Santa Fe New Mexican, Sept. 26, 2014

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‘Miguel Covarrubias: Drawing a Cosmopolitan Line’ at the O’Keeffe The New Mexica

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Dropouts clustered in 25 N.M. schools Report says state needs better prevention efforts By Barry Massey

Art group set for expansion Residents have raised concerns over SITE Santa Fe’s expansion plans even though few details have been released. PAGE B-1

Rodella Jr. claims driver ran stop sign Sheriff Tommy Rodella’s son testified that the driver ran a stop sign, which led to the pursuit. Closing arguments are expected to begin Friday morning. PAGE B-1

The Associated Press

About 11 percent of New Mexico’s high schools accounted for half the students who dropped out in 2013, according to a legislative audit released Thursday. The report by the Legislative Finance Committee recommended that the state better target its dropout-prevention efforts, focusing on

schools with the worst problems and directing money at programs with a proven track record of success. Auditors said 4.7 percent of students statewide dropped out in the 2013 budget year, up from 3.6 percent in 2008. Nearly 7,200 out of 152,000 students in grades seven to 12 dropped out in 2013. Slightly more than two-thirds of dropouts were concentrated in 10 school districts and state-approved charter schools. About 25 of the state’s 230 high schools accounted for 52 percent of the dropouts.

Of those 25 schools, almost half of them are in Albuquerque and include some charter schools. The other schools are in Las Cruces, Roswell, Bernalillo, Hobbs, Deming, Belen, Carlsbad, Española, Clovis and Gallup. Increasing the number of students who graduate by 2,600 a year would provide a $700 million benefit to taxpayers and the students over their lifetimes, auditors said. Those benefits include higher earnings and a reduction in crime. State Sen. John Arthur Smith, a Deming Democrat and vice chair-

Classifieds C-2

The state Attorney General’s Office says that reports “appear to reveal evidence of suspicious activity.”

By Steve Terrell The New Mexican

The New Mexican

Calendar A-2

Gary King

Candidate King blasts rival Gov. Martinez

By Chris Quintana

Index

Please see DROPOUTS, Page A-4

AG King mulls probe over deleted DA emails

Cousin says ex-Marine was recently evicted from Santa Fe home

Please see VICTIM, Page A-4

“We’re still putting money down a rat hole right here that keeps leaking and leaking and leaking — and yet there’s a cry, ‘Give us more money so we can do more of the same,’ ” Smith said. “I appreciate the innovation that is taking place in some school districts. But I despise the lack of innovation or the willingness to try

Holder resignation sets up successor fight

Drowned veteran’s identity released

Robert Trujillo, a Marine Corps veteran who recently had been evicted from his north-side home, was likely sleeping in the Santa Fe River bed Monday night when a torrent of water swept him to his death, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday. Officials believe the water may have dragged Trujillo downstream in minutes before his body came to rest on a bank near the Camino Real trailhead and Paseo de River. Heavy rains, the remnants of a tropical storm, battered the city Monday night, dumping up to 2 inches of water that surged through the Santa Fe River and arroyos. A passer-by first spotted the body of Trujillo, 58, on Tuesday morning, naked and covered in mud and bruises. Deputies were unable to immediately identify the man, who was declared dead on the scene. A sheriff’s office news release says Trujillo likely died as a result of drowning. The state Office of the Medical Investigator was able to identify him by his fingerprints but has not yet completed an autopsy. Chris Tapia, Trujillo’s cousin, said Trujillo recently had lost his home on Lopez Street. The two relatives had been neighbors. Tapia described his cousin as a mellow man. “I miss him dearly,” Tapia said. “He was a good guy, a good neighbor.” Since he lost his home just a few weeks ago, Tapia said, Trujillo had been living on the streets, probably at an encampment near West Alameda Street and St. Francis Drive. Deborah Martinez, a spokeswoman with the sheriff’s office, confirmed that Trujillo had been evicted. For 15 years, Tapia said, Trujillo lived alone in a duplex-style home on Lopez Street, in a tight residential neighborhood adjacent to St. Francis Drive and Dunlap Street. Trujillo wasn’t married and didn’t have children, Tapia said. Lopez Street, a residential road barely wide enough for a car, was dry Thursday morning, with just a

man of the legislative committee, expressed frustration about a lack of progress during the years at addressing dropouts and other school problems.

