Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 120, No. 55 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
March 4, 2011
FRIDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Leisure Inn catches fire Cause under investigation STORY BY EMILY RUSSO MILLER PHOTOS BY MARK WILSON
RESEARCHERS FIND ANCIENT REMAINS WASHINGTON (AP) — Some 11,500 years ago one of America’s earliest families laid the remains of a 3-yearold child to rest in their home in what is now Alaska. The discovery of that burial is shedding new light on the life and times of the early settlers who crossed from Asia to the New World, researchers .... - PAGE A3
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A fire ripped through a motel on West Second Street Thursday afternoon, blazing through at least six unoccupied rooms on the first and second floors. Fire Department officials say one firefighter suf fered minor first- or seconddegree burns. Roswell Fire Chief James Salas said the fire began around 3:30 p.m. on the north side of the Leisure Inn, 2700 W. Second St., and was contained within 30 minutes by about 15 firefighters. Salas said the cause of the fire is unknown at this point in the investigation, but he suspects it started in the utility room in the basement of the motel, where men were doing maintenance work. “It came up from the bottom floor,” Salas said, adding that the fire spread north, went through the roof, and “extensive damage was done to the building.” Firefighters knocked out windows to battle the heavy smoke in the motel rooms. Roswell Fire Marshall and Arson Investigator Bill Wells said a firefighter was bur ned on his neck by falling debris in one of the rooms. A Roswell EMS technician treated him at the scene and said he would not have to be transported to a hospital for fur-
ther care. Naser Yousefi, of Roswell, says he was one of the maintenance men working in the basement with the owner of the motel when the fire started. He says they were welding a oneinch pipe in the basement when something sparked and caught fire. “We got out, and we got a hose, then we called 911,” See MOTEL, Page A3
2 dogs burned in fire on O’Connor Road DEADLINE EXTENDED WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s favorite sport is still in business — for another day. The NFL and the players’ union decided Thursday to keep the current collective bargaining agreement in place for an additional 24 hours so that negotiations can continue. “The parties have agreed to a one-day extension,” federal mediator George Cohen said in a .... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • Nelson Burnell Alpers • James Copeland • Edward ‘Ed’ Lee • James H. Maupin • Elizabeth Mooney • Terry L. Peterson • Mary’O Trammel - PAGE A7
HIGH ...76˚ LOW ....36˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B5 COMICS.................B3 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
STORY BY EMILY RUSSO MILLER PHOTOS BY MARK WILSON
Two dogs were badly burned in a fire, Thursday morning, when an unidentified man unlawfully bur ned his dilapidated mobile home on O’Connor Road, west of South Main
Street. The dogs were treated for smoke inhalation and severe burns at South Springs Animal Hospital after being rescued by the Roswell and Sierra County Fire departments. “It burned her down to bare skin on her face and
back and just all over,” Lt. Mike Wood, of the Chaves County Sheriff’s Office, said about the female dog. Wood says the owner of the single-wide trailer unlawfully set his home ablaze to clear the property instead of just hauling the structure to a landfill.
The trailer had been damaged about a month or two ago when a space heater accidently set it on fire. But Wood says the wind picked up early this morning just as the blaze
“He didn’t bother accounting for the wind; he didn’t bother accounting for some of the materials he burned, like insulation tubes; and most important, he didn’t account for the two dogs
began, causing the fire to spread throughout the property to nearby utility poles with live electric wiring as well as the outdoor cage containing the two dogs.
caged up next door to the trailer house,” Wood said. Firefighters jumped into action when they saw the See DOGS, Page A3
Local actor: ‘I haven’t Sabrina Moody stands up to the test been back to California’ JONATHAN ENTZMINGER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Many New Mexico actors feel blindsided by the $45 million cap on film incentives that passed in the $5 billion state budget bill, Wednesday, after many thought $60 million was a reasonable compromise. “By bringing it down to $60 million, the industry lowered (incentives) eight percent more than last year,” Book of Eli actress Lora Martinez-Cunningham, said. “We were railroaded. I couldn’t believe what happened.”
Rep. Dennis Kintigh, RRoswell, who voted for the cap, said that he had never been in favor of the film incentives program, but believes that some New Mexicans have benefi ted from it. “There’s no doubt that some individuals have benefited from it,” he said. “The problem is, at what cost? It’s one industry that’s privileged not to share any kind of (fiscal) pain.” Martinez-Cunningham said discussions that took place behind closed doors See FILM, Page A3
EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Sabrina Moody’s son, a fourth-grader at Military Heights Elementary School, passed the state standardized test last April without a problem. But this year, he won’t be taking the test — his mother is boycotting the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment and has started a grassroots movement,“Stand Up to the Test,” encouraging other parents to do the same. “We have to get the attention of our lawmakers and our president,”
Moody wrote in a mass email in all caps to a group of local parents, teachers, administrators and lawmakers. “Walk out on the test. Refuse to have your child take it.” Moody, a stay at home mom who is a for mer teacher and past PTA president at her son’s school, argues that it is not right for one test to determine what classes a student is placed in the next year, whether a student passes the next grade (as a bill pending in the Legislature suggests), how much funding school districts receive and the school district’s adequate
yearly progress, AYP measures whether a student is performing at grade level on the New Mexico academic content standards, and enormous pressure is placed on schools to meet them, school officials say. “It’s not fair for my child or yours to have to carry the load for our teachers, our schools and our school districts,” Moody wrote. But Moody’s main qualm is that the NMSBA is the eighth hardest assesment test in the nation, according to Education See TEST Page A3