Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 121, No. 98 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
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Those trust funds will now run dry in 2033, according to a report issued by the trustees that oversee the massive retire-
WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of high-tech tycoons wants to mine nearby asteroids, hoping to turn science fiction into real profits. The mega-million dollar plan is to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals like platinum and gold out of the lifeless rocks... - PAGE A5
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ment and disability program. Medicare’s hospital insurance fund is projected to run out of money in 2024, which is unchanged from last year. The trustees, however, said Medicare spending continues to rise. Congress enacted a 2 percent cut in Medicare last year, which is the main reason the trust fund exhaustion date did not
Report of a gun shuts down school
A report of a student with a gun forced faculty and students at Mountain View Middle School into a lockdown around 12:30 p.m., Monday. The lockdown was lifted roughly an hour later after school officials found a toy gun in a student’s backpack. No one was injured. “It was an Airsoft gun. It uses a CO2 cartridge, similar to a pellet gun, and it shoots a round plastic ball, which is considerly bigger than a beebee,” Lt. Britt Snyder, with the Chaves County Sheriff’s Department, said. The Chaves County sheriff’s did not charge the student, reasoning the situation was not criminal. The school will handle the situation and could suspend the student, police said. Usually in these type of situations, it is another student who alerts another individual of the alleged gun, Snyder said.
JULIA BERGMAN RECORD STAFF WRITER
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Brian Dawkins says his head told him to retire, not his neck. The veteran safety called Denver Broncos coach John Fox on Monday morning to tell him that after plenty of prayer and reflection, he’d decided that 16 seasons in the NFL was enough. Then, Dawkins announced his retirement on Twitter, where he quickly began... - PAGE B1
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Receiving minimal support from its audience, members of the Trap Free New Mexico Coalition spoke to a group of heated individuals, comprised largely of ranchers, far mers, hunters, and trappers, advocating for the banning of trapping on public lands, in Roswell, Monday evening. The coalition has embarked on an eight city tour to infor m citizens about what it perceives as trapping’s flaws. The ban would af fect around 50 percent of New Mexico’s land, and would only apply to public land, according to Mary Katherine Ray, of the Sierra Club. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish sells around 2,000 trapping licenses annually. This number can also be recognized as one tenth of one percent of the state’s population, Phil Carter, with
advance. If the Social Security and Medicare funds ever become exhausted, the nation’s two biggest benefit programs would collect only enough money in payroll taxes to pay partial benefits. The trustees said in their annual report that Congress should address the programs as soon as possible, but no action is likely before the November elec-
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tion. “Lawmakers should not delay addressing the longrun financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare,” the trustees wrote. “If they take action sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare.” Social Security’s finances worsened in part because
high energy prices suppressed wages, a trend the trustees see as continuing. The trustees said they expect workers to work fewer hours than previously projected, even after the economy recovers. This year’s cost-of-livingadjustment, or COLA, was also higher than expected. That was good news for seniors, who saw their benSee ECONOMY, Page A3
Mark Wilson Photo
Wes Daniel of Daniel Paint & Paper applies a new coating to the roof of St. Andrews Episcopal Church earlier in the week.
Group gets heated at trapping discussion
DAWKINS HANGS UP HIS CLEATS
APRIL 24, 2011
Economy worsens Social Security’s finances
WASHINGTON (AP) — High energy prices and an economy that has been slow to rebound are worsening Social Security’s finances, shortening the life of the trust funds that support the program by three years, the government said Monday.
COMPANY TO MINE ASTEROIDS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Animal Protection of New Mexico, said. Residents pay $20 for a license and nonresidents pay $345. Neighboring states have effectively put an end to traps on public lands: Arizona in 1994; Colorado in 1996. Hunting continues in these states. These bans were executed through a ballot initiative process. New Mexico lacks this process and instead must utilize a referendum process. Leading up to the July 2011 meeting of the New Mexico Game Commission to review fur bearer rules, the coalition’s member groups organized a petition, receiving 12,000 responses, from individuals statewide, in favor of the ban. At its meeting the commission did not hear a proposal on the banning, but rather voted unanimously to expand trapping across the state. One expansion
Europe’s debt fix falters, rattling markets again FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe’s plan to fix its debt crisis by imposing budget cuts frayed Monday. Heavy selling rocked financial markets, uncertainty gripped two governments, and the economic outlook darkened across the continent. The German stock market suffered its worst day in six weeks. In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 100 points.
Across Europe, the AP Photo debt crisis appeared at its most perilous point since A broker walks in front of the main screen at the stock December, when most of exchange in Madrid, Monday. the continent united behind a plan to place system. New governments “Europe has not solved strict caps on government in Spain and Italy got to its problems, and the spending, a strategy work on improving austerity programs are known as austerity, and growth. making things worse, not the European Central better,” said Peter Morici, Now the first pillar of an economist at the UniBank made the first of two infusions of cheap Europe’s approach — credit into the banking austerity — is faltering. See EUROPE, Page A3
Zamora seeking nomination for NM Court of Appeals See TRAPPING, Page A3
JULIA BERGMAN RECORD STAFF WRITER
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Monica Zamora
Judge Monica Zamora, who serves as a District Court judge in the Children’s Court Division in Albuquerque, says she is seeking the Democratic nomination for the New Mexico Court of Appeals during the primary elections in June. Zamora said she is running, “Primarily because nobody else on the Court of Appeals has experience in juvenile justice or child welfare.” She blames her father Matias A. Zamora, a
former attorney and judge, for igniting her passion in law. Her brothers Diego, who is in private practice, and Gino, the attorney for the city of Santa Fe, also followed in their father’s footsteps. Bor n and raised in Santa Fe, Zamora was educated at the University of New Mexico School of Law. She has practiced in nearly every judicial district statewide. Zamora is admitted to practice before the state courts, the Tenth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. Beginning with personal
injury and wrongful death cases, it was chance that involved Zamora in international adoptions. From there, she began to handle civil rights cases in federal court. “Some pretty extensive practice, what I liked the most about it is that I did not do just plaintif f (work), I did defense work as well,” Zamora said. Zamora was appointed to her current position as a district court judge in November 2005. Her assignment to the children’s court requires her to handle juvenile justice delinquency cases, child welfare, and adoptions. As
an attorney, she has assisted more than 500 families in adopting children. Zamora has gone through the Judicial Selection Commission three times: once for a civil position; once for her current position; and finally for the state Court of Appeals, of which she made the short list.
Assigned to several state Supreme Court committees, Zamora is chair of the Children's Court Rules Committee. Additionally, she serves on the Drug Court Advisory Committee. See ZAMORA, Page A3