12-28-2010

Page 1

Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY

Vol. 119, No. 310 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday

INSIDE NEWS

McWilliams resigns from council

CHICAGO (AP) — Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they’re hoping to retire.

TUESDAY

www.roswell-record.com

JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER

RETIREMENT AT RISK

December 28, 2010

City Councilor Rob McWilliams resigned from his Ward IV position on Roswell City Council only minutes before the petition for removal would have been heard in district court on Monday afternoon. Mayor Del Jurney and the city attorney, Barbara Patterson, filed the petition on Dec. 21, less than a week after officials learned that McWilliams made recordings during closed sessions. Patterson said during her opening statement that resolution had been reached where McWilliams agreed to return any recordings that pertain to the city of Roswell

and abide by a permanent injunction that prevents him from disclosure of infor mation lear ned in closed meetings he attended as a council member. Patterson also presented an order for dismissal of the petition that would have removed him from his elective office. “He resigned which makes the point moot,” she said. The dismissal was made without prejudice which may allow for refiling of a case in the future. District Court Judge Freddie Romero asked McWilliams if he had read the injunction and understood its contents. He said he had. The alleged incidents occurred on Sept. 16, Oct. 14, Oct. 25, and Nov. 11. According to the Dec. 21

petition, items covered during these closed sessions pertained to personnel matters and on-going litigation, which New Mexico law recognizes a governing body may need to discuss in confidence. The petition further stated that McWilliams “had no legal right, authority or warrant of law to release audio recordings from closed meeting sessions of the Roswell City Council.” As the hearing drew to a close, Patterson handed McWilliams the injunction and the motion of dismissal and then offered her hand in a conciliatory gesture. He refused to shake it. In a prepared statement, McWilliams said, “Those in government who hold the golden ticket

will always oppress those who don’t.”

“It was a difficult position for the city,” Jurney said after the hearing. He explained that there were good reasons for confidentiality in government. “It’s not one where we felt we had flexibility.”

He described himself as sad at the loss of the council member.

“McWilliams brought a lot to council,” Jurney said.

The mayor was not ready to discuss what will become of the empty seat, but he said, “The mayor has the prerogative to appoint someone to fill the seat until it comes up for election in March 2012.”

Some may be stuck for days

j.palmer@roswell-record.com

- PAGE A3

TOP 5 WEB

For The Last 24 Hours

• Winterʼs blanket • Community Volunteer Program feeds hundreds • Merry Christmas! • Early Christmases in Chaves County • Perez brings culture, faith to his work with the less fortunate

INSIDE SPORTS AP Photo

DAVID KOENIG AP AIRLINES WRITER An East Coast blizzard that has forced nearly 7,000 flight cancelations will leave many travelers stranded through the end of the week. Runways reopened Monday evening at several major airports in the Northeast. But canceled flights into and out of Philadelphia, New York and Boston left hundreds of thousands of people scrambling for a way

Flights resume in NY after blizzard hits Kevin Fagan, from San Francisco, talks on his phone while an airplane sits motionless on the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Monday.

COYOTES TAME PANTHERS During the summer, the Roswell girls basketball team defeated Gadsden by just two points after the Panthers slowed the pace and dictated the tempo. - PAGE B1

TODAY’S OBITUARIES

• John Frank Dennis • Louie Walter Booth • Cruz Escobar Martinez • Antonio Cruz-Lopez • Jesse D. “Frenchie” Melancon • Annette Mary Leitch • Dale Thommarson • John Thomas Stratford - PAGE A6 and B5

HIGH ...57˚ LOW ....29˚

TODAY’S FORECAST

CLASSIFIEDS..........B5 COMICS.................B3 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8

INDEX

NEW YORK (AP) — Planes began landing again Monday at two of the nation’s busiest airports after a blizzard that clobbered the Northeast with more than 2 feet of snow grounded flights in the New York metropolitan area, stranding thousands of travelers trying to get home after the holidays. A Royal Jordanian flight was the first to arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport, shortly before 7 p.m., said Steve Coleman, of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports. An Air Canada flight from Toronto landed at LaGuardia Airport at about 7:40 p.m. Just before the plane touched down, the captain came over the loudspeaker and informed passengers that it was the first flight to land at LaGuardia since the blizzard hit. “Everyone was clapping toward the end,” said Patrick Wacker, 37, who had been stranded in Toronto for a day while trying to get back to New York after visiting his parents in Frankfurt, Germany.

