Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 122, No. 114 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
IRS knew tea party targeted in 2011
Referred to by its coordinator as the best golf tournament around, it may be argued that several factors have fine-tuned the details of the annual Elks for Vets Charity Golf Tournament to a “tee.” The four-person scramble tournament kicks off at 8 a.m. on June 1 with a shotgun start at NMMI Golf Course. Perhaps it’s the fact ... - PAGE C1
SUNDAY
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Internal Revenue Service of ficials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general’s report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.
ELKS FOR VETS
May 12, 2013
The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political groups during the
2012 election to see if they were violating their taxexempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.
But on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog’s report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with “Tea Party,” “Patriot” or “9/12 Project”
The IRS said in a statement Saturday that the agency believes the timeline in the IG’s report is correct, and supports what officials said Friday.
in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. The 9-12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck. Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups “immedi-
ately,” the report says. The T reasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The AP obtained part of the draft report, which has been shared with congressional aides.
See IRS, Page A3
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
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“We understand that the matter is currently under review by the inspector general,” Carney said. “If the inspector general finds
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INSIDE
On Saturday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement that President Barack Obama is concerned that “a small number” of IRS employees may have fallen short of the high level of integrity expected of public servants.
Mark Wilson Photo
Charlie Purcell cleans and restores a church bell that had been located in the steeple at St. Peter Church, Friday. The bell, which Purcell estimated to be from the early 1900s, will be displayed on the church lawn.
Roswell-area high school juniors are invited to participate in a weeklong program this summer that promises to provide them with skills in politics, leadership and networking. Veterans Memorial Hall American Legion Post 28 members hope Roswell, Dexter, Hagerman and Lake Arthur students take advantage of the opportunity this year to attend Boys State and Girls State sessions. “It gives them leadership skills to further their education,” said outgoing post commander Santiago Vasquez. “It gives them a year to build on that in their senior year, to see whether they are interested in getting into leadership and politics. And it allows them to meet See BOYS, Page A3
RDRA aids Boy Scouts, GHS AMY VOGELSANG RECORD STAFF WRITER
Did he just call that ball out? That was the question on the mind — and tongue — of the NMMI tennis faithful as they watched a first singles match between the Colts’ Federico Sanchez and Robertson’s David Romero. On match point, Sanchez let loose a forehand that clearly hit the baseline. Romero didn’t see it that way, however and called it out. In a bit of poetic justice, though, the USTA official watching the match overruled the call, which caused Sanchez ... - PAGE B1
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Amy Vogelsang Photo
Fifth-grade Battle of the Books competition contestants commemorate their four months of reading by making and signing stuffed bears and dogs at Enchanted Beary Land on Friday. Back row from left: Halia Stites, Gabby Reyna and Gavin Wakefield; front row from left: Maggi Loudermilk, Mia Huddleston and Kaleigh Chappell.
Del Norte 8 do Book Battle in Silver City AMY VOGELSANG RECORD STAFF WRITER
In a reading challenge like no other, eight fifthgraders from Del Norte Elementary School read 97 books in four months.
Three of those students went on to win third-place medals in the Battle of the Books competition held in Silver City on April 27. Battle of the Books start-
With her open engine and small two seats, the burgundy “T Bucket” was hard to miss. But she was surrounded by other vintage and racing cars as the Roswell Drag Racing Association gathered and displayed vehicles Saturday in order to draw attention so the Boy Scouts and Goddard High School could accomplish some much needed fundraising. RDRA is a local club for people who love cars and racing. Their roughly 50 members enjoy any excuse to display their cars and meet “for a good cause,” said RDRA president Gary Tutten, whose own show car is a pristine black 1932 three-window Ford. As one of many fundraisers the club participates in, the members gathered to help Goddard High School’s leadership
Amy Vogelsang Photo
President of the Roswell Drag Racing Association Gary Tutten shows off his 1932 three-window Ford Saturday as the club helps Goddard High School students raise money for the National Leadership Conference in Nashville. club Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. Juniors Ally Callaway, Stephanie Baker and Julya Rogers qualified for the National Leadership Conference held in Nashville,Tenn., July 7-11, and decided to have a bake sale to help raise money. RDRA did
its part by using classic cars to draw the attention of people driving by. “We try to support everything,” said RDRA member Richard Snow. The club is frequently involved in various fundraisers, not just for
Experts say carbon dioxide record illustrates ‘scary’ trend
INDEX
AP Photo
A flock of geese fly past the smokestacks at the Jeffrey Energy Center coal power plant near Emmett, Kan., at sunset, Dec. 2.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The old saying that “what goes up must come down” doesn’t apply to carbon dioxide pollution in the air,
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which just hit an unnerving milestone. The chief greenhouse gas was measured Thursday at 400 parts per million in Hawaii, a monitoring site that sets the world’s benchmark. It’s a symbolic mark that scientists and environmentalists have been anticipating for years. While this week’s number has garnered all sorts of attention, it is just a daily reading in the month when the chief greenhouse gas peaks in the Northern Hemisphere. It will be lower the rest of the year. This year will probably average around 396 ppm. But not for long — the trend is going up and at faster and faster rates. Within a decade the
world will never see days — even in the cleanest of places on days in the fall when greenhouse gases are at their lowest — when the carbon measurement falls below 400 ppm, said James Butler, director of global monitoring at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Science Research Lab in Boulder, Colo. “The 400 is a reminder that our emissions are not only continuing, but they’re accelerating; that’s a scary thing,” Butler said Saturday. “We’re stuck. We’re going to keep going up.” Carbon dioxide stays in the air for a century, some of it into the thousands of years. And the world carbon dioxide pollution levels
are accelerating yearly. Every second, the world’s smokestacks and cars pump 2.4 million pounds of the heat-trapping gas into the air. Carbon pollution levels that used to be normal for the 20th century are fast becoming history in the 21st century. “It means we are essentially passing one in a whole series of points of no retur n,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University. Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said the momentum in carbon dioxide emissions has the world heading toward and passing 450 ppm. That is the
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level which would essentially mean the world warms another 2 degrees, what scientists think of as dangerous, he said. That 2degree mark is what much of the world’s nations have set as a goal to prevent. “The direction we’ve seen is for blowing through the best benchmark for what’s dangerous change,” Oppenheimer said. And to see what the future is, scientists look to the past. The last time the worldwide carbon level probably hit 400 ppm was about 2 million years ago, said Pieter Tans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. See SCARY, Page A3