Rookie quarterback Manziel struggles in n Browns Browns’ loss to Redskins Sports, B-1
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Santa Fe’s new K-7 welcomes students
Business matters Inside the Santa Fe economy New employment numbers for July show nonfarm payrolls in New Mexico surged, with 4,300 positions added over the past 12 months, dropping the jobless rate to 6.6 percent. LOCAL BUSINESS, A-9
Some 500 students in grades K-7 arrived Monday at Nina Otero Community School, and many seemed happy to be first in the school. LOCAL NEWS, A-6
Pot initiative meets signature threshold It’s still unclear whether the initiative to reduce penalties for small amounts of marijuana will appear on the November ballot. PAGE A-6
For N.M.-grown chile, look for the label New certification program gives growers, buyers added pepper protection
Rail Runner claims cost taxpayers nearly $8M Commutertraindidn’tpay insurance premiums until lastmonth,records show By Barry Massey The Associated Press
New Mexico’s commuter rail service has received a free ride while taxpayers have shelled out nearly $8 million to settle damage claims against the Rail Runner Express, according to state records. The Rail Runner, until last month, didn’t pay premiums for the state’s self-insurance program that provides liability coverage for settlements of lawsuits against government agencies. The insurance arrangement represented a little-known subsidy for the state-owned passenger train. The taxpayer-financed liability fund has covered about $7.7 million in settlements involving the Rail Runner, including $4.2 million for wrongful death claims for car-train accidents in Valencia County that killed three people in 2007, according to General Services Department records. Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration started assessing an annual insurance premium on the Rail Runner in the budget year that began last month. The Rail Runner will pay $2 million to cover liability claims up to $3 million. The Rail Runner buys insurance in the private market for claims over that amount. State agencies typically pay for
Please see RAIL RUNNER, Page A-4
Chris Duran Jr., 4, helps his dad with a batch of roasted Hatch green chile Monday at the Los Chile Bros. stand in the Big Lots parking lot on Cerrillos Road. PHOTOS BY LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
By Staci Matlock
Chris Duran and his son roast a batch of green chile. The New Mexico Chile Association launched the voluntary New Mexico Certified Chile program on Monday.
The New Mexican
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hile lovers now have a way to ensure their favorite red or green is bonafide New Mexico grown by looking for a new state label. Chile growers can have their product certified as New Mexico grown, for a price. The New Mexico Chile Association launched the voluntary New Mexico Certified Chile program on Monday. Growers pay $500 a year to have their red and green chile certified as New Mexico grown and to be able to label their products as such. Restaurants and markets can register with the program for free as New Mexico chile vendors. Growers like the Fronzoy family of Chile River Farm in Hatch were
among the first to join the certification program. They think it’s an important way to protect a traditional New Mexico crop and also give buyers a geography lesson. “Too many people have been using the Hatch label to sell their chiles,” said Victoria Fronzoy, who
N.M. team beat odds to win Little League World Series
Pasapick
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it playing in a string of tournaments, oswell’s boys of summer are 70 years old now. said Valdez, a coach and athletic People still talk about how director, who still lives in Roswell. flawless and poised they were in He and his teammates had 1956, when they won started the summer of ’56 the Little League World playing on a field that had Series, the only team from no grass. Chicken wire New Mexico to do so. provided the backstop. Back then, the series “A lot of times before was not a fixture on games, we would have national television as it is to remove tumbleweeds today. Many people didn’t from behind the fence,” even own a television. said Blaine Stribling, the Milan “We didn’t have the catcher, now retired in slightest idea what the Simonich Security, Colo. Little League World Series Ringside Seat Valdez said their uniwas,” said Jim Valdez, who forms were as ragged as was the team’s shortstop. the field, but that didn’t “I don’t think any of us had ever matter. Not having the best of been out of Roswell before.” everything didn’t bother the boys The powerhouse team from the from Roswell in a time more innoLions Hondo Little League simply knew it was on a hot streak that kept Please see ODDS, Page A-4
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helps her cousin Jerry and his son, Shayne Fronzoy, on the farm, which has been in operation since the 1920s. “Hopefully, if people order a hamburger with Hatch green chile they’ll ask if it is really from Hatch.” Crescencio Ochoa, owner of El
Please see CHILE, Page A-4
City panel backs plan to expand radius for patrol cars Contract would allow longer commutes in take-home vehicles By Uriel J. Garcia The New Mexican
A proposal that would allow newly hired Santa Fe police officers to commute in their patrol cars from as far away as 45 miles from the city limits sailed through a city committee Monday. The proposal, part of a new contract negotiated with the police officers’ union, would expand the current 15-mile radius for new hires under current take-home rules. The five-member Finance Committee made only minor changes to various proposals before unanimously endorsing the contract, including the revision of a take-home policy adopted in 2011. Former police chief Ray Rael said at the time that long-range commutes in patrol cars drove up the city’s gas and maintenance costs. Although extending the range for take-home cars was billed by some as a way to help recruit new officers in the face of Santa Fe’s relatively higher living costs, some city officials have said they don’t want to create incentives for police officers to live outside the community they serve. The new policy, if adopted by the full City Council, would apply to officers hired since April 2012. Current rules allow officers hired before April 2012 to drive their patrol cars home within a 60-mile radius of Santa Fe, a standard set in place in 2003 that accommodates officers who prefer to live in com-
Please see CAR, Page A-4
Today A thunderstorm in spots this afternoon. High 84, low 56. PAGE A-12
Obituaries Victor J. Vandersommen, Santa Fe, Aug. 17 PAGE A-8
Militias patrolling border in Texas draw scrutiny fully with the immigrants getting arrested and the Border Patrol advising the militia members “to MISSION, Texas — On a recent properly and promptly” identify moonlit night, Border Patrol agents themselves anytime they encounter began rounding up eight immilaw-enforcement officers. But the grants hiding in and around a canal episode was unsettling enough for near the Rio Grande. A state trooper the Border Patrol to circulate an soon arrived to help. Then out of “issue paper” warning other agents. the darkness emerged seven more The presence of armed militia armed men in fatigues. members working on their own in a Agents assumed the camouflaged region known for human smuggling, crew that joined in pulling the drug smuggling and illegal immigraimmigrants from the canal’s milky tion has added one more variable green waters was a tactical unit to an already complex and tense from the Texas Department of Pub- situation. lic Safety. Only later did they learn Although the Aug. 6 incident in that the men belonged to the Texas Mission resulted in no harm, it’s not Militia, a group that dresses like a hard to imagine deadlier outcomes SWAT team and carries weapons throughout the Rio Grande Valley, but has no law-enforcement training a wide area patrolled by more than or authority of any kind. Please see MILITIAS, Page A-4 The situation ended peaceBy Christopher Sherman The Associated Press
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Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 231 Publication No. 596-440