President Barack Obama, right, and the audience applaud as Attorney General Eric Holder wipes his eye Thursday in the White House, where the president announced that Holder is resigning. Holder, who served as the public face of the Obama administration's legal fight against terrorism and weighed in on issues of racial fairness, is leaving after six years on the job. He is the first black U.S. attorney general. CAROLYN KASTER/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Attorney general served as Obama’s chief liberal warrior By Michael D. Shear The New York Times

WASHINGTON resident Barack Obama’s announcement on Thursday that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. would leave the administration sets up an election-season scramble for a replacement to carry on Holder’s civil rights crusade, wage rhetorical combat with Congress and manage the legal complexities of a presidency increasingly drawn into war with terrorists. One of the earliest members of Obama’s Cabinet, Holder, 63, became the nation’s first AfricanAmerican attorney general and the

P

INSIDE u Key moments in Eric Holder’s term as attorney general. PAGE A-4

president’s chief liberal warrior, especially on efforts to protect voter rights and end racial discrimination in the justice system. He also emerged as the primary political antagonist for a Republican opposition in Congress that viewed him as dismissive of existing laws and contemptuous of its oversight of his department. That still-simmering anger among Republicans, who once voted to hold Holder in contempt of Congress, could be a political nightmare for Obama as he

searches for a replacement who can win confirmation in the Senate. Democrats on Capitol Hill are bracing for attacks on any nominee involved in what Republicans consider scandals: political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service, the terrorist attacks on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi or the numerous executive actions by Obama circumventing Congress. Frequently mentioned candidates to replace Holder include Kathryn Ruemmler, the former White House counsel who remains close to Obama; Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts; Solicitor General

Please see HOLDER, Page A-4

the best light, framed by his hero: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Holder, who announced his By Matt Apuzzo resignation Thursday, frequently The New York Times invoked the Kennedy legacy as he made civil rights the centerpiece of WASHINGTON — Something his six-year tenure. He succeeded in was not quite right when Attorney reducing lengthy prison sentences, General Eric H. Holder Jr. had opened civil rights investigations his photograph taken recently at against police departments in Department of Justice headquarrecord numbers and challenged ters. The wrong painting was on the identification requirements for votwall behind him. ers. Aides scurried to reorganize “I have loved the Department of the portraits so subsequent phoJustice ever since, as a young boy, I watched Robert Kennedy prove tographs would capture Holder, in

Comics C-10

Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 986-3035

Crosswords C-3, C-9

Lotteries A-2

Opinion A-7

Sports B-5

Please see EMAILS, Page A-4

INSIDE u Gov. Susana Martinez is again blasting rival Gary King in a TV ad over his role in the release from prison of the “The Casanova Con Man.” PAGE B-1

Holder championed civil rights, just like his hero Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy was AG’s theme

Attorney General Gary King on Thursday blasted Gov. Susana Martinez over missing emails from her last year as district attorney in Las Cruces. Earlier this week, current District Attorney Mark D’Antonio released a report saying “it was discovered that a large number of office e-mails from former employees had been deleted and/or removed.” The report said the messages should have been stored in a computer backup system, but had been erased. Also, the report says, a data server had been damaged and returned to the state Administrative Office of District Attorneys. The report said the emails appeared to have been deleted from folders created by D’Antonio’s predecessor, Amy Orlando, whom he defeated in the 2012 election. Orlando, a Republican, was appointed by Martinez to fill out the district attorney term, but lost when she ran for election herself against D’Antonio, a Democrat. King, the Democrat running against Martinez for governor, said a “deeper investigation” into the emails may be necessary. The election is Nov. 4. “Media reports about an investigation by current DA Mark D’Antonio

Eric Holder

during the civil rights movement how the department can — and must always — be a force for that which is right,” Holder said at a White House farewell Thursday. But Holder has continued Kennedy’s work in another way, one he is less likely to embrace but is no less part of his legacy. Like Kennedy, Holder has frustrated and

Please see RFK, Page A-4

Time Out C-9 GenerationNext C-1

BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

Obituaries Camillo Trujillo Jr., Chimayo, Sept. 22 Carmelita B. Quintana de Naranjo, El Llano, Sept. 23 Glen Jarvis, Santa Fe, Sept. 21 Dora Marquez, Las Vegas, Sept. 23 PAGE B-2

Today Scattered thunderstorms. High 78, low 53. PAGE A-6

Three sections, 26 pages Pasatiempo, 72 pages 165th year, No. 269 Publication No. 596-440


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