Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 121, No. 283 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
November 25, 2012
State overhauling insurance regulation
SANTA FE (AP) — As New Mexico prepares to enroll tens of thousands of people into health plans, the state is revamping the government regulator that oversees insurance prices and policies.
‘DALLAS’
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Under a constitutional change approved by voters this month, the regulation of insurance companies will no longer be a responsibility of the five-member elected Public Regulation Commission. Instead there will
SUNDAY
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“This is going to be a huge jump in what we’re doing and how we’re insuring everybody,” said Insurance Superintendent John Franchini.
be an appointed regulator who will run the independent Office of the Superintendent of Insurance starting next July.
The changes are part of the most significant regulatory overhaul since the PRC was created by a 1996 constitutional amendment merging two regulatory
agencies. If that wasn’t enough, the regulatory restructure comes as New Mexico and other states grapple with health insurance reforms required by a 2010 federal law.
It’s the job of the Legislature early next year to decide details of the new regulatory system. Law-
makers will determine the membership of a commission that appoints the insurance superintendent and legislators must establish the qualifications for who serves as the top insurance regulator.
“The governor and Legislature are going to have to come together on this because the governor has the veto. They’ll have to work together with us to develop a bill that works for everyone,” said Fred
STAR HAGMAN J.R. Ewing was a business cheat, faithless husband and bottomless well of corruption. Yet with his sparkling grin, Larry Hagman masterfully created the charmingly loathsome oil baron — and coaxed forth a Texas-size gusher of ratings — on television’s longrunning and hugely successful nighttime soap, “Dallas.” Although he first gained ... - PAGE A2
DIES AT 81
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INSIDE SPORTS
Mark Wilson Photo
Wonderful wares at Xmas crafts fair Holiday shoppers attending the 30th annual Christmas Fantasy arts & crafts fair at the Roswell Convention Center visit Jocay Crystals booth and its array of nightlights, Friday.
ILISSA GILMORE RECORD STAFF WRITER
Makers of all kinds plied their wares Friday and Saturday during the
GATEWAY WINS SECOND STRAIGHT TITLE
Teams talk all the time about setting the tone early and, on Tatum’s first drive of the 8-Man state championship against Gateway Christian on Saturday, the Coyotes did just that. Tatum ate up the first 8 minutes and 14 seconds of ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S • • • • • • • • •
OBITUARIES
James Matheny Sophie Montoya Modean Stone Cresencio Jaramillo Betty Jean Finley James McKibben Roy M. Jones Jr. Barbara Hartford Vonyy Glorya Sanchez - PAGE B5
HIGH ...76˚ LOW ....39˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........D1 COMICS.................C3 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
30th annual Christmas Fantasy arts and crafts fair at the Roswell Convention and Civic Center. This year, the event had as many as 50 vendors from small, independent
DOE manager being replaced at Hanford
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — A top U.S. Department of Energy manager at the Hanford nuclear reservation has been replaced by the manager of the department’s Los Alamos Site office in New Mexico. Olympia native Kevin Smith will take over as manager of DOE’s Hanford Office of River Protection at the end of December, The Tri-City Herald reported. For the past 18 months, Scott Samuelson has been in charge of problem-plagued construction at the Hanford vitrification plant. He’s also been in charge of the tank farms, where 56 million gallons of radioactive waste are held in underground tanks. The management of the office has been marked with turnover, with at least six managers before Smith. Samuelson will return to his previous Energy Department agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration. Smith initially will focus on resolving remaining technical issues at the vitrification plant or Waste Treatment Plant, the Energy Department said. He’ll also work on
businesses throughout New Mexico, as well as west Texas and beyond, said Earl Lusk of Pecos Valley Chile Company. He and his wife, Betty, organized the event.
The show featured many unique items of all varieties, from jewelry, crafts, quilts and foods. See FAIR, Page A3
A deer friend
CAIRO (AP) — Gaza’s ruling Hamas will not stop arming itself because only a strong arsenal, not negotiations, can extract concessions from Israel, the No. 2 in the Islamic militant group told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. The comments by Moussa Abu Marzouk, just three days after the worst bout of Israel-Hamas fighting in four years, signaled trouble ahead for Egyptian-brokered talks between the hostile neighbors on a new border deal. Hamas demands that Israel and Egypt lift all restrictions on the move-
ment of goods and people in and out of the Palestinian territory, which has been buckling under a border blockade since the Islamists seized the territory in 2007. The restrictions have been eased somewhat in recent years, but not enough to allow Gaza’s battered economy to develop.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. However, an Israeli security official said this week that Israel would likely link a significant easing of the blockade to Hamas’ willingness to stop smuggling weapons
The group plans to offer regulatory legislation next year and intends to work with consumer groups and the insurance industry to try to develop a bipartisan measure.
Egypt reformist warns of turmoil
See INSURANCE, Page A3
CAIRO (AP) — Prominent Egyptian democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei warned Saturday of increasing turmoil that could potentially lead to the military stepping in unless the Islamist president rescinds his new, near absolute powers, as the country’s long fragmented opposition sought to unite and rally new protests. Egypt’s liberal and secular forces — long divided, weakened and uncertain amid the rise of Islamist parties to power — are seeking to rally themselves in response to the decrees issued this week by President Mohammed Morsi. The president granted himself sweeping powers to “protect the revolution” and made himself immune to judicial oversight. The judiciary, which was the main target of Morsi’s edicts, pushed back Saturday. The country’s highest body of judges, the Supreme Judicial Council, called his decrees an “unprecedented assault.” Courts in the Mediterranean city of See EGYPT, Page A3
Mark Wilson Photo
Kamryn Hardwick, 4, hugs a reindeer in Santa’s Village at the Roswell Mall, Friday.
Hamas: We will not stop arming ourselves See HANFORD, Page A3
Nathan, executive director of Think New Mexico, a think tank that was a driving force behind the voterapproved proposal for an independent insurance regulator.
into Gaza and producing them there. Abu Marzouk said Saturday that the group would not disarm, arguing that recent Palestinian history has shown that negotiations with Israel lead nowhere unless backed by force. “There is no way to relinquish weapons,” Abu Marzouk said in his office on the outskirts of Cairo. “These weapons protected us and there is no way to stop obtaining and manufacturing them.” Hamas’ founding charter calls for Israel’s destruction, but leaders of the group have also said they are
ready for a long-term ceasefire with the Jewish state. The group is believed to have amassed a large arsenal of thousands of rockets since Israel’s last military offensive in Gaza four years ago. Hamas has been smuggling weapons through tunnels under the border with Egypt, but also claims to have begun manufacturing longer -range rockets in Gaza. During the latest round of fighting, Hamas fired Iranian-made Fajr -5 rockets that came close to Israel’s heartland, including the See GAZA, Page A3
United Way of Chaves County
622-4150 Collected
$325,608 Goal
$500,000
65.1% Of Goal Collected