Rivals James, Duncan set to face off in NBA Finals rematch
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Monday, June 2, 2014
Sports, B-1
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Hagel celebrates POW’s release
Actress Ann B. Davis dies at 88
‘Inquirer’ co-owner dies in jet crash
Defense secretary makes surprise visit to Afghanistan base after Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is freed. PAge A-3
Television star won 2 Emmys before becoming lovable housekeeper Alice on The Brady Bunch. PAge A-12
Lewis Katz, 1 of 7 killed, had just reached deal to help end feud at Philadelphia Inquirer. PAge A-2
Groups want independent assessment of PNM plan
Bipartisan panel seeks safer streets, lower cost
H
e calls his one-man law practice MoeJustice, a mix of old-fashioned idealism and modern marketing. State Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas says all of New Mexico needs more justice, too. He and seven other legislators, four from each major political party, have joined together in hopes of creating a less expensive legal system, one that would be smarter in dealing with crime Milan and punishment. Simonich Maestas, Ringside Seat D-Albuquerque, says a cold killer convicted of second-degree murder faces a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. But a drug seller convicted of a second offense gets a mandatory prison term of 18 years. The system, he says, is inflexible enough to misfire and hurt taxpayers. That’s because a thick-headed drug buyer who accepts his rocks of crack cocaine in five separate baggies can be sentenced as a distributor and end up doing more time than a murderer. The cost of locking up nonviolent criminals is among many issues that Maestas and the other members of the Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee have been studying for the last six months. They have heard hundreds of ideas and opinions about how to unclog prisons and reduce the number of repeat offenders. Their goal is to draft a package of bills that would revamp New Mexico’s criminal laws. Safe streets at a lower price tag is what they envision. Sen. Lisa Torraco, R-Albuquerque, is co-chairing the subcommittee with Maestas. Both are former prosecutors, and they hope their credentials will persuade other legislators to consider changes in the justice system. Sequaria Asbury, whose arrest
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Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Santa Fe Opera backstage tours Behind-the-scenes tours including production and frontof-house areas are offered daily through Aug. 22, 9 a.m., Santa Fe Opera, 301 Opera Drive, $10; seniors $8; no charge for ages 22 and under, 986-5900.
Obituaries Emerita Dolores Wallace Ansley, 83, Las Vegas PAge A-10
Today Warm; plenty of sunshine. High 90, low 57. PAge A-12
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-6
Examiner would weigh in on costs, environmental impact of utility’s power source swap By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
Paula Herrera, cafeteria manager at Gonzales Community School, serves lunch for children participating in Santa Fe Public Schools’ Summer Arts Program. This week, Gonzales and other schools will begin offering free summer meals to children between the ages of 1 to 18, regardless of whether they are public school students. PHOTOS BY LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Summer program offers free meals for children Schools among sites providing food to keep city’s youth from going hungry By Robert Nott
The New Mexican
R
amirez Thomas Elementary School Principal Robin Noble has seen the negative aftereffects when children return to school in August after a summer of not eating right. All of her school’s students participate in the free and reduced-price lunch program, which is a federal indicator of poverty. This summer, however, her school also is one of about 20 sites within the city that will offer free meals to students through Santa Fe Public Schools’ Summer Food Service Program. The program, which starts this week, offers free breakfast and lunch to children between the ages of 1 to 18, even if they do not attend public schools. “The value of these free lunch programs is huge for our families that are struggling to make ends meet,” Noble said. “During the school year, these kids get free breakfast and lunch at school, so you can imagine that it’s quite an expense to do that for a family that lives paycheck to paycheck, or doesn’t have a paycheck at all.”
Maralis Norwood, 9, gets a cup of applesauce at the Gonzales Community School cafeteria Friday.
