fallen. However, Dwyer contact-
Fire burns PNM proposal means changes for customers 22,000 acres tims of Friday's bomb attack and shooting massacre, Monday..
CARLSBAD (AP) — Two fires burning southwest of Carlsbad in the Guadalupe Mountains have charred more than 34 square miles of brush and trees. Fire of ficials say the Lookout and Acrey fires had burned nearly 22,000 by Monday morning. The Lookout Complex fires, as two blazes are known, are bur ning in steep, rocky and inaccessible terrain on forest land. The 3,000-acre Lookout fire is burning about seven miles southwest of Queen. The 18,836-acre Acrey Fire is burning 16 miles northwest of Queen and has the potential to threaten a natural gas field. Authorities say two homes and four outbuildSee FIRE, Page A3
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission is expected to make a final decision this week on a proposed rate increase that would af fect more than half a million customers of Public Service Company of New Mexico. The electric utility, environmentalists and consumer advocates have been wrangling for months over the proposal, and PNM of ficials acknowledge it has been dif ficult to sell to customers the idea of paying nearly 11 percent more in base rates. “We held a whole bunch of public meetings. We talked to city councils, we talked to business groups. I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve done in Ruidoso and Alamogordo and tried to explain this to the best of our ability,” Ron Darnell, PNM’s vice president of regulatory affairs
told The Associated Press in an interview. What Darnell has been trying to explain is that aside from ensuring continued investments in PNM’s generation and transmission systems, the rate proposal would bring an end to the vulnerability that customers in the southern part of the state face due to fluctuating natural gas prices. If the proposal is rejected, Dar nell said about 50,000 souther n customers have the most to lose. PNM acquired its souther n customers in 2005 when it purchased Texas New Mexico Power. As part of the deal, state regulators mandated that PNM could not consolidate the cost of service for the two areas until 2015, unless it could do so without resulting in costs of more than $1.5 million to customers in the north.
See NORWAY, Page A3
The deal also provided that PNM could not seek a rate increase for the souther n customers before 2011. That meant by the time the moratorium expired, those customers could have faced rate increases of up to 80 percent. Darnell said the problem is souther n customers currently fall under a rate structure based only on natural gas generation. “So when you sit back and think about that, what that really meant is that the entire gas price risk of PNM’s fleet of gas power plants was going to be balanced on the backs of 50,000 customers,” he said. Regulators, PNM and others have been discussing ways to fix the problem since 2009. One of those ways was to roll the southern customers into the rate case.
See DWYER, Page A3
Under the plan, Darnell said southern customers would no longer have a separate fuel clause that was based only on the price of natural gas, and the cost of gas used by PNM to generate electricity would instead be shouldered by all of its customers. To make it fair for northern customers, PNM has proposed charging a monthly transition fee to souther n customers, which would amount to about $3 for the average residential customer. Overall, customers in both the north and south would see their base rates increase by 10.8 percent in two phases, one in August and the other in January. Regulators will also consider a hearing examiner’s recommendation that the residential rate design structure be See PNM, Page A3
Lawmakers trade blame over airport project delays WASHINGTON (AP) — House and Senate leaders exchanged blame Monday for the legislative stalemate that precipitated a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration while making no overture to resolve the dispute. The FAA’s operating authority expired at midnight Friday, forcing a partial shutdown of the agency. Dozens of airport construction projects across the country have been put on hold and thousands of federal employees were out of work. Air traf fic controllers have continued to work, as well as FAA employees who inspect the safety of planes and test pilots. Transportation officials
have said safety won’t be compromised. But it was unclear how long the FAA can continue day-to-day operations before travelers begin to feel the effects of the shutdown. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chair man of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said there have been no negotiations between the Republican-led House and the Democratic-led Senate to resolve the dispute. Republican leaders said they are deter mined to hold to their position that the Senate must accept a House-passed bill to extend the FAA’s operating through mid-September even though it contains a provision eliminating $16.5 million in air service subsidies for 13 rural air-
ports that Democrats say is unacceptable. “This is sort of sad, you know,” Mica told reporters. “On the eve of the country’s finances near collapse, it’s sort of symbolic of the whole problem here: No one is willing to eliminate any wasteful programs.” The subsidy program was created after airlines were deregulated in 1978 to ensure continued service on less profitable routes to remote communities. Not all those communities are remote anymore. The GOP provision would end subsidies to communities less than 90 miles from a hub airport or where subsidies average greater than $1,000
See DELAYS, Page A3
AP Photo
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks about the possible shutdown of the FAA during a news conference in Washington, Thursday.