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2014 was record scorcher Extreme temps blanketed West; oceans unusually warm E-cigarette ban sought for minors The Legislature is again set to weigh a ban that 40 other states have already adopted. PAGE A-6
The new manager, Great American Hotel Group, hopes to boost revenue so the lender, RiverSource Life Insurance Co., can recoup some of its $2.6 million in losses.
No-contest plea made in Fiesta theft case
JANE PHILLIPS/NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTO
A volunteer — and wife of a city coun- Deborah cilman — received a LeybaDominguez sentence of 18 months probation in $6K embezzlement. PAGE A-6 A roofer works under the midday sun July 25 in Gilbert, Ariz. Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA calculated that in 2014, the world had its hottest year in 135 years of record-keeping. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
High court plans to rule on gay marriage
By Justin Gillis
2014 WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD
The New York Times
For the third time in a decade, the globe sizzled to the hottest year on record, federal scientists announced Friday. NOAA said 2014 averaged 1.24 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average.
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ast year was the hottest on Earth since recordkeeping began in 1880, scientists reported Friday, underscoring warnings about the risks of runaway greenhouse-gas emissions and undermining claims by climate-change contrarians that global warming had somehow stopped. Extreme heat blanketed Alaska and much of the Western U.S. last year. Records were set across large areas of every inhabited continent. And the ocean surface was unusually warm virtually everywhere except near Antarctica, the scientists said, providing the energy that fueled damaging Pacific storms. In the annals of climatology, 2014 surpassed 2010 as the warmest year. The 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997, a reflection of the relentless planetary warming that scientists say is a consequence of human activity and poses profound long-term risks to civilization and nature. “Climate change is perhaps the major challenge of our generation,” said Michael H. Freilich, director of Earth sciences at NASA, one of the agencies that track global temperatures. Of the large land areas where many people live, only the eastern portion of the United States recorded below-average temperatures in 2014, in sharp contrast to the unusual heat in the West. Some experts think the weather pattern that produced those American extremes is an indirect consequence of the release of
Justices to decide if same-sex unions are legal across country By Mark Sherman The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Setting the stage for a potentially historic ruling, the Supreme Court announced Friday it will decide whether samesex couples have a right to marry everywhere in America under the Constitution. The justices will take up gay-rights cases that ask them to overturn bans in four states and declare for the entire nation that people can marry the partners of their choice, regardless of gender. The cases will be argued in April, and a decision is expected by late June. Proponents of same-sex marriage said they expect the court to settle the matter once and for all with a decision that invalidates state provisions that define marriage as between a man and a woman. “We are now that much closer to being fully recognized as a family, and we are thrilled,” said April DeBoer, a hospital nurse from Hazel Park, Mich., after the justices said they would hear an appeal from DeBoer and partner Jayne Rowse. “This opportunity for our case to be heard by the Supreme Court gives us and families like ours so much reason to be hopeful.” Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama administration would
AVERAGE ANNUAL TEMPERATURE
The New Mexican 2014 58.2 F
59
1900: 58 56.8 F 57 56
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40
50
60
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90 2000 10
SOURCE: NOAA
AP
greenhouse gases, though that is not proven. Several scientists said the most remarkable thing about the 2014 record was that it had occurred in a year that did not feature a strong El Niño, a large-scale weather pattern in which the Pacific Ocean pumps an enormous amount of heat into the atmosphere. Skeptics of climate change have long argued that global warming stopped around 1998, when an unusually powerful El Niño produced the hottest year of the 20th century. Some politicians in Washington have
Please see TEMPS, Page A-4
Piñon forests in peril from heat By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
The Southwest’s piñon forests, on which the sky-blue pinyon jay and lots of pine nut lovers depend, are on death row if temperatures keep warming the way climate scientists predict. Drought, insects and wildfires have devastated piñon-juniper forests around New Mexico and Arizona during the last 20 years. That destruction will continue if the climate pattern of recent decades continues, Los Alamos National Laboratory climate scientist Nathan G. McDowell said Friday, as new reports showed that 2014 was the hottest year on record. “Since 1992, about 25 percent of
Please see GAY, Page A-5
our forests in the Southwest have succumbed to insects and wildfire,” McDowell said. “Warmer temperatures mean more beetles and more fires.” Scientists say the warming trend — which is likely to worsen — is killing forests worldwide. The new reports on worldwide temperatures show a small but steady increase over the last century. Ten of the hottest years have occurred since 1997. In New Mexico, temperatures have risen on average about 0.7 degrees Farenheit each decade, scientists say, mirroring a trend around the Southwest. The rising temperatures are
Please see FORESTS, Page A-4
By Robert O’Harrow Jr., Sari Horwitz and Steven Rich The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other
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property without proving that a crime occurred. Holder’s action represents the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal Eric Holder property since the seizures began three decades ago as part of the war on drugs. Since 2008, thousands of local
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and state police agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a civil asset forfeiture program at the Justice Department called Equitable Sharing. The program has enabled local and state police to make seizures and then have them “adopted” by federal agencies, which share in the proceeds. It allowed police departments and drug task forces to keep up to 80 percent of the proceeds of the
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For almost 60 years, the motelstyle Garrett’s Desert Inn has attracted visitors looking for a lowercost alternative to the more pricey lodging in Santa Fe’s historic core. Some families return year after year to stay in the 83-room motor court, a two-minute walk from the Plaza, where rooms this month were running as low as $69 a night. But for Deborah Garrett, who bought the inn in 1973 with her husband, Gene, from the man who had built it in 1956, her days of managing the property are almost over. Garrett’s husband died last year. She’s continued to operate the motel, but this week she was served court papers from a lender asking that she vacate the business so it can be managed by a hotel chain that specializes in foreclosed and distressed hotel properties. The new manager, Great American Hotel Group, hopes to boost revenue over the next two years and eight months so the lender, RiverSource Life Insurance Co., can recoup some of its $2.6 million in losses. Garrett has not been able to keep
Please see MOTEL, Page A-4
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Souper Bowl
Dead piñon trees dot the landscape in Carson National Forest near Dixon in 2004. CLYDE MUELLER/NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTO
Holder restricts federal seized-asset sharing Local, state police agencies received billions from program
Lender seizes historic inn near Plaza over debt By Bruce Krasnow
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Garrett forced to give up motel
adopted seizures, with the rest going to federal agencies. “With this new policy, effective immediately, the Justice Department is taking an important step to prohibit federal agency adoptions of state and local seizures, except for public safety reasons,” Holder said in a statement. Holder’s decision allows some limited exceptions, including illegal firearms, ammunition, explosives and
Benefit held in support of The Food Depot, featuring a soup competition among 30 restaurants, noon, Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., tickets start at $30, 988-1234, ticketssantafe. org, $35 at the door, ages 6 to 12 $10, ages 5 and under no charge.
Obituaries Ann Rutledge, 84, Jan. 12 Patricia Miller Walker, 89, Jan. 10
Josephine Margaret Houser, 65, Santa Fe, Jan. 11 John Johnson, 62, Jan. 11 PAGE A-8
Today Sunny. High 49, low 22. PAGE A-10
Please see HOLDER, Page A-5
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Two sections, 20 pages TV Book, 32 pages 166th year, No. 17 Publication No. 596-440