Daily Lobo new mexico
wednesday September 17, 2014 | Volume 119 | Issue 23
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Kiss members open Rock & Brews restaurant By Stephen Montoya Legendary rock band Kiss made an appearance in Omaha, Nebraska, on Nov. 30, 1977. A young man from a small farm town found out his friends were going and asked to go with them. His parents said no, and he missed the concert. That young man grew up to become Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, who on Tuesday said he made up for lost time. Berry and a number of military veterans attended a lunch event with Kiss members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley at their newly opened Rock & Brews restaurant located on Montgomery Boulevard. Stanley, who spoke first at a press conference there, said it was an honor to be in Albuquerque for this event, given that Kiss had been here many times before, but for concerts only. “We live in a great country and the people we have to honor are the people that make liberties something that we get to enjoy every day,” Stanley said. Stanley said he and Simmons respect the troops that fight on America’s behalf and want the vets to feel at home at Rock & Brews. “We want everybody in the future to come to Rock & Brews. This is our Rock & Brews, but this is your home,” Stanley said. Gilbert V. Roybal, one of the veterans in attendance, said he has been a Kiss fan for many years and felt honored they invited him to the luncheon. “What they are putting up for the veterans, it’s outstanding, and I would like to see more businesses doing this for our troops,” Roybal said. There are a lot of veterans who appreciate being honored and recognized like this, he said. “I volunteered for the Marine Corps, because in those days in the 1960s, you either got drafted or volunteered because you’re going anyway,” Roybal said. After volunteering, Roybal was sent to Da Nang, Vietnam,
William Aranda / Daily Lobo / @_WilliamAranda
Mayor Richard Berry, left, shakes hands with Kiss guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley, center, after Stanley cuts the ribbon for the grand opening of Rock & Brews, along with Kiss bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, far right, on Tuesday morning. Rock & Brews is a rock ‘n’ roll-themed family restaurant co-owned by Stanley and Simmons, along with Michael Zislis and brothers Dave and Dell Furano.
for an entire year in 1965, he said. “This kind of thing helps heal us guys who were really entrenched in the war,” Roybal said. “I only did one tour but there were many of my friends who did two or three tours.” Rock music is most definitely not dead especially with Kiss being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he said. Stanley and Simmons spoke to the crowd of servicemen and women after presenting the Veterans
Administration Health Care System with a $30,000 donation in the form of a huge check. “Short and sweet, America is nothing without its men and women in uniform. God bless you all,” Simmons said. Stanley wants people to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to helping our veterans, he said. “Nobody can do everything for you that you deserve, but we want to
make sure that everybody realizes it’s time for them to dig into their pockets,” Stanley said. “People talk about ‘give until it hurts.’ We say ‘give until it feels good.’” Scott Evans, retired Marine veteran, said he served from 1987 to 1991 but rejoined the National Guard after 9/11. “I was driving a truck for Schwan’s when the attacks happened … I was getting ready to go to work and it looked like a random ac-
cident at first. Then everything unfolded,” Evans said. The VA sent a letter to Evans letting him know that he was invited to this special event, he said. “I’ve just started to get some of the treatment stuff done for posttraumatic stress disorder, and some health issues that I brought to their attention,” Evans said. “It was more concern on what might
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Scams target international students Grant helps launch new ECHO progam By Daniel Montaño
Scams targeting international students are on the rise, and at least one student has paid the price this semester. Recently, an international student, who asked not to be named, was convinced to give up $280 to someone who claimed to be from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and at least two other people were contacted by the same person, said Linda Melville, associate director for international student and scholar services for the Global Education Office. Although these scams have been happening for years, they have recently been increasing, she said. “This is not the first time,” Melville said. “It’s gotten really bad in the last two years.” In this latest scam, someone claiming to be from USCIS will call the potential victim and say there has been a problem processing the student’s immigration paperwork, and
that they need to pay a fee to fix the problem, she said. This time the scammer had the students’ personal information, including their passport number, the day they entered the United States, their email address and their date of birth, lending credibility. “Obviously, people who are new to the U.S. are an easy mark,” Melville said. “The U.S. is pretty difficult to get into and there’s a lot of officiousness and bureaucracy, and they don’t know that’s not what’s normal.” The victim in this case said the person who called him claimed the student’s fingerprints and pictures, which were taken when he first entered the country, were processed incorrectly and that the victim would have to pay for everything to be reprocessed, but would be reimbursed. The phone number on the victim’s caller ID matched that of USCIS’s customer service number, so the victim was willing to hand over the money, which he was told to do by purchasing a prepaid debit card and then providing the scammer with the card number, the victim said.
“I don’t know the procedure,” the victim said. “And they were calling from the customer service number, so I gave them the payment.” After sending the initial payment demanded by the scammers, the victim then received a call asking for an additional $749. That is when the victim went to the police. According to the UNMPD report, the victim called the scammers, who identified themselves as either Sean Morris or simply Kevin, and handed the phone over to a police officer. The officer advised the scammers that the situation had been reported to the police and was told by the scammers “you f*** yourself and tell that other motherf***** to stop calling me,” according to the report. The money paid to the scammers will not be reimbursed, the victim said. “After all that, I felt like I did something wrong,” the victim said. “So I’m very frustrated” Melville said she has spoken with representatives of the FBI, who said these scams are a nationwide
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By Sayyed Shah
With the help of a $6.4 million grant received from Helmsley Charitable Trust, UNM’s Project ECHO has begun the first phase of its Endo ECHO program to fight against diabetes in New Mexico. Matthew Bouchonville, medical director of the Endocrinology TeleECHO Clinic, said Endocrinology experts will be tracking various diabetes-related outcomes during the three-year pilot project. “We are excited to get started and grateful that the Helmsley Charitable Trust saw the potential for the ECHO model to expand capacity to deliver the best care possible for patients with complex diabetes and other endocrinologic disorders,” Bouchonville said. As part of the project, a panel of specialists, including an adult endocrinologist, a pediatric endocrinologist, a nephrologist, a psychiatrist, social worker and other health workers, will provide weekly “tele-mentoring” — delivering
endocrine related training and receiving case presentations — to rural primary care clinicians at eight Endo ECHO Centers of Excellence around the state. “The goal during this period of time is to develop expertise in these individuals in managing patients with complex diabetes and other endocrinologic disorders such as thyroid and metabolic bone disease,” he said. “Each Endocrine Champion (trainee) is partnered with a community health worker who follows the diabetic patients very closely, providing health coaching and motivating behavior change.” Bouchonville said the team has partnered with eight clinics around the state of New Mexico and have started in-person trainings. “The trainings will be followed in the near future with weekly telementoring with the upcoming launch of the Endocrinology TeleECHO Clinic,” he said.
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