Clip-on device lets pet owners track their four-legged friends’ exercise Tech, A-8
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191 state workers lost vehicle privileges in FY ’13 Reasons for suspensions in fiscal year 2013 Did not provide a current DDC for audit: 23
Revoked license: 19
Expired driver’s license: 16 Invalid DDC: 6 Administrative actions: 5 No reason stated: 4
Suspended license: 54 Defensive driving certificate (DDC) expired: 56
Did not provide a current DR for audit: 3 Arrested for DWI: 2
Expired license/interlock; has a provisional/ restricted license; issued a DWI citation: 1 each
Voters deserve better at the polls
Health department tops list with 43 suspensions By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
The Public Regulation Commission’s chief of staff and a state deputy fire marshal recently lost their privileges to drive state vehicles for a few weeks, but they’re definitely not alone. “Unfortunately, we have to suspend driving privileges fairly frequently,” said Ed Burckle, Cabinet secretary of the New
Mexico General Services Department. From July 1, 2013, to April 23, 2014, a total of 191 state employees had their government vehicle driving privileges temporarily suspended for various infractions, from driving with revoked licenses to drunken-driving arrests, according to information provided by the General Services Department, which oversees the state’s vehicle fleet. Of the total, 43 Department of Health employees had their driving privileges suspended, 34 were Taxation
Please see VEHICLE, Page A-4
Historic day of 4 popes Francis, Benedict XVI celebrate together as predecessors become saints
M
ariaelena Johnson cannot forget the 2012 election, a chilly night when more than 700 people tried to vote at an understaffed, poorly equipped polling place in the Southern New Mexico town of Chaparral. As the line of voters grew and grew, community members brought chairs and bottles of water to old people who faced a four-hour wait to cast ballots. Soon after, the Milan election judge Simonich from the Otero Ringside Seat County Clerk’s Office called the sheriff, reporting that a large, “unruly” crowd had to be brought under control. Eight sheriff’s deputies descended on the polling place. They put yellow police tape around the building, and the night air turned thick with tension. Voters and those providing them with seats and water were mostly Democrats from low-income neighborhoods. Johnson said deputies threatened people with arrest, although she and the others had committed no crime. She said their only interest was providing a bit of comfort to voters stranded in line. Her parents, both in their late 80s, were among them. The continued presence of sheriff’s deputies intimidated some voters. “Several left the line. Others saw the police tape and they kept on driving instead of trying to vote,” Johnson said. Robyn Holmes, who was the Otero County clerk during the election, said in an interview that sheriff’s deputies often are called to polling places to help with crowd control. Hmmmm. In 35 years of covering elections across the country, I somehow missed all those uniformed officers standing watch over people waiting to vote. As for the yellow crime-scene tape, Holmes said it merely was used to define lines for voters as they waited. Hmmmm. Tommie Herrell, an Otero County commissioner, gave me a different explanation for the deputies’ presence. He said certain voters were targets of “heckling,” and that prompted the call to the sheriff for help. Johnson and countless others dispute this, saying the sheriff was summoned only because the Otero election staff was poorly trained. She said voters were being asked for identification in violation of the law, and that many were wrongly turned away because the staff lacked complete registration lists. The polling place had only had one voting booth and one voter list, even though people from two precincts were voting there.
