Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 122, No. 22 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
NEW SEC HEAD
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday nominated Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney who built a reputation prosecuting white-collar criminals, terrorists and mobsters, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency has a lead role in implementing changes on Wall Street. - PAGE B4
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
January 25, 2013
Uproar over rape victims abortion bill
SANTA FE (AP) — Women’s rights groups and Democrats condemned a New Mexico Republican’s proposal on Thursday that they say could lead to felony charges against rape victims seeking an abortion, but the legislator maintained her measure was being misrepresented. Rep. Cathrynn Brown of Carlsbad said she’ll revise the legislation and had intended to make it a crime for a rapist in cases of incest to force a pregnant victim to have an abortion or to arrange for the abor-
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tion. She said her proposal “was never intended to punish or criminalize rape victims.” The bill says the crime of evidence tampering “shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime.” New Mexico Democratic Party chairman Javier Gonzales called it an “atrocious piece of legislation.”
New Mexico Democratic Party chairman Javier Gonzales called it an “atrocious piece of legislation.”
“This bill is wrong, and should never see the light of day in any legislature in this country, let alone New Mexico,” said Gonzales. “The war on women in America has to stop. No woman should ever be forced to carry a child for ‘evidence,’ plain and simple.” The legislation was guaranteed to face strong oppo-
sition in the Democraticcontrolled Legislature, which historically has rejected proposals to restrict abortion rights. “This bill, which is nothing but anther extremist attempt to limit abortion, would require counselors, medical professionals, law enforcement and prosecutors to re-traumatize a rape survivor by limiting the
HS grad rate 70%
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INSIDE SPORTS
Mark Wilson Photo
Pecos offers salad bar option for lunch Students at Pecos Elementary line up at the school’s new salad bar for a nourishing lunch, Thursday.
NOAH VERNAU RECORD STAFF WRITER
Pecos Elementary students are welcoming some colorful choices in their school lunch menu thanks to a new salad bar introduced last week. Pecos is the first
LEWIS’ LAST GAME
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — For weeks, no one could determine when The Ray Lewis Retirement Tour would draw to a close. Since Lewis announced on Jan. 2 his “last ride” in the NFL would coincide with the end of the Ravens’ postseason run, there was the possibility that each game would be his last. Now, after successful stops in Denver and New England, there is no longer any doubt: Win or lose, Lewis will perform ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Aurelia Gonzales • Grace Bailey • Guadalupe Vazquez • Stanley Duke • Eileen Reidy • Robert Brewington Sr. • Debra S. Witcher - PAGE A6, A7
HIGH ...67˚ LOW ....42˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B5 COMICS.................B3 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B5 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
elementary school to provide a salad bar in the Roswell Independent School District. The school, home to approximately 400 students, introduced the salad bar to its fifth-grade students this past Wednesday before including third- and fourth-grade
options available to her,” said Joan Lamunyon Sanford, executive director of the New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Brown said, “I am very sad that people would misrepresent what this bill does. It’s designed to go after rapists and stop them. That’s all it does.” Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico, a liberal group, said the bill “turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state.”
students Monday. Dr. Barbara R yan, principal at Pecos, said Thursday that if all goes well, the salad bar will be available to grades 1-5 as early as next week. “It gives them healthier choicSee PECOS, Page A3
RIO RANCHO (AP) — New Mexico’s four-year high school graduation rate jumped to 70 percent just a year after federal data showed the state’s 63 percent rate was one of the worst in the nation, Gov. Susana Martinez announced Thursday. Speaking in front of students from Rio Rancho High School, Martinez called the seven-point spike a “mile marker” and said the improvement in just a year’s time was evidence that New Mexico schools could provide the needed services to help students graduate. “While we have a long way to go ... I do believe the schools all across our state have taken on the challenge of keeping our young people in high school,” Martinez said. “And I think our students are responding well to the high expectations.” Martinez said the state’s “A through F” grading system paired with preventative measures helped schools improve student achievement. In addition to an overall graduation rate spike, state officials reported that graduate rates also increased for Latino and American Indian students and students with disabilities. For
Pentagon ends ban Pioneer hosts ILEA reception on women in combat
WASHINGTON (AP) — Women in the military must have the same opportunities as men to take on grueling and dangerous combat jobs, whether loading 50-pound artillery shells or joining commando raids to take out terrorists, defense leaders declared Thursday as they ordered a quarter -million positions open to service members regardless of gender. As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, signed an order wiping away generations of limits on women fighting for their country, the military services said they would begin a sweep-
ing review of the physical requirements. At the same time they acknowledged that women have been fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a decade. Women make up about 14 percent of the 1.4 million active U.S. military personnel. More than 280,000 women have been sent to Iraq, Afghanistan or neighboring nations in support of the wars. Of the more than 6,600 U.S. service members who have been killed, 152 have been women. The leaders said no physical standards will be low-
See GRAD RATE, Page A3
ILISSA GILMORE RECORD STAFF WRITER
Pioneer Bank hosted a welcome reception Thursday for International Law Enforcement Academy — Roswell’s latest group of delegates: more than 60 law enforcement officials from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Chile and Peru. The delegates range in experience and are highranking officials such as officers, judges and prosecutors. They are part of two separate ILEARoswell programs, said See ILEA, Page A2
Mark Wilson Photo
Members of the Peruvian National Police arrive at Pioneer Bank for a welcome reception for the International Law Enforcement Academy, Thursday evening.
Sierra spotlights Builders Club Dems push assault See COMBAT, Page A3
NOAH VERNAU RECORD STAFF WRITER
Eighteen students at Sierra Middle School received their Kiwanis Builders Club membership pins Thursday morning in a special ceremony that highlighted the accomplishments the club made in its first year. Sierra’s first-ever Builders Club is made up of seventh- and eighthgrade students whose stated mission is to help Mark Wilson Photo and serve its school and Brianna Salvarrey receives a special pin during a Sierra the community. Middle School Kiwanis Builders Club pinning ceremony for monies raised for a variety of causes, Thursday. See SIERRA, Page A3
weapons legislation WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like those used in the school massacre at Newtown, Conn., even as they acknowledged an uphill battle getting the measures through a divided Congress.
The group led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called on the public to get behind their effort, saying that is the only way they will prevail over opposition from the well-organized National Rifle Association
and its congressional allies. “This is really an uphill road. If anyone asked today, ‘Can you win this?’ the answer is, ‘We don’t know, it’s so uphill,’” Feinstein said at a Capitol Hill press conference backed by police chiefs, mayors and crime victims. “There is one great hope out there. And that is you, because you are stronger than the gun lobby. You are stronger than the gun manufacturers. But only if you stand up.” Feinstein’s legislation See DEMS, Page A3