Roswell Daily Record
INSIDE NEWS
DRONES ENTER DRUG WARS
MEXICO CITY (AP) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been surreptitiously flying Predator drones into Mexico for two years, helping Mexican authorities spy on suspected drug traffickers, The Associated Press has learned. The border security agency’s surveillance flights, approved by Mexico ... - PAGE A2
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NM Senate approves $5.4B budget
Vol. 120, No. 66 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
SANTA FE (AP) — State spending will be cut 2.7 percent next year under a $5.4 billion budget proposal the New Mexico Senate approved Wednesday. Sen. John Arthur Smith, a Deming Democrat and Finance Committee chairman, said the budget was balanced without worker layoffs or furloughs, and without a general tax increase. “It’s obviously a real challenge trying to put
March 17, 2011
THURSDAY
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money in the most needed places in the state of New Mexico with the restrictions we’re operating under,” Smith said. “The bottom line is, we’re still in an economic downturn.” The budget will cut spending about $152 million in the fiscal year that starts in July. Public schools account for the largest portion of the proposed budget, nearly $2.4 billion. Education will be cut about $61 mil-
lion, or 2.5 percent, next year. The reductions for schools and other agencies reflect pension fund changes that require state workers, teachers and other educators to pay more for their pensions while the gover nment reduces its contributions by a similar amount. The budget provides about $986 million for
injuries were reported. The blaze broke out at about 3 p.m. in a field near Orchard Park and Cherokee Road, in Dexter. It was contained by about 5:30 p.m., however, crews were still mopping up the scene at least an hour
later. The state’s Forestry Division added that hot temperatures and low humidity made conditions favorable for the fire to burn actively, despite rela-
SENATE OKS A-TO-F
SANTA FE (AP) — A proposal by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez to assign grades from A to F to rate New Mexico’s public schools cleared the Senate on Wednesday. Supporters said the grades will provide better infor mation to parents about the quality of their local schools. “Whenever we can
GRADING BILL
objectively put our rating system out there that people understand and can rally around and put their resources to work to improve ... the educational programs that are out there for our students, I believe we’re going to show a significant improvement in achieve-
RFD suspects arson in 200-acre blaze See BUDGET, Page A6
See GRADES, Page A6
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MATTHEW ARCO
A mid-afternoon blaze that swept through at least 200 acres of land just south of Roswell Wednesday, may have been an act of arson, fire officials said. Emergency crews from across the county responded to the fire that threatened numerous homes but was contained before destroying any residences, officials said. “Just about every county department had a truck out here,” said Chief James Salas, of the Roswell Fire Department, adding that the blaze could have consumed up to 500 acres. Salas said it may have been intentionally set because a suspicious fire started in the same area on Tuesday. He said it destroyed at least one outbuilding and that several firefighters sustained minor injuries, however no serious
Gabby going to Disney World Officers to return to city high schools See BLAZE, Page A6
JONATHAN ENTZMINGER RECORD STAFF WRITER
CHARACTER COUNTS! ANNOUNCES WINNERS
Character Counts! of Chaves County released the first and second installments of its Spring Athletes of Recognition program. This week’s honorees are from the sports of swimming, tennis and golf. This week’s winners in the sports of swimming and tennis are Mariah Garcia, Jose Gonzalez, Katie Hillman, Marshall McCurdy, Freddie Romero... - PAGE B1
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Kenneth Livingston Wanda Gay Webb Christian Kundsen Elizabeth Shanks Shari Denise Ballard Candelario Anchondo - PAGE B3
HIGH ...92˚ LOW ....44˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B9 ENTERTAINMENT.....B6 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 STATE ...................A3 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
The Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Mexico, granted 3-year -old Gabrielle Clements her wish, Wednesday, beginning with a family and friends dinner at Golden Corral Buffet. “I don’t even know how I would thank them for this,” Isabel Clements said during the dinner. Around 7 p.m., with Barbie in hand, Gabrielle Jonathan Entzminger Photo and her family arrived in a white Lincoln Continen- Left center, Isabel, Carson and Gabrielle Clements enjoy tal stretch limo at the the evening with friends and family at the Golden Corral restaurant, where she Buffet, Wednesday. was welcomed by local first leg of her wish. Next wish-granter, Joe Vargas. smiles. About 20 friends and week, Gabrielle and her Through it all, she appeared calm, taking in family attended the dineach minute with shy ner with Gabrielle, on the See GABBY, Page A6
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Roswell Police Chief Alfonso Solis announced the retur n of student resource officers to Goddard High School, Monday. “I have been studying the problem even before I got this job,” Solis said. He realized it was an issue when he worked as administrator at Chaves County Detention Center. “Some of these students will end up in the jail system.” Solis started talking to officials at Roswell Independent School District as CCDC administrator, and continued the discussions after taking his post as
police chief on Jan. 14. “I have been negotiating with the Roswell Independent School District, and Mr. Gottlieb notified me that it had been approved by the School Board.” He said that the placement of the first officer at Goddard is indirectly related to the theft of cell phones and several larcenies that have taken place in the high school. “It would be a lie if I said that it had nothing to do with it. We have had several incidents, but it’s not the idea that we want to arrest students.Their primary job will be safety, and I think the majority of parents will
Unions seek order Japan begins air drop on reactor to reinstate board SANTA FE (AP) — Members of labor unions in New Mexico turned to the state Supreme Court on Wednesday in a dispute with the governor over the Public Employee Labor Relations Board. Gov. Susana Martinez fired the board’s executive director, Pam Gentry, on Feb. 5, and then fired the three-member board March 1. The unions are asking the court to order Martinez to reinstate the board and not to interfere with the board’s hiring of an executive director. The board is responsi-
ble for enforcing the Public Employee Bargaining Act in New Mexico. “We believe that this is a very covert attempt to tur n New Mexico into another Wisconsin and we are not going to stand for it,” said Christine Trujillo, state president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers in New Mexico. Last week, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed into law a measure elimiSee UNIONS, Page A6
ZAO, Japan (AP) — Japanese military helicopters dumped loads of seawater onto a stricken nuclear reactor today, trying to avoid full meltdowns as plant operators said they were close to finishing a new power line that could restore cooling systems and ease the crisis. U.S. officials in Washington, meanwhile, war ned that the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan may be on the verge of spewing more radioactive material because water was gone from a storage pool that keeps spent nuclear fuel rods from overheating. The troubles at several of the plant’s reactors were set of f when last week’s earthquake and tsunami See JAPAN, Page A6
See RPD, Page A6
AP Photo
Evacuees carry bowls of pork soup from a soup kitchen back to their makeshift shelter in Minamisanriku, northern Japan, Wednesday.