Roswell Daily Record
Martinez announces state tourism growth numbers Vol. 123, No. 163 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
BY TIMOTHY P. HOWSARE RECORD EDITOR Gov. Susana Martinez admitted she’s among those New Mexicans who have heard about all of the beautiful places in the Land of Enchantment, but has not visited as many as she would like. The New Mexico landscape ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken mesas to high, snowcapped peaks. Flat, arid deserts are contrasted by heavily forested mountain regions. “We really don’t know every corner of our state even though we live here,” she told a small crowd Monday at the Robert H. Goddard Planetarium that
included Mayor Dennis Kintigh and several city councilors. Bor n and raised in El Paso, Texas, Martinez said after graduating law school she began working in Las Cruces as a prosecutor. She hadn’t traveled much out of the southern part of the state, with its “100plus” temperatures, until she campaigned for the state’s top office and subsequently was elected governor. She encouraged everyone in the room to take weekend trips to the state’s beautiful and diverse regions. Martinez was in Roswell Monday to announce that 2013 was the third consecutive year of substantial
Mardi Gras with aliens
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tourism growth in the state. According to figures provided the Office of the Governor, overall spending by visitors increased by 7 percent in 2013, which translates to roughly $300 million in new revenue taken in by New Mexican communities. As a result of this growth, the leisure and hospitality industry was able to create 1,700 new jobs last year, with an additional 700 new jobs already created between January and May of 2014, the governor announced. Attracting out-of-state travelers to New Mexico is See NUMBERS, Page A3
Christina Stock Photo
Most kids at border won’t stay in US
Gov. Susana Martinez visited Roswell Monday to announce an increase in statewide tourism revenues for three consecutive years. She said Roswell has seen a 10 percent spike in its lodgers’ tax revenues so far this year.
Randal Seyler Photo
Members of the Revolutonary Snake Ensemble added a touch of Mardi Gras to Saturday’s UFO Festival Parade of Lights in downtown Roswell. Hundreds turned out to enjoy the lighted parade floats and music, bringing an end to Saturday’s festivities. Officials with the Roswell Convention and Civic Center were still tabulating the number of visitors who came to this year’s festival on Monday. For more photos from the festival, see Page A5.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday that most unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border are unlikely to qualify for humanitarian relief that would prevent them from being sent back to their home countries. The pointed war ning came as the White House finalized a spending request to Congress detailing the additional resources President Barack Obama wants in order to hire more immigration judges and open additional detention facilities to deal with the border crisis. White House officials said they planned to send the more than $2 billion request to lawmakers on Tuesday. White House spokesman Josh Ear nest said that while the administration will allow the immigration review process to take place, officials so far don’t expect many of the children arriving at the border to be able to stay in the U.S. “It’s unlikely that most of
these kids will qualify for humanitarian relief,” Ear nest said. “It means they will not have a legal basis for remaining in this country and will be returned.” Still, it’s unclear how quickly that process will unfold. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson acknowledged Sunday that such proceedings might be long delayed, and he said that coping with floods of unaccompanied minors crossing the border is a legal and humanitarian dilemma for the United States. “Our border is not open to illegal migration, and we are taking a number of steps to address it, including turning people around faster,” Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” At the same time, he said, the administration is “looking at ways to create additional options for dealing with the children in particular, consistent with our laws and our values.”
Rain prompts forests Virgin Galactic partners with NM hotel to lift some restrictions ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Three national forests in New Mexico have decided to lift some fire restrictions thanks to recent rains. The Gila National Forest in souther n New Mexico says it will be lifting its fire restrictions Tuesday morning. That means forest visitors will be able to have campfires again in undeveloped areas across the forest. Forest Supervisor Kelly Russell is still urging visitors to ensure their camp-
fires are cold to the touch before leaving their camp or retiring for the night. On the Cibola National Forest, rangers were taking down closure barriers on the Sandia Ranger District on Monday. The forested area bordering Albuquerque’s eastern edge was closed ahead of the Fourth of July holiday due to high fire danger. The Lincoln National Forest says restrictions there will be lifted Wednesday morning.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors’ deadly ignition switch flaws emerged from an ef fort to improve its cars.
in the spring of 2013. The switches, though, were too loose, touching off events that led to at least 13 deaths, more than 50 crashes and a raft of legal trouble for the Detroit automaker. For mer U.S. Attor ney Anton Valukas, hired by GM in March to investigate the switch problems, told a congressional subcommittee last month that GM wanted each small-car ignition to “feel like it was a European sports car or something.” After years of lagging behind the Japan-
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Virgin Galactic appears to be getting closer to reaching its long-delayed goal of launching tourists into space. The company said Monday it has selected Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces as the preferred hotel for its elite roster of passengers, who will pay $200,000 a person to make the flights from Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic also announced a contract with World Class Gourmet of Las Cruces to provide catering for travelers during their training at Spaceport and said it is relocating more of its staff to New Mexico and will be hiring locally in the
next few months. The company is the anchor tenant in the $209 million futuristic Spaceport America that the state built for Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson to launch his flights from. But the project and Virgin have been plagued by delays. Originally, Branson had said he hoped to launch the flights by the end of 2010. The company is now hoping to begin operations by the end of this year, although its public relations agency said in a statement that the schedule “will ultimately be dictated by safety and
How GM’s ignition switch redesign went wrong As the company began developing new small cars in the late 1990s, it listened to customers who complained about “cheapfeeling” switches that required too much effort to turn. GM set about making switches that would work more smoothly and give drivers the impression that they were better designed, a GM switch engineer testified in a lawsuit deposition
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ese, GM was eager to make better, more competitive small cars. But as it turned out, the new switches in models such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion can unexpectedly slip from “run” to “accessory,” causing engines to stall. That shuts off the power steering, making cars harder to control, and disables air bags in crashes. GM says the problem has caused at least 13 deaths, but some members of Congress put the death toll near 100. The problem led GM to
recall 2.6 million small cars in February, and forced the company to admit it knew about the switch troubles for more than a decade before taking action. It has touched off federal investigations and prodded GM to review other safety issues, leading to 54 recalls this year covering 29 million vehicles.
• CONCEPCION “CONCHA” GARCIA • JOSEPH ANDREW MADRID
• MARGO ROSE MCLAREN • VELMA MALLERNEE • MARTHA BARRINGER
The Associated Press traced the history of the problem using Valukas’ report as well as a deposition of GM switch engineer See GM, Page A3
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
See BORDER, Page A3
readiness — as has always been the case.” The partnership with the hotel, however, addresses concerns about where celebrities and others who can afford the pricey flights will stay while they go through prespace flight training. Early on in spaceport’s development, there was talk of building an ultra-luxury hotel in the area. And about four years ago, when Branson announced he was creating a Virgin hotel brand, he told a hotel conference one of the first ones might be built near spaceport. But that never came to fruition.
AP Photo
In this April 1, file photo, Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., ranking member of the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, holds up a GM ignition switch while she questions General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Capitol Hill in Washington. CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B4
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8