Please see RINGSIDE, Page A-10
Index
L.A. Clippers protest owner’s remarks Reacting to racist recordings, players in Sunday’s playoff game against the Warriors made a fashion and political statement before losing 118-97. Sports, B-1
Observers held in Ukraine speak Escorted by Pro-Russian militants to a news conference, prisoners insist they’re not spies. Page A-3
Report: 4 in 5 U.S. students graduate Researchers eye higher target even as N.M.’s high school completion rate trails other states’ By Kimberly Hefling The Associated Press
Pope Francis, right, embraces Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI during Sunday’s ceremony in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Francis declared John XXIII and John Paul II saints in an unprecedented canonization ceremony made more historic by the presence of Benedict. L’ Osservatore Romano/The Associated Press
By Daniela Petroff and Nicole Winfield The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY wo 20th-century popes who changed the course of the Catholic Church became saints Sunday as Pope Francis honored John XXIII and John Paul II in a delicate balancing act aimed at bringing together the conservative and progressive wings of the church. As if to drive the message of unity home, Francis invited retired Pope Benedict XVI to join him on the altar of St. Peter’s Square, the first time a reigning and retired pope have celebrated Mass together in public in the 2,000-year history of the church. An estimated 800,000 people — many of them from John Paul’s native Poland — filled St. Peter’s, the streets around it and bridges over the Tiber River, a huge turnout but only half the size of the crowd that came out for John Paul’s 2011 beatification. John reigned from 1958-63 and is a hero to liberal Catholics for having convened the Second Vatican Council. The meetings brought the church into the modern era by allowing Mass to be celebrated in local languages rather than Latin and encouraged greater dialogue with people of other faiths, particularly Jews. During his globe-trotting, quartercentury papacy, John Paul II helped topple communism and invigorated a new generation of Catholics, while his defense of core church teaching on abortion, marriage and other hotbutton issues heartened conservatives after the turbulent 1960s. Benedict was one of John Paul’s closest confidantes and went on to preside over a deeply traditionminded eight-year papacy. His successor Francis seems a pope much more inspired by the pastoral, simple style of the “good pope” John. Yet Francis offered each new saint heartfelt praise in his homily, saying John had allowed himself to be led by God to call the council, and hailing John Paul’s focus on the family. It’s an issue that Francis has
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WASHINGTON — U.S. public high schools have reached a milestone, an 80 percent graduation rate. Yet that still means 1 of every 5 students walks away without a diploma. Citing the progress, researchers are projecting a 90 percent national graduation rate by 2020. Their report, based on Education Department statistics from 2012, was being presented Monday at the Building a GradNation Summit. The growth has been spurred by such factors as a greater awareness of the dropout problem and efforts by districts, states and the federal government to include graduation rates in accountability measures. Among the initiatives are closing “dropout factory” schools.
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Inside u View a state-by-state comparison of graduation rates. Page A-4 Nuns hold up a banner with portraits of Pope John Paul II, left, and John XXIII in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. An estimated 800,000 people — many of them from John Paul’s native Poland — filled St. Peter’s, the streets around it and bridges over the Tiber River for Sunday’s Mass. Emilio Morenatti/The Associated Press
Today Windy with showers. High 60, low 28.
This is such a historic moment. … “Today honors the last 50 years of what God has done in the church.” the Rev. Victor Perez of Houston asked the church as a whole to take up for discussion with a two-year debate starting this fall. “They were priests, bishops and popes of the 20th century,” Francis said. “They lived through the tragic events of that century, but they were not overwhelmed by them.” Benedict put John Paul on the fast-track for possible sainthood just weeks after his 2005 death, responding to the chants of “Santo Subito!” or “Sainthood Now!” that erupted during his funeral Mass. John Paul’s canonization is now the fastest in modern times. John’s sainthood run, on the other hand, languished after his 2000 beatification. Rather than let John Paul have the limelight with a canonization on his own — emboldening many in the conservative wing of the church — Francis decided to pair him up with John. To do so, Francis tweaked the
Vatican’s own saint-making rules, deciding that John could be made a saint alongside John Paul without the necessary second miracle usually required. Francis sounded a note of continuity in his homily, praising John for having called the council and John Paul for helping implement it. “John XXIII and John Paul II cooperated with the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the church in keeping with her pristine features, those features which the saints have given her throughout the centuries,” Francis said. During the ceremony, Francis took a deep breath and paused for a moment before reciting the saint-making formula in Latin, as if moved by the history he was about to make in canonizing two popes at once.
Please see POPES, Page A-4
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Obituaries Harriett L. Smith, 93, La Puebla, April 8 Page A-10
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Southwest Seminars lecture “Mountains, Plains and Foothills: Paleoindian Occupations and Human Adaptations,” by University of Wyoming professor Marcel Kornfeld, 6 p.m., Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta, $12 at the door, 466-2775. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 118 Publication No. 596-440