Roswell Daily Record
INSIDE NEWS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Congress may derail Valley’s plans
Vol. 122, No. 65 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
Owners of Valley Meat Co. in Roswell are moving ahead with plans to open their local slaughterhouse to start processing horse meat, possibly by the end of April, despite a pair of bills introduced by Congress Wednesday that
March 16, 2013
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could all but shut its doors. Following months of legal wrangling, owner Rick De Los Santos expects the U.S. Department of Agriculture to finally issue a Grant of Inspection, allowing the company to begin production, said attorney A. Blair Dunn. “They’re moving along as planned,” Dunn said. “They’ve done everything
The measure would stall reopening horse slaughter plants in the U.S. and end transportation of horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter there.
they’re supposed to do. They’re going to continue on and get ready to go into business.” De Los Santos, a longtime rancher who moved to
Roswell 25 years ago, processed beef cattle and employed more than 40 people at the location. Valley Meat ceased operation before submitting the new
U.S. stock markets fell Friday, ending the longest winning streak for the Dow Jones industrial average in nearly 17 years. The Dow dropped 25.03 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,514.11 The Standard & Poor ’s 500 index fell 2.5 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,560.70, just shy of an alltime high from October 2007. The Nasdaq composite index dropped ... - PAGE B5
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Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Former Harlem Globetrotter and current NMMI Athletic Director Reggie Franklin greets Mesa Middle School students during a pep rally assembly to kick off the upcoming New Mexico Standards Based Assessment, Friday.
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
Mesa Middle School students sat jammed together shoulder-toshoulder, some sitting crosslegged on the floor of the gymna-
COYOTES FALL TO LOS LUNAS
ALBUQUERQUE — Roswell girls basketball coach Joe Carpenter is a master motivator. He has the unique ability to make his girls believe that they are the best team on the court, regardless of which team is on the other bench. He had the Coyotes believing on Friday, but, unfortunately, belief wasn’t enough to carry Roswell to its first state title in program history. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES There are no obituaries today, March 16, 2013.
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sium as they grabbed a muchneeded break from their class studies Friday to relax, play games and share a few laughs.
As the band played, students hollered, clapped and cheered as they were treated to a special
If authorized to begin operations, Valley Meat expects to employ 40 to 100 workers at its site on Cedarvale Road, Dunn said. The company does not plan to sell its product within the U.S, but to countries where a market
Espinoza against wage hike
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• Council postpones permit vote • State revokes Lawrence’s license • Trial ends in hung jury • Hagerman wins, gets Cliff in title game • Slow and steady wins it for Dexter
application.
guest speaker and former Harlem Globetrotter, Reggie Franklin. “It was awesome,” said seventh-grader Analicia Galvan.
But next week, it’s back to
See VALLEY, Page A3
Friday, the state Legislature held the last full day of its 2013 session. Here’s a look at some of the bill activity over the past few days at the Roundhouse: The House of Representatives voted 37-32 Friday to pass SB416, sponsored by Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Espanola, which would raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $8.50 an hour. Before the vote, Rep. Nora Espinoza, R-Roswell, made an impassioned plea, mostly in Spanish, for fellow members of the House not vote to raise the wage. She said she had received calls from small business owners saying the increase would hurt their business. “We overlook the small businesses,” she said. “They want to have their own companies, they want to have their own opportunities. They also want the American Dream.” The House also voted 54-13 to pass SB115, sponsored by Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, which would increase retirement contributions for public school educators in an attempt to ensure pen-
House group nears ATF investigates ‘not related’ immigration bill deal Roswell, Clovis pipe bombs
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of House members working in secret on a comprehensive immigration bill is nearing completion and has met with party leaders to brief them, aides said Friday. A spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner said that Boehner had a good talk Friday with Republicans in the group and that the lawmakers have made real progress. The group’s four Democrats met Thursday with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Pelosi’s spokesman said she’s optimistic about the prospects for reform. The group had hoped to release their bill around the time of the State of the Union last month, but now an aide says they will aim for early April, once Congress returns from a two-
week recess.
That’s the same timeline that a negotiating group in the Senate is on. The Senate group has gotten more attention because House GOP leaders are expected to wait to see what if anything the Senate passes on immigration before taking any action on the issue. A sweeping immigration bill is a tougher lift in the Republican-controlled House because of the conservatives who dominate the Republican conference, and members of the House immigration group have been struggling to write a bill that can have broad appeal. It remains unclear how they will handle a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
The pipe bomb detonated in Roswell last week is not related to two similar devices found recently in Clovis, an investigator with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Friday. But a series of bombrelated incidents in the past two weeks has federal, state and local agencies investigating several leads. Officials are not releasing details of the investigations yet and are not ready to disclose any details, said ATF Agent and lead investigator Rafael Martinez, with the ATF in Las Cruces “There are no similari-
See MESA, Page A3
ties. They are totally separate cases,” Martinez said. “We are investigating each case individually.” A Roswell resident found an explosive device near the corner of Lusk Drive and Washington Avenue sometime after 3 p.m., March 8, according to Roswell Police. Once the device was identified as a bomb, Roswell officers contacted New Mexico State Police and a bomb squad was dispatched. The ATF assumed the lead in the investigation following protocol in such an investigation, said State Police Sgt. Jay Blakeney. Two state police bomb squad experts detonated the device at the site. No one was injured in the
See BILLS, Page A3
explosion, Blakeney said. The pipe bomb was the second bomb scare in city limits within a matter of days. On March 3, officers evacuated the Roswell Airport following a bomb threat. Officers were unable to locate any explosive device, according to the police report. Some 100 miles away and within the same time period, Clovis residents dealt with pipe bombs similar to those in Roswell. Two explosive devices were discovered in Clovis last week. According to reports, the first explosive was found by city employees near the entrance of the city dump March 5. The second was located in
See ATF, Page A2
Gee, Frau Bell sure falls in love a lot Group threatens to sue feds over lizard ILISSA GILMORE RECORD STAFF WRITER
Sharon Bell has taught German at Goddard High School for more than 20 years, but if you ask students how old she is, they’ll say she’s 19. It may just be an inside joke Bell shares with her pupils, but the fifty-something Texas native is truly young at heart.
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Sharon Bell
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“I get so much from the students and I love that,” she said. “I really think I'm one of the more fortunate teachers at Goddard because I have the chance to have them for four years. They become a part of my See SPOTLIGHT, Page A3
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Environmental groups are threatening to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency’s decision not to grant endangered species protections to a lizard found only in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. Federal officials have said the decision not to list the dunes sagebrush lizard was based partly on voluntary conservation agreements now in place in the two states. But the Center for Bio-
logical Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife contend that the agreements between landowners and the Texas Comptroller’s Office are confidential and not even the Fish and Wildlife Service can review them. The groups say the agency will not be able to determine whether there are adequate protections in place for the lizards. Similar voluntary agreements made with landowners and businesses in New Mexico are not confidential.