Santa Fe New Mexican, Sept. 6, 2014

Page 1

St. Michael’s defeats Capital, but Jaguars put up a fight Sports, B-1

Locally owned and independent

Saturday, September 6, 2014

www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢

Obesity rate declines across state, CDC says Ryan Flynn

N.M.’s top environment official warns DOE could face steeper sanctions from state.

Many National Guard units not drilling

The CDC says the state has made progress in fighting obesity in children among low-income families, and adults ranked 13th in the U.S. for the lowest rate. PAGE A-6

A lack of $101 million in federal funding is stopping National Guard units nationwide from practicing this weekend. PAGE A-5

City Hall department heads reshuffled Administrators announced high-level changes Friday. PAGE A-6

De Vargas’ arrival kicks off Fiesta de Santa Fe

N.M. says feds put up WIPP roadblocks

Certificates started being issued year ago By Phaedra Haywood

Flynn claims U.S. agency dragging its feet, warns of more state sanctions

The New Mexican

By Patrick Malone The New Mexican

New Mexico’s top environmental regulator lashed out at the U.S. Department of Energy this week for impeding the state’s investigation into the circumstances that led to a radiation leak earlier this year at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. During his keynote speech to an audience representing federal agencies, industry, academia, national labs and all levels of government at the annual Radwaste Summit in Summerlin, Nev., New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn warned that Los Alamos National Laboratory and WIPP could face steeper sanctions from the state because of Energy Department roadblocks that have protracted the probe. “The problem is that Department of Energy headquarters back in Washington, D.C., is looking at this situation through a political or [public relations] lens, so they’ve put a noose around the scientific personnel who can answer our questions and move this process along,” Flynn told The New Mexican. On Feb. 14, a drum of nuclear waste that originated at Los Alamos burst at WIPP, the nation’s only below-ground repository for waste generated during decades of Cold War nuclear weapons production. The cause of the chemical reaction that triggered the drum to rupture remains under investigation by

Please see WIPP, Page A-4

Same-sex couples get most marriage licenses

Don Diego de Vargas, portrayed by Tomas Baca y Gutierrez, rides into the Fiesta de Santa Fe on the

Plaza on Friday during the re-enactment of La Entrada. The ceremony marks de Vargas’ return to Santa Fe in 1692 following an Indian revolt that chased the Spanish out. PHOTOS BY LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

INSIDE More photos, Fiesta schedule See more images from the Fiesta de Santa Fe and a list of activities, including the Desfile de los Niños (Pet Parade). PAGE A-7

ON THE WEB

Eddie Gonzales of Albuquerque lies on the Plaza grass while his son, Jacob Gonzales, 7, rests during the Fiesta.

u For more photos, visit http://tinyurl. com/n3ecoff.

In the year since the Santa Fe County clerk began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the total number of licenses issued by the office has more than doubled. And more than half the licenses — 1,388 of 2,524, or about 55 percent — have gone to same-sex couples. Data provided by the County Clerk’s Office indicate that a great majority of those flocking to Santa Fe to get married are residents of neighboring states who can’t legally marry where they live. More than 400 Texas couples and about 200 couples from Oklahoma have gotten licenses in Santa Fe since Santa Fe County began issuing licenses to same-sex couples on Aug. 23, 2013. Same-sex couples from Japan, Australia, France and Mexico also have obtained licenses in Santa Fe. According to The Taos News, the same thing has happened on a smaller scale in Taos County. About 48 percent of the 498 licenses issued in that county since Aug. 28, 2013, have gone to same-sex couples, including 188 issued to couples from out of state: 43 from Texas, 14 from Oklahoma and 94 from Colorado. Several county clerks around the state were ordered to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples last August by separate District Court judges. By that time, the Doña Ana County clerk had already begun issuing licenses on his own initiative. The state Supreme Court then ruled in December 2013 that same-sex marriage was legal statewide. Wedding planners, caterers, photographers and venue managers say the marriage license law change has resulted in a business boom.

Please see SAME-SEX, Page A-4

9 allies recruited to fight Islamic State

Ukraine cease-fire imposes truce devised by Putin

Pasapick

By Neil MacFarquhar

Desfile de los Niños (Pet Parade)

By Helene Cooper

Children and their pets in costume as part of Fiesta; parade begins at the New Mexico School for the Arts, East Alameda Street and Paseo de Peralta, and winds around the Plaza, from 9 to 10:45 a.m.

NEWPORT, Wales — President Barack Obama escalated the U.S. response to the marauding Islamic State on Friday, recruiting at least nine allies to help crush the organization and offering the outlines of a coordinated military strategy that echoes the war on terror first developed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, more than a decade ago. In his most expansive comments to date about how the United States and its friends could defeat the Islamic State, a once-obscure group of Sunni

INSIDE

The New York Times

KIEV, Ukraine — After five months of intensifying combat that threatened to rip Ukraine apart and to reignite the Cold War, the Ukrainian government and separatist forces signed a cease-fire agreement on Friday that analysts considered highly tenuous in a country that remains a tinderbox. Previous attempts to stop the fighting have all failed. But the prime difference this time was that the main thrust of the plan was not just endorsed, but actually laid out, by President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whom Western leaders accuse of stoking unrest to prevent Ukraine from slipping out of the Russian orbit. Whether a cease-fire persists will

Index

Calendar A-2

Classifieds B-6

u NATO creates strike force to deter Russia from further action. PAGE A-3

probably be determined by negotiations over the political future of the southeastern region, where rebel separatists have been fighting the government since April. The cease-fire was agreed to after a two-week rebel counteroffensive backed by Russian troops, armor and artillery that threatened to roll back most of the gains the Ukrainian military had made. Russia has not acknowledged the presence of any of its military units on Ukrainian soil, and there was no mention of

www.pasatiempomagazine.com

Today Cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. PAGE A-10

Please see UKRAINE, Page A-4

Comics B-12

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

Crosswords B-7, B-11

Lotteries A-2

Opinion A-11 Sports B-1 Time Out B-11

The New York Times

Religion A-8

BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

militants that has upended the Middle East and overshadowed al-Qaida, Obama said the effort would rely on U.S. airstrikes against its leaders and positions, strengthen the moderate Syrian rebel groups to reclaim ground lost to the Islamic State, and enlist other friendly governments in the region to join the fight. While the president’s aides maintained that he has not yet decided to authorize airstrikes in Syria — which he has done on a limited basis in Iraq — Obama likened his developing strategy on the Islamic State to the U.S. effort against al-Qaida

Please see ALLIES, Page A-4

Two sections, 24 pages TV Book, 24 pages 165th year, No. 249 Publication No. 596-440


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