Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 122, No. 210 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
SUMMER BUSINESS SLOW ON JERSEY SHORE - PAGE B6
CHIMP’S ART TAKES TOP PRIZE IN CONTEST - PAGE C6
INSIDE SPORTS
LAKE ARTHUR CRUSHES JESUS CHAPEL - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • Barney Henderson Odom Jr. • Arthur (Art) Hayden Evans - PAGE A2
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
September 1, 2013
SUNDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Obama seeks congressional OK for strike WASHINGTON (AP) — Short on support at home and allies abroad, President Barack Obama unexpectedly stepped back from a missile attack against Syria on Saturday and instead asked Congress to support a strike punishing Bashar Assad’s regime for the alleged use of chemical weapons. With Navy ships on standby in the Mediterranean Sea ready to launch their cruise missiles, Obama said he had decided the United States should take military action and that he believes that as commander in chief, he has “the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization.” At the same time, he said, “I know that the country will be stronger if we take this course and our actions will be even more ef fective.” His remarks were televised live in the United States as well as on Syrian state television with translation. Congress is scheduled to return from a summer vacation on Sept. 9, and in anticipation of the coming debate, Obama challenged lawmakers to consider “what message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price.” The president didn’t say so, but his strategy carries enormous risks to his and
the nation’s credibility, which the administration has argued forcefully is on the line in Syria. Obama long ago said the use of chemical weapons was a “red line” that Assad would not be allowed to cross with impunity. Nor would the White House say what options would still be open to the president if he fails to win the backing of the House and Senate for the military measures he has threatened. Only this week, British Prime Minister David Cameron suf fered a humiliating defeat when the House of Commons refused to support his call for military action against Syria. Halfway around the world, Syrians awoke Saturday to state television broadcasts of tanks, planes4 and other weapons of war, and troops training, all to a soundtrack of martial music. Assad’s gover nment blames rebels in the Aug. 21 attack, and has threatened retaliation if it is attacked. Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was appealing to a Nobel Peace laureate rather than to a president, urged Obama to reconsider. A group that monitors casualties in the long Syrian civil war challenged the United States to substan-
AP Photos
Top: President Barack Obama makes a statement about the crisis in Syria in the Rose Garden of the White House, Saturday. Left: Rachel Lee Richards stands with opponents of U.S. military action in Syria at New York's Times Square on Saturday. Right: Syrian immigrants who live in Bulgaria demonstrate in front of the European Commission Representation office Saturday. The Syrian community in Bulgaria demands a rapid military intervention in Syria by the international community led by the U.S. and the EU to help overthrow Syrian regime and to save Syrian people.
See SYRIA, Page A3
Settlements reached in New Bay Bridge set to open soon wolf release program
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Environmentalists have reached settlements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that will allow for direct releases of captive wolves into New Mexico as part of the federal government’s efforts to re-establish the species in the Southwest. The agreements also call for the agency to drop plans for capturing any wolves that enter New Mexico or Arizona from Mexico. The agency is also proposing expanding the area where wolves are allowed to establish territories. “These agreements should breathe new life into the struggling Mexican wolf recovery program and expand the wolf’s habitat here,” Michael Robinson of the Center for
Biological Diversity, an environmental group that has been critical of wolf management. The agency first unveiled a proposal in June that called for giving Mexican gray wolves more room to roam in New Mexico and Arizona. Independent scientists and environmentalists have been pushing for more room and for releases of captive wolves in New Mexico for years, saying such actions would bolster the success of the recovery effort. But on Friday, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., criticized the proposed expansion of the program. He said millions of dollars have been spent over the last decade and the wolf
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When traffic flows across a new stretch of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for the first time, it will do so nearly a quartercentury after a deadly earthquake during the 1989 World Series collapsed two 50-foot sections of the old structure. The 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake hit just as millions tuned in to watch Game 3 of the “Bay Bridge World Series” between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants, killing 63 people and causing up to $10 billion in damage. The Bay Bridge failure, one of the temblor’s most memorable images, prompted one of the costliest public works projects in state history. The $6.4 billion project finally draws to a close after decades of political bickering, engineering challenges and billions in cost overruns. The
new easter n part of the span should be ready to open as scheduled by 5 a.m. Tuesday after being closed for five days while crews put on the finishing touches, transportation officials said Saturday. The years of past delays magnified public safety concerns over the need for a permanent solution as the original, seismically unsafe bridge, which opened during the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt, was patched up and continued operating. Highlighting the decades of complications, the scheduled opening of the reworked bridge was in jeopardy again this year after crews discovered dozens of defective rods used to anchor the roadway to important earthquake safety structures. The bridge will open with a temporary fix for these broken
rods while the permanent repair, expected to be completed in December, is being installed. Issues with the rods and myriad delays have left many commuters with a feeling of trepidation about the bridge, even though state officials say it’s one of the safest in the world. The self-anchored suspension bridge with a looming, single white tower was designed to endure 150 years and withstand the strongest earthquake estimated by seismologists to occur at the site over a 1,500-year period. Steve Heminger, chairman of the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee, the project’s watchdog, said the span is orders of magnitude safer than the current crossing. “Some bridges in Califor-
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — Ten thousand decisions go into creating a big, boisterous parade. No one knows that better than Robin Buchanan, who for years has juggled the lineup at the Labor Day parade that has jubilantly closed out every Newtown summer for more than five decades. But never before had this happened: Calls and emails from regulars, folks who always marched, concerned about the most basic decision of all. “Are you going to have a parade,” they asked her, “this year?” This year. Meaning: After the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, after the eulogies for 20 first-graders and six educators, amid the drumbeat of news stories across the country and hushed conversations around town, all adding up — still — to incomprehen-
sion. A parade, this year? On an icy evening back in January, barely a month after the shootings, a small group met with sad hugs to confront that question. It’s always been a daunting task for the Labor Day Parade Committee to map out the two-hour extravaganza — to arrange the vintage warplane flyovers or get the stagecoach that’s pulled by four matched horses or the ballfield-size American flag, or whatever, to make sure of security and to hash out ways to pay the bills. But this time, the committee members — two of whom serve out of devotion even though they’re divorced from each other — sat hollow-eyed under the fluorescent lights of a bank conference room. Outside, handmade memorials still fluttered on lampposts. The funerals were still raw
memories. How could you focus on a parade? Who would be the grand marshal, a happy honor normally but surely a heavy burden this time around? What would the theme be? Could it be anything but a memorial? But if so, what kind of parade is that? “How’s everybody doing?” someone asked. There were tears as they went around the table, answering. It’s a tight group, and this was the first time they’d been together since “the incident.” Yet they knew that planning a parade is a long process. And they sensed that, somehow, this year it could be one piece of the enormous task facing the shattered town and many beyond it, of finding ways to move forward through
See BRIDGE, Page A3
With parade, Newtown reflects ‘how we’re healing’ See RELEASE, Page A3
HIGH...100˚ LOW ....69˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........D1 COMICS.................C4 ENTERTAINMENT.....D6 FEATURE ...............C3 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........D6 LOTTERIES ............A2 NATION..................B6 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 WORLD .................B7
INDEX
AP Photo
Civil War re-enactors fire a salute as spectators cover their ears during the Labor Day parade in Newtown, Conn., held Oct. 9, 2011.
See NEWTOWN, Page A3