Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 121, No. 137 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
WAR ON LEAKS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees said Thursday they were drafting legislation to further limit who can access highly classified information and possibly impose new penalties for revealing it. The head of the House Intelligence Committee said he will investigate ... - PAGE A2
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
• Mason opens RPL’s reading program • Experience The Roswell Experience • Primary voters narrow fields • If you catch it, you have to touch it • Folklorico espectacular dazzles
INSIDE SPORTS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
June 8, 2012
Feds release fire management strategy
AP Photo
This digital image provided by NASA from the Expedition 31 crew aboard the International Space Station, June 2, shows the smoke associated with wildfires in the Southwest. The lights of the El Paso-Las Cruces area are at left.
Military suicides increase
WASHINGTON (AP) — Suicides are surging among America’s troops, averaging nearly one a day this year — the fastest pace in the nation’s decade of war. The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan — about 50 percent more — according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press. The numbers reflect a military burdened with wartime demands from Iraq and Afghanistan that have taken a greater toll than
FRIDAY
www.rdrnews.com
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Federal officials on Thursday released the latest iteration of their national wildfire management strategy as they deal with limited resources and an active fire season that already has blackened hundreds of square miles in states from New Mexico to Michigan. The U.S Department of Agriculture and the Interior Department have been working for more than a year to develop the strategy. The latest phase covers assessments done for the West, the Northeast and the Southeast that identify population trends, climate changes and different pri-
SWAT training
orities that will help with the creation of action plans due next spring. With the increase in larger, more catastrophic wildfires over the past decade, USDA Under Secretary Harris Sherman told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday that setting priorities will be key. “It’s not going away,” Sherman said of the threat of wildfire. “We’re going to have to be more comprehensive and smarter in how we deal with these issues in the future.” He noted the need for government agencies to be proactive in their efforts to
protect not only property but vital resources such as watersheds that provide drinking water.
Development of the strategy comes as firefighters grapple with overgrown forests and another consecutive year of dry, windy conditions. Currently, they are battling 20 large fires across the country. They range from a few hundred acres in South Dakota to more than 263,500 acres in New Mexico.
The New Mexico blaze has finally stalled at about 412 square miles in the See FIRE, Page A3
Mark Wilson Photo
NM primary turnout 25% County postpones election canvass Doña Ana County, the second largest in the See SUICIDES, Page A3
BELMONT FAVORITE
NEW YORK (AP) — I’ll Have Another went into lockdown on Wednesday, moving into a secured barn shortly after the colt was made the early 4-5 favorite to win the Belmont Stakes in his quest to become the 12th Triple Crown champion and first in 34 years. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was the last of the 12 Belmont horses to arrive at the detention barn, showing up four minutes past the noon check-in deadline. The chestnut colt calmly walked a few hundred yards down a dirt path from where he had been stabled ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARY
• Elfida Chacon - PAGE A6
HIGH ...98˚ LOW ....64˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B5 COMICS.................B3 ENTERTAINMENT.....A8 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 THE WEST ............A6
INDEX
SANTA FE (AP) — Voter turnout in New Mexico’s primary election was below average, with only one in four eligible Democratic and Republican voters casting ballots despite hotly contested races scattered across the state. About 234,000 registered voters participated in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial returns for the U.S. Senate races for both parties. About 25 percent of Democrats and 24 percent of Republicans cast ballots. Turnout has averaged 28 percent in presidential election year primaries in New Mexico since 1996. This year’s preliminary
SWAT team members and new trainees perform mandatory training exercises at the Unity Center, Thursday afternoon.
state, had the lowest turnout at 15 percent. Harding County, the smallest in the state, had the best turnout at 56 percent.
voter participation rate is much lower than in 2008 when turnout was 31 percent and 274,000 GOP and Democratic registered voters cast ballots. There was no Democratic presidential contest in the June 2008 primary because New Mexico held a presidential preference caucus earlier that year. However, the primary featured very competitive races for all three of New Mexico’s congressional
CDC: Older teenagers often text while driving
ATLANTA (AP) — Think your teen would never text while driving? More than half of high school seniors admitted in a government survey that they’ve done just that. It’s the first time the question was asked in a teen poll on risky behavior, and the finding comes amid a renewed federal crackdown on distracted driving. Texting and cellphone use behind the wheel is “a national epidemic,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday. “We need to teach kids, who are the most vulnerable drivers, that texting and driving don’t mix,” LaHood said at a press conference to announce pilot projects in Delaware and California to discourage distracted
driving. In the survey, about 58 percent of high school seniors said they had texted or emailed while driving during the previous month. About 43 percent of high school juniors acknowledged they did the same thing. The findings released Thursday are the first federal statistics on how common the dangerous habit is in teens. Distracted driving deaths are most common in teens, blamed for about 16 percent of teen motor vehicle deaths. Focusing on a cellphone instead of the road leads to delayed reaction times, lane swerves and other lapses with sometimes fatal See TEXT, Page A3
seats because the incumbents ran for an open Senate seat. In the 2010 gubernatorial primary election, voter turnout was 28 percent and nearly 259,000 Democrats and Republicans cast ballots. Typically, a high-profile or hotly contested race draws voters to the polls and that appeared to happen in some portions See PRIMARY, Page A3
The County Commission has recessed until 1:30 p.m., Tuesday. County Clerk Rhoda Coakley told Commissioners Kim Chesser and James Duffey, and Commissioner Kyle Wooton present via phone, making a quorum, Thursday, that the county received 24 provisional ballots cast in Tuesday’s primary election. Seven of these ballots were deemed qualified to be counted. Provisional ballots are used to record a vote when there are questions regarding a voter's eligibility. The commissioners approved Coakley’s request to appoint four members, two Democrats and two
Daily dance-off
Republicans, from the Absentee Board to count the ballots. On Tuesday, the commissioners will address and take action on the canvassing results of the 2012 primary election, to include the tallies of the provisional ballots. With just 10 votes between them, an automatic recount will be conducted in the race between Republican candidates Cliff Pirtle, a Roswell farmer, and Roswell Fire Chief Chad Hamill, for state Senate District 32. Pirtle was named the unof ficial Republican nominee, receiving 1,018 votes to See CANVASS, Page A3
Mark Wilson Photo
Kids at the Roswell Boys & Girls Club compete in their daily dance-off, a regular part of the summer program, Wednesday.