Roswell Daily Record
INSIDE NEWS
NEW YORK (AP) — Just shy of $4 a gallon, average U.S. pump prices are about to start falling and could hit $3.50 by summer. You probably won’t see a change at the gas station this weekend. But relief will come soon because oil prices fell 15 percent this week, the steepest decline in two and a half years. Oil hit a two-year high of
GROUPS CHALLENGE PEARCE CLAIMS
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Oil drops 15%; gasoline to follow
Vol. 120, No. 110 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
May 7, 2011
SATURDAY
www.rdrnews.com
$114.83 in Monday trading. It closed Friday at $97.18. The plunge was part of a sharp sell-off in commodities this week. Analysts say investors — demonized as “speculators” by some market watchers — got nervous that oil, metals and grains had risen over the past few months to unrealistic heights.
Balloon Rally weekend
Gasoline dropped a tenth of a cent on Friday for a national average of $3.984 per gallon....
Their rush to sell knocked silver prices down 28 percent, sugar down 13 percent and natural gas down 10 percent. While analysts cited rea-
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Environmentalists on Friday challenged a New Mexico congressman’s claims that protections for a small lizard found only in parts of New Mexico and West Texas would lead to economic devastation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed .... - PAGE A3
sons specific to each commodity, they had one common explanation for the pullback: The strengthening U.S. dollar. An index of the dollar
Wildfire smoke can affect health JONATHAN ENTZMINGER RECORD STAFF WRITER
It’s wildfire season, which means harmful toxins and irritants may pollute the air you breathe. “The (wildfire) particle matter is composed of biomass smoke, which has impurities, including gases,” Dr. Asif A. Muhammad, of Eastern New Mexico Medical Center’s Pulmonary and Sleep Center,
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compared with a basket of foreign currencies rose 2 percent for the week. Commodity prices began to rise in late August. That’s when the Federal Reserve signaled its intention to embark on what eventually became a $600 billion government bondSee OIL, Page A3
said. “The fine particles could be composed of various gases such as methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, sulfur oxide and hydro carbons. If those go into the lungs, they can become irritants there, especially in patients who have underlying health issues.” Individuals who are the most vulnerable to wildfire See SMOKE, Page A3
INSIDE SPORTS
ROCKETS TAKE SERIES LEAD
The Goddard baseball team took its first step toward a state championship on Friday with a victory in Game 1 of a three-game series with Valencia in the NMAA Class 4A State Championships. The Rockets (21-6) benefitted from a pair of home runs and a solid pitching performance from Ryan Greene to go up 1-0 in the series with a 9-3 victory over the Jaguars at The Launch Pad. “We’re looking at winning that first game (on Saturday) and not having .... - PAGE B1
Mark Wilson Photo
School children at Del Norte Elementary watch the hot air balloon “To Be..II” take flight Friday morning, kicking off the Old Timers Balloon Rally weekend.
RSO, Shadow Orchestra perform for 4th-graders JONATHAN ENTZMINGER RECORD STAFF WRITER
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Neiahmiah Gonzales • Nancy Jones • Antonio Mayorga • S. Cooper Malone - PAGE A6
HIGH ...99˚ LOW ....54˚
TODAY’S FORECAST
CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B3 FINANCIAL .............A7 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
INDEX
Mark Wilson Photo
Roswell Symphony Orchestra and a Shadow Orchestra perform for area 4th-graders, Friday, at Goddard High School.
The Roswell Symphony Orchestra and RSO Shadow Orchestra performed for Roswell 4th-graders at Goddard High School, Friday. The concert was part of RSO’s Shadow Orchestra program. The Shadow Orchestra is made up of 33 musically proficient high school students chosen by their band directors to play with RSO. The young musicians hail from New Mexico Military Institute, Goddard and Roswell high schools, Imago Dei High School and
Legacy Christian School, in Alamogordo. Selected students spent their spring semester practicing for Friday’s performance, in addition to one rehearsal with RSO prior to Friday’s concert. Melynda Roberson, RSO director of financial operations, spoke about the experience that Shadow Orchestra students gain by playing alongside RSO musicans. “They get to sit with the professional musicians and learn stage presence and the key points of being a professional musician. It’s very tough music,” Rober-
son said. “They had to practice this as well their normal course work. This is something extracurricular.” According to Roberson, part of the mission of the Shadow Orchestra program is to “encourage and inspire high school students to become professional musicians.” Roberson also commented on academic impact that music has on students. “Statistically, children who are involved in musical arts have higher math and English scores,” she said. See RSO, Page A3
Artist-in-Residence Sharbani Das Gupta works in contrasts EMILY RUSSO MILLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
For local ceramic artist Sharbani Das Gupta, the old adage that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure rings true. Items that were once tossed to the curb without a second thought — rusty oil barrels, strings of barbed wire and old water troughs for cattle and horses — are cherished by the New Delhiborn potter who creates art from everyday objects found in Roswell. “I love these springs,” she gushed Friday afternoon, pointing to a vermillion-col-
ored bed coil spring nestled among an arrangement of scrap metal in the corner of her work studio at the old Roswell-Artist-in-Residence
pottery guilds. The 44year -old trained at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India, and the Golden Bridge Pottery
compound on Montana Avenue. The springs, barrels and troughs provide contrast to her porcelain pottery art installations, which she is renowned for throughout the state and sells at local
studio in Pondicherry, and worked at a porcelain studio for the art education department of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque before she and her See SPOTLIGHT, Page A3
Emily Russo Miller Photo
Ceramic artist Sharbani Das Gupta works in her studio at the old Artist-in-Residence compound on Montana Avenue on Friday afternoon.