DAILY LOBO new mexico
Taking flight see page 17
thursday
February 3, 2011
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Homeless find reprieve from frigid conditions by Shaun Griswold
So how cold was it?
shaun24@unm.edu
As Tuesday night’s temperatures in Albuquerque dropped to the lowest they’ve been in decades, the city’s homeless shelters were filled to capacity with people looking for a warm bed. Good Shepherd Center representative Charles Schreiner said the establishment’s 100 beds were occupied by the city’s homeless. “Fortunately, the fire department allows us to put 20 people on the floor with sleeping bags in our kitchen,” he said. Joy Junction, which typically provides only overnight lodging, allowed people to stay throughout the day in order to avoid subzero temperatures, a representative said. The center, which can house 300 people a night, dispatched representatives who picked people from the streets and offered blankets, coffee and jackets to homeless refusing shelter. The Albuquerque Fire Department also handed out blankets Tuesday evening and helped those looking for a place to stay find homeless shelters, a spokesperson said. Dozens of people camped outside the Albuquerque Rescue Mission on Wednesday afternoon, and shelters around the city prepared for an influx of people looking for a warm bed. “We get a lot of regular homeless people,” Schreiner said. “They know they can have a clean place to stay.”
Veteran adjusts to life on campus by Eva Dameron
eva.incognito@gmail.com For some student veterans, navigating through a crowded campus is stressful. Joey Diaz, Student Veterans of UNM president, said he knows a student veteran who refuses to walk across Smith Plaza. “Most people don’t see anything wrong with walking through a crowded area,” he said. “Somebody could run at you with a grenade. All they have to do is pull out the handle and you’re dead. As a veteran of the military, because you’ve been exposed to these kinds of situations, it’s always in the back of your head somewhere. ... You just can’t relax, you know?” Diaz, a senior math major, said he plans on teaching high school math after graduating. He also plays drums in the local band Throw the Temple. Six years ago, however, he was building bullets and smart bombs in Japan. “I got there when I was 18. I
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 115
issue 91
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The low temperature Tuesday was 4 degrees, and the high temperature was 28.
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The low for Wednesday was predicted to be 6 below zero. The high was predicted to be 9 degrees, the coldest high temperature on record in February.
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Wednesday’s temperature at 6:15 a.m. was 1 degree. Nov. 27, 1976, was the last time Albuquerque hit a low of 1 degree.
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The all-time recorded low is 17 below zero, which happened Jan. 7, 1971.
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UNM Spokeswoman Carolyn Gonzales said that in her 20 years at UNM, she can’t recall the University ever closing for two straight days during the fall and spring semesters because of inclement weather. Gonzales said UNM will not tack extra days on at the end of the semester.
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Wednesday was the first time the Daily Lobo has not printed since at least the early 1980s.
Source* Temperatures (measured in Fahrenheit) taken at the Sunport going back to 1895. Data provided by the National Weather Service. ~Hunter Riley Justin Boatwright kisses his girlfriend Jenn Janet at the Noon Day Ministry Wednesday night. Noon Day is a shelter for the homeless, and it provides them with housing and blankets, among other necessities. Junfu Han / Daily Lobo
left there when I was 20,” he said. “I spent the prime of my youth in one of the best places in the world. We were kids. We were in a foreign country, and we did everything we wanted.” Although he found time to explore, Diaz worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week. “Learning how to grow up and become an adult by myself was the most challenging part,” he said. “They expect you to be an adult. They don’t give you chances. If you screw up they don’t go, ‘Oh, you’re just an 18-year-old kid.’” Diaz said just because he wasn’t shooting on the front lines doesn’t mean danger wasn’t eminent. He was constantly surrounded by highexplosive material. His safety depended on everyone doing his or her job correctly. If someone walked into the room of 20 mm bullets and forgot to discharge the electrostatic energy from their body, it could ignite a bullet. When flares go off they burn at 2,600 degrees, he said. He said someone set off a flare in one of the shops, killing two people. “In an enclosed building, it’s going to suck the oxygen out of that building so fast that it will literally suck your lungs out of your mouth,” he said. “So danger is relative in
Robert Maes / Daily Lobo U.S. Air Force veteran and student Joey Diaz looks for a vet’s file at the Veterans Resource Center in Mesa Vista Hall on Friday. Diaz spent two years stationed in Japan before coming to UNM.
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Political hell in Haiti
Shooting the nude
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TODAY
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