Wacker and other deplaning passengers said there was some turbulence on landing and the plane had to be towed to the gate because it couldn’t get through the snow on the runway. Flights were expected to begin arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport later in the evening. The storm walloped the Northeast on Sunday, stymieing most means of transportation. Flights were grounded. Buses sputtered to a halt in snow drifts. Trains stopped in their tracks. Taxi drivers abandoned their cabs in the middle of New York’s snow-clogged streets. Even the New York City subway system — usually dependable during a snowstorm — broke down in spots, trapping riders for hours. Snowfall totals included a foot in Tidewater, Va., and Philadelphia, 29 inches in parts of northern New Jersey, 2 feet north of New York City, and more than 18 inches in Boston. Cold, hungry and tired passengers spent the

See STUCK, Page A3

night in airports, train stations and bus depots. Some were given cots and blankets. Others used their luggage as pillows, curled into chairs, or made beds by spreading towels on the floor or overturning the plastic bins used for sending items through airport security. Some airline passengers could be stuck for days. Many planes are booked solid because of the busy holiday season, and airlines are operating fewer flights because of the economic downturn. As bad as the storm was, it could have been worse if it had been an ordinary work day. Children are home from school all week on Christmas vacation, and lots of people had taken off from work. Many youngsters went out and frolicked in the snow, some of them using the sleds they got for Christmas. Many side streets in New York City

Militias stem Pakistani Taliban GOP hopefuls looking to 2012 race WASHINGTON (AP) — This month’s early, under -the-radar campaigning by potential Republican challengers to President Barack Obama is a reminder of something too easily forgotten: Running for president is harder than it looks, and Obama ultimately will stand against a flesh-and-blood nominee certain to make mistakes along the way.

Mitt Romney, T im Pawlenty and other possible GOP candidates stumbled over health care, taxes and other issues in December, even as Obama coped with the harsh political reality stemming from his party’s “shellacking” in last month’s elections. No serious contender

has officially launched a 2012 campaign. But with the Iowa caucuses less than 13 months away, at least a dozen Republicans are jockeying for position, speaking to groups throughout the country, writing op-ed columns and taking potshots at one another. As all politicians learn, the more deeply they delve into contested issues, the likelier they are to stumble. Sen. John Thune, RS.D., got caught in the middle of his party’s quickly changing views about congressional earmarks, the pet projects that some lawmakers sprinkle throughout big spending bills. Earlier

See GOP, Page A3

MATANI, Pakistan (AP) — Tribal militias allied with the gover nment helped block a Taliban advance in this corner of northwest Pakistan close to the Afghan border, but their success has come at a price: the empowerment of untrained, unaccountable private armies that could yet emerge as a threat of their own. Tensions are emerging between authorities and the dozens of militias that they helped to create predominantly in and near the northwest tribal regions. Operating from fortress-like compounds with anti-aircraft guns on the roofs, the militiamen have made it clear that the state now owes them for their sacrifices. They show photos on their cell phones of Taliban they killed and point to the scrubland outside, with graves of relatives who died in the fight. The leader of the largest militia near the town of

See FLIGHTS, Page A3

AP Photo

In this Dec. 9 photo, a Pakistani militant holds his AK-47 while guarding their headquarters in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Matani, a wealthy landowner named Dilawar Khan, war ns that he will stop cooperating with police unless he gets more money and weapons from authorities. Speaking to The Associated Press, he adds what could be a veiled threat to

join the militants. “T ime and time again, the Taliban have contacted us, urging us to change sides,” he said. Another local militia See PAKISTAN, Page A3


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