Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 120, No. 180 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
MAY BE A DINOSAUR
NEW YORK (AP) — One of the world’s most famous fossil creatures, widely considered the earliest known bird, is getting a rude present on the 150th birthday of its discovery: A new analysis suggests it isn’t a bird at all. Chinese scientists are proposing a change to the evolutionary family tree that boots Archaeopteryx off the “bird” branch and onto a closely related branch .... - PAGE A6
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
July 28, 2011
Dow drops, John pleads, Harry waits
WASHINGTON (AP) — Crisis concer ns rising, House Republican leaders shrugged off a White House veto threat and an outbreak of tensions within their own party Wednesday as they built support for legislation to stave off the government default threatened for next week. Worried Wall Street sent stocks plunging on fears that political gridlock would prevail. “I can’t do this job unless you’re behind me,” House Speaker John Boehner bluntly told his
THURSDAY
www.rdrnews.com
fractious rank and file as he pleaded for the votes to pass the bill, which was hastily rewritten to show deeper spending cuts than 24 hours earlier. The While House disparaged the measure Republicans were working so hard to pass. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada called it “a big wet kiss for the right wing,” and all 51 Senate Democrats and two independents pledged to scuttle it if it cleared the House. The White House has threatened a veto, saying the bill does not meet Pres-
ident Barack Obama’s demand for an increase in the debt limit large enough to prevent a rerun of the current crisis next year, in the heat of the 2012 election campaign. Instead, Obama supports an alternative drafted by Reid that also cuts spending, yet provides enough additional borrowing authority to tide the government over through next year. For all the bluster, there were hints that a comproSee DEBT, Page A3
AP Photo
Council approves budget
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, greets a supporter at a Tea Party rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday.
EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
TOP 5 WEB
For The Past 24 Hours
• Hale suggests more local approach • Norway seeks to keep peace after attack • Dwyer gets sentenced • From audition to final curtain in 5 days • More July fireworks
INSIDE SPORTS
Mark Wilson Photo
Youngsters attending the Keep Roswell Beautiful Earth Ranger Camp 2011, some outfitted with over-sized sunglasses, receive an educational tour of the Community Solar Demonstration Project at ENMU-R, Wednesday morning.
19 youth train to become Earth Rangers VANESSA KAHIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
A group of local children will soon finish training to help protect
NOON-OP TAKES 3RD
Fans of the Noon Optimist Little League All-Stars rode a roller coaster of ups and downs on Wednesday during the consolation championship of the New Mexico 910 State Tournament. The ride started heading down after Noon Op gave up three runs in the first, then headed up after they tied the game in the top of the second. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Clemente Villescas • David Smith • Eudelia Linares • Jean A. Speer • Ida Ann Keeling • Robert H. Tucker • Owen P. Mann - PAGE A6
HIGH ...99˚ LOW ....72˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B5 COMICS.................B3 ENTERTAINMENT.....B8 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 NATION .................A6 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
planet Earth. After a week of up close and personal experiences with nature, children in the first Earth Camp will be able to call
themselves Earth Ranger, with an organic certificate made of 100 percent recycled materials to prove it. Renee Roach, coordi-
nator for Keep Roswell Beautiful, said 19 children are participating in Earth Camp, which
City councilors closed the books on the 2011 fiscal year during a special meeting Wednesday evening, and unanimously voted to pass a budget for the 2012 fiscal year. The budget that passed shows that though revenues are remaining flat while expenses are continuing to rise, the city remains positioned to meet its financial obligations for the upcoming fiscal year, city finance director Debra Morsey says. “The city did not expend a significant portion of its budgeted expenditures in fiscal year 2011, which provided some additional resources for fiscal year 2012 to cover such items as capital outlay requests,” Morsey wrote in a memo to the city councilors and mayor. Some of the items that the
Sunset redo nearly complete AFSCME suggests EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Construction on Sunset Elementary School will likely be complete by the first day of school next month, Roswell Independent School District superintendent Michael Gottlieb announced Wednesday. “We’re very, very close,” he said during his monthly tour of the building Mark Wilson Photo with two of the school district’s secretaries. Mike Gottlieb, RISD superintendent, shows off the front The $5.1 million proj- entrance of Sunset Elementary, Wednesday. ect, funded partially by general obligation bonds remodeling the existing kindergarten classrooms passed by voters in 2007 building and adding a and three new first-grade and by the Public School new addition to the north classrooms, each comCapital Outlay Council of the school. plete with new yellow The new addition that provided 72 percent of the cost, includes includes three new See SUNSET, Page A2
See EARTH, Page A3
See COUNCIL, Page A3
pension changes
SANTA FE (AP) — A union representing state workers proposed changes to a government pension program on Wednesday that could require some employees to stay in their jobs longer before retiring. Carter Bundy of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees of fered a range of proposals to a legislative committee for shoring up the Public Employees Retirement Association pension plan. Among the options: changing the retirement age for future state workers, trimming cost-of-living payments for retirees and altering the average salary
calculation that helps to determine a worker’s pension benefits. “This is not an easy thing for a union to come up here and talk about,” Bundy told the Investment and Pensions Oversight Committee. “But we want to make sure that these plans are there for the long haul and that these are solvent for the foreseeable future — 75, 100 years, as long as you can reasonably plan these things out.” Bundy suggested the Legislature adopt a socalled rule of 85 in which future state employees can retire with no reduction in See PENSION, Page A2
Animal Services gets another alligator to place JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Roswell Animal Services received another alligator, Wednesday. The 2-year old American alligator was tur ned in voluntarily unlike the previous two, which were confiscated in March when the Chaves County Metro Narcotics Task Force served a search warrant at the 900 block of Lusk Street and found two alligators inside the residence. “I got it from my nephew. He was willing to
tell me where he got it,” said John Irish. The 24-inch ’gator was lucky. Irish provided it with a decent home as long as he had it. The alligator had a wading pool with sand bottom and places where it could drag itself out of the water. Federal law prohibits keeping alligators as pets. The keeper must have an exotic animal permit and must fulfill certain housing requirements. New Mexico goes a step further, the state has a ban on individual possession of
nondomesticated felines, primates, crocodiles, alligators and wolves. Irish said of his shortterm houseguest. “He likes hot dogs — my grandkids fed him hot dogs — he didn’t like me.” Irish also admits a certain relief at signing the animal over to Animal Control. “I couldn’t take care of him.” In Roswell, a health certificate must be presented to Animal Control within 14 days. City ordinances also require the animal must be kept in the right
Jessica Palmer Photo
A 24-inch alligator was turned in voluntarily to Roswell Animal Services on Wednesday.
facilities and cannot constitute a nuisance or endanger the safety of any
person or property. Irish will not receive a
See ’GATOR, Page A3