Santa Fe New Mexican, December 3, 2014

Page 1

Capital coughs up lead in season-opening defeat Sports, B-4

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Wednesday, December 3, 2014

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10 WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

Longtime nurse honored for ‘stealth volunteer’ work Ashton Carter’s

Judge sanctions WIPP contractor

Christine Johnson is the unseen priest at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church because the parishioner tends to every person who walks in the door. PAGE B-1

Nuclear Waste Partnership ordered to hand over evidence and pay attorney’s fees in lawsuit filed by injured worker. PAGE B-1

Car dealers report strong Black Friday Low interest rates and promotions drove strong sales. PAGE A-2

Scientists: Warm temps Report: Teachers may worsen drought

extensive nationalsecurity credentials and support for his nomination in Congress made him an appealing choice.

State could top 1950s dry spell, UNM professor says

Pentagon insider named as defense nominee

State educators quickly reach cap that falls far below national average By Robert Nott The New Mexican

Obama expected to pick Carter to replace Hagel By Craig Whitlock and Missy Ryan The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will nominate Ashton Carter, a physicist with long experience at the Pentagon, as his new secretary of defense, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Carter would succeed Chuck Hagel, the former Nebraska senator who is being pushed aside by the White House after less than two years in the job. Hagel, a Republican, fell out of favor with Obama and the president’s inner circle as the U.S. military became embroiled in a new war in the Middle East, a challenge that is expected to preoccupy the Obama administration for the remainder of its term. Although Carter has more experience as a technocrat than as a wartime leader, his extensive nationalsecurity credentials and support for his nomination in Congress made him an appealing choice.

McClure Reservoir in the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed is shown at 5 percent capacity in October, when Nichols Reservoir was at 40 percent of capacity. Warmer temperatures throughout the state are making it difficult to replenish the state’s water supplies. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

By Milan Simonich The New Mexican

Scientists from the state’s research universities said Tuesday that modern New Mexico’s drought isn’t as bad as the one in the bone-dry 1950s, but it has potential to worsen. New Mexico had seven consecutive years of below-average rain and snow from 1950 to 1956, said David Gutzler, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of New Mexico. By comparison, the state’s precipitation levels were below average in three of the six years between 2008 and 2013, he said. But an important difference

Please see CARTER, Page A-4

makes dry years more threatening now than before, he said. Temperatures are much warmer than in the ’50s, making it harder to replenish water supplies, even when it rains, Gutzler told the state Legislature’s Water and Natural Resources Committee. Most reservoirs in New Mexico had below-average storage at the end of October, despite “abundant summer rains,” Gutzler and the four other academics said in their report. He also said accumulation of winter snowfall at higher elevations has been poor, meaning less water in springtime for rivers.

Please see DROUGHT, Page A-4

Drought in New Mexico

As of Nov. 25 SOURCE: NATIONAL DROUGHT MITIGATION CENTER

u Lebanon says it has detained wife of ISIS leader. PAGE A-4

By Tim Arango The New York Times

BAGHDAD — In a far-reaching deal that helps reunite Iraq in the face of a bitter war with Islamic extremists, the central government agreed Tuesday to a long-term pact with the autonomous Kurdish region to share the country’s oil wealth and military resources. The deal settles a long dispute

Index

Calendar A-2

between Baghdad and Irbil, the Kurdish capital in the north, over oil revenue and budget payments. It is also likely to halt a drive — at least in the short term — by the Kurds for an independent state, which appeared imminent this summer after a violent territory grab by the Islamic State. As the jihadis marched toward Baghdad in June, routing Iraqi army

Classifieds C-3

Comics C-8

Exceptional drought

Crosswords B-8, C-4

Lotteries A-2

Opinion A-7

ON THE WEB u The national report on teacher pay will be posted on the National Council on Teacher Quality website www. nctq.org on Wednesday.

Today Partly cloudly at times. High 58, low 34.

www.pasatiempomagazine.com

PAGE A-6

Clay Club ceramics sale Functional and sculptural works in porcelain, earthenware, stoneware and micaceous clay, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; includes a silent auction held in support of the Campus Cupboard program, offering free food to students in need at Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Ave., 428-1731.

Please see IRAQ, Page A-4

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

Sports B-4

Time Out B-8

Obituaries Leona Medina Tiede, 73, Chimayó, Nov. 29 Nathaniel West Blaser, 21, Nov. 29 Kenneth “Canuto” Delgado, 59, Santa Fe, Nov. 27

Taste C-1

BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

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Abnormally dry Moderate drought Severe drought Extreme drought

Pasapick

forces, the Kurds took control of Kirkuk and its rich oil fields. And they intensified efforts to market Kurdish oil independently, arguing that the government had withheld payments to Kurdistan that were badly needed to keep up the fight against the Islamic State in the army’s absence. Now, Prime Minister Haider alAbadi’s government has agreed to pay the salaries of Kurdish security forces, known as the peshmerga, and also will allow the flow of weapons from the United States to the Kurds,

INSIDE

The top pay a teacher can earn in the United States ranges widely — from $52,325 a year in Oklahoma City to $106,540 in the District of Columbia — according to a new national report. It takes an average of 24 years for a teacher to reach that cap. In New Mexico, which has one of the lowest starting salaries at $32,000, teachers can come close to earning their maximum pay in a much shorter time span — within six or seven years — but then they can expect their earnings to stagnate between $52,000 and $55,000 annually for the rest of their career, a toppay range that falls even below the average U.S. teacher salary. The national report on teacher pay, “Smart Money, What Teachers Make and How Long It Takes and What It Buys Them,” is being published Wednesday by a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and teacher advocacy organization, the National Council on Teacher Quality. The council is funded in part by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative nonprofit educational policy group. The report relies on salary data

Please see PAY, Page A-4

Iraq government, Kurds end dispute Deal reached on sharing oil revenue, fighting ISIS

in N.M. earn less

Each year, Santa Fe New Mexican readers unite to help our friends and neighbors in Northern New Mexico who are experiencing an urgent financial need. Your generous gift helps provide a critical safety net for families who often have nowhere else to turn.

The New Mexican’s Empty Stocking Fund c/o The Santa Fe Community Foundation, P.O. Box 1827, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1827. If you can provide a needed service such as roofing, home repairs, etc. contact Roberta at Presbyterian Medical Services at 505-983-8968.

Read the stories. Read the Santa Fe New Mexican throughout December for daily donation updates and stories about those in need.

A great way to give!

100% of your tax deductible donation goes to those in need.

LOCAL MEDIA ASSOCIATION

Best Community Service Promotion 2014

Because of readers like you… Rent will be PAID, Homes will be HEATED. Cars and homes will be REPAIRED. Dignity will be PRESERVED. And Hope will be RESTORED.

santafenewmexican.com/emptystocking Founded by the Santa Fe New Mexican and jointly administered by these organizations.

Jose Ernesto Padilla, Nov. 29 Ignacio Z. Garcia, 86, Rio Rancho, Nov. 24 Steven Robert Bailey, Nov. 22 Josie R. Vigil, Nov. 29 PAGE B-2

Three sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 337 Publication No. 596-440


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