Roswell Daily Record
House OKs $5B state budget
Vol. 121, No. 34 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
SANTA FE (AP) — The House on Wednesday gave bipartisan support to a proposed budget that will spend $5.6 billion on public education and other government programs next year, and provide for higher take-home pay for educators and state workers.
GA. COUNTY BUYS PARADISE GARDEN
ATLANTA (AP) — A northwest Georgia county has bought the garden where the late folk artist Howard Finster held court for tourists and art lovers from around the world. Chattooga County, where Paradise Garden has been based since Finster began building it in 1961, - PAGE B6
The measure heads to the Senate for consideration after clearing the House with the backing of all 70 Democrats and Republicans.
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
February 9, 2012
THURSDAY
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The measure calls for a $215 million, or nearly 4 percent, increase in spending out of the state’s main budget account in the fiscal year that starts July 1. The budget doesn’t spend all available revenues, making it possible for lawmakers to cut taxes or provide more money for programs before a final agreement is reached with the Senate on the spending blueprint. The budget allocates nearly $50 million for high-
Pardon our dust
er government payments into public employee pensions next year, allowing worker contributions to drop by a similar amount. That pension change will boost the take-home pay of public employees for the first time since 2008, when the state began struggling with budget shortfalls as the economy deteriorated. The budget doesn’t provide for a direct salary increase See BUDGET, Page A3
IMMIGRANT LICENSE REPEAL CLEARS HOUSE SANTA FE (AP) — House lawmakers voted Wednesday to repeal a state law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses setting up a showdown with the state Senate where a similar measure died last year. By a vote of 45 to 25, the full 70-member House approved the repeal of the law that Republican Gov.
Santorum: What now?
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
• Daredevil plans 23 mile plunge • Medipot seminar set for Roswell, March 3 • Adair: Senate Dems stalling • RFC: Cut back 50% • Roswell girls top Artesia, 64-45
INSIDE SPORTS
Mark Wilson Photo
Construction workers continue the process of remodeling the Allsup’s convenience store at 2501 N. Main, Wednesday.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — In what Robert Louis Stevenson called “the most felicitous meeting of land and sea,” the sea was winning Wednesday at Pebble Beach. Jimmy Walker stood in the bunker next to the sea wall along the 18th fairway, soaking up the scenery. Every 15 seconds, waves crashed into the rocks and sent a spectacular splash of white surf some 15 feet high. There was so much salt water in the front of the bunker that the father ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S • • • •
OBITUARIES
Vicente Gallegos Donald Plotner Marilyn Easterling Cleo Irene Pickering - PAGE A6
He was away from his friends, family and wife for a year — and although he’s safely back home, for this local Marine, the mission is not quite accomplished. On Jan. 11, 2011, Sgt. Jarrod Staab, now 26, began a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. He is now in his native Roswell, after several weeks of debriefing at Camp LeJeune, N.C. “It feels very good to come back to society,” Staab said. “Nothing beats it.” The son of Richard Staab and Brendalyn Porter, both of Alamogordo, Jarrod graduated from Goddard High School in 2004. He married his high school sweetheart, Martha Urquides, Dec. 28, 2007. Earlier that year, he enlisted for military service. He said he enlisted to ensure a good career that
Courtesy Photo
Marine Corps Sgt. Jarrod Staab.
