Countdown to World Cup: Can Brazil handle crowds? Sports, B-1
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Court panel axes veto on judges’ pay N.M. high court ruling allows for 5% raises By Milan Simonich
The New Mexican
Nearly 200 judges in New Mexico will receive a 5 percent pay raise because a makeshift state Supreme Court panel on Wednesday unanimously struck down a veto by Gov. Susana Martinez.
The state Legislature earlier this year approved two budget provisions designed to give judges an 8 percent pay increase starting in July. Martinez vetoed one section of the bill that specified a 3 percent pay increase, but she let stand a broader provision containing money to fund the remainder of the raises. Still, the effect of her veto was that judges would get no pay increase at all. Martinez said she saw her only choices as
allowing an 8 percent raise for judges, which she considered exorbitant, or eliminating the salary increase altogether. Two state senators and a group of judges filed a lawsuit challenging Martinez’s decision. They argued that judges should still receive the 5 percent pay raise from the pool of money that Martinez allowed to remain in the budget. For this unusual case, the five-member Supreme Court
included four judges who came out of retirement to decide whether active judges should get a salary increase. They substituted for four Supreme Court justices who withdrew from the case so they would not be in the position of voting on their own pay. Justice Richard Bosson, the only sitting Supreme Court member who stayed on the
Please see RAISeS, Page A-6
La Bajada’s fate on hold Over 600 turn out to oppose proposed mine, but County Commission delays decision
Martinez slams King over equal pay for women Governor skewers AG for hypocrisy in ad, claiming he paid female lawyers less than male counterparts. PAge A-4
$10,000 pay hike for city manager approved Brian Snyder will become the city’s highest paid manager, with an annual salary of $140,000. PAge A-4
ESPAÑOLA OFFICER SHOOTING
State police remain mum on whether teen had gun Family of 16-year-old boy fatally shot by cop grows frustrated over lack of answers from agency By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican
A crowd of more than 600 people stands up Wednesday to oppose a rezoning request to allow a mine on La Bajada mesa. The Santa Fe County Commission delayed a decision on the proposed mine. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
A
fter hearing public comments and testimony for more than six hours Wednesday on a controversial application for an aggregate mine on La Bajada mesa, Santa Fe County commissioners postponed a vote on the rezoning request until early July. More than 600 people stood up in unison at the Santa Fe Community Convention
Center, all opposing the proposed mine. “I hope you reject this strip mine. This impacts my home and my many neighbors. It impacts my farm, my studio and my business,” said JoAnna Conte Durham, a Cerrillos area artist, whose property is two miles from the proposed mine site. “There is history and beauty, charm and magic in these hills,” she continued. “They deserve to be protected.” Commissioner Robert Anaya, whose District 3 encompasses the mine site, said
Militants seize key cities in Iraq, aim for Baghdad Collapse of security forces leaves Iraqis fearing for lives By Loveday Morris and Liz Sly The Washington Post
IRBIL, Iraq — Insurgents inspired by al-Qaida rapidly pressed toward Baghdad on Wednesday, confronting little resistance from Iraq’s collapsing security forces and expanding an arc of control that now includes a wide swath of the country. By nightfall, the militants had reached the flash-point city of Samarra, just 70 miles outside Baghdad, after having first seized Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home
Index
Calendar A-2
town, and other cities while pressing southward from Mosul. The stunning speed with which the rout has unfolded in northern Iraq has raised deep doubts about the capacity of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces, and it has also kindled fears about the government’s grip on the capital itself. In a country already fraught with sectarian tension, with parts of western Iraq already in Sunni militant hands, the latest gains by insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria prompted ominous cries of alarm from leaders of Iraq’s
Classifieds B-6
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035
Crosswords A-8, B-7
Friends, family recall impact of ‘Coach’ Martinez in local politics, athletics and education. PAge A-4
Delays in mental health services take toll on vets
Today Sunshine and patchy clouds. High 84, low 54. PAge A-12
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
National Theatre Live in high definition The broadcast series continues with A Small Family Business, Alan Ayckbourn’s comedic exposé of entrepreneurial greed, 7 p.m., the Lensic Performing Arts Center, $22, ticketssantafe. org, 988-1234. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Lotteries A-2
Educational force Jake Martinez dies
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Comics B-12
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he needed time to review more than 1,000 pages of documents and testimony that were already part of the case. Other commissioners also had questions about the mine and said they needed more time to discuss the issue than the convention center’s 11 p.m. deadline would allow. The commission is scheduled to address the issue again at a meeting at 10 a.m. July 8. Only two people spoke in support of the mine, a representative of applicant Buena
INSIde u News analysis: Attacks show emboldened insurgents. PAge A-7
A state police spokesman on Wednesday continued to refuse to confirm or deny a statement by the head of the Española Police Department that a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a police officer Sunday morning had a gun. Sgt. Damyan Brown of the state police, which is handling the investigation of the incident, said in an email that no further information would be released, at least until after the officers involved are interviewed Thursday. Española Public Safety Director Eric Garcia said shortly after the incident Victor that Victor Villalpando had pointed a Villalpando gun at two officers who responded to a call about a suspicious person walking around a strip mall near Riverside Drive and Corlett Road. “As part of the ongoing investigation, some information won’t be released until the officer interviews take place,”
Opinions A-11
Sports B-1
FBI launches criminal probe into VA practices By Juan Carlos Llorca and David B. Caruso The Associated Press
EL PASO — Nick D’Amico, a deeply troubled Army veteran, had been seeing a counselor every other week. But he found it next to impossible to get a follow-up appointment at the El Paso Veterans Affairs clinic with a psychiatrist who could adjust his medication, according to his mother. The best the system could offer, she said, was a half-year wait for a teleconference with a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist in Albuquerque. That appointment was still two
Time Out A-8
Outdoors B-5
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months away when D’Amico, 45, committed suicide by driving off a cliff outside El Paso last September. “It’s shameful. It’s disgusting. It’s got to stop,” said his mother, Bonnie D’Amico. For years, veterans have complained about maddening waits for mental health services at VA medical centers, and for years, federal officials have responded by hiring more clinicians and expanding programs. This week, a devastating internal investigation that looked at wait times for all sorts of care across the VA system showed that the agency hasn’t solved the problem. It found, for example, that more than 57,000 veterans have had to
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Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 163 Publication No. 596-440