Roswell Daily Record
Romney tries to stem damage THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 121, No. 225 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama declared Tuesday night the occupant of the Oval Office must “work for everyone, not just for some,” jabbing back at Mitt Romney’s jarring statement that as a candidate, he doesn’t worry about the 47 percent of the country that pays no income taxes.
BACK TO SCHOOL
CHICAGO (AP) — The city’s teachers agreed Tuesday to return to the classroom after more than a week on the picket lines, ending a spiteful stalemate with Mayor Rahm Emanuel over teacher evaluations and job security, two issues at the heart of efforts to reform the nation’s public schools. Union delegates ... - PAGE A2
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INSIDE SPORTS
AP Photo
Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign fundraising event, the first of which reporters' cameras were allowed in, in Salt Lake City, Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — With the eye of an art history major, Steve Sabol filmed the NFL as a ballet and blockbuster movie all in one. Half of the father-son team that revolutionized sports broadcasting, the NFL Films president died Tuesday of brain cancer at age 69 in Moorestown, N.J. He leaves behind a league bigger than ever, its fans enthralled by the plot twists and characters he so deftly chronicled. “Steve Sabol was the creative genius behind the remarkable ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Sandra Wiggins • Mona Marquez • Joe V. Baca - PAGE A9
HIGH ...92˚ LOW ....58˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 FINANCIAL .............B3 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ......A10 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 RELIGION ............B10 STATE ...................A8 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ............A10
INDEX
See DAMAGE, Page A3
WEDNESDAY
MANY NON-TAXPAYERS NOT POOR WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney got the math about right. But when he said 47 percent of Americans pay no income taxes and are “dependent on government,” he blurred together half or more of the entire country, ranging from the nation’s neediest to its middle class, and even some of its richest families.
Forty-six percent of the country’s potential taxpayers — some 76 million — paid no federal income taxes last year, according to a study by the Tax Poli-
cy Center.
While it’s true most of those nonpayers are poor, the numbers include many others who got tax breaks because they are old, have children in college or didn’t owe taxes on interest from state and local bonds. And of those who didn’t write checks to the IRS, 6 in 10 still paid Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, and more than that paid federal excise taxes on items such as gasoline, See TAXES, Page A3
Al-Qaida threatens attacks on US diplomats CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaida’s branch in North Africa on Tuesday called for attacks on U.S. diplomats and an escalation of protests against an anti-Islam video that was produced in the United States and triggered a wave of demonstrations and riots in the Middle East and beyond. While demonstrations have tapered off in nations including Egypt and Tunisia, protests against the film turned violent in Pakistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir and hundreds of people rallied in Indonesia and Thailand. In Kabul, the Afghan capital, a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a mini-bus carrying South African aviation workers to the airport, killing at least 12 people in an attack that a militant group said was revenge for the film Innocence of Muslims, which was made by an Egyptian-born American citizen. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the attack killed eight South Africans, three Afghans and a
See AL-QAIDA, Page A3
STEVE SABOL DEAD AT 69
Romney neither disavowed nor apologized for his remarks, which included an observation that nearly half of the country believe they are victims and entitled to a range of government support. Instead,
September 19, 2012
A motorcycle goes up in flames during a protest in front of the U.S. embassy in Chennai, India, Tuesday.
AP Photo
Xcel offers lighting switch help SW needs power lines to become solar hub JULIA BERGMAN RECORD STAFF WRITER
When after 48 years of business Danny Fulkerson moved his longtime plumbing and heating shop across the street into the old Chevy dealership, he knew he needed to make several upgrades to the building, particularly when it came to its old lighting system. He needed to make a switch. Fulkerson, who owns Fulkerson Services, 1600 W. Second St., received a large incentive to update the equipment thanks to a commercial lighting rebate from Xcel Energy. “We looked at all the advantages, they co-oped in the range of 50 percent of the expenses,” Fulkerson said.
In Roswell, Xcel services around 21,000 customers, ranking it the company’s second largest service area behind Amarillo. And since Jan.1, Xcel has conducted 26 lighting projects in the Roswell area. A total of 64 400-watt metal halides were converted to T8 fluorescent fixtures at the plumbing and heating business. The cost of the project prior to the rebate was $32,418. After the rebate of $18,084, the cost of the project totaled $14,334, or 44 percent in savings. Now, Xcel is encouraging more businesses to apply for the program. Xcel is asking its customers to replace their current T12 fluorescent lighting fixtures, which feature long tubes, with
T8s or T5s, more efficient fixtures, to comply with increasing regulations by the Department of Energy. First announced in 2012, the DOE plans to phase out the T12 lamps. Manufacturers stopped producing T12s in July. “The standards are changing for 2013 and we are no longer going to be of fering such great rebates on (T12s), so we’re trying to motivate and educate customers now to take advantage of See XCEL, Page A3
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Pick any stretch of road slicing through the American Southwest. The sun beats down on the asphalt like nowhere else and heat waves distort the landscape. It’s here, in these open expanses, that experts say is a massive untapped source of energy that could meet the nation’s growing needs. But only if developers can get it out of the desert. Even as renewable power projects get a boost from the federal government, a lack of transmission lines prevent states such as New Mexico — where the sun shines more than 300 days a year — from converting the obvious potential into real watts that can charge smartphones and run air
conditioners thousands of miles away. Aside from Phoenix, the nation’s sixth-largest city, and Las Vegas, which glows around the clock, the region’s rural stretches — the ideal places for acres of solar panels — have few energy demands. And sending solar power from there to population centers isn’t as simple as loading coal into boxcars and shipping it cross country. “We have incredible renewable energy resources,” U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said during a visit earlier this year to a solar research lab in New Mexico. “The bad news is they’re where there are not many people. We need a distribution system
Martinez: The poor ‘count just as much as anybody else’
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez distanced herself Tuesday from a statement by Mitt Romney that nearly half of Americans believe they are victims dependent upon government. The GOP presidential nominee’s remarks, made to donors at a private fundraiser in May, came to light this week in a video posted online by the magazine Mother Jones.
Asked about the video at a news conference on prison refor m in Albuquerque, Martinez said New Mexico has a lot of people at the poverty level.
“But they count just as much as anybody else,” she said. The state has a strong safety net for those at or below the poverty level, and “that safety net is a good thing,” the governor said. News of the video came a week after new U.S. Census data that showed 22.2 percent of the population of New Mexico was living in poverty in 2011. That was the highest percentage nationally, according to census numbers. “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” Romney is shown
saying in the video. “There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
Romney later said the comments weren’t “elegantly stated” and were spoken “off the cuff.” Martinez, a Republican, is the nation’s only Latina gover nor and serves as honorary co-chair of “Juntos Con Romney.” The group was formed shortly
after Romney won the New Mexico primary in June and guides his campaign on Hispanic outreach. “It doesn’t matter what economic level you come from (or) what kind of jobs you have,” she said Tuesday. “I urge everyone ... that 47 percent, the middle class and the upper class to all get out on Election Day.” While she has supported the nominee, Martinez has also been critical of the tone that GOP presidential candidates took against immigration during the priSee MARTINEZ, Page A3
See SOLAR, Page A2
AP Photo
Gov. Susana Martinez talks to reporters about Mitt Romney’s comments, Tuesday at the University of New Mexico.