Roswell Daily Record
‘People beginning to believe’ THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 119, No. 255 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
THE WHOLE ENCHILADA
LAS CRUCES (AP) — Sunday night, Robert Estrada received a midnight phone call from a friend with some disheartening news. “You lost the world record.” Las Cruces is still home to the world’s largest, flat, three-layered enchilada — a Guinness World Record title earned by Estrada in 2000 and one that remains intact even after residents ...
TOP 5 WEB
- PAGE A7
For The Past 24 Hours
• 1 dead, 1 critical in head-on • Daugherty takes witness stand • Character Counts! Honors the Badge • RPD axes Conner • Day 4: Defense rests
INSIDE SPORTS
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Their Texas-sized wait is over. The Rangers are going to the World Series. And they got there with a win over their old nemesis, the defending champion New York Yankees. Vladimir Guerrero drove in three runs before Nelson Cruz hit a towering, two-run homer and the Rangers beat New York 6-1 Friday night in Game 6 of the AL championship series, the biggest victory in the franchise’s 50 seasons. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Julio Sanchez • Emmett Franklin Ray - PAGE A7
HIGH ...78˚ LOW ....47˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B7 COMICS.................A8 ENTERTAINMENT.....B9 FINANCIAL .............B6 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B9 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ............A10 WORLD .................A9
INDEX
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Guilty!
AP Photo
Sir Richard Branson and Gov. Bill Richardson during a runway dedication ceremony at Spaceport America in Upham, Friday.
Gruesome!
UPHAM (AP) — World’s first commercial spaceport. Check. Solo flight of a rocket ship for tourists. Check. A runway in the southern New Mexico desert to help them climb to the heavens. Check. The dream of whisking tourists to space for a few minutes of weightlessness edged closer to reality on Friday. “Today is very personal, as our dream becomes more real,” said Sir Richard Branson, whose company, Virgin Galactic, will operate the flights. “People are
beginning to believe now.” All that is left for the company is more rocket testing on SpaceShipTwo and sending it into space. The British billionaire said he expects flights for space tourists to begin in nine to 18 months, and he will be among the first passengers. Stretching across a flat dusty plain 45 miles north of Las Cruces, the nearly two-mile-long runway is designed to support almost every aircraft in the world, day-to-day space tourism and payload launch operations.
Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant of the taxpayer-funded $198 million spaceport and plans to use the facility to take tourists on what will first be short hops into space. State of ficials want to add companies for other commercial space endeavors, such as research and payload delivery, once the spaceport’s terminal hanger facility is complete next year. Branson was joined at Friday’s ceremonies by New See SPACEPORT, Page A3
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
In New Mexico v. Aaron Daugherty, the jury delivered the verdict, Friday, after three hours of deliberation. Daugherty was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of Valerie A. York, 25, and Mark A. Koenig, 23, on June 13, 2009. Families of both victims and the defendant wept as the verdict was read. Carla Atkins, Daugherty’s mother, told the Roswell Daily Record, “People tend to forget that I lost family, too. Aaron and Valerie came down to visit me in Las Cruces. They told me that they were getting engaged and moving to Las Cruces.” Tuesday, Atkins’ explained her reaction to the deaths on the stand. “I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t breathe.” After Atkins testimony, Carolyn Koenig, mother of Mark, went to comfort Atkins. “I’m a mother, too. I
A spooky skeleton greets those who dare to trick-or-treat at a house located at 1817 N. Maryland Ave.
Mark Wilson Photo
Character Counts! Week Health insurers now giving GOP money ends with mural ceremony See GUILTY, Page A3
RANGERS HEADED TO SERIES
October 23, 2010
JOE D. MOORE RECORD STAFF WRITER
After a week of honors, awards and events, Character Counts! Week wrapped up Friday. Before the calendar could put the Chaves County group’s 7-day celebration to a close, the community asserted its own commitment to character with fresh paint and public art. On a clear, bright mor ning, Clay Avery, Character Counts! in Mark Wilson Photo Chaves County’s executive director, and Judge Robert Gibson and his Roswell Job Corps Painting & Remodeling students during a dedication of the refurbished Character Counts! mural at Overmier Firestone, See MURAL, Page A3 Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health insurers flirted with Democrats, supported them with money and got what they wanted: a federal mandate that most Americans carry health care coverage. Now they’re backing Republicans, hoping a GOP Congress will mean friendlier regulations. They may get more than they’re wishing for. The so-called individual mandate has provoked tea party conservatives, who see it as an example of big government interference in personal decisions. Now Republican candidates are running on platforms that include repealing the broader health care law. And attorneys general from some 20 states — mainly
Republicans — are challenging the mandate as unconstitutional. From January through August 2009, the health insurance industry donated $2.15 million to Democrats and $1.7 million to Republicans, according to monthly figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Since September 2009, the industry has donated $2.4 million to Democrats and nearly $3.3 million to Republicans. The GOP advantage has grown even as Republican candidates call for outright repeal of the health care law. Though the insurers won
Charlotte Andrade, ‘the best at what she does in the state’ JOE D. MOORE RECORD STAFF WRITER
Charlotte Andrade’s father died in an automobile accident when she was just 15, and she pledged to make him proud. “He’s my conscience,” Andrade, now 48, says. For a long time, then, she’s known that she would make a difference, she just thought she would do it in a different way. Andrade imagined herself emphasizing reading and English as a teacher in a room full of rambunctious first-graders. But, as they do for so many, her career goals switched lanes and headed in a different direction.
Instead of leading young people in a room adorned with animals, the ABCs and primary colors, she finds herself working in a spacious, highly organized office in the new Chaves County Administrative Center. The setting is the polar opposite of the one she expected. And the impact she is making is greater than anyone, herself included, could have ever imagined. Similarly, the route Andrade has taken to become a veritable, if
See HEALTH, Page A3
behind the scenes, Chaves County benefactor has been an unexpected, circuitous one. Artesia born and raised, she graduated from Artesia High School and immediately ventured to Tucson, Ariz. During her 14 years there, she first displayed a penchant for serving communities through local government, working for the Tucson Police Department and the city. Marriage turned into children, and, after number three, Andrade brought her family to Roswell to be closer to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. A non-traditional student, she See SPOTLIGHT, Page A3
Charlotte Andrade
Joe D. Moore Photo