Playing with food: Show steers kids toward healthy choices Local news, A-6
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BANDELIER: FUNDING CUTS MAKE FUTURE UNCERTAIN FOR ELITE TEAM OF FIREFIGHTERS
Backcountry blaze tamers
9M
public acres that burned in 2012
4,200
homes destroyed by wildfires in 2012
15
firefighters killed
VEHICULAR HOMICIDE
Gurule guilty in crash deaths
Santa Cruz man faces 15 years for collision that killed woman, toddler By Nico Roesler The New Mexican
Drew Benage flush-cuts a tree that burned during the Cerro Grande Fire during a firefighter training exercise Wednesday at the Bandelier National Monument. For more photos, visit http://tinyurl.com/mrj2x9h. Watch a video at http://youtu.be/o_myyolmeek. PHOTOS BY CLYDE MUELLER/THE NEW MEXICAN
Three years after a Santa Cruz man slammed his SUV into a tree near Española, killing a Santa Fe toddler and another passenger, a Rio Arriba County jury on Wednesday found him guilty of two counts of vehicular homicide. The verdict against David Gurule, 40, brought David Gurule a sense closure for the family of 42-year-old passenger Michelle Cota. “Justice, finally, after three years,” Cota’s sister, Paula Macias, said Wednesday. Gurule drove his Suzuki SUV into the tree on N.M. 369, also known as Upper San Pedro Road, just before 11 p.m. May 28, 2010, killing Cota and 18-month-old Zacariah King. Patricia King, the boy’s mother and Gurule’s girlfriend at the time, was also severely injured in the crash.
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By Staci Matlock
The New Mexican
W
ith her feet planted firmly, Michelle Pellette sliced into the gigantic ponderosa pine with a chain saw. After a few minutes, the tree, burned in the 2011 Las Conchas Fire, slowly keeled over, shaking the ground as it landed. Felling trees is just one part of the training for Pellette and her cohorts on the Bandelier National Monument’s wildland fire module. The team is a skilled, all-around fire crew that can hike deep into the backcountry to map fires and do initial attack, completely selfsupported for a few days. They can work for up to two weeks in the backcountry with supplies flown in. The crew members are trained to protect structures as a blaze bares down, as they did when the Las Conchas threatened Bandelier’s park buildings. And they plan prescribed burns and thin trees to reduce fire risks. “We see ourselves as a mobile tactical team,” said module leader Matthew Dutton. The team’s specialty is helping smaller national parks reduce hazardous fuels because they don’t have the money to hire fire staff.
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Pasapick
By Jeri Clausing
The Associated Press
From left, Michelle Pellette, Benage and Cameron Baloag use 20-pound medicine balls to work on upper-body strength training. The three are members of Bandelier’s elite firefighting team.
Obituaries
Mostly sunny. High 93, low 59.
Dennis Andrew Dean, 51, June 8 Magdalena (Mae) Delgado, June 10 Vicenta Josefa Ortiz Martinez, 102, Santa Fe, June 11 Thomas L. Rising, 66, Santa Fe, June 4 Andrew A. Ulibarri, 68, Raton, June 11 Ernest A. Vigil, 83, June 9 Cecil Lee Wilson, 77, Santa Fe, June 9
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Desirée Mays “Opera Unveiled” talk, 7 p.m., Vista Grande Public Library, 14 Avenida Torreon, Eldorado, donations accepted, 466-7323. More events on Page A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Today
Index
Market grows for novel ways to make pet connections
Calendar a-2
Classifieds B-6
Comics B-12
Still raging uncontained, Joroso Fire burns 8,000 acres Crews unable to reach active blaze in rugged territory near Borrego Mesa By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
As a lightning storm lit up the sky over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on Wednesday night, the Jaroso Fire in the Pecos Wilderness continued to grow, burning more than 8,000
Lotteries a-2
Opinion a-11
acres, fire officials said. The smoke billowing from the active fire about six miles southeast of Borrego Mesa has made it hard to map the blaze accurately, officials said. The fire remains zero percent contained. The fire, started by lightning Monday, has plenty of fuel to burn in a heavy layer of dead and downed mixed conifers, pockets of trees killed by bugs and dense stands of live trees. It has made runs toward the Pecos
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Editor: Rob Dean, 986-3033, rdean@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Cynthia Miller, cmiller@sfnewmexican.com
Sports B-1
Baldy peak, Rio Medio and Trailriders Wall. The fire’s activity and the remote, rugged terrain is still preventing ground crews from going in to fight the fire. The area has no roads and few trails. Aircraft continue to dump water as they can around the fire. A Type 1 Incident Managment Team led by Tony Sciacca will take over strategy on the firefighting efforts at 6 a.m. Thursday.
ALBUQUERQUE — It’s the age old and seemingly answerless question: What in the world is my dog thinking? And one that has spawned a growing market, not only of scienInsIDe tific research, but u Local of everything from nonprofit decks of pet tarot matches cards to television veterans and radio shows suffering from PTSD and books by pet with trained psychics and animal shelter dogs. trainers. scOOP, a-9 Whether any one of them can ever provide real answers to what dogs are thinking or what drives their good or bad behavior is a matter of opinion — or belief. But pet owners can spend a lot of time and money trying. And even if they never find a real solution, people who love their dogs admit they can learn to better connect with their pets, or sometimes
Please see PeT, Page A-5 The Original Dog Tarot: Divine The Canine Mind, a tarot card and guidebook set, was developed by Santa Fean Heidi Schulman.
See JOROsO, Page A-4
Time Out a-8
Scoop a-9
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Two sections, 24 pages 164th year, No. 164 Publication No. 596-440