Roswell Daily Record
Merrie Christmas!
Vol. 121, No. 308 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
CHRISTMAS CARD COLLECTION
HANOVER, N.H. (AP) — Take heart, holiday procrastinators: Famed poet Robert Frost once waited until July to get his Christmas cards in the mail. Unlike the flimsy, forgettable cards of today, however, Frost’s cards arguably were worth the wait. - PAGE A6
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
December 25, 2012
TUESDAY
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NORAD tracks Santa’s progress
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AP) — Volunteers have pulled on their Santa hats, and are answering phone lines and monitoring wall-size tracking screens as NORAD T racks Santa begins its 57th annual goodwill mission. The first shift of Santa trackers started taking calls early Monday, telling children — and some adults — when Santa is due at their house. The last shift won’t end until nearly 24 hours later. The volunteers are working from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, home of the North Ameri-
can Aerospace Defense Command. About seven hours into the day, they’d received more than 24,000 calls. Some kids wanted to know more than where Santa was and when he would be at their house. “How old is Santa?” one caller asked. The answer to that one is in the FAQs that NORAD hands out to volunteers, “It’s hard to know for sure, but NORAD intelligence indicates Santa is at least 16 centuries old.” Other questions require the volunteers to think fast: “How do reindeer fly?” “How many elves does Santa have?”
“Does Santa leave presents for dogs?” One little boy from Missouri phoned in to ask what time Santa delivered toys to heaven, said volunteer Jennifer Eckels, who took the call. The boy’s mother got on the line to explain that his sister had died this year. “I think Santa headed there first,” Eckels told him. NORAD suggests its volunteers tell callers that Santa won’t drop off the presents until all the kids in the home are asleep. The
Warm glow on a cold night
See NORAD, Page A3
AP Photo
Lizzie Solano, center, and her sister Sarah take phone calls from children asking where Santa is and when he will deliver presents to their house, during the fifth annual NORAD Tracks Santa Operation, Monday.
Live tree shortage in Cruces
• 7 RHS Key Clubbers play Santa • Some city, county cold cases decades old • Mario Montoya pleads in Jericole Coleman • 2 families receive shopping checks • RHS girls pound Centennial, 57–33
INSIDE SPORTS
Bigger sales, smaller crowds Warmly glowing holiday luminarias greet travelers along North Kentucky Avenue.
GRIDIRON KING
GHS’ David Sweet earned the Roswell Daily Record Gridiron King Award after helping guide the Rockets to the 2012 NMAA Class 4A State Championship. Sweet anchored a Rocket defense that allowed just 9.6 points per game and held opposing teams to just 27 second-half points in 12 games. Sweet was the linchpin of Goddard’s fearsome defensive front and led the team in tackles for loss with 20.5 ...
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
- PAGE B1 • Sally Calzada • Glendel Thurman • Maxine Frankforther - PAGE A6
HIGH ...48˚ LOW ....22˚
NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers who waited until the final days before Christmas were rewarded with big bargains and lighter crowds. But their lastminute deal hunting may hurt stores. Although fresh data on the holiday shopping season won’t be available until Christmas, analysts expect growth from last year to be modest. Several factors have dampened shoppers’ spirits, including fears that the economy could fall off the “fiscal cliff,” triggering tax increases and spending cuts early next year. On Christmas Eve, Taubman Centers, which oper-
ates 28 malls across the country, reported a “very strong weekend.” But many last-minute shoppers in cities including New York, Atlanta and Indianapolis were spending less than they did last year, and taking advantage of big discounts of up to 70 percent that hurt stores’ profits.
Kris Betzold, 40, of Carmel, Ind., was out at the Fashion Mall at Keystone in Indianapolis on Monday looking for deals on toys, and said she’s noticed the sales are “even better now than they were at Thanksgiving.” She said the economy has prompted her and her husband to be
Gotcha, Grich!
INDEX
Courtesy Photo
On Dec. 17, at approximately 4 p.m., New Mexico State Police were summoned to a theft in progress. Officer Stater Clause arrived on scene and found the Grinch in the process of stealing Christmas joy from innocent citizens. Grinch has been the main suspect in numerous thefts of holiday spirit. He is also suspected of spreading uncaring, selfish and greedy attitudes to others. Officer Claus arrested Grinch without incident. He will be booked in to the South Pole Detention Center. Capt. Dina Orozco was unable to reveal the exact location, since this is an investigation in progress, but she was willing to confirm that it happened in Chaves County.
Down to the wire
See TREE, Page A3
Ilissa Gilmore Photo
Johnny Gonzales (right), members of Community Volunteer Program and members of other service organizations prepared food, toys and clothing items the morning of Christmas Eve to give away later that day during the annual children’s Christmas party.
Holiday shoppers in subdued mood See SALES, Page A3
ATLANTA (AP) — Christmas shoppers thronged malls and pounced on discounts but apparently spent less this year, their spirits dampened by concerns about the economy and the aftermath of shootings and storms.
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B4 COMICS.................C6 ENTERTAINMENT.....B7 GENERAL ..............C4 HOROSCOPES ........B7 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8 WORLD .................A7
more frugal this year. “We under-budgeted ourselves by $400 for Christmas because we just wanted to put that money back in savings,” she said. Dianne Ashford, 40, was at the Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta on Monday, said she was spending $500 on gifts this year, down from the $1,000 she normally spends. “T imes are hard,” said Ashford, who works for a film production company. The best deal she found this year was a guitar for her mother, half off at $79. Other last-minute shop-
Mark Wilson Photo
LAS CRUCES (AP) — Where have all the Christmas trees gone? Apparently all the live, cut tannenbaums are in the houses of other people. That’s right, if you procrastinated or if you just like to put your tree up closer to Christmas, you’re probably out of luck. “We were the last ones (in town) to have them, but they were gone by Monday,” said Kevin Quinn of Lowe’s Home Improvement. “We did (have them) but we sold out,” Gary Guzman of Color Your World Greenhouse, said. “We sold at least 800,” said Diane Lucero of Home Depot who confirmed that her store does not have any more. “We
Talk about more than just the usual job worries to cloud the mood: Confidence among U.S. consumers dipped to its lowest point in December since July amid rising economic worries, according to a monthly index released Friday.
Marshal Cohen, chief research analyst at NPD Inc., a market research firm with a network of analysts at shopping centers nationwide, estimates cus-
tomer traffic over the weekend was in line with the same time a year ago, but that shoppers seem to be spending less. “There was this absence of joy for the holiday,” Cohen said. “There was no Christmas spirit. There have been just too many distractions.” Shoppers are increasingly worried about the “fiscal cliff” deadline — the possibility that a stalemate between Congress and the White House over the U.S. budget could trigger a series of tax increases and spending cuts starting Jan. 1 The recent Newtown, Conn., school shooting also dampened shoppers’ spirits atop the fall’s retail woes
after Superstorm Sandy’s passage up the East Coast. The Northeast and MidAtlantic, which account for 24 percent of retail sales nationwide, were tripped up by Sandy when the enormous storm clobbered the region in late October, disrupting businesses and households for weeks. All that spelled glum news for retailers, which can make up to 40 percent of annual sales during November and December. They were counting on the last weekend before Christmas to make up for lost dollars earlier in the season. The Saturday before Christmas was expected to See MOOD, Page A3