would help him care for his new bride. He became a Marine, specifically, to depart from custom — his father had been in the Army and the Air Force. See STAAB, Page A3
ALLEN, Texas (AP) — One day after Rick Santorum’s startling breakthrough in the presidential race, his few aides decamped to distant states to start building campaign organizations from scratch. It was evidence of his challenge in converting sudden momentum into victories in the rush of contests ahead. To replenish his coffers, Santorum arranged a weekend of fundraising events in California. He plans to start campaigning in Washington state on Monday, and then Ohio and Michigan in the following days. At the same time, aides conceded he was making little or no effort in the caucuses in Maine that end this weekend, and they are still working on plans for competing in primaries in Michigan and Arizona on Feb. 28, as well as the delegate-rich, 10-state Super Tuesday a See SANTORUM, Page A3
MAFRAQ, Jordan (AP) — Every day, rockets and mortars fired by regime forces rattle the streets of Homs. Ar med rebels ambush government military checkpoints. Hatreds brew on either side of the avenues that divide the bloodstained Syrian city. Homs has become the focus of the worst violence of the 11-month-old uprising, which appears to be morphing into a civil war with fearsome sectarian overtones. Syria’s third-largest city has become the major center AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees in Syria of both resistance and reprisal, fueled in part by A damaged house from the Syrian government forces increasingly bold army shelling in Homs province, Wednesday. defectors who want to bring down President gover nment forces for again opening fire in an Bashar Assad’s autocratic nearly a year. Homs now offensive that began early is a powerful symbol of Saturday to root out regime by force. pockets of resistance and the revolution. Early in the uprising, retake control of an area With many neighbor- that holds great strategic residents tried to recreate the fervor of Egypt’s hoods outside gover nTahrir Square, only to ment control, the regime’s face siege upon siege by tanks and snipers are See SYRIA, Page A3
Krumland to build Nissan dealership GOP takes aim at child tax
HIGH ...54˚ LOW ....34˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 ENTERTAINMENT.....B6 FINANCIAL .............B5 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
See LICENSE, Page A3
Staab home on leave Homs focus of Syria’s uprising VANESSA KAHIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
A ‘TIGER’ ON THE ‘BEACH’
Susana Martinez has pushed to end and immigrant rights groups around the state have rallied to defend. But the fate of the bill remained unclear because Democrats, who largely oppose the repeal, hold a stronger majority in the Senate than in the House.
INDEX
Mark Wilson Photo
Tom Krumland, left, of Krumland Auto Group, leads in groundbreaking ceremonies for the fourth Krumland dealership, Roswell Nissan, Wednesday morning.
NOAH VERNAU RECORD STAFF WRITER
Krumland Auto Group held its groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for Roswell Nissan, a dealership that will sit on about
four and a half acres at 2111 W. Second St. Tom Krumland, owner, said the facility will open before the end of the year. “I feel good, we’re so blessed,” said Krumland. “We’re lucky that we have a great country that we
live in, and God has blessed us with good business. So it’s a good day.” Krumland said he believes the new dealership, which will create more than 40 jobs, benefits the entire Roswell community. “This is only part of it,” Krumland said. “It’s just not the groundbreaking that makes it a good day. I think it’s a good day for Roswell as well.” TNT Construction designed plans for the building and will be doing the construction. Toby Gross, qualifying partner for TNT, said the $5 million project will result in a single-story, 23,000square-foot facility. “We’re putting a lot of people to work today,” Gross said. “Bringing a
See AUTO, Page A2
break for illegal immigrants
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are looking to deny child tax credits to illegal immigrants — refund checks averaging $1,800 a family — in an effort that has roused anger among Hispanics and some Democratic lawmakers. The proposal, which would require people who claim the federal credit to have Social Security numbers to prove they’re legal workers, is being offered as a way to help pay for extending the Social Security tax cut for most American wage-earners. It would trim federal spending by about $10 billion over a decade. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada says the proposal unfairly goes after the children of poor Hispanic workers. Such kids often are U.S. citizens, even when their parents aren’t, because they were
born in this country. Says Leticia Miranda, senior policy adviser of the National Council of La Raza, “People who are making close to the minimum wage and are raising children in this country — and we’re asking them to pay for the payroll tax cut?” She says, “It’s outrageous and it’s crazy.” On the other side, Republicans and some Democrats say what’s crazy is even having a debate over whether the government should be cutting checks to people who have sneaked into the country illegally. It’s hard to imagine there isn’t a healthy majority, even in the Democratic-controlled Senate, to stop the practice — if it’s actually brought to a vote. “We have rules about tax credits and benefits, and it See GOP, Page A2