The summer program is funded entirely by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department. CYFD spokesman Henry Varela said the program last year served about 2 million meals at 690 sites statewide, at a cost of about $6.7 million. Santa Fe Public Schools served more than 1,500 lunches per day and about 700 breakfasts a day last summer, said Betsy Cull, the district’s assistant director of student nutrition. “The economy is not great for a lot of our parents,” Cull said. “We offer two meals that can help a family that may not be able to purchase that food in their home so their kids remain
healthy and nourished.” The food-relief charitable group Feeding America, using 2012 data, reports that 1 in 6 Americans suffer from “food insecurity,” meaning they don’t have enough food for their families. Feeding America’s most recent data shows that nearly 19 percent of New Mexicans deal with food insecurity. A 2013 Food Research and Action Center report listed New Mexico 21st in hunger ratings for 2012. Jennifer Ramo, executive director of the Albuquerquebased nonprofit New Mexico Appleseed, which works to end hunger in the state, said many
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An unusual coalition wants state regulators to appoint an independent examiner to vet a plan by the state’s largest electric utility for replacing electricity from a coal-fired power plant. They want to make sure the plan is the most cost-effective for consumers and minimizes damage to the environment. The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, energy company Southwest Generation and New Mexico Industrial Energy Consumers joined the Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy, Interwest Energy Alliance and the New Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce to ask for an independent auditor May 29. Some of these groups — like the big company trade group New Mexico Industrial Energy Consumers and the green power advocates at New Energy Economy — are most often at loggerheads over energy issues. This time, however, the groups agree an independent monitor is needed to ensure Public Service Company of New Mexico is picking new power resources in a “reasonable, unbiased and competitively fair manner,” according to the motion filed Thursday with the state Public Regulation Commisson. Utility companies like PNM can produce their own electricity from facilities they own or buy it through long-term power purchase agreements. In either case, the costs of the power are passed on to rate payers. In a utility case that many consider one of the most important energy decisions public regulation commissioners will make this year, PNM is asking for approval of a plan to retire two coal-fired units at the San Juan Generating Station near Farmington and replace the power with other resources. The groups asking for an independent monitor think PNM’s plan needs careful scrutiny by a third party. Under the joint proposal, an independent examiner would be selected from a list of qualified candidates provided by PNM but approved by state regulators and the attorney general. PNM would pay for the examiner, who would keep a log of all communications with parties involved in the power-replacement case. PNM’s power-replacement plan grew out of a mandate from the federal government to
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INSIDe u Obama administration to unveil new rule on power plant emmissions. PAge A-4
Al-Qaida has changed shape, but is it weaker? Some say restructured terrorist organization might be even stronger By Deb Riechmann
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Al-Qaida has decentralized, yet it’s unclear whether the terrorist network is weaker and less likely to launch a Sept. 11-style attack against the United States, as President Barack Obama says, or remains potent despite the deaths of several leaders. Obama said in his foreign policy speech last week that the prime threat
Comics B-12
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Crosswords B-7, B-11
comes not from al-Qaida’s core leadership, but from affiliates and extremists with their sights trained on targets in the Middle East and Africa, where they are based. This lessens the possibility of large-scale 9/11-type attacks against America, the president said. “But it heightens the danger of U.S. personnel overseas being attacked, as we saw in Benghazi,” he said, referring to the September 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Experts argue that this restructured al-Qaida is perhaps even stronger than it has been in recent years, and that the potential for attacks on U.S. soil endures.
Life & Science A-7
El Nuevo A-5
Opinions A-11
“We have never been on a path to strategically defeat al-Qaida. All we’ve been able to do is suppress some of its tactical abilities. But strategically, we have never had an effective way of taking it on. That’s why it continues to mutate, adapt and evolve to get stronger,” said David Sedney, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia. Decentralization does not mean weakness, he said. “I think Americans think al-Qaida is no longer a threat — that Osama bin Laden’s death means al-Qaida is not a big thing anymore,” Sedney said. He believes al-Qaida is gaining strength in Pakistan, is stronger in Iraq than it was three or four years ago and
Sports B-1
Tech A-8
Time Out B-11
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is stronger in Syria than it was a year or two ago. “This is a fight about ideology. Al-Qaida is not this leader or that leader or this group or that group,” he said. The experts say al-Qaida today looks less like a wheel with spokes and more like a spider web stringing together like-minded groups. But they believe there are several reasons that those who track al-Qaida warn against complacency. While bin Laden was killed and his leadership team heavily damaged by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, the drawdown of American forces in
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Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 153 Publication No. 596-440