Isotopes preview: Conference switch could make an impact Sports, B-1
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4 dead in Fort Hood shooting Dozens gather to remember Boyd
16 wounded in second rampage on base in 5 years; shooter had behavioral health issues, officials say
More than 100 attend Sandia foothills vigil for man fatally shot by Albuquerque police. PAGE A-6
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Adam Goldman and Sari Horwitz
Legal pot inevitable?
An Iraq war veteran who was grappling with mental health issues opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, in an attack that left four people dead and 16 wounded Wednesday afternoon, according to preliminary law
Poll shows majority of Americans believe marijuana will become legal across the nation. PAGE A-10
High court rescinds overall cap on political donations
incident did not appear to be linked to any foreign terrorist organizations. The shooter was among those who died, the officials said. The officials identified the shooter as Army Spec. Ivan Lopez, 34, a military truck driver, who was dressed in his standard-issue green camouflage uniform. Lopez opened fire in two locations on the vast central Texas post, inside a building housing the 1st Medical Brigade and in a facility belonging to the 49th Transportation Battalion.
enforcement and military reports. The gunfire sent tremors of fear across a sprawling Army post still reeling from one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. Many basic details about the shooting remained unclear in the chaotic hours after the first calls for help around 4 p.m., but senior U.S. law enforcement officials said the
The Washington Post
On Los Alamos waste, concerns about oversight First shipment reaches Texas; workers enter WIPP for first time since leak
5-4 decision echoes Citizens United ruling By Adam Liptak
The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday continued its abolition of limits on election spending, striking down a decades-old cap on the total amount any individual can contribute to federal candidates in a two-year election cycle. The ruling, issued near the start of a campaign season, will very likely increase the role money plays in U.S. politics. The 5-4 decision, with the court’s more conservative members in the majority, echoed Citizens United, the 2010 decision that struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions. Wednesday’s decision seemed to alter campaign finance law in subtle but important ways, notably by limiting the kinds of reasons the government can offer to justify laws said to restrict the exercise of First Amendment rights in the form of campaign contributions. The court’s 88-page decision reflected sharply different visions of the meaning of the First Amendment and the role of government in regulating elections, with the majority deeply skeptical of government efforts to control participation in politics, and
Please see CAP, Page A-4
N.M. Dems blast ruling By Steve Terrell The New Mexican
Some Democratic members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation released statements Wednesday blasting a U.S. Supreme Court decision that eliminates a restriction on how much money big campaign donors can spend in an election. The McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission ruling strikes down 40-year-old aggregate limits for political contributors to candidates for federal office. Prior to the ruling, a contributor could only spend up to $123,000 on candidates and party committees during a single election cycle. U.S. Sen. Tom Udall said in a statement Wednesday that the Supreme Court ruling “returns the campaign finance system to Watergate-era rules — the same rules that fostered corruption, outraged voters and prompted campaign finance regulations in the first place.”
Please see DEMS, Page A-4
INSIDE
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-6
Please see SHOOTING, Page A-4
Gov. Susana Martinez, left, and CYFD Secretary Yolanda Deines. SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Child welfare reforms unveiled Policy changes come in response to death of Albuquerque boy By Susan Montoya Bryan The Associated Press
department says the changes were not critical and did not weaken oversight. Workers on Wednesday reentered the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for the first time since the Feb. 14 leak. Wearing anti-contamination suits with powered airbreathing units, two eight-person teams surveyed conditions in the sprawling underground facility and did not detect any airborne contamination, U.S. Department of Energy officials said. The federal officials called it a “critical first step” toward allowing workers to travel farther into the salt bed to identify the suspected source of the release. But officials have yet to give a timeline on when the plant will reopen, forcing the lab and other nuclear facilities to find new places to deposit their radioactive waste. The lab has been under pressure to remove all of its transuranic legacy waste by June 2014 under a deadline set by the state. The first shipment of waste from the lab arrived Wednesday at the facility in
ALBUQUERQUE — Responding to what she called the tragic death of a 9-year-old Albuquerque boy, Gov. Susana Martinez introduced more than a dozen policy changes and directives Wednesday intended to reform the way child abuse cases are investigated in New Mexico. The moves came in response to criticism that the system did not do enough to protect Omaree Varela of Albuquerque, who police said was kicked to death by his mother after previous reports of abuse. Martinez personally reviewed the case and spent the past three months with other state officials, taking a broader look at how child abuse and neglect investigations were being handled. “Omaree died in a manner that no child should ever experience,” the governor said. “He was betrayed by the one person who should have loved him and protected him the most, and that was his mother.” Martinez intends to sign a number of executive orders requiring caseworkers to review police reports and other documents before making any investigative decisions, and to establish child advocacy centers around the state where caseworkers will meet regularly with authorities to investigate reports of child abuse or neglect. Part of the governor’s focus will be on Valencia County, which she
Please see WASTE, Page A-4
Please see REFORMS, Page A-4
Drums containing materials contaminated with radioactive substances are stored in Area G at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2003. NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTOS
By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
L
os Alamos National Laboratory has begun shipping radioactive material to a private waste storage facility in Texas after a radiation leak in February forced the federal nuclear waste repository near Carlsbad to shut down. But a watchdog group worries that the lab’s waste containers are being shipped under a regulatory regime they say has been weakened over the past several years, culminating with a change in 2013 that brought an end to mandatory chemical testing. “In 2013, all of the real inspections of the containers at all the generating sites were stopped,” said Don Hancock, director of the Nuclear Waste Safety program and an administrator at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque. “So almost for the last year, there hasn’t been a requirement for shipments to WIPP [the Carlsbad nuclear waste plant] to have more than paperwork for the containers.”
A New Mexico Department of Transportation inspector monitors radiation around containers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2003.
Environment Department officials confirmed the containers full of plutonium-contaminated lab tools, rags, soil and other materials shipped from LANL to Texas will be inspected under the same protocols instituted last year. But the
Pasapick
Mary Elizabeth Lopez Pacheco, 91, Santa Fe, April 1 Leroy (Arnold) Varela, 54, Pecos, March 29
www.pasatiempomagazine.com
PAGE A-10
Backyard Astronomy
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035
Crosswords A-8, B-7
Lotteries A-2
Partly sunny, breezy and cooler. Clear at night. High 52, low 28.
With temperatures rising and snow melting, runners head for the shady, open spaces of mountain trails.
PAGE A-12
OUTDOORS, B-5
Today
Live presentation in the SFCC Planetarium, followed by an outdoor viewing, 8 p.m., Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Ave., $5 at the door, discounts available, 428-1744.
Comics B-12
Trail runners head for the hills
Obituaries
u Rich donors gain clout. PAGE A-5
Index
Police spent Wednesday night searching his apartment in Killeen, the city that abuts the Army facility. Gen. Mark Milley, the commander of Fort Hood, said the soldier, whom he did not identify by name, served four months in Iraq in 2011. Milley said the shooter “had behavioral health and mental health issues.” He said the soldier, who selfreported a traumatic brain injury and was taking anti-depressants, had
Opinion A-11
Sports B-1
Time Out A-8
Scoop